viction to wavering minds. Every man in the world either is a secessionist, or could become one, who holds slaves, or who could hold slaves with an easy conscience, or who can contemplate the fact with indifference that slaves are held. In this great controversy, the United States has not one hearty and perfectly trustworthy adherent on earth, who is not now an abolitionist. Its actual and possible enemies are all who do not detest slavery, whether they be called secessionists, copperheads, or Englishmen. So the "moral epidemic" spread in New Orleans, and it became nearly unanimous for secession. If the majority for secession was small in the city, it sufficed to make secession master. Union men were banished by law; Union sentiments suppressed by violence. I know not whether the horrid tale of the New England school mistress stripped naked in Lafayette Square, and tarred and feathered amid the jeers of the mob, is true or false. I presume it is false; but the fact remains, that neither man nor woman could utter a syllable for the Union in New Orléans in the hearing of the public, and live. A very few persons of pre-eminent standing in the city, like the noble Durant, and a few old men, who could not give up their country and the flag they had fought under in the days of their youth, were tolerated even with ostentation-so firm in the saddle did secession feel itself.

Even the foreign consuls were devoted secessionists; all except Senor Ruiz, the Mexican consul. Reichard, the consul of Prussia, raised a battalion in the city, and led it to Virginia, where he rose to the rank of brigadier-general, having left in New Orleans, as acting-consul, Mr. Kruttsmidt, his partner, who had married a daughter of the rebel secretary of war. The other consuls, connected with secession by ties of business or matrimony, or both, were among the most zealous adherents of the Confederate cause. This is an important fact, when we consider that two-thirds of the business men were of foreign birth, and a vast proportion of the whole population were of French, Spanish, and German descent.

The double blockade-blockade above and blockade below-struck death to the commerce of New Orleans, a city created and sustained by commerce alone. How wonderful was that commerce! The crescent bend of the river upon which the city stands, a waving line seven miles in extent, used to display the commercial activity of the place to striking advantage. Cotton ships, eight or ten deep; a forest of masts, denser than any but a tropical forest; steamboats in bewildering numbers, miles of them, puffing and hissing, arriving, departing, and threatening to depart, with great clangor of bells and scream of whistles; cotton-bales piled high along the levee, as far as the eye could reach; acres and acres covered with hogsheads of sugar; endless flotillas of flat-boats, marketboats, and timber-rafts; gangs of negroes at work upon every part of the levee, with loud chorus and outcry; and a constant crowd of clerks, merchants, sailors, and bandanna-crowned negro women selling coffee, cakes, and fruit. It was a spectacle without parallel on the globe, because the whole scene of the city's industry was presented in one view.

What a change was wrought by the mere announcement of the blockade! The cotton ships disappeared; the steamboats were laid away in convenient bayous, or departed up the river to return no more. The cotton mountains vanished; the sugar acres were cleared. The cheerful song of the negroes was seldom heard, and grass grew on the vacant levee. The commerce of the city was dead; and the forces hitherto expended in peaceful and victorious industry, were wholly given up to waging war upon the power which had called that industry into being, defended it against the invader, protected and nourished it for sixty years, guiltless of wrong. The young men enlisted in the army, compelling the reluctant stevedores, impressing with violence the foreign born. At the Exchange, books were opened for the equipment of privateers. For the first six months there was much running of the blockade, one vessel in three escaping, and the profit of the third paying for the two lost. Hollins was busy in getting ready a paltry fleet of armed vessels for the destruction of the blookaders, and there was rare hammering upon rams and iron-clad steamboats. Seventeen hundred families meanwhile were daily supplied at the "free market." Look into one wholesale grocery store through the following advertisement:

"We give notice to our friends generally, that we have been compelled to discontinue the grocery business, particularly for the reason that we have now no goods for sale, except a little L. F. salt. Persons ordering goods of us must send the cash to fill the order, unless they have money to their credit. Four of our partners and six of our clerks are in the army, and having sold out our stock of goods on credit, we have no money to buy more to be disposed of that way."

A word or two upon the "Thugs" of New Orleans, the party controlling municipal affairs for some years past. New Yorkers are in a position to understand this matter with very little explanation, since the local politics of New Orleans and of New York present the same essential features, the same dire results of the fell principle of universal suffrage. Martin Van Buren predicted it all forty-two years ago, when opposing the admission to the polls of every man out of prison who was twenty-one years of age. He said then, what we now know to be true, that universal suffrage, in large commercial cities, would make those cities a dead weight upon the politics of the states to which they belong; would repell from local politics the men who ought to control them; would consign the cities to the tender mercies of the Dexterous Spoiler,* who could only be dethroned by bloody revolution. Is it not so? Who is master of certain great cities but Dexterous Spoiler, supported by the dollars of Head Jew?

It must be so under universal suffrago. Iere we have, say, ten thousand ignorant voters; ignorant, many of them, of the very language of the country; ignorant, most of them, of the art of reading it. These ten thousand are thirsty men, hangers-on of our six or seven thousand groggeries, the keepers of which are as com

See Martin Van Buren's argument in Parton's Lito of Jackson, iii., 129.

"Is it your belief that the deceased came to his death from the wound inflicted by the prisoner at the bar ?"

"I have no belief on the subject," replied the witness. "It is not a matter of belief, but of fact. I know he did."

At half-past nine in the morning, late risers still dawdling over their coffee and Delta, the bell of one of the churches, which had been designated as the alarm bell, struck the concerted signal of alarm-twelve strokes four times re

all armed bodies to assemble at their headquarters. There was a wild rush to the newspaper bulletin-boards.

Nor can we pity the murdered Reed, brave as he was; for he, too, was a man of blood. They tell of an early duel of his so incredibly savage, that, in comparison with it, General Jackson's little affair with Charles Dickinson seems the play of boys. Picture it. Two men standing sixty feet apart, back to back, each armed with two revolvers and a bowie-knife. They are to wheel at the word, approach one another firing, fire as fast as they choose, advance as rapidly as they choose. Pistols failing, then the grapple and the knife. As it was arranged, so it was done. Reed fired his last charge, but his antagonist was still erect. The men were within six feet of one another, when Reed, bleeding fast from several wounds, collected his remaining strength, and threw his pistol, with desperate force, in his antagonist's face, and felled him with the blow. Reed staggered forward and fell upon him. Drawing his knife he was seen feeling for the heart of his enemy, and having found it, he placed the point of the knife over it and tried to drive it home. He could not. Then holding the knife with one hand he tried to raise himself up with the other, so as to fall upon the knife, and kill his adversary by mere gravitation. This amazing spectacle was too much even for the seconds in a southern duel, one of whom seized the man by the feet and drew him off. It was found that his antagonist was dead where he lay; but Reed recovered to figure in another of these savage conflicts, and to die by violence in the streets.

We may ask, with Dr. McCormick's friend, "Were such things common in the cotton kingdom?" The doctor's answer will suffice: "Not to this extent;" but scenes like these were common; and the spirits, the habits, the cast of character, which gave rise to them, were all but universal. What, then, must New Orleans have been, the chief city of that kingdom, with a police subject to the city government, the city government controlled by "Thugs," and the " Thugs" managed by the Spoiler, in alliance with the money-changer?

We return to the morning of April 24th, on which the Union fleet ran past the forts.

Never before were the people of New Orleans so confident of a victorious defense, as when they read in the newspapers of that morning the brief report of General Duncan, touching the twenty-five thousand ineffectual shells.

"IT IS REPORTED THAT TWO OF THE ENEMY'S GUN-BOATS HAVE SUCCEEDED IN PASSING THE FORTS."

This was all that came over the wires before Captain Farragut cut them; but it was enough to give New Orleans a dismal premonition of the coming catastrophe. The troops flew to their respective rendezvous. The city was filled with rumors. The whole population was in the streets all day. The bulletin-boards were besieged, but nothing could be extracted from them. There were but twenty-eight hundred Confederate troops in the city; and General Lovell, their commander, had gone down to the forts the day before, and was now galloping back along the levee like a man riding a steeplechase. The militia, however, were numerous; conspicuous among them the European Brigade, composed of French, English and Spanish battalions. A fine regiment of free colored men was on duty also. But, in the absence of the general, and the uncertainty of the intelligence, nothing was done or could be done, but assemble and wait, and increase the general alarm by the spectacle of masses of troops.

The newspapers of the afternoon could add nothing to the intelligence of the morning. But, at half-past two, General Lovell arrived, bringing news that the Union fleet had passed the forts, destroyed the Confederate gun-boats, and was approaching the city. Then the panic set in. Stores were hastily closed, and many were abandoned without closing. People left their houses, forgetting to shut the front-door, and ran about the streets without apparent object. There was a fearful beating of drums, and a running together of soldiers. Women were seen bonnetless, with pistol in each hand, crying: "Burn the city. Never mind us. Burn the city." Officers rode about impressing carts and drays to remove the cotton from store-houses to the levee for burning. Four millions of specie were carted from the banks to the railroad stations, and sent out of the city. The consulates were filled with people, bringing their valuables to be stored under the protection of foreign flags. Traitor Twiggs made haste to fly, leaving his swords to the care of a young lady-the swords voted him by Congress and legislature for services in Mexico. Other conspicuous traitors followed his prudent example. The authorities, Confederate and municipal, were at their wit's end. Shall the troops remain and defend the city, or join the army of Beauregard at Corinth? It was concluded to join Beauregard; at least to get out of the city, beyond the guns of the fleet, and so save the city from bombardment. Some thousands of the

At such a time, could the Thugs be inactive? To keep them in check, to save the city from conflagration and plunder, the mayor called upon the European Brigade, and placed the city under their charge. They accepted the duty, repressed the tumult, and prevented the destruction of the town, threatened alike by frenzied women and spoliating rowdies.

So passed the afternoon of Thursday, April 24th. I indicate only the leading features of the scene. The reader must imagine the rest, if he can. Only those who have seen a large city suddenly driven mad with apprehension and rage, can form an adequate conception of the confusion, the hurry, the bewilderment, the terror, the fury, that prevailed. Such denunciations of Duncan, of the governor of the state, of the general in command! Such maledictions upon the Yankees! Such a strite between those who wished New Orleans to be another Moscow, and those who pleaded for the homes of fifty thousand women and children! Such a hunting down of the few Union men and women, who dared to display their exultation! Such a threattening of instant lamp-post, or swifter pistol bullet, to any who should so much as look at a Yankee without a scowl! Woe, woe, to the man who should give them the slightest semblance of aid or sympathy! Hail, yellow fever! once the dreaded scourge of New Orleans; more welcome now than the breezes of October after a summer of desolation. Come, Destroyer; come and blast these hated foes of a sublime southern chivalry! Come, though we also perish!

During the evening of Thursday, before it was known whether the batteries at Chalmette could retard the upward progress of the fleet, the famous burning of cotton and ships began. Fifteen thousand bales of cotton on the levee; twelve or fifteen cotton ships in the river;. fifteen or twenty river steamboats; an unfinished ram of great magnitude; the dry-docks; vast heaps of coal; vaster stores of steamboat wood; miles of steamboat wood; ship timber; board-yards; whatever was supposed to be of use to Yankees; all was set on fire, and the heavens were black with smoke. Hogsheads of sugar and barrels of molasses were stove in by hundreds. Parts of the levee ran molasses. Thousands of negroes and poor white people were carrying off the sugar in aprons, pails, and baskets. And, as if this were not enough, the valiant governor of Louisiana fled away up the river in the swiftest steamboat he could find, spreading alarm as he went, and issuing proclamations, calling on the planters to burn every bale of cotton in the state, which the ruthless invaders could reach.

"If," said he, "you are resolved to be free; if you are worthy of the heroic blood that has come down to you through hallowed generations; if you have fixed your undimmed eyes upon the brightness that is spread out before you and your children, and are determined to

This sublime effusion had its effect, supported as it was by the presence of the Union fleet in the sacred river. Hence, as we are officially informed, two hundred and fifty thousand bales of cotton were consumed, during the next few days, in a region already impoverished by the war. Not a pound of this cotton was in danger of seizure; it was safer after the fall of the city than before.

About twelve o'clock, the fleet hove in sight of assembled New Orleans. The seven miles of crescent levee were one living fringe of human beings, who looked upon the coming ships with inexpressible sorrow, shame, and anger. Again the cry arose, burn the city; a cry that might have been obeyed but for the known presence and determination of the European Brigade. The people were given over to a strong delusion, the result of two generations of De Bow falsehood and Calhoun heresy. That fleet, if they had but known it, was Deliverance, not Subjugation; it was to end, not begin, the reign of terror and of wrong. The time will come when New Orleans will know this; when the anniversary of this day will be celebrated with thankfulness and joy, and statues of Farragut and Butler will adorn the public places of the city. But before that time comes, what years of wise and heroic labor! The fleet drew near and cast anchor in the stream, the crowd looking on, some in sullen silence, many uttering yells of execration, a few secretly rejoicing, all deeply moved.

CHAPTER XI.

NEW ORLEANS WILL NOT SURRENDER.

CAPTAIN FARRAGUT'S fleet emerged from the hurly-burly of the fight on the morning of the 24th, into a beautiful and tranquil scene. Soon after leaving quarantine, the sugar plantations, with their villas girdled with pleasant verandas, and surrounded with trees, each with its village of negro huts near by, appeared on both sides of the river. The canes were a foot high, and of the brightest April green, rendered more vivid by the background of forest a mile from the river. Except that a white flag or rag was hung from many of the houses, and, in some instances, a torn and faded American flag, a relic of better times, there was little to remind the voyagers that they were in an enemy's country. Here and there a white man was seen waving a Union flag; and occasionally a gesture of defiance or contempt was discerned. The negroes who were working in the fields in great numbers-in gangs of fifty, a hundred, two hundred-these alone gave an unmistakable welcome to the ships. They would come running down to the levee in crowds, hoe in hand, and