LOUISIANA. 



587 



State, to citizens of the parish of Orleans. As 

 to other residents of the State, outside the par- 

 ish of Orleans, there was no court in which 

 they could be sued. The Federal army held 

 several counties in this condition. 



The Provost Court, under Judge Joseph M. 

 Bell, administered all the criminal justice of 

 the State in all its departments, and, previous 

 to the establishment of the civil courts, had 

 occasionally exercised jurisdiction in civil cases. 



This was the condition of things when, on 

 the 15th day of December, 1862, the officers of 

 the United States Provisional Court for the 

 State of Louisiana, arrived in New Orleans, 

 from New York. 



This court was constituted by an order of the 

 President, and Chas. A. Peabody of New York 

 made judge, with power to appoint aH other 

 officers. He appointed the officers mentioned 

 in the order, and the court thus constituted was 

 composed of the following persons : Charles 

 A. Peabody, Judge ; Augustus D. R, Hughes, 

 Clerk ; Isaac Edward Clarke, Marshal ; George 

 D. Lamout, Prosecuting Attorney. 



This court, made up as to its personnel in the 

 North, and sent constituted and organized for 

 immediate business to Louisiana, attracted 

 much attention, as well for the novelty of its 

 constitution as for the character and extent of 

 its jurisdiction and powers, which are only 

 limited by the limit of human acts and trans- 

 actions capable of becoming subjects of judicial 

 investigation. 



They embrace all causes, civil and criminal, 

 including causes in law, equity, revenue and 

 admiralty, and particularly all such powers 

 and jurisdiction as belong to the district and 

 circuit courts of the United States. 



This court, embracing within its jurisdiction 

 all things of judicial action in the State and hav- 

 ing jurisdiction of certain cases concurrently 

 with other courts, had also an extensive field 

 of labor, unoccupied and untouched by any 

 other court. 



The parts of the State held by our armies out- 

 side the parish of Orleans had no courts, civil 

 or criminal, and no process from the courts of 

 the parish of Orleans went thither. No local 

 courts could well be created there, for our tenure 

 of the country was notalvvays permanent, or at 

 least was liable to fluctuation from time to time. 

 At one time, and for months together, a large 

 and wealthy tract of country, embracing several 

 counties, would be in possession of, and held 

 hy, the Federal army, and, at another time, 

 another part of the State of equal extent would 

 be so held, and these districts, one after the 

 other, by the retirement of the Federal army 

 from them, returned to the occupation and 

 control of the rebel army. This was the case 

 in different parts of the State, at different 

 times, to such an extent that perhaps no part 

 of the State, except the city of New Orleans, 

 had been uniformly held by the Federal arms, 

 since its first capture by them. 



A central court, therefore, with power to 





bring litigants to the focus of the State, and 

 whose operations, practically, would expand 

 and contract with the flow and ebb of our 

 army, was a great desideratum, and almost in- 

 dispensable to the administration of justice in 

 those parts of the State. This want, not only 

 as to matters within the cognizance of State 

 courts, but also as to those within the cogni- 

 zance of the Federal courts throughout the 

 State, embracing the eastern and western ju- 

 dicial districts of Louisiana, the Provisional 

 Court was well calculated to supply. 



No review of the judgments of this court by 

 any other was allowed, and cases originating 

 there were heard and determined there in the 

 first instance, and then in review ; and in all 

 cases, as well those originating there as these 

 brought there on appeal from other courts, the 

 rights of parties were finally settled there. 

 " His judgments, to be final and conclusive," 

 says the executive order meaning the judg- 

 ments of Judge Peabody. 



The power to hear and determine finally 

 all cases involves the power to hear and deter- 

 mine finally cases originating in other courts, 

 as well as those originating in the court in 

 question, and, accordingly, cases were brought 

 to this court on appeal from other courts, 

 and were there determined finally. From the 

 United States Circuit Court cases pending 

 there on appeal from the District Court of the 

 United States were transferred, by order, to 

 this court, and there heard and decided. 



Other courts of the kind may have been 

 created by generals in command of armies of 

 occupation, but no account of any bearing any 

 comparison with this, in the fulness and com- 

 pleteness of its powers and organization, is to 

 be found. (See PBOVISIONAL COTTBT FOE LOUISI- 

 ANA.) 



From the local courts of the State and the 

 First, Second, and Sixth District Courts, of the 

 parish of Orleans, among others appeals had 

 lain in former times to the Supreme Court of 

 the State, a court having only appellate jurisdic- 

 tion, and being the court of last resort under 

 the State system of judiciary. Accordingly, 

 these courts now organized held that their 

 decisions were subject to be reviewed by the 

 Supreme Court of the State, and on appeals 

 being taken, in accordance with the practice 

 theretofore existing, they treated them as regu- 

 lar, and stayed proceedings on the judgments 

 appealed from, until a decision of the Supreme 

 Court. In this manner many of the judgments 

 rendered in the district courts above mentioned, 

 of the parish of Orleans, were stayed and in 

 suspense. 



The Supreme Court had not been organized 

 or set in motion since the reestablishment of 

 the Federal authority there. Two of the for- 

 mer judges had actually fled with the Confed- 

 erates, on the capture of the city, and the 

 other had not acted. In this condition of 

 things the three district courts were of little 

 practical benefit. All the judgments they ren- 



