[360] The _Picayune_ had combated this measure in 1869 as an act of folly then. Sep. 24, 1869. [361] Nordhoff, 62. [362] The most damaging charge against him was that of a bribe of $50,000 offered him to sign the Nicholson paving bill. Walsh published a card, saying that the governor had refused it because it was too little. The latter, naturally, denied this and tried to disprove it by the unsupported statement of another man, whereupon Walsh sent the governor a challenge. And so the matter stood--the unproved assertion of one man against the other. House Misc. Doc., 42 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 211, 376. But Scott on the other hand swore that it cost more to get the governor’s signature than to get it through the legislature. It is to be regretted that the defense which Mr. Warmoth still expects to write, based, the writer understands, upon the fact that he prevented still more outrageous wrongs from being perpetrated, has not yet appeared, as it may throw additional light upon this question. The writer has applied to him repeatedly in vain for a statement of his position now after the lapse of forty years. [363] House Misc. Doc., 42 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 211, 380. He said that he had learned from the Democrats that “to the victors belong the spoils.” 369. [364] _Ibid._, 358. [365] _Ibid._, 351. He declared in a series of replies to direct questions that he had never tampered with the election of members, never counseled nor advised such tampering, never held any stock that he had not paid for, nor had stock presented to him, nor been promised stock on condition of approving a bill incorporating monopolies, and never been influenced in any way in his official acts by any reward or the hope or promise of it. But he admitted having signed bills after expiration of the constitutional time limit in order to “quiet the people.” _Ibid._, 351, 371-2. [366] House Repts., 42 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 92, 25. [367] House Misc. Doc., 42 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 211, 374. [368] Lowell was a defaulter for a large amount. [369] House Misc. Doc., 42 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 211, 395-6. [370] _Ibid._, 396. Carter was an apostatizing preacher and ex-Confederate colonel, who had turned loyal patriot and anti-Warmoth leader.--Cox, _Three Decades_, p. 561. With this statement might be compared Carter’s opinion of Warmoth as voiced in a speech in February, 1872: “Louisiana is afflicted with worse laws and worse administrators thereof than can be found in ten states of the Union. Henry Clay Warmoth is the Boss Tweed in Louisiana, except that that amiable villain, with all his infamies, is a gentlemen and a saint compared with the unscrupulous despot who fills the executive chair of this state.”--Cox, _Three Decades of Federal Legislation_, 560. [371] House Rpts., 42 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 92, 23. Of course the men attacked made counter charges against the governor. [372] _Ibid._