Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1863-01-15
Farewell Address of Gen. Butler.

General BUTLER, just before his depart
ure, issued the following eloquent address
to the people of New Orleans
Citizens of New Orleans 1T may not
be inappropriate, as it is not inopportune
| IN occasion, that there should be addressed
to you few words at parting, by one
whose name is to be hereafter indissolubly
connected with your city:
l shall speak in no bitterness, because |
! am not conscious of single personal an
| mostly. Commanding the Army of the
Gulf, l found you captured, but not sur
| rendered {; conquered, but not orderly !;
relieved from the 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 to your
starving people, reformed your currency,
and gave you quiet protection, such as you
had not enjoyed for many years.
While doing this, my soldiers were sub
jected to obloquy, reproach and insult
And now, speaking to you, who know
the truth, here declare that whoever has
quietly remained about his business, at
tording neither aid nor comfort to the
enemies of the Uuited States, has never
been interfered with by the soldiers of the
| United States.
The men who had assumed to govern
you and to defend your city in arms hav-
ing lied, some of your women fouted at
the presence of those who came to pro-
tect them By simple order-No. Is
l called upon every soldier of this army
to treat the women of New Orleans as
gentlemen should deal with tie sex, with
such effect that [ now call upon the just
minded ladies of New Orleans to say
whether they have ever enjoyed SO com
plete protection and calm quiet for them
selves and their families rs since the adj
vent of the United States troops
The enemies of the country ,unrepentant
| and lmplacaole, | have treated with rneri-
ted severity. | hold that rebellion is trea
son, and that treason persisted in is death,
| and any punishment short of that due a
traitor, gives so much clear gain to him
| from the clemency If the government
| Upon this thesis have | administered the
authority Of the United States, because of
which | am not unconscious of COMPLAINT.
| do not feel that have erred in too much
harshness, for that harshness has ever
been exhibited to disloyal enemies of nv
country and not to loyal friends. To be
sure l might have RECALLED you with the
amenities of British civilization and vet
!! been within the supposed rules of civilized
warfare. You might have been smoked
to death IN caverns, as were the Covenan-
tiers in Scotland by the command OF gen
eral OF the royal house of England; or
roasted like the inhabitants OF Algiers
during the French campaign: your wives
and daughters might have been given
over to the ravisher as were the untortu-
date DANES of Spain in the Peninsula war
or you might have been scalpe and tom.
ahawked as our mothers were at Wyo-
ming by savage allies of Great Britain in
our own revolution; your property could
have been turned over to indiscriminate
8" loot" like the palace OF the Emperor of
China; works of art which adorned your
building might have been sent away like
the paintings of the Vatican your sons
might have been blown from the mouths
of cannon like the Sepoys at Delhi; and
yet all this would have been within the
rules OF civilized warfare as practiced by
the most polished and the most hypocriti.
cal Dations OF Europe. For such acts the
records of the doings of some of the in
habitants Of your city towards the friends
OF the Union, before my coming, were
different % provocative and justification.
But have not so conducted, On the
contrary. the worst punishment inflicted,
except for criminal acts punishable by
every law, has been Punishment with la
Dor to barren island, where | encamped
my own soldiers before marching here.
"It is true [ have levied upon the
wealthy rebel and paid out nearly half
million of dollars to feed forty thousand OF
the starving poor of all nations assembled
here, made SO by this war.
IS | saw that this rebellion was war Of
the aristocrats against the middling man
of the rich against the poor; war of the
landowner against the laborer that it was
a struggle for the retention of power in the
hands Of the few against the many; and |
found no conclusion to it save in the sub
jugation of the few and the disenthrall.
meDt OF the many. therefore felt no hes
itation in taking the substance of the
wealthy, who had caused the war, to feed
the innocent poor who had suffered by the
war. And shall now leave you with the
proud consciousness that | carry with
nae the blessings of the humble and loyal
under the ROOF of the cottage and in the
cabin OF the slave, and so am quite content
to incur the sneers of the salon or the
curses of the rich.
81 found you trembling at the terrors
of servile instruction. All danger of this
l have prevented by SO treating the slave
that be had no cause to rebel
81 found the dungeon, the chain and
the lash your only means of enforcing
obedience in your servants. leave them
peaceful, laborious, controlled by the laws
of kindness and justice.
81 have demonstrated that the pesti- |
lence can be kept from yonr borders.
I" have added a million of dollars To |
your wealth in the form of new land from |
the batture of the Mississippi.
1" have cleansed and improved voDr
streets, canals and public squares, and
opened ne" avenues to unoceupied land. |
:" have given you freedom of elections,
greater than you ever enjoyed before.
have caused Justice to be admins
tered so impartially, that your own aiyo-
Gates have unanimously complimented the
judges OF my appointment.
=" You have seen, therefore, the benefit
OF the laws and justice of the Govern
ment against which you have rebelled.
WY, then, will you lot all return to
your allegiance to that Government-not
with lip service, but with the heart?
conJure You, if you desire ever to
see renewed prosperity, giving business to
your streets and wharves-it you hope to
see your city become again the mart of the
western world, fed by its rivers for more
than three thousand miles, draining the
commerce of a country greater than the