HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, May 31, 1862.

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

SIR: Having been fully convinced by strong proof collected since this city has been occupied by my command that Mr. Adolphe Mazureau has been and still is engaged in plotting treason against the United States Government I ordered him to be arrested and to be held in safe confinement until such time as he could be safely transferred to Fort Warren, Mass., as a political prisoner. The arrest was made as directed and Mr. Mazureau was brought before me and is sent forward on board the transport McClellan. The charges against him and the evidence of his guilt elicited are as follows:

CHARGE 1. - That Adolphe Mazureau is the president and leading man of a secret society known as the Southern Independence Association, of which each member is solemnly sworn to "allegiance to the Southern Confederacy and to oppose forever the reconstruction of the old Union at the peril of his life if necessary, whatever be the fate of the war and to whatever extremities and disasters treachery or incapacity may reduce the country," and "each and every member further pledges himself to assist to the utmost of his power in carrying out all laws of the Confederate Congress and all laws of the respective States composing the Southern Confederacy which have for their object resistance to the United States by armed force or otherwise, the retaliation of injuries, the confisation of property and the detection and dispersion or punishment of spies and enemies in our midst. "

That being sheriff of the city of New Orleans he has been untiring in his efforts to drive Union men from the city unless he could force them into the Confederate service.

He has aided the Confederate cause in every way within his power.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BENJ. F. BUTLER,

Major-General, Commanding.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, Numbers 36.
New Orleans, May 31, 1862.

Abraham McLane, Daniel Doyle, Edward C. Smith, Partick Kane, George L. Williams and William Stanley, all enlisted men in the forces of the supposed Confederate States, captured at the surrender of Forts St. Philip and Jackson, have violated their parole of honor under which they, prisoners of war, were permitted to return to their homes instead of being confined in prison, as have the unfortunates of the U. S. soldiers who falling into the hands of rebel chiefs have languished for months in the closest durance.

Warned by their officers that they must not do this thing they deliberately organized themselves in military array, chose themselves and comrades officers, relying as they averred upon promises of prominent citizens of New Orleans for a supply of arms and equipments. They named themselves the Monroe Life Guard, in honor of the late mayor of New Orleans.

They conspired together and arranged the manner in which they might force the pickets of the United States and thus join the enemy at Corinth.

Tried before an impartial military commission, fully heard in their defense, these facts appeared beyond doubt or dontradiction and they were convicted.

There is no known pledge more sacred; there is no military offense whose punishment is better defined or more deserved. To their crime but one punishment has ever been assigned by any nation-death.