which, at the time of purchase, embraced a very considerable portion of the south-west, and they have a right to this territory for the purposes designed by their constitution, viz.: to secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity.

"2d. The people are temporarily withheld from a full, perfect and peaceable possession of this territory, by a few ambitious leaders and their deluded partisans.

"3d. Every state of the Union is bound to furnish her share of taxes and her quota of men for the suppression of domestic insurrection; and the quota of men of the slave states should be based upon the total number of whites, and three-fifths of all other persons in those states.

"4th. Society here is on the verge of dissolution; and it is the true policy of the government to seize upon the chief elements of disorder and anarchy, and employ them in favor of law and order. The African, ignorant and benighted, yet newly awakened to liberty, threatens to be a fearful element of ruin and disaster; and the best way to prevent it, is to arm and organize him on the side of the governinent.

"5th. The slave states have already gone through the chief suffering incident to a state of revolution; and to return them to their former condition would be as impolitic as it would be cruel and impossible.

"6th. The system of labor in the South is ripe for and demands a change; and a transition from forced to paid labor is of easy and necessary accomplishment.

7th. Military art and science, the most potent, and perhaps the only rudimentary element of civilizing power which has not yet been taught to the African during his bondage in America, is essential for extending the colony of Liberia, and opening up to civilization the cane and cotton lands of Africa.

"Inclosing herewith a report of Major Peck, which discloses the condition of things on the borders of Lake Pontchartrain, I have the honor to remain, with sentiments of high esteem,

"Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"J. W. PHELPS, Brigadier-General.”

Here the correspondence rested for a month; when another collision occurred between the generals. Three slaves from the New Orleans gas works ran away and found refuge at Camp Parapet. Colonel French ordered them to be returned. General Phelps objected on two grounds; 1. An article of war forbade the return of fugitive slaves; 2. The men had been inhumanly punished. General Butler, however, peremptorily ordered them to be given up. They belong," said he, "to the gas-works, which are now under

military authority, and we need them for public service. A proper investigation, whether they have been improperly or inhumanly punished or not, shall be made."

The resignation of General Phelps was accepted by the govern ment. He received notification of the fact on the 8th of September, and immediately prepared to return to his farm in Vermont. All of his command loved him, from the drummer-boys to the colonels, whether they approved or disapproved his course on the negro question. He was such a commander as soldiers love; firm, gentle, courteous; gentlest and most courteous to the lowliest; with a vein of quaint humor that relieved the severity of military rule, and supplied the camp-gossips with anecdotes. His officers gathered about him, before his departure, to say farewell. He was touched with the compliment, for he had been accustomed, for twenty years, to live among his comrades in a lonely minority of one; respected, it is true, and beloved, but beloved rather as a noble lunatic than as a wise and noble man.

"Gentlemen," said he, in his fine, simple manner, "I wish, earnestly, that I were able to reply to you-that I had been gifted with the faculty or practiced in the habit of public speaking-so that I might make some fitting answer to the kind words which you have addressed to me; so that I might express my gratitude for the feelings which prompt you to come here. This is the greatest compliment I ever received in my life. Indeed, this is the only compliment of the kind I ever received. LieutenantColonel Lall traced out to you, in more flattering colors than the subject deserved, my military career, and you observed that it has almost all been on the frontier, or at small military posts, where I would naturally not come in contact with large social gatherings, so that I have never been exposed, even had I deserved it, to receive compliments like this which you offer me. Therefore it is that I now wish, for the first time, that I possessed the gift of utterance; and I assure you that I desire it solely because I am extremely grateful for this expression of your regard.

"So far as the motives which prompted me to the step which I have taken are concerned, I do not see any reason to regret it. My heart tells me that, under the circumstances, I did right in resigning my commission. But I do regret exceedingly that its first consequence will be to separate me from your society. I am truly sorry to part

with you. I was greatly struck-I was most favorably impressedwith your appearance, and bearing, and expression, when you arrived to re-enforce me at Ship Island. I was touched when I thought I saw in your looks that you felt your true position; that you realized that you had left your business and homes to fight in an extraordinarily just and holy war; that your souls were full of the motives which ought to move men who enter into a conflict for country and liberty. As I watched our division review there, I was more than ever impressed with this appearance of moral nobleness. I had seen armies before, but never such an army as that; never an army which knew it had come out to fight for the highest principles of right, for the good of humanity, and for nothing else.

"And here, in Louisiana, I have seen you growing up to be true soldiers. You have borne, worthily, sickness and exposure. You have carried your comrades every day to the grave, and yet you have not been discouraged, but have been patient, and cheerful, and assiduous in your duties. As I have watched this, I have learned to value and esteem you; and, therefore, I am all the more grateful for the good-will which you show me.

"Yet, I must not believe that this kind feeling has been aroused solely by what I am personally. It must come chiefly from the fact that you look upon me as in some measure the exponent of a great and just cause. It is because you sympathize more or less with me in my hatred of slavery. Perhaps some of you are not yet of my opinion. Perhaps the past has still a strong hold upon your sentiments. But I firmly believe-yes, I have a happy confidence that, before another year is finished, your hearts will all be where mine is on this question. And let me tell you that this faith is no small consolation for the trial of leaving you.

"And now, with earnest wishes for your welfare, and aspirations for the success of the great cause for which you are here, I bid you good-by."

When, at length, the government had arrived at a negro policy, and was arming slaves, the president offered General Phelps a major-general's commission. He replied, it is said, that he would willingly accept the commission if it were dated back to the day of his resignation, so as to carry with it an approval of his course at Camp Parapet. This was declined, and General Phelps remains in retirement. I suppose the president felt that an indorsement of

General Phelps's conduct would imply a censure of General Butler, whose conduct every candid person, I think, must admit, was just, forbearing, magnanimous.

We can not but regret that General Phelps could not have sympathized in some degree with the painful necessities of General Butler's position, and endeavored for a while to "get along" with the negro difficulty at Camp Parapet, as General Butler was striving to do at New Orleans. We should remember, however, that General Phelps had been waiting and longing for twenty-five years, and he could not foresee that, in six months more, the government would be as eager as himself in arming the slaves against their oppressors.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

GENERAL BUTLER ARMS THE FREE COLORED MEN, AND FINDS WORK FOR THE FUGITIVE SLAVES.

GENERAL PHELPS might have seen the dawn of a brighter day, even before his departure. General Butler himself could wait no longer for the tardy action of the government. Denied re-enforcements from the North, he had determined to "call on Africa" to assist him in defending New Orleans from threatened attack. The spirited assault upon Baton Rouge on the fifth of August, though it was so gallantly repulsed by General Williams and his command, was a warning not to be disregarded. All the summer, General Butler had been asking for re-enforcements, pointing to the growing strength of Vicksburg, the rising batteries at the new rebel post of Port Hudson, the inviting condition of Mobile, the menacing camps near New Orleans, the virulence of the secessionists in the city. The uniform answer from the war department was: We can not spare you one man; we will send you men when we have them to send. You must hold New Orleans by all means and at all hazards.

So the general called on Africa. Not upon the slaves, but

upon the free colored men of the city, whom General Jackson had enrolled in 1814, and Governor Moore in 1861. He sent for several of the most influential of this class, and conversed freely with them upon his project. He asked them why they had accepted service under the Confederate government, which was set up for the distinctly avowed purpose of holding in eternal slavery their brethren and kindred. They answered, that they had not dared to refuse; that they had hoped, by serving the Confederates, to advance a little nearer to equality with whites; that they longed to throw the weight of their class into the scale of the Union, and only asked an opportunity to show their devotion to the cause with which their own dearest hopes were identified The general took them at their word. The proper orders were issued. Enlistment offices were opened. Colored men were commissioned. Of the first colored regiment, all the field officers were white men, and all the line officers colored. Of the second, the colonel and lieutenantcolonel alone were white men, and all the rest colored. For the third, the officers were selected without the slightest regard to color; the best men that offered were taken, white or yellow The two batteries of artillery were officered wholly by white men, for the simple reason that no colored men acquainted with artillery presented themselves as candidates for the commissions.

The free colored men of New Orleans flew to arms. One of the regiments of a thousand men was completed in fourteen days. In a very few weeks, General Butler had his three regiments of infantry and two batteries of artillery enrolled, equipped, officered, drilled, and ready for service. Better soldiers never shouldered arms. They were zealous, attentive, obedient, and intelligent. No men in the Union army had such a stake in the contest as they. Few understood it as well as they. The best blood of the South flowed in their veins, and a great deal of it; for "the darkest of them," said General Butler, "were about of the complexion of the late Mr. Webster." At Port Hudson, in the summer of 1863, these fine regiments, though shamefully despoiled of the colored officers to whom General Butler gave commissions, demonstrated to the whole army that witnessed their exploits, and to the whole country that read of them, their right to rank with the soldiers of the Union as brothers in arms.

This bold measure of General Butler-bold a year ago—was not