He was, therefore, shut up to this one course: To preserve, for the present, the status in quo, minus as much of the cruelty and wrong of it as it might be in the power of the Union officers to prevent. To use Mr. Lincoln's expression, he was obliged "to run the machine as he found it," with such slight and temporary repairs and modifications as could be hastily made. This was the policy adopted. It was never announced, but it was the principle acted upon. Hence the negroes were not encouraged to come in to the Union posts. As many as were required for public and private service. were employed, each officer being allowed one as a servant. Several were assigned to the hospitals. General Butler himself was served by "General Twiggs's William." After some days had elapsed, negroes were no longer harbored in the Custom-House, and orders were issued that no more should be admitted within the Union lines, or into the Union camps.

But negroes, as we have seen, were placed on an equality with white men before the law, and allowed to testify against a white man in court. The whipping-houses were quietly abolished, and the jailers notified that no more human beings must be brought to the jails to be whipped. One of these jailers ventured to advertise, a few weeks after the capture of the city, that the "law of Louisiana for the correction of slaves would be enforced as heretofore." The attention of the general was called to this announcement, and Colonel Stafford was ordered to inquire into it. It was found that one slave had been brought in and whipped that morning; but there the fell business stopped. Whatever cruelty was committed in New Orleans upon the slaves, was done in secret; no traffic in torture was allowed; and every slave who asked redress for cruelties inflicted, and could give reasonable proof of the truth of his story, had redress-had it promptly and fully. Major Bell judged such cases as he would have judged similar ones in Boston. General Butler never refused a black man admittance to his pres ence by day or by night, and never failed to do him justice when justice was possible. The orders were, that whoever else might be excluded from head-quarters, no negro should ever be. One consequence was, that the general had a spy in every house, behind every rebel's chair as he sat at table. Another consequence was, that every slave in New Orleans had, at all times, a protector from cruelty in the commanding general.

As if
They

The mere diminution of the slaves' awful revenue of torture was an unspeakable boon to them. Those hunkers used to hug the delusion, in the old party contests, that kindness was the rule and cruelty the rare exception, in the treatment of the slaves. despotism could be sustained by anything but cruelty! found that cruelty was the rule, and that such exceptional kindness as is shown to favorite slaves, greatly increases the sum-total of their lifetime's misery. Slavery is all cruelty.* It was much to only lessen the vast, the incalculable, the inconceivable amount of agony inflicted by the lash alone. Probably one whipping of thirty-nine lashes with the infernal cowhide inflicts more anguish than a respectable Massachusetts hunker has to endure during his whole life. What an instantaneous change of sentiment on present political issues would occur, all over the country, if thirty-nine arguments of that nature were addressed to the devotees of slavery who, whatever may be the metal of their heads, are not copper-backed.

Some planters who had not the means of supporting their slaves, or of employing them profitably, obliged them to go within the Union lines, trusting to reclaim them in better times. This practice was stopped by declaring all such slaves emancipated, and giv ing them free papers. Several slaves were also emancipated who had been treated with extreme cruelty by their masters. The "star car" system was abolished. Colored people were formerly allowed to ride only in the street cars that were marked with a black star. General Butler required the admission of decent colored people into all the public vehicles. Some of the police regulations with regard to the slaves were still enforced; the rule requiring them to be at home by nine o'clock in the evening, for example.

Dr. Wesley Humphrey writes from Corinth, Mississippi, May 25, 1863:

"I have been selected as the surgeon of the regiment of African descent, now forming here (not all black by any means), and during the past week had occasion to examine about seven hundred men in a nude state, preparatory to their being mustered into the United States service, and I then saw evidences of abuse and maltreatment perfectly horrifying to relate, and must be seen to fully understand the abuse to which they have been subjected. I think I am safe in saying that at least one-half of that number bore evidence of having been severely whipped and maltreated in various ways; some were stabbed with a knife; others shot through the limbs; some pounded with clubs, until their bones were broken. One man told me he had received for a trifling offense two thousand lashes; and, upon examination, I found seventy-five scars on his back and limbs, that rose above the skin the size of your finger, saying nothing of the smaller ones. Others had the cords of their legs cut (hamstrings, as they call them), to prevent their running off; and some were shot in resenting such insults. These were witnessed by the colonel, J M. Alexander, lieutenant-colonel, major, &c., of the regiment."

UNIVENST

OF

GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS.

495

Such were some of the measures by which General Butler strove to "get along" with this hideous anomaly, while the president was feeling his way to a general policy, and waiting for the ripening of public opinion. General Butler, like the president himself, stood between two fires. One set of Unionists in New Orleans kept saying to him, as I read in their letters, now before me:

Return all fugitives to their masters; show, by word and deed, that your sole object is the restoration of the old state of things; and Louisiana will return to the Union "in a month."

Another party said: "No; the original secessionists are incurable; destroy their power by abolishing slavery; crush that insolent faction utterly; and Louisiana will hoist the old flag with enthusiasm."

He could do neither of these things. An article of war forbade the first; the revocation of General Hunter's proclamation forbade the second. His struggle, meanwhile, to "get along" with a difficulty that would not wait for the tardy action of the government, brought him into painful and lamentable collision with General Phelps, which resulted in the country's losing the services of that noble soldier.

CHAPTER XXVII.

GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS.

GENERAL PHELPS was in command at Carrollton, seven miles above the city, the post of honor in the defensive cordon around New Orleans. "I found myself," he remarks, "in the midst of a slave region, where the institution existed in all its pride and gloom, and where its victims needed no inducement from me to seek the protection of our flag-that flag, which now, after a long interval, gleamed once more amid the darkling scene, like the effusion of morning light. Fugitives began to throng to our lines in large numbers. Some came loaded with chains and barbarous irons; some bleeding with bird-shot wounds; many had been deeply scored with lashes, and all complained of the extinction of

their moral rights. They had originally come chiefly from Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, and were generally religious persons, who had been accustomed to better treatment than that which they experienced there."

General Butler was aware of this influx of fugitives; but, in obedience to the temporary policy enjoined upon him by the government, he took no notice of the fact. The vehement desire of General Phelps was, not merely to welcome and harbor the fugitives, but form them into military companies and drill them into serviceable soldiers. He was grieved, therefore, when, on the 12th of May, General Butler requested him to place his able-bodied negroes under the direction of two planters of the vicinity, that they might be employed in closing a break in the levee above Carrollton, which threatened a disastrous inundation. "You will see," wrote General Butler," the need of giving them every aid in your power to save and protect the levee, even to returning their own negroes and adding others, if need be, to their force. This is outside of the question of returning negroes. You should send your own soldiers, let alone allowing the men who are protecting us all from the Mississippi to have the workmen who are accustomed to thie service."

General Phelps did not "see" the need of sending back his fugitives. A positive order settled the question on the 23d of May: "In view of the disaster which might occur to us, in case a crevasse should occur above our lines, I have concluded to send a force of one hundred laborers, in charge of a guard, to attend to raising and guarding the levee above your lines. You will also place every ablebodied contraband within your camp in charge of Captain Page, the officer of this guard, to assist in this work." This was better, thought General Phelps, than consigning the negroes to the custody and direction of their former masters. The order was obeyed, of

course.

Meanwhile, General Butler was besieged with complaints of the harboring of fugitives in General Phelps's camp. All the complainants professed to be Union men; some of them were such; and most of them were the producers of vegetables for the New Orleans market. Besides, the harboring of the negroes involved the necessity of their maintenance, and invited the entire negro population to fly to the refuge of Union posts. It seemed to General Butler neces

sary to check the irruption before it became unmanageable. The following order was therefore issued:

"NEW ORLEANS, May 23, 1862. "GENERAL:-You will cause all unemployed persons, black and white, to be excluded from your lines.

"You will not permit either black or white persons to pass your lines, not officers and soldiers or belonging to the navy of the United States, without a pass from these head-quarters, except they are brought in under guard as captured persons, with information, and those to be examined and detained as prisoners of war, if they have been in arms against the United States, or dismissed and sent away at once, as the case may be. This does not apply to boats passing up the river without landing within the lines.

"Provision dealers and marketmen are to be allowed to pass in with provisions and their wares, but not to remain over night.

"Persons having had their permanent residence within your lines before the occupation of our troops, are not to be considered unemployed persons.

"Your officers have reported a large number of servants. Every officer so reported employing servants will have the allowance for servants deducted from his pay-roll.

"Respectfully, your obedient servant,

"Brig.-Gen. PHELPS, Commanding Camp Parapet."

"B. F. BUTLER.

General Phelps was struck with horror at this command. The fugitives, however, were removed to a point just above the lines, where they found partial shelter, and lived on the bounty of the soldiers, who generously shared with them their rations. An event occurred on the 12th of June, which brought on the crisis. On the morning of that day the negroes numbered seventy-five; but, within the next twenty-four hours, the number was doubled.

"The first installment," reported Major Peck, the officer of the day, were sent by a man named La Blanche, from the other side of the river, on the night of the 13th, he giving them their choice, according to their statement, of leaving before sundown, or receiving fifty lashes each. Many of them desire to return to their master, but are prevented by fear of harsh treatment. They are of all ages and physical conditions-a number of infants in arms, many young children, robust men and women, and a large number of lame, old, and infirm of both sexes. The rest of them came in