St. Landry democrat., 1879-07-26
The Convention,
THE STATE DEBT,



IN o. Democrat, July lothl
The special order Of the day. the Or
dlnancc on State Debt, was taken I'D.
Delegate Caffrey, before moving the
adoption Of the ordinance, sent up to
the Clerks desk and had read the fol-
lowing reasons of members for voting
for the ordinance:
We, the undersigned delegates offer the fol-
lowing explanation for our votes on the third
reading OF ordinance No. 429, relative to the
State debt.
!. Our votes are east in the affirmative because
after a long and arduons struggle We are con-
vinced that the ordinance affords the best terms
for the holders of the consolidated bonds that
the Convention will agree to.
,. Because we deem it proper to offer some
terms on which an adjustment of the debt may
hc arrived at rather than to have the matter i'll
greater doubt and uncertainty.
While we concur i'll the above views we do
not feel that such terms as would he entirely
satisfactory to the bondholdCrs on the one hand
wit hin the ability of the State to offer Oh the
other have been accorded by the ordinance:
We still adhere to our original cOnNictlon,
that 3 per cent bond for five years, and a. per
cent bond thercaTter, with an annual tax OF
ihrcc mills, would he both within our inchiis to
pay and satisfactory to the holders of the State
cOnSOls
In voting for the ordinance we do not intend
that its acceptance by the Convention Involves
or implies IN acceptance by the hnndhoiders.
We leave its acceptance entirely to the volition
Of the hondh0lders
John Phelps, ThoS. j. SelnmcS,
,IenTy II f,.1H P; kernoch"' H. y: c"iirfy, Tr,,
John Chtrc, Gus. A. BreailN.
Delegate Cattrey moved the adoption
of the ordinance, and on the motion de-
manded the previous question, which
the Convention ordcred-yeas 53, nays
4G.
The yeas aud nays were demanded
on the adoption OF the ordinance and it
was ost-ycas 81, nays 53. The vote in
detail was as follows:
Yeas-Delegates Basllin, Bell, Blan-
clard, Bolton, Bourgeois, BreauX, Brccn,
Brian, Bulger, Burton, Cattrey, Chatfee,
Chiapclla, Claiborne, Collins, Daven-
port, Davidson of Claiborne, Denis,
Easterly, Edwards, Estopinal, Faulk,
Fontelieu, George, Covers, Havard,
Heron, Howell, Jastremski, kernochan,
knoblack, Lanaux, Leake, LeGardeur,
,Tr.. LYONS, Marks, Milard, Morcland,
Moore of I.afourche, Munday, McCon
nell, Nogucz, Mutt, Olivier, OFT, Par
lange, Phelps, Poche, Richardson, Rob
ertson, Semmes, Stagg, Stone, String
fellow, Thompson, Todd, Watkins,
Webb, Wells, White, Young of East
Baton Rouge.
Bienvcnr, Bohie, Bridger, Bnlow., Brryne,
Cahen, Carey, Colvin, Cunningham,
Demas, Dickerson, billiard, Elan, For
Gueringer, Henry of Cameron, Henry
of Natchitoches, Hugh, Jenkins, Jotflion,
Kelly, Kemp, Kennedy, Kidd, kirkman,
Land, Landry, Long, Lott, Luckett,
Mathews, Mentz, Moore of St. Landry,
McGloin, Ogden, Pardee, Pinchback,
Reid. Rivet, Self, Simon, Stamps, Ste
yenson. Stewart, Sutherlin, Vance, Will
liams of Terbonne.
About a half hour was consumed III
calling the roll and making changes,
nearly all the Republicans changing
from the affirmative to the negative,
and many Democrats changing from
the negative to the affirmative.
After the vote was announced Dele
gate Robertson made the point OF order
that it did not require siNtyeight votes
to pass an ordinance that was not IN
tended to become part OF the cOnstl-
tuition.
The President announced that the or
dinance had been defeated, because the
necessary sixty-eight votes had not
been cast for it.
Delegate Cunningham moved a re-
consideration of the vote by which the
J. ordinance was lost, and yielded the
floor to Delegate Robertson.
Delegate Robertson said that when
the Convention assembled the people of
the State had confidently expected that
it should be controlled by the Democra-
tic members. In this expectation they
had been disappointed in more than
one instance. The Republicans had
controlled propositions on this floor, as
they had the question of the State debt,
by voting on one side one day and
Changing their votes the next. Their
object was to defeat any settlement OF
cratic patty. The people demanded
that this control should no longer be
permitted, and that the pending ques-
ton as well as all others, should be
For the purpose OF doing this he moved
that the Convention DO now take a re-
cess until 1880 p. M, in order that the
Democratic members might go into
caucus Immediately upon the SUBJECT
of the debt.