USA > Alabama > A Catholic history of Alabama and the Floridas Volume 1 > Part 11
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Meanwhile, the Capuchin fathers hearing of the arrival of the Jesuits, had come at six o'clock in the evening, (it was December 21.) to the landing place to show sympathy in their misfortunes, and their in- tention of rendering them all kinds of good offices. To the Jesuits, this was an urgent motive to leave the next morning, to thank these Fathers who received them with all the demonstrations by which charity can make itself known. They begged them not to take their meals anywhere else but with them. The Jesuits ac- cepted, with great joy, the invitation that had been given them, and during the six weeks which elapsed before they embarked, there were no marks of friend- ship which they did not receive from these Reverend Fathers. Touched by deep gratitude, they wished to show it in some way. The books that had been spared
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to them formed a little library, valuable in a country newly established, and they prayed the Capuchine Fathers to accept it.
The retributive justice of God soon overtook the sacriligious wretches that had profaned the holy places and the sepulchres of those who died with the sign of Faith. They were guilty, too, of the odious vice of ingratitude. The Jesuits had been the best friends of the Colony. Every special blessing and comfort the people enjoyed had come through the Jesuits.
One hundred and sixty colored men worked on the Jesuit plantation. These were instructed and bap- tised, and required to comply with their duties as practical Catholics. It is said that fourteen adults is equal to a family. It is easy to see what a charge the unbaptised were to the Jesuits.
When the Jesuits were driven out, with every species of indignity, there were only five Capuchins left in New Orleans for four thousand people, two hospitals, a large Convent, a boarding Academy, orphans, free- schools. Mobile had been ceded to England and Father Ferdinand, an Acadian, was to leave as soon as the French flag was lowered. He was still doing duty in Mobile, in 1773. About that time the old citizens closed his eyes, and in or near the church he had served so long, laid to rest with tears the beloved form which had connected for them this half deserted British out- post with the Mobile of Bondel and Bienville.1 The church has gone, its very site is uncertain; the grave, its contents unknown. But, somewhere between our St. Emanuel St. and Theatre St. lies the dust of Father Ferdinand. (P. J. Hamilton.)
1 Bienville's "fort belle maison avec un jardin," was on the Mobile Shell Road. But no trace of it has been seen for generations.
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No more spiritual aid was to be expected from the Jesuits. They had left their flocks, praying for their persecutors.
In 1765, some six hundred Acadians who had been wandering about as Helots or paupers, since their dis- persion, 1755, made their way to New Orleans, where they were received with open arms. Their sorrowful faces as they drew up on the Leves and in the old Place d' Armes, awoke the deepest sympathy in their compatriots in the little city over which the French flag still waved. The Convent on Chartres St. offered its hospitality to the women and children, and every house opened its doors to the rest.
Nothing could well be imagined more different from the smiling meadows and snug farm houses of Acadie, " the home of the happy." But the Acadians deemed themselves fortunate to hear their native tongue once more, and live again under the white flag of the Bour- bons. As they had been mostly farmers, a tract of land, om the river, with farming utensils, and a year's rations, all at the king's expense, were allowed to each family. They became once more a happy peaceful people, and their descendants are found by hundreds on the prairies near the Louisiana rivers.
It has often been said that the Ursulines were able, if they so desired, to write a more truthful and pathetic account of the Godfearing Acadians than that left us by Longfellow in his exquisite " Evangeline."
In 1763, France transferred Louisiana to Spain, and in 1764, Louis XV wrote to governor Abbadie, relating the terms of the Cession. But the colonists, deeply at- tached to France, besought the king to keep them, and sent Jean Milhet, the richest merchant, to Paris, to
II
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plead their cause. Bienville, then in his 86th year. backed their petition. But the king would not even see them. Choiseul the minister utterly refused to keep Louisiana. In the eyes of the evil ignorant woman who then presided at court, the American possessions were but " a few acres of snow."
Don Antonio Ulloa, a distinguished scholar, was appointed governor. He arrived in New Orleans, March 5, 1766. Discontent soon culminated in Revo- lution, although he had done nothing to offend the people. The letter the king wrote to the governor Abbadie is "In consequence of the friendship and affection of his Catholic Majesty, I trust he will order his governor and all other officers employed in his service, in said colony and city of New Orleans, to continue in their functions the ecclesiastics and re- ligious houses, in charge of parishes and missions; as well as in the enjoyment of the rights, and privileges, and exemptions granted them by their original title.
Ulloa was driven from Louisiana by a decree of the Superior Council. He retired on board one of the king's vessels then moored opposite the city where he remained until the night of the following day, when the cables were cut by the populace and the vessel set adrift ! A murderous act, and more than king Charles III. would endure. Ulloa and his wife, ( Marchioness d' Abrado) and their children, escaped the terror, of the awful river, and rested in Havana, en route for Spain. In Havana he met the Spanish Intendant who, hearing of Ulloa's adventures, declined to sail for New Orleans.
The king, determined to reduce the rebellion, sent out an officer of the highest rank, in whom he had im- plicit confidence, Count Alexandre O'Reilly, with a
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fleet of twenty-four sail, and two thousand six hundred of his best troops to quell the insurrection.
When the people heard of this armament, they were filled with terror, July 23, 1769. On the following day, Governor Aubrey received by express a dispatch from Don Alexander O'Reilly, commander of the Spanish forces, notifying him that he was authorized to take formal possession of Louisiana for the king of Spain.
The people shut themselves up in their houses with every sign of abject terror. But O'Reilly quieted their fears, declaring that only ring leaders would be ar- rested, tried, and if found guilty, punished.
The last French Governor, Aubrey, handed the keys of the city to O'Reilly, who received them for the king of Spain on the Place d' Armes. The white banner was lowered, and the colors of Spain ascended. The prolonged shouts of Viva el Rey could be heard distinctly in the Ursuline cloisters. The great man who represented the potent Majesty of Spain was re- ceived with royal honors by the French clergy, the head of whom, Father Dagobert, solemnly welcomed him, and promised fidelity for himself, and his brethren and the people at large, with utmost enthusiasm, hav- ing previously bestowed the benediction of the church on the Spanish flag. Within the sacred walls, a grand military function was performed, and it was observed that the rather austere countenance of O'Reilly was radiant with devotion during the singing of the Te Deum, Laudamus !
Judging from the official reports of the French Governor, complete anarchy had reigned in the colony for several years. Governor Aubrey expresses sur- prise that "the mere presence of one individual, (O'Reilly) should have restored good order, peace and
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tranquillity. When O'Reilly's actions were rigorously examined by the Council of the Indies these gentle- men unanimously declared that every one of his official acts deserved their most decided approbation," "and were striking proofs of his extraordinary genius."
There is no character in American history more basely calumniated than Alexander O'Reilly. "The worst kind of lies are those which have a semblance of truth, and the worst kind of liars are those who succeed in rendering falsehood more plausible than truth itself. This the slanderers of this truly great man have well proved.
O'Reilly was the friend of the Indians. He amel- iorated the condition of the slaves. He encouraged immigration. He made regulations that greatly im- proved Commerce. "In substituting the Cabildo for the Supreme Council, he not only took away a cause of disturbance, but replaced it by an effective means of government." "The Colonization of the South." P. 431 says: "The severity of O'Reilly, there can be little doubt saved Louisiana much subsequent trouble." P. J. Hamilton.
Several of the officers who had made trouble in New Orleans, among them, Lafrenière, went down to the mouth of the river to visit O'Reilly on his flag ship, and learn what could be learned of his intentions. They knew they had been guilty of many acts of treason. O'Reilly received them courteously, and in- vited them to dine with him. Looking back on recent events, as the expulsion of Ulloa, it must have struck them that some measure of punishment awaited the guilty. Yet O'Reilly treated them with the utmost courtesy, as the law had not yet declared them guilty. His long stay in the river gave them every opportunity
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to escape, had they so wished. It has been told to me by a descendant of one of these men that he even gave them warning.1 As all were recreating on deck, after dinner, he struck his heart and said: "I have orders here from the king. Flee, gentlemen, flee!" The au- thority for this incident is still living, and showed a let- ter from his ancestor which recorded it, and which the writer saw.
The prisoners seem according to law to have de- served their fate. None appears to have been above reproach, according to Gayarre, almost a Contempo- rary. Their defence was that Spain had not formally taken possession, that Ulloa had not shown his cre- dentials; that they had not taken the oath of allegiance to Spain. But it was proved that the Spanish flag had for years been floating over every post from the Balize to IlInois, that several of the accused held their commissions from Ulloa; and were in office under the king of Spain, drawing their salaries from him while exciting revolt against him.
Felix del Rey, the king's lawyer, spoke of La- frenière with withering contempt, as an unfaithful officer, and the chief instigator of conspiracy against the king, whose money he was receiving while driving his fellow citizens into conspiracy against him.
The behavior of the prisoners in the days of their power, to the suppressed Jesuits, rather lessens the sympathy and compassion we should like to feel for the unhappy culprits. O'Reilly was then only thirty-four years old,2 yet he remained inexorable to the most
1 A Mr. St. Martin who died at a great age.
2 So Gayarre says, but later information makes him older. O'Reilly was born in Baltrasna, Meath, 1722. He early entered the service of Spain, won high distinction as a commander in war and a governor in
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earnest entreaties from persons of every rank that he would suspend the sentence of death until the royal clemency could be implored. The only concession he would grant was to commute the sentence of death by hanging to military execution. It is a pity that so humane a ruler should have felt himself unable to spare the traitors to whom the law decreed death. But it is almost certain that he had no choice in the matter. Six were condemned to death, one died in prison, the rest were imprisoned but afterwards released. The poor men were escorted by grenadiers to the place of execution near the Ursuline Convent, where the firing could be distinctly heard. Several of their relatives were in the convent chapel where the nuns kindly did all in their power to console them. As all were Catho- lics, there is no doubt but their spiritual wants were attended to, and, it is probable, by their friend, Father Dagobert. One of the unfortunate men shot was a relative of one of the nuns whose name or rank is not given; but to the end of her life the poor lady could not hear a shot fired without going over again the horror of that dreadful evening. Yet bitterly as the nuns felt, no one ever said a word of blame to O'Reilly. They felt there was no other course open to him.
O'Reilly was undoubtedly among the ablest of the foreign Governors of Louisiana. He was educated by a wandering school-master of the time; he early made his way to Spain, and having enlisted in the armies of the Catholic king, soon rose to high rank.
peace. In a popular tumult in Madrid, he saved the life of King Charles III. He was created Field-Marshal, sent to Havana to restore the for- tifications, 1769. He was in command of the army of the Pyrenees, but died, March 23, 1794, on his way there, aged seventy-two, near the small city of Chinchilla.
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Other brothers followed him, and one became a Fran- ciscan Friar in Dublin, where he died in the odor of sanctity. O'Reilly married a Spanish lady of rank, and their descendants still live in Cuba. After his so- journ in America, he returned to Spain and was raised from post to post by Carlos III, who could never for- get the day of his slaughtered Walloons, when the brave Irishman saved his life. He served with dis- tinction in Italy where he received a wound which lamed him for life.
He was appointed Governor of Cadiz where he showed the talents of a great administrator. "O'Reilly " says Michand, "had always been an ob- ject of malignant envy. He had many enemies whom the flexibility of his temper and the soft influence of his conciliating manners could not reconcile to his advancement. He received a last promotion in 1794, and died suddenly en route for his army."
During O'Reilly's government of Louisiana, almost a famine broke out in the State. Oliver Pollock, an Irish merchant, acted with princely generosity to his countryman. He offered the whole cargo of flour on his brig, to O'Reilly, on his own terms, at a time when flour was so scarce that the price had arisen to twenty dollars a barrel. O'Reilly accepted the offer, but paid him fifteen dollars a barrel, and allowed him to trade in Louisiana as long as he wished, without paying duty.
During their negotiations on the price of wheat, these gentlemen discovered that they were countrymen, had been boys together, and even spoke English with the same accent. It is no wonder that Mr. Pollock had been so liberal : " I cannot refuse quarter," said a brave soldier, " when I hear it asked in my native tongue."
With great liberality and profound policy, O'Reilly
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placed Frenchmen in all the chief offices, and in the Regiment of Louisiana, only Creole troops were en- listed. In all the circumstances of his office he acted with a fairness, and even generosity, surprising in a man so recently come to the country, nor can we find any trace of cruelty in his administration. In private life his manners were perfect.
Like other Governors, O'Reilly is commemorated in the historic streets of New Orleans. And in Havana, one of the principal retail shopping districts of the city is called to this day, "Calle O'Reilly," O'Reilly St. In 1804 the upper portion of Louisiana was the District of Louisiana with St. Louis for its capital; the lower only the Territory of Orleans, with New Orleans for its capital.
Miniatures of this celebrated man, preserved among his descendants, show him to have strongly resembled his august contemporary, George Washington, in per- sonal appearance. A small picture of O'Reilly was given to the writer by the grandson of his Contador, Hon. Charles Gayarre. This the writer transferred to an evident admirer of Count O'Reilly, John Boyle . O'Reilly.
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CHAPTER XXIV.
MUCH has been said of the laxity that prevailed among the French Capuchines about the middle of the 18th century and later. But this is possibly greatly exaggerated. The fact that O'Reilly lived near the monastery and met the inmates every day, would ap- pear to show that, had grave abuses existed, they could scarcely have escaped his eagle eye, and in his case to recognize abuses would be to correct them.
O'Reilly instructed his commandants at St. Louis and St. Genevieve to make it their special care that the Government of the king should be loved and respected, justice administered promptly and impartially, and the Indians well treated. It may be said that this princely ruler was almost the last High Priest of expiring chivalry. In the oath of office delivered to his subor- dinates, there is a promise to defend the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady,1 and never to accept of any fee from the poor. Mutual good feeling and amicable intercourse prevailed between the civil and military authorities which was commemorated by the Spanish Commandant opposite Fort Panmure, by designating his post as Fort Concord. The name has since been perpetuated in the rich parish of Concordia.
1 From the siege of Limerick to the French Revolution it is said that three-quarters of a million Irish served in the armies and navies of Europe.
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The suppression of the Jesuits was a severe blow to the Ursulines. It deprived them of their spiritual Fathers and directors, who, having brought them to New Orleans, worked incessantly for their advance- ment. Towards the close of the Spanish Domination, the community had become Spanish to such an extent that the majority refused, when Spain returned the Colony to France, 1803, to live under the French flag, and besought the Catholic king to give them a home in some other part of his vast dominions.
The Capuchins continued their usual functions awaiting the arrival of a reinforcement of Spanish clergy. O'Reilly's attention was given to everything regarding the divine worship. He even requested the Commandant to keep the church clear of dogs during divine worship, at Natchitoches.
In the first record of baptisms, carefully preserved among the achives of New Orleans, there is an entry in French, a simple concise document in the shape of an affidavit, signed : GUEBO,1 CANTRELL. These are the only two survivors of the massacre by the Natchez Indians of the white settlers at Natchez, 1729. They saved a tiny babe of four months, of whom a kindly squaw took care. When they reached the city, the ec- clesiastical authorities inquired whether the babe had been christened according to the rites of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, which was answered in the affirmative.
Among other good works, Bienville tried earnestly to have a superior school for boys established in New Orleans. But this project was doomed to failure until Colonial times had passed away. In the nineteenth century, Bienville's scheme was realized by the opening
1 Guebo does not appear again, Cantrell has left descendants.
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of the College of the Immaculate Conception in New Orleans by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus by which, with Spring Hill College, Mobile, they have done for the youth of these cities all that the sagacious Bienville desired to do in darker days. In the interim, attempts were made with varying success to open schools as needed.
The first educational establishment incorporated by the Louisiana Legislature was the College of Orleans, Cor, Hospital and Claude Sts. Early in the 19th cen- tury the forest primeval came to its gates. In spring the thorny arms of the blackberry bushes, spangled with white blossoms, made a tangled labyrinth of undergrowth as the flowers grew into green, red, or black berries, and the small boys of the ctiy invaded the edge of the wilderness to seek the luscious fruit. Among the contributors to the College were the Ursu- line nuns.1 The pupils were celebrated for their classical attainments and courteous deportment. Un- fortunately, an apostate priest, Joseph Lakanal, who had voted in the National Convention for the death of Louis XVI., was appointed President before 1810, an office for which he had no qualification but scholarship. The people indignantly withdrew their sons, nor could they be induced to send them back. The institution declined, and was, finally, closed. A Church, St. Augustine, was erected on its site, perhaps in a spirit of reparation. To this is attached a Catholic school. Lakanal felt that his presence in New Orleans was
' A paper still exists in which the Ursulines are mentioned as con- tributing three hundred dollars to the establishment of the College of Orleans. Of course they withdrew their patronage on the appoint- ment of Lakanal. They are frequently mentioned as contributing in epidemics and other visitations.
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not desired. He withdrew to Mobile, where the people do not seem to have discovered his crime, for he lived quietly in a small cottage, near the Convent grounds, none of its inmates ever heard of him. He planted vegetables which he sold to his wealthier neighbors. He was later among those who would turn Marengo Co. into the land of the Olive and Vine. But the project failed. He returned to France where he lived to a great age, dying 1843. He is among those who entered into contract with the U. S. government to lay out the town of White Bluffs, which they called De- mopolis, the city of the People. But, as has been said, the culture of the Vine and the Olive became a failure. Lakanal had a tract of several thousand acres, granted, March 3, 1817.
A Father Maréchale, "a great scholar," who was adorned with medals and distinctions from many uni- versities, established a school for boys on land below the city, which belonged to the Ursuline ladies. The early Ursulines in the new Convent describe them as well drilled and most devout,-particularly edifying in carrying out processions of the Blessed sacrament from one point on the estate to another. The situation of the ancient church is still remembered and pointed out. All this we learned on the spot.
The poor Acadians suffered the horrors of an exile unexampled in history. But persecution, in the house of bondage, broke their spirits, nor could they with- stand the worse ordeal of intimacy with free-thinking Frenchmen. Archbishop Carroll notices the deteriora- tion of the Acadians in Baltimore. Something similar was observed even in the remote Attakapas. They even became the accomplices and tools of the vile men who arrogated to themselves supreme power in church
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and state, before the coming of O'Reilly. They were among the armed insurgents who paraded New Or- leans, and sustained the Superior Council when that body expelled Governor Ulloa, in 1768. In a report to his government, Ulloa charges the Acadians with ingratitude, "they having received nothing but bene- fits from the Spaniards." It is probable, however, that among the whole body there were many faithful Acadians. When the Acadians complained to O'Reilly, he listened gently to their grievances and rectified them as far as he could. As to the Indians, he officially de- clared that " it was contrary to the mild and beneficent laws of Spain to hold them in bondage." On their part, the Indians, assembled in Congress in Pensacola and Mobile, resolved : " We, (the Indians, ) renounce forever the custom of raising scalps, and making slaves of our white captives," (May, 1784.) To evade O'Reilly's merciful law which forbade the enslaving of the Indians, these poor people were sometimes classed with mulattoes, as colored. The great distinc- tion always kept up in the South between the colored and people of unmixed European origin, may be seen in the registers of Mobile, New Orleans, St. Martins, Natchitoches. Bishop Penalvert styles the mixed races, browns, morenos. There were Mestizos, (chil- dren of the white and the Indian,) griffe, (of the Afri- can and the Indian,) mulatto, mulatre, mulatresse, of the white and black. Later, cognizance was taken but of two classes, Europeans and their descendants, and the colored. This good Bishop notices the moral su- periority of the women of the Colony over the men, and he attributes it to the training and influence of the Ursuline schools.
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CHAPTER XXV.
ON March 3, 1591, a college was incorporated by charter, as: " The Mother of a University: The Col- lege of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, near Dublin, founded by Queen Elizabeth; whereby knowledge and civility might be increased by the instruction of our people there, whereof many have usually heretofore used to travail into France, Italy, and Spain, to get learning in such foreign universities, whereby they have been infected with poperies, and other ill qualities, and so become evil subjects."
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