The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-12-08
THE LOG SEIZURES IN LIVINGSTON

THE LOG SEIZURES In LIVINGSTON
The seizure Of logs under the direction o
the Department of the Interior, In the parisl
OF Livingston seems to be piece OF unmiH
gated brutality We do not believe that tn
facts have been truthfully represented to Sec
rotary Sohurz. The whole affair, as it hal
been authoritatively stated to us, bear
the marks Of the operations of ring o
brutal, INSCRIPTIONS and diminutive specu
lators.
The unhappy people afflicted by the seizure
In question, a few days ago held meeting
and drew up petition to Gov. Nichols fol
aid to save them from the restitution which
this unnatural act of the United States govern
ment has entailed upon them, and the misery
with which 1t threatens them. They Their
requested the representative Of their par
ish, Hon. Levi Spiller, to visit New Orleans
lay their deplorable condition before the Gov.
ernor and beg for help. Mr. Spiller has very
clearly stated to us the facts in the case, and
we confess that our sympathies have not
often been SO deeply and painfully enlisted.
The facts connected with this act Of extraor-
binary vigilance on the part of the govern
ment in protecting its timbered lands are
briefly, these:
| Mr.. W. F. Carter, q government agent, who
seems to have mania for selling logs, lately
descended upon the parish OF Livingston in
this state, where he, OF 5ome Of his deputies
or aids, found a community Of about one hun
dred and twenty families, numbering, men,
women and children, five or six hundred souls,
| living on some sterile lands embraced In the
| Houma claim and also claimed by the
United States government These people have
occupied this disputed territory for perhaps
more than half century. Many of them occu-
py the little tracts first squatted on by their
grandfathers. There are gray-headed men
among them who were born there and who
have raised up families around them. These
people understand the tenure by which they
hold their humble homes and they have been
always willing to recognize their obligation
to pay for them whenever the title of the
lands shall be determined.
The people are very poor. They have no
capital but their labor. They cut cypress
logs In the swamp; float them out in high
water and work them into shingles, boards
and cord-wood. These they sell to schooners,
WHlJu uu6Iu W tH1S Guy tuu Lthc
back to the lumbermen supplies Of provisions
in payment. Thus these poor people live, as
1t were, from trip TO trip Of the schooners.
Most Of them raise, on the sterile acres
around their cabins, o few potatoes and q little
corn. These products constitute their super
auities or Inquiries. But this year the floods
have utterly destroyed their scanty crops
and left them utterly dependent upon their
timber business.
When the agent Of the United States gov
eminent descended upon this miserable COM
munity, he found them with about $500 cy-
press trees on hand, some shingles and cord
wood. All this was promptly seized by the
government. Every bundle of three or four
hundred shingles, and even little piles Of wood
were scraped up and promptly branded u s.,
and the people ordered not to touch single
tree or stick of timber; in other words to
leave or starve.
Their crops having been utterly DESTROYED.
and the government having captured every
log, single and stick Of cord wood, the com
munity are on the verge Of starvation. Those
who were the best off have divided their sup
plies with the more destitute; but now nearly
all is consumed, and Mr.. Spillers mis-
sion to New Orleans is to see If |
some steps cannot be taken to re-
lieve the timber from seizure. The most
cruel part of the business is, that while these
people-men, women and children
are thus ruined and threatened with starva-
lion by the government, the government has
six deputy marshals, or keepers, in charge of
their logs and shingles at the muniicent sala-
" of six dollars per day each. Weare informed
that the agent has reported to the Department
hat 10000 logs have been seized, and that
lpon this presentation this army of deputies
ind keepers has been authorized.
We repeat that we do not believe the afro
ty of this business, as shown by the state
nent made to US. Is understood in Wash
ngton. The people who are the vic
inns Of this brutal seizure are en-
tiled to the charity and indulgence
4 the government rather than to it's
engeance God knows there are enough big
hieves in the land for the reformers in the
administration to hunt down without strik-
1g where the enforcement OF the law renders
lstice the direst cruelty.
If these timbered lands belong to the gov
rnment, by all means let them be protected. I
tut let them be protected in civilized and G
umane manner. The destruction OF the tim I
er should be stopped, but 1t is the sheerest l
rutality to pounce upon these long time set 4
ers, without notification or warning and 9
eize the last bunch Of shingles they have 1
lade, and leave them literally without bread r
this is law, it is law In SO brutal and I'M /
ghtly shape that it Is revolving to COM 0
ION humanity and destitute Of the plainest J
rineiples of justice. q
PENALTIES.