appellation of the most popular of vegetables into 'pa-ta-ta-s!' or informs you that the price of a bird or fish is 'two bit! two bityou no like him, you no hab him!' On another, the German vociferates with as harmonious an effect as might be produced by the simultaneous shaking up of pebbles in a quart pot, and the filing of a hand-saw; while on a third and fourth, the Creole, Sicilian, and Dego rival each other in vocal discord. Fancy all this, and throw in any amount of obstreperous, broad-mouthed, gleeful negro laughter, and you have some approximation toward the sounds audible at the time and locality I have undertaken to describe."

The far-famed rotunda of the St. Charles hotel again resounded with the noise of multitudinous conversation; but its lofty dome echoed not back the sound of the auctioneer's hammer, that doomed the pampered house-slave to the horrors of a Red River plantation, or consigned a beautiful quadroon to the arms of a lucky gambler. The levee still looked bare and deserted to those who had known it in former years; but there was some life there. A few vessels were loading or discharging. The ferry-boats were plying on the river. The scream of the steam-whistle was heard, and steamboats were "up" for Carrollton, Baton Rouge, or Fort Jackson. In the stream lay at anchor a few representatives of the immortal fleet, the arrival of which, in the last days of April, ushered in a new era of the history of Louisiana.

CHAPTER XXXII.

RECALL.

THERE had been rumors all the summer that General Butler was about to be recalled from the Department of the Gulf. In August, he alluded to these rumors in one of his letters to General Halleck, and said, that if the government meant to remove him, it was only fair for his successor to come at once, and take part of the yellow fever season. General Halleck replied, September 14, that these "without foundation." Mr. Stanton had written approvingly of his course. Mr. Chase and Mr. Blair expressed

rumors were

very cordial approval of it. The president, in October, wrote to the general in a friendly and confidential manner. It was only the secretary of state who appeared to dread that total suppression of the enemies of the United States in Louisiana, which it was General Butler's aim to effect. But it was not supposed that his policy would carry him so far as to deprive his country of the services of the man who, wherever he had been employed, had shown so much ability, and who had just achieved the ablest and the noblest piece of impromptu statesmanship the modern world has seen.

General Butler was going on in the usual tenor of his way. His favorite scheme, as the winter drew near, was the roofing of the custom-house, the citadel of New Orleans. The government had expended millions upon that edifice, and its marble walls had been completed, but it stood exposed to the weather, and was rapidly depreciating. The estimates of competent engineer officers showed that it could be covered for about forty thousand dollars with a roof of wood, which would last thirty or forty years, save the costly structure from decay, and render the upper stories inhabitable. He procured part of the necessary timber by seizing a large quantity which was the property of those notorious foreign neutrals,' Gautherin and Co., and which, he was prepared to show, had been bought by the Confederate government. In executing the work, *he intended to employ a large number of the men who were daily fed by the bounty of the government. The operation was about to be begun, when the order for his recall arrived. It would have been done in three months from the revenues of the department. The Custom-House is still without a roof.

Another project engaged his attention toward the close of the year. He received information that a speculative firm in Havana had imported from Europe a large quantity' of arms, which they hoped to sell to the Confederate government. He sent an officer to Havana to examine these arms, procure samples, and endeavor to get the refusal of them for three months, so as to gain time for the war department to effect the purchase of the arms for the United States. Captain Hill, the officer employed on this errand, had obtained a refusal of the arms for several weeks, when the change of commanders took place, and the affair was dropped. Captain Hill reports, that no citizen of the United States, supposed to have a public commission, was safe at that time in Havana. He was

subjected to every kind of annoyance, and was warned by friendly Cubans not to be in the streets alone after dark. The town swarmed with rebel emissaries and rebel sympathizers, affording another proof that, in this quarrel, we are alone against the benighted men, and classes of men, who are interested in retarding the progress of civilization. The day after the departure of Captain Hill from New Orleans, the report was current in the city that he had been sent by General Butler to the North, with two millions in gold, the spoils of Lafourche, to deposit in some place of safety against the coming day of wrath. He carried, in fact, just two

thousand dollars in gold, to defray his expenses in Havana.

New Orleans elected two members of congress in December, Mr. Benjamin F. Flanders, and Mr. Michael Hahn, both unconditional Union men. Mr. Flanders received 2,370 votes out of 2,543; Mr. Hahn received 2,581, which was a majority of 144 over all competitors. The canvass was spirited, and no restriction was placed upon the voting, except to exclude all who had not taken the oath of allegiance. At this election, the number of Union votes exceeded, by one thousand, the whole number of votes cast in the city for secession.

It could be truly said in December, that there was in New Orleans, after seven months of General Butler's government, a numerous party for the Union, probably a majority of the whole number of voters. The men of wealth were secessionists, almost to a man. The gamblers and ruffians were on the same side. The lowest class of whites exhibited the same impious antipathy to the negroes, and the same leaning toward their oppressors, that we observe in the corresponding class in two or three northern cities. But, among the respectable mechanics and smaller traders, there was a great host who were either committed to the side of the Union, or were only deterred from committing themselves by a fear that, after all, the city was destined to fall again under the dominion of the Confederates. The Union meetings were attended by enthusiastic crowds, and the eloquence of a Deming, a Durant, a Hamilton, was greeted with the same applause that it elicits at the North. When General Butler appeared in public he was greeted with cheers not less hearty nor less unanimous than he has since been accustomed to receive nearer home. Late in November he made a public visit to the theater. When he entered the house the audi

ence rose and gave him cheer upon cheer, just as in New York or Boston.

The Union party, too, was a growing power. Union men now felt that they were on the side of the strongest. They knew that no man could be anything or effect anything, or enjoy anything in Louisiana, who was not on the side of his country. For Union men there were offices, employments, privileges, favors, honors, everything which a government can bestow. For rebels there was mere protection against personal violence-mere toleration of their presence; and that only so long as they remained perfectly submissive and quiescent. It has been truly remarked, that of the three powers of a community-the government, the rich and the multitude-any two can always overcome the third. In New Orleans the government and the multitude were forming daily a closer union; and the wealthy faction, who had ruined the state, were becoming daily more isolated and more powerless.

Meanwhile, the general was urging upon the war department the necessity of a larger force, that he might employ the cool season in reducing Port Hudson and extending the area of conquest in other directions. He entreated his old friend Senator Wilson to use his influence at the war department in his behalf. The senator's reply is curious, when we consider that at the time of the interview which it records General Butler's successor in the Department of the Gulf had been appointed twenty-three days. "Your note," said Senator Wilson, "was placed in my hand to-day (Dec. 2), and I at once called upon the secretary of war, and pressed the importance of increasing your force. He agreed with me and promised to do what he could to aid you. He expressed his confidence in you and his approval of your vigor and ability. This was gratifying to me, but I should have been more pleased to have had him order an addition to your force, so that you might have a larger field of action. I will press the matter all I can.”

Early in December it became well known in New Orleans that the government was preparing, in the ports of the North, one of those imposing expeditions of which so many have sailed on mysterious errands during the war. Texas was supposed to be its object. Texas, I believe, was its ultimate object.

In the absence of official information, and supposing his own services approved by the government, General Butler was left to infer

that General Banks was to hold an independent command in the Department of the Gulf. He feared a conflict of authority. Nor could he regard with complacency the coming of another majorgeneral to reap the laurels of the field, while he himself, after having done the painful and odious part of the work, was left still to battle only with the sullen, unarmed secessionists of New Orleans. Not to embarrass the government, he wrote to the president an unofficial letter on the subject.

"I see by the papers," he writes, November 29th, "that General Banks is about being sent into this department with troops, upon an independent expedition and command. This seems to imply a want of confidence in the commander of this department, perhaps deserved, but still painful. In my judgment, it will be prejudicial to the public service to attempt any expedition into Texas without making New Orleans a base of supplies and co-operation. To do this there must be but one head, and one department.

"I do not propose to argue the question here; still farther is it from my purpose to suggest even that there may not be a better head than the one now in the department. I beg leave to call your attention, that since I came into the field, the day after your first proclamation, I have ever been in the frontier line of the rebellion -Annapolis, when Washington was threatened; Relay House, when Harper's Ferry was being evacuated; Baltimore, Fort Monroe, Newport News, Hatteras, Ship Island, and New Orleans. It is not for me to say with what meed of success. But I have a right to say that I have lived at this station exposed, at once, to the tilence and the assassin, for eight months, awaiting re-enforcements which the government could not give until now. And now they are to be given to another. I have never complained. I do not now complain. I have done as well as I could everything which the government asked me to do. I have eaten that which was set before me, asking no questions.

pes

"It is safe for any person to come to New Orleans and stay. It has been demonstrated that the quarantine can keep away the fever. The assassins are overawed or punished.

"Why, then, am I left here when another is sent into the field in this department? If it is because of my disqualification for the service, in which I have as long an experience as any general in the United States army now in the service (being the senior in rank),