Year: 1872

give bond for good behavior during siz
months.


See act No. IL, page 16 of acts of Extra
Session of 1865.


Now, take notice, the first act requires
you to obtain the consent Of the owner OF g
place or plantation before you can carry d
gun or a pistol on it. And this act provides
for your arrest and punishment in case you
go for that consent; and according to this
law you could not step over to the next
plantation to see kinfolks or neighbOrs, to
visit q sick person, or even to attend
church. without being liable to line of one
hundred dollars and Imprisonment for one
month, and required to give bond for good
behavior for six months.


Now they have yeu hemmed in, so that il
is impossible for you to 60 anywhere with
out permission of the owner or agent of the
land; and you conclude to wait by the road
side until the owner passes by, and then beg
of him for his consent to visit your friends
on his plantations. They may be suffering
from sickness or in trouble, and you may be
determined to wait and watch if it takes a
week; but before that time comes here
comes an officer to arrest you for vagrant.
See act twelve, page eighteen, of the acts
above referred to, a parJ OF which reads as
follows:


And said justice or other officer shall re-
quire the party accused to enter into bond
in such sum as said justice Or
other officer shall prescribe, with security
to be approved by said officer, for his good
behavior and future industry for the period
Of one year; and upon his failing or refusing
to give such bond and security, the justice
or other officer shall issue his warrant to
the sheriff, directing him to detain and to
hire out such vagrant for period not ex-
ceeding twelve months, or cause him to
labor on the public works, roads or leyees,
under such regulations as shall be made by
the municipal authorities; provided, that
if the accused be person who has aban-
doned his employer before his contract ex-
pred, the preference shall be given to such
employer of hiring the accused; and pro
vided further, that in the city of New Or
leans the accused may be committed to the
Workhouse, for time not exceeding six
months, there to be kept at hard labor, or
to be made to labor upon the public works,
roads or leyees. The proceeds of hire in the
cases herein provided for to be paid into the
parish treasury for the benefit of paupers.


Now, where is your freedom? These
three acts alone, interpreted and enforced
as they would have been under Democratic
rule, would have reduced you to cOndi-
ton worse than the slavery from which you
had Just escaped. But this is not all. This
extra session passed thlrty-fve laws, but
not one requifIng planters or other men to
keep their contracts with hands; but they
found time to pass five laws binding the
poor people to life of servitude-three of
which we have placed before you, and the
other two we will now proceed to consider.


As | have SAID, not one law was enacted
to compel the men who hired hands to full
fill their contracts with them; but every act
was intended to bind the poor and aid the
rich. Your employer might refuse to pay
the amount agreed upon or to furnish the
rations as provided in your contract. Yet,
these Democratic lawmakers forgot to en-
act any law compelling them to keep their
obligations but i'll order to bind you to
your work, whether clothed, fed or paid,
they passed the following law:


SECTION /. Be it enacted by the Senate
and House of Representatives of the State
of Louisiana in General Assembly con-
vened, That any one who shall persuade or
entice away, feed, harbOr or seGrete any
person who leaves his or her employer, with
whom she or he has contracted or is assigned
to live or anY apprentice, who is bound as
an apprentice, without the permission of
his OF her employer, said person or persons
SO offending shall be liable for damages to
the employer; and also upon conviction
thereof shall be subject to pay fine of not





prisoned in the parish jail for not more than
twelve months nor less than ten days, or
both at the discretion of the court.


SEC g. Be it further enacted, etc, That
it shall be the duty Of the judges of this
State to give this act especially in charge
Of the grand juries at each jury term of
their respective courts.


See act fifteen, page twenty-four, of acts
above referred to.


n,
tire hope of receiving some reward; but
after trying your employer month after
month, and finding that he could not or
would not pay according to contract, you
would naturally resolve to go and find some
man who needed your labor, and was will
ing to pay for it. After walking for miles,
night comes on; you are out Of money; no
one is willing to keep you unless you can
pay them, and you find yourself compelled,
as many poor man has done, to sleep by
the roadside or in some old building. The
next morning you walk on, and at last find
a friend. He invites you in. You tell him
of your misfortune and trouble; tell him
that you are tired, foot-sore and hungry.
He sympathizes with you in your trouble,
and asks YOU to take dinner with him and
rest until the next day; tells you that he is
working for a man who keeps his word and
pays up according to contract, and by stay
ing I'LL morning you can see MIN ana geJ
work, and, better still get your money when
the work is done Your heart beats with
delight, You think Of the loved ones at
home, and you become happy in the thought
of soon being able to give them assistance.
You should never DEAN that you were com
mitting great crime, that your friend who
had treated you with such kindness and at
tention was a law breaker, and even the
man who gave you employment was sub
ject to arrest and punishment. Yet, under
these laws you would be arrested as a
vagrant for having slept out the night you
were seeking work, and if unable to give
bond and security in the sum which this
Democratic officer pleased to name, you
would be taken by the sheriff and hired
out to the highest bidder for twelve months,
the very man from whom you had escaped
having the first opportunity to bid on you,
and worse than all, your money to be
turned over to the parish and your family
to starve. Your friend who had treated
you with such kindness could be arrested
under the law last read for feeding and
and fined $500 and sent to Jail
for twelve months. And even the planter
who gave you work could be punished ac-
cOrding to act No. 20, page thirty-three, of
same session.


Third Congressional District.


We announced, few days since, the
of William Mouton, Esq, from
the contest in the third congressional dis