In New Orleans, the beginning of 1878 saw a tumultuous case played out in the press about the returning board of elections scandal. The charges were that the board had committed some foul voting practices during the 1876 election of President Rutherford Hayes. Louisiana was in sad situation politically at that time due to the end of Reconstruction and a deplorable financial state, and charges of...
The Republicans nominated former U.S. Marshall Stephen Packard for governor during the 1876 gubernatorial race in Louisiana. The Louisiana Democrats chose Francis T. Nicholls, a confederate war hero, as their candidate and began immediate efforts for a victorious election. In counties they were certain to win, Democrats did all they could to hold down the Black vote through intimidation and in...
After more than a week of meetings, the Louisiana Republicans finally nominated former U.S. Marshall Stephen Packard as their candidate for governor. It appeared from the beginning of the convention that former Louisiana governor, Henry C. Warmouth, would collect the party's nomination, but President Grant declared that if Warmouth headed the ticket, not a single soldier would assist in his election....
With the ratification of the Louisiana Constitution of 1879, Article 230 mandated that the Louisiana State Agricultural and Mechanical College would receive 182,000 is state funding from the sales of lands. At the same time Article 231 of the constitution mandated that the state would “make an annual appropriation of not less than five thousand dollars, nor more than ten thousand dollars,'...
With the ratification of the constitution on December 8, 1879 Louisiana officially established the Bureau of Agriculture under the provisions stated in Article 179, and appropriated an annual budget for the new Bureau of up to 10,000. Soon after Louisiana established its Bureau of Agriculture a bill was proposed in the South Carolina state legislature to establish its own Department of Agriculture...
In the Louisiana gubernatorial election of 1879 Bourbon Democrat, Louis Wiltz beat conservative Republican Taylor Beattie by a margin of 72,000 to 42,500. In the second election since reconstruction the Bourbon Democratic elite strengthened its hold over Louisiana politics by manipulating the votes of African-Americans through a mixture of intimidation and voter fraud. The Sun of Baltimore, Maryland...
Although the ratification of the constitution of 1879 appeared to affect major changes for the state of Louisiana, in reality, it became a tool to preserve the status quo economic, social, and political relations of the state. Notable measures passed under the constitution include Article 150 which transferred the state capital from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, Article 224 which mandated the creation...
On September 14th, 1874, 3500 White Leaguers, a white supremacist group that arose after the Civil War, staged an armed demonstration demanding that the carpetbag Republican Gov. William Kellogg resign. The White Leaguers had much in common with the Ku Klux Klan, especially their desire to rid themselves from “carpetbaggers' such as Gov. Kellogg. White protestors met under the Clay statue and...
On this day Mr. West petitioned the United States Senate to obtain compensation for lands which he claimed were taken from him by United States troops in Jackson, Mississippi. Though there is not much information given in this record, one can infer that this land was taken by the Union Army upon entering Mississippi. This case was referred to the Committee on Claims. Although the American Civil...
The smell of rotting, maggot infested corpses, stomach acid, and feces filled the humid air in New Orleans for years. The look on the animal’s faces as they met their violent death was heartbreaking. This butchering began what is now known as the controversial “Slaughterhouse Cases of 1873.” Racial tension, public health issues, and a corrupt monopoly laid the foundation for the legal...