post of duty during the epidemic of 1878 and contributing his services in relieving the distress caused by that scourge upon the city.
In November, 1879, he was elected by an almost unanimous vote judge of the district composed of the parishes of Jefferson, Saint Charles, and Saint John. In 1880, during the Presidential campaign, he started and edited the New Orleans Ledger, supporting the Republican nominees. In April, 1884, he was re-elected district judge unanimously for four years. In October following he reluctantly accepted the nomination as the Republican candidate for Congress from the second district of Louisiana only two weeks before the election, at which he received over 1,300 majority.
The mature years of Michael Hahn ran parallel with the most exciting and trying period in the history of his adopted State. The political caldron of 1860 stirred the souls of the great masses from one end of the land to the other. Hard feelings were engendered; solicitudes were entertained and nurtured.
The Sage of Auburn had declared that this country must be all free or all slave. The people of the South knew well that it would never be all slave.
Mr. Lincoln was elected. His motives were pure, his sentiments were liberal, his course would doubtless have been paternal and national, but he was untried, and the minds of the South were filled with apprehension. Webster, Clay, and Benton, alas! were dead. Had they lived, their counsel, as oil poured upon the raging waters of the storm, might have brought calm. But they had been removed from our midst.
The people of the South loved their country, but the security of their equal rights seemed to be in peril. Hence the coals were easily fanned to a flame and the clash of arms succeeded.
The heart of Louisiana was with their whole country; but when the hour for derision came she stood side by side with her sister States of the South.
I recall these incidents, not to revive the recollection of events
