em, for I am, fortunately, prohibited by an
article of war from doing that, even if my own nature did
not revolt at it. I can not receive them, for I have neither
work, shelter, nor the means or plan of transporting them to
Hayti, or of making suitable arrangements with their masters
until they can be provided for.

"It is evident that some plan, some policy, or some system
is necessary on the part of the government, without which
the agent can do nothing, and all his efforts are rendered
useless and of no effect. This is no new condition in which
I find myself; it is my experience during the some
twenty-five years of my public life as a military officer of
the government. The new article of war recently adopted by
congress, rendering it criminal in an officer of the army to
return fugitives from injustice, is the first support that I
have ever felt from the government in contending against
those slave influences which are opposed to its character
and to its interests. But the mere refusal to return
fugitives does not now meet the case. A public agent in the
present emergency must be invested with wider and more
positive powers than this, or his services will prove as
valueless to the country as they are unsatisfactory to
himself.

"Desiring this communication to be laid before the
president, and leaving my commission at his disposal, I have
the honor to remain, sir,

"Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. W. PHELPS, _Brigadier-General._"

On the day on which he received this letter, Gen. Butler forwarded to
Washington this dispatch:

"NEW ORLEANS, LA., June 18, 1862.

"Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War:

"SIR:--Since my last dispatch was written, I have received
the accompanying report from General Phelps.

"It is not my duty to enter into a discussion of the
questions which it presents.

"I desire, however, to state the information of Mr. La
Blanche, given me by his friends and neighbors, and also
_Jack_ La Blanche, his slave, who seems to be the leader of
this party of negroes. Mr. La Blanche I have not seen. He,
however, claims to be loyal, and to have taken no part in
the war, but to have lived quietly on his plantation, some
twelve miles abov