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worthy graduate of South Carolina politics, Rev. B. M. Palmer, was the chief minister at the Legislative Altar. This man on the 20th November, 1860, before the mass of the people of Louisiana had seriously thought of secession, desecrated the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans, by a well-prepared sermon arguing for the “divinity” of slavery, and urging the people to secede at once. His Sermon was published in the secession newspapers and in pamphlet form, and extensively circulated as an excellent campaign document in the interests of the rebellion. He prostituted his high calling as a follower of the meek and lowly Jesus, to publicly incite and endeavor to deceive and madden the hitherto reluctant people of the Union City of New Orleans into electing the Secession Ticket—a result deemed impossible without his efforts. With how much success, let the result in New Orleans, the consequent secession of the State, which could not have taken place without that result; let these and the dire consequences to Louisiana of that sad and fatal step tell the tale. He took good care to be absent from the city on the arrival of Farragut and Butler; but he was not generous and decent enough towards his benefactors to refrain from publishing a letter while safely within the lines of Dixie, censuring such members of his New Orleans congregation as had renewed their allegiance to the United States. He has been permitted, by a kind and beneficent Government which he tried hard to destroy, to return and again preach in his former church. But I regret to say, I have seen no Sermon of repentance from his glib pen or lips, published in any paper, to atone for his past treason. Even Judas, after he had betrayed Christ, repented and hanged himself. But traitor-parsons like this Palmer neither repent nor hang themselves.
The Legislature, on the very last day of its session, about three weeks ago, to the neglect of a great deal of other important business, hurried through both Houses the following resolution:
“Whereas, We are informed that the Superintendent of the Freedman’s Bureau for the State of Louisiana is proceeding to enforce the collection of a tax levied by military order in the State of Louisiana, to refund money expended, or to provide funds to be expended by the Federal authorities in the education of freedmen in this State; and, whereas, sufficient provision is made by the Constitution and laws of the State, without any resort to this extraordinary and oppressive mode of taxation, in the present and exhausted and impoverished condition of the country; and, whereas, we are informed that the collection of this tax on a former occasion was suspended by Gen. Fullerton, when superintendent of freedmen for Louisiana, under instructions from President Johnson: therefore—
“Sec. 1. Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Louisiana in general assembly convened, That General Howard, general superintendent of the Freedman’s Bureau for the United States, or in his default, the President of the United States be respectfully requested to suspend the further collection of said taxes, and to procure or make a revocation of the orders upon which they rest, and that the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives be requested immediately to communicate this resolution by telegraph to Washington, and to draw upon their own warrants the actual expenses incidental out of the contingent funds of the two Houses.”
This is on a par with everything emanating from this Legislature on the subject of the freedmen.
The action of the Legislature is not the first attempt made by the “oligarchy” to avoid the payment of this eminently just and proper tax for the support of freedmen’s schools. General Banks levied this tax (March 22, 1864) for the purpose of placing within the reach of the freedmen “the elements of knowledge which give intelligence and greater value to labor, &c.” President Lincoln was clearly in favor of colored
