LOUISIANA. 



479 



included within the Federal lines, and these 

 lines were the Teche on the one side and the 

 Amites on the other, comprehending the par- 

 ish or city of Orleans, and the neighboring 

 parishes on the Mississippi. To a question 

 propounded to Gen. Banks as to what portion 

 of the State voted, his reply was : 



" ' All as far up as Point Coupee, and there 

 were some men from the Red River who voted 

 at Vidalie.' 



" And in his statement he announces that : 

 'The city of Xew Orleans is really the State 

 of Louisiana.' " 



In I860 there were 367,629 whites in the 

 State, of whom 149,063, or much less than 

 one-half, were in Xew Orleans. 



The Convention assembled onr April 6th, and 

 was organized on the 7th by the election of 

 E. H. Durell, president, by the following vote : 

 Durell, 43 ; R. K. Howell," 42. After a session 

 of seventy-eight days the Convention adjourned 

 on July 25th. A proclamation was immediately 

 issued by the Governor appointing Sept. oth as 

 the day upon which a vote should be taken on 

 the Constitution. The vote was as follows : 

 yeas, 6,836, for its adoption ; nays, 1,566, for 

 its rejection. The vote of Xew Orleans was : 

 yeas, 4,664; nays, 789. The most important 

 feature of the Constitution was thus described 

 by Gen. Banks : 



In a State which held 331,726 slaves, one-half of its 

 entire population in 1860, more than three-fourths of 

 whom had been specialty excepted from the Procla- 

 mation of Emancipation, and were still held de jure 

 in bondage, the Convention declared by a majoritv 

 of all the votes to which the State woufd have been 

 entitled if every delegate had been present from every 

 district in the State 



Instantaneous, universal, uncompensated, uncon- 

 ditional emancipation of slaves ! 



It prohibited forever the recognition of property in 

 man ! 



It decreed the education of all the children, with- 

 out distinction of race or color ! 



It directs all men, white or black, to be enrolled as 

 soldiers for the public defence ! 



It makes all men equal before the law ! 



It compels, by its regenerating spirit, the ultimate 

 recognition of all the rights which national authority 

 can confer upon an oppressed race ! 



It wisely recognizes, for the first time in constitu- 

 tional history, the interest of daily labor as an ele- 

 ment of power entitled to the protection of the 

 State. 



At the same election the following persons 

 were chosen members of Congress : 1st district. 

 M. F. Bonzano; 2d, A. P. Field; 3d. W. D. 

 Mann; 4th, T. M. Wells; 5th, R. W. Taliaferro. 



A legislature was chosen at the same time, 

 the inenibers of which were almost entirely in 

 favor of a Free State. By this body seVen 

 electors of President and Vice-President were 

 chosen. 



Notwithstanding this formal adoption of a 

 reorganized State government its authority 

 was quite limited. At the end of the year 

 there was more than three-fourths of the State 

 to which it was not safe to send military sup- 

 plies. On Dec. 27th the following order was 

 issued : 



DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF ) 

 NEW OELEAXS, Dec. 27, 1 864. f 

 Special Order Xo. 349. 



****** 



3. Upon the official report of the Attorney-General 

 of the State of Louisiana, that the ordinary courts 

 of justice are insufficient to punish the o'ffenders 

 named by him, and in consideration that the State 

 government and courts of Louisiana owe their pres- 

 ent existence to militarv authority, it is ordered that 

 Michael De Courcey, Benjamin Orr, E. McShane, 

 Y. M. Robinson, A. G. Pierson, and 13. "Wadsworth, 

 for peculation and other offences, be sent for trial be- 

 fore the Military Commission now in session in the 

 city of Xew Orleans, and of which Brig.-Gen. B. S. 

 Roberts, U. S. Vols., is president, and that the 

 Attorney-General of the State of Louisiana be ad- 

 mitted to appear before said commissioner as public 

 prosecutor. 



****** 



By command of Maj.-Gen. HURLBUT. 

 red] ('. <. SARGENT, 

 1st Lieut. 3d La. Yols. and A. A. A. Gen. 



The Provisional Court established by an 

 order of President Lincoln, issued Oct. 20th, 

 1862, Judge Peabody presiding, still continued 

 in operation. The validity of the proceedings 

 of this court was called uTquestion both before 

 and after the reorganization of the State Gov- 

 ernment. The opinion of the Court itself on 

 the question thus raised will be found at the 

 end of this article. 



, The condition of persons of African descent 

 continues the same as in 1863. A bill was 

 introduced in the Legislature under the new 

 Constitution to give suffrage to such persons, 

 but it was rejected by a large majority. The 

 clause of the Constitution relating to the sub- 

 ject is in these words: " The Legislature shall 

 have power to pass laws extending suffrage to 

 such other persons, citizens of the United States, 

 as by military service, by taxation to support 

 the Government, or by intellectual fitness may 

 be deemed entitled thereto." 



The views of Gen. Banks on granting suffrage 

 to these persons, while he was in command at 

 Xew Orleans, are thus stated by himself : 



It was with much hesitation that the mass of peo- 

 ple entered into measures for the organization of 

 government. Some were ready, but others reluctant. 

 Revolutions make the mass "of men timid. It re- 

 quired the strongest representations of public advan- 

 tage to induce them to venture again into the stormy 

 sea of politics. Had it been announced that the 

 negroes, who were largely in the majority, against 

 the example, advice, and instructions of all" branches 

 of the Government, were to be admitted to the right 

 of suffrage by military order, it would have resulted 

 in an exclusively negro constituency. You might 

 not object to this; but I know perfectly well that, 

 while a Government formed, as heretofore, by white 

 men, may clothe negroes with the right of suffrage, 

 a Government, organized by negro voters, that 

 should give the elective franchise to white men, 

 would not be acceptable to the Administration, to 

 Congress, nor to the country, nor any part of it. 

 Such would have been the result in L'ouisiana, be- 

 yond question, under a general order conferring the 

 right of suffrage upon negroes. It would not have 

 secured to colored citizens, now or hereafter, that 

 right. It would have deferred, if not defeated it. 



I did not decide upon this subject without very 

 long and serious reflection, weighing the whole 

 subject in every light, with a desire to effect the 

 extension. 



