Historic Louisiana

League felt it essential to have its own organ. It
formed a new newspaper, the New Delta.
The reformers plunged into the grassroots
work of campaigning. In spite of the efforts of
the anti-lottery faction, a substantial majority
of the legislature approved a constitutional
amendment in 1890 to recharter the lottery.
Reform Governor Francis T. Nicholls vetoed
the amendment. On July 16, 1890, the antilottery
forces celebrated at the Grunewald
Hall. It was the largest meeting site in New
Orleans, and it was jammed. Hundreds were
turned away. Large banners on each side of
the stage honored Governor Francis T.
Nicholls, Lieutenant Governor James Jeffries,
Attorney General Walter H. Rogers, Senators
Joseph H. Duggan, Euclid Borland, Felix J.
Dreyfous, Joseph C. Gilmore, and Frank
Marquez. Letters were read and addresses
received. Charles Parlange delivered the first
major speech, followed by Samuel Gilmore.
The jubilation of July soon turned to
dismay as the lottery forces persuaded the
majority in the legislature to declare that such
an amendment did not require the Governor’s
signature. The secretary of state merely
needed to promulgate the act. When the
secretary of state refused, J. A. Morris, on
behalf of the lottery company, moved to
obtain a writ of mandamus against the
secretary of state. The district judge ruled
against the lottery company, but a narrow
Supreme Court majority, made up of Edward
Bermudez, Samuel D. McEnery, and Lynn
Boyd Watkins, reversed the district judge.
This put the amendment on the ballot for
April 1892. This election coincided with the
statewide governors race. Thus the struggle
switched to a fight for control of the state
Democratic party. Eerily, a century later this
struggle was repeated when lottery forces
again won a narrow Supreme Court decision
declaring that the explicit provision of the
Louisiana Constitution against gambling did
not include a prohibition against gaming.
The reformers portrayed the fight as one
between patriotism and money. True love of
country and family required that the lottery be
tamed. They portrayed the lottery wing of the
Democratic Party as one dominated by “rich”
Albert Baldwin, “yankee” John A. Morris, and
“carpet-bagger” P. B. S. Pinchback. The
reformers hated all the newspapers (except the
New Delta) because they unabashedly received
large sums from the lottery in advertising. In the
fall of 1891, anti-lottery meetings were held in
all of the wards of New Orleans to lay the
groundwork for beating the lottery at the polls.
For governor the regular Democrats
recruited Samuel D. McEnery, the Louisiana
✧
Aside from political parties, the first
institution to promote itself in Louisiana
history was the Louisiana Lottery. All the
tools of public relations, so well known in
the twenty-first century, were put into play
in the nineteenth century promoting the
lottery. This advertisement that ran in all
pro-lottery newspapers illustrates the “care”
to which the lottery company ensured the
fairness of its drawings. Generals P. G. T.
Beauregard and Jubal Early are seated on
the left and right, respectively.
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