ng Congress was seriously opposed. On the 21st of November--only
a fortnight before the election ordered by General Shepley--Mr. Lincoln
addressed him a note which in effect was a warning that Federal
officers, not citizens of Louisiana, must not be chosen to represent
the State in Congress. "We do not," said the President, referring to
the South, "particularly need members of Congress from those States to
enable us to get along with legislation here. What we do want is the
conclusive evidence that respectable citizens of Louisiana are willing
to be members of Congress and to swear support to the Constitution, and
that other respectable citizens are willing to vote for them and send
them. To send a parcel of Northern men here as representatives,
elected as would be understood (and perhaps really so) at the point of
the bayonet, would be disgraceful and outrageous."

Previous to this instruction to Governor Shepley, Mr. Lincoln had been
in correspondence with Cuthbert Bullett, Esq., a Southern gentleman,
who enjoyed his personal regard and confidence. In a letter to Mr.
Bullett of July 28, 1862, the President reviewed some of the
impracticable methods of re-establishing civil authority desired by
certain citizens of Louisiana who were very anxious to prevent any
interference with property in slaves. Mr. Thomas Durant was the
spokesman for this large class of men who professed anxiety for the
fate of the Union but were unwilling to do any thing to aid in saving
it. Mr. Lincoln's letter is very characteristic. He says, "Mr. Durant
speaks of no duty, apparently thinks of none resting upon Southern
Union men. He even thinks it injurious to the Union cause that they
should be restrained in trade and passage without taking sides. They
are to touch neither a sail nor a pump, live merely as passengers
('dead-heads' at that) to be carried snug and dry throughout the storm
and safely landed right side up. Nay, more, even a mutineer is to go
untouched, lest these sacred passengers receive an accidental wound.
Of course the Rebellion will never be suppressed in Louisiana if the
professed Union men there will neither help to do it nor permit the
Government to do it without their help. . . . What would _you_ do in my
position? Would you drop the war where it is, or would you prosecute
it in the future with elder-stalk squirts charged with rose-water?
Would you deal lighter blows rather than heavier ones? Would you give
up