provision is made for the education of their children. The Government is willing to assume the greater part of the expense in this regard, but provision for their teachers, and their courteous reception and treatment, must be assured by the people of the parishes. Rather than suffer resistance it would be better not to have a negro at labor nor a plantation in cultivation. I desire to know also in what way the loyalty of the people is manifested. The oath of allegiance is but a single fact in establishing this condition. They should, in addition, participate in the affairs which properly belong to the people, considered as individuals, and in the affairs of the Government as citizens. While they profit by its protection they must assist in its burdens. They cannot justly or safely refuse to pay taxes, to pursue ordinary and honorable courses of industry, or to participate in the measures necessary for the establishment of the Government of the people. We recognize the right of unrestricted freedom of opinion in the exercise of political powers, but we demand from those who ask and receive its protection a recognition of the necessity of maintaining, by any measures that are necessary, the integrity and authority of the Government of the United States. In this respect every man should be left to his own opinion as to his own course of action, but he must give us the benefit of his counsel, and let the people by whom he is surrounded know by his actions, as well as by his counsel, what he thinks should be done. It is desired that the Government shall be placed in the hands of the people at the earliest moment that it can be done with safety to all parties and interests. What is required of them is that they shall manifest their preferences and make public their position and purposes. This is what every government has a right to demand of residents or citizens, and it is a right that cannot be waived or surrendered now.

With much respect, your obedient servant,

N. P. BANKS,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEFENSES OF NEW ORLEANS,
New Orleans, August 26, 1864.

Major DRAKE,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Department of the Gulf:

SIR: The report required in your letter of the 24th instant, "as to the condition and garrison of the defenses of New Orleans," is herewith submitted as follows:

I. The defenses on the right side of the Mississippi River toward the District of La Fourche.--These defenses are in two lines: First. A line composed of two bastions, connected by the ditch of Grand River, and an almost impenetrable curtain of swamp and morass, the only practicable approaches for an enemy in force being on the extreme flanks of this line. The bastion on the left--the works at Brashear and Berwick cities--mounts eight heavy guns, four field pieces, and is garrisoned by about 1,100 infantry, two companies of heavy artillery, and a light battery. The bastion on the right--Plaquemine--mounts about nine heavy guns, and is garrisoned by one battalion of Eighth Colored Heavy Artillery, say 450 men, and a small detachment of cavalry. Recent orders having thrown Plaquemine outside the defenses of New Orleans unity of action is destroyed on this outer line, the responsibility of its defense divided, and, as I have before reported, is, in my