mer.

softer hearted of his own military family pleaded for a commutation of the sentence. Mrs. Butler was at the North for the sumAlone that night, the general paced his room, considering and reconsidering the case. He could not find a door of escape for these men. He had executed a citizen of New Orleans for an offense against the flag of his country; how could he pardon a crime committed by Union men against the citizens of New Orleans, a crime involving several distinct offenses of the deepest dye? His duty was clear, but he could not sleep. He paced his room till the dawn of day.

The men were executed in the morning; all but one of them confessing their guilt. To one of the families thus left destitute, the general gave a sewing-machine, by which they were enabled to earn a subsistence.

The effect of this prompt and rigorous justice was most salutary upon the minds of both parties in New Orleans; and its effect would have been as manifest as it was real, but for the disturbing influence of the terrible tidings from Virginia; in the presence of which the wisdom of an archangel would have failed to give confidence to the loyal people of Louisiana, or win to the Union cause any considerable number of the party for secession.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS.

WE may now proceed to consider the iron-handed measures of the commanding general, which were designed to isolate the secessionists, and render them innoxious.

Crowds were forbidden to assemble, and public meetings, unless expressly authorized. The police were ordered to disperse all street-gatherings of a greater number of persons than three.

In the sixth week of the occupation of the city, General Butler began the long series of measures, by which the sheep were sepa rated from the goats; by which the attitude of every inhabitant of

New Orleans toward the government of the United States was ascertained and recorded. The people might be politically divided thus: Union men; rebels; foreigners friendly to the United States; foreigners sympathizing with the Confederates; soldiers from Beauregard's army inclined to submission; soldiers from Beauregard's army not inclined to submission. These soldiers, who numbered several thousands, were required to come forward and define their position, and either take the oath of allegiance, or surrender themselves prisoners of war; in which latter case, they would be admitted to parole until regularly exchanged, or if they preferred it, remain in confinement. In this way, the name, standing, residence, and political sympathies of this concourse of men were placed on record, and the general was enabled to know where they were to be found, and what he had to expect from them in time of danger.

His next step was to decree, that no authority of any kind should be exercised in New Orleans by traitors, and that no favors should be granted to traitors by the United States, except the mere protection from personal violence secured by the police. The following general order was designed to secure these objects:

"GENERAL ORDER No. 41.

"NEW ORLEANS, June 10, 1862.

"The constitution and laws of the United States require that all military, civil, judicial, executive and legislative officers of the United States, and of the several states, shall take an oath to support the constitution and laws. If a person desires to serve the United States, or to receive special profit from a protection from the United States, he should take upon himself the corresponding obligations. This oath will not be, as it has never been, forced upon any. It is too sacred an obligation, too exalted in its tenure, and brings with it too many benefits and privileges, to be profaned by unwilling lip service. It enables its recipient to say, 'I am an American citizen,' the highest title known, save that of him who can say with St. Paul, 'I was free born,' and have never renounced that freedom.

"Judges, justices, sheriffs, attorneys, notaries, and all officers of the law whatever, and all persons who have ever been, or who have ever claimed to be, citizens of the United States in this department, who therefore exercise any office, hold any place of trust or calling whatever which calls for the doing of any legal act whatever, or for the doing of any act, judicial or administrative, which shall or may affect any other person than the actor, must take and subscribe the following oath: 'I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America, and will support the constitution thereof.' All acts, doings, deeds,

instruments, records or certificates, certified or attested by, and transactions done, performed, or made by any of the persons above described, from and after the 15th day of June inst., who shall not have taken and subscribed such oath, are void and of no effect.

"It having become necessary, in the judgment of the commanding general, as a 'public exigency,' to distinguish those who are well disposed toward the government of the United States, from those who still hold allegiance to the Confederate States, and ample time having been given to all citizens for reflection upon this subject, and full protection to person and property of every law-abiding citizen having been afforded, according to the terms of the proclamation of May 1st:

"Be it further ordered, That all persons ever heretofore citizens of the United States, asking or receiving any favor, protection, privilege, passport, or to have money paid them, property, or other valuable thing whatever delivered to them, or any benefit of the power of the United States extended to them, except protection from personal violence, must take and sub scribe the oath above specified, before their request can be heard, or any act done in their favor by any officer of the United States within this department. And for this purpose all persons shall be deemed to have been citizens of the United States who shall have been residents therein for the space of five years and upward, and if foreign born, shall not have claimed and received a protection of their government, duly signed and registered by the proper officer, more than sixty days previous to the publication of this order.

"It having come to the knowledge of the commanding general that many persons resident within this department have heretofore been aiding rebellion by furnishing arms and munitions of war, running the blockade, giving information, concealing property, and abetting by other ways, the so-called Confederate States, in violation of the laws of neutrality imposed upon them by their sovereigns, as well as the laws of the United States, and that a less number are still so engaged; it is therefore ordered, that all foreigners claiming any of the privileges of an American citizen, or protectio or favor from the government of the United States (except protection fron personal violence), shall previously take and subscribe an oath in the form following:

“I, do solemnly swear, or affirm, that so long as my government remains at peace with the United States, I will do no act, or consent that any be done, or conceal any that has been or is about to be done, that shall be done, that shall aid or comfort any of the enemies or opposers of the United States whatever.

"(Signed),

"Subject of

"At the City Hall, at the provost court, at the provost-marshal's office,

THE CONSULS TO GENERAL BUTLER.

"NEW ORLEANS, June, 1862. "To Major-General B. F. BUTLER, Commanding Department of the Gulf: "GENERAL:-The undersigned, foreign consuls, accredited to the United States, have the honor to represent that General Order No. 41, under date of 10th instant, contains certain clauses against which they deem it their duty to protest, not only in order to comply with their obligations as repre sentatives of their respective governments, now at peace and in friendly relations with the United States, but also to protect, by all possible means, such of their fellow-citizens as may be morally or materially injured by the execution of an order which they consider as contrary both to that justice which they have a right to expect at the hands of the government of the United States, and to the laws of nations.

"The Order' contains two oaths: one, applicable both to the native born and to such foreigners as have not claimed and received a protection from their government, &c.; the second applicable, it would seem, to such foreigners as may have claimed and received the above protection: thus, unnaturalized foreigners are divided into two categories, a distinction which the undersigned can not admit.

"The Order' says that the required oath will not be, as it has never been, forced upon any;' that 'it is too sacred an obligation, too exalted in its tenure, and brings with it too many benefits and privileges, to be profaned by unwilling lip-service;' that all persons shall be deemed to have been citizens of the United States who shall have been resident therein for the space of five years and upward, and, if foreign born, shall not have claimed and received a protection of their government, duly signed and registered by the proper officer, more than sixty days previous to the publication of this order.'

"Whence it follows that foreigners are placed on the same footing with the native born and naturalized citizens, and in the alternative either of being deprived of their means of existence or forced implicitly to take the required oath, if they wish to ask and do receive any favor, protection, privilege, passport, or to have money paid them, property or other valuable thing whatever delivered to them, or any benefit of the power of the United States extended to them, except protection from personal violence.'

"Now, of course, when a foreigner does not wish to submit to the laws of the country of which he is a resident, he is invariably and everywhere at liberty to leave that country. But here he does not even enjoy that privilege; for to leave he must procure a passport, to obtain which he must take an oath that he is unwilling to take; and yet that oath is so sacred and so exalted in its tenure that it must not be profaned by unwilling lipservice.'

"It is true that the 'Order' excepts those foreigners who claimed and received the protection of their government more than sixty days previous to its publication; but this exception is merely nominal, because the very great majority of foreigners never had any cause hitherto, in this country, to ask, and therefore to receive, a protection of their government.' Besides, this exception implies an interference with the interior administration of foreign governments-an act contrary to the laws of nations. Whether the foreign residents have or have not complied with the laws and edicts of their own governments is a matter between them and their consuls, and the undersigned deny the right of any foreign power to meddle with, and still less to enforce, the laws of their respective countries, as far as their fellow-citizens are concerned. When a consul extends the high protection of his government to such of his countrymen as are neither naturalized nor charged with any breach of the laws of the country in which they reside, he is to be supported by a friendly government; for it is a law in all civilized countries, that if foreigners must submit to the laws of the country in which they reside, they, and a fortiori their consuls, must, in exchange of that respect for those laws, receive due protection, that protection, in fact, which the foreigners have invariably enjoyed in this country up to the present time. Now, foreigners are deprived of that protection unless they become citizens of the United States; and this is done without a warning and in opposition to the laws of the United States concerning the mode in which foreigners may become citizens of this country. The undersigned must remark that a just law can have no retroactive action, and can be enforced only from the day of its promulgation, while the order requires that acts should have been done, the necessity of which was unforeseen, especially in this country.

"The required oath is contrary not only to the rights, duty and dignity of foreigners, who are all 'free born,' but also to the dignity of the government of the United States, and even to the spirit of the order itself.

"1. Because it virtually forces a certain class of foreigners, in order to save their property, to swear 'true faith and allegiance' to the United States, and thereby to renounce and abjure' that true faith and allegiance which they owe to their own country only, while naturalization is and can be but an act of free will; and because it is disgraceful for any 'free man' to do, through motives of material interest, those moral acts which are repugnant to his conscience.

"If the order merely required the English oath of allegiance,' it might be argued, according to the definition given by Blackstone (I., p. 370), that said oath signifies only the submission of foreigners to the police laws of the country in which they reside; but the oath, as worded in the 'order, is a virtual act of naturalization. A citizen of the United States might take the oath, although Art. 6 of the Federal Constitution and the act of