These directions and wishes have been conclusive, and I have given to the civil authorities whatever support and assistance they required, and have abstained from any interference with questions of civil or local State administration, except when it was necessary to protect the freedmen in their newly acquired rights, and to prevent the local courts from assuming jurisdiction in cases where, of law and of right, the jurisdiction belongs inclusively to the United States courts or United States authorities. With the appointments made by the governor I have no right to interfere unless the appointees are disqualified by coming under some one of the exceptions made by the President in his proclamation of May 29, 1865, or, (as in one or two instances that have occurred,) in the case of double appointments to the same office, when a conflict might endanger the peace and security of the department. My personal and official intercourse with the governor has been of the most cordial character. I have had no reason to distrust his wish and intention to carry out the views of the President. I do distrust both the loyalty and the honesty (political) of some of his advisers, and I look with apprehension upon many of the appointments made under these influences during the past two months. The feeling and temper of that part of the population of Louisiana which was actively engaged in or sympathized with the rebellion have also materially changed within that period. The political and commercial combinations against the north are gaining in strength and confidence every day. Political, sectional, and local questions, that I had hoped were buried with the dead of the past four years, are revived. Independent sovereignty, State rights, and nullification, where the power to nullify is revoked, are openly discussed. It may be that these are only ordinary political discussions, and that I attach undue importance to them from the fact that I have never before been so intimately in contact with them; but, to my judgment, they indicate very clearly that it will not be wise or prudent to commit any question involving the paramount supremacy of the government of the United States to the States that have been in insurrection until the whole subject of restoration has been definitively and satisfactorily adjusted. Before leaving this subject I think it proper to invite your attention to the position of a part of the colored population of this State. By the President's proclamation of January 1, 1863, certain parishes in this State (thirteen in number) were excepted from its provisions--the condition of the negroes as to slavery remaining unchanged until they were emancipated by the constitution of 1864. If this constitution should be rejected (the State of Louisiana not admitted under it) the legal condition of these people will be that of slavery until this defect can be cured by future action.