The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-04-22

agrteulture Of building up our
waste places; Of stimulating industry.
These are oil minor considerations with the
spectators and their organs Like old Pagan
with his money and jewel box, they nurse
and chatter over their i've and half mills
tax and grin with mingled terror and feroc-
| ity at every unfriendly utterance or sound
that reaches their ears. He who talks Of re-
adjusting the debt and aboishing the five and
a half mills interest tax they fiercely and
scurrilously denOunce as q repudiatOr. Well
lot the readiusters accept that epithet
though they do not deserve 1t. still Is there
not an epthet which may be applied to those
who propose to stand rigidly and uncom-
promisingly by the body and interest Of the
debt more opprobrious than that they apply
to the readjusters2 The so-calied regulators
propose simply to repudiate mass Of fraud
ulent bonds or to scale debt, three-fourths
of which is fraudulent, In the interest OF eight
hundred thousand people and Of the trade,
property and industry OF o great State. On
the other hand, their accusers propose to sub
ject for generations that people and those in
terests To aruinOus rate of taxation to pay m
exorbitant rate Of interest, and debt which
| represents little else than shame, oppression
POPULATION and fraud In other words, We
have, II you choose to call the readiusters
such. the repudiationists against the confis
GATORS Which class is the most Infamous;
those who are determined to readjust fraud
ulent debt held by few hundred persons, or
those who propose to literally conhscate the
property Of the whole State for the benefit Of
nn1F c~,l
blers2
For more than half a century the people OF
Louisiana and New Orleans have been the
victims OF bond rings, and 1t Is time that they
should demand and obtain justice. In 1852 all
the mass of floating indebtedness Of the
municipalities Of this city, most Of 1t not
worth more than from fifteen to twenty cents
on the dollar, was, by an act OF the Legis-
lature, converted into what Ia known as the
consolidated debt. No one denies that that
debt embodies large amount OF fraudulent
Indebtedness But the act OF 1862 was &C
cepted by the people because 1t prohibited the
creation OF any future debts without their
consent. How much did their faith benefit
them2 The Radical regime came; the act Of
1852 was regarded as 90 much waste paper,
and millions upon millions OF bonds were is
sued In defiance Of the law. It seems that
with the Inauguration Of good government
these bonds, issued In prohgacy and corrup-
tion. should have been contested and, II pos
slble, repudated. But no. The bulwark which
had been raised to protect the taxpayers
against the rapacity Of spectators and cor
ruptionists was leveled to the ground, and. to
paraphrase the words Of q great statesman
In speaking OF precisely similar case, a firm,
broad highway for sin and death, for usury
and oppression to maintain themselves
against the people was laid In the premium
bond scheme The courts have decided that
the act OF 1852 does not protect the people, and
that the act OF 1876 does protect the holders
OF every single corrupt and fraudulent bond
that has been issued. In other words, the
people have no protection In the law or In
the courts and they owe all claims against
them, good, bad and Indifferent
In q day or two we shall begin the publica-
ton Of o history Of the State debt as 1t has
been fixed by the Funding Board. and as 1t
has been written In the report Of the special
committee appointed to examine into the pro-
ceedings Of the Funding Board, etc. sub
mitted February, 1876" This report lies
before as; we have read 1t carefully from be-
ginning to end and we promise those of our
readers who are fond Of sensational reading
a rare treat. We have read the life and ad-
ventures Of Jack Sheppard, OF John A. Muir
rell and the romance Of Claude Duval, but
none OF them surpass In bold, audacious
and unmitigated wickedness the proceedings
by which the so-called debt of Louisiana was
created, and which characterized the proceed
ings OF Kelloggs Funding Board.
And yet we are told that If we touch any
portion Of "the debt" 1t will be reputation
and the State will become Infamous. We az
firm on the other hand that, 1t the
Convention shall venture to betray the
people and recognize this so-called
debt as 1t stands, 1t will ally itself with the
confiscators and cover itself with shame and
invoke the denunciations of the whole State.
1.-THE debtr' And for what Is 1t due? s.Euery
debt" said Edmund Burke, "for aohich an
equivalent of some kind or other is not giye,,
Is, on the face Of 1t, fraud' What equivalent
has Louisiana received for these enormous
and ruinous claims against herr Where Is the
commerce or the manufactures with which
the creators of this debt have enriched
Louisiana? Where are the public edi-
fees, the railroads. the canals or the
public schools which they have given
US? What. In short, Is the one single benefit
or equivalent the people Of this State have
received for this debt which we are told must
be forced on the present generation and en-
tailed On their posterity forever? No human
hand can point to 1t. The debt repre-
sents simply plumber, spoliation and corrup
ton; it represents only the calamities Of
free but powerless people, subjected to the
rule of the bayonet and the robber. It is a
debt created chiefly by men "whose names
are already buried In the obscurity OF their
origin, or dragged into the light by the enor-
nifty of their crimes" In fact, the So
called debt of Louisiana Is simply the meta
morphose Of the devastation Of the country
into demands upon its future productions.