University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXXI.

May 31st.—I went with Mr. Mure to visit the jail. We
met the sheriff, according to appointment, at the police court.
Something like a sheriff—a great, big, burly, six-foot man,
with revolvers stuck in his belt, and strength and arms quite
sufficient to enable him to execute his office in its highest
degree. Speaking of the numerous crimes committed in New
Orleans, he declared it was a perfect hell upon earth, and that
nothing would ever put an end to murders, manslaughters, and
deadly assaults, till it was made penal to carry arms; but by
law every American citizen may walk with an armory round
his waist, if he likes. Bar-rooms, cock-tails, mint-juleps,
gambling-houses, political discussions, and imperfect civilization
do the rest.

The jail is a square whitewashed building, with cracked
walls and barred windows. In front of the open door were
seated four men on chairs, with their legs cocked against the
wall, smoking and reading newspapers. "Well, what do you
want?" said one of them, without rising. "To visit the
prison." "Have you got friends inside, or do you carry an
order?" The necessary document from our friend the
sheriff, was produced. We entered through the doorway,
into a small hall, at the end of which was an iron grating and
door. A slightly-built young man, who was lolling in his
shirt-sleeves on a chair, rose and examined the order, and,
taking down a bunch of keys from a hook, and introducing
himself to us as one of the warders, opened the iron door,
and preceded us through a small passage into a square courtyard,
formed on one side by a high wall, and on the other

three by windowed walls and cells, with doors opening on the
court. It was filled with a crowd of men and boys; some
walking up and down, others sitting, and groups on the pavement;
some moodily apart, smoking or chewing; one or
two cleaning their clothes, or washing at a small tank. We
walked into the midst of them, and the warder, smoking his
cigar and looking coolly about him, pointed out the most
desperate criminals.

This crowded and most noisome place was filled with felons
of every description, as well as with poor wretches merely
guilty of larceny. Hardened murderers, thieves, and assassins,
were here associated with boys in their teens, who were
undergoing imprisonment for some trifling robbery. It was
not pleasant to rub elbows with miscreants who lounged past,
almost smiling defiance, whilst the slim warder, in his straw
hat, shirt-sleeves, and drawers, told you how such a fellow
had murdered his mother, how another had killed a policeman,
or a third had destroyed no less than three persons in a
few moments. Here were seventy murderers, pirates, burglars,
violaters, and thieves, circulating among men who had
been proved guilty of no offence, but were merely waiting for
their trial.

A veranda ran along one side of the wall, above a row of
small cells; containing truckle beds for the inmates. "That's
a desperate chap, I can tell you," said the warder, pointing to
a man who, naked to his shirt, was sitting on the floor, with
heavy irons on his legs, which they chafed notwithstanding the
bloody rags around them, engaged in playing cards with a fellow
prisoner, and smoking with an air of supreme contentment.
The prisoner turned at the words, and gave a kind of grunt
and chuckle, and then played his next card. "That," said the
warder, in the proud tone of a menagerie keeper exhibiting
his fiercest wild beast, "is a real desperate character; his
name is Gordon; I guess he comes from your country; he
made a most miraculous attempt to escape, and all but succeeded;
and you would never believe me if I told you that
he hooked on to that little spout, climbed up the angle of that
wall there, and managed to get across to the ledge of that window
over the outside wall before he was discovered." And
indeed it did require the corroborative twinkle in the fellow's
eye, as he heard of his own exploit, to make me believe
that the feat thus indicated could be performed by mortal
man.

"There's where we hang them," continued he, pointing to a
small black door, let into the wall, about eighteen feet from the
ground, with some iron hooks above it. "They walk out on
the door, which is shot on a bolt, and when the rope is round
their necks from the hook, the door's let flop, and they swing
over the court-yard." The prisoners are shut up in their cells
during the execution, but they can see what is passing, at least
those who get good places at the windows. "Some of them,"
added the warder, "do die very brave indeed. Some of them
abuse as you never heard. But most of them don't seem to
like it."

Passing from the yard, we proceeded up-stairs to the first
floor, where were the debtors' rooms. These were tolerably
comfortable, in comparison to the wretched cells we had seen;
but the poorer debtors were crowded together, three or four in
a room. As far as I could ascertain, there is no insolvency
law, but the debtor is free, after ninety days' imprisonment, if
his board and lodging be paid for. "And what if they are
not?" "Oh, well, in that case we keep them till all is paid,
adding of course for every day they are kept."

In one of these rooms, sitting on his bed, looking wicked
and gloomy, and with a glare like that of a wild beast in his
eyes, was a Doctor Withers, who, a few days ago, murdered
his son-in-law and his wife, in a house close to Mr. Mure's.
He was able to pay for this privilege, and "as he is a respectable
man," said the warder, "perhaps he may escape the
worst."

Turning from this department into another gallery, the
warder went to an iron door, above which was painted a
death's head and cross-bones; beneath were the words "condemn bed
cell."

He opened the door, which led to a short narrow covered
gallery, one side of which looked into a court-yard, admitting
light into two small chambers, in which were pallets of straw
covered with clean counterpanes.

Six men were walking up and down in the passage. In the
first room there was a table, on which were placed missals,
neatly bound, and very clean religious books, a crucifix, and
Agnus Dei. The whitewashed wall of this chamber was covered
with most curious drawings in charcoal or black chalk,
divided into compartments, and representing scenes in the life
of the unhappy artist, a Frenchman, executed some years ago
for murdering his mistress, depicting his temptations,—his

gradual fall from innocence,—his society with abandoned
men and women,—intermingled with Scriptural subjects,
Christ walking on the waters, and holding out his hand to the
culprit,—the murderer's corpse in the grave,—angels visiting
and lamenting over it;—finally, the resurrection, in which
he is seen ascending to heaven!

My attention was attracted from this extraordinary room to
an open gallery at the other side of the court-yard, in which
were a number of women with dishevelled hair and torn
clothes, some walking up and down restlessly, others screaming
loudly, while some with indecent gestures were yelling to
the wretched men opposite to them, as they were engaged in
their miserable promenade.

Shame and horror to a Christian land! These women
were maniacs! They are kept here until there is room for
them at the State Lunatic Asylum. Night and day their
terrible cries and ravings echo through the dreary, waking
hours and the fitful slumbers of the wretched men so soon
to die.

Two of those who walked in that gallery are to die tomorrow.

What a mockery—the crucifix!—the Agnus Dei!—the
holy books! I turned with sickness and loathing from the
dreadful place. "But," said the keeper, apologetically,
"there's not one of them believes he'll be hanged."

  *  *  *  *  *  *  

We next visited the women's gallery, where female criminals
of all classes are huddled together indiscriminately. On
opening the door, the stench from the open veranda, in which
the prisoners were sitting, was so vile that I could not proceed
further; but I saw enough to convince me that the poor, erring
woman who was put in there for some trifling offence, and
placed in contact with the beings who were uttering such language
as we heard, might indeed leave hope behind her.

The prisoners have no beds to sleep upon, not even a blanket,
and are thrust in to lie as they please, five in each small cell.
It may be imagined what the tropical heat produces under
such conditions as these; but as the surgeon was out, I could
obtain no information respecting the rates of sickness or
mortality.

I next proceeded to a yard somewhat smaller than that appropriated
to serious offenders, in which were confined prisoners
condemned for short sentences, for such offences as

drunkenness, assault, and the like. Among the prisoners were
some English sailors, confined for assaults on their officers, or
breach of articles; all of whom had complaints to make to the
Consul, as to arbitrary arrests and unfounded charges. Mr.
Mure told me that when the port is full he is constantly engaged
inquiring into such cases; and I am sorry to learn that
the men of our commercial marine occasion a good deal of
trouble to the authorities.

I left the prison in no very charitable mood towards the
people who sanctioned such a disgraceful institution, and proceeded
to complete my tour of the city.

The "Levee," which is an enormous embankment to prevent
the inundation of the river, is now nearly deserted except
by the river steamers, and those which have been unable
to run the blockade. As New Orleans is on an average three
feet below the level of the river at high water, this work requires
constant supervision; it is not less than fifteen feet
broad, and rises five or six feet above the level of the adjacent
street, and it is continued in an almost unbroken line for
several hundreds of miles up the course of the Mississippi.
When the bank gives way, or a "crevasse," as it is technically
called, occurs, the damage done to the plantations has
sometimes to be calculated by millions of dollars; when the
river is very low there is a new form of danger, in what is
called the "caving in" of the bank, which, left without the
support of the water pressure, slides into the bed of the giant
river.

New Orleans is called the "Crescent City" in consequence
of its being built on a curve of the river, which is here about
the breadth of the Thames at Gravesend, and of great depth,
Enormous cotton presses are erected near the banks, where
the bales are compressed by machinery before stowage on ship-board
at a heavy cost to the planter.

The custom-house, the city-hall, and the United States mint,
are fine buildings, of rather pretentious architecture; the former
is the largest building in the States, next to the capital.
I was informed that on the levee, now almost deserted, there
is during the cotton and sugar season a scene of activity, life,
and noise, the like of which is not in the world. Even Canton
does not show so many boats on the river, not to speak of
steamers, tugs, flat-boats, and the like; and it may be easily
imagined that such is the case, when we know that the value
of the cotton sent in the year from this port alone exceeds

twenty millions sterling, and that the other exports are of the
value of at least fifteen millions sterling, whilst the imports
amount to nearly four millions.

As the city of New Orleans is nearly 1700 miles south of
New York, it is not surprising that it rejoices in a semi-tropical
climate. The squares are surrounded with lemon-trees,
orange-groves, myrtle, and magnificent magnolias. Palmettoes
and peach-trees are found in all the gardens, and in the
neighborhood are enormous cypresses, hung round with the
everlasting Spanish moss.

The streets of the extended city are different in character
from the narrow chaussées of the old town, and the general
rectangular arrangement common in the United States, Russia,
and British Indian cantonments is followed as much as possible.
The markets are excellent, each municipality, or grand
division, being provided with its own. They swarm with
specimens of the composite races which inhabit the city, from
the thorough-bred, woolly-headed negro, who is suspiciously
like a native-born African, to the Creole who boasts that every
drop of blood in his veins is purely French.

I was struck by the absence of any whites of the laboring
classes, and when I inquired what had become of the men
who work on the levee and at the cotton presses in competition
with the negroes, I was told they had been enlisted for
the war.

I forgot to mention that among the criminals in the prison
there was one Mr. Bibb, a respectable citizen, who had a little
affair of his own on Sunday morning.

Mr. Bibb was coming from market, and had secured an
early copy of a morning paper. Three citizens, anxious for
news, or, as Bibb avows, for his watch and purse, came up
and insisted that he should read the paper for them. Bibb declined,
whereupon the three citizens, in the full exercise of their
rights as a majority, proceeded to coerce him; but Bibb had a
casual revolver in his pocket, and in a moment he shot one of
his literary assailants dead, and wounded the two others
severely, if not mortally. The paper which narrates the circumstances,
in stating that the successful combatant had been
committed to prison, adds, "great sympathy is felt for Mr.
Bibb." If the Southern minority is equally successful in its
resistance to force majeure as this eminent citizen, the fate of
the Confederacy cannot long be doubtful.

June 1st. The respectable people of the city are menaced

with two internal evils in consequence of the destitution
caused by the stoppage of trade with the North and with
Europe. The municipal authorities, for want of funds,
threaten to close the city schools, and to disband the police;
at the same time employers refuse to pay their workmen on
the ground of inability. The British Consulate was thronged
to-day by Irish, English, and Scotch, entreating to be sent
North or to Europe. The stories told by some of these poor
fellows were most pitiable, and were vouched for by facts and
papers; but Mr. Mure has no funds at his disposal to enable
him to comply with their prayers. Nothing remains for them
but to enlist. For the third or fourth time I heard cases of
British subjects being forcibly carried off to fill the ranks of
so-called volunteer companies and regiments. In some instances
they have been knocked down, bound, and confined in barracks,
till in despair they consented to serve. Those who
have friends aware of their condition were relieved by the interference
of the Consul; but there are many, no doubt,
thus coerced and placed in involuntary servitude without his
knowledge. Mr. Mure has acted with energy, judgment, and
success on these occasions; but I much wish he could have,
from national sources, assisted the many distressed English
subjects who thronged his office.

The great commercial community of New Orleans, which
now feels the pressure of the blockade, depends on the interference
of the European Powers next October. They have
among them men who refuse to pay their debts to Northern
houses, but they deny that they intend to repudiate, and
promise to pay all who are not Black Republicans when the
war is over. Repudiation is a word out of favor, as they feel
the character of the Southern States and of Mr. Jefferson
Davis himself has been much injured in Europe by the breach
of honesty and honor of which they have been guilty; but I
am assured on all sides that every State will eventually redeem
all its obligations. Meantime, money here is fast vanishing.
Bills on New York are worth nothing, and bills on
England are at 18 per cent, discount from the par value of
gold; but the people of this city will endure all this and much
more to escape from the hated rule of the Yankees.

Through the present gloom come the rays of a glorious future,
which shall see a grand slave confederacy enclosing the
Gulf in its arms, and swelling to the shores of the Potomac
and Chesapeake, with the entire control of the Mississippi and

a monopoly of the great staples on which so much of the manufactures
and commerce of England and France depend.
They believe themselves, in fact, to be masters of the destiny
of the world. Cotton is king—not alone king but czar; and
coupled with the gratification and profit to be derived from
this mighty agency, they look forward with intense satisfaction
to the complete humiliation of their hated enemies in the
New England States, to the destruction of their usurious rival
New York, and to the impoverishment and ruin of the States
which have excited their enmity by personal liberty bills, and
have outraged and insulted them by harboring abolitionists
and an anti-slavery press.

The abolitionists have said, "We will never rest till every
slave is free in the United States." Men of larger views
than those have declared, "They will never rest from agitation
until a man may as freely express his opinions, be they
what they may, on slavery, or anything else, in the streets of
Charleston or of New Orleans as in those of Boston or
New York." "Our rights are guaranteed by the Constitution,"
exclaim the South. "The Constitution," retorts Wendell
Phillips, "is a league with the devil,—a covenant with
hell."

The doctrine of State Rights has been consistently advocated
not only by Southern statesmen, but by the great party
who have ever maintained there was danger to liberty in the
establishment of a strong central Government; but the contending
interests and opinions on both sides had hitherto been
kept from open collision by artful compromises and by ingenious
contrivances, which ceased with the election of Mr. Lincoln.

There was in the very corner-stone of the republican edifice
a small fissure, which has been widening as the grand
structure increased in height and weight. The early statesmen
and authors of the Republic knew of its existence, but
left to posterity the duty of dealing with it and guarding
against its consequences. Washington himself was perfectly
aware of the danger; and he looked forward to a duration
of some sixty or seventy years only for the great fabric he
contributed to erect. He was satisfied a crisis must come,
when the States whom in his farewell address he warned
against rivalry and faction would be unable to overcome the
animosities excited by different interests, and the passions
arising out of adverse institutions; and now that the separation

has come, there is not, in the Constitution, or out of it,
power to cement the broken fragments together.

It is remarkable that in New Orleans, as in New York, the
opinion of the most wealthy and intelligent men in the community,
so far as I can judge, regards universal suffrage as
organized confiscation, legalized violence and corruption, a
mortal disease in the body politic. The other night, as I sat
in the club-house, I heard a discussion in reference to the
operations of the Thugs in this city, a band of native-born
Americans, who at election times were wont deliberately to
shoot down Irish and German voters occupying positions as
leaders of their mobs. These Thugs were only suppressed
by an armed vigilance committee, of which a physician who
sat at table was one of the members.

Having made some purchases, and paid all my visits, I
returned to prepare for my voyage up the Mississippi and
visits to several planters on its banks—my first being to Governor
Roman.