LOUISIANA. 



481 



payable in fifty years, and bearing interest at 

 four per cent. ; the entire issue not to exceed 

 $10,000,000. The syndicate is empowered to 

 retire and cancel all the valid debt of the city, 

 exchanging it for these bonds, or buying it up 

 with their proceeds. Not more than fifty cents 

 of the new bonds shall be given for one dollar 

 of the face value of the old obligations. In 

 doubtful or fraudulent cases the liquidators are 

 to reject the obligations until the courts have 

 pronounced on their validity. The adminis- 

 trators are to turn over the entire real and 

 personal property of the city to them to be 

 disposed of by the board, and the proceeds are 

 to be added to the " city debt fund." This act 

 is not to be construed as affecting the " Pre- 

 mium Bond Act," but the city authorities are 

 to transfer to the board all moneys collected 

 in accordance with that act. After paying the 

 interest coupons of the bonds issued under this 

 act, the surplus moneys are to be applied by 

 the liquidators to the retiring of any valid ob- 

 ligations of the city of New Orleans, whether 

 bonds or judgments. The City Council is re- 

 quired to levy an annual tax sufficient to pay 

 all interest on bonds issued under this act. 



The Board of Liquidators report a bonded 

 debt of $15,309,988.65. The certified and 

 floating debt of the city of New Orleans, De- 

 cember 31, 1880, was as follows: 



Floating debt $1,267,147 10 



Judgments on bonds $225,000 00 



Judgments on consolidated cou- 

 pons 12,000 00 



Judgments on other coupons 7,727 43 



Judgments on claims 615,504 86 



Total registered judgments . . . 



Interest coupons on 

 consolidated bonds 

 matured to June 1, 

 187(5 $31,821 75 



Less amount convert- 

 ed into judgments. 



863,232 29 



Interest coupons on 

 other bonds ma- 

 tured to July 1, 

 1875, unpaid 



Less amount convert- 

 ed into judgments. 



12,000 00 



$19,821 75 



7,727 43 

 279,308 90 



Total interest coupons.. . 

 Total bonded debt . . . 



299,130 65 

 15,309,91)8 65 



Total bonded and floating debt $17,736,508 C9 



There has been some progress in the im- 

 provement of Louisiana by the construction of 

 lines of railroad during the year. The city of 

 New Orleans has been connected with Houston, 

 and thence with western Texas and the States 

 north by the completion of the Morgan, Louisi- 

 ana and Texas Railroad, and the Louisiana 

 Western Railroad to the Texas line. The Vicks- 

 burg, Shreveport and Texas Railroad, to con- 

 nect Vicksburg with Texas along the Ouachita 

 River, will be completed duringthecoming year. 

 The railroad from New Orleans to connect 

 with the Southern Pacific Railroad at Marshall 

 is progressing, and is to be completed during 

 1881. The connection with Mobile along the 

 Mississippi Sound by railroad has fallen under 

 VOL. xx. 31 A 



the control of the Louisville and Nashville Rail- 

 road, and it brings the city into closer relations 

 with the North through Georgia and Tennes 

 see. The Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans 

 Railroad Company connects New Orleans with 

 the great cities of the West, and furnishes ad- 

 mirable facilities for commercial intercourse 

 with the Northwest. Its managers have formed 

 connections with Europe and the southern 

 states of this continent, whereby the prosper- 

 ity of the states and communities related to 

 the company must be improved. 



More important than commerce, and essen- 

 tial to its existence, is the public health. In 

 1880 rains were abundant, and the tempera- 

 ture was moderate during the summer and au- 

 tumn. Rigid quarantine regulations were en- 

 forced upon the seacoast. In the cities care 

 was taken to observe sanitary regulations in re- 

 spect to cleanliness, and the use of disinfectants 

 and purifying agents. The death-rate in New 

 Orleans during every month of this year is 

 less than in any corresponding month for 

 twelve years. The diseases which spread ter- 

 ror whenever their appearance has been de- 

 tected, have not affected any portion of the 

 State, and the year closed in Louisiana with a 

 better spirit of hopefulness than has been ob- 

 served for twenty years. 



The most important question before the 

 people of the State is that whicli concerns the 

 colored population. The introduction of a 

 population which had no traditions of civiliza- 

 tion, culture, progress, or of advancement to 

 higher conditions than barbarism, to the pos- 

 session of the powers, faculties, and rights of 

 the most advanced people of the earth, and to 

 require of them to perform the obligations and 

 duties incident to such a possession, must be 

 admitted to have been a perilous experiment. 

 Every analogous experiment has proved a fail- 

 ure, and it had come to be regarded as an ax- 

 iom in political philosophy that there should 

 be protection, guidance, and preparative meas- 

 ures and strict precautions to afford any hope 

 of success in subduing the appetites, passions, 

 and inclinations of such a race, and thus to dis- 

 cipline and improve tbem. The report we 

 have to make is that there is improvement in 

 the condition of the colored population. There 

 is among the white population a disposition to 

 aid in measures of amelioration. There is a 

 spirit of kindness and good-will. There are 

 no antipathies or grudges. Habits of thrift 

 and providence are not the result of any legis- 

 lation, nor do they become established in a 

 community or among a race in a single genera- 

 tion. The most that can be said is that there 

 is room for encouragement and no cause for 

 despair. 



There is no large emigration of this popula- 

 tion to note; the vagrant disposition probably 

 exists. They are easily beguiled by alluring 

 offers of an improved condition, and they have 

 a child's love of variety ; but there has been 

 no motive for persons to make these offers tc 



