STATE OF LOUISIANA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
New Orleans, June 23, 1865.
General: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 16th instant, in answer to mine of the 13th, relating to the expediency of your revoking the appointment of all civil officers in the State made by military or semi-military authority. I desire to state that your views and suggestions, as regards your duty and proper course of action in the premises, are entirely satisfactory to me. For the care you have bestowed on the subject, and the earnest disposition you evince to do all in your power to promote the interests of civil government in this unfortunate State, by co-operating with and sustaining me in all legitimate measures to that end, I beg to return you, not only my own thanks, but I feel authorized to speak for the great mass of our fellow-citizens, and to include them in the same category.
With high respect, I subscribe myself, your obedient servant,
J. MADISON WELLS, Governor of Louisiana.
Major General E.R.S. CANBY, Commanding Department of the Gulf.
Official copy:
R. DES ANGES, Major, A.A.G.