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Head Qrs. Department of Louisiana
New Orleans October 18. 1865

To His Excellency the Governor of Louisiana
New Orlenas, Louisiana:

Sir:
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 13th inst. in relation to the taxes for school purposes levied and now being collected under General Orders No. 38, of 1864

This order was issued by competent authority, and was within the legal discretion of the commander who issued it. It was one of a series of measures dating from the first occupation of the city by the forces of the United States, forced upon the army by military exigencies, and adopted by it for the purpose of relieving the citizens of New Orleans from grievous burdens, and disembarrassing the army from incumbrances that would have hampered its movements and emasculated its efficiency. The city of New Orleans was in no condition to feed the forty thousand of its inhabitants who were then fed, or of the gradually diminishing numbers in the intermediate periods to the present time, to the twelve thousand that are in part still fed by the army. It was in no condition to sustain the public charities that have been and are still, to a considerable extent, relieved by the army; nor for the care and education of the several thousand colored children which, but for the assistance rendered by the army, would have been, to a material extent, a charge upon the city treasury or a burden upon the public and private charities of its inhabitants.
It is not pertinent to this question to discuss the wisdom of these measures. It is sufficient to say that they