GENERAL BUTLER'S POLICY IN NEW ORLEANS. lished one of its provisions was required to be enforced-that regulating the press. The newspapers of the city refused to print it, when a guard was sent to the office of the True Delta, with a band of printers from the New England regiments, who speedily put the document in type for the next morning's issue of that journal. One of the earliest duties of General Butler, was making provision for the wants of the mechanics and working classes of the city who had been deprived of employment by the rebellion. Their necessities had to be supplied, and the General, while looking round for the means of meeting them, hailed the opportune capture of a large quantity of stores intended for the rebels in the field. This he promptly ordered to be distributed to the suffering classes, availing himself of the occasion to brand with scorching invective the authors of the destitution, in their work of disorganization of the national industry. "This hunger," said he, in a general order on the 9th of May, "does not pinch the wealthy and influential, the leaders of the rebellion, who have gotten up this war, and are now endeavoring to prosecute it, without regard to the starving poor, the working man, his wife and child. Unmindful of their suffering fellow-citizens at home, they have caused or suffered provisions to be carried out of the city for the Confederate service since the occupation by the United States forces. Lafayette square, their home of affluence, was made the depot of stores and munitions of war for the rebel armies, and not of provisions for their poor neighbors Striking hands with the vile, the gambler, the idler, and the ruffian, they have destroyed the sugar and cotton which might have been exchanged for food for the industrious and good, and regrated the price of that which is left, by discrediting the very currency they had furnished, while they eloped with the specie; as well that stolen from the United States, 551 as the banks, the property of the good people of New Orleans, thus leaving them to ruin and starvation. Fugitives from justice, many of them, and others, their associates, staying, because too puerile and insignificant to be objects of punishment by the clement government of the United States. They have betrayed their country, they have been false to every trust. They have shown themselves incapable of defending the State they have seized upon, although they have forced every poor man's child into their service as soldiers for that purpose, while they made their sons and nephews officers. They cannot protect those whom they have ruined, but have left them to the mercies and assassinations of a chronic mob. They will not feed those whom they are starving. Mostly without property themselves, they have plundered, stolen, and destroyed the means of those who had property, leaving children penniless and old age hopeless. Men of Louisiana, workingmen, property-holders, merchants, and citizens of the United States, of whatever nation you may have had birth, how long will you uphold these flagrant wrongs, and, by inaction, suffer yourselves to be made the serfs of these leaders? The United States have sent land and naval forces here to fight and subdue rebellious armies in array against her authority. We find, substantially, only fugitive masses, runaway property owners, a whiskey-drinking mob, and starving citizens, with their wives and children. It is our duty to call back the first, to punish the second, root out the third, feed and protect the last. Ready only for what we had not prepared ourselves, to feed the hungry, and relieve the distressed with provisions. But to the extent possible within the power of the commanding general it shall be done." It was the policy of General Butler, as he said on his return to the North, "to deal kindly with the workingmen;" and he found a return in their support. and all be respected." This act of General Butler became a subject of much interest in diplomatic correspondence. The Honorable Reverdy Johnson, of Baltimore, was sent to New Orleans as a special commissioner, to examine int the matter, and, on his report, the money was restored to its foreign claimants. Within the first month of his administration, 14,000 of "those who compose the bone and sinew of New Orleans," took the oath of allegiance. One thousand were employed every day in the improvement of the condition of the city, to the great benefit of its sanitary condition, and the health of its inhabitants, which was preserved in an extraordinary To the consuls of Spain, France, Beldegree. No less than 34,000 persons gium, Greece, Italy, and Switzerland, on were daily fed at the government ex- a subsequent occasion protesting against pense. This large number was composed the order requiring the oath of allegiance of about 10,000 families, some 1,200 of from all persons desiring protection of whom were Americans, 4,000 British sub- their property, General Butler having and the rest French, Spanish, German, concluded his legal argument on the subItalian, etc. The fund for this outlay was ject, wrote: "Now, if any citizen or provided by assessments and confiscation foreigner, means to 'conceal' rebellious of rebel property, which was diligently or traitorous acts against the United ferreted out to meet this and other re- States, in the sense above given, it will quirements of the public service. Cer-be much more for his personal comfort tain wealthy cotton factors, who had advised the planters not to bring in their cotton, "for the purpose of forcing foreign intervention," were fined $350,000 for the relief fund, and 25 per cent was assessed on "another set of men" who had subscribed a million and a quarter of dollars for the defence of the city. A large amount of specie, $800,000, was seized on the 10th of May by order of General Butler, at the office of the Consulate of the Netherlands. The money, it was alleged, wrongfully held by the Confederates for the purposes of the rebellion, was placed there to protect it from the operation of the laws of the United States. The person of the Consul was subjected to some indignity in taking possession. This act brought out a protest from the consuls of France and other European powers in the city, as a violation of treaty rights, to which General Butler replied: "No person can exceed me in the respect I shall pay to the flags of all nations, and to the consulate authority, even while I do not recognize many claims made under them; but I wish it most distinctly understood, that, in order to be respected, the consul, his office, and the use of his flag, must each that he gets out of this department at once. Indeed, gentlemen, if any subject of a foreign state does not like our laws, or the administration of them, he has an immediate, effectual, and appropriate remedy in his own hands, alike pleasant to him and to us; and that is, not to annoy his consul with complaints of those laws, or the administration of them, or his consul wearying the authorities with verbose protests, but simply to go home -'stay not on the order of his going, but go at once.' Such a person came here without our invitation; he will be parted with without our regrets. But he must not have committed crimes against our laws, and then expect to be allowed to go home to escape the punishment of those crimes. I must beg, gentlemen, that no more argumentative protests against my orders be sent to me by you as a body. If any consul has anything to offer for my consideration, he will easily learn the proper mode of presenting it. It is no part of your duties or your rights." Another order of General Butler, issued on the 15th, a few days after the entrance of the Dutch consul's premises, was productive of still greater animad ORDER CONCERNING THE WOMEN OF NEW ORLEANS. version. In the peculiar state of feeling causing and engendered by the rebellion, it had been the habit with a portion of the female population of the South to express their contempt for the United States officers who, in the course of the discharge of their public duties, visited their cities and towns. Many actions of this kind, in the nature of insults, were reported, from the very beginning of the war, at Baltimore, in Virginia, in Tennessee, and wherever the national troops penetrated at the South. Instances of rudeness, and positive insult, were constantly occurring. Of course, no lady with a proper feeling of self-respect would seek to attract the attention of a stranger by any act of approval or censure, but there were many pursuing a contrary course, who had no hesitation in going far beyond the bounds of delicacy, inflamed by spite, or mortification, or a false sense of the service they were rendering their beloved rebellion. As a social grievance, the conduct of the sex towards the officers became, in many instances, insupportable. They could not appear in public without encountering some unseemly word or gesture of contempt. It was even carried to the extent of "deliberately spitting in the faces of the Union soldiers, and upon their uniforms." Gen. Butler, who had given his pledge in his proclamation that the national flag should be respected "by all persons," was not disposed to see his army-a living embodiment of the flag-habitually treated with insult. It was not politic, nor had he any inclination, to wage a ceaseless war with women; but, the occasion, he thought, demanded something to be done, and with characteristic boldnesss and sagacity, he resolved to touch their pride by branding, in the most emphatic manner, their discreditable conduct. Namque, etsi nullum memorabile nomen, * New Orleans Correspondence of the New York Evening Post, June 25, 1862. 559 He accordingly issued from headquarters the following order No. 28: "As officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject to repeated insults from women calling themselves ladies of New Orleans, in return for the most scrupulous non-interference and courtesy on our part, it is ordered, hereafter, when any female shall, by mere gesture or movement, insult, or show contempt for any officers or soldiers of the United States, she shall be regarded, and held liable to be treated, as a woman about town, plying her vocation." The penalty to which such a "woman" was liable under the municipal regulations of the city, was imprisonment in the calaboose; but it was with no design of inflicting punishment of this nature that the order was issued. It was simply a species of reductio ad absurdum, exposing the conduct of the women in the strongest light, and making it impossible, by making it thoroughly disreputable. It was on the same principle with the edict of a sovereign of Spain, who, finding his sumptuary laws of no avail in checking the extravagance of the ladies of his kingdom, decreed that a certain luxury of dress should be appropriated to courtezans. It was a delicate remedy but it proved effectual. Few persons, however, at the South, in their unfriendly state of mind, were disposed to recognize the severe practical humor of the order of General Butler. They chose to take it up in the worst construction of which its somewhat unguarded language was susceptible. Foremost among these was Mayor Munroe, who, since his extraordinary correspondence at the surrender of the city, had still continued to exercise the mutilated functions of his office. Immediately on the publication of the obnoxious document, he addressed the following letter to General Butler: "Sir-Your general order No. 28, is of a character so extraordinary and astonishing that I cannot, holding the office of chief magistrate of this city, chargeable with its peace and dignity, suffer it to be promulgated in our presence without protesting against the threat it contains, which has already aroused the passions of our people, and must exasperate them to a degree beyond control. Your officers and soldiers are permitted, by the terms of this order, to place any construction they may please upon the conduct of our wives and daughters, and upon such construction, to offer them atrocious insults. The peace of the city, and the safety of your officers and soldiers from harm or insult, have, I affirm, been successfully secured, to an extent enabling them to move through our streets almost unnoticed, according to the understanding and agreement entered into between yourself and the city authorities. I did not, however, anticipate a war upon women and children, who, so far as I am aware, have only manifested their displeasure at the occupation of their city by those whom they believe to be their enemies, and I will never undertake to be responsible for the peace of New Orleans while such an edict, which infuriates our citizens, remains in force. To give a license to the officers and soldiers of your command to commit outrages such as are indicated in your order upon defenceless women, is, in my judgment, a reproach to the civilization, not to say, to the Christianity of the age, in whose name I make this protest." To this remonstrance General Butler replied by the following authoritative order: "John T. Monroe, late Mayor of the city of New Orleans, is relieved from all responsibility for the peace of the city, and is suspended from the exercise of any official functions, and committed to Fort Jackson until further orders." This demonstrative reply brought the mayor to headquarters, when General Butler remonstrated with him on his perversion and misrepresentation of his language, and demanded from him an apology if he would escape the visit to Fort Jackson. The mayor, apparently convinced, withdrew his letter, admitting in writing that his communication had been sent under a mistake of fact, and that it was "improper in language." To his verbal explanations to the mayor, General Butler added the following letter: "Sir-There can be, there has been, no room for misunderstanding of general order No. 28. No lady will take any notice of a strange gentleman, and a fortiori of a stranger, simply in such form as to attract attention. Common women do. Therefore, whatever woman, lady, or mistress, gentle or simple, who, by gesture, look, or word, insults, shows contempt for, thus attracting to herself the notice of my officers and soldiers, will be deemed to act as becomes her vocation as a common woman, and will. be liable to be treated accordingly. This was most fully explained to you at my office. I shall not, as I have not, abated a single word of that order; it was well considered; if obeyed, will protect the true and modest woman from all possible insult. The others will take care of themselves. You can publish your letter if you publish this note and your apology." Matters here rested till the next day, when the mayor again presented himself at headquarters, desirous of withdrawing his apology, or obtaining a modification of the order. General Butler thereupon "told him unequivocally that he had nothing to modify; that he was not sorry for what he had written; that he would not withdraw it if he could, and could not if he would; but, at the request of the mayor, the General gave him permission to publish the offensive letter and the apology, and to add that the order applied only to those women who had insulted by word, look, or gesture, the officers or soldiers of the United States army. He also told him that he could append to the correspondence the startling fact that water is wet' and 'blackbirds are black'-a delicate piece of satire, that I fear was entirely lost upon the obtuse intelligence of the magis trate. STRICTURES UPON THE ORDER. 561 After an explanation from the mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters, General that would have been thoroughly be thus outraged by the ruffianly soldiers clear to the comprehension of a child, the of the North, to whom is given the right mayor left, apparently satisfied; but, to treat, at their pleasure, the ladies of Saturday night, he again sent the Gen- the South as common harlots? Arouse, eral a letter, the counterpart of the first. friends, and drive back from our soil Yesterday morning he was again at these infamous invaders of our homes, headquarters, with several of his friends, and disturbers of our family ties." This including Judge Kennedy, John McClel- was, perhaps, to be expected from the lan, Chief of Police, and D. G. Duncan. author of the "Beauty and Booty" The mayor demanded the right to with- proclamation before Washington; and, draw his apology, and General Butler something, perhaps, was to be allowed to granted it; but informed Mr. Mayor that an officer hard pressed in the proverhe had played with the United States bially unscrupulous game of war; but authority long enough, and now he had there was, surely, little reason for the got to go to Fort Jackson. The other virtuous indignation shown on the occa parties named above, admitting their ap- sion in the British Parliament. In the proval of the mayor's conduct, were also House of Lords, on the 13th of June, sent to Fort Jackson." By order of Earl Clarendon called attention to the General Butler, Brigadier-General Shep- famous order of General Butler, conley, of Maine, who had, since its occupa- demning it, as without precedent in the tion by the army, filled the duties of mil- annals of war, and asked the Minister for itary commandant of the city, was ap- Foreign Affairs if he had information on pointed, "in the absence of the late the order, and if he had protested against mayor," to discharge the duties of that it. Earl Russell replied, that the govofficial. He accordingly issued a procla- ernment believed the proclamation was mation calling upon all good citizens for authentic, and hoped that the American aid, and proceeded to administer the government would, for its own sake, regovernment of New Orleans with new fuse its sanction to it, and disavow it. vigor and efficiency. In the maintenance"The proclamation," he said, "was imof good order, and in the prompt enforce- portant to the whole world. The usages ment of sanitary regulations which ward- of war should not be aggravated by ed off the threatened pestilence of mid-proclamations of this character. summer, the city, doubtless, gained much by the change. He thought that such a proclamation, addressed to a force which had just captured a hostile city, was likely to lead to great brutality." The Premier, Lord Palmerston, in the House of Commons, Meanwhile, General Butler's order No. 28 was bruited about the world by the friends of the South, or those who, from interest or other motives, were inclined" thought that no man could read the to look askance upon his proceedings, as an utterly wanton and brutal manifesto. The first that was heard of it at the North was through the rebel lines by way of Corinth, where General Beauregard seized upon it with avidity to inflame the passions of his troops. He ordered it to be read on dress parade, adding, "Men of the South, shall our *Correspondence New York Herald. New Orleans, May 20, 1862. proclamation without feelings of the |
