Note 65 — Chapter XLV · Political and Business Complications in the South-west.

Under authority of this bill they at once proceeded to elect the old Rebel Mayor of the city, whom Butler had been compelled to imprison for his outrageously rebellious conduct. The Union offices were also filled, almost without an exception, by returned Rebels. The significance of such an election could not be misunderstood, save by the willfully blind. In effect it gave the Rebels absolute control of the political machinery of the State.