454 



LOUISIANA. 



iffs, constables, magistrates, militia officers, and 

 policemen, and empowering him in express 

 terms to declare martial law at his discretion ; 

 that upon election-day the citizens at large are 

 expressly forbidden to carry arms except 

 under orders of the Executive, or those of his 

 appointees. Further objection was made to 

 the bill that it nullified parochial and muni- 

 cipal authority, by forbidding the Mayor of 

 New Orleans, or his commissioners or officers, 

 "from holding any election, and from doing 

 any act toward the holding or conducting of 

 any election," under penalty of fine and im- 

 prisonment; while in all other parishes the 

 duty and functions of sheriffs, elected by the 

 people, were superseded by supervisors and 

 commissioners appointed by the Governor. 

 It was further claimed by the minority that 

 the bill attempted to "forestall and defeat the 

 constitutional rights of the Senate and House 

 of Eepresentatives of the General Assembly to 

 judge of the election and qualifications of its 

 members. By the operation of this section, the 

 Governor and his returning officers are enabled 

 to withhold certificates of election to the Gen- 

 eral Assembly, whenever in their discretion they 

 may see fit, in all cases where fraud, violence, bri- 

 bery, or other irregularity, may be reported." 



Subsequently amendments were made to the 

 bill, the most important of which was that 

 striking out the section authorizing the Gov- 

 ernor to declare martial law in any parish 

 during election or registration ; as thus amend- 

 ed, the measure was adopted February 18th, 

 and subsequently a registration bill was passed. 



A measure having an important bearing upon 

 the commercial interests of the State was the 

 act passed February 21st, granting to the New 

 Orleans, Mobile, and Chattanooga Railway 

 Company a State aid of $3,000,000 in bonds of 

 the State, bearing interest at the rate of eight 

 per cent, per annum. By the conditions of the 

 grant this amount is to be paid to the com- 

 pany in four instalments, of $750,000 each, 

 the first on the completion of the road to the 

 Bayou Lafourche, fifty-five miles, and the last 

 when the road shall have been completed to 

 the city of Houston, Texas. By the express 

 terms of the act the road must be completed 

 to Houston within three years and six months 

 from the date of the formal acceptance by the 

 company of the terms prescribed. 



In anticipation of the meeting of the Legis- 

 lature, the subject of legal reform was much 

 discussed and subsequently brought before 

 that body for consideration. It was said that 

 almost half a century had elapsed since the 

 Civil Code and the Code of Practice of Lou- 

 isiana were framed and promulgated. The 

 work of constructing them was intrusted to 

 several very eminent lawyers, one of whom 

 was an accomplished scholar in both the civil 

 and commercial law. On its appearance, it 

 was held among the legal profession, both in 

 Europe and America, to be a work admirable 

 for its conciseness of arrangement, and its 



accurate and various learning, and it may be 

 said that in the common-law States of the 

 Federal Union, wherever the attempt has been 

 made to reform the technicalities and crudities 

 of the common law which they inherited from 

 England, this civil code and code of practice 

 have been the models upon which such changes 

 have been effected. When they were adopted 

 and promulgated, a very different state of 

 things existed than that which now appears, 

 and Louisiana is a vastly more important com- 

 munity in population, interests, and commer- 

 cial importance, than she was at that time. 

 In this connection particular stress was laid 

 upon the faults in the law organizing the 

 justices' courts in the city of New Orleans, 

 which rendered them especially liable to ex- 

 tortion, corruption, and other abuses, as well 

 on the part of the justices themselves, as of tho 

 constables and clerks. "Another most scan- 

 dalous abuse of judicial power," it was said, 

 "is the fact that the writ of injunction, which 

 should never be issued except in rare in- 

 stances, with great caution, and, in by far the 

 greatest number of cases, only where a real ne- 

 cessity for it has been unequivocally shown, 

 after timely notice to the party against whom 

 it is asked, has been scattered with a profuse 

 and a reckless hand, by certain district court 

 judges during the past year or two, upon the 

 mere affidavit of the party asking for it, with- 

 out any other evidence that it was really ne- 

 cessary for the protection of his alleged rights." 



The writ of mandamus also had been ob- 

 tained ex parte for the purpose of procuring 

 money, or orders for money, from the Auditor 

 of Public Accounts, the City Treasurer of New 

 Orleans, and the Board of Metropolitan Police 

 and its treasurer. In the early part of tho 

 session a bill was introduced providing that 

 the writ of mandamus and that of injunction 

 should not issue except after notice to the 

 opposite party, and rule to show cause why it 

 should not issue. The only final action, how- 

 ever, taken on the subject was the passage, in 

 the extra session, of a bill establishing tho 

 Eighth District Court in New Orleans, with 

 exclusive jurisdiction in cases of mandamus 

 and injunction. 



At the beginning of the session of the 

 Legislature much dissatisfaction was apparent 

 among the people on account of the various 

 schemes for appropriating the public money, 

 and many charges of corruption were made 

 against that body. A call was issued, inviting 

 "all citizens opposed to the financial schemes 

 now pending before the Legislature calculated 

 to increase the burdens of the people, depre- 

 ciate the bonds, and ruin the credit of the 

 State, to create monopolies, eat out the sub- 

 stance of the people, and cripple commerce," 

 to assemble in mass meeting, in New Orleans, 

 on the 28th of January. At this meeting it 

 was stated that the city debt was $17,000,000, 

 and the State debt $28,000,000. Instead of 

 efforts to reduce this amount, schemes were 



