Would you or would you not, expel us if you could? New Orleans has been conquered by the forces of the United States, and by the laws of all nations, lies subject to the will of the conquerors. Nevertheless, I have proposed to leave the municipal government to the free exercise of all its powers, and I am answered by a threat."

He

Mr. Soulé disclaimed the intention to threaten the troops. had desired merely to state what, in his opinion, would be the consequences of their remaining.

Gladly," continued General Butler, "will I take every man of the army out of New Orleans the very day, the very hour it is demonstrated to me that the city government can protect me from insult or danger, if I choose to ride alone from one end of the city to the other, or accompanied by one gentleman of my staff. Your inability to govern the insulting, irreligious, unwashed mob in your midst has been clearly proved by the insults of your rowdies toward my officers and men this very afternoon, and by the fact that General Lovell was obliged to proclaim martial law while his army occupied your city, to protect the law abiding citizens from the rowdies. I do not proclaim martial law against the respectable citizens of this place, but against the same class that obliged General Wilkinson, General Jackson, and General Lovell to declare it. I have means of knowing more about your city than you think, and I am aware that at this hour there is an organization here established for the purpose of assassinating my men by detail; but I warn you that if a shot is fired from any house, that house will never again cover a mortal's head; and if I can discover the perpetrator of the deed, the place that now knows him shall know him no more for ever. I have the power to suppress this unruly element in your midst, and I mean so to use it, that in a very short period, I shall be able to ride through the entire city, free from insult and danger, or else this metropolis of the South shall be a desert, from the Plains of Chalmette to the outskirts of Carrollton."

Mr. Soulé, in reply, delivered an oration, the beauty and grace of which were admired by all who heard it. I regret that we have no report of his speech. It was, in part, a defense and eulogy of New Orleans, and, in part, a secession speech of the usual tenor, illumined by the rhetoric of an accomplished speaker. He said that New Orleans contained a smaller proportion of the mob element

than any other city of equal size, and that the proclamation of martial law by General Lovell was aimed, not at the mob, but at the Union men and "traitors" in their midst.

The conversation then turned to a topic of immense moment to the people of the city, the supply of provisions. The general said he had determined to issue permits to dealers and others, which. should protect them in bringing in provisions from a certain distance beyond his lines. The awful situation of the poor of the city should have his immediate attention; in the mean time, the Confederate currency in their hands should be allowed to circulate, since many of them had nothing else of the nature of money.

After much farther discussion, the general being immovable, the mayor announced, that the functions of the city government would be at once suspended, and the general could do with the city as seemed to him good.

A member of the council promptly interposed, saying, that a matter of so much importance should not be disposed of until it had been considered and acted upon by the common council. The mayor assented. General Butler offered no objection. It was finally agreed that the council should confer upon the subject the next morning, and make known the result of their deliberations to the general in the course of the day. The gentlemen then withdrew: the crowd in the streets gradually dispersed, and the city enjoyed a tranquil night.

The next morning, the Proclamation was published; i. e., handbills, containing it, were freely given to all who would take one. Two important appointments were also announced: Major Joseph W. Bell, to be provost-judge, and Colonel Jonas H. French, to be provost-marshal. Colonel French notified the people, by hand-bill, that he "assumed the position of provost-marshal, for the purpose of carrying out such of the provisions of the Proclamation of the general commanding within this department, as were not left to municipal action. * Particularly does he call attention to the prohibition against assemblages of persons in the streets; the sale of liquor to soldiers; the necessity for a license on the part of keepers of public houses, coffee-houses, and drinking saloons; to the posting of placards about the streets, giving information concerning the action or movements of rebel troops, and the publishing in the newspapers of notices or resolutions laudatory of the

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enemies of the United States. "The soldiers of this command are subject, upon the part of some low-minded persons, to insult. This must stop. Repetition will lead to instant arrest and punishment. In the performance of his duties the undersigned will, in no degree, trench upon the regularly established police of the city, but will confine himself simply to the performance of such acts as were to be assumed by the military authorities of the United States; and, in such action, he hopes to meet with the ready co-operation of all who have the welfare of the city at heart."

At noon, the foreign consuls waited upon General Butler, accompanied by General Juge, commanding the European Brigade. The interview was in the highest degree amicable and courteous. General Butler explained to the consuls the line of conduct he had marked out for himself, and related the leading points of his proposal to the mayor and council, whose reply he was then awaiting. He also assured the consuls, that nothing should be wanting on his part, to facilitate the discharge of their public duties. His most earnest desire, he said, was to confine his attention to his military duty, and leave all public functionaries, domestic and foreign, to the unrestrained discharge of their vocations. He warmly thanked General Juge for his eminent services during the last week, expressed regret that he had disbanded his men, hoped he would reorganize them, and aid him in maintaining order. The gentlemen retired, apparently well pleased with what they had heard. They all shook hands with the general at parting.

A delegation from the common council next appeared, who informed the general that his proposal of the evening before was accepted. The city government should go on as usual; but they requested that the troops should be withdrawn from the vicinity of the City Hall, that the authorities might not seem to be acting under military dictation. This request was granted: the troops were

withdrawn.

The general went farther. He sent a considerable body of troops under General Phelps to Carrollton, where a permanent camp was formed. A brigade under General Williams soon went up the river with Captain Farragut, to take possession of and hold Baton Rouge. Other troops were posted in the various forts upon the lakes abandoned by the enemy. Others were at Algiers. The camps in the squares of the city were broken up. When all the

troops were posted, there remained in the city, during the first few weeks, two hundred and fifty men: and these men lodged in the Custom-House, and served merely as a provost-guard. Mr. Soulé, therefore, had his desire, or nearly so, for the general was fully resolved to omit no fair means of conciliating the people, and winning them back to their allegiance.

Thus, by the end of the third day, the city was tranquil, and there seemed a prospect of the two sets of authorities going on peacefully together, each keeping to its own department; General Butler governing the army, and extending the area of conquest; the mayor and council ruling the city, aided, if necessary, by General Juge and his brigade. This was the theory upon which General Butler began his memorable administration. This was the offer which he sincerely made to the people and government of the city. We shall discover, in time, whose fault it was that the theory proved so signally untenable.

The comments of the press of New Orleans upon the new order of things, were far more favorable to General Butler than could have been expected. The True Delta frankly admitted the truth of that part of the Proclamation which gave to the European Brigade the credit of having preserved the city. "For seven years past,' said the True Delta, of May 6th, "the world knows that this city, in all its departments-judicial, legislative and executive-has been at the absolute disposal of the most godless, brutal, ignorant and ruthless ruffianism the world has ever heard of since the days of the great Roman conspirator. By means of a secret organization emanating from that fecund source of every political infamy, New England, and named Know Nothingism or 'Sammyism'-from the boasted exclusive devotion of the fraternity to the United States our city, from being the abode of decency, of liberality, generosity and justice, has become a perfect hell; the temples of justice are sanctuaries for crime; the ministers of the laws, the nominees of blood-stained, vulgar, ribald caballers; licensed murderers shed innocent blood on the most public thoroughfares with impunity; witnesses of the most atrocious crimes are either spirited away, bought off, or intimidated from testifying; perjured associates are retained to prove alibis, and ready bail is always procurable for the immediate use of those whom it is not immediately prudent to enlarge otherwise. The electoral system is a farce and a fraud; the

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knife, the slung-shot, the brass knuckles determining, while the sham is being enacted, who shall occupy and administer the offices of the municipality and the commonwealth. Can our condition then surprise any man? Is it, either, a fair ground for reproach to the well-disposed, kind-hearted and intelligent fixed population of New Orleans, that institutions and offices designed for the safety of their persons, the security of their property, and maintenance of their fair repute and unsullied honor, should by a band of conspirators, in possession by force and fraud of the electoral machinery, be diverted from their legitimate uses and made engines of the most insupportable oppression? We accept the reproach in the Proclamation, as every Louisianian alive to the honor and fair fame of his state and chief city must accept it, with bowed heads and brows abashed."

The Bee of May 8th said: "The mayor and municipal authorities have been allowed to retain their power and privileges in everything unconnected with military affairs. The federal soldiers do not seem to interfere with the private property of the citizens, and have done nothing that we are aware of to provoke difficulty. The usual nightly reports of arrests for vagrancy, assaults, wounding and killing have unquestionably been diminished. The city is as tranquil and peaceable as in the most quiet times."

CHAPTER XVII.

FEEDING AND EMPLOYING THE POOR.

NEW ORLEANS was in danger of starving. It contained a population of, perhaps, one hundred and fifty thousand, for whom there was in the city about thirty days' supply of provisions, held at prices beyond the means of all but the rich. A barrel of flour could not be bought for sixty dollars; the markets were empty, the provision stores closed. The trade with Mobile, which had formerly whitened the lakes and the sound with sails, was cut off. The Texas drovers had ceased to bring in cattle, and no steamboats from the Red River country were running. The lake coasts were desolate and