LOUISIANA. 



431 



received. A salnte was fired, and 

 immense crowds gathered along the route of 

 the procession. The military, the members of 

 the State Convention, and others escorted him 

 to his residence. In reply to an address of 

 welcome, he said, " It was his hope that Provi- 

 dence would grant him sufficient strength to 

 take part in the momentous struggle which 

 threatened the country/' While the proces- 

 sion was moving, a ludicrous mishap occurred. 

 A file of the neatly-attired citizen soldiers was 

 ilrawn up along the street in front of a building 

 in course of construction, and close in their rear 

 was a long mortar-bed, two feet deep, with that 

 plastic composition ready for the workmen, 

 f he space between the files for the passage of 

 Ihe carriages being rather narrow, the officer 

 ordered his men to take a step back. They 

 did so, and about twenty feet of them instan- 

 taneously disappeared from sight backwards, 

 the front file, in close order, preventing the rear 

 rank from recovering themselves, when their 

 heels stumbled against the mortar-bed. They 

 were submerged, and every soldier had his 

 uniform spoiled. They took cabs and disap- 

 peared. 



By another ordinance, $536,000 were trans- 

 ferred to the Government of the Confederate 

 Srates as the amount of bullion found and reve- 

 nue from the customs seized by the State. At 

 a later day, an ordinance to submit the Consti- 

 tution of the Confederate States to a vote of 

 the people for their acceptance or rejection, 

 was defeated in the Convention by a vote of 

 ayes 26, noes 74. The popular vote of the 

 State for delegates to the Convention was not 

 known until some time after the passage of the 

 ordinance of secession. The names of the dele- 

 crates who were elected only were sent to the 

 Convention, without the popular vote of the 

 different parishes. It was finally made public, 

 however, as follows : For secession, 20,448 ; 

 against secession, 17.296. At the Presidential 

 election in November, 1860, the vote was as fol- 

 lows : Lincoln, ; Douglas, 7,625 ; Breck- 



inridge, 22,681 ; Bell, 20/204. 



At the time when the vote was announced, 

 Ihe distinction between cooperation and seces- 

 sion had lost much of its force. It was, how- 

 ever, asserted in different parts of the State that 

 there was a majority from two to three hundred 

 on the popular vote for cooperation. 



The right of secession was discussed at this 

 time, and it was proposed to amend the ordi- 

 nance ratifying the Constitution by adding 

 thereto the following : 



And it is hereby solemnly declared and ordained, 

 That the true meaning and interpretation of this or- 

 dinance of ratification is, and shall be, construed as 

 follows : 



Whereas a free State cannot be too jealous in guard- 

 ing its fundamental rights ; and whereas many citizens 

 of Louisiana had grave doubts whether separate seces- 

 sion was a peaceable, constitutional remedy for their 

 grievances in the late Union ; and whereas those 

 doubts arose from the silence upon that subject, both 

 of the Constitution of the United States of America 

 and of the act by which the State of Louisiana gave in 



her adhesion thereto ; and whereas the Constitution 

 of the Confederate States of America appears in this, 

 as in most respects, to have been modelled after this 

 Constitution of the United States : now, therefore, to 

 prevent misunderstandings, and to secure harmony in 

 Future, 



It is further ordained by the People of Louisiana, in 

 Convention assembled, That, in adopting the Constitu- 

 tion of the Confederate States of America, the sover- 

 eign State of Louisiana does expressly reserve to her- 

 self the right peaceably to withdraw from the Union 

 created by that Constitution, whenever, in the judg- 

 ment of her citizens, her paramount interest may re- 

 quire it. 



Mr. Marks, of Orleans, moved to lay the 

 amendment on the table ; and the yeas and 

 nays having been called for, the motion was 

 carried by yeas 92, nays 11. So the Conven- 

 tion refused to entertain the proposition. 



The Permanent Constitution was, on the 21st 

 of March, ratified in Convention by a vote of 

 ayes 101, noes 71. 



On the 26th, a resolution was introduced de- 

 claring in favor of entire free trade with the 

 Western States, slave and free, by the Confed- 

 erate States. 



An ordinance was passed transferring the 

 fortifications, arsenals, lighthouses, and reve- 

 nue cutters of the State to the Confederate 

 Government. 



The ordinance on banking was passed, prohib- 

 iting the issue of notes of less than ten dollars, 

 and this issue was not to exceed three-fourths 

 of the capital paid in ; the liabilities were to be 

 represented by one-third specie and ninety days' 

 paper. The State debt at this time was about 

 $11,000,000, and the apparent surplus in the 

 Treasury was $193,416. 



The demand for troops made upon the State 

 by the Confederate Government, was responded 

 to with alacrity. The parishes poured into Xew 

 Orleans large numbers of troops who were sent 

 forward to Pensacola. They also made liberal 

 appropriations for their support. Tensas par- 

 ish appropriated $16,000 for the use of the 

 State, and paid $20 a month to each soldier, be- 

 sides supporting his family during his absence. 

 East Feliciana subscribed $50,000 for the same 

 purpose, and at a large meeting passed a reso- 

 lution that the Planters' parish in East Felici- 

 ana stand pledged to tender to Louisiana and 

 the Government of the Confederate States, 

 should it be needed, the whole of the annual 

 proceeds of the crops, deducting only what 

 may be necessary for current expenses during 

 the continuance of the present hostilities. 



The state of affairs at Xew Orleans at this 

 time is thus reported : " The war fever here is 

 raging intensely, as it is also in all parts of the 

 State, and in Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Geor- 

 gia and other cities and towns in the Confed- 

 erate States. Indeed, so extensive are the pre- 

 parations for the coming and inevitable conflict, 

 that every thing in the way of business is lost 

 sight of, and thousands are arranging their per- 

 sonal effects in anticipation of the worst. In 

 this city the ardor and enthusiasm have never 

 been exceeded, and twenty-five thousand men 



