Chapter 12: administration of finances, politics, and justice.--recall.
- Becomes his own “Secretary of the Treasury” -- debased condition of the currency -- Compelling the Banks to pay out specie -- curbstone dealers in Confederate money -- their course a reliable news barometer -- Street disturbances -- case of Mrs. Larue -- no money to pay the troops -- Farragut's appeal for influence -- Adams express company called on -- an Army self-supported -- Banks' subsequent troubles -- “General Butler didn't give reasons for his orders ” -- the confiscation acts enforced among the planters -- congressional election -- Count Mejan, the French consul -- Major Bell administers justice -- Intimations of recall -- Napoleon's demand and Seward's compliance -- General Banks arrives -- Butler in Washington, seeking reasons -- interviews with Lincoln, Stanton and Seward -- double-dealing of the latter shown -- farewell address -- Davis proclaims Butler a felon and an outlaw -- ,000 reward -- Lincoln desires Butler's services -- return to Lowell
One of the most important matters which pressed upon me immediately after my occupation of the city was the condition of the currency. It was absolutely necessary for the successful administration of my department in New Orleans that I should at once make an imperium in imperio, in which somebody must assume the role of “secretary of the treasury.” Who should it be but the general commanding? Both before the war and after it began the banks of New Orleans had been conducted upon an exceedingly conservative basis. They were very strong. They had never, in any troublesome times, suspended specie payments, and after the outbreak of the war, when Confederate treasury notes became the money of the treasury, the banks of New Orleans refused to receive them or pay them out as money. A contest followed between the Confederate treasury and the banks. It lasted until September, 1861, when the banks succumbed to the harsh measures of the Richmond government and began to deal in Confederate notes, receiving and paying them at the counter as money. The consequence of this was that they accumulated a large quantity of gold, and many of them, especially the Citizens' Bank, placed abroad large amounts of gold in exchange. Besides this, the banks had something rising thirteen millions of dollars in gold or silver in their vaults when the bombardment of the forts began. After Farragut came before the city, the banks disposed of about six and one half millions of their specie by sending it up the river into the Confederacy. They called in all their bills possible, and paid out and received nothing but Confederate money.
