The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1890-10-11

The official position occupy precludes
my expressing an opinion az to the
legality or constitutionality of the
proposed levy or tax. But / can say
as a citizen, that if it be legal and
constitutional it is manifestly unjust
and %tyrranical. 1t was passed by the
Legislature without previous discus
sion before the people, and for such
extraordinary legislation we are en-
titled to notice. 1t was enacted into
law without our vote and one of our
constitutional amendments gives Us
the right to vote on such special or in
creased levies, at least, so u people
thought when they voted it. | do not
say that this right TO vote Is absolutely
stated in that amendment for l would
be passing upon a legal point of this
issue, and that | want to avoid. But
| do say that our people so thought
when they voted that amendment,
and | believe if they had not been SO
told and had not SO thought, they
would not have adopted it. l am
proud that l voted againsttha amend
ment which authorizes the doubling of
our tax and gave no real protection
against extraordinary levies.
DID the Senator think of our rights
to vote upon this extraordinary levy?
If he did he gave no utterance to his
thought, or if he did the record is silent.
But not only are we refused the
right to vote upon the levy of the
tax or fixing its amount, bnt, those
who levy it and those who fixed the
amount, and fixed the manner
place and time of it's Imposition
are TO be appointed by the
Governor. and we, the people, the tax
payers, have no word to say, as to who
these people, clothed with 50 much
power, shall be. l have nothing to say
against any of the gentlemen who
have been named to these positions,
and who are designated to carry out
the provisionsot this measure. l make
no objection to them, as does the Sena-
tor ON the ground that they pay
no taxes. | do not know whether
they do or not, nor do | care for that.
| do not know as the Senator says,
that they are appointed for factional
purposes-tO aid a future factional
fight-as the special friends of the
Governor or his special policy. Per-
sonally | know two of these gentle
men, possibly a third. They are men
of intelligence and they are honest
and if they had been chosen by our
people, whether l agreed with the
majority or not, | would not care.
Not one word against them can be
said. But object to the manner Of
their appointment. If the Senator
was so anxious to consult the best
thought of u people, why did he
not insist upon our right to choose
these agents9 Did he in any way at
tempt to give us this choice7 If he
did, he is again unfortunate for the
record does not show it.
But fellow citizens, there is to my
mind something more than all this in
this bill. You the tax payers of La
foarche and our fellow citizens, the
taxpayers of all this broad land COM
prised within the limits of the Atchafa-
laya Basin Levee District, you who by
your daily labor, and by the sweat of
your brow, produce the crops to pay
this tax, you who by your votes,
breathed the breath of life into these
our representatives, you who made
them all they are, l will not say, more
than they deserve. for | leave that for
you to judge, you are not worthy to
vote upon who shall levy your taxes,
you cannot vote as to who shall ex-
pend your W money-this first great
birth-right of an American is denied
you-this great right for which our
fathers fought the greatest Empire of
the World is deemed by our masters
unfit to be used by us-whom | sup
pose they look upon as unworthy the
rights acquired by the blood of our
sires. But more than this, as if to
make the badge of our iDferiority and
unworthiness more conspicuous, our
masters have designated two distin-
guished citizens of the United States.
who car vote to tax themselves and
us and who can choose their agent
and our agent. These two distin-
gnished citizens not OF Louisiana, but
OF the Union. whom the Senator and
his compeers have specially designa-
ted rs worthy of the franchise denied
to us are, Jay Gould of New York and
G. p. Huntington of California. / am
glad the senator found at least two
men in the Union worthy of the
franchise. We owe him thanks that our
whole American manhood is no dis
franchised. We, as good and charitable
men, should vote him and his COM
peers thanks, that if we are found I'M
worthy In the eyes of the great and
good. at least two of our fellow Gift