588 



LOUISIANA. 



dered which were of moment to induce the de- 

 feated party to appeal, were carried by appeal 

 to the Supreme Court, a court of that time 

 having an ideal, rather than a real, existence ; 

 for it was, if not wholly dead, at least in a 

 state of suspended animation. The necessity 

 for a court to decide these cases, and the accu- 

 mulations of former years, led to the appoint- 

 ment of judges for the Supreme Court of Louisi- 

 ana, and, accordingly, in April, 1863, the fol- 

 lowing judges were appointed: 



Chief Justice Charles A. Peabody, of New 

 York. 



Associate Justices John S. Whittaker, of 

 New Orleans, and of 



New Orleans. 



Throughout nearly the entire year 1863 the 

 courts above mentioned, all provisional in their 

 nature, constituted the judiciary establishment 

 of Louisiana, a State, in times of peace, of very 

 large products and transactions, and numerous 

 and large litigations, and having in those times, 

 in the parish of Orleans alone, eight or ten 

 courts, and in each of the other parishes of the 

 State, of which there were forty-six, at least 

 one local court of record of general jurisdic- 

 tion. 



The Provost Court, which had been presided 

 over from its institution by Major Joseph M. 

 Bell, of Boston, a member of General Butler's 

 staff, on his retirement with General Butler in 

 December, 1862, to relieve an urgent want at 

 the time, was taken charge of by Judge Pea- 

 body, of the Provisional Court, who, for sev- 

 eral months, held both courts, in one dispensing 

 justice in civil matters, and in the other the 

 entire criminal justice of the State daily. 



He was succeeded in the Provost Court by 

 Augustus De B. Hughes, Esq., of New York, 

 who continued to preside over that court until 

 near the end of Aug., 1863, when that court was 

 discontinued, and a new one with the same 

 name, but powers somewhat different, was in- 

 stituted, at the head of which, as judge, was 

 A. A. Atocha, a native of New Orleans, but, 

 until recently, a citizen of New York. 



In November, 1863, E. Hiestand, then judge 

 of the Third District Court, was appointed to 

 the First District Court of the parish of Or- 

 leans, a court of general criminal jurisdiction, 

 and this court was opened, and the trials of 

 criminal cases arising in the parish from that 

 time were chiefly in that court. 



Two recorders' courts, performing the duties 

 of police and committing magistrates, and try- 

 ing for petty offences, were organized in Sep- 

 tember, by the Military Governor. The city, 

 in times of peace, had four. These courts re- 

 lieved the Provost Court of much of its busi- 

 ness, and left that to the legitimate duties of a 

 provost court of the army. 



Parish courts of general jurisdiction, like the 

 old constitutional courts of the same name, 

 were also established in the parishes of Jeffer- 

 son and St. Bernard, East Baton Rouge, and a 

 few others in the latter part of the year 1863. 



In some instances, the same judge was author, 

 ized to hold several of those courts. 



Late ia the year 1863 the Second District 

 Court of the parish of Orleans (a probate 

 court), was authorized by Governor Shepley to 

 perform the duties of a probate court for other 

 parishes of the State in which there was no 

 court of that kind, the necessity of such a pro- 

 vision becoming very urgent, and it being not 

 expedient to erect new courts for that purpose. 



Such was substantially the condition of the 

 provisional judiciary of Louisiana at the end of 

 the year 1863, twenty months after the capture 

 of the city of New Orleans. 



All of the few courts there, except the 

 United States Provisional Court, under Judge 

 Peabody, were creations of the Military Gov- 

 ernor, bearing the names and having the juris- 

 diction and attributes of old constitutional 

 courts of the State in former times, with some 

 few modifications by way of enlargement or 

 curtailment of their powers, made by the Mil- 

 itary Governor of the State. 

 Those courts required no written constitutions 

 or orders defining their powers. They had the 

 powers theretofore .belonging to the courts 

 whose names they bore, which had been well 

 known and recognized in the community. The 

 appointment of a judge and other officers to a 

 certain court was, in effect, the establishment 

 of a court having the powers theretofore be- 

 longing to the court named, and the invest- 

 ment of the judge with the powers theretofo 

 under the State government pertaining to th 

 office of the same name. The process of con 

 stituting and endowing a court in this manne; 

 is very brief and simple. There is, for instance, 

 the Second District Court of the parish of Or- 

 leans. An order to the effect that a certain 

 man is appointed judge of the Second District 

 Court of the parish of Orleans, puts at once 

 into existence a court having the powers for- 

 merly belonging to that court, and gives him 

 the powers and rights and privileges previously 

 belonging to one holding the office of the same 

 name, and this even to the extent of determin- 

 ing his salary or compensation for services, 

 which it was always held was the same as that 

 provided by law for the same officer under r,he 

 State constitution. 



These courts, well adapted to the wants of 

 such a community in times of peace, perhaps 

 were not so well suited to times of war, when 

 industrial and commercial pursuits are, in a 

 great measure, suspended, and resorts to coi rts 

 are much less frequent, and for causes very dif- 

 ferent when the amount of judicial force re- 

 quired is much less, but the flexibility and power 

 of adaptation called for are much greater. 



The Provisional Court, on the contrary, had 

 a written charter, prepared with reference to 

 the occasion, and was eminently adapted to 

 the wants of the locality in the then condi- 

 tion of things. Its powers to hold its sessions 

 in the State, wherever in the condition of the 

 country it could, and of changing its place from 



