The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1863-01-17

tHc people VI NOW orledlS
"CHisenS Of .New Orleans 1t may
not be inappropriate, as i. is not luop.
perfume i'll occasion, that there should
be addressed to you few words at part
ing, by one whose name is o be here
af er imdissolubly connected with your
city.
| shall speak in no bitterness, because
| am no conscious of a single personal
animosity. Commanding the Army OF
the Gulf, found you captured, bat not
surrendered conquered, but not order
~ relieved from tie presence of an
army, but incapable of taking care of
yourselves. So far from it, you had
called upon foreign legion to protect
you from yourselves. | restored order,
punished crime, opened commerce,
brought provisions your starving peo-
pie, reformed your currency, aud gave
you quiet protection, such as you have
no enjoyed for many years.
While doing Ibis my soldiers were
snhjcc ed to obloquy, rcproacE and
insult.
And now, speaking o you, who know
the ruth, here declare that whoever
has quietly remained abou his business,
aif"rding neither aid nor comfort to he
enemies of the United Sta es, has never
been iIrerfered with by the soldiers of
the United States.
The men who had assumed to govern
you and to defend your city in arms
having fed, some of your women fouted
at the presence of those who came to
protect them. BY simple order No.
2S) | called upon every soldier of this
army to ireaj the women of New Orleans
AS gentlemen should deal with the sex.
with such effect hat now call upon the
just minded ladies of New Orleans to
say whc her they have ever enjoyed so
complete protec ion aud calm quiet for
themselves and their families since the
advent of the United States troops.
The enemies of my country, unrepen-
tant and implacable, | have treated with
merited severity. | hold that rebellion
is treason, and that treason persisted in
is death, and any punishment short of
that due traitor gives so muck clear
gain to him from the clcmency of the
Government. Upon this thesis have
administered the al hority Of he United
States, because Of which am not uncon-
Scious Of complaint. do not feel that
| have erred in too much harshnesS, for
that harshncss has ever been exhibited
to dlsloyal enemies of my country and
not to loyal friends. To be sure | might
| have rcgaied you with the amcni les of
British civilization, and yet been within
the supposed rules of civilized warfare.
You might have been smoked 10 death
in cavernS, as were the Covenantcrs of
Scotland by the command of a General of
the Royal house of England or roasted
like he inhabitants of Aleiers during
| the French campaign your wives and
daughters might have been given over O
| the ravlshcr as were the unfortunate
danes of Spain in the Peninsula War ::
or you might have been scalpcd and
tomahawked as our mothers were at
Wyoming by savage allies of Great Bril-
tain in our own Revolution; your pro-
perty could have been turned over to
, indiscriminate " loot" like the palace of
the Emperor of China works of art
which adorned your buildings might have
been sent away like the paintings of the
Va lean; your sons might have been
blown from the mouths of cannons like
he Sepoys of Delhi and yet all this
would have been within the rules of civ
l'izcd warfare as praciiscd by the most
polished and the most hypocrtical nations
Of Europe. For such acts the records
of the doings of some of the inhabitants
of your city towards the friends of the
Union, before my coming, were a differ
ent provocative and justifca ion.
But | have not so conducted. On the
contrary, the wors, punishment inflicted,
except for criminal nc :, punishable by
every law, has been banishmen with
labor to some barren island, where |
encamped my own soldiers before march
ing here.
1t is true l have levied upon the
wealthy Rebels and paid out nearly halt
II million of dollars to feed forty thous-
and of the starving poor of al! nations,
assembled here, mace so By this war.
saw that this rebellion was war of
he arStocrats against the middling men;
of the rich againsi the poor war OF
the landowner against the laborer that
it was S ruggle for the retention of
power in the hands of the few against the
many and found no conclusion TO il
save in the subjugation of the few and
the observation-disclosures of the many.
therefore felt no hesitation in taking the
substance of the wealthy, who had caused
he war, to feed the innocent poor, who
had suffered by the war. And | shall
now leave you wi h the proud conscious
ness that | carry with me the blessings
CT the humble and loyal under the root
of the cottage and in the cabin of the
slave, and so am quite content to incur
the sncers of the saLon or the curses of
the ich
found you trembling at the terrors
of servile Instruction. All danger of
this have prevented by so treating the
slave that he had no cause to rebel
found the dungeon, the chain and
the lash your only means of enforcing
obedience in your servants. | leave
them peaceful, labolious, controlled by
the laws of kindness and justice.
l have demonstra cd that the pes;i-
lcnce can be kept from your borders.