480 



LOUISIANA. 



My plan was consistent with my orders, and would 

 have been as successful in this as in other respects. 

 It was to obtain from the United States Court fol- 

 lowing the judicial example both of free and slave 

 States a decree, fixing the standard of citizenship 

 as to color, and declaring that a man, with a major 

 part of white blood, should possess all the rights of 

 a white man. Upon this decision I should have 

 ordered all persons of that class embraced within the 

 decision of the court to be enrolled as voters. This 

 was the way and the only way to begin. It would 

 have given the right of representation to 30,000 

 colored people, and have led, without contest, to 

 the immediate extension of the franchise of the race. 



I had arranged this with Judge Durell, who was 

 ready to give the case a hearing in the United States 

 Circuit Court, and with one of the most eminent con- 

 servative lawyers to argue the question for the Gov- 

 ernment in favor of the negro ; but a few men, who 

 wanted to break the bundle of sticks without loosen- 

 ing the band, defeated it. The President gave me too 

 much to do more than any other major-general in 

 the army or it would have been accomplished. My 

 belief is now, that the question of suft'rage will be 

 settled sooner in Louisiana than in any other State. 



A board of education for frecdmen was es- 

 tablished by Gen. Banks, whose duty it was to 

 establish one or more common schools in each 

 school district that has been or may be denned 

 by the Parish Provost Marshals under orders 

 or the Provost Marshal General, to erect school- 

 houses, employ teachers, and in all respects 

 exercise the same powers as school officers in 

 the Northern States. 



In order to provide the requisite funds for 

 this work the board is empowered to assess and 

 levy a school tax upon real and personal prop- 

 erty, including crops of plantations, in each 

 school district. The taxes so levied shall be 

 sufficient in amount to defray the cost and 

 expense of establishing, furnishing, and con- 

 ducting for the period of one year, the school 

 or schools so established in each district. 



In the performance of all their duties the 

 board is to cooperate, as far as practicable, with 

 the Superintendent of Public Education, and 

 the current school year is to be estimated from 

 Feb. 1st, 1864, to Feb. 1st, 1865. 



The Superintendent of the Bureau of Free 

 Labor in the Department of the Gulf, for the 

 year ending Feb. 1st, 1865, states that the num- 

 ber of freedmen (orphans, infirm persons, &c.) 

 supported by the Government during the year 

 was 1,416, and the cost $113,426. The number 

 of freedmen on the plantations who were man- 

 aged by the bureau was 50,000, and the num- 

 ber of plantations under cultivation by military 

 orders, 1,500. On twelve plantations it has 

 been found necessary to seize property for the 

 purpose of securing the payment of the freed- 

 men working them. It having been an exceed- 

 ingly unprosperous year the planters have found 

 it very difficult to pay their laborers. 



The disaster of the past season by the failure 

 of the crops has been so great as almost to ruin 

 nearly every planter in the department. Then- 

 estates are so heavily mortgaged that if the 

 crops again fail, as last year, they cannot save 

 themselves, and the old planting aristocracy 

 will disappear. Even with fair crops it will be 



impossible to prevent a very early change in 

 the ownership of the plantations, and they are 

 even now preparing to give way to new capital 

 and new proprietorship. 



In regard to the treatment of the freedmen, 

 the old planters have, as a general rule, paid 

 them more promptly, more justly, and appar- 

 ently with more willingness than have the new 

 lessees from other parts of the country. 



Early in May Maj.-Gen. E. G. Canby was 

 ordered to assume command of the forces west 

 of the Mississippi and to relieve Maj.-Gen. 

 Banks. The department was reorganized; 

 some regiments were recruited from the plan- 

 tations, but no extensive military operations 

 took place within the State during the remain- 

 der of the year. (See ARMY OPERATIONS.) 



The receipts of Western produce from Sep- 

 tember 1st to March 8th, in the respective 

 years, compare as follows : 



The receipts of cotton at New Orleans in 

 1859-'60 were 2,255,448 bales ; in 1861-'2 they 

 were 38,882 bales ; from Sept., 1862, to March, 

 1863, 7,865 bales ; in 1863-'4 the receipts have 

 increased to 84,402 bales. 



A large amount of this produce was bought 

 on Government account, and has been moved 

 by the military authorities. New Orleans is 

 thus not even a shadow of its former self. The 

 receipts of Louisiana staples are only a moiety 

 of what they were. The state of trade is thus 

 reported : " Our trade for the supply of the 

 interior with dry goods, hardware, groceries, 

 etc., has fallen off in like proportion with the 

 rest of our commerce. The whole volume of 

 the year's business will barely reach the month- 

 ly record of the olden time. Most of our old 

 population is scattered. New firms and nftw 

 faces meet one at every corner. The memory 

 of our former, riches is almost all that remains 

 to remind us of what New Orleans should be, 

 and we may hope will be, after the termina- 

 tion of the war." Shreveport, in the north- 

 west part of the State, was the seat of the former 

 government, and there a Legislature assembled 

 during the year, but nothing is known of its 

 proceedings. 



The validity of the organization of the Pro- 

 visional Court of Louisiana as well as that of 

 its proceedings, was brought before that court 

 in the cases of the United States vs. Augusta 

 Eeiter, and the United States vs. John Louis. 

 The following are the points of the opinion of 

 Judge Peabody, in deciding the questions raised : 



These two cases may without inconvenience or 

 danger of confusion be considered together, although 



