The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-04-19
A SPECIMEN RADICAL Trick.

A law OF Marcn ~, 1909, HIos peTmlt-
ted land subject to tidal overflow and
Sisted" to the State of Louisiana by
the general government, to he sold at
twenty five cents per acre. sThis law
was reproduced In the Revised Statutes
of 1870, compiled by John Ray, as Sec
tion 2793. 1t was re-enacted, with sig
nificant notifications, by the third sec
tion of an act Of the Legislature Of May
81, 1871, the thirteenth section Of which
repeats all laws inconsistent with It,.
The first two laws relative to such lands,
passed In 1869 and 1870. required that
lands intended to be sold as lands SUBJ
ject to tidal overflow should first be
patented to the State and that the
sales should be made by the Reg
lister and Treasurer, who was eg 06icio
Treasurer Of the Land Office. The
amended act Of May 81, 1871. designedly
and for reason which will presently
appear, omits the word "patented" and
authorizes the Register alone to SELL
Now, let us see what use was made Of
these statutory provisions.
There is q large body of land within
the limits Of this city held by the Canal
Bank and its numerous assigns under
a complete French grant Of October
6, 1857, but the title to which has
always been represented on official
pats of surveys as unconfirmed by
the United States. The tract en-
braces the shell-road along the canal,
the hotel and pleasure grounds
ut the end Of the canal on the lake.
shore, the Halfway House, the Metal
rle Ridge Cemetery-in short, lands on
which several hundred people perma-
nently reside, and part of which is the
highest land in the vicinity Of New
Orleans, and never was overhowed by
breaks or crevasses of the levees or by
break water from the lakes, and not
even during the terrific hurricanes of
1912 and 1881.
Well. the Hon. John Ray, with specu-
lation In his eyes, noticing that this land
was represented on the last official plat
OF survey as ''unconflrmed." and being
aware that the region covered by it was
not entirely free from water, conceived |
the bold project of making a claim on
behalf of the State for two or three
thousand acres OF this land under what
is known as the Swamp Land act. by
which the General Government granted
to the State all the public lands
within its limits which were SUBJ
ject to tidal overflow. Nothing
daunted by the fact that this
land was private property, protected by
a title superior to any which the United
States could grant, namely, valid and
complete French concession, this en-
ferprising Spectator procured the tes-
timony Of convenient witnesses to show
that the tract In question consisted Of
swamp and overflowed lands, and OBJ
tanned also from the Surveyor General
q declaration to that effect. The
claim OF the State was forwarded
to Washington and strenuous efforts
were made to induce the General Land
office to simply ''list" them to the State
under the swamp law act, the process
or patenting being too slow and pro-
viding too many chances for slip
'twixt the cup and the lip. In the mean
time, the Hon. John Ray. after his brief
and inglorious career as a claimant of
q seat In the U. s. Senate, had managed
to get himself appointed Register of the
State Land Office, and shortly after
wards, under the provisions Of the act
OF May 81, 1871, which vested In the
Register alone complete power over the
disposal of such lands. and which he
had no doubt engineered through the
Legislature, sold the greater part Of this
tract to certain confederates of his at
the rate OF t,centytive cents per acre.
Here was brilliant coup. Property
worth hundreds OF thousands of dollars
was to be quietly and secretly transfer
red from the possession of a lot of I'M
regenerate rebels to that Of patriots
like the Hon. John and his confed-
crates, through the instrumentality OF
that official scoundrel. Willis Drum
mond. late Commissioner Of the General /
Land Office at Washington. But "the