510 



LOUISIANA. 



I do further proclaim, and hereby authorize the 

 Register of Voters in and for the city of New Orleans, 

 to open a new set of books, to commence on the first 

 day of June, 1865, for the registering of all voters in 

 and for the said citv, in accordance with the qualifi- 

 cations prescribed Tt>y the Constitution and Laws of 

 the State, and of which this proclamation will be con- 

 sidered as giving due notice. 

 Given under my hand and seal of the State, at the 



city of New Orleans, this 8d day of May, A. D. 



1865, and of the year of the independence of the 



United States the eighty-ninth. 



J. MADISON WELLS. 



This order led at once to a difficulty between 

 Gen. Banks and the acting Governor. The 

 registry set aside was made under an order of 

 the former, and many persons registered were 

 reported to be negroes. 



On March 4th, Gov. Hahn resigned his office, 

 and was succeeded by the Lieut.-Gov. Wells. 

 Gov. Hahn had been elected by the Legislature 

 as a Senator to Congress, at Washington. The 

 new Governor delivered a brief address, and 

 was followed by Maj.-Gen. Hurlbut in a speech, 

 which thus described the condition of the por- 

 tion of the State in military possession : 



Now a few words about your State. Let me call 

 your attention to this fact: the resources of this 

 State are infinitely reduced by the casualties of war. 

 The commerce, whose innumerable wheels used to 

 vex the turbid current of the Mississippi, has passed 

 away the result of war. Plantations which used 

 to bloom through your entire land, until the coast 

 of Louisiana was a sort of a repetition of the garden 

 of Eden, are now dismantled and broken down. 

 Trade, commerce, every thing, crippled. Crippled, 

 remember, in every instance where this has occurred, 

 as the natural result of that deadly poison of seces- 

 sion which this people unwisely received and un- 

 wisely acted on. With all these things, this newly 

 organized State of Louisiana has to confront difficul- 

 ties such as never beset any community of men be- 

 fore. You have to create almost out of nothing. 

 You have to make revenues where the taxable 

 property of the State is reduced almost two-thirds. 

 You have to hold the appliances and surroundings 

 of government, and maintain them. All this you 

 have to do out of a circumscribed territory and a 

 broken-down country. Hence there is eminent prac- 

 tical wisdom in the suggestion contained in the ad- 

 dress you have just heard, that the most rigid and 

 self-denying economy should be exercised in all these 

 relations which you hold to your fellow-citizens. 

 Gentlemen, let me give you a few facts. The United 

 States supports to-day 14,600 poor people here in the 

 city of New Orleans. The same United States this 

 same military authority is maintaining and keeping 

 up to a great extent nearly every chanty which be- 

 longs to the city or State. The levees, on which the 

 life of your country depends, which from local causes 

 cannot be repaired by the civil authorities, must be 

 attended to by the United States, and the sum of 

 Jl 60,000 is being laid out now by the United States 

 for the purpose of preventing this delta of the Missis- 

 sippi from oeing subject to overflow. Now, in view 

 of this state of things, if you desire to take these 

 matters off the hands of the General Government, 

 look to it well that you have the means to carry out 

 the necessities of the times, and the power to compel 

 observance. 



The close of the war soon followed. Paroled 

 prisoners in large numbers returned to their 

 homes. All under certain grades were restored 

 to citizenship who took the oath of amnesty, 

 prescribed by the President. The Confederate 



Governor, Allen, wlio had located the seat of 

 his government at Shreveport, in the western 

 part of the State, issued, on June 2d, an address 

 to the people of the State, in which he declared 

 that his administration as Governor of Louis- 

 iana closed on that day. He said : " The war 

 is over, the contest is ended, the soldiers are 

 disbanded and gone home, and now there is in 

 Louisiana no opposition whatever to the Con- 

 stitution and laws of the United States." All 

 the Confederate State officers in its various de- 

 partments rendered their final accounts, and 

 made full settlements with Gov. Allen, who 

 transferred all important records to the care of 

 the Federal military authorities. 



On June 10th, Gov. Wells issued the follow- 

 ing address : 



STATE OF LOUISIANA. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMRNT, ) 

 NEW OELEANS, June 10, 1865. j 



To tfie People of the Parishes of Saint Tammany, Wash- 

 ington, Saint Helena, Livingston, Went Salon Rouge, 

 Pionte Couple, Saint Martin, Concordia, Madixon, 

 Carroll, Fntnklin, Saint Mary, East Feliciana, West 

 feliciana, Tensas, Vermilion, Saint Landry, Lafay- 

 ette, Calcasieu, Avoyelles, JfatcMtochea, Saline, Caddo, 

 Ouachita, De fioto, Raj/ides, Morehouse, Union, Jack- 

 son, CaldweU, Catahoula, Claioorne, JBossier, Bien title, 

 and Winn : 



I extend to you my heartfelt congratulations on 

 your being restored to the protection of the flag of 

 our country, the symbol of law, order, and freedom, 

 and which now waves in majestic power over an un- 

 divided nation. Our once wealthy and fertile State, 

 now bankrupt and desolate from the ravages of in- 

 testine war, resumes her natural relations (which 

 have becz, temporarily disrupted) within the glorious 

 Union of the States, united by the bonds of univer- 

 sal freedom and ties that can never be dissevered. 

 It is not my purpose to rake up the ashes of the past, 

 by inquiring who has erred and who has not erred 

 in the fearful struggle the nation has just passed 

 through. Whatever may have been the causes of 

 the outbreak, and however bitter may have been the 

 feelings engendered in the hearts of some, it is better 

 that all such matters be buried out of sight forever. 

 It is not the past, but the present and future, we 

 have to deal with. Great and responsible duties rest 

 upon every citizen at this crisis, to manfully go to 

 work and assist in the reSstablishment of civil gov- 

 ernment. In that connection it is a most cheering 

 sign to see the spirit of submission to the laws, and 

 willingness to acquiesce in the result, manifested by 

 those so recently engaged in hostility to the Govern- 

 ment. Even the sobers return to their homes wiser 

 and better men, frankly owning to the failure of their 

 experiment, and all expressing a desire to atone for 

 the errors of the past by cheerful obedience to the 

 Government, and glad again to enjoy its beneficent 

 rule. You, my friends and fellow-citizens for I 

 esteem it a privilege to call you so must follow in 

 the footsteps of so good an example. You must go 

 to work to organize civil government in your respec- 

 tive parishes. Sheriffs, recorders, clerks of courts, 

 and police jurors, will have to be appointed provis- 

 ionally, until elections can be held to nil these offices 

 as provided by law. You must confer among your- 

 selves, and select men of integrity and capacity to 

 fill these positions. I will act on your recommen- 

 dations by appointing the persons named by you, if 

 they are men of proper character, and have taken 

 the'oath prescribed in the President's proclamation 

 of the 8th of December, 1803, or that of the 29th of 

 May, 1804. This will be prerequisite in all cases, 

 the original or certified copy of which oath must be 

 transmitted with the application for appointment. 

 It is also my intention to organize the Judiciary 

 throughout the State by appointing, provisionally, 



