The New Orleans Democrat. (New Orleans, La.) 1875-1876, 1876-07-06
THE ATTORNEY aENERALsHIP.

OF this city, by the Radical convention,
for the important Office Of Attorney
General, was designed, we presume, to
give an air Of responsibility to the
ticket and attract, IL possible. con-
sentative support. Ii such was the pur-
pose the convention made q great mis-
take. Mr.. Hunts name will give
no strength to the miserable ticket on
which he has been placed. His connec-
ton with It, 80 far from conciliating q
Conservative support, will more deeply
embitter against 1t the class to which he,
by birth and education, belongs. He
has chosen to give the prestige OF his
name and the weight of genuine ablli-
ties to o party which has been the
scourge Of his State, and which has left
naught in its track but ruin
and desolation. The thousands OF
people all over the State OF Louisiana
who have seen their property, year after
year, wasting away by the exactions OF
the Radical party; who have seen their
sweat and toll amount to nothing, and
their wives and children gradually re-
duced to- beggary under misruie; VINO
have felt their manhood insulted by the
dominance in their towns and parishes.
Of political vagabonds fattening on their
substance who have seen the thrift and
beauty Of their State yielded to decay
and the ugliness OF desolation, while
Radical ofIiceholders grew from ragged
poverty to princely opulence, Will turn
upon one of their own class who
has given his name and capacity
to their enemies with firm determine
ton to crush his aspirations. Mr.. Hunt
can give no responsibility to the Radical
party, and he can carry but small
following into its ranks. The high
est intellectual qualities, and the
highest social position OF an indi-
vidual can never give credit and re-
spectability to wicked and corrupt
organization. No man can lift the Rad
ical organization of robbers, defaulters
and vagabonds up to plane Of respect
ability, but that organization will
assuredly drag any man down to It's
own level who casts his political for
tunes with it. Men like Mr.. Hunt and
Col. Williamson and Judge Beattie
can reform the Radical party no more
than they could reform u band Of free
hooters. The gang must be broken up,
and those who join them will receive
no more consideration when the fight
begins than the original members OF
the organization.
From another point Of view Mr.. Hunt
/ A.. II, 1. 10 mn N,
in the State for the office of Attorney
General. He has been the attorney OF
Ludeling, Ray and others in railroad
bond suits, involving hundreds OF thou
sands of dollars, in which the State is
adversely interested. Soon after Kel-
Jno. r. Ludeling demanded OF him
| the issuance Of bonds provided
by the illegal act OF 1874 to be
! issued for worthless stock OF the North
/ Louisiana and Texas Railroad to the
amount OF over $5OO,0 Attorney Gen
eral Field, the acting law officer OF the
State, pronounced against the authority
Of the Governor to issue these bonds,
and did what lay in his power to protect
| the State against the operations Of the
nefarious act of 1874. Ludeling,
however, in his decision in favor
of Kellogg's title to the office
OF Governor had earned his bonds,
and Kellogg, ignoring the opinion of his
Attorney General, called in Mr.. W. II.
Hunt, the attorney for the claimants Of
the bonds, and asked his opinion. Mr..
Hunt promptly advised the issuance
of the bonds, informing the so-called
Governor that he could not under the
law refuse to issue them.
More recently the suit OF Henry r.
Jackson and others against Ludeling
and others, involving these same bonds,
came before the Supreme Court OF the
United States, and that august tribunal,
in rendering decision in the case, de-
clared in effect that John 7. Ludeling,
the Chief Justice of Louisiana, was
common swindler. The case was re-
manded to the Circuit Court for the de-
termination Of questions growing out of
! the Louisiana law, and in arguing these
questions Mr. Hunt, the attorney OF
Ludeling, travelled out OF the record,
arraigned the Supreme Court for its
structures upon LudeHng, and pro-
nounced eulogy upon that Infamous
and disgraced Judge which would have
almost fattered Marshall or fancy.
Now, whether Mr.. W. Ii. Hunt is sim
cere in his belief in the validity OF these
bonds and in his lofty opinion OF Lude-
ling or not, is matter between himself
and his own conscience. Be that as it
NAV, the fact remains that the bonds
were fraud, and that Ludeling is cor
rupt and partisan Judge, and that Mr.
Hunt is, therefore, committed to inter
ests involving over a million OF dollars
adverse to the State. He is, taking his
connection with these bonds and with
Ludeling, Ray and others, the most