Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-03-12

Gen. Banks at New Orleans.
correspondent of the New York Tribune,
writing at Baton Rouge, Feb. &c, complains
that the administration of Gen. Banks, at
New Orleans is disastrously lenient and polite
to the rebels, and that he has organized, at
the expense of the federal government, "a
police force for holding slaves to labor" on
the plantations. 1t is added that under this
management treason has "grown rampant"
and our soldiers doubtful, if not discouraged.
We do not know the name of this writer, but
his statements are similar to Others that come
from his letter -
"a planters convention l beheld at the St
Charles, met to criticiSe and reform the orders
of the commanding general. Under whatever
harmless pretext that conyocation came to-
gether, it may be charitable to believe that it
met tor no worse purpose than that; yet if it
were sugmatzed as meeting of cowardly Sc
cesSionists, who to large extent, and perhaps
quite generally, have perjured themselves by
an oath of allegiance, it is apprehended the
exact truth would be stated | infer as much
| from what actually passed at the meeting.
| the terrors inspired by martial law, for New
Orleans, just now, bristles with bayonets, and
its streets tremble under the wheels of can
non. He therefore was obliged to mask his
| treason in at least decent and considerable
| forms of speech. But this restraint was i'm
| patiently borne, for at the very first session a
| leading orator announced that they must be
| satisfied with such concessions as they should
be able to wiring from the military rule under
| which they were, for, said he, in a moment
of generous frankness, 1T is well known TO us
all that what we really want is, that their Of
ticers and soldiers should go north, where
they came from, and leave us to manage our
| affairs here in our own way
This, you perceive, is an announcement
of the secession doctrine in very unequivocal
phrase. 1t was declaration that these very
men, on whom the freshly taken oath of allie
glance ''hangs like giant robe upon dwarf
lsh thief, were in reality anxious to turn this
valley over to the southern confederacy. The
orator spoke the feeling OF the assembly. and
1t adjourned till the next evening with this ut
terance on its lips.
''For one, having heard the speech, and
seeing that it was printed in the city papers in
the morning, ssree.aA To read before night
an order forbidding its reassemblng or az
least its dispersion if it met, ut the point of
the bayonet, and the arrest of the obnoxious
orator and his summary punishment by some
proper authority. 1 inferred that this would
be the course taken, inasmuch as it seemed to
me to be proper, and because l had seen that
poor women and drunken men were daily
punished for singing The Bonnie Blue Flag
when under the excitement OF rum and dissi-
patton. This deliberate utterance in plain
prose, and in a meeting held for the ACCOM-
r,lic Of l
more dangerous to the peace of tine city and
the state than the halt Ineligible chant OF
debauchee in a midnight reyel. But soon
smothered the thought lest l should be arrest
ed and punished myself for entertaining it.
For, to my great surprise, 1 found that this
meeting was patronized by the authorities,
particularly by the commanding general, who
came to the adjourned meeting, and made the
speech which has before this been publis he'd
at the north.
Il cannot tell how that speech will seem
when read in your icy latitudes. But consid-
ering to whom it was made, and when, it filled
me with establishment as | heard it from the
generals lips. 1t seemed to be very remark
able for what was not in it. Read it, and see
if this not just criticism. His auditors were
met to contemplate their distresses from the
war, and to devise means of relief. The COM
handing general never intimated that the
surest means of relief was to conquer the re-
bellion. On the contrary, he seemed to favor
the notion Of the orator have quoted-that
the presence of himself and his men here was
a thing to De deplored, and the cause rather
than the consequence of the woes they suffer-
ed He apologized for being in louisiana
He excused his acts as the acts of his govern
ment. He intimated, if he did not say, that
hn with tho Of nod 10
elsewhere. He talked Of peace with the fer
vor of copperhead democrat of the middle or
western states. He spoke like an envoy sent
to patch up truce, rather than like general
at the head of an army. lie spoke of concur
ring with them in action, when it would better
comport with the relative positions of the par
ties if he had said his orders had been issued.
and that it only remained to them to obey
them"