430 



LOUISIANA. 



ventured upon this most positive act of insubordina- 

 tion and disobedience of his own volition, I waited 

 upon the Collector at the Custom-House, and had with 

 him a full and free conversation upon the whole sub- 

 ject. In the course of it, Mr. Hatch admitted to me 

 that he had caused the cutter to be brought to the city 

 of New Orleans by an order of his own, dated January 

 15th, so that she might be secured to the State of Lou- 

 isiana, although at that time the State had not only 

 not seceded, but the Convention had not met, and in 

 fact did not meet until eight days afterwards. This, I 

 must confess, seemed to me a singular confession for 

 one who at that very time had sworn to do his duty 

 faithfully as an officer of the United States ; and on 

 intimating as much to Mr. Hatch, he excused himself 

 on the ground that in these revolutions all other things 

 must give way to the force of circumstances. Mr. 

 Hatch likewise informed me that the officers of the 

 cutter had long since determined to abandon their al- 

 legiance to the United States, and cast their fortunes 

 with the independent State of Louisiana. In order to 

 test the correctness of this statement, I addressed an- 

 other communication to Captain Breshwood, of the fol- 

 lowing tenor : 



NEW ORLKANS, Jan. 29, 1861. 



SIR : By your note of this date I am informed that 

 you refuse to obey the orders of the honorable Secre- 

 tary of the Treasury. As, on accepting your commis- 

 sion, you took and subscribed an oath faithfully to dis- 

 charge your duties to the Government, and as you 

 well know, the law has placed the revenue cutters and 

 their officers under the entire control of the Secretary 

 of the Treasury, I request you to advise me whether 

 you consider yourself at this time an officer in the ser- 

 vice of the United States. 

 Very respectfully, 



WM. HEMPHILL JONES, Special Agent. 

 To Captain BRESHWOOD. 



To this letter I never received any reply. I then 

 repaired again on board the cutter, and asked for the 

 order of the Collector bringing her to New Orleans. 

 The original was placed in my possession, of which 

 the following is a copy. And here it may be proper to 

 observe, that the order is written and signed by the 

 Collector himself: 



CtrsTOM-IIorrsE, NEW ORLEANS, ) 

 COLLECTOR'S OFFICE, Jan. 15, 1861. | 

 SIR: You are hereby 'directed to proceed forthwith 

 under sail to this city, and anchor the vessel under 



gur command opposite the United States Marine 

 ospital, above Algiers. 



Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



F. H. HATCH, Collector. 

 To Capt. J. G. BEESHWOOD. 



In the latter part of January, the Collector 

 at New Orleans, acting under instructions from 

 the State authorities, refused to deliver foreign 

 goods that had been imported by merchants in 

 the cities of the Northern States or bordering 

 on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, unless the 

 duties were paid at New Orleans. Applica- 

 tions for instructions were made by the Collec- 

 tors of these cities to the Treasury Department 

 at "Washington, and the answer was returned 

 " that duties on imports collected by the State 

 of Louisiana, at New Orleans, will not be re- 

 cognized by the General Government." 



On the 7th of February, an ordinance was 

 passed by the Convention conferring the right 

 of citizenship on all persons residing in the 

 State of Louisiana at the date of the adoption 

 of the secession ordinance. 



Subsequently a State flag was adopted, con- 

 sisting of a red ground, upon which appears 

 a single star of pale yellow. The ground is 



crossed by bars of blue and white, making of 

 the three colors fifteen stripes. 



An ordinance was passed making it a penal 

 offence for pilots at the Balize to bring over the 

 bar any United States vessel of war. 



Another ordinance was adopted to accept 

 the criminal code of the United States District 

 Court. 



In the House of Eepresentatives of the Legisla- 

 ture, on the 15th of February, a joint resolution 

 was introduced and referred, inviting the south- 

 ern portion of Indiana and Illinois, which gave 

 large majorities against Mr. Lincoln, to form a 

 pro-slavery State and join the Southern Con- 

 federacy. 



The speech of Mr. Lincoln, at Indianapolis, 

 was regarded by the Legislature in session at 

 Baton Rouge as foreshadowing coercion, and 

 that war was inevitable. It was then declared 

 that, "upon the first demonstration by him, the 

 Provisional Government would send immediate- 

 ly a large army North. The South would never 

 wait to be invaded." 



An appropriation bill amounting to one mil- 

 lion and a half passed the House on the 19th, 

 and one hundred thousand dollars were asked 

 to put the forts on the Mississippi in a com- 

 plete state for defence. A regular force of 

 three regiments was to be raised, which, with 

 the volunteers, were supposed to be sufficient 

 for any emergency. 



At the same time, the bishop (Polk) of the 

 Protestant Episcopal Church for the Diocese of 

 Louisiana, issued a pastoral letter, arguing that 

 secession likewise embraced that portion of 

 the Church, which thereby separated from the 

 Church in the Northern States. He thus ex- 

 pressed his views : 



" Our separation from our brethren of ' The 

 Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 

 States ' has been effected, because we must fol- 

 low our nationality. Not because there has 

 been any difference of opinion as to Christian 

 doctrine or catholic usage. Upon these points 

 we are still one. With us it is a separation, 

 not a division certainly not alienation. And 

 there is no reason why, if we should find 

 the union of our dioceses under our National 

 Church impracticable, we should cease to feel 

 for each other the respect and regard with 

 which purity of manners, high principle, and a 

 manly devotion to truth never fail to inspire 

 generous minds. Our relations to each other 

 hereafter will be the relations we both now 

 hold to the men of our mother Church of Eng- 

 land." 



On the 4th of March the State Convention 

 re-assembled at New Orleans. On the same 

 day a resolution was passed, that the Conven- 

 tion will unite in a public reception of General 

 Twiggs, and inviting him to a seat on the floor 

 of the Convention. A resolution was also 

 adopted instructing the Louisiana delegates in 

 the Southern Congress not to cede any part of 

 the public domain to the Confederation. 



On the next day General Twiggs was enthu- 



