“The Recorder sent word to the Marshal of the Confederate States that said negroes were at his disposition. The Marshal refused to receive them or have anything to do with them, whereupon the Recorder gave the following decision:
“‘Though I have no authority to act in this case, I think it is my duty as a magistrate and good citizen to take upon myself, in this critical moment, the responsibility of keeping the prisoners in custody, firmly believing it would not only be bad policy, but a dangerous one, to let them loose upon the community.’
“The following despatch was sent by the Recorder to the Hon. J. P. Benjamin:
“‘NEW ORLEANS, May 23.
“‘To J. P. BENJAMIN, Richmond—Sir: Ten free negroes, taken by a privateer from on board three vessels returning to Boston, from a whaling voyage, have been delivered to me. The Marshal refuses to take charge of them. What shall I do with them?
‘Respectfully, A. BLACHE,
‘Recorder, Second District.’”
The monthly statement I enclose of the condition of the New Orleans banks on the 25th inst., must be regarded as a more satisfactory exhibit to their depositors and shareholders, though of no greater benefit to the commercial community in this its hour of need than the tempting show of a pastrycook’s window to the famished street poor. These institutions show assets estimated at $54,000,000, of which $20,000,000 are in specie and sterling exchange, to meet $25,000,000 of liabilities, or more than two for one. But, with this apparent amplitude of resources, the New Orleans banks are at a deadlock, affording no discounts and buying no exchange—the latter usually their greatest source of profit in a mart which ships so largely of cotton, sugar, and flour, and the commercial movement of which for not over nine months of the year is the second in magnitude among the cities of the old Union.
As an instance of the caution of their proceedings, I have only to state that a gentleman of wealth and the highest respectability, who needed a day or two since some money for the expenses of an unexpected journey, was compelled, in order to borrow of these banks the sum of $1,500, to hypothecate, as security for his bill at 60 days, $10,000 of bonds of the Confederate States, and for which a month ago he paid par in coin—a circumstance which reflects more credit upon the prudence of the banks than upon the security pledged for this loan.
MOVEMENTS OF THE BANKS, MAY 25, 1861.