Whereas, One William E. Chandler, a prominent, influential, and well-informed member of the National Republican Committee, has in a recent open letter made some serious charges as to corruption in receiving the electoral vote of the State of Louisiana at the last Presidential election; and

Whereas, Said William E. Chandler alleges that several thousand votes cast in the last Presidential election in this State were changed, in order that the electoral vote of the State of Louisiana might be cast for the present occupant of the White House; and Whereas, It is asserted that on account of the charge or allegation contained in said Chandler's letter a resolution will be introduced in Congress, at an early day, inquiring whether any "unjust or illegal measures have been resorted to for the purpose of fraudulently presenting to it certificates upon which its action was based in deciding the election of President of the United States": therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana, That our Senators and Representatives in Congress be and are hereby requested to cast their votes in favor of any resolution that may be presented in either branch of Congress looking toward the investigation of any charges or allegations of corruption and fraud in procuring the electoral vote of this State for the President of the United States. Be it further

Resolved, That a copy of this preamble and resolution be forwarded to each one of our Senators and Representatives in Congress, properly certified.

On January 15th the following resolution was offered by Mr. Zacharie as a substitute for the above:

Whereas, Certain evil-disposed persons, with the object of creating turmoil, in order that they may profit thereby, are availing themselves of the differonces existing at the time of the count of the electoral votes to asperse the President of the United States, and to arouse against his administration an opposition based solely upon the constitutional and wise course pursued by him in restoring local self-government in the Southern States, and endeavoring to raise to a higher standard the civil service; and

Whereas, The people of the State of Louisiana look with satisfaction and approval upon the policy of peace, conciliation, and justice which has been inaugurated, and which has already given such beneficent fruits:

Therefore be it resolved, etc., That the policy of the President toward the Southern States meets their hearty approval, and that in the continued execution thereof, as well as in his efforts to allay sectional discord, and to reform the civil service of the Government, the President should receive the hearty support of every right-minded citizen without regard to party or to faction.

2. That a copy of this resolution he transmitted to the Hon. J. B. Eustis, representing the State of Louisiana in the Senate of the United States, and to our Representatives in the lower branch of Congress.

This substitute was adopted, yeas 23, nays 8. In the House of Representatives, on January 18th, the resolutions were considered. Mr. Hahn moved as an amendment to insert, after the words "certain evil-disposed persons," the words "to wit, Hon. Montgomery Blair." (See MARYLAND, also CONGRESS.) He believed that Mr. Hayes was honestly elected, that S. B. Packard was elected Governor, and he did not understand the reference in the resolutions to local self-government. The only local self-government was established by the overturning of the Packard government by armed forces. He referred to Mr. Kellogg, who he said was the leVOL. XVIII.-32

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gally elected Senator, and it was the part of wisdom to acknowledge the fact.

Mr. Jonas, in reply to Mr. Hahn, said that, while he did not admire the method by which Mr. Hayes became President, he wished to give him credit for performing what he (the speaker) considered his simple duty in regard to Louisiana, and for abstaining from those acts which have tarnished the record of his predecessor for ever. The policy which has permitted the people of the State to assume control of the government called into being at the ballot-box should be endorsed, no matter by what title Mr. Hayes held his seat. He found this policy opposed "by the men who stole the vote of Louisiana, mation of the great fraud, who for months bewho were the principal actors in the consumfore and after the election disturbed the Government; by the men who sought to impose upon Louisiana a similar fraudulent governnation." ment to the one they had imposed upon the

Mr. Jonas denied that S. B. Packard

was ever elected Governor. There was only one government then; the men imprisoned in the State House, waiting for the tramp of Federal troops coming to their assistance, did not constitute a government. That Legislature assembled in the State House, and, with barricaded doors, went through the farce of electing a United States Senator. If the Legislature had been a de jure Legislature, the members should have died before surrendering their tending the election of Kellogg by the Packard rights. The speaker described the events atassembly, the capture of a Democratic Senator, who refused to vote, and the swearing in of other persons who were not elected, in order to make the semblance of a quorum. No action of the United States Senate could deprive the people of the right of protesting against the seating of William P. Kellogg.

The amendment of Mr. Hahn was laid on the table, and the resolution concurred in-yeas 72, nays 27.

On January 17th the Committee on Federal Relations in the House reported the following substitute to a resolution relative to the admission of W. P. Kellogg to a seat in the United

States Senate:

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Louisiana, in General Assembly convened, That we do solemnly protest against the injustice done to the State by the action of a majority of the Senate of the United States on the 30th of November, 1877, in rejecting the Hon. Henry M. Spofford, who had been chosen a Senator from Louisiana by this General Assembly in accordance with the Constitution and laws of the State and of the United States, and admitting in his stead William Pitt Kellogg; that said William Pitt Kellogg had no other sulting from a pretended election by an unconstitusemblance of a title to said high office than that retional and irresponsible body, which never exercised any legislative authority, was never regarded by the people of the State as representing a branch of the State government, and dissolved by its own volition

for ever..

Be it further resolved, That when the United States Senate so acted, this General Assembly, and the

Governor and Lieutenant-Governor declared by it to have been elected according to law, together with the appointees thereof, constituted the only government recognized by the United States, or any branch of the government thereof, as representing Louisiana in the Federal Union, or accepted by the courts. or the people of this State as entitled to obedience or recognition, and had alone exercised the legislative, executive, and judicial authority of the State since its induction into office, without resistance or impediment.

Be it further resolved, That the provision in the Constitution of the United States for two Senators from each State, "to be chosen by the lega lLegislature thereof," was plainly intended to refer to that Legislature recognized by the people of the State; and that by the admission of William Pitt Kellogg said requirement not only remains unfulfilled, but the Senate of the United States has committed a dangerous infraction of the rights of the States in recognizing a body which has no existence, and aggravated the evil of the State being unrepresented by its chosen Senator by seating a pretender, who misrepresents her people.

•After debate the resolutions contained in this

report were passed-yeas 60, nays 39. In the Senate, on January 28th, the joint resolutions were passed-yeas 21, nays 7.

The bill before Congress at this time, popularly known as the "Bland Silver bill," the object of which was to make silver coin a legal tender, was strongly recommended by the passage of the following concurrent resolutions:

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Whereas, The attempt to commit the Government to the payment of the principal and interest of the public debt in gold, while the Government clearly, has the right under the law, and without the slightest deviation from public morality or national faith, to discharge these obligations in silver coin of the weight and fineness provided for by law at the time the bonds were issued, can have no other design than to augment the profits of the creditors of the Government at the expense of the industry and the labor of the country; and

Whereas, To persist in the futile attempt to enforce the so-called resumption act would entail upon the country unparalleled suffering and universal commercial and industrial disaster: therefore,

Be it resolved, etc., That our Senator in Congress be instructed to vote for and use every effort to assure the passage through the Senate of the bill providing for the remonetization of silver known as the Bland bill, and of the bill to repeal the so-called resumption act.

Be it resolved, etc., That our Senator be instructed and our Representatives in Congress be requested to vote for and to use every effort to assure the adoption of the resolutions defining the relations of the Government toward the bondholders on the question of payment of the bonds and interest thereon in coin, known as the Matthews resolutions.

They were introduced into the Senate on January 19th, and passed the 21st-yeas 24, nays 2. In the House they were passed after discussion-yeas 51, nays 37.

The following amendments to the State Constitution were reported by a joint committee of both Houses, and adopted by a large majority. It was also provided that they should be submitted to a vote of the people, for approval or rejection, at the next State election. At the same time when the amendments were adopted, a bill was before the House to pro

vide for a State Convention, to amend the Constitution, which, however, failed to pass. The following is the substance of the proposed amendments: Autofocu

1. Submits the question of location of State capital-Baton Rouge or New Orleans.

2. Provides that Representatives shall be chosen vember, every two years, and be elected on one day; on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in Nothe General Assembly to meet on the first Monday in January biennially, unless a different day be fixed by law. 217

3. Limits the power of the General Assembly, the city of New Orleans, and the parishes to levy taxes. sembly at $500 per session of ninety days.73otely have 4. Fixes the salary of members of the General As5. Prohibits the General Assembly from passing local or special laws changing venue in criminal cases, etc. 6. Fixes the salary of the Governor at $7,000 a year. A56 7. Fixes the salary of the Lieutenant-Governor at double that of an Assemblyman. A57

8. Relates to the veto power, and authorizes the

Governor to veto one or more items in any bill appropriating money, the remainder to be valid. 9. Prohibits a salaried officer from having fees. 10. Relates to the judicial power, and creates a Supreme Court, district courts, and justices of the peace. A73,85-89,91 33 11. Fixes the salary of the Chief Justice at $7,000 a year, and of the associates at $6,500. A25 12. Authorizes the General Assembly to divide the State into judicial districts, which shall be unchanged for four years, with a judge learned in the number of districts to be not less than thirty nor law, to be elected by a plurality of votes, and the more than forty-five. Sande

exceeding $5,000 a year in New Orleans, and not 13. Fixes the salary of the district judges at not of the State. not less than $2,000 nor more than $3,000 in other parts

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14. Abolishes the office of District Attorney, and establishes a State's Attorney in lieu of it.

15. Where the judge may be recused, and when he is not personally interested in the matters in contestation, he shall select a lawyer, with qualifications described, to try such cases.

16. Provides against the evils of an interregnum, and fixes the time when the new system shall take effect.

الحمدل

17. Abrogates Article 182 of the Constitution of 1868.

18. Provides a salary of $3,500 for the Superintendent of Public Education. (5137)

19. Prohibits a license tax by the State, parish, or factory, or factory, except such as may require police municipal authority on any mechanical trade, manuregulation in towns and cities.

20. Authorizes the Legislature to exempt from taxation household goods not exceeding $500.

21. Provides for maintaining the university, to be composed of a law, a medical, and an academical department; the law and medical to be in New Orleans, and the academical and other elsewhere in the State.

The regular session of the Legislature closed on March 7th; but it was convened in extra session on the next day by a proclamation of the Governor, and finally adjourned on the 19th. The most important legislation for the State related to the retrenchment of expenditures in every department. A statement of the following retrenchments was made in the Senate: "" $6,000 in the Governor's office; $36,740 in the Auditor's office; $2,000 in the

...

Treasurer's office; $15,000 in the AttorneyGeneral's office; $6,000 in the State Department; in the Land Office, $2,000; in the Judicial Department, $64,000. The expenses of the Legislature for 1878 were $200,000 less than for any year since reconstruction; the annual expenses in future will be reduced $85,000. A saving is effected in the assessment and collection of taxes of $60,000 in the country, and $35,000 in the city; in the department of education there is a saving of $29,100; in the system of registration and election of $44,000; and an annual saving of $200,000 in the expense of public printing. By the legislation for the country parishes a retrenchment in parish administration of $517,000 is assured, and by legislation for the city a saving, according to calculation, of $1,531,412."

The finances of the State were in an embarrassed condition during a part of the year. The income of the Treasury was not sufficient to meet the demands upon it. The epidemic caused the collections to be slow by the derangement of business which ensued. But a more important cause was the action of the Legislature in reducing the general fund tax from four to two and a half mills, without making a corresponding reduction in the appropriations. A reduction was also made in licenses for the future. It was expected that the revenue to be derived from the act commonly known as the "Moffett register law" would supply all deficiencies. This act has never been put into execution, from the fact of an injunction proceeding being taken against the Auditor, which, although decided in favor of the State in the lower court, is yet finally undetermined. By this failure of the expected source of revenue, the appropriations predicated upon its success have been necessarily without prompt means of payment. This condition of things has been aggravated by the misapprehension which seems to have existed on the subject of the "State-House fund." At the time of the passage of the revenue bill of 1878 the Supreme Court of the State had decided the act providing for the setting aside of one half mill from the general fund to the StateHouse fund to be unconstitutional; but the decree was pending on a rehearing, and was subsequently reconsidered and the validity of the act sustained. The general fund was thus not only deprived of the revenue consequent on the expected execution of the "Moffett register law," but also of one half a mill not apparently contemplated at the time of the enactment of the revenue and appropriation bills of 1878.

The bonded debt of the State now amounts, in consolidated bonds, to $11,724,800; estimated amount yet to be founded, $488,100; general fund warrants, $188,720.92. The collection of revenue from the five and a half mills tax not having been adequate to the payment of the interest coupons due on the 1st of January, 1879, they have remained unpaid.

By the provisions of the funding law, State consols were authorized to be issued to the extent of $15,000,000, or so much thereof as might be necessary, payable forty years from the 1st day of January, 1874, to bear interest at the rate of 7 per cent. per annum, payable semi-annually in the cities of New York and New Orleans, on the first days of July and January in each year, interest coupons being annexed to the bonds. The provision made for the payment of the principal and interest of these bonds, thus authorized to be issued, was a tax of five and a half mills, to be annually levied on the assessed value of the property, real and personal, in the State. The language of the statute is as follows:

That a tax of five and a half mills on the dollar of the assessed value of all real and personal property in the State is hereby annually levied, and shall be principal of the consolidated bonds herein authorized, collected, for the purpose of paying the interest and and the revenue derived therefrom is hereby set apart and appropriated to that purpose, and no other; and that it shall be deemed a felony for the Fiscal Agent or any officer of the State or Board of Liquidators to divert the same from its legitimate channel, as provided, and upon conviction the said party shall be liable to imprisonment for not more than ten years nor less than two, at the discretion of the Court. If there shall, during any year, be a surplus arising from said tax after paying all interest falling due in that year, such surplus shall be used for the purchase and retirement of bonds authorized by this act, said purchases to be made by the said Board of Liquidation from the lowest offers, after due notice; provided, that the total tax for interest and all other State purposes, except the support of public schools, shall never hereafter exceed 124 mills on the dollar. The interest tax aforesaid shall be a continuing annual tax until the said consolidated bonds shall be paid or redeemed, principal and interest; and the said appropriation shall be a continuing annual apand appropriation shall authorize and make it the propriation during the same period, and this levy duty of the Auditor and Treasurer and the said board, respectively, to collect said tax annually, and pay said interest, and redeem the said bonds, until the same shall be fully discharged.

The statute was accompanied with constitutional amendments, limiting the debt to $15,000,000, making its provisions a part of the Constitution, and providing "that the revenue of each year derived from taxation upon real, personal, and mixed property, or from licenses, shall be devoted solely so the expenses of the said year for which it shall be raised, excepting any surplus remaining, which shall be directed to the sinking of the public debt."

After the passage of this law and the adoption of the amendments connected with it, the rate of taxation was as follows: Interest and principal of public debt, five and a half mills; levees, three mills; general fund, four mills; schools, two mills. The fiscal arrangement had hardly been effected when it became obvious that the provision of five and a half mills was inadequate, upon the then basis of assessment and collections thereunder, to provide promptly for the payment of the interest on the consolidated debt. An amount of $305,474 is thus due to the Fiscal Agent for

fair to become at no far distant date subordinate only to those of sugar and cotton in value, and may possibly rival the latter, if the lands which are particularly adapted to the culture should be exclusively devoted to it. Few parts of the world, it is stated, can produce a better quality of this popular and wholesome fruit than the southern parishes of Louisiana; and all that is needed to give the production the rank it deserves in all the great commercial centers of the country is an increase of it, and more careful and skillful marketing and shipping.

The commercial year at New Orleans closed in the midst of the yellow-fever epidemic, on September 1st. The following table shows the receipts from the interior of the leading articles of trade, with the increase or decrease compared with the previous years:

tude for the aid contributed, an address was made by Chief Justice Manning, and a series of resolutions was adopted, of which the following is an extract:

Resolved, by the people of New Orleans, in mass meeting assembled, That the annals of human suffering and human sympathy show no parallel to the active benevolence exhibited by all classes of fellow countrymen toward the city of New Orleans in her late affliction. Not merely were the naked clothed, starving fed, and sick and dying ministered to, but our darkness was cheered and our sinking spirits sustained by a charity which descended like some heavenly messenger, bringing healing on its wings to them that were ready to perish.

The first wail of distress had hardly gone up from our terror-stricken community before the agonizing cry for help was answered across the broad expanse of a vast continent, from north and south and east and west. The tributary streams of beneficence rallied in one unebbing tide of overflowing generosity into the valley of the shadow of death, in which we walked; it poured its life-giving waters fresh from the gushing springs of human affection. Never had any people before been recipients of such great devotion and unsurpassing love, of whose depth and sincerity they gave this highest proof, that they laid down their lives for us.

Resolved, That to those friends in foreign lands who so freely contributed to the relief of our people, whether of kindred or alien nationalities, our most fervent thanks are due and are hereby tendered.

Resolved, That to all societies, corporations, and companies, as well as to communities and individuals unnamed, who, in our great distress, aided us by word or act, the people of New Orleans as with one heart feel a gratitude unspeakable.

men.

During the year some disturbance both of a civil and political character took place in the State. In the summer three men charged with crime, two of them with the murder of a white man, and one convicted of the killing of a colored man, were forcibly taken from the jail at Monroe and killed. The men so killed were colored men. The mob is supposed to have been made up either entirely or mostly of white Later, a man by the name of St. Martin, confined in the parish jail of St. Charles Parish on a charge of murder of a colored man, was taken therefrom by a large number of men and murdered. The mob in this instance were colored men and the victim a white man. Both of these cases received investigation from the grand juries of the respective parishes, and nothing has resulted from the investigation in either case. In one instance the officials were Republican, in the other Democratic.

A disturbance of a more serious nature and attended with unusual excitement occurred in Tensas and Concordia parishes, and became the subject of investigation by a committee of Congress. It is asserted by Governor Nichols, who also made an investigation of the affair, that the proximate cause of that trouble was the going at night of a party of men numbering from twenty to twenty-five to the house of one Fairfax, a colored political leader in Tensas Parish, which act resulted in the killing of Peck (who seems to have been the leader of the party), and the wounding by Peck's companions of three colored men who were in