USA > Louisiana > Historical memoirs of Louisiana, from the first settlement of the colony to the departure of Governor O'Reilly in 1770; > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26
.
In spite of the complaints which Ulloa repeated a thousand times, he never received from the inhabitants anything but politeness, deference and respect. Complaints and murmurs were carried to Aubry, who appeased them, exhorted all to patience, assuring them that the French court was informed by all his letters of the just ground on which the colonists had based their complaints.
Meanwhile, tyranny was gradually being established and
* This fear was pardonable in a man who, if we believe public report, had been obliged to escape by night from a town he commanded in l'eru, on his hearing that the discontented inhabitants wished to burn him in his house.
161
HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF LOUISIANA.
despotism gained new strength. Ordinances were annulled, or made a dead letter; the subjects of the French king were ill treated and imprisoned by order of the man invested with authority by no public or recognized act.
Never was there a more cruel and critical position than that of the colonists of Louisiana. Was the colony ceded or not ?" If ceded, why did not Ulloa take possession? and why did Aubry continue to govern ? Why did the council judge in the name of the King of France? If not ceded to Spain, what was Ulloa doing in Louisiana? Why did he command, unop- posed by Aubry ? Why, too, was French authority alone recognized and predominant ? What was the object of this mixture of authority, the more destructive, as no one knew to whom to apply for a redress of the grievances which occurred daily ?
The act of cession, if it took effect, was to bring under a new domination the happiness of a people of which they could not have as yet lost the remembrance. Such was the sacred promise of the French king to his Louisiana subjects-a promise which only confirmed the natural feeling that kings have received power only for the happiness of the people.
But, where were they to claim these sacred rights of man ? To whom address their representations ? Ulloa would not listen to them, protested that he had no right, and threatened those who made them with the greatest chastisement on his reception. If they applied to M. Aubry he promised the sup- port of the French court, and evils but increased amid this frightful perplexity.
An edictt announced from Europe crowned their despair.
* By a private arrangement entered into between Ulloa and Aubry on the 20th of January, 1767, it was agreed that the colony should delivered up to Ulloa, and that Aubry should govern it for the time being.
t This decree was issued by Ulloa on the 6th of September, 1766. The ex-
11
162
HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF LOUISIANA.
Non-intercourse with France, duties, imposts. Was this a forctaste of the promised felicity ? to lose all hope of inter- course with their country, and almost the hope of ever reach- ing it. What a future for Frenchmen, whose sacrifices had proved their attachment to their prince !- for Frenchmen, who breathed only for the moment when they should be permitted to renew in Europe an oath of allegiance from which nothing as yet had dispensed them.
Here, their patriotic feeling awoke with all the energy that an essay of tyrannical power could give them even before its recognition. The desire of escaping it was naturally the first movement which succeeded this outburst. But to do so with- out being criminal, this is the next thought of a Frenchman. The colonists certainly are not accused of having abandoned this principle.
They had many ways of escaping the growing tyranny, and enjoying the rights given them by nature, and by the royal promise to happiness and repose. They knew that under the English government they would have all the prerogatives of liberty. They beheld the victorious Britons extending them the hand; they had but to cross the river to escape vexations ; but an oath of fidelity attached them to France. Nothing as yet had destroyed this dear and sacred bond. Duty, love, honor, all opposed their emigration ; all prevented their listen- ing to the favorable proposals of the English government ; all, in fine, obliged them to close their cars to the flattering
citement created by this act of Spain was intense. The desire to throw off the yoke was now generally discussed, and even the scheme of independence was favorably received by the colonists, although it was afterwards abandoned as a Quixotic measure. " The Duke de Choiseul," says Bancroft, " as early as 1765, foresceing the coming fortunes of the new world, expressed his regrets for Louisiana, because he foresaw that the American colonies must soon become independent, and predicted the result of the final struggle between England and her colonies."
163
HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF LOUISIANA.
promises made to such as should settle on the possessions of the English king.
They could not complain to the court of Spain of the evils threatened them by Ulloa, and with which he smote the colony. They were induced to believe that political reasons kept the courts of Madrid and Versailles in suspense as to the possession of Louisiana, inasmuch as the Spanish envoy did not carry out his powers. He might be commissioned by his court to examine the colony and render an account. It is well known that Ulloa frequently styled himself simply Inspector. In this quality, without taking possession, and not having been re- cognized, he had no right to command, still less to harass ; for not even the act of taking possession would give this, contrary to the orders, will and desire of the king, his master. Another reason confirmed the French in the idea that particular arrangements still preserved Louisiana for France; among others, that Aubry had not executed the French king's order* announcing the cession, and ordering the Governor of Louisi- ana to transfer the colony as soon as any came entitled to re- ceive it in the name of the Spanish king-at least, they were justified in believing Ulloa not that person.
The inhabitants of Louisiana, always regarding themselves as subjeets of the king of France, and being so in fact-as no taking of possession, no public act, either on their part or that of their magistrates, had attached them to any other rule-could recur to none but the French tribunals established for the relief of his subjects, to render them justice when necessary. The French king announcing the cession, seemed to foresee all the difficulties it would entail, as he ordered M. d'Abadie to have his royal letter enrolled in the superior council of Louisi-
* Aubry had received official instructions to cede Louisiana in April, 1766.
164
HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF LOUISIANA.
ana, that " the people of the colony of all ranks and conditions might, in case of need, recur thereto, and to publish and post the same;" all of which D'Abadic had done.
Could the people of Louisiana follow any path but that mark- ed out by the king's letter? They accordingly drew up a memo- orial, in which some of their complaints against Ulloa are set
DECREE OF THE SUPERIOR COUNCIL. :
Louis, by the grace of God, King of France and of Navarre, to all who shall see these presents, greeting : We make it known that the Superior Council of the Province of Louisiana, having taken into consideration the humble repre- sentations, made this day to that court, by the planters, merchants, mechanics and others ; and whereas the relief of a people, to whom the council is a father ; the support of the laws, of which it is the depository and interpreter ; and tho improvement of agriculture and commerce, of which it is the patron, are the mo- tives of the representations of said planters, merchants and others ; said council has proceeded to adjudicate as follows on these important matters :
What momentous objects are these for the council ! Can it, after having duly weighed them, give attention to any other subject, except so far as it may con- tribute to these favors ? Let it, for a few moments, suspend its arduous labors, to attend to those subjects, which are now represented as most worthy of its atten -. tion and ministry : and thou, dear country, whose prosperity is the object of our most ardent wishes ; and you who are to us what Sparta, Athens and Rome were to their zealous citizens, suffer us to pay a legitimate debt by consecrating to thee this weak tribute of our love ! it will be dictated by our hearts, whose inspirations an obedient hand is ready to record,
Seven millions of royal paper constituted all the currency of this colony and the fortune of its citizens ; the total withdrawing of this capital, the payment of which his majesty suspended by an ediet of October, 1759, has reduced the pro- vince of Louisiana to the most deplorable situation. We shall not undertake to enter into a detail of the calamities, of the ruined fortunes, of the downfall of families, which were the fatal consequences of that catastrophe. The council, every time it assembles to take cognizance of the affairs of the unhappy victims of that event, has before its eyes a more striking picture of our misfortunes than it is possible for us to paint. Recovered from the depression into which they had been plunged, the citizens of Louisiana had begun at last to breathe ; they had considered the conclusion of the war as the end of their misfortunes, and enter- tained hopes that the return of peace would be the moment destined for their re- lief. Agriculture, said the planter, that surest and most positive wealth for a nation, that prolific source from which flow all the blessings which we enjoy, will now be revived, and will repair, a hundred fold during the peace, the losses which we underwent during the war ; commerce, without which the fruits of the earth have neither worth nor value, will be vivitied and protected, said the mer-
.
165
HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF LOUISIANA.
forth. That against which they could most justly weigh, was his obstinacy in wishing to govern without taking possession; and they asked that this man, from whose tyranny they had all
chant. Sweet illusions and flattering projects, what is now become of you ! The planter, the merchant, all ranks and classes in the colony, undergo, in the most profound peace, misfortunes and calamities which they never felt during a long and bloody war.
The first stroke by which the colony was afflicted, was the information it re- ceived of the cession made of it by his majesty to Spain. Nobody, doubtless, will be surprised at the profound grief which this news excited in all hearts. The French love their monarch above all things, and a happy prejudice makes all men naturally incline to the government under which they are born. Let us cast a veil over this event ; the pen drops from the hand of a Frenchman when he at- tempts to analyse it. What at present seriously occupies, and should engross the whole attention of the court, is the contemplation of those facts which are the forerunners of that slavery with which a new administration threatens the colonists of Louisiana. At one time we behold an exclusive company, which, to the prejudice of the nation, is empowered to carry on all the commerce of the re- maining possessions of the French in'North America ; we next see the appear- ance of an ediet which confines within the narrowest bounds the liberty neces- sary to commerce, and forbids the French to have any connection with their own nation ; it is replete with prohibitions and restraints ; the merchants of Louisi- ana everywhere meet with obstacles to be surmounted, difficulties to be overcome, and (if it be allowable to make use of such an expression) enemies of their coun- try to be overthrown. In Europe, a period of six months will sometimes elapse before persons that fit out vessels know whether they shall obtain passports ; we have no better success at St. Domingo, when expeditions to this river (Miesis- sippi) are in question. The Prince of Monbazon, commander-general of the island, begins to refuse them. In Louisiana, in the very centre of the colony, where a person of the meanest understanding sees, at the very first glance, how much it stands in need of encouragement and patronage, we do meet with more favor.
The government, about twelve months ago, forbade the importation of negroes, on the pretext that the competition would have proved injurious to a merchant of the English colonies, who was to furnish them. How terrible and how destruc- tive a course of action is this ! It is depriving the colony of the materials best calculated to develop its resources ; it is cutting up by the roots a branch of com- merce which is of more consequence to Louisiana than all the rest put together. To promote systems of this sort is tantamount to the desire to convert into a vast forest, establishments which have cost infinite pains and trouble. The vigilanco of the court will easily discover the cause of these contrarieties ; the efforts of its zeal will destroy it ; and its affection for the colony will save it from destruc- tion. Constraint keeps the affairs of the province in a state of languor and weakness ; liberty, on the contrary, animates all things; no one is at present
166
HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF LOUISIANA.
to fear, should leave the colony with the frigate and the Span- iards he had brought, and that the act of taking possession should be postponed till the French king decided their fate.
ignorant that the granting of exclusive privileges may be justly considered as a sort of vampire, which imperceptibly sucks and consumes the people, drains the currency, and crushes agriculture and commerce ; it is an oppressive method, which, for the happiness of mankind, has been long since banished from the Freuch colonies.
To what fatality is it owing that Louisiana alone sees sparks of this devouring fire again struck out ! These are no panic terrors ; and of this the court will be convinced, after perusing the decree, with an extract of which we have the honor of presenting them. We shall not scruple to affirin, that the carrying of the plan which it contains into execution, would ruin the colony, by giving agriculture and commerce the most dangerous wounds. The inhabitants of Louisiana already despair of the preservation of their country, if the privileges and exemptions which it has hitherto enjoyed are not continued ; if the execution of the fatal decree, which has alarmed all hearts and filled them with consternation, is not prevented ; if an ordinance, published in the name of His Catholic Majesty, on the 6th of September, 1766, of which a copy is here subjoined, is not annulled as illegal in all its points, and as contrary to the increase of agriculture and com- merce ; if, finally, the mild laws, under which the inhabitants have lived till now, were suffered to bo violated. We should never forget the sublime discourse which an illustrious magistrate addresses to the legislators of the earth : " Are you," says he, "desirous of abrogating any law, touch it but with a trembling hand. Approach it with so much solemnity, use so many precautions, that the people may naturally conclude that the laws aro sacred, since so many formali- ties are required in the abrogation of them."
How mortifying it is for Frenchinen to suffer all the rigors to which their com- merce is subjected, whilst their ambitious rival openly carries on the trade of the colony, to the prejudice of the nation to which it belongs, which contributed to its establishment, and which is at the expense of it ! We do not fear that it will be objected, that the French alone are not able to supply the continent with all the commodities which it wants. A loan of seven millions, which the inhabitants of Louisiana made to the king, from the year 1759 to 1763, will be an eternal monu- ment of the extent of the French commerce, and of the attachment of the colo- nists to their sovereign's service.
It is just at the time when a new mine has been discovered ; when the culture of cotton, improved by experience, promises the planter the recompense of his toils, furnishes persons engaged in fitting ont vessels, with cargoes to load them; when the manufacture of indigo may vie with that of St. Domingo ; when the fur-trade has been carried to the highest degree of perfection which it has as yet attained ; it is in these happy circumstances that certain enemies to their coun- try, and broachers of a false system, have imposed upon persons in office, to in- duco them to sacrifice the inhabitants of New-Orleans. Let the court no longer
167
.. HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF LOUISIANA.
This memorial, signed by a majority of the inhabitants, was carried to the Superior Council, and the 28th of October, 1768, was appointed for the day of the general assembly.
defer the relief of a people which is dear to it ; let it make known to those in- vested with royal authority the exhausted state to which this province would be reduced, if it were not soon to be freed from the prohibitions which would plunge it into irremediable ruin. What would be thought of a physician, who, being possessed of a panacea, or universal remedy, should wait for a plague in order to reveal it ? It is by the trade to the Leeward Islands that the inhabit- ants of Louisiana find means, every year, to dispose of fourscore or a hundred cargoes of lumber. Should this branch of trade be taken away, the colony would be deprived of an annual income of five hundred thousand livres at least-a sum which the work of the negroes and the application of the master produce alone, without any other disbursement. According to the observation of a celebrated author, it would be better to lose a hundred thousand men in a great kingdom by an error in politics, than to be guilty of one which should stop the progress of agriculture and commerce. It is well known that those who present plans to obtain exclusive privileges, are never without plausiblo reasons to make them ยท appear economic and advantageous, as well to the king as to the public ; but the experience of all ages and all countries evidently demonstrates, that those who seck exclusions have their private interest solely in view ; that they have less zeal than others for the prosperity of the state, and have less the spirit of patriotism.
The execution of the decree relative to the commerce of Louisiana would re- duce the inhabitants to the sad alternative of either losing their harvests for want of vessels to export them, or of exchanging their commodities in a fraudulent manner with a foreign nation, exposing themselves to undergo the rigor of the law, which ordains that those who carry on a contraband trade shall lose both their lives and liberties. What a life is this ! what a struggle ! It is but too true, as has been already observed, that the report of the new ordinance alono has caused a considerable diminution, not only in the articles of luxury, but like- wise in landed estates. A house which was heretofore worth twenty thousand livres would hardly sell for five thousand. Some will, perhaps, assert that the scarcity of money contributes also to this diminution. But how much greater will be the scarcity of specie, when the colony shall either be delivered up to an exclusive company, or the ambition of five or six individuals, who form but one body ? It will then resemble a member grown to a monstrous bulk, at the ex- pense of the substance of the rest, which would become withered and palsied. The body would thereby find itself threatened with a total destruction. It was only by openly favoring the introduction of negroes, that this colony was raised to the flourishing.state which it appeared to have attained in 1759.
Perhaps it will be said, to dispel these alarms, that the gold and silver which have been made to abound in the place by a new administration, may indemnify for the losses of agriculture and commerce. But, judging of the future by the
16S
HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF LOUISIANA.
M. d'Ulloa, alarmed at these steps of the colonists, concerted with Aubry means of stopping them. They found none more prompt and efficacious than to intimidate by threats; but men
experience of the past and of the present, that resource will be found to be very weak, as nobody can pretend not to know that, among the various treasures which the earth contains in its bosom, gold and silver are neither the chief riches nor the most desirable. These metals have reduced their natural possessors to a de- plorable state, and the masters of those slaves have not thereby become more powerful. They appear, from that moment, to have lost all spirit of industry, all disposition to work, like a laborer who should find a treasure in the midst of his field, and thereupon forsake his plow forever. Besides, how many acts of severity have been committed against peaccable citizens by a stranger, who, though invested with a respectable character, has observed none of the formali- ties, nor performed any of the duties prescribed by the act of cession, which pro- vides for their peace and tranquillity. We shall mention an old ship-captain who was confined by his orders, and whose vessel was detained in port during eight or ten months, for not having been able to read in the decrees of Providence that tho vessel, in which he had dispatched certain packets intrusted to his care, would be cast away. A similar tyranny was exercised by the person invested with this illegal and unjust authority, against two captains belonging to Marti- nico, who had been guilty of no other crime than that of not having guessed that the Council of Louisiana had issued an edict forbidding the introduction of the creolized negroes of the Leeward Islands. What ill usage has an old citizen suffered, on account of a packet which had been put into the hands of the captain of one of his ships, who, having met with contrary winds, was unable to deliver it at Havana !
How shall we describe the barbarity with which the Acadians were treated ! These people, the sport of fortune, had determined, under the impulse of a patriotic spirit, to forsake all that they might possess on the English territories, in order to go and live under the happy laws of their ancient master. They arrived in this colony at a great expense, and scarce had they cleared out a place sufficient for a poor thatched hut to stand upon, when, in consequence of some representations which they happened to make to Mr. Ulloa, he threatened to drive them out of the colony, and have them sold as slaves, in order to pay for the rations which the king had given them; at the same time directing the Germans to refuse them a retreat. It remains to bo determined whether this conduct does not border upon barbarism ; but we think we can presume to conclude, without exaggeration, that it is diametrically con- trary to the political system which favors the encouragement of population, in all its branches and by every means. Those who complain (and who is there so far broke to the yoke as to bear, without murmuring, inhumanities so horrid !)- yes, we declare it, those who complain are threatened with imprisonment, banished to the Balize, and sent to the mines. Now, though Mr. Ulloa may havo been invested with some authority, his prince never commanded him to exert it
169
HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF LOUISIANA.
impelled by right are not easily intimidated; seditious men would have been alarmed; but the colonists were very far from being such. They followed a plan dictated by their
in a tyrannical manner, nor to exercise it before having made known his titles and powers. Such oppressions are not dictated by the hearts of kings ; they agree but ill with that humanity which constitutes their character, and directs their actions.
Were we to enter into a detail of all the mortifications which the French of New-Orleans have undergone, we should hardly make an end of the recital. It were to be wished, for the honor of the nation, that as many of them as have transpired might be obliterated by the precious effects of the protection of the Superior Council, which is now applied for. And it is foretold that the inhabitants of Louisiana will, in order that their tribulations be complete, be reduced, in pro- cess of time, to live barely on tortillas, although the most frugal sort of food would not be a matter of complaint on their part. In the mean time, the pre- servation of their lives, their obligations to their creditors, their sense of honor, which flows from the sacred source of patriotism and of duty ; finally, the circum- stance of the attack made on their property and means of subsistence by that very decree, induce them to offer their possessions and their blood, to preservo forever the dear inviolable title of French citizen. All that has hitherto been said leads them naturally to demands or requests, to which the zeal of the court for the public good, and its steadiness in supporting the laws of which his most Christian majesty has made them the depositories, assure them that it will give the most favorable reception. But before they proceed to state their requests, they must acknowledge the kindness with which they were treated by Mr. Aubry. The wishes of the public have always corresponded with the choice of the prince in assigning him the chief command over the province of Louisiana ; his virtues have caused the titles of honest man and equitable governor to be adjudged him ; he never made use of his power but to do good, and all unjust deeds have to him ever appeared impossible. They are not afraid of being reproached that grati- tude has made them exaggerate in any particular ; to neglect bestowing de- served praises is to keep back a lawful debt. And then conclude, finally, by entreating the court :
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.