From New Orleans.
proclamation of the Federal Military commander.
The following is the proclamation issued by the General in command of the invading forces at New Orleans, to which allusion was made in Tuesday's Dispatch.
Headq'rs Department of the Gulf, New Orleans, may 1, 1862.
The city of New Orleans and its envirous, with all its interior and exterior defences, having been surrendered to the combined naval and land forces of the United States, and having been evacuated by the rebel forces in whose possession they lately were, and being now in occupation of the forces of the United States, who have come to restore order, maintain public tranquility, enforce peace and quiet under the laws and constitution of the United States, the Major General commanding the forces of the United States in the Department of the Gulf, hereby makes known and proclaims the object and purposes of the Government of the United States in thus liking possession of the city of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana, and the rules and regulations by which the laws of the United States will be for the present, and during a state of war, enforced and maintained, for the plain guidance of all good citizens of the United States, as well as others who may heretofore have been in rebellion against their authority.Thrice before has the city of New Orleans been rescued from the hands of a foreign government, and still more calamitous domestic insurrection, by the money and arms of the United States. It has, of late, been under the military control of the rebel forces claiming to be the peculiar friends of its citizens, and at each time, in the judgment of the commander of the military forces holding it, it has been found necessary to preserve order and maintain quiet by the administration of law martial. Even during the interim from its evacuation by the rebel soldiers, and its actual possession by the soldiers of the United States, the civil authorities of the city have found it necessary to call for the intervention of an armed body known as the ‘"European Legion,"’ to preserve public tranquility. The Commanding General, therefore, will cause the city to be governed until the restoration of municipal authority, and his further orders, by the law martial, a measure for which it would seem the previous recital furnishes sufficient precedents.
All persons in arms against the United States are required to surrender themselves, with their arms, equipments and munitions of war. The body known as the ‘"European Legion"’ not being understood to be in arms against the United States, but organized to protect the lives and property of the citizens, are invited still to co-operate with the forces of the United States to that end, and, so acting, will not be included in the terms of this order, but will report to these headquarters.
All flags, ensigns and devices, tending to uphold any authority whatever, save the flag of the United States and the flags of foreign consulates, must not be exhibited, but suppressed. American ensign, the emblem of the United States, must be treated with the utmost deference and respect by all persons, under pain of severe punishment.
All persons well disposed towards the Government of the United States, who shall renew their oath of alleriance, will receive the safeguard and protection in their persons and property of the armies of the United States, the violation of which by any person is punishable with death.
All persons still holding allegiance to the Confederate States will be deemed rebels against the Government of the United States, and regarded and treated as enemies thereof.
All foregners not naturalized and claiming allegiance to their respective Governments, and not having made oath of allegiance to the supposed Government of the Confederate States, will be protected in their persons and property, as heretofore, under the laws of the United States.
All persons who may heretofore have given their adherence to the supposed Government of the Confederate States, or have been in their service, who shall lay down and deliver up their arms and return to peaceful occupations, and preserve quiet and order, holding no farther correspondence nor giving aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States, will not be disturbed, either in person or property, except so far, under the orders of the Commanding General, as the exigencies of the public service may render necessary.
The keepers of all public property, whether State National or Confederate, such as collections of art, libraries, museums, as well as all public buildings, all munitions of war, and armed vessels, will at once make full return thereof to these headquarters; all manufacturers of arms and munitions of war will report to these headquarters their kind and places of business.
All rights of property, of whatever kind, will be held inviolate, subject only to the laws of the United States.
All inhabitants are enjoined to pursue their usual avocations; all shops and places of business and amusement are to be kept open in the accustomed manner, and services to be had in churches and religious houses, as in times of profound peace.
Keepers of all public houses, coffee houses, and drinking saloons, are to report their names and numbers to the office of the Provost Marshal, who will there receive license, and be held responsible for all disorters and disturbance of the peace arising in their respective places.
A sufficient force will be kept in the city to preserve order and maintain the laws.
The killing of an American soldier by any disorderly person or mob, is simply assassination and murder, and not war, and will be so regarded and punished.
The owner of any house or building in or from which such murder shall be committed will be held responsible therefore, and the house be liable to be destroyed by the military authority.
All disorders and disturbances of the peace done by combination and numbers, and crimes of an aggravated nature interfering with forces or laws of the United States, will be referred to a military court for trial and punishment, other misdemeanors will be subject to the municipal authority if it chooses to act.--Civil causes between party and party will be referred to the ordinary tribunals. The levy and collection of all taxes, save those imposed by the laws of the United States, are suppressed, except those for keeping in repair and lighting the streets, and for sanitary purposes. Those are to be collected in the usual manner.
The circulation of Confederate bonds, evidences of debt, except notes in the similitude of bank notes issued by the Confederate States or scrip, or any trade in the same, is strictly for bidden. It having been represented to the Commanding General, by the civil authorities, that these Confederate notes, in the form of bank notes, are, in a great measure, the only substitute for money which the people have been allowed to have, and that great distress would ensue among the poorer classes, if the circulation of such notes were suppressed, such circulation will be permitted so long as any one may be inconsiderate enough to receive them, till further orders.
No publication either by newspapers, pamphlet, or handbill, giving accounts of the movements of soldiers of the United States within this department, reflecting in any way upon the United States or its officers, or tending in any way to influence the public mind against the Government of the United States, will be permitted; and all articles of war news, or editorial comments, of correspondence, making comments upon the movements of the armies of the United States, or the rebels, must be submitted to the examination of an officer who will be detailed for that purpose from these headquarters.
The transmission of all communications by telegraph will be under the charge of an officer from these headquarters.
The armies of the United States came here not to destroy, but to make good, to restore order out of chaos, and the government of laws in place of the passions of men; to this end therefore, the efforts of all well-disposed persons are invited to have every species of disorder quelled, and if any soldier of the U. States should so far forget his duty or his flag, as to commit any ontrage upon any person or property, the Commanding General requests that his name be instantly reported to the prevost guard, so that he may be punished, and his wrongful act redressed.
The municipal authority, so far as the police of the city and crimes are concerned to the extent before indicated, is hereby suspended.
All assemblages of persons in the streets either by day or by night, tend to disorder, and are forbidden.
The various companies composing the Fire Department in New Orleans will be permitted to retain their organizations, and are to report to the office of the Provost Marshal, so that they may be known and not interfered with in their duties.
And, finally, it may be sufficient to add, without further enumeration, that all the requirements of martial law will be imposed so long as, in the judgment of the United States authorities, it may be necessary. And while it is the desire of these authorities to exercise this Government mildy and after the usages of the past, it must not be supposed that it will not be vigorously and firmly administered as occasion alls.
The subsistence Guestion.
In an editorial comment upon Gen. Buder's proclamation, the Picayane remarks:A very important omission in the proclamation, which touches us very nearly at this time, is noticeable in the want of distinct assurances on the subject of the subsistance of the great population in this city, and is imperilled by the obstacles thrown by the Federal occupation in the way of the importation of food.
One part of this question was in the currency. The first idea of Gen. Butler was to prohibit totally the use or circulation of Confederate notes, and when he modified that view, as it stands modified in the proclamation, he still speaks of the receipt of them by persons as ‘"inconsiderate."’ It is, however, a question of absolute necessity. There is no currency but Confederate notes and private issues, of various and uncertain responsibility, but all resting on their exchangability into Confederate notes. To make the use of these notes a crime, was, as far as such a decree could be enforce against a people threatened by it with starvation, to extingush the capacity of a hundred thousand people to buy their daily food. It would have been little inferior, in its destructive effects, to a bombardment by Capt. Farragut's guns. The misery inflicted would have been as indiscriminating, only more prolonged in its horrors.--To the extent in which it could have been enforced, it would have been an awful courge, and it is fortunate for humanity that the commanding General was made so sensible of the inexpediency, at least, of the measure, as to have revoked the prohibition and to leave the people, for the time the use of the limited and only currency they have, in supplying their daily wants.
The other branch of the subsistence question relates to supplies from abroad. The stock of food of all kinds is small and diminishing; and among the poor, privations are already extremely distressing. Under the first orders of the Federals it was impossible to calculate upon the introduction of any from abroad. Transportation was held to be contraband, and we were threatened with a dearth approaching — and very speedly — to absolute famine — a dearth which no currency could relieve. The subject was brought to the attention of Gen. Butler, and it is understood, at the time we are writing, that arrangements will be made for the facilitating of the transportation, by railroad and river, of market supplies and articles of food, subject to military regulations as to the entry and departure of persons.
Advance of "Bronze John."
The Yankee invaders are taking possession of buildings in the most populous parts of New Orleans for the purpose of establishing hospitals therein; and the papers of the city very properly protest against the proceeding. The Evans House, on Poyuras street, is thus occupied, and the Picayune says:‘ As to the unsuitableness of the buiding for that purpose, we have nothing to say. That is their concern, not outs. We do say, however, that the location of a military hospital on one of our leading business thoroughfares, and in the heart of the city, is very indudicious and reprehensible. It is fraught with danger, and ought to be at once abandoned. We speak plainly because we are just entering on the summer and our unhealthy season, and it is our duty at all times to protest against any measure that is calculated to jeopardize the health of the city. More especially is this duty not to be disregarded now that thousands of unacclimated persons have been thrust upon us. All the precautions which wisdom and experience have suggested have not hitherto prevented the almost annual visits of the devastating scourge of our sunny clime, and there is, in our present condition, very great reason to fear that the summer of 1862 will be frightfully memorable for the ravages of the yellow fever in New Orleans. In so former year has there been here so much food for the terrible pastilence, and we shudder when the probability of its outbreak is forced upon our attention by what we see around us. Already the effect of the climate on the strangers within our gates is apparent to every observer, and we know not at what moment the fearful harvest of death may commence.
It is not only our duty to protest against any proceeding that has a tendency to endanger the health of our fair city, but it is the duty of the dominant military authority here to be especially careful to avoid the necessity for such protest by well considered judicious sanitary regulations. The establishment of a hospital on Poydras street, between Camp and Magezene streets, a certainly not a measure calculated to give confidence to those who, by sad experience, know the critical position in which we stand at this moment, or to calm the fears of the timid and unaccilmated.
’
