The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-01-16
Important from New Orleans.
GEN. BUTLER'S FAREWELL ADDRESS.
A Singing Rebuke to the Rebcls'
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE BY OUR
FORCES.
SLAVERY INCOMPATIBLE WITH
THE SAFETY OF THE UNION.

General Butler, just before his departure,
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 address,
ed to you few words at parting, by one
whose name is to be hereafter indissOlubly
connected with your city.
shall speak in no bitterness, because I
am not conscious of single personal an
mostly. Commanding the Army of the
Gulf, found you captured, but not sur
rendered conquered but not orderly re-
lieved from the presence of an army but
incapable of taking care of yourselves. So
far from it, you had called upon a foreign
legion to protect you from yourselves. l
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, l here declare that whoever has
quietly remained about his business, af-
fording neither aid nor comfort to the enc
mics of the United States, have 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 fed, some OF your woman tiouted at the
presence Of those who came to protect
them. BY & simple order (No. 2S) l called
upon every soldier of this army to treat
the women OF New Orleans as gentlemen
should deal with the sex, with such effect
that now call upon the just minded ladies
of New Orleans to say whether they have
ever enjoyed SO complete protection and
calm quiet for themselves and families as
since the advent of the United States
troops.
The enemies of my country, unrepentant
and implacable, | have treated with mer-
tied severity. / hold that rebellion is trea-
son, and that treason persisted in is death,
and any punishment short of that due o
traitor gives so much clear gain to him
from the clemency Of the government.
Upon this thesis l have administered the
authority of the United States. because
of which | am not unconscious of COM
plant | do not feel that | have
erred in too much harshneess, for that
harshness has ever been exhibited to dis
loyal enemies Of my country and not to
loyal friends. To be sure | might have
RECALLED you with the amenities of British
civilization, and yet been within the sup
posed rules of civilized warfare. You
might have been smoked to death in cav
ems, as were the Covenanters of Scotland
by the command of general of the royal
house of England; or roasted like the in
habitants of Algiers during the French
campaign your wives and daughters
might have been given over to the raw
isher as were the unfortunate danes of
Spain during the Peninsula war; or you
might have been scalped and tOmahawked
as our mothers were at Wyoming by the
savage allies Of Great Britain in our own
revolution; your property could have been
turned over to indiscriminate loot like
the palace Of the Emperor Of China ;;
works OF art which adorned your build
ings might have been sent away like the
paintings of the Vatican; your sons might
have been blown from the mouths Of can
non like the Sepoys at Delhi and ali this
would have been within the rules of civil
lied warfare as practiseu by the most pol
ished and the most bypOcritical nations of
Europe. For such acts the records Of the
d0ings OF some Of the Inhabitants of your
city towards the friends of the Union, be-
fore my coming, were different proyoca-
tive and Justification.
Bat I have not so conducted. On the
contrary, the worst punishment inflicted,
except for crilninGl acts punishable by
every law, has been Punishment with
labor to barren island, where Iencamped
my own soldiers before marching here
It is true have levied upon the wealthy
rebels, and paid out nearly half million
Of dollars to feed forty thousand of the
starving poor OF ali nations, assembled
here, made SO by this war.
| saw that this rebellion was q war Of
the aristocrats against the lniddling men :;
Of the rich against the poor; war of the
landowner against the laborer; that it was
a struggle for the retention of powerin the
hands of the few against the many; and |
found no conclusion to it save in the sub
iugation OF the few, and the disenthrall-
ment OF the many. | therefore felt no
hesitation 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 me
the blessings of the humble and loyal I'M
der the roof of the cottage and in the cabin
Of the slave, and SO am quite content to
incur the sneers of the s0tot or curses of
the rich.
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 Obedl-
ence in your servants. l leave them peace
full, laborious, controlled by the laws of
kindness and justice.
| have demonstrated that the pestilence
can be kept from your borders.
| 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 your
streets, canals and public squares, and