[139] Warmoth adduces proof of these statements. House Misc. Doc., 42 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 211, 285.
[140] In the State bond bill were implicated some of the most respectable distinguished Democratic leaders of the State. House Misc. Doc., 42 Cong., 2 Sess., 333. See Scott’s testimony which shows a written contract between the bankers of New Orleans and certain lobby brokers, by which several millions of dollars were to be paid for getting a measure through which failed. Ibid.
[141] “That there were ‘rings’ formed in both houses of the legislature for the sole and express purpose of blackmailing the people and plundering the treasury of the State, is perhaps a lamentable and humiliating fact. That there are men of both parties engaged in this disgraceful proceeding—men who would sell out their birthright for a mess of pottage, may also be true.” Quoted from the Crescent in a Congressional document.
The Bee says, Feb. 17, 1869, being reproached with accusing Democrats of joining in the corruption: “It was only yesterday that one of their own number, in our hearing, confessed the truth of the charge.”
[142] Annual Cyclopedia, 1869, 394. The Bee dismissed it with the following terse comment: “Nous n’assomerons pas nos lecteurs de cette prose peu intéressante. Une analyse succincte suffira pour leur faire connaître ce que dit M. Warmoth.... Après avoir distillé son venin, le gouverneur aborde les affaires sérieuses.” Jan. 5. The Abeille or Bee had English pages at this time, a fact which accounts for both English and French excerpts.
The Crescent was no more kindly: “This portion of the message is strictly and narrowly partisan, a tissue of bold, unqualified assertions and of self-evident exaggerations which would be indecent even in a campaign document; a weak but spiteful jumble of accusatory phrases in which there is but a single pretense to an argument, and that so puerile and idiotic in its fallacy as to be simply ridiculous.” Jan. 5.
“The Governor applies harsh terms to our people. He attributes to them all the violence which may have existed in the State. Does he really think that he himself and his associates have had nothing to do with this excitement? Have the publications made by Republican papers, speakers, and writers contributed nothing to these troubles?” New Orleans Commercial Bulletin, Jan. 7, 1869.
[143] Session Laws, 1869, Nos. 23, 27, 31, 33, 34, 41, 64, etc.
[144] House Deb., 1869, 196.
[145] Session Laws, 1869, No. 60.