USA > Louisiana > A history of Louisiana, Volume II > Part 13
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In a despatch of Bishop Peñalver occurs the following interesting mention of the Ursuline nuns : 13
Excellent results are obtained from the Convent of the Ursu- lines, in which a good many girls are educated ; but their inclina- tions are so decidedly French, that they have even refused to admit among them Spanish women who wished to become nuns, so long as these applicants should remain ignorant of the French idiom, and they have shed many tears on account of their being obliged to read in Spanish books their spiritual exercises, and to comply with the other duties of their community in the man- ner prescribed to them.
On October 13, 1795, a French privateer, La Parisi- enne, captured the Balize, and held it until October 21, 1795. In 1796 Carondelet succeeded in having the city of New Orleans lighted and patrolled. He had eighty lamps placed in the streets, and formed a police force of thirteen serenos, or watchmen.
In November, 1796, the French general Collot arrived in New Orleans. He had visited the province and writ-
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ten a description of its military resources and of the cus- toms of its inhabitants. Carondelet, supposing that he had a private mission against the interests of Spain, had him arrested. He sent him to the Balize, where the gen- eral embarked for Philadelphia, after a stay of nearly. two months at the mouth of the river.
In 1797 Don Diego Gardoqui was appointed ambas- sador to Turin, and his successor as minister of State was Don Pedro Varelay Ulloa.14 On March 31, 1797, In- tendant Morales announced to Minister Ulloa that one hundred and seventy Cherokee Indians had applied to the commandant at New Madrid for lands within the limits of the King of Spain's possessions, and also three hundred and ninety-five Alibamon Indians had made the same request at New Orleans to Governor Carondelet, who had established them in the Opelousas district. On June 30, 1797, Morales announced an inundation of the Mississippi, which did great damage at St. Geneviève and almost ruined New Madrid, according to the state- ment of the commandant, Don Carlos Dehault de Lassus.
By the treaty of 1795 between Spain and the United States, it had been stipulated that commissioners and sur- veyors, duly appointed by each government, were to as- certain the line of demarcation between the United States and the Spanish possessions, and then the troops of Spain were to be withdrawn from the country north of the line. Colonel Andrew Ellicott was appointed com- missioner for the United States, and Don Manuel Gay- oso de Lemos for Spain. Colonel Ellicott went to Nat-
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1797]
chez and began his observations to establish the line, but Gayoso and Carondelet delayed the delivery of the country to the American commissioner, and Carondelet, on May 31, 1797, issued a proclamation in French, of which Intendant Morales sent a copy to his government. It declared that the government, having been informed by the Spanish minister to the United States that an expedition setting out from the Lakes was to attack the Illinois country this year, has judged proper, for the security of Lower Louisiana, to suspend the evacuation, already begun, of the posts of Natchez and Nogales. 'As these are the only ones that protect it, their evacuation would enable the English to ravage it, in case they ren- dered themselves masters of Upper Louisiana, with so much the more facility as, by an article of the treaty con- cluded later with Great Britain, the United States recog- nize that the English may frequent the posts belonging to the United States situated on the rivers, lakes, etc .- a manifest contradiction of the treaty concluded with Spain, which it appears to annul, as the United States recognized by that treaty that no other nation could navi- gate the Mississippi without the consent of Spain. Al- though the justice of the suspension of the evacuation has been communicated to the Congress of the United States, to the American commissioner, and to the commander of the detachment of American troops, a detachment of the army stationed on the Ohio is marching by the Holstein toward Natchez, and the militia of the Cumberland have received orders to be ready to march at the first notice.
These hostile dispositions, the threats of the commis-
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sioner of limits and of the American commander of the detachment at Natchez, the rumored rupture between "France, our intimate ally, and the United States,- everything persuades us to be ready to defend our homes with that valor, that energy, which the inhabitants of these provinces have displayed on all occasions; with that ad- vantage and that superiority which are procured by the knowledge and the habit of the locality, that confidence which is inspired by right and justice. If the Congress of the United States has no hostile intention against these provinces, let it leave to them the posts of Natchez and Nogales, the only barriers of Lower Louisiana that can put a stop to the incursions of the English, or let it give us securities against the article of the treaty with Great Britain, which exposes Lower Louisiana to be pillaged and sacked as far as the capital. We shall then deliver the said posts to it, and we shall lay down the arms which it compels us to take by arming its militia in time of peace, and sending a considerable body of troops by roundabout routes to surprise us."
The free navigation of the Mississippi was conceded to Great Britain by the United States, by the treaty of London, November 19, 1794, nearly a year previous to the treaty of Madrid of 1795, and Carondelet's interest- ing proclamation does not appear to have been as truthful as he pretends. The people of the district ceded to the United States rose against Gayoso de Lemos on June 9, 1797, and the Spanish commandant was soon confined to the small compass of the fort. On June 14 he issued a proclamation promising " a pardon to all who repented
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1798]
of their misdeeds, and, as an evidence of repentance, ab- stained from all acts calculated to disturb the public peace." 15 The people were highly indignant at the word " repentance," and opposition to the Spanish Government became still greater. There were, however, no acts of violence, and on July 26, 1797, Gayoso de Lemos received his commission as Governor-General of Louisiana and Florida. He left Natchez for New Orleans, and ap- pointed Captain Stephen Minor temporary comman- dant of the fort. Carlos de Grandpré was appointed lieu- tenant-governor of Natchez; but as he was not popular with the people, Captain Minor continued to act as com- mandant. General Wilkinson, who had succeeded Wayne as commander-in-chief, sent Captain Guion with a reinforcement to take command of the American troops at Natchez. Finally, in January, 1798, instructions were received by the Spanish commandant for the evacuation of Fort Nogales and Fort Panmure at Natchez, and in March they surrendered to the Americans. By an act of Congress approved April 7, 1798, the territory sur- rendered was erected into the Mississippi Territory, and on August 26 General Wilkinson established his head- quarters at Natchez. There had been negotiations be- tween him and Thomas Power in 1797, "but," says Monette, "General Wilkinson had already procceded too far in his treasonable intrigues and correspondence with the Spanish governor, and the suspicions of his own government rested upon him. Hence, in the summer of 1797, he had given to Mr. Powers 16 a cold reception."
CHAPTER VII
THE LAST YEARS OF THE SPANISH DOMINATION- THE TREATY OF ST. ILDEFONSO
Governor Gayoso de Lemos-The Duke d'Orleans and his brothers-Fort Adams-Concordia-Intendant Morales abolishes the "right of deposit " at New Orleans-Quarrels of Gayoso de Lemos and Morales-Important de- spatches of Morales-Death of Governor Gayoso de Lemos-Governor Casa Calvo-Sentence against Carondelet by the "judge of residence "-Slaves from Africa again admitted-Census of Upper Louisiana in 1799-Loui- siana retroceded to France-Failure of the French expedition to Santo Domingo-Treaty of Amiens-Bernadotte-Victor and Laussat-System of government for Louisiana.
B RIGADIER-GENERAL' MAN- UEL GAYOSO DE LEMOS succeeded the Baron de Carondelet as Governor of Louisiana and of the Floridas. Carondelet was appointed President of the Royal Audience of Quito. His administration had been businesslike, vigilant, and judicious. Governor Gayoso de Lemos assumed office on August 1, 1797, but did not publish his bando de buen gobierno till January, 1798. It contained no important new regulation. He published also a set of instructions to commandants about grants of land. Some of the instructions certainly were wise, such as the following:1 "No grant of land is to be made to any unmarried emigrant who has neither trade
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1798]
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nor property, until after a residence of four years, during which time he must have been employed in the culture of the ground. But if, after a residence of two years, such a person should marry the daughter of an honest farmer, with his consent and by him recom- mended, a grant of land may be made to him. In Upper Louisiana no settler is to be admitted who is not a farmer or a mechanic."
The following regulations were very intolerant: " Lib- erty of conscience is not to be extended beyond the first generation; the children of the emigrant must be Catho- lic; and emigrants not agreeing to this must not be ad- mitted, but removed, even when they bring property with them. This is to be explained to settlers who do not profess the Catholic religion. It is expressly recom- mended to commandants to watch that no preacher of any religion but the Catholic comes into the province."
In the beginning of the year 1798 three illustrious visitors arrived in New Orleans: they were the Duke d'Orléans and his two brothers, the Duke de Montpensier and the Count de Beaujolais. They were the sons of the late Duke d'Orleans, Philippe-Égalité, who, as a member of the Convention, had voted for the death of Louis XVI, the chief of his house, and had himself been executed during the troublous times of the French Revolution. Philippe-Égalité was a great-grandson of Philippe d'Orléans, Regent of France, for whom the city of New Orleans had been named. The descendants of the Regent of France, now in exile, were received mag- nificently in New Orleans, and were entertained prin-
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cipally, during their stay in Louisiana, by Bernard de Marigny, Julien Poydras, and Étienne de Boré. The two brothers of the Duke d'Orleans died young, but the duke himself became Louis-Philippe, King of the French, in 1830, and reigned until February, 1848.
When the Mississippi Territory was organized by Con- gress, in 1798, Winthrop Sargent was appointed gov- ernor. General Wilkinson, who had established his head- quarters at Natchez, transferred them to Loftus Heights, or Roche à Davion, and built Fort Adams. Amicable relations then began between the Americans and the Spaniards; and the Spanish commandant, Don Nicolas Maria Vidal, at the post opposite to Natchez, gave the name of " Concordia " to the fort that was erected on the west side of the river, opposite Fort Panmure on the east side. On account of the increase of the commerce of New Orleans, Daniel Clark, Jr., was recognized by the Span- ish governor as temporary consul of the United States. Evan Jones was later appointed permanent consul.
The era of good feeling between the United States and Spanish Louisiana was not to be of long duration, for the intendant Morales issued a proclamation on July 17, 1799, concerning grants of land, which was considered hostile to emigrants from the United States. Morales also abolished the right of deposit at New Orleans, as three years had elapsed since the ratification of the treaty of Madrid, which had guaranteed that right to the Ameri- cans. By the treaty the King of Spain bound himself, at the expiration of three years, to extend the time, or to de- signate some other suitable point within the island of
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[1799
New Orleans as a place of deposit. Intendant Morales designated no other suitable point; the Western peo- ple were greatly excited, and President Adams for some time thought of a campaign against Louisiana. Fortu- nately, the interdict of Morales was disavowed by the King, and the right of deposit was restored in 1800 by Don Ramon de Lopez, the successor of Morales.
In 1799 Intendant Morales disagreed with Governor Gayoso de Lemos, as the commissaire ordonnateur used to disagree with the governor during the French domina- tion. Morales, in several despatches, accuses Gayoso de Lemos of being generous at the expense of the King, and of abuse of power. Morales mentions also the arrival in New Orleans of General Wilkinson, who had been called to Washington by President Adams. He says the two thousand dollars paid annually to Don Augusto Chou- teau is useless, for his twenty militiamen at Fort Caron- delet among the Osage Indians do not contribute at pres- ent to the defence of the province, as the Americans are so near. In his despatch of March 31, 1799, Morales men- tions as able sailors Lieutenant-Colonel Don Pedro Rous- seau, Captain Don Guillermo Dupark, and Lieutenant Don Francisco Langlois. In the same despatch he asks to be relieved of his office, as he is unable to continue longer in open quarrel with the governor. He refers also to the permission given by Governor Gayoso de Lemos to Don Santiago Fletcher to introduce into the province two hundred negroes (bozales) from Africa. He says that, after the insurrection of the slaves in 1795, at the request of the cabildo, Governor Carondelet had forbid-
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den the introduction of slaves from the French Antilles, and later from any other place, in order not to increase the number of enemies of the white race. The present moment is still less favorable for the introduction of slaves in the province, on account of the independence obtained by the negroes of Santo Domingo, but Governor Gayoso insists upon granting Fletcher the permission. Morales does not believe the latter will ever be able to take his cargo to New Orleans; but, if he does, the cabildo will have to oppose his landing and even to confiscate the slaves.
On May 31, 1799, the intendant asked permission to spend seven thousand dollars for a building to be erected at the Convent of the Ursulines for the girls educated there; and on July 25, 1799, he announced the death, on July 18, of Governor Gayoso de Lemos. The gov- ernor died of a malignant fever, after a brief illness, and was reconciled to Morales shortly before his death. Col- onel Francisco Bouligny assumed the command of the military; and the auditor of war, Don Nicolas Maria Vidal, the civil government.
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Governor Gayoso de Lemos died very poor, leaving only the furniture in his house and a few slaves. Colonel Ellicott praises him highly. He was affable and kind, and " it was frequently remarked of him, as a singularity, that he was neither concerned in traffic, nor in the habit of taking douceurs, which was too frequently the case with other officers of his Catholic Majesty in Louisiana. He was fond of show and parade, in which he indulged to the great injury of his fortune, and not a little of his
ACT
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1799]
reputation as a good paymaster. He was a tender hus- band, an affectionate parent, and a good master."
On September 13, 1799, Morales said the Marquis de Casa Calvo had taken possession of the military gov- ernment of Louisiana, having been appointed to that office by Captain-General Marquis de Someruelos. IIe announced also the explosion of a powder-magazine in the St. Charles redoubt, which caused the death of four soldiers.
In November, 1799, Bishop Peñalver, in a letter to Don José Antonio Caballero, says the province is infested with adventurers from the West, especially the districts of Ouachita, Attakapas, Opolousas, and Natchitoches, bordering on the province of Texas in New Spain. The bishop adds that the Western people are in the habit of striking their sons on the shoulder when they are very robust and saying to them: " You will go to Mexico." 2
Judge Martin relates an interesting incident that shows how well the laws were observed in Louisiana in 1799:
Gayoso now received and executed a commission of judge of residence of his predecessor. One act of the Baron's administra- tion was judged reprehensible. He had been led, by an excess of zeal for what he conceived to be the public good, to take upon himself the responsibility of condemning to death a slave who had killed his overseer. The fact was proven that Vidal, the assessor of government, conceived that the circumstances which attended it did not bring the case under any law authoriz- ing a sentence of death, and had recommended a milder one. At the solicitation of a number of respectable planters, and of the owner of the slave, Marigny de Mandeville, a Knight of St. Louis and colonel of the militia, who represented to the Baron that
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an example was absolutely necessary, especially so soon after the late insurrection, he disregarded the opinion of his legal adviser and ordered the execution of the slave. It was thought the life of a human being, although a slave, ought not to depend on the opinion of a man in any case where his sacrifice was not expressly ordered by law. A fine of five hundred dollars was paid by the Baron.
In November, 1799, the cabildo requested the gov- ernor to issue a proclamation suspending the prohibition of the introduction into the colony of negroes from Africa, as the cultivation of the sugar-cane required a larger number of laborers. The King approved the sus- pension of the prohibition.
On December 31, 1799, Don Carlos Dehault de Lassus presented the following census of Upper Louisiana: St. Louis, 925; Carondelet, 184; St. Charles, 875; St. Fer- nando, 276; Marais des Liards, 376; Maramec, 115; St. Andrew, 393; St. Geneviève, 949; New Bourbon, 560; Cape Girardeau, 521; New Madrid, 782; Little Mea- dows, 49; total, 6005. The white population was 4948 souls; the free colored, 197; that of slaves, 860. That year there were 34 marriages, 191 births, and 52 deaths. There were in the different settlements 7980 head of horned cattle, and 1763 horses. The crops amounted to 88,349 minots of wheat, 84,534 of Indian corn, and 28,- 627 pounds of tobacco. The exports to New Orleans consisted of : 1754 bundles of deerskins, $70,160; 8 bun- dles of bearskins, $256; 18 bundles of buffalo robes, $540; 360 quintals of lead, $2160; 20 quintals of flour, $60. Of lead, 1340 quintals were exported to the United
. A1
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1800]
· States, by the Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee rivers. One thousand bales of salt were made yearly.
At the end of the eighteenth century a great event was preparing for Louisiana, and Bonaparte was the man who was to bring it about. After his campaigns of 1796 and 1797 in Italy, he had gone to Egypt and, in spite of the destruction of his fleet at Aboukir, had won great victories, and had returned to France in 1799. On the ' 18th Brumaire (November 9, 1799) he overthrew the Directory and established the Consulate. The First Con- sul accomplished even greater exploits than General Bo- naparte, and his campaign of 1800 is really wonderful. He collected a large army, and threw it suddenly over the Alps into Italy, and at Marengo, on June 14, 1800, he crushed the Austrian army. Peace with Austria soon followed this battle, and there was a fair prospect of making peace with England. Bonaparte wished then to revive the colonial empire of France, and he thought of Louisiana, which had been ceded to Spain by Louis XV in 1762.
Charles IV of Spain was a man of good morals and of sincere piety; but he lacked the ability of his father, Charles III, and had no force of character. He allowed his favorite, or rather the Queen's favorite, to govern the kingdom. Manuel Godoy, Prince of Peace, the Prime Minister, was the true King of Spain for several years. He was a man of some ability, but he was no match for the First Consul, who easily persuaded him that if France acquired Louisiana again, that province would serve as a protection for Mexico and the Gulf.
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[1800
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On October 1, 1800, a treaty was negotiated at St. Ilde- fonso by Berthier,3 who was to become the renowned marshal and chief-of-staff of Napoleon. The third ar- ticle was as follows: "His Catholic Majesty promises and binds himself to retrocede to the French Republic, six months after the full and entire execution of the con- ditions and stipulations above mentioned, relative to His Royal Highness the Duke of Parma, the colony or prov- ince of Louisiana, with the same extent which it has at present in the hands of Spain, and which it had when France possessed it, and such as it should be since the trea- ties passed subsequently between Spain and other States." The treaty of St. Ildefonso was kept secret, as peace had not yet been signed with England. On March 21, 1801, a treaty was signed at Madrid by Lucien Bonaparte which confirmed that of St. Ildefonso and stipulated that, on account of the cession of Louisiana to France, the duchy of Tuscany should be given to the Duke of Parma, son-in-law of Charles IV, and that he should receive the title of King of Etruria. Yet it was not till October 15, 1802, that Charles IV signed the treaty of retrocession, and one of his conditions was that " France must pledge herself not to alienate Louisiana, and to restore it to / Spain in case the King of Etruria should lose his power."
Preliminaries of peace were signed with England on October 1, 1801, and Bonaparte thought not only of taking possession of Louisiana but also of reconquering Santo Domingo from the blacks. He sent to the island his brother-in-law, General Leclerc, husband of the beau- tiful Pauline, with a large army; but in spite of the
NAPOLÉON BONAPARTE, FIRST CONSUL 1769-1821
Who made the treaty with Jefferson for the transfer of Louisiana to the United States. From a painting by Baron François Pascal Simon -Gérard, executed in 1803 (the year of the transfer), and now in the Musée Conde, Chantilly, France.
اليومي
لو.
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BERNADOTTE
1802]
treacherous capture of that remarkable chief, Toussaint Louverture, the French were unable to wrest Santo Do- mingo from the rule of the blacks. Sickness decimated the army, General Leclerc died, and his successor, Gen- eral Rochambeau, son of Washington's companion at Yorktown, capitulated on November 18, 1803. The Pearl of the Antilles remained in the hands of the blacks and was lost to civilization. Exiles from Santo Do- mingo went to Louisiana to meet their friends who had already taken refuge there.
The treaty of peace between France, Spain, and Eng- land was signed at Amiens on March 25, 1802, and Bo- naparte made preparations to take formal possession of Louisiana. He named General Bernadotte captain- general; but the latter demanded three thousand soldiers and a like number of agriculturists, and was so unrea- sonable in his conditions that the First Consul exclaimed: " I would not do as much for one of my brothers." He appointed Bernadotte minister to the United States, and the future King of Sweden was on the point of sailing from La Rochelle when he heard that the peace of Amiens would not be of long duration. Bernadotte re- turned to Paris and said that he would not attend to any civil functions as long as there should be war.
Bonaparte appointed General Victor captain-general, Pierre Clément Laussat colonial prefect, and Jean- Jacques Aymé judge. "In the mind of the First Con- sul," says M. V. Tantet,4 " Louisiana was to be for the island of Santo Domingo a kind of storehouse, which would provide the latter with provisions, lumber, and
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cattle. This is the reason that, in ignorance of the events that were taking place there, he ordered General Victor, then at Hellevoetsluys, in Holland, while intrusting him with taking possession of Louisiana, to enter immediately into communication with his brother-in-law, General Leclerc, whose troops, which were to subdue the revolt of the blacks, were to be sent to Louisiana after the pacifica- tion of Santo Domingo."
The First Consul had provided a complete system of government for Louisiana. The chief officials were to be as follows: ' A captain-general, salary seventy thou- sand francs per annum. A colonial prefect, salary fifty thousand francs per annum. A grand judge, salary thirty-six thousand francs per annum. A sub-prefect for Upper Louisiana, salary six thousand and seventy- five francs per annum. The amount of salaries for the administration of Louisiana was to be two hundred and eighty-one thousand and sixty-five francs per annum. In order to conciliate the Indians, two hundred and sev- enty silver medals were struck, at a cost of eighty-seven hundred and ninety-two francs, to be presented to the chiefs of the Indian tribes.
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