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PROVISIONAL COURT FOR LOUISIANA. 



preciation of the wants and interests of the 

 community here, will be found best adapted 

 to the government of this country, and will be 

 your guide and rule in your deliberations and 

 actions generally in the performance of your 

 duties as grand jurors." 



The laws of the State, he said, in criminal 

 even less than civil matters, would be adhered 

 to inflexibly in the new condition of things. 

 There were great changes in circumstances 

 which must be taken into account in adminis- 

 tering criminal justice. These changes and the 

 modifications they should work were subjects 

 to be considered by the court in particular 

 cases, and not generally matters that could be 

 arranged in classes, and about which rules of 

 general application could be adopted. 



It was natural that certain crimes should be- 

 come frequent in a state of society broken and 

 chaotic, where the general feeling of obligation 

 was relaxed, and the temptations to crime 

 growing out of impoverishment, absence of 

 productive employment, and increased wants 

 and privations, and punishments must be gradu- 

 ated accordingly. In most cases when a de- 

 parture from former laws would become expe- 

 dient, it would be in the direction of mercy 

 and greater mildness in punishment. In some 

 cases, however, a deviation in the opposite di- 

 rection might be required by the necessities of 

 the case. A similar rule was adopted as to 

 cases which would have been cognizable by the 

 Federal courts. In those cases the same law 

 was applied as would have been administered 

 in the Federal courts, in the respective depart- 

 ments of civil and criminal, legal and equitable, 

 admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. 



This court was created in October, as the 

 order shows, but subsequently a change in the 

 administration of the department was resolved 

 on, and the practical organization of the court 

 was delayed until that change should be ef- 

 fected. 



The court, with the officers contemplated in 

 the order, sailed from New York with the 

 Banks' expedition, on the 4th December, 1862. 

 This expedition, the largest ever fitted out in 

 the country, was gotten up with the utmost 

 secrecy as to its destination. Thie was un- 

 known, not only to the public generally, but 

 even to every one of those connected with 

 it (except the Government, General Banks, 

 and Judge Peabody), down to the hour of its 

 sailing. Not a, member of the staff of General 

 Banks knew its destination, it is said, until it 

 had arrived in the Gulf of Mexico, and was ap- 

 proaching one of the mouths of the Mississippi. 

 The speculations in the public prints respecting 

 it, after it had s.iiled, were constant and vari- 

 ous. Some thought it bound to Fortress Mon- 

 roe and North Carolina, some to Hilton Head 

 and Charleston, some to Mobile, some few to 

 New Orleans, and many more to Texas, while 

 some papers of great intelligence insisted that 

 it was bound to Florida. The mystery as to its 

 destination increased rather than diminished 



after its departure, and nothing was kpown or 

 generally accepted as reliable on the subject, 

 until tidings of its actual disembarkation were 

 received on the Atlantic coast, and New Or- 

 leans was less frequently suspected than almost 

 any other place named. 



As soon as the court was ready for business, 

 a large amount was commenced in it of the 

 various kinds to which the habits and pursuits 

 of the country give rise in times of peace; and 

 many questions which arose out of the peculiar 

 circumstances of the tunes, the previous occu- 

 pation by the Confederate authorities, acts gov- 

 ernmental and personal during that time, and 

 the change of rule by the occupation by the 

 Federal forces. 



The court was always governed by the rules 

 and principles of law, adhering to all the rules 

 and forms of civil tribunals, and avoiding every- 

 thing like a military administration of justice. 

 In criminal matters it summoned a grand jury, 

 and submitted to it all charges for examination. 

 After indictment found, the cases were tried 

 before a jury, with all the usual forms of law, 

 and all the rules theretofore in use which were 

 not inconsistent with the existing condition of 

 things. Several capital cases were tried and 

 convictions were obtained. Three cases were 

 tried in one week, in two of which convictions 

 of murder were had, and in the other a convic- 

 tion of manslaughter such a coincidence as in 

 that country had, perhaps, never occurred be- 

 fore. These crimes against the person and life 

 had seldom before been punished at all, and 

 hence this administration of justice commanded 

 the notice and the approbation of all who 

 valued the maintenance of order and good 

 morals, and thought them likely to be advanced 

 by its prompt and firm administration. 



As has been said, the first court established 

 there, after the occupation by the Federal forces, 

 was the Provost Court of the army, at first per- 

 forming only the duties of a military court, 

 then those of a general criminal court. In ad- 

 dition to those duties, and in the absence of 

 other courts, the Provost Court from time to 

 time entertained and tried civil suits, and those 

 not only of the usual character arising out of 

 controversies between man and man, but those 

 of an ecclesiastical character, such as succes- 

 sions, the administration of the estates of de- 

 ceased persons, the custody and guardianship 

 of minors and their estates, and cases of divorce 

 not only a mensa et thoro, but also a vinculo 

 matrimonii. 



In that court the pleadings were always oral, 

 the witnesses were examined rapidly, no notes 

 of evidence were taken, and the decision usu- 

 ally followed immediately on the closing of the 

 evidence or arguments of counsel, in cases 

 where arguments were heard. That court had 

 been doing business some months when tho 

 Provisional Court went into operation, and the 

 questions growing out of the action of that 

 court were among the most novel and ec- 

 centric that came before the Provisional Court. 



