5 Machine Cancels And A Prize

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The Louisiana State Lottery Company was a private corporation that in the mid-19th century ran the Louisiana lottery. It was for a time the only legal lottery in the United States, and for much of that time had a very foul reputation as a swindle of the state and citizens and a repository of corruption.

The company, initially a syndicate from New York, was chartered on August 11, 1868 by the Louisiana General Assembly with a 25-year charter and exchange gave the State $40,000 a year. With the passage of the charter, all other organized gambling was made illegal. This start almost immediately gave it a bad reputation as having bribed the legislators into a corrupt deal, especially at a time when other states were viewing lotteries and gambling with suspicion. It was founded by John A. Morris and Charles T. Howard, the former owing a controlling interest and the latter serving as its nominal head.

Charles Howard served as the first president, having previously worked for the Alabama Lottery and Kentucky State Lottery. Former Confederate Generals P.G.T. Beauregard and Jubal Anderson Early held the drawings. They added credibility but according to the New York Times they were paid handsomely for the few days each month their services were needed. Most of the tickets were sent via special train (there was so much mail it required a special consideration) to agents in the U.S. and abroad who would sell them in their respective areas.

In 1890, three years before the charter's expiration, the company bribed the legislature into passing an act to write them into the constitution (thus requiring a successful supermajority of both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature and referendum) by offering to give the state $500,000 per year.

While the lottery was always opposed on vice and morality grounds, the renewal of the charter and constitutional amendment began the serious, organized opposition that would kill the company. The Anti-Lottery League and its newspaper, the "New Delta" were the main proponents of ending the drawings. The League was backed by many prominent activists of the time, such as Edward Douglass White, who argued against it in the Louisiana Supreme Court and Anthony Comstock. The prominent Presbyterian minister of First Presbyterian Church, Benjamin M. Palmer, delivered an anti-lottery speech on June 25, 1891 at one of the League's largest meetings at the Grand Opera House in New Orleans. Many believed this was the final blow to the lottery.

In 1890 the United States Congress banned the interstate transportation of lottery tickets and lottery advertisements, which composed 90% of the company's revenue. The Supreme Court of the United States upheld this statute in 1892.

In March of that year the constitutional amendment to renew the charter (which had passed the legislature, but needed voter approval) was defeated. Murphy Foster, an anti-lottery gubernatorial candidate, was elected, as were a majority of anti-lottery legislators. During that year all lottery operations were banned, the company excepted until its charter expired in December 1893.

Backed by John A. Morris, it then moved its de jure headquarters to Honduras and illegally issued lottery tickets in the United States. In 1907 its Delaware printing press was found out by federals and shut down.

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BOSSON, Albert Davis, lawyer; b. Chelsea, Mass., Nov. 8. 1853; s. George C. and Mary Jane (Hood) B.; A.B., 1875, A.M., 1878. Brown Univ.; studied law In offices of Brooks, Ball & Storey. Boston, and in Boston Univ. Law Sch.; admitted to Suffolk bar, 1878; m. Chelsea, May 18, 1887, Alice Lavinia Campbell. Associated in practice with Charles E. Grinnell, 1878-91; sp'l Justice Police Court of Chelsea, 1882-92, Justice since 1892; mayor of Chelsea, 1891. Mem. Boston Bar Assn.. N. E. Historlc-Geneal. Soc., S.R. Clubs: University, Mass. Reform. Residence: Chelsea, Mass. Office: 722 Tremont Bldg., Boston.

WHITTLESEY, Henry Lincoln, lawyer; b. Chelsea, Mass., Nov. 30, 1862; s. Corydon M. and Maria L. (Ayer) W.; 7th In descent from John W., Saybrook, Conn.; grad. Yale, 1884; studied law with Richard H. Dana, Boston; LL.B., Harvard Law Sch., 1886; admitted to bar, 1886; m. Newton, Mass., July 6, 1889, Lillian Eddy, lineal descendant on mother's side of Edward Winslow, Mayflower pilgrim. Began practice in Boston, 1886; In partnership with Judge Albert D. Bosson, 1888-92, now Whittlesey & Wales; mem. Newton City Council. 1896; alderman, 1898, 1899; elk. Newton Police Court, 1890-1903. Cong'list. Club: Boston City. Residence: Newton, Mass. Office: 743 Tremont St., Boston.

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ALBERT D. BOSSON, seventeenth mayor, born in Chelsea, November 8, 1853, he is decended from a long line of patriotic New England ancestry. His four great grandfathers served in the Revolution and his grandfather, John D. Bosson, was one of the early settlers of Winnisimmet village took an active part in the War of 1812. At age fifteen he graduated from Chelsea High School and entered Philips-Exerter Academy. He was a graduate of Brown University in 1875 and Boston University in 1877. In 1882 he was appointed associate justice of the Chelsea Court. He was elected the first democratic mayor in the year 1891. While mayor he advocated and was instrumental securing the abolishment of grade crossings between Chelsea and Charlestown. He was the first to advocate the overhead bridge to Charlestown. He was the first to recommend improvements to Winnisimmet Square and an advocate of the Metropolitan Park system. Governor Russell appointed him judge of the Chelsea Court in 1893.

In 1887 he married Alice Campbell the daughter of C. A. Campbell. They had two children, Campbell Bosson, born November 18,1888 and Pauline Arland Bosson, born February 24, 1894. Albert Bosson died on April 6, 1926.

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both lawyers were at one point apparently in partnership with each other during the period in which these covers were postmarked: