The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-03-06
THE RAID OF THE LEVEE COMPANY

The attempt Of The Levee Company to max
a raid on the pockets Of the taxpayers to tn
tune of about 81, 100000 was perhaps tn
bol1est thing Of the sort which has yet tran
spired. The nature Of the transaction was s.
piolative of law and so opposed to common
sense that no one outside Of the rarie
manipulating the scheme ever dreamed Of it.
eliminating in success.
Aside from the very grave doubts that rest
upon the legitimacy Or con8titutionality Of
the Levee Company itself the provisions OF
the act which was hurried through the kel-
logg Legislature in its dying hours over the
pro to,nla veto of Kellogg himself, We're
clearly violative Of the funding act, which
does not contemplate the funding Of any such
warrants as this act proposes to create,
and further violates the contract entered into
with the holders of valid bonds and outstand-
ing warrants at the time the funding act was
passed.
The claim Of the Levee Company that the
State is largely indebted to them, may or may
not be correct, but the terms Of the act Great
tng the Leyee Company provide the manner
In which the company shall be paid, and it
cannot be permitted to come in to the detri-
ment of other creditors and prefer its claims
in this extraordinary and unwarranted man
her. The benefits which have accrued
81 the State by reason Of the
existence of this company have not been so
many as to entitle it to any special privileges,
And is tba thousands of nanyla rhnsa 70 |
tunes have been swept away by the floods |
which have occurred in large part through
the negligence of the Levee Company could
be heard, the corporation would probably |
Cease to exist, instead of being made pre-
ferred creditor Oh account of work |
but which it would be difficult for its en-
Eneer to point out to the satisfaction
of the public. The injunction obtained by
Messrs Semmes and Mott from the Superior
Court was very opportune, and we learn that
IN order to make assurance doubly sure, Mr..
Mott has gone to Pensacola, Florida to obtain
I'm injunction from Judge Woods of the
United States Circuit Court. That the act is
believed to be a failure is proven by the fact
that the stock of the Levee Company has not
rloved up single notch.
TO prove the Illegal character Of the act, we
need only state that whereas it contemplates
the funding of warrants not yet made OFT, tor a
debt that does not erist section 81 of the
Funding act reads as follows:
Section of the funding bill provides that
ahe bonds authorized by thi, act "shall be {
exchanged by the board of liquidation for all
valid outstanding bonds Of the State and all /
aalid warrants drawn previous to the passage ,
of this act" warrants Of constitutional Off |
cors alone eXcepted). /
Section five of the same act provides ''that c
the consolidated bonds herein authorized t
shall be held and used by said Board of b
liquidation only for the purpose of exchange t
% atore said.
The Levee act also provides for funding its a
at par, whereas the Funding act ex- !.
pressly states that all valid and fundable q
obligations must be funded at sixty cents on v
The dollar. P
We take it that the arguments advanced in
kollogg's veto against the act are unanswera- 3
Ne, and the de fitcto would deserve credit for a
attempting to thwart the measure were it not b
or the very general belief that he did not y,
pecially desire his veto to be sustained