The Convention which had formed the free constitution of the State of Louisiana in 1864 had been ordered to reassemble by its President. The Confederate sympathizers, who had been greatly encouraged by the acts of the President to keep alive their old feelings of hostility to the North, resolved that the Republican Convention should not be permitted to meet. The ground they urged for this proposed action was that the Convention proposed to recommend the imposition of Negro suffrage upon the State. There was a riot and a terrible massacre, in which over a hundred lives were lost, and several hundred persons were wounded. The municipal authorities of New Orleans gave aid and comfort to the rioters. The Congressional Committee that investigated the circumstances connected with the riot reported that the President knew that riot and bloodshed were apprehended. He knew what military orders were in force, and yet without the confirmation of the Secretary of War, or the General of the Army, upon whose responsibility these military orders had been issued, he gave orders by telegraph, which, if enforced, as they would be, would have compelled our soldiers to aid the rebels against the men in New Orleans who had remained loyal during the war, and sought to aid and support, by official sanction, the persons who designed to suppress, by arrest and criminal process under color of the law, the meeting of the Convention; and all this although the Convention was called with the sanction of the Governor and by one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Louisiana claiming to act as President of the Convention. The effect of the action of the President was to encourage the heart, to strengthen the hand, and to hold up the arms of those who intended to prevent the Convention from assembling. The President’s opposition to the Reconstruction Bill probably rendered him more unpopular than any other executive act during his administration. The bill was passed by large majorities in both Houses of Congress. The President’s repudiation scheme was another very unpopular recommendation, for which he was very strongly reproved by the action of Congress. He stated in his message of December, 1868: “That the holders of our securities have already received upon their bonds a larger amount than their original investments, measured by the gold standard. Upon this statement of facts, it would seem but just and equitable that the six per cent. interest now paid by the Government should be applied to the reduction of the principal, in semi-annual instalments, which in sixteen years and eight months would liquidate the entire national debt.” This clause of the President’s message was condemned by an almost unanimous vote of both Houses.