Year: 1866

specified in the resolution of adjournment


to call the convention together when the


emergencies arose for which the resolution
itself provided That was the cause, that
the motive, and that the origin of the re
convocation of the convention, which was


made the pretext for the wholesale slaugh


ter of Union men in New Orleans on the


30th of July. After the Governor who


was first elected under that Constitution
: the Hon. Michael Hahn, had been elected
: by the Legislature, under it, to seat in
the Senate of the United States, the Lieu
tenant Governor of the State, Mr.. Well
of the parish of Rapids, succeeded to the
| Executive chair. Under instructions, as il
} was said, from the Executive at Washing.


ton, he used the full measure of his Execu.


tive patronage to promote the welfare OF


those who had most largely striven to ov-


erthrOw the Government of the United


States. Under his administration every of


fee in the gift of the Executive was filed


with an incumbent who had served in the


rebel army, or who had done service in the


vigilance committees, or who had made


himself conspicuous in civil life for his ad.


hesion to the Confederate cause and so


well did this master of policy carry out his


work, that when, in the ensuing fall, the


elections for the Legislature came on, there


was, so far as my knowledge goes (and
relieve that | am correct in what | saw,


not one man elected to the Legislature


to either branch-who would call himself


Union man nay, more, not one who would
not have felt it as deep offence if any one
| had applied that designation to him. Hence
the State was completely under the rule Of


men who had used their best efforts to ov-
erturn the Government Of the United States
and who had plunged Louisiana into the
vortex of rebellion. Immediately were
seen the natural consequences in the legis-
lation OF body so chosen as the one |
have described. The mostoppressive laws
were passed with regard to the labor Of the
ly-emancipated people ; odious distinc-
tions were made in every direction, and the
whole system of government--executive
Legislative and judicial~-was so organized
and constituted that justice or right in the
case of a citizen Of African descent or a
citizen Of conspicuous Union sentiments, in
most quarters of the State, could not be
obtained This condition Of things to ma
ny became insuferable, and they turned
their attention to those resolutions to which



orized the President of the Constitutional
Convention of 1864 to reconvoke it. When
the idea of reconvoking this Constitutional
assembly was first put forth, and up to the
time when it was in degree consummated
the same objection was present to the
minds of Radical men that had existed
when the convention was originally con-
vened under the orders of the major gener-
al commanding the department of the Gulf
They viewed it as an improper thing in it.
SELF that convention should spring from
the executive department of the Govern
ment; they thought it impolitic that the
Union men of the South should attempt to
march faster than the Congress of the Uni
ted States seemed willing to move. Great
applause. For it became evident to all
men of sober reflection that if in any of the
insurrectiOnary States the Union men at
tempted to go farther than the limits as
signed to them by Congress they would be
exposed to all the evils Of rebel vengeance |
and executive neglect. They really be-
came exposed to much worse. But you
will perceive, citizens, that none of these |
objections, either on the score of legality |
or of policy, were or could be made by the |
partisans of the executive theory of recon
struction because that portion of the peo-
pie and the executive had taken the exact
ly opposite ground, and it did not lie in
their mouths to make such objections And
candor compels me also to say that there
was large body Of men among the Union
lists in Louisiana as we'll able to Judge as
those who were styled most radical, as
we'll able to grapple with questions Of law
as they were, who thought that it was en-
tirely legal to recall that convention into
being | have never heard that the former
president Of that convention, the Hon.
Judge Durell, of the District Court of the
United States in Louisiana, ever objected
to recalling it into being on the ground that
the call would be illegal. The gentleman
who was chosen to preside over the pre-
liminary deliberations, III the absence of
Judge Durell, as judge Of the Supreme
Court OF Louisiana, native of the adjoin-
ing State of Mississippi, lifelong resident
of Louisiana. | refer to the name OF the
Hon. r. K. Howell and when | present
his name all who have been in Louisiana
will bear me out when | say | mention the
name of man of spotless integrity, of
blameless life, Of high judicial experience
and legal knowledge. He gave the move
ment the sanction of his name, and, as |
have said, lent TO it the appearance Of le-
gality by presiding over its preliminary
meetings and deliberations Nor were
there wanting other men who added re-
spectability to the movement. Mr.. Hahn,
himself lawyer of high standing at the
bar of New Orleans and man of most re-
spectacle attainments, who had been hon.
ored by the friendship of the late Chief
Magistrate of the United States, and who
enjoyed the respect of the Union men of
New Orleans-he also sanctioned the
movement. So that although there was
dissent, both On the ground of legality and
on the ground of expediency, among sim
cere friends of the Union in Louisiana, as
to the reconvocation of that convention,
yet the opinions were equally balanced and
no man was presumptious enough to say
that the recall of the convention was so ut
terly illegal that it was plainly immoral or
improper to attempt it.


But, fellow-citizens, what did that con-
vention do? 1t assembled in the first
place, in order to ascertain what number of |
its members could still be secured in at
tendance, and its only act was to call up