Published by Charleston Voice
Isn't it odd that the corruption instigated and nurtured by Republicans throughout America after the 'civil' war has flourished down to the present day? The reason being that corruption comes from the top down, the head of a fish to use a metaphor; just as today - - Washington, DC.
Isn't it odd that the corruption instigated and nurtured by Republicans throughout America after the 'civil' war has flourished down to the present day? The reason being that corruption comes from the top down, the head of a fish to use a metaphor; just as today - - Washington, DC.
Louisiana I: Land and Year of Jubilee
IX
And even worse [than Alabama] was Louisiana. Here, even when thieves fell out, honest men
failed to get their due. New Orleans, the reconstruction capital, is a city of charm, Canal Street with its imposing width and partly grass-grown
dais in the center dominating all, the streets in the business section paved
with large blocks. Close to the levee on Canal Street looms the Custom-House, important in our story,
built of Maine granite, and presided over by Collector Casey,
brother-in-law of the President, with a reputation none too good.
Somehow through all its miseries the city has managed to preserve something of its Gallic gayety. Young blades still speed their racers over the famous Shell Road, 'straight as an arrow, hard as flint, and smooth as a backgammon board,' pausing for a cocktail or a sherry cobbler in the shade of fragrant trees at the road-houses. The nights are lively with balls and masquerades, and the gambling-houses are never deserted except on Sunday, when a pensive serenity descends upon the town.
Somehow through all its miseries the city has managed to preserve something of its Gallic gayety. Young blades still speed their racers over the famous Shell Road, 'straight as an arrow, hard as flint, and smooth as a backgammon board,' pausing for a cocktail or a sherry cobbler in the shade of fragrant trees at the road-houses. The nights are lively with balls and masquerades, and the gambling-houses are never deserted except on Sunday, when a pensive serenity descends upon the town.
Here in the capital sits
Henry Clay Warmoth, ruling with a rod of iron. No ordinary person, this dashing
young soldier of fortune who had drifted into town as blithesomely as a Gascon
of the fourteenth century ever moved on Paris with his sword. Born in Illinois,
he had just begun the practice of the law in Missouri, when the war swept him
into the army, and at the close, in lighthearted mood, he moved on to New
Orleans, where his commanding person, courtly manners, and genius for politics
smoothed his path to political preferment.
His enemies have said he was penniless when he reached the city; he himself insists he had enough, and had entered at once on a lucrative practice of his profession. In the beginning it was all a lark ~ caucuses, conferences, were to his liking, and, besides, was not this the land of the plum tree? The negroes, attracted to the merry young blade, elected him to Congress before the State's Representatives were admitted, and he sallied forth to Washington to be cordially received by the Republican leaders and turned away. But it was ordained of destiny that he should have bigger fish to fry.
When the Grand Army of the Republic was organized in Louisiana, he was made Grand Commander, and a few weeks later, at the age of twenty-six, he was elected Governor. His enemies soon were to comment significantly on his capacity to save one hundred thousand dollars a year on a salary of eight thousand dollars and to accumulate a million in four years. But an English tourist, who found him 'a young man of spirit and ability,' observed that 'his wealth, if the wages of corruption, had been so deftly acquired that no one can lay his finger on the spot.'
His enemies have said he was penniless when he reached the city; he himself insists he had enough, and had entered at once on a lucrative practice of his profession. In the beginning it was all a lark ~ caucuses, conferences, were to his liking, and, besides, was not this the land of the plum tree? The negroes, attracted to the merry young blade, elected him to Congress before the State's Representatives were admitted, and he sallied forth to Washington to be cordially received by the Republican leaders and turned away. But it was ordained of destiny that he should have bigger fish to fry.
When the Grand Army of the Republic was organized in Louisiana, he was made Grand Commander, and a few weeks later, at the age of twenty-six, he was elected Governor. His enemies soon were to comment significantly on his capacity to save one hundred thousand dollars a year on a salary of eight thousand dollars and to accumulate a million in four years. But an English tourist, who found him 'a young man of spirit and ability,' observed that 'his wealth, if the wages of corruption, had been so deftly acquired that no one can lay his finger on the spot.'
The Legislature we find
sitting in Mechanics' Hall is typical of the others we have seen in the land of
jubilee. Here, presiding over the House, we find a shrewd, unscrupulous,
audacious youth of twenty-six, Carr of Maryland. And such scenes! The lobbies
teem with laughing negroes from the plantations, with
whites of the pinch-faced, parasitic type; and negro women in red turbans
peddle cakes and oranges to the very doors of the chambers.
Within, some coal-black
members, but most of lighter hue, though Lieutenant-Governor Dunn, presiding
over the Senate, is a black. The abysmally ignorant eschew debate; some of the
coal-blacks speak incoherently. It is a monkey-house - with guffaws, disgusting
interpolations, amendments offered that are too obscene to print, followed by
shouts of glee.
Bad in the beginning, the travesty grows worse. The vulgarity' of the speeches increases; members stagger from the basement bar to their seats. The Speaker in righteous mood sternly forbids the introduction of liquor on the floor.
A curious old planter stands in the galleries a moment looking down upon the scene, and with an exclamation, 'My God!' he turns and runs, as from a pestilence, into the street.
Visitors from the North organize' slumming expeditions' to the Legislature or go as to a zoo. A British member of Parliament, asking if there are any curiosities in the city, is taken forthwith to Mechanics' Hall.
Bad in the beginning, the travesty grows worse. The vulgarity' of the speeches increases; members stagger from the basement bar to their seats. The Speaker in righteous mood sternly forbids the introduction of liquor on the floor.
A curious old planter stands in the galleries a moment looking down upon the scene, and with an exclamation, 'My God!' he turns and runs, as from a pestilence, into the street.
Visitors from the North organize' slumming expeditions' to the Legislature or go as to a zoo. A British member of Parliament, asking if there are any curiosities in the city, is taken forthwith to Mechanics' Hall.
Corruption is inevitable,
and members openly charged with bribery are not offended. 'I want to know how
much the gentleman gets to support this bill,' demands one member of another,
and it is not an insult. Measures involving millions, many criminal, and having
to do with railroads, canals, and levees, are passed without examination, and
members vote vast sums into their pockets openly, defiantly. The mileage and per
diem for members and clerks leap from a quarter of a million in 1869 to
half a million the next year. Careless with the people's
money? Preposterous. 'What we give to the
community,' exclaims an outraged member - 'What we give to the community is
without money and without price. It is so valuable that the price cannot be
fixed - there is no standard.' 'I should like to know,' says another, 'if there
is a good thing, in the name of God, why not let the representatives of the
State of Louisiana have a hand in it.' When the Appropriation Bill reduces the
printing bill to a mere one hundred and forty thousand dollars a tearful plea
that legislators' open their hearts' and embrace more newspapers brings an
amendment adding sixty thousand dollars.
For in Louisiana, too, the party press is heavily subsidized out of
the Treasury. The Board of Printing Commissioners, dominated by the Governor,
had been a godsend to Warmoth, who sent his agents to edit papers to which
contracts were given, and, as fourth owner of the' New Orleans Republican,' the
chief beneficiary, he profited both politically and financially.
Through his subsidized press he brought pressure to bear in favor of four measures intended to give him dictatorial power and prolong his reign. The Registration Bill made every parish registration official his minion, and gave them power to accept or reject votes without interference from the courts. Thus he could determine nominations.
The Election Bill superseded sheriffs on election day with Warmoth's appointees, forbade the courts to interfere, and authorized him to deny certificates of election to successful candidates as he saw fit; and all this was climaxed by the creation of a returning board composed of members of the machine specified in the bill itself. The Constabulary Bill authorized Warmoth to name a chief constable in each parish who could name a deputy, and these were absolute. And the Militia Bill empowered him to organize and equip as many men as he wished and placed one hundred thousand dollars at his disposal for the purpose.
Through his subsidized press he brought pressure to bear in favor of four measures intended to give him dictatorial power and prolong his reign. The Registration Bill made every parish registration official his minion, and gave them power to accept or reject votes without interference from the courts. Thus he could determine nominations.
The Election Bill superseded sheriffs on election day with Warmoth's appointees, forbade the courts to interfere, and authorized him to deny certificates of election to successful candidates as he saw fit; and all this was climaxed by the creation of a returning board composed of members of the machine specified in the bill itself. The Constabulary Bill authorized Warmoth to name a chief constable in each parish who could name a deputy, and these were absolute. And the Militia Bill empowered him to organize and equip as many men as he wished and placed one hundred thousand dollars at his disposal for the purpose.
But Warmoth had created a
Frankenstein monster, and aroused the fiends of jealousy. His was a power worth
fighting for, and in the Republican Convention of 1870 the struggle began. The
Custom-House crowd, with the negro Lieutenant-Governor
as its candidate, defeated Warmoth for the chairmanship, and almost defeated a
resolution endorsing his administration. 1
Never, however, had Warmoth seemed stronger than when the Legislature met in, January, 1871, with his Speaker packing the House committees with Warmoth men, and with his followers in the Senate depriving the Lieutenant-Governor of power and packing the committees there with minions ,of the Governor. But he had undergone a strange metamorphosis. He vetoed a gigantic swindling levee scheme in which members were financially interested. The House raged and overrode the veto in a tempestuous session, but in the Senate the steal was stopped, and the defeated corruptionists turned on Speaker Mortimer Carr for vengeance.
Bargaining with Democrats to seat their contested members in return for votes to unseat Carr, the latter was forced out, and an enemy of Warmoth, not one whit better, became the commanding figure of the House. ‘Thus,’ said the New York Tribune,’ ‘by taking advantage of an outburst of virtuous indignation among a gang of thieves. . . was laid the foundation of . . . the first systematic organization in opposition to the power of Governor Warmoth.’
Never, however, had Warmoth seemed stronger than when the Legislature met in, January, 1871, with his Speaker packing the House committees with Warmoth men, and with his followers in the Senate depriving the Lieutenant-Governor of power and packing the committees there with minions ,of the Governor. But he had undergone a strange metamorphosis. He vetoed a gigantic swindling levee scheme in which members were financially interested. The House raged and overrode the veto in a tempestuous session, but in the Senate the steal was stopped, and the defeated corruptionists turned on Speaker Mortimer Carr for vengeance.
Bargaining with Democrats to seat their contested members in return for votes to unseat Carr, the latter was forced out, and an enemy of Warmoth, not one whit better, became the commanding figure of the House. ‘Thus,’ said the New York Tribune,’ ‘by taking advantage of an outburst of virtuous indignation among a gang of thieves. . . was laid the foundation of . . . the first systematic organization in opposition to the power of Governor Warmoth.’
The defeat of the
senatorial ambitions of Collector Casey by the Warmoth forces intensified the
feud, and the Governor’s new found passion for reform poured in as many as
thirty-nine vetoes, only five of which were overridden. Thus Warmoth stopped
steals - the veto of the Paving Bill alone saving the people a million and a
half. Manifestly this man would not do. When the session of 1871 cost
$958,956.50, where the average cost before reconstruction had been one hundred
thousand dollars, Warmoth denounced the squandering on extra mileage, on
services never rendered, on publications in obscure newspapers, some of which
did not exist, on elegant stationery, and on champagne. It was civil war.
Speedily came the clash of
the Republican factions as, fighting viciously, they lunged toward the
Convention of August, 1871 bribery and bludgeons now played their part, with
hired ruffians smashing meetings with clubs. When Casey added five hundred
names to the payroll of the National Government, Warmoth added at least as many
to the city payroll. The morning of the convention found business suspended
everywhere. Casey had called the convention for the Custom-House, Warmoth for
the State House. Casey prevailed, with the energetic assistance of Gatling guns
and Federal marshals, and Warmoth and his followers held a convention of their
own. The Custom-House crowd read Warmoth out of the party, and Casey sent an
explanatory message to Grant, his brother-in-law, at Long Branch. A little later, the Warmoth delegation of whites
and blacks reached Long Branch to make their’ explanation. The negroes were, sparkling with diamond breastpins, as they
pounded the pavement with their gold-headed canes, but Grant was visibly
annoyed when they reached his cottage. Brusquely ordering an Associated Press
reporter from the room, he received them coldly. He could not see what harm United States soldiers could do to a Republican convention and
said so. Standing by a piano, he listened impatiently to the reading of the
petition, once banging the piano with his elbow. Once he stamped his foot, and
the committee left convinced that Grant was committed to Casey. Consoling
themselves with a feast at the Sans-Souci Beer Saloon, they hurried to New York - - and the war was on. Soon
Warmoth. will be leading the Republican
insurgents in the campaign of 1872.
Meanwhile, the propertied
citizens of Louisiana could see none of the humor of the situation.
Under confiscatory taxation, numerous parishes were seeing tracts of the
richest land going under the tax collector’s hammer at a dollar an acre. In
numerous instances buyers could not be found at that price because of the
taxes. Real estate had declined twenty-five per cent in value. It was costing
4alf a million a year to collect six and a half million. Ruin everywhere -
enforced by Federal marshals, backed, if need be, by Federal soldiers. The
school system was a wreck.
