USA > Louisiana > Orleans Parish > New Orleans > Creole families of New Orleans > Part 20
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Meanwhile, by what in the experience of after time seems a political anomaly, Gayarré was twice chosen by the city of New Orleans as ner repre- sentative in the Legislature; and he was also appointed by two succeeding governors Secretary of State, a position he held for seven years. This period represents the proudest and pleasantest years of his life and also of that of the State, which was then in the full glow of her maturity as an American commonwealth. The friction between the old and the new population had duly changed rough into polished surfaces; the irritating chafing under the yoke of strange conditions had ceased, yoke and neck having become habituated to one another and "the life of the commonwealth," to quote the con- tented words of our historian, "was but a quiet, ever swelling stream of prosperity."
The banks of such a stream have ever proved fertile soil for intellectual culture, and they seemed to prove so then in Louisiana. But the stream of prosperity, alas! has found so many impediments in its course in the lifetime of the present generation (whose whole strength, indeed, has at times been devoted to keep a current alive in it) that it seems only a part of the usual vain and feeble boasting over an age gone by to say that great institutions, hand-
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some buildings, schools, colleges, public libraries, charities and noble private benefactions flourished then, with every promise of continuous development, where to-day the seed of them are being so laboriously resown.
There was, however, no consummation of that old and passed prosperity that commends itself so much to the student of to-day as the manifest appreciation, public and private, of the importance of the knowledge of the history of the State as an element in the wise development of the State. This is an idea that we are familiar with at present-one that has become a part of the educational outfit of every State of the Union. At that time, in Louisiana, Gayarré was the evangelist of it-and, rare as the exception sounds, he did not preach in a desert. Appropriations for a statue of Washington by Powers, to be placed in the rotunda of the State- house; for an equestrian statue of Jackson, to be placed in Jackson Square; for a monument on the battlefield of Chalmette; for swords and gold medals to Mexican War generals, adorn the legislative records of that period. They, all of them, bear the signature of Gayarré.
During his seven years in this office the Secretary of State had the expenditure of an annual appro- priation of one thousand dollars for the purchase of books for the State Library. Gayarre's scholarly use of this money changed a mere accumulation of volumes into a library worthy of the name, whose historical section, even in its infirm and invalided condition to-day, commands the respect and admira- tion of scholars. Each rare volume in it bears the date of Gayarré's incumbency.
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Shortly after his return from France, he secured the purchase by the State of the historical documents copied by M. Felix Magne from the archives of the Marine and Colonies in Paris. The two bulky volumes, for which one thousand dollars were paid, are now the precious heirlooms of the Louisiana Historical Society, which was resurrected, in truth, to receive them and to carry on the work of further research under the new historical impulse.
Established in 1836, the historical society had languished and become inert from lack of the special direction of effort necessary in such societies for healthful activity; when Gayarré became Secretary of State he, with a group of friends, revived the society, reorganized it, adopted a constitution for it, and elected Martin, the venerable historian, President, with John Perkins, the wealthy bene- factor of letters in Louisiana, and J. D. B. De Bow, Secretaries. If to the above names be added those of B. F. French and Edmond Forstall, the list of the century's eminent servitors of the his- tory of Louisiana will be complete. It is a list the like of which will hardly be seen again in the annals of the society. French was the publisher of the "Historical Collections of Louisiana"; De Bow, the editor of "De Bow's Review," Forstall (of the old Creole family) was the author of "An Analytical Index of the whole of the Public Documents Rela- tive to Louisiana Deposited in the Département de la Marine et des Colonies, et Bibliothèque du Roi, at Paris."
Perkins, delegated by the society to make re- searches in Europe for interesting historical matter relating to Louisiana, secured the services of Pierre Margry, the archivist, to make a transcript,
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chronologically arranged, of all the papers in the different archives of the French Government referring to Louisiana from the date of Iberville's landing to the time of its cession to the United States. This undertaking, vast as it proved to be, was superbly carried out by Margry; and the pride of the remark may be excused here, that it was to this commission of the Louisiana Historical Society that the historical students of the United States are indebted for what was a consequence of it-the compilation and publi- cation of Margry's great and momentous work: "Découvertes et Etablissements des Français dans l'Ouest et dans le Sud de l'Amerique Septentrionale."
Pushing his influence farther, Gayarré obtained from the Legislature of 1847 an appropriation of two thousand dollars to be expended under the auspices of the Historical Society in procuring from Spain copies of original documents relating to the history of Louisiana. In his report as Secretary of State for 1850, he gives the account of the disburse- ment of this money and his correspondence with the United States Minister to Spain and with Sr. Pascal de Gayangos on the subject. Several packages dealing with the transactions of the Spanish Domina- tion were received by the society, an addition of great value to those already possessed in Louisiana. The investigation, however, was not completed; another appropriation was needed which, notwith- standing the warm recommendation of the Governor in his message of 1853, was never passed. The adoption of a new Constitution in 1853 occasioned the retirement of the historian from his office and also, it may be said, the retirement of the State from its patronage of letters.
In 1854 the third volume of Gayarre's history,
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"The Spanish Domination," was published. This ended the colonial history of Louisiana. The fourth volume, "The American Domination," was begun at once, but finished only after the Civil War in 1866. He passed the years of the Civil War in retirement at his country place "Roncal," named for the old home of the Gayarrés in Spain. Here he wrote a life of Philip II of Spain, published simultaneously with "The American Domination."
"Fernando de Lemos" was published in 1872. In 1875 Gayarré was appointed by the Judges of the Supreme Court of Louisiana reporter of their decisions. This seemed at the time a blessed inter- vention, an opportunity for him. Looking back upon it through the corrective lens of years, the opportunity is seen as all in favor of the State; and futile resentment must ever be felt by the chronicler who is called upon to transmit the record that when, by some political exigency of the hour, the Supreme Court was superseded, the historian, whose reports were a model of their kind, was also superseded by one who was considered a more valuable political asset of the party in power. The record may as well be inserted here, for the sake of history, that what- ever services Gayarré might have rendered his State, in exchange for what Goldsmith calls the best encouragement for genius-subsistence and respect, there was henceforth always a man younger, and of more practical use in politics, preferred before him. And history demands also that the fact be not omitted that Gayarré was twice an applicant for an insignificant position in the gift of the Presi- dent of the United States, and that by two different Presidents negroes were preferred to him!
NOTE .- One of the good stories of the war that Gayarre was fond
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of relating was that on the rumored advance of the Federal army- in camp not many miles away-he thought it only an act of the commonest prudence to follow the example of his neighbors and hide, that is, bury his valuables. He, therefore, packed in a secure tin box all that he selected as most precious to him: his wife's jewelry and diamonds and his treasured heirlooms; the shoe buckles and sword hilt studded with brilliants that belonged to his father; his grand- mother's miniature in a frame surrounded with diamonds; de Boré's snuffbox; in short, all the priceless innumerable trinkets of genera- tions of his family. Selecting a good spot for the purpose under a tree that he could easily identify afterwards, he, accompanied by his wife, stealthily crept out to it in the dead of night but taking a lantern with them! His confidential body servant, "the most accom- plished valet and rascal in the world," according to his master, easily suspecting what was in the wind, played the spy and watched the burial of the treasure. Gayarre could not sleep for thinking of his precious box under the tree; by morning he was at the spot to disinter it; but it was gone! And the valet and the carriage horses as well! The plunder was sold in the camp and for years afterward in New Orleans, William, the confidential servant, lived on the proceeds.
It is hardly necessary to add more at the present time, which is as yet but the morrow of a painful yesterday. The memory of it is still fresh and sensitive. Some day perhaps the suffering in it will be forgotten in the spiritual gain that comes to one generation from the example of ill fortune nobly borne in another. The pen, at best of times a frail support, became perforce Gayarré's staff of life. He had inherited, however, from his past days of fortune at least a well-known name and reputation. These stood him in good stead with the publishing world.
In 1877, he was requested by the editor of the North American Review to write upon "The Southern Question," then in its most acute stage in national affairs, as one who could and would treat it not from a sectional or partisan, but from a broadly historical
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point of view. He accomplished this difficult task with remarkable dignity and skill.
The Historical Society, which again had suc- cumbed to neglect and impoverishment, was again revived by Gayarré at this time.
"Aubert Dubayet, or The Two Sister Republics," was published in 1882. As name and subtitle indicate, it is an historical romance connecting the American and French revolutions by means of one of Louisiana's favorite heroes-General Aubert Dubayet of the French Republican Army and Minister of War under the Directory. Like "Fer- nando de Lemos," it is a landmark of the past of Louisiana, and its value therefore one that time increases.
This last book was followed by a period of the most stringent necessity and, therefore, of the most incessant activity of the author's life. The ever- ready market of the newspaper and magazine was a continual incentive to his energy, and for several years he was a steady contributor to it of such wares as he could furnish, mainly historical articles concerning the early life of the colony. The most noted of these are:
"An Historical Sketch of the Two Lafittes;"
"Historical Sketch of Washington's Surrender at Fort Necessity, to François Coulon Dumonville de Villiers, a French Knight of St. Louis (whose family has left descendants in Louisiana);"
"Seward on Reconstruction of the Southern States;"
"A Louisiana Sugar Plantation of the Old Régime;"
"The New Orleans Bench and Bar;"
"An Old Street in New Orleans;"
"The Norman on the Banks of the Mississippi;"/
"Don Carlos and Isabelle de Valois;"
"The Creoles of History and the Creoles of Romance;"
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as well as numerous long and valuable articles in the current newspapers of New Orleans.
For three consecutive winters Gayarré lectured upon Louisiana history, at the request of a circle of patriotic ladies and gentlemen of the city. His record of work, which had lasted sixty-four years, drew to a close only a year before his life ended. Demands upon his time and his courtesy were still met generously as of old. Information was given, as it had always been, freely to all without discrim- ination, in spite of great abuses of such kindness in
the past. A large correspondence was faithfully attended to; visiting strangers were received with unfailing cordiality; books, letters, manuscripts were placed at the disposition of any student that needed them. His memory never grew dim, for it was kept polished by incessant use. He was to the end always the last resource and authority in disputes over questions of Louisiana history. His circle of friends grew smaller as he lived on, outliving them; but the devotion of those that remained increased only the more. He passed away quietly, painlessly, his hand clasping the hand of his wife, to whom he had been united in a long and happy marriage, and who survived him until 1914, passing away in her ninety-fourth year in the fullness of a brave and beautiful old age.
He was buried in his grandfather's tomb, in the old St. Louis Cemetery.
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CHAPTER XVIII
BOULIGNY
T HE Bouligny family, according to their superb collection of family documents, one of the most complete in the historical annals of New Orleans, came originally from Milan. The name was Bolognini, and the founder of the family was Mateo Atendolo Bolognini, first Count of Bolognini, who married, in Milan, Ysabel Urcelli. One of his de- scendants in the fifth generation, Geronimo, married Ysabel Visconti, of the ducal house of Milan; and Maximiliano, in the eighth generation, married Julia Visconti. In the tenth generation, Francisco Bolognini was Captain of Cavalry in the service of Spain. He was made prisoner by the French and taken to Marseilles, where he changed his name to Bouligny. He married a French lady, Cecilia Germain, in 1649, and entered a commercial career. He was the father of Josef, who married Agnes Larchier and became the father of Juan, born in Marseilles, 1699.
After the war of the Spanish Succession, Josef settled in Alicante, Spain, where he died. The family thenceforward was Spanish. Juan, the only son of Josef, married Maria Pared of Marseilles in 1724. He was the progenitor of the Louisiana family and he was a man of influence. He had five sons and six daughters. The oldest son, Josef, became a wealthy merchant of Alicante; the second
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son, Juan, became Spanish Ambassador at Con- stantinople and died in Madrid, in 1789, Honorary Councillor of State. His son Josef was Ambassador Plenipotentiary of Spain at Stockholm. The third son of Juan was Francisco, who came with O'Reilly to Louisiana. The fourth and fifth sons, Louis and Lorenzo, were captains in the Spanish Army. The Boulignys occupied high positions in Spain, and became connected by marriage with the noblest families. The father of Francisco was on inti- mate terms with General O'Reilly, according to his letters to his son.
Francisco Bouligny was born in Alicante in 1736; he entered the Spanish Army in 1758 as cadet in the infantry regiment of Zamorra, serving two years; and was then transferred to the Royal Guards, serving one year and nine months. In 1762 he was sent to Havana, where he remained seven years. In 1769, he came to Louisiana as aide-de-camp to O'Reilly. History relates that he first set foot in New Orleans on the night of July 24th, bearing a communication from General O'Reilly to Aubry, the Governor. His barge landed in front of the Place d'Armes, where stood awaiting him the Spanish officials, Gayarré, Navarro and Loyola, who received him with open arms and immediately conducted him to the hotel of Aubry, to whom he delivered and translated the letter he bore.
But imagination, clinging ever to history like a child to its nurse, chattering its artless questions and wonderments, cannot and will not be satisfied with merely the necessary information. The way from the Place d'Armes to the hotel of Aubry leads over the distance of but a few squares or "Islets,"
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as they were called, in the very heart of the little city. Bouligny, glancing about him as he walked along through the crowded and excited streets (Gayarré says that no one went to bed that night), could not but have noticed the fine manner and courteous bearing of the men who made way for him and his companions, saluting them respectfully. It was a July night and the doors and windows of the low, picturesque houses must have been frankly open, revealing their handsome, luxurious rooms, set with fine-carved furniture and rich ornaments, with negro slaves moving about in them bearing trays of refreshing drinks in crystal glasses. And through the open windows he must have had glimpses of beautiful Creole faces, wan with anxiety and care, awaiting with fear in heart the purport of the very missive he was bearing-tidings that he, perhaps, knew were as a lifted sword over the city- a sword to drip with blood.
The soft, warm air of the July night, heavy with the fragrance of jasmine and oleander and belated blooms of magnolia, the dusky green of gardens about him, the giant forms of moss-laden oaks left over from the forest, the gorgeously brilliant stars overhead could not but work a charm upon him. He was thirty-three, handsome, and gallant as all Boulignys were and are at thirty-three. The beauti- ful Creole faces, wan with anxiety, must also have been not unconscious of him as he passed by. What his friends told him casually of the city he had come to (where they had been living three years), and of its society, could not but have chimed in harmoniously with the impressions he was receiving.
History vouchsafes to say that he dined the next
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day with the Governor and met the most important and influential of the citizens-especially those who had been conspicuous in the revolt against Ulloa- and that Aubry had taken the occasion to assure him that the hotheads among them had returned (in plain words) to their senses and that the Spanish ruler had no more to fear from them. Hearing that Lafrénière and Milhet intended to present themselves in person to O'Reilly and assume responsibility for the conduct of the guilty citizens, he offered to accompany them and present them himself to the General (who was, as we have seen, a friend of his father's). It took them forty-eight hours to reach the Spanish vessel at the Balize and at the end of the journey they must have learned to know one another. Bouligny was present at the interview, in which the Creole gentlemen showed themselves no whit behind the Irish-Spaniard in dignity or in address.
Bouligny has left his report of the interview, and tradition, of course, repeats more than he ever said that his heart was then frankly moved in favor of his new friends. He was present at the dinner that O'Reilly gave to his Creole visitors and, from the suavity of the General's manner, was persuaded that, as he said, "all was forgiven and forgotten."
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!" More beautiful tidings or bringer of them have never come upon the Mississippi to New Orleans. From the depths of despair the little city rose to the heights of confidence. O'Reilly's ruse had succeeded and he could proceed now with his
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game as he had planned. The leaders, all unsus- pecting of a trap, walked into his presence in answer to an invitation and were instantly disarmed and conducted to a prison which they never left except for the place of execution. The form of a trial was gone through with and the sentence, pre-decided by the military governor, was pronounced. The in- credulity of the citizens passed into a stupor which was not dissipated until the shots of the firing squad were heard in the barracks yard.
Bouligny joined his efforts to those of his friends, Loyola, Gayarré and Navarro, to obtain a commuta- tion of the brutal sentence or at least a suspension of its execution until the government in Spain could be heard from; but they, like the patriots, had to bow to O'Reilly's cruel will. "If rulers but imagined what visions coming time would show!" The lilies of France never bloomed more luxuriantly in Louisiana than after Spain threw upon them the blood of the Creole patriots. Even the flag that O'Reilly hoisted to the tall staff in the Place d'Armes drooped as if in shame before them.
Love makes a quick growth when sympathy prepares the ground. During the next year, Fran- cisco Bouligny was married to Marie Louise le Senechal d'Auberville. She was the best that the city could give him and in beauty and lineage worthy of all that he could offer. She was the daughter of Vincent Guillaume le Senechal d'Auberville, Marine Commissioner of Louisiana and of Françoise Petit de Levilliers de Coulange.
The Sieur d'Auberville was born at Brest in 1713. His father was Louis d'Auberville; his mother, Marie d'Ayme de Noailles. The Sieur de Noailles is well
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known in Louisiana history. He was the officer in command of reinforcements sent to Bienville in the Chickasaw war in 1738; and Bienville was commanded to act with him and even under him, as he was a man "with the talent and experience necessary for command." The result produced was disunion between Bienville and Noailles; and, in consequence, the failure of the expedition. He was the brother of Marie d'Ayme de Noailles and uncle of the Sieur d'Auberville.
The marriage contract of the Sieur d'Auberville and of Marie Françoise de Levilliers de Coulange is still in existence, signed by the Marquis de Vau- dreuil. The family of Petit de Levilliers de Coulange goes back in the documents of the Bouligny family to Etienne Petit, "Grand Audiencier de France" under Louis XI. Claude de Coulange," Seigneur de Bustance en Auvergne," married Madeleine d'Aguesseau of the family of the great Chancellor d'Aguesseau. (It will be remembered that the mother of Madame de Sévigné was a Marie de Coulange.) After the death of the Sieur d'Auberville, in 1758, his widow married the Chevalier Pierre Gérard de Vilemont.
Among the letters preserved by the family is the one written by Don Francisco's father to him on his marriage:
"ALICANTE, June 12, 1770.
"My very dear Son:
"Your letter which I received on May 26th, informs me of your marriage with Miss Louise d'Auberville, daughter of the French Intendant-General of that Province, aged twenty years, well-bred, and of infinite merit, which I approve in wishing you all kinds of happiness and benediction in your new condition. May God have you in His holy protection in good health and good union and grant
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you what you may need. Give her a kiss for me as I cannot do so personally on account of the distance. Receive the benediction of your father,
"JEAN BOULIGNY."
Another letter on the same occasion comes from the commanding General, O'Reilly:
"Madame:
"I shall always be interested in your happiness and will give you with pleasure all the proof of this that depends upon me.
"I felicitate you upon your marriage. Your husband is a worthy officer whom I esteem; I hope you will be happy together. It is because I am persuaded of this that I wish you joy in your union.
"I have the honor to be, very respectfully, Madame,
"Your very humble and very obedient servant, "O'REILLY."
Among the papers preserved are no less than twenty-seven letters written by the Baron Carondelet; some of them on subjects of high political importance, such as the incredible conduct of Genet, the French envoy, and the rumor of an uprising of the slaves; others on subjects pleasantly convivial, such as accepting Bouligny's invitation to dinner on Sunday, from which, if it is to be ceremonious, he begs to be excused, but if it is to be merely friendly and in the family he accepts, "muy gustoso"; assuring his hosts that it would be a pleasure to eat with them whenever he had a moment of relaxation, but on the condition that no ceremony will be made over him, for what he seeks is the pleasure of their society, etc., etc.
Bouligny rose in grade to "Coronel Vivo," and was made a Knight of St. Charles. He served with distinction under Galvez in his famous little war against the English, was present at the capture of
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Baton Rouge, at the siege of Mobile and at the final triumph over Pensacola, when he took the fort by storm at the head of his company and was rewarded for it especially by the King. He acted as Gov- ernor of Louisiana in 1784, during the absence of Governor Miro; and, in 1799, on the sudden death of Governor Gayoso de Lemos, he, as Colo- nel of the Regiment of Louisiana and senior military officer of the province, assumed the military admin- istration of it. He died while occupying this posi- tion, according to his certificate of death signed by Fray Jose de Agostin, on the 7th of August, 1802, ending a good and valuable life. A voluminous report to the King of Spain on the condition of Louisiana written by him has never been trans- lated or published; although, beyond a doubt, of great interest and importance to historical students.
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