396 



LOUISIANA. 



and second sections of the Louisiana Bill of 

 Eights, which are as follows : 



No State shall make or enforce any lay which shall 

 abridge the liberties or immunities of citizens of the 

 United States ; nor shall any State deprive any per- 

 son of life, liberty, or property, without due process 

 of law: nor deny to any person the equal protection 

 of the laws. (Fourteenth Cons. Am., Art. 1.) 



All men are created free and equal, and have cer- 

 tain inalienable rights ; among these are life, liberty, 

 and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, 

 governments are instituted among men, deriving 

 their lust powers from the will of the governed. (JJM 

 ofRigMs, Art. 1.) * * * They, the citizens, shall 

 enjoy the same civil, political, and public rights and 

 pr'ivileo-es and be subject to the same pains and 

 . penalties. (Bill of Rights, Art. 2. ) 



It was also declared to be in conflict with the 

 provision of the Constitution of the United 

 States, which gives to Congress exclusive pow- 

 er to regulate commerce, and the act of Con- 

 gress admitting Louisiana into the Union in 

 1812, which provides " that the river Missis- 

 sippi and the navigable waters leading into the 

 same and into the Gulf of Mexico shall be 

 common highways and forever free, as well to 

 the inhabitants of the said State as to the in- 

 habitants of the other States, and the terri- 

 tories of the United States, without any tax, 

 duty, impost, or toll therefor imposed by the 

 said States." 



"Now," said Judge Collens, "this law (1) 

 prevents any freedom whatever ; (2) walls up 

 many miles of the shores of the river on both 

 sides against an important branch of commerce; 

 (3) vests as it were a private company with an 

 ownership in one of the greatest ports of entry 

 of the United States ; (4) gives this company 

 alone the authority to ' establish wharves ' for 

 vessels bringing live-stock into the port of New 

 Orleans; (5) yields it the exclusive right of 

 having one or more stock-landings, with the 

 ' exclusive ' privilege of having landed at its 

 wharves and landing-places all animals in- 

 tended for sale or slaughter in the parishes of 

 Orleans and Jefferson ; (6) authorizes it to de- 

 termine at what points or places wharves, stock- 

 landings, etc., may be erected ; (7) grants it 

 the power of levying wharfage, not simply on 

 the vessels, according to tonnage and time, but 

 a round sum on the vessels and a duty of ten 

 cents per head on large, and five cents per head 

 on small beasts landed in this port, and (8) all 

 this is made effective by penal clauses, im- 

 posing fines, etc. I think it clear this is not 

 only a police regulation of the great trade in 

 live-stock coming to this market, but (going far 

 beyond such mere police ordinances as are 

 necessary to prevent collision and disorder in 

 the port, or to secure an equal and convenient 

 use of the public banks to all) it amounts al- 

 together to a bold and well-contrived regulation 

 of commerce, compelling the coveted trade to 

 flow into the channel, and leave the tribute in 

 the coffers, of this private monopoly. It closes 

 all the port except the wharf, slaughter-house, 

 and stables of the company, to that trade. To 

 ray understanding its restrictions and prefer- 



ences appear plainly as a violation of the act of 

 Congress guaranteeing the freedom of the 

 river to commerce." 



There were several other measures of some 

 importance passed, including an act to incor- 

 porate the Louisiana Transit Company, and 

 aid it with the credit of the State to establish 

 railroad and telegraphic communication be- 

 tween New Orleans and the Pacific coast. A 

 new vagrant law was also enacted. A revenue 

 bill, passed just before the adjournment of the 

 Legislature, contained the following section, 

 which was regarded by some as oppressive : 



SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, etc., That no physi- 

 cian, surgeon, midwife, lawyer, or other professional 

 person, except teachers, shall practise in this State, 

 unless he or she has first taken put a license in accord- 

 ance with this law. No physician, surgeon, midwife, 

 lawyer, or other professional person, teachers ex- 

 cepted, shall be allowed to collect a claim for profes- 

 sional services, unless he or she can exhibit a license 

 in accordance with this law ; a failure to exhibit such 

 license, when called for, shall entitle the defendant to 

 a non-suit. Each lawyer, before practising in any 

 court of this State, shall have his license, under this 

 law, recorded in a minute-book, kept by the clerk of 

 such court for that purpose ; and no judge, justice of 

 the peace, or recorder ? shall allow any lawyer to 

 practise in his court until this law is complied with. 

 Any judge, justice, or recorder, violating this act, 

 shall be liable to a fine of five hundred dollars, to be 

 recovered before a district court, to be sued for by the 

 district attorney or attorney-general one-half to go 

 to the informer, and the prosecuting attorney to re- 

 ceive a fee of fifty dollars on conviction, in each 

 case. 



The fifteenth amendment to the Constitution 

 of the United States, which provides that the 

 right of citizens to vote shall not be abridged 

 on account of race, color, or previous condition 

 of servitude, was submitted to the Legislature 

 by Governor Warmouth, on the 27th of Feb- 

 ruary, with a recommendation that it be rati- 

 fied at once. It was ratified in the Senate on 

 the same day by a vote of 18 to 3, and two 

 days later received the approval of the House 

 of representatives, by a vote of 55 to 9 ; while 

 36 members, all Republicans, refrained al- 

 together from voting. 



On the accession of General Grant to the 

 Executive chair of the Federal Government, 

 the following joint resolution was adopted: 



Be it enacted, ~by the Senate and House of Represent- 

 atives of the State of Louisiana, in General Assembly 

 convened, That we, the first representatives of the 

 whole people of Louisiana, without distinction of race, 

 color, or previous condition, hail with unutterable sat- 

 isfaction and pride the declaration of principles and 

 public policy embraced in the inaugural of the Presi- 

 dent of the United States, who has by their enuncia- 

 tion ranged himself as the foremost statesman, as he 

 had before as the most illustrious general, of- the Ee- 

 public. 



Be it therefore resolved. That we pledge ourselves 

 to sustain to the utmost the President in carrying out 

 his policy of economy in public expenditure, the strict 

 accountability of all public officers, the enforcement 

 of the reconstruction laws, the extension of universal 

 suffrage by the constitutional amendment, the strict 

 enforcement of law and order, the honest payment of 

 the national debt, the speedy return to specie pay- 

 ment, and the early restoration of peace and harmony 

 between all classes and sections of our beloved country. 



