GENS. CANBY AND SICKLES VISIT THE STATE CONVENTION.; SPEECH OF GEN. SICKLES.

Let me assure you, gentlemen, that your labors attract the attention not only of the people of Louisiana, but of the whole Union. The President, the Congress of the United States, and loyal people everywhere, look with solicitude upon the great duty you have to perform, and upon its efficient and wise performance depends not only the future of Louisiana, but, perhaps, in no inconsiderable degree, the great work of reconstruction, which is the problem of our present condition. Louisiana did not share in the struggles of the Revolution, but her people were the descendants of our allies. When France ceded Louisiana to the United States she gave in that act an additional pledge of that alliance and that friendship which had been so precious to us in the dark days of the Revolutionary struggle. On your soil the flag of the Union was maintained by JACKSON against a foreign foe; LIVINGSTON had illustrated in his accomplishments as a civilian your early history; and you have erected a statue to the Immortal CLAY — and I believe that LAFAYETTE, JEFFERSON, LIVINGSTON, JACKSON, CLAY — those whom you have delighted most to honor — if they were with you to-day, would rejoice in your noble patriotism, and applaud your greatest act — the declaration that henceforth and forever Louisiana is a Free State. [Great applause.]

Although this is my first visit to this beautiful city, where I have been delighted to see so many of the evidences of culture, enterprise and future greatness — remote as is my own home from you — I do not regard myself a stranger in your midst, for I know enough of my own people at home — I know enough of the inmost convictions of the American people to feel assured that under all circumstances, come what will and cost what sacrifices it may, Louisiana must and ever will be a part of the American Union. [Applause.]

Mr. President and gentlemen, I have already trespassed longer than I had intended upon your kind attention. [Cries of General, go on.]

I am accustomed to think, gentlemen, that I can, with more propriety than ever assume that “short speeches are always the best,” and especially as I address you under some circumstance of personal inconvenience.

Gentlemen, your State has before it a glorious future. It is worth the sacrifices which the loyal men of Louisiana have made for it. Be assured that although loyalty everywhere is prized and justly prized as a jewel, the loyalty of those who have been faithful to the old flag, under the terrors and tortures of rebel rule, as you have been, commands the heaviest and the largest homage.