I feel authorized to speak for the great mass of our fellow-citizens, and to include them in the same category.
- With high respect, I subscribe myself, your obedient servant,
Governor of Louisiana.
Major General E. R. S. Canby,
Commanding Department of the Gulf.
Official copy:
New Orleans, September 8, 1865.
Sir: In compliance with your request, I have the honor to submit some remarks upon the civil government of Louisiana, and its relation to the military administration of this department. These relations are more anomalous and complicated, probably, than in any other insurrectionary State, and it will be useful in considering these questions to bear in mind the changes that have occurred since the occupation of this city by the Union forces. These are, briefly—
1. The military administration of the commander of the department of the Gulf, Major General Butler.
2. The military government, of which Brigadier General Shepley was the executive, by appointment of the President.
3. The provisional government, of which the Hon. M. Hahn was the executive, by appointment of the President, upon nomination by the people at an election held under military authority.
4. The constitutional government, organized under the constitution adopted by the convention in July, 1864, and ratified by the people at an election held in September of that year. Of this government the Hon. J. M. Wells is the present executive.
This government has not yet been recognized by Congress, and its relation to the military authority of the department has never been clearly defined. Being restrained by constitutional limitations, its powers are necessarily imperfect, and it is frequently necessary to supplant them by military authority. Many of the civil officers still hold their positions by the tenure of military appointments holding over until elections can be held under the constitution. These appointments may be vacated by the commander of the department, and, if under the constitution the power of appointment reside in the governor, be filled by him: if it does not, the appointment must be filled by the military commander. Very few removals and no appointments have been made by me during my command of the department; but the governor has been advised that all persons holding office by the tenure of military appointment were subject to military supervision and control, and would not be permitted to interfere in the duties committed to him by the President of restoring “civil authority in the State of Louisiana;” that upon his recommendation, and for cause, such officers would be removed; and if the power of appointment was not under the constitution vested in him, the appointment would be made by the department commander, if, upon his recommendation, there was no disqualifying exception.
The instructions to the military commanders, in relation to the previous governments, were general, and I believe explicit; but, as their application passed away with the existence of these governments, it is not necessary to refer to them here. Those that relate to the constitutional government are very brief, so far, at least, as they have reached me. In a confidential communication from his excellency to the late President, in which he deprecated, in strong terms, any military interferences, and expressed very freely his own views and wishes, he concluded by saying that “the military must be judge and master so long as the necessity for the military remains;” and, in my instructions from the War Department, of May 28, 1865, the Secretary of War says: “The President directs me to express his wish that the military authorities render all proper assistance to the civil authorities in control in the State of Louisiana, and not to interfere with its action further than it may be necessary for the peace and security of the department.”
These directions and wishes have been conclusive, and I have given to the civil authorities whatever support and assistance they required, and have abstained from any interference with questions of civil or local State administration, except when it was necessary to protect the freedmen in their newly acquired rights, and to prevent the local courts from assuming jurisdiction in cases where, of law and of right, the jurisdiction belongs inclusively to the United States courts or United States authorities. With the appointments made by the governor I have no right to interfere unless the appointees are disqualified by coming under some one of the exceptions made by the President in his proclamation of May 29, 1865, or, (as in one or two instances that have occurred,) in the case of double appointments to the same office, when a conflict might endanger the peace and security of the department.
