474 



LOUISIANA. 



The principal bills of importance which 

 were discussed were known as " reform meas- 

 ures," and included new registration and elec- 

 tion laws, a repeal of the constabulary, a re- 

 organization of the police and militia forces, 

 and a thorough revision of the laws providing 

 for the collection and disbursement of the 

 revenues. On the 5th of February the Gov- 

 ernor had recommended these and other 

 measures of reform, but they all failed to be 

 enacted, owing, it was said by his opponents, 

 to the opposition of his friends and his own 

 refusal to sign the registration and election 

 laws which actually passed both branches of 

 the Legislature. 



A bill funding the indebtedness of the State 

 was signed some time after the Legislature 

 had adjourned. It makes it a duty of the 

 Treasurer to ascertain and classify the public 

 obligations, and creates a "fund for the re- 

 demption of the floating debt of the State." 

 The old " redemption of the State Debt Fund," 

 and the " Free-School Fund " are transferred 

 to this new fund, and bonds were to be pre- 

 pared for which warrants and certificates of 

 indebtedness could be exchanged. 



The political affairs of the State continued 

 to be fraught with excitement throughout the 

 year. A committee of fifty-one citizens of 

 New Orleans had been appointed at a public 

 meeting on the 1st of December, 1871, for 

 the purpose of securing reform in the admin- 

 istration of affairs, so far as concerned the 

 city. This committee made a report to a 

 meeting called for the purnose, and held on 

 the 17th of February. They had found that 

 the troubles in the municipal government were 

 due, in a large measure, to " State interfer- 

 ence, and the manipulation of municipal af- 

 fairs by the State authorities," and concluded 

 that it was impossible to secure reform for the 

 city until it was inaugurated in the State ad- 

 ministration. " Disheartened," they say, " by 

 the unblushing deceit of the executive and 

 legislative branches of your State govern- 

 ment, and convinced that no relief is possible 

 while that, government, as now constituted, 

 remains in existence," the committee recom- 

 mend " the rapid organization of the people 

 of this city and all over the Stabe of Louisiana, 

 not into secret oath-bound associations, but into 

 one grand party of reform." For the purpose 

 of carrying out this recommendation, the com- 

 mittee called a " convention of the people of 

 the whole State," to meet in New Orleans on 

 the 23d of April. A provisional State Central 

 Committee of the Reform party was appointed 

 at the same time. On the 12th of March this 

 committee issued an address, postponing the 

 proposed convention to June 4th, and calling 

 on all the friends of reform, both white and 

 colored, to join the new movement. It at- 

 tributes the troubles of the State, " the fright- 

 ful spoliation and robbery, of which she was 

 the victim, to a lack of sympathy and cooper- 

 ation between the two great races inhabiting 



our territory." It declares that "the treach- 

 ery, duplicity, and tyranny of the present 

 Governor of Louisiana have been established 

 beyond controversy, and are now patent facts 

 before a civilized world." The address con- 

 cludes thus: 



The necessity for a new organization at this time 

 is manifest. The great and sudden changes which 

 have recently taken place in the peculiar institutions 

 of the South, and the manner in which these changes 

 were wrought, left the two great national parties, so 

 far as Louisiana was concerned, divided more upon 

 issues of feeling and prejudice than of abstract rea- 

 son. The consequence was, that the contest waged 

 between those parties in reference to our local con- 

 cerns had in them more of bitterness than is ordina- 

 rily the case. So that now it would be impossible, 

 in our opinion, to unite the adherents of these par- 

 ties under either name. The party we are now 

 forming for home purposes will not, in truth, be 

 a third party ; for, unless we read badly the signs of 

 the times, it will unite all honest men, and leave as 

 the only issue that of virtue against vice. We be-, 

 lieve, also, that history will bear us out in the as- 

 sertion that, whenever such a conjuncture of affairs 

 has arisen as now exists in Louisiana, a new party 

 has necessarily emerged, through which the people 

 have redeemed their State. 



This committee, therefore, earnestly recommenc 

 that the people of each parish proceed promptly 

 organize themselves into clubs, and that every effc 

 be made to send representative men to the conve 

 tion. Your committee would further recommenc 

 that the great principle of equality in representatic 

 be kept constantly in mind, and that, as nearly 

 possible, the convention be composed in equal p 

 portions from the two races. 



The State Central Committee of the Demo- 

 cratic party adopted resolutions on the 23d of 

 February, calling a State Convention, to be 

 held at New Orleans, on the 18th of April, 

 and issued an address, in which they also con- 

 demn the Governor for " the corrupt dispensa- 

 tion of his vast patronage, the boldness and 

 frequency of his usurpation of power to strike 

 down those in his own party who refused to 

 become his personal adherents, his repeated 

 acts of political treachery to the colored race, 

 whose votes had elevated him to office." They 

 claimed that their purpose was reform, and 

 the rescue of the State administration from 

 the corruption into which it had fallen. They 

 say : " At a time when the material interests 

 of the State have been made the object of 

 legislative and executive robbery, when every 

 household in the State is afflicted by the ruin 

 which has resulted from the desolating legis- 

 lation of the past few years, when the poor 

 man and the rich man are alike made the vic- 

 tims of legislative and executive spoliation, 

 when the absorbing question is that of taxa- 

 tion, and the universal cry of the people is 

 immediate redemption from local and State 

 misgovernment, the duty of patriotic citizen- 

 ship is to silence the voice of mere party war- 

 fare." 



Before the meeting of the Democratic Con- 

 vention, a document appeared signed by some 

 500 citizens of the State, headed by Governor 

 Warmoth, calling themselves " Liberal Republi- 

 cans," and urging the people to send delegates 



