The Government does not profit by the profit by the prolongation of civil contests or the private or public sufferings which attend it. Its fruits are not equally distributed. In the disloyal States desolation has empire on the sea and on the land. In the North the disloyal States desolation has empire on the sea and on the land. In the North the war is an abiding sorrow,but not yet a calamity. Its cities and town are increasing in population, wealth, and power. The refugees from the South alone compensate in great part for the terrible decimation of battle.

The people of this department who are disposed to stake their fortunes and their lives upon resistance to the Government may wisely reflect upon the immutable conditions which surround them. The valley of the Mississippi is the chose seat of population product and power on this continent. In a few years 25,000,000 people, unsurpassed in material resources and capacity for war, will swarm upon its fertile rivers. Those who assume to set conditions on their exodus to the Gulf count upon a power not given to man. The country washed by the waters of the Ohio, the Missouri, and the Mississippi can never be permanently severed. If one generation basely barters away its rights immortal honors will rest upon another that reclaims them.

Let it never be said, either, that the East and the West may be separated. Thirty days' distance from the markets of Europe may satisfy the wants of Louisiana and Arkansas, but it will not answer the demands of Illinois and Ohio. The valley, of the Mississippi will have its deltas upon the Atlantic. The physical force of the West will debouch up its shores with a power as resistless as the torrents of its giant rivers. This country cannot be permanently divided. Ceaseless wars may drain its blood and treasure; domestic tyrants of foreign foes may grasp the scepter of its power, but its destiny will remain unchanged. It will still be united. God has ordained it. What avails then the destruction of the best government ever devised by man-the self-adjusting, self-correcting Constitution of the United States.

People of the Southwest! Why not accept the conditions imposed by the imperious necessities of geographical configurations and commercial supremacy and re-establish your ancient prosperity and renown? Why not become the founders of States which. as the entrepot and depot of your own central and upper valleys, may stand in the affluence of their resources without superior and in privileges of the people without a peer among the nations of the earth?

N. P. BANKS,

Major-General, Commanding.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, No. 121.
New Orleans, December 28, 1862

The major-general commanding has received information of a proposed repudiation of checks issued by the New Orleans City Railroad Company which have been used for many months without restriction by all classes of people as currency. In the ordinary transactions of business these checks have been received by officers and soldiers of the army and by the laboring and poorer classes of the community. They represent nearly the entire possession of the latter class. It is impossible that they can have been thus generally circulated without the knowledge of the parties authorizing their issue, and every consideration of justice and public interest requires their redemption. If counterfeits have been imposed upon the community the responsibility of the suppression and detection of the offenders must rest upon the original parties in interest and not upon the community.

No analogy can be properly drawn from the practice of banking institutions in similar cases. Their privileges and responsibilities are established and limited by law. These checks are without law, and those who issue them must accept the risks with the advantages attending their acts. The commanding general in consideration of all the facts, advises their immediate redemption. The most ample protection will be furnished the parties hereafter, either to prevent their cir-

40 R R-VOL XV