Viewing page 153 of 348

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

were adopted at a time of great public and military exigency, and that as a practical result they have relieved the city and people of New Orleans, independent of the contributions that have been levied, especially for that purpose, of an expenditure of more than $2,000.000. and that some of the exigencies have fallen upon me by a natural and inevitable imperative, which we must meet as we may best meet them. 
I have always advised your Excellency, both orally and in writing, that the necessities above indicated have outrun the means at the disposal of the military authorities for their relief, and that advances have been made not authorized by law or regulations, that should be reimbursed in order to save the officers who made them from pecuniary accountability to the Treasury of the United States. These amount, in the aggregate, to between $375,000 and $400,000 and have been made in the interest and for the benefit of the people of New Orleans. The collection of the particular tax to which your communication refers is one of these cases.
Under the law of March 3, 1865, and the order of the President of June 2. 1865, the subject was transferred to the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, and is now under the control of that bureau, except so far as military authority may be necessary to enforce its collection, and that collection is necessary in order to reimburse advances made to the Freedmen's Bureau, and for that reason is urged by the Commissioner Gen'l. Howard, at the head of that bureau.
Its commission at this time will necessarily throw upon the State and city much greater burdens than they are now bearing. But while I cannot concede that the points made by the petitioner have been well considered