430 



LOUISIANA. 



17th and 18th of April. It is furthermore pro- 

 vided that all officers chosen at such election 

 should enter upon the discharge of their duties 

 on the second Monday after the returns of their 

 election were officially promulgated, or as soon 

 thereafter as qualified, but their regular terms 

 of office were to date from the first Monday in 

 November following their election. The same 

 ordinance provides for the first meeting of the 

 General Assembly in the city of New Orleans, 

 on the third Monday after the official promul- 

 gation of the results of the election, and de- 

 clares that it shall "proceed, immediately upon 

 its organization, to vote upon the adoption of 

 the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution 

 of the United States, proposed by Congress, 

 and passed June 13, 1866;" and that "said 

 Legislature shall not have power to enact 

 any laws relative to the per diem of members, 

 or any other subject, after organization, until 

 said constitutional amendment shall have been 

 acted upon." 



Meantime the State of Louisiana continued 

 under the military authority of the United 

 States, which was exercised in a spirit of mod- 

 eration by General Hancock. The following 

 order, issued on the first day of the year, indi- 

 cates the views taken by this commander of the 

 power which had been delegated to him by the 

 Federal Government : 



General Orders, No. 1. 



HEADQUARTERS FIFTH MILITARY DISTRICT, ) 

 NEW ORLEANS, January 1, 1868. ) 



Applications have been made at these headquarters 

 implying the existence of an arbitrary authority in 

 the commanding general touching purely civil con- 

 troversies. 



One petitioner solicits this action, another that, and 

 each, refers to some special consideration of grace or 

 favor which he supposes to exist, and which, should 

 influence this department. 



The number of such applications and the waste of 

 time they involve make it necessary to declare that 

 the administration of civil justice appertains to the 

 regular courts. The rights of litigants do not depend 

 on the views of the general they are to be adjudged 

 and settled according to the laws. Arbitrary power, 

 such as he has Jbeen urged to assume, has no exist- 

 ence here. It is not found in the laws of Louisiana 

 or Texas it cannot bo derived from any act or acts 

 of Congress it is restrained by a constitution and 

 prohibited from action in many particulars. 



The major-general commanding takes occasion to 

 repeat that, while disclaiming judicial functions in 

 civil cases, he can suffer no forcible resistance to the 

 execution of process of the courts. 



By command of Major-General HANCOCK. 



GEO. L. HARTSUFF, Assistant Adjutant-General. 



On the 20th of December, 1867, an investi- 

 gation had been ordered into certain charges 

 of malfeasance in office, which had been made 

 against William Baker, Street Commissioner for 

 the city of New Orleans; and at about the 

 same time Arthur Gastinel, Recorder for the 

 Second District, was pronounced ineligible to 

 that office by the Supreme Court of the State. 

 On the 5th of February, General Hancock is- 

 sued an order, removing both these individuals 

 from office. A day or two after this action was 

 taken, the City Council of New Orleans adopted 



a resolution providing for the immediate elec- 

 tion of a recorder, to fill the place of Mr. Gastinel, 

 although they were reminded of the order of 

 General Sheridan, forbidding elections without 

 the authority of the commanding general until 

 reconstruction was completed. No sooner did 

 General Hancock hear of this action of the 

 City Council, than he removed all the members 

 who voted for the project, nine in number, two 

 white men and seven negroes, and telegraphed 

 the circumstances to General Grant. The 

 commander-in-chief immediately replied, di- 

 recting General Hancock to suspend his order 

 and report the case more fully. At the close 

 of his answer to this demand, General Hancock 

 uses the following language: 



At any rate, my self-respect as commander of this 

 district made it absolutely necessary that I should 

 take summary measures, regardless of the conse- 

 quences with which partisans might threaten me. I 

 do not know what fuller report could be furnished in 

 this case, for all the papers explaining my action have 

 been sent to you. To suspend my order would be to 

 destroy my usefulness here and, in such want of a 

 sense of what I consider due to me and my position 

 in this matter, would necessitate a respectful request 

 to be relieved from my present command. Although 

 I have been here seventy days, this is the second oc- 

 casion I have taken on my own responsibility to make 

 a removal the first one, two days previous to this 

 both for grave causes, reported to you in detail bv 

 telegraph ; and while I fully recognize the power of 

 the general-in-chief to disapprove my action, I re- 

 spectfully request that, as I have acted upon a full 

 knowledge of the fact, the general-in-chief may de- 

 lay his action until he can inform me what further 

 papers or information he may desire in addition to 

 what has already been furnished, for a full under- 

 standing of the case under consideration. 



on the first supplementary reconstruction act of July 

 19, 1867. I await your reply before issuing the order. 



On receiving this communication, General 

 Grant replied that if the former order had been 

 executed and the new appointees were in office, 

 that order need not be revoked; but some days 

 later new orders were received by the district 

 commander, directing that the members of the 

 New Orleans City Council who had been re- 

 moved should be reinstated, which was accord- 

 ingly done on the 27th of February, and sub- 

 sequently Street Commissioner Baker was also 

 restored by direction of General Grant. On 

 transmitting the correspondence on this mat- 

 ter to Washington, General Hancock asked to 

 be relieved from his command. 



The Treasury of the State at the opening of 

 the year was financially embarrassed to the last 

 degree, and the necessity was severely felt of 

 some efficacious measure of relief. The State 

 Auditor had reported to General Hancock in 

 December the condition of the finances, and 

 after speaking of some attempts to relieve the 

 Treasury, which had failed, he said : " It now 

 becomes evident that, unless something is done, 

 the wheels of government must stop ; the pres- 

 ent indebtedness of the State is such that, un- 

 der the present revenue laws, the debt cannot 

 be paid." The claims upon the Treasury at 

 the close of the year 1867 were $1,313,000 in 



