The fundamental law of the State is martial law.... The Government is subject to the law of necessity, and must consult the condition of things, rather than the preferences of men, and if so be that its purposes are just and its measures wise, it has the right to demand that questions of personal interest and opinion shall be subordinate to the public good. When the national existence is at stake, and the liberties of the people in peril, faction is treason.
The methods herein proposed submit the whole question of government directly to the people—first, by the election of executive officers, faithful to the Union, to be followed by a loyal representation in both Houses of Congress; and then by a convention which will confirm the action of the people, and recognize the principles of freedom in the organic law. This is the wish of the President.[[96]]
On February 13, nine days before the election, General Banks issued an order relative to the qualifications of electors. It provided, in addition to the declarations on that subject in his proclamation, that Union voters expelled from their homes by the public enemy might cast their ballots for State officers in the precincts where they temporarily resided and that qualified electors enlisted in the army or navy could vote in those precincts in which they might be found on election day. If without the State, then commissioners would be appointed to receive their ballots wherever stationed, returns to be made to General Shepley.[[97]]
For governor three candidates were nominated—B. F. Flanders, a representative of the Free State Committee; Michael Hahn, the choice of those who approved the measures of General Banks, and J. Q. A. Fellows, a pro-slavery conservative who favored “the Constitution and the Union with the preservation of the rights of all inviolate.” The friends of Hahn would deny to persons of African descent the privileges of citizenship, whereas the supporters of Flanders generally would extend to them such rights and immunities.[[98]]
On Washington’s birthday, as announced in the proclamation of General Banks, an election was held in seventeen parishes, Hahn receiving 6,183, Fellows 2,996 and Flanders 2,232 votes, a total of 11,411, of which 107 were cast by Louisiana soldiers stationed at Pensacola, Florida.[[99]]
Writing February 25 to the President General Banks says:
The election of the 22d of February was conducted with great spirit and propriety. No complaint is heard from any quarter, so far as I know, of unfairness or undue influence on the part of the officers of the Government. At some of the strictly military posts the entire vote of the Louisiana men was for Mr. Flanders, at others for Mr. Hahn, according to the inclination of the voters. Every voter accepted the oath prescribed by your proclamation of the 8th of December.... The ordinary vote of the State has been less than forty thousand. The proportion given on the 22d of February is nearly equal to the territory covered by our arms.[[100]]
The friends of the Free State General Committee in a protest pronounced the result of the election “the registration of a military edict,” and “worthy of no respect from the representatives and Executive of the nation.” To the question whether this election had in the meaning of the President reëstablished a State government they promptly answered in the negative, for the commanding general recognized the Louisiana constitution of 1852 and ordered an election under it in which the votes of the people had nothing to do with reëstablishing government; his proclamation, by recognizing the existence of the old constitution, made the reëstablishment beforehand for them. The Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, together with the other executive officers chosen, did not, they argued, constitute a State government; for all the constitutions of Louisiana, including that of 1852, described the government as consisting of three departments: executive, legislative and judicial.
Though not avowed, the reason of Banks’ failure to order an election for members of the Legislature was plain, for there was not, they claimed, within the Union lines a sufficient number of parishes to elect a majority of that body, and less than a majority was, by the constitution, not a quorum to do business; so that no officer elected could be legally paid, for that could be done by only a legal appropriation. The same constitution, they said further, provided that Justices of the Supreme and District Courts, as well as justices of the peace, should be elected by the people. The present incumbents had been simply appointed by General Shepley. Should Mr. Hahn under pretence of being civil governor undertake to appoint judicial officers, the act would be a mere usurpation.
Not only, they declared, had no State government been established by this election, but still further, the proclamation of the President had not in the matter of electors been complied with; for Article XII. of the constitution of 1852 says: “No soldier, seaman, or marine in the army or navy of the United States ... shall be entitled to vote at any election in this State.” Yet, continued the protestants, it was a notorious fact that the general commanding permitted soldiers recruited in Louisiana, and otherwise qualified, to vote, and that many availed themselves of the privilege. Again, they went on to say, the Legislature by act of March 20, 1856, provided for the appointment in New Orleans of a register of voters whose office should be closed three days before an election, and no one registered during that period. Now prior to the late election, the register having closed his office according to law, orders were at once given to two other officers, recorders of the city, who had no such powers or functions by law, to register voters, which they did night and day, and persons so registered were allowed to vote.