USA > Louisiana > A history of Louisiana, Volume II > Part 15
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He announced, in his correspondence in 1791, that his hopes for the success of his projects had vanished. He attributed the cause to the fact that Spain had just granted to the inhabitants
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· of Kentucky permission to send their products to New Orleans and to sell them there by paying a duty of fifteen per cent. He pretended that the fertility of their soil amply compensated for this duty ; and the following year he announced that, in his dis- trict, all idea of emigration had been dispelled, since the inhabi- tants of Kentucky knew that His Catholic Majesty had just declared that in the future His Majesty, instead of buying from the emigrants two million pounds of tobacco a year, would take in the following year only forty thousand pounds.
It results from all this that Spain has not been able to draw to her the people of Kentucky. The same motives have arrested the cmigration which could justly be expected, since, without having done anything to procure it, Louisiana, which contained only twenty thousand souls in 1782, had forty-five thousand in 1792, and more than seventy thousand to-day, including the dis- trict of Natchez, which has been ceded to the Americans since 1797.
The man mentioned above advised injudiciously that the people of those districts be made absolutely dependent on Spain, by forbidding them all kind of commerce with Louisiana, as well as the navigation of the river; and he hoped that the greater part of the thirteen provinces would consent to it. To succeed in this manner in putting a stop to the excessive and alarming emigra- tion from the Atlantic coast toward the western countries, lie thought that as the latter were not sustained in their pretensions by the Federal Government, it would then become easy to induce them to seek their welfare themselves by throwing themselves into the arms of Spain.
All these combinations necessarily failed, because, instead of op- posing the pretensions of the above-named districts, the United States declared themselves very decidedly in their favor, and formulated in 1792 a demand to the court of Spain, in which they represented that, unless they exposed themselves to lose half of their territory, they could not close their ears to the continual clamors of the inhabitants of the West, who solicited, besides
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the free navigation of the Mississippi, which nature had given them, a post on the lower Mississippi, in order that their ships might receive their products there; adding that the designation of a place of deposit at New Orleans might give rise to nego- tiations.
The Congress, by these means, gained so completely the affec- tion of those people for its government that it was no longer possible to think of forming the union above mentioned, although surely those inhabitants would be happier for it. Spain lost also the hope of having time to people Louisiana before making ar- rangements with the United States. To delay this negotiation, a thing that exactly suited the court of Spain, it was decided to make different propositions to the Congress. First it was de- clared that, considering the delicate position of the western coun- tries, His Majesty, through humanity, had permitted them to sell their products at New Orleans ; and although there was a duty of fifteen per cent. (paid in products), that was more advantageous to them than to export them by sea, since they sell at New Orleans, for eight dollars, a barrel of flour that was worth three dollars at Monongahela; and that very surely those per- . sons, who should come from the Atlantic with ships, to load them at the Mississippi, would buy at much lower prices; but that, to avoid a pretext for contraband and discussion, His Maj- esty would permit the free navigation of the Mississippi to the inhabitants of the western countries, who might easily cause to be constructed, on the rivers where they are established, schooners or boats by which they could send their goods to the ports of the United States, or to those of the foreign colonies that admit them; a proposition which was rejected, as they persisted in de- manding entrance to the river for any American ship, and the possession of a port.
This negotiation dragged along again with new propositions, such as to permit the entrance of the river only as far as the Plaquemines turn, ten leagues from the Balize at the mouth of the river, with the prohibition of putting planks on the river to
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load, binding themselves to do so with the flatboats with which they go down, and which may easily come alongside the ships.
As the Congress was unwilling to abate anything from those pretensions, Spain, in order not to lose more, saw herself obliged to grant the free navigation of the river, and, instead of giving them the port which they demanded, to consent to put them in possession of the limits above mentioned, which had been desig- nated by their treaty of peace with England; which was done in 1797.
Since, with these new limits, the United States possess more than six hundred leagues of the east side of the Mississippi, from the thirty-first degree, opposite Red River, to the forty-second degree, it becomes more important than ever to people the western side, much more suitable to numerous and flourishing establish- ments, such as New Madrid, the rivers St. Francis, Arkansas, Ouachita, and Red, and the posts of Natchitoches, Attakapas, and Opelousas. All these districts, well peopled, might defend the province, by meeting easily at such point as the circumstances might require. The lands watered by these rivers are the most fertile in America, and offer the finest territories of an immense extent, bordering on the Kingdom of Mexico. These are the points that the court of Spain feared to people, on account of this neighborhood, and it gave the most precise orders not to place any family on the Ouachita River, which communicates most directly with Mexico.
The possession of Louisiana, thus reduced by these new boun- daries, comprises no more, then, on the east side of the Mississippi, than as far as the thirty-first degree, twelve leagues below Nat- chez, as I have said above; but in spite of that, the United States cannot consider as belonging to them the tribes of the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Alibamons, and Creeks, because those tribes, which are entirely devoted to us, besides having always received presents from Great Britain as owner of Florida, have renewed the sort of dependency to which they submit for the protection granted to them by Spain. In a congress which the
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Government of Louisiana held in May, 1783, at Pensacola, with the Creeks, and in June, at Mobile, with the other tribes, a treaty was made to that effect, in thirteen articles, which was approved by the court. The United States will reply to this that they also have made treaties with the Chickasaws and Choctaws at Hopewell and Seneca in 1786; but those treaties are imaginary. On the side of the Chickasaws an Indian chief, with a small num- ber of warriors, went to Hopewell, and a few Choctaw chiefs, the only ones who had not brought back the English medals to the Spanish Governor, went to Seneca, none being authorized by their tribes. This is what was declared by those same Choctaw chiefs who have since come to deliver the medals to the Govern- ment, and to take some from the King of Spain. The King of the Chickasaws and his principal chiefs disapproved also the action of the above-mentioned chief.
It is very important that these tribes should remain under the protection of France, as they were under that of Spain, because they serve as a barrier against the United States, in a space of three hundred leagues which one would have to cross among them, to come from the provinces of Georgia and South Carolina. I have no doubt that the Americans will oppose it with all their might, as they have always done, by sending every year com- missioners to endeavor to detach them from Spain. They have never as yet succeeded. They have kept on their side only the Chickasaw chief above mentioned, and his village. None of the others allowed themselves to be persuaded by the letters that were written to them by the Minister of War, Knox, Dr. Franklin, and even General Washington; they delivered the letters to the Governor of Louisiana, as a proof of their fidelity. But as it was possible that the United States might compel them, and as it is against international law to prevent them from choosing their protector, it is just, and to the interest of France, to offer them a support in such a case.
If ever it happened that the United States should wish to un- dertake to form establishments in the territory of the above-
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named tribes, as they have already tried to do, it is not doubtful that they will oppose this with all their power and that they will call then to their aid the Government of Louisiana, which should support them with all its might, not to run the risk of seeing itself deprived of such an essential barrier.
These tribes have always been disposed to repel by force any undertaking to invade their territory. This is what happened between the Cherokees, the Creeks, the Talapouches, and the United States. The former want for a boundary the Cumber- land River, the latter the Okony. It is for that reason that they fought constantly until 1791, when the half-breed Alexander McGillivray was called to New York by President Washington, with several Creek chiefs. They made then a treaty of peace, which the tribe refused to approve, because McGillivray had ceded more land than he was authorized to cede, which was even contrary to the thirteen articles of the congress held at Pensa- cola in 1784 with the nation of the Creeks. By this cession McGillivray abandoned to the Americans a considerable part of the best lands of the Creeks, who refused to give possession. France must uphold them. It is even proper, in order to succeed, that in taking possession of Louisiana, the French Government should call at Pensacola a council of the above-named nation. Although this operation is costly,-for, in such a case, the cus- tomary presents must be given to them, and provisions must be furnished them during their stay and for their return, never- theless, the means employed by the United States to draw them to their side render this measure indispensable. In that con- gress the French Governor will know what influence McGillivray has kept over these people since they disapproved his treaty. He will make them feel how much more advantageous to them is the protection of France, which they have not forgotten, than that of the United States, which are only seeking to invade their lands.
The Choctaws and Alibamons, secing the Creeks called in council, will ask for one in their turn; it will be indispensable
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to grant it, to destroy the continual attempt which the neigh- boring states are making to detach them from the Government of Louisiana, which they like, and under whose protection they have always been.
At the time of the French domination the Governor of New Orleans called these nations in council every year at Mobile; therefore the old men among them always mention that epoch with pleasure, and will see the arrival of their former protectors with as much satisfaction as they look upon the United States with distrust.
In spite of the advantages that the United States have ob- tained by the new boundaries, what will always keep the western inhabitants of the United States dependent upon Louisiana, and what will render emigration advantageous to them, although their lands are also very fertile, is the difficulty of procuring what they need, at a distance so remote, in exchange for their goods, although they have the liberty of the navigation of the river ; for the most valuable products they have for sale are tobacco and flour, which are held at a low price on the Atlantic coast, so that if ships went from these to the Mississippi to buy those articles from the inhabitants of the West, the latter would be obliged to sell them at a low price, in order that the ship-owners might cover their expenses. Besides, the sellers cannot receive merchandise in exchange, on account of the great expense of going up the Mississippi to the Ohio, for there are six hundred and thirty-three leagues from the post of Plaquemines, ten leagues from the mouth of the Mississippi, to Louisville, the first establishment in Kentucky. The road is still less passable by land, although shorter by half ; so that the only thing the inhabi- tant of Kentucky can do is to sell his goods cheap for money to the American ships, go to Philadelphia, buy there the merchandise he needs, transport it one hundred leagues by land to Fort Pitt, and thence descend two hundred and thirty-five leagues by the Ohio to his home.
It certainly cannot be expected that any farmer could under-
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· take such an operation, or that any merchant could speculate on the handling of these goods. How much more advantageous it will be to the inhabitants of the west, to come nearer by the Mississippi, or at least to unite with Louisiana, and have the right to sell their products with great advantage at New Orleans.
These circumstances present very powerful motives to the in- habitants of Kentucky, whose example would soon be followed by the other western districts, to separate from the United States, to form an alliance with France, binding themselves to defend , Louisiana in case of attack by the United States.
As Spain has granted them all that they have demanded, and as it is to be presumed that they will undertake no hostility, France will have time to elaborate that project, and the inhabi- tants of Kentucky to be convinced that they cannot be happy without this alliance or the conquest of Louisiana. One of these events is demanded by the circumstances of these countries; it is for France to attend to the one, to avoid the other. To suc- ceed, a man should be employed who knows the importance of that result, as well as the situation of those provinces, with regard to Louisiana and the United States, and who should renew the communication that the Government of Louisiana had with the person of whom I have spoken.
While this project is attended to, it will be of the highest importance to employ extraordinary means to people Louisiana, so that she may defend herself, which, once accomplished, would render less necessary, perhaps even useless, the alliance desired, or rather would make the districts mentioned solicit it. At first sight it seems dangerous to people Louisiana with foreigners ; but her singular situation with regard to the people on the Ohio is such that they should be considered as at home, for we may assume that, from those districts, those inhabitants have more facilities for invading Louisiana than they would have for revolt- ing, if they were established there, with this difference, that, in the first case, the invasion would be glorious, and embarking on the Ohio, favored by the swiftness of the current, they would find
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themselves in Louisiana before any one knew they had thought of it; while, once emigrated and received among us with promise of fidelity to the Republic, those who should undertake a revolt, not being able to do so without its being known, would risk everything, and, far from finding glory, would only expose themselves to con- demnation as traitors. Besides, one cannot presume that people who have lived under a precarious government, which did not pro- tect them, continually surrounded with dangers from the Indians, deprived of all kinds of commerce, will become disloyal when they see themselves, by their own choice, established under an- other Government, which protects them, assures an outlet for their products, burdens them with no imposts, and settles their quarrels without meddling with their domestic operations any more than with matters of religion.
As soon as, by such means, the affection of the first generation has been won, the following ones will know no other country ; and afterward those who govern them must endeavor to impress the tender minds of youth with ideas of patriotism and justice.
Similar motives decided the King of Spain, in 1790, to give orders to the Governor of Louisiana to receive there all emi- grants who should present themselves from those provinces, to give them lands, and to establish districts, six leagues distant from each other, in the centre of which there should be a church, a house for a commandant, and an Irish curate, but with orders not to trouble them in their creed.
My most important aim is to indicate means of peopling Louisiana. These will be based upon the purchase of the tobacco crop of the emigrants, and the most unlimited extension of com- merce. If my propositions appear excessive, let them be at- tributed solely to my conviction that Louisiana is the key of America, and consequently of the highest importance; that in this respect she has been for a long time the object of the ambition of the United States, which will experience the greatest anxiety at secing her in the possession of such a power as France, and which would have invaded her long ago if they had thought that she would ever belong to that power.
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The purchase of tobacco from the emigrants cannot be a bur- den to France. Spain employed this means before the war, and took from them at New Orleans two million pounds out of each crop, although she consumes but little of it. I have been informed very positively, by the administrator intrusted personally with this duty in Spain, that after the quantity needed in Spain, which is only sixty thousand pounds a year, because it can only be used for snuff tobacco, he had sent every year to Holland and to France a few million pounds that remained to him, and that, according to the accounts he had received, a considerable benefit to the royal treasury resulted from the salc. This leads me to propose this means as the one that promises most success with- out being onerous to the Republic.
The tobacco crops were received in the years 1790 and 1791 at eight cents a pound in Louisiana by the Spanish Government, which found a profit in it, and the inhabitants derived so great an advantage that I know positively, from themselves, that they would consider themselves very fortunate if the Government should take the tobacco now at the moderate price of six cents a pound, instead of eight; and if that purchase were extended to four million pounds a year, that would be sufficient to attract many inhabitants ; for, from Red River to New Madrid, it is the only product that can benefit the cultivators-a circumstance which has convinced me that the purchase of that tobacco would be a powerful means of peopling that part of Louisiana.
Since the purchase of tobacco gave a profit to Spain, which paid eight cents a pound, France, paying only six cents, will be able, while selling it cheaper, to find casily a market for these four million pounds, in France, in Spain, or in Holland.
The following is an abstract of Pontalba's Memoir:
An arrangement could be made with Spain by which two hundred and forty thousand dollars would be sent every year to Louisiana from Vera Cruz for the purchase of tobacco, and France would reimburse Spain in Europe.
C
THIS
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The commerce, limited to the ports of France and her colonies in times of peace, and extended to the ports of the United States in times of war, is sufficient for the ordi- nary purposes of trade, but not to increase the population rapidly. The best way to people Louisiana in a few years would be to extend the freedom of commerce and allow it with all nations. Commissioners should be ap- pointed who would make known everywhere the condi- tions on which foreign families would be received in Louisiana, and regulations should be given to captains of ships, who would receive those who might wish to settle in that province. With an increase of population, the impost of six per cent. already established would soon amount to more than the five hundred and thirty-seven thousand dol- lars which the administration of the province costs.
As soon as it should be known in the western portion of the United States that commerce with Louisiana was unlimited, that tobacco would be purchased by the govern- ment, and that it was "the intention to develop in this province the degree of splendor of which it is capable," there can be no doubt that emigration would be as consid- erable from the West to Louisiana as it was from the East to the West. A great inducement for immigration is the fact that France is the only power that may obtain for Louisiana freedom of commerce with the ports of the Gulf of Mexico.
Thus far, the means suggested for peopling Louisiana, instead of being a burden, would give rise to a profit. A more powerful attraction would be, to appropriate about three million francs for loans to the emigrants from the
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CAPTAIN JOSEPH XAVIER DE PONTALBA 1754-1834
Author of an important Memoir on Louisiana sent to Bonaparte in 1801: From a contemporary painting be- longing to his grandson, Baron Edouard de Pontalba, Sen- lis, France. He is shown in the uniform of a captain of the Regiment of Guadeloupe.
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' West. To each person one hundred franes should be lent, payable in three years. In this way, in less than two years, thirty thousand persons would be attracted to Loui- siana. Little money would be lost in this operation, with a great increase in the amount paid for duties. The peo- ple who should come from Kentucky and adjacent dis- tricts, all active and laborious agriculturists, would sell their lands and obtain others in Louisiana for nothing, and would soon be in a condition to reimburse the money lent them by the government.
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That is not all. After granting everything to Loui- siana, France would yet have done nothing for her if she did not give her, to govern her, a man, honest, loyal, just, and kind, whose conciliatory spirit should know how to win the affection of the inhabitants. They are gentle, sensitive, and, above all, grateful.
" After they had done more than was then permitted to . French subjects, and had seen the solicitations of their delegates rejected, the inhabitants of Louisiana delib- erated whether they should not have recourse to their cour- age, and the expulsion of the Spanish Governor, Ulloa, was the result.
" O'Reilly arrived with an army, he heralded words of peace, of indulgence, of oblivion of the past. The in- habitants, abandoned by their country, believed they no longer owed it a love which it rejected. They hoped their lot would be bearable, and they received their new mas- ters without resistance. The conduct of O'Reilly is but too well known; it exasperated all hearts and caused the new domination to be abhorred.
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" Count de Galvez appeared, and with him confidence, affability, gentleness, frankness, justice, and kindness. Soon the whole colony was devoted to him. He received in 1779 the news of the declaration of war against the English; he called the inhabitants together; he exclaimed: 'Let him who loves me follow me!' and the next day fifteen hundred Creoles, among whom were many fathers of families, pressed around him. The English were at- tacked before they were aware of the march against them, and all their establishments on the Mississippi were captured before the artillery, which was following us, had gone over half the distance."
The United States tried to settle the territory north- west of the Ohio. Five hundred families were allured from Paris, and established themselves on the Scioto River; but the Indians harassed them in such a manner that nearly all abandoned their settlements. The American Government constructed a fort on the Little Miami, and undertook without success two expeditions against the Indians. There are, therefore, few settlements at present in that region. With regard to the defense of Louisiana, there are only two points to be protected from attacks by sea-Mobile and New Orleans. Two hundred and fifty men are sufficient for the first, and two thousand five hun- dred for the second. With a battery of four guns at the Rigolet, opposition can easily be made to gunboats that might endeavor to pass through Bayou St. John, and the entrance to Lake Pontchartrain can be defended by the two boats that are there now. The essential point of de- fense, from the mouth of the river, is the Plaquemines
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' bend, ten leagues from the Balize. A fort has been estab- lished there, on the left bank, of which the fire crosses that of a battery on the opposite bank. The works cannot be attacked by land, on account of the miry ground, and ships and gunboats would have great difficulty in ap- proaching them, on account of the swiftness of the current and contrary winds. Besides, the deepest pass at the mouth of the river has only thirteen feet of water, so that ships carrying many heavy guns could not enter. If, however, the Plaquemines bend were forced, the English Turn, fourteen leagues above, would present an impreg- nable point of defense.
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