HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT
OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, May 16,
1862.
To the Mayor and Gentlemen of the City Council of New
Orleans:
In the report of your official action, published in the Bee
of the 16th instant, I find the following extracted resolution, with the action
of part of your body thereon, viz:
The following preamble and resolution,
offered by Mr. Stith, were read twice and adopted; the rules being suspended,
were on motion sent to the assistant board. YEAS: Mr. De Labarre, Forstall,
Huekins, Rodin, and Stith—5.
Whereas it has come to the knowledge of
this council that for the first time in the history of this city a large fleet
of the navy of France is about to visit New Orleans, of which fleet the Catina,
now in our port, is the pioneer; this council bearing in grateful remembrance
the many ties of amity and good feeling which unite the people of this city
with those of France, to whose paternal protection New Orleans owes its
foundation and early prosperity, and to whom it is especially grateful for the
jealousy with which in the cession of the State it guaranteed all the rights of
property, person, and religious freedom of its citizens: Be it
Resolved, That the freedom and
hospitality of the city be tendered, through the commander of the Catina, to
the French naval fleet during its sojourn in our port; and that a committee of
five of this council be appointed, together with the mayor, to make such tender
and such other arrangements as may be necessary to give effect to the same.
Messrs. Stith and Forstall were
appointed on the committee mentioned in the foregoing resolution.
This action is an insult as well to the United States as to
the friendly, powerful, and progressive nation toward whose officers it is
directed. The offer of the freedom of a captured city by the captives would
merit letters-patent for its novelty were there not doubts of its usefulness as
an invention. The tender of its hospitalities by a government to which police
duties and sanitary regulations only are intrusted is simply an invitation to
the calaboose or the hospital. The United States authorities are the only ones
here capable of dealing with amicable or unamicable nations, and will see to it
that such acts of courtesy or assistance are extended to any armed vessel of
the Emperor of France as shall testify the national, traditional, and
hereditary feelings of grateful remembrance with which the United States
Government and people appreciate the early aid of France and her many acts of
friendly regard shown upon so many national and fitting occasions.
The action of the city council in this behalf must be
reversed.
BENJ. F. BUTLER,
Major-General,
Commanding.
SOURCE: The
War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and
Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 15 (Serial No. 21), p. 427
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