The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-01-26

any suit in any court of the state or be al
! lowed to be a witness in his own behalf;
measures whech, when coupled with the
extraordinary burdens of taxation, have
seemed TO vest, in the language of Gov. Kel.
| logg's counsel, "a degree of power in the
| governor of a state scarcely exercised by any
/ sovereign in the world" With this connec
ton is a general want OF confidence in the
integrity of the existing state and local
officials. want of confidence equally in
their persons and III their personnel, which
is accompanied by the parslyzation OF bust.
ness and destruction of values. The most
hopeful witness produced by the Kellogg
party, while he declared that bust
ton than ever before because there was less
credit, has since declared there was 10 pros
perity. The securities of the state have fall
len in two years from 20 or so TO %: of the
city of New Orleans from so or 80 to 80 or 40:
while the fall in bank shares. railroad shares.
city and other corporate companies, have in
a degree, correspondent. throughout the
rural districts of the state the negroes.
reared in habits of reliance upon their mas
ters for support, and in a community in
which the members are always ready to d.
vide the necessaries of life with each other
not regarding such action as very evil, and
having immunity from punishment from
the nature Of the local officials, have come to
PITCHING AND STEALING FRUIT,
vegetables and poultry so generally, as
Bishop Wilmer stated without contradiction
from any source, that the raising of these
articles had TO be entirely abandoned, to the
great distress Of the white people: while
within the parishes as well as i'm New Orle-
ans, the taxation had been carried almost
literally to the extent of confiscation In
New Orleans the assessors are paid a COM
mission on the amount appraised and
hOnSpC a ma for
the taxes. In NatchitOches parish the tax
alton reached about eight per cent. of the
assessed value on property. In many par
ishes all the white republicans and
all the office holders belong to
O single family. There are five
of the Greens in Office in Lincoln parish.
and there are seven of the Bouts in CIiice
in the parish of Natchitocbes. AS the peo-
pie saw taxation increase and prosperity
diminish, as they grew poor, while the
officials grew rich, they became naturally
sole. That they loved their rulers can not
claims to have reduced taxation. This has
been effected in part by establishing board
to fund the debt of the state, at 60 per cent
of its face value. This measure aroused
great hostility, not so much because of the
reduction of its acknowledged debt as be.
cause it gave to the funding board whose
powers seem to be absolute and without
review, discretionary authority to admit TO
be funded some SC, 900 900 of debt alleged
to be fraudulent, so that under the guise
OF reducing the acknowledged debt il gave
opportunity to swell the fraudulent debt
against the state. This nominal reduction
of state taxes has been accompanied by q
provision that the parish taxes Shall not ex-
coed the state, but the parishes, have not
withstanding, created liabilities. Judgments
having been received on them, the courts
have directed taxes to be levied for their
payment, and thus the actual taxes have
been carried far beyond the authorized
rates. Rings have.been formed in parishes
composed OF the parish officers, their rela-
tives and of cooperative democrats who
would buy up these obligations, put them in
judgment aud cause them to be enforced, to
the great distress of the neighborhood; dis
tress so great that
THE SALES OF LAND FOR TAXES
have become almost absolutely impossible.
But the reduction of wages, the non-fulfl-
ment of personal or political pledges, the
mslfeasance of home and local officials, dis
putes among the leading colored persons. in
other localities, the loss or embeZzlement in
some cases OF the school fund, and the fail
ure of the Freedmen's Bank-al combine ed
to divide the views OF colored voters during
the late campaign. An effort was accord
ingly made by the conservatives TO acquire a
part of the negro vote. With that view it
was sought in many quarters TO propitiate
them. The frequent arrests by the United
States marshals, tor intimidation or threats
of unemployment, and the apprehension
that was felt that the returning board
would count out their men if an excuse for
such course were offered, all combined
especially after the l4th of September, to
put the conservatives on their good be-
haviOr, and the result was that ere NoVem-
Der, 1874, the people of the state of Louisiana
did fairly have free. peaceable and full
registration and election, in which a clear
conservative majority was elected to the
lower house of the legislature, of which ma
jority the conservatives were deprived by
the unjust, illegal and arbitrary action of
the returning board. That there were tur-
bulent spirits can not be denied. Those re-
turned to Office by the returning board III
violation of the wish of the people are es-
pecislly odious. In one instance the
editor of the Shreveport News, in sntici-
patton of the Illustration by the return
ing board of the will of the poole, openly de-
clared that the only remedy was "to kill the
usurpers," and declared this to be the senti-
ment of the conservatives of his section of
the state; but, beyond a newspaper editor or
two, no declaration even of that sort was
brought to our own notice, although it was
admitted on all hands that the white people
of the whole state felt greatly outraged by
the action of the returning board. Indeed,
1t is conceded by all parties that the Kellogg
government is only upheld by the federal
military. Withdraw the military and the
government will go down. This was true
before the 4th of January as we'll as now.
In this connection we refer to
THE WHITE LEAGUE
mentioned in the message of the president.
In the last campaign in Louisiana the oppo-
sition was composed OF various elements
democrats, reformers, dissatisfied republic
cans, liberal republicans, old whigs-and in
order to induce the cooperation of all, some
of whom refused to unite with an organiza.
ton called democrats, they took the name
of "The Peoples Party" called in some 10.
calities 1.-The Conservative Party" in 9TH
ers "The White Mans Party" in others
"The White League" and had ordinary po-
litical clubs under these names throughout
the rural districts, which were ordinary
political clubs, and nothing more,
neither secret nor armed, nor