458 



LOUISIANA. 



The following extracts from two of the lead- 

 ing New Orleans papers show how the work- 

 ing of the registration was regarded by the 

 press of that city : 



The Registration Swindle. The disgraceful exhi- 

 bition of the utter trampling upon all law, right, and 

 decency, known as the registration in this city, is still 

 continued. More than a half of the white citizens 

 fully qualified under the law are turned away, while 

 every negro who applies is immediately accepted and 

 registered. Naturalized citizens are not only required 

 to produce their papers, but to leave them with the 

 registers, with a very dim prospect of ever getting 

 them back. Old citizens who have lived here a 

 quarter of a century, and who pay individually more 

 taxes than the whole radical party in the State pay 

 collectively, are turned away because they have been 

 at some remote period of their lives school directors 

 or aldermen under the city government, and are sus- 

 pected of having sympathized with the rebellion. 

 2V. 0. Times, April 11. 



Not to Register and Vote is to Vote against the 

 South. Under ordinary circumstances you might con- 

 sult your sense of the fitness of men to vote with you, 

 and decline to vote with such as you deemed unfit. 

 But this is a moment of peril to your wives, your 

 children, your sisters, and to those men who are dis- 

 franchised by Congress ; and, if you shrink from 

 voting now, you commit their future which they 

 cannot, but you might, control to those who desire 

 to trample all their feelings, aspirations, hopes, inter- 

 ests, their every thing, in short, into the very dust. 

 If you wish to see those whom you profess to love, 

 to cherish, and to honor bereft of all hope, and the 

 wretched and hopeless objects of insult and oppres- 

 sion refuse to register, deprive yourselves of a vote 

 and let your State fall into alien hands. He who will 

 not now take part in the reorganization forced upon 

 us by a power we cannot resist, votes that those only 

 shall govern the State, preside in its courts and exe- 

 cute their decrees, collect, appropriate, and disburse 

 its revenues, and prescribe its laws, who desire, like 

 Brownlow, to drive out every man of Southern heart 

 and Southern affections, that a new population may 

 possess the land. Not to register and not to vote is 

 to vote against the South. N. 0. Picayune, April 21. 



The negroes, in most cases, came forward 

 with alacrity, to claim the privilege so suddenly 

 bestowed upon them, and were encouraged 

 and protected in so doing. A lieutenant of 

 the police in New Orleans, accused of intimi- 

 dating the freedmen at the registry office, was 

 promptly removed by a special order from the 

 district commander. Some disturbances being 

 anticipated from the hostile collision of the 

 freedmen and disfranchised whites, General 

 Mowry issued an address to the former class, 

 reminding them that the Government had 

 given them freedom and now bestowed the 

 franchise upon them, and assuring them that 

 they would be protected in its exercise. He 

 furthermore appealed to them not to disappoint 

 their friends and gratify their enemies by com- 

 mitting excesses and showing themselves un- 

 worthy of their freedom. 



General Sheridan, as an additional precau- 

 tion, forbade the carrying of firearms in the 

 city of New Orleans, except by officers for the 

 execution of their duties. 



Early in April, General Sheridan wrote to 

 General Grant, enclosing the following passage 

 from a letter written by General Griffin, com- 

 manding in Texas : 



I cannot find a single officer holding a position 

 under the State law whose antecedents will justify 

 me in reposing trust in him in assisting in registi-a- 

 tion. I have frequently called the Governor's atten- 

 tion to murders and outrages upon loyal men, but so 

 far no notice has been taken of my suggestion, and 

 none of the lawless persons have been brought to 

 iustice. He and the Lieutenant-Governor are both 

 disqualified under the Military Act, and I desire the 

 immediate removal of the Governor. 



General Sheridan agreed with General Grif- 

 fin that Governor Throckrnorton ought to be 

 removed, and adds: "I fear I shall be obliged 

 to remove Governor Wells of this State, who 

 is impeding me as much as he can." General 

 Grant replied in these words : 



WASHINGTON, April 3, 1 867. 

 Major- General P. IT. Sheridan, JVeio Orleans, La. : 



I would advise that no removals of Governors of 

 States be made at present. It is a question now under 

 consideration whether the power exists, under the 

 law, to remove except by special act of Congress, or 

 by trial under the sixth section of the act promul- 

 gated in Orders 33. U. S. GKANT, General. 



Governor Wells gave special cause of com- 

 plaint in the State by the illegal, appointment 

 of a new Board of Levee Commissioners. Much 

 damage to property had been done in Louisiana 

 by the overflowing of the Mississippi Kiver, 

 consequent upon an extensive breaking away 

 of the levees. At the last session, the General 

 Assembly had appropriated $4,000,000, to be 

 raised by the issue of " levee bonds," for the 

 necessary repairs, etc., on the levees, and had 

 appointed a Board of Commissioners to super- 

 intend the disbursement of these funds. These 

 commissioners were authorized to continue 

 their functions until superseded by law. Gov- 

 ernor Wells, however, not approving of the 

 Board appointed by the Legislature, designated 

 a new set of commissioners, and directed them 

 to take possession of the records and assets on 

 the 1st of May. This action gave rise to diffi- 

 culties springing from the conflicting authority 

 of the two Boards, which were summarily set- 

 tled by General Sheridan in the following 

 order : 



Special Orders, No. 34. 

 HEADQUARTERS FIFTH MILITARY DISTRICT, \ 

 NEW ORLEANS, LA., May 3, 1S67. J 

 [Extract.] * * * * * * 3. To relieve the 

 State of Louisiana from the incubus of the quarrel 

 which now exists between his Excellency the Gov- 

 ernor and the State Legislature, as to which political 

 party shall have the disbursement of the four mil- 

 lion dollars ($4,000,000) of the " levee bonds " au- 

 thorized by the last Legislature, and in order to have 

 the money distributed for the best interests of the 

 overflowed district of the State, all existing or pre- 

 tended Boards of Levee Commissioners are hereby 

 abolished, and the following Board appointed. It 

 will be obeyed and respected accordingly. 



EFFINGIIAM: LAWRENCE, parish of Plaquemines. 



J. H. OGLESBY, parish of Orleans. 



J. BUENSIDE, parish of Ascension. 



W. D. SMITH, parish of Jefferson. 



W. L. McMiiLEN, parish of Carroll. 

 The existing laws respecting the duties, compen- 

 sation, etc., ol Levee Commissioners will remain in 

 force . 



The Board will meet in the city of New Orleans 

 on the 10th inst.,to organize and receive from the 



