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 The city government should go on as usual; but they requested that the troops should be withdrawn from the vicinity of the City Hall, that the authorities might not seem to be acting under military dictation. This request was granted: the troops were withdrawn.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 winLing 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 Statesour 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

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

half deserted, because the trade with New Orleans had ceased, and because the locusts of secession had devoured their substance.

New Orleans was thus a starving city in the midst of an impoverished country. The river planters, who had been wont to send marketing to the city, now feared to trust their sloops, their produce and their slaves, within the lines of an army which they had been taught to believe was bent on plunder only. A large proportion of the men of New Orleans were away with the Confederate armies, at Shiloh, in Virginia, and elsewhere, having left wives and children, mistresses and their offspring, to the public charge. The city taxes were a million dollars in arrears; and the city government, it was soon discovered, was expending its energies and its ingenuity upon a business more congenial than that of providing for the poor, namely, that of frustrating and exasperating the commander of the Union army. In a word, fifty thousand human beings in New Orleans saw before them a prospect, not of want, not of a long struggle with adversity, but of starvation; and that immediate-to-morrow or the next day; and General Butler, wielding the power and resources of the United States, alone could save them..

To this task he addressed himself; it necessarily had the precedence of all other work during the first few days. If we confine ourselves to this topic for a short time, so as to show in one view all that General Butler did for the poor of New Orleans, the reader will please bear in mind, that the commanding general was by no means able to confine his attention to it. He had everything to do at once. The business of the city was dead; he strove to revive it. Confidence in the honest intentions of the Union authorities did not exist; he endeavored to call it into being. The currency was deranged; it was his duty to rectify it. The secessionists were audaciously diligent; he had to circumvent and repress them. The yellow fever season was at hand; he was resolved to ward it off. The city government was obstructive and hostile; it was his business to frustrate their endeavors. The negro problem loomed up, vast and portentous; he had to act upon it without delay. The banks were in disorder; their affairs demanded his attention. The consulates were so many centers of hostile operations; he had to pene. trate their mysteries. His army was considerable, his field of operation immense; he could not neglect the chief business of his

mission. All these affairs claimed his immediate attention, and had it. But though a thousand events may occur simultaneously, it is not convenient to relate them simultaneously. We shall have sometimes to disregard the order of time, and pursue one subject or class of subjects to the end.

General Butler's first measures for the supply of the city were taken upon the suggestion of the city magnates. The following orders were promulgated on the third day of the occupation of the city:

I.

"The commanding general of this department has been informed that there is now at Mobile a stock of flour purchased by the city of New Orleans for the subsistence of its citizens. The suffering condition of the poor of this city, for the want of this flour, appeals to the humanity of those having authority on either side. For the purpose of the safe transmission of this flour to this city, the commanding general orders and directs that a safe conduct be afforded to a steamboat, to be laden with the same to this place. This safe conduct shall extend to the entire protection of the boat in coming, reasonable delay to discharge, and return to Mobile.

"The boat will take no passengers, save the owners and keepers of the flour, and will be subject to the strict inspection of the harbor-master detailed from these head-quarters, to whom its master will report its arrival. The faith of the city is pledged for the faithful performance of the require-, ments of this order on the part of the agent of the city authorities, who will be allowed to pass each way with the boat, giving no intelligence or aid to the Confederates."

II.

"The president, directors, &c., of the Opelousas railroad are authorized and required to run their cars over their road for the purpose of bringing to the city of New Orleans all materials for provisions, marketing, and supplies of food which may be offered in order to supply the wants of the city. No passengers other than those having the care of such supplies, as owners and keepers, are to be permitted to come into the city, and none other are to leave the city. All other supplies are prohibited transport over the road either way, except cotton and sugar, which may be safely brought over the road, and will be purchased at their fair market value by the United States in specie. The transmission of live stock is especially enjoined. An agent of the city government will be allowed to pass over the road either way, stopping at all points, on the faith of a pledge of such government that he transmits no intelligence and affords no aid to the Con