USA > Louisiana > Historical memoirs of Louisiana, from the first settlement of the colony to the departure of Governor O'Reilly in 1770; > Part 18
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J'ai également ordonné le meme jour a M. de Grandmaison et aux memes officiers assisteés du dit notaire de faire'a M. Foucault une declaration par serment de tous les biens, meubles et immeubles qu'il peut avoir dans cette colonie. Il a déclaré très pen de biens, et beaucoup de dettes en France et dans cette colonie.
J'ai l'honneur de vous addresser, Monsieur, la copie des actes qui ont été faits à ce sujet, Malgre que toutes les opérations precedentes ayent donné consider- ablement. D'occupation à M. le Général, il n'a pas negligé la les soins du gouvernement auxquels il i'est donné tout entier ; des voitures ont été expediées dans tous les Postes pour annoncer la nouvelle de son arrivée, et de la prise de possession.
· Les commandants de la Pointe Coupée, et des Acadians out reçu ordre den- voyer à la ville les principaux habitans munis du pouvoir de tous les autres pour préter le serment de fidélité ; à l'égard des postes éloignés, M. le Général a chargé de ses Pouvoirs les officiers qui y commandent pour faire preter le serment aux habitans qui y sont établis.
La saison ne permettant point d'envoyer un convoi aux Illinois, M. le Général à marque à M. de St. Ange qui y commande et qui y est de puis cinquante ans qu'avant confiance dans sou experience et sa probité, il n'a qu'a lui envoyer l'état de ce qu'il pense necessaire, tant pour les sauvages que pour la protection des habitans et qu'il aura égard a ses demandes.
Son intention est de n'établir des nouveautes qu'autant qu'il le sera absolument nécessaire, Il continuera et fera executer tous les réglemens sages et utiles que la faiblesse du gouvernement n'a pas permis defaire d'observer de puis plusieurs années. Il suivra le code noir qui lui a paru rempli d'ordonnances sages et utiles
HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF LOUISIANA.
action at which a savage would have blushed. These barba. rians, deaf to all but vengeance, would at least have shuddered to shed innocent blood. They would have dreaded to have that indelible stain cast upon them. Yet we see an enlightened nation, a people who boasts itself a scrupulous observer of a religion of peace, and not of bloodshed, of a religion breathing naught but clemency and goodness-we see a council com- posed of men respectable in age and rank, to make reparation for an insult to their flag and king, pronounce sentence of death on men whose whole attention had been to show respect for
ant pour la discipline des nègres, que pour modéres la trop grande pureté des maîtres. Ce qui à flatté infiniment les habitans.
J'ai l'honneur de nous addresser, l'ordonnance que M. le Général a rendue à ce sujet.
Enfin a prés tant de troubles et de discorres qui ont desolé si longtemps cette co- lonie, il est surprenant que la présence d'une seule personne y retablisse en si peu de temps le bon ordre, la paix et la tranquilité. Si pour le bonheur de ce pays, M. le Général y fut arrivé plútot nous n'aurions jamais été témoins de toutes les calamités dont il a été affligé. A cela près du petit nombre de familles qui sont dans la consternation pour la juste disgrace de leurs parens qui ont été arretés, tout le reste de la colonie est tranquille et content.
Tous les habitans sont flattés de ce que Sa Majesté Catholique leur a envoyé un Général qui écoute avec bonté les personnes qui ont atfire à lui, craint, respecté, et aime, pour la générosité, sa bonté, ct sa justice envers tout le monde. Il fera le bonheur de cette colonie.
J'ai l'honneur d'etre avec un profound respect, De. votre Grandeur, Monseigneur, Votre très humble et tres obcissant serviteur,
(Signed) AUBRY.
Nlle. Orleans, 1 Septembre, 1769.
Having transferred the province to General O'Reilly, Aubry now prepared to return to France. In the beginning of the year 1770, he embarked on board a ship bound to Bordeaux, with all his property, and the public papers belonging to the province. On the 18th of February, as the vessel entered the mouth of the Garonne, she encountered a violent storm, and was shipwrecked. All on board perished except four sailors, who succeeded in reaching the shore.
The King of France, in order to show how much he appreciated the services of Governor Aubry, immediately granted pensions to both his brother and sister for life. The official correspondence of Aubry is deposited in the archives at Paris, but his private journal, with the valuable archives of the colony, were lost with him in the shipwreck.
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both-on men whose lips, as moderate as their conduct, had uttered no insult to any Spaniard, not even to the author of their evils-on men, who had acted only against a man with no recognized title or authority ;- on men, in a word, whose innocence O'Reilly himself had attested by authentically taking possession; by absolving them from allegiance to the crown of France, and accepting an oath to the fidelity of the Spanish monarch.
Let us for a moment suppose them to have been guilty ; had not their pardon been assured them by an authentic promise, by the plighted word of honor of O'Reilly himself, to follow in his master's name only clemency and goodness, if the colony offered no opposition to his taking possession. But he made hesitation a crime on the inhabitants, and feigned to believe, as he openly declared, that the deputation sent him was only a pretext to examine his force, and see what hope there was in resistance.
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If we are to believe public report, the judge, after the inves- tigation, found nothing criminal in the accused. "Do as you · like," said O'Reilly, "I must have six victims."
The process was begun again, and a new form taken to palliate at least the atrocity of the sentence, which they wished , to color with a hue of justice.
Shall I here repeat this unjust and barbarous sentence ?* Shudder, generations yet to be! Shudder with horror and in- dignation ! Six were condemned to confinement more or less .
SENTENCE OF THE COURT.
* " In the criminal trial instituted by the king, our sovereign. to discover and punish the chiefs and authors of the conspiracy which broke out in this colony on the 29th of October, 1768, against its Governor, Don Antonio de Ulloa, all the grounds of the accusation having been substantially investigated, according to the due forms of the law, between the parties on one side, the licentiate. Don Felix del Rey, a practising advocate before the royal courts of St. Domingo and Mexico, here acting in his capacity of attorney-general appointed by me for the king,
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protracted ;* six more to be hung, and these in consideration for their families were shot next morning!t In vain they ap- pealed from this unjust and informal judgment to the tribunal of his Catholic majesty ; in vain they demanded the rights of humanity and justice ; in vain they acted the due respect of nation to nation, and sovereign to sovereign; in vain they
according to royal authority vested in inc. and on the other, Nicholas Chauvin de la Frenière, ex-attorney-general for the King of France, and the senior member of the Superior Council, Jean Baptiste Noyan, his son-in-law, Pierre Caresse, Pierre Marquis, Joseph Milhet, an attorney to the memory of Joseph Villere, on account of this culprit, demise in prison, Joseph Petit, Balthasar Mazan, Jerome Doucet, Pièrre Hardi de Boisblanc, Jean Milhet, and Pierre Poupet, accused of having participated in the aforesaid crime and in the subsequent seditions which broke out against the Spanish government and nation ; having compared the infor- mation, depositions and other documents inserted in the proces verbal of this case ; having compared the confessions of the accused with the papers found in the possession of some of them, and by them acknowledged as theirs ; the accused being heard in their defence, and the charges brought against them being accom- panied with their respective proofs ; having heard the conclusion of the attorney- general in his bill of indictment ; all being examined and considered either in point of fact or of law, in a case replete with circumstances so grave and so extraordinary ; and taking into consideration all that results from said trial to which I refer, I have to declare, and I do declare, that the aforesaid attorney- general has completely proved what he had to prove, and that the accused have not proved, and established allegations set up in their defence, that they have made out no exception which frees them from the crime imputed to them, and still less saves them from the penalties, which, according to our laws (Spanish), they have incurred for their respective shares in the excesses which have been enumerated by the attorney-general, Don Felix del Rey ; so that from the pre- sent, I have to condemn the aforesaid Lafreniere, Noyan, Caresse, Marquis and Milhet, as being the chiefs and principal movers of the aforesaid conspiracy, to the ordinary pain of the gallows, which they have deserved by the infamy of their conduct ; and ipso jure, by their participation in so horrible a crime, and to be led to the place of execution, mounted on asses, and each one with a rope round his neck, to be then and there hung until death ensue, and to remain suspended to the gallows until further orders ; it being hereby given to be understood, that
* De Mazan, Hardi de Boisblanc, Petit, Milhet, senior, Poupet and Doucet. were transferred to Spanish ships, and conveyed to Havana, where they were treated with great inhumanity, and detained till the French court solicited their liberation
t Lafreniere, Noyan, Caresse, Milhet and Marquis, were shot in the yard of the barracks on the 25th of October, 1769.
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proved that they had never ceased to be Frenchmen ; that never having taken any oath to the Spanish king, they could not be guilty towards him for sending off a man with no public or acknowledged authority; in vain they claimed the rights of subjects of the king of France, employed in his service-the sentence was passed, they had to meet it.
Now their patriotic courage, inflamed by the certainty of dying innocent, and the conviction that fidelity to their king alone brought them to the scaffold, was enkindled anew. They exhorted one another to the firmness needed in that fearful
any one having the temerity of carrying away their bodies, without leave, or of contravening in whole or in part, the execution of this very same sentence, shall suffer death. And, as it results also from said trial and from the declaration of the aforesaid attorney-general, that the late Joseph Villeré stands convicted likewise of having been one of the most obstinate promoters of the aforesaid conspiracy, I condemn in the same manner his memory to be held and reputed for ever as infa- mous ; and doing equal justice to the other accused, after having taken into con- sideration the enormity of their crime, as proved by the trial, I condemn the aforesaid Petit to perpetual imprisonment, in such castle or fortress as it may please his majesty to designate ; the aforesaid Masan and Doucet to ten years imprisonment ; Pierre Hardi de Boisblanc, Jean Millet, and Pierre Poupet to six years imprisonment, with the understanding that none of them shall ever be per- mitted to live in any one of the dominions of his Catholic majesty, reserving to myself the care to have every one of these sentences provisionally executed, and · to cause to be gathered up together and burnt by the hand of the common hang- . man, all the printed copies of the document entitled, " Memorial of the Planters, Merchants, and other inhabitants of Louisiana, on the event of the 29th of Octo- ber, 1768," and that all other publications relative to the conspiracy be dealt with in the same manner ; and I have further to decree, and I do decree in conformity ·with the same laws, that the property of every one of the accused be confiscated to the profit of the king's treasury ; and judging definitively, I pronounce this judg- ment, with the advice of Dr. Manuel Jose de Urritia, auditor of the war and the navy, for the harbor and city of Havana, and the special assessor nanied by me for this cause, under the royal authority ; and his fees, as well as those of the . officers employed in this trial, shall be paid out of the confiscated property, in the manner prescribed by law.
(Signed)
" ALEXANDER O'REILLY.
(Countersigned) " MANUEL JOSE DE URRITIL."
This sentence was afterwards modified to shooting, instead of hanging the : prisoners.
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moment; but the bloody preparations were no terror for them; they advanced with that tranquillity and firmness which a feel- ing of innocence gives. Placed side by side, facing their butchers, their hands raised to the God who avenges the inno- cent and rewards the virtuous, they absolutely refused to bandage their eyes. "Death has no terror for us," said M. le Marquis, and with the greatest sang froid asked for a pinch of snuff. "Know that, foreigner as I am, my heart is French ; it has always beat for Louis, the well-beloved, to whose service I have sacrificed thirty odd years of my life, and I glory in dying for my attachment to him."
" Let this consoling idea bear us up," said De la Frenière, "and reconcile us to the cruel separation which the idea of our death might otherwise render insupportable. May our well-beloved king learn how dear he was to us, how we glory to die his faithful subjects. If he can be informed, let us not be solicitous for the fate of our wives and children-to his generous hands we resign them. To die for our king-to die Frenchmen-is there anything more glorious? This idea so exalts my mind, that if at this terrible moment, when I am ready to appear before the Eternal, the Spaniards offered me · life on condition of my renouncing my French allegiance, I would as firmly as now say,-Fire."
Hands trembling at the sight of this heroic courage, dared execute this savage command. M. de la Frenière fell bathed in blood; but the Eternal refused to receive a soul which he had placed on earth to be its ornament. M. de la Frenière, still palpitating, laid his hand on his heart, they thought they heard him say, " It is French." A second discharge annihila- ted life, after these signal proofs of his patriotismn. The rest were already no morc.
Let us here give free vent to our tears ; they are too just a
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tribute to be refused; they would flow despite the hardest heart. Let us transmit to posterity the names of the six victims whom we deplore : M. de la Frenière, Le Marquis, De Noyan and Villere, all connected by blood and friendship, all superior to any eulogy we can give. The other two were Messrs. Caresse and Milhet. Let us, with the colony, join in regret on the death of M. de Noyan. All seemed to combine for his safety ; shining merit, regard due to his birth, and the ser- vices of his family in the colony, the respect due to the French king in whose service he was employed, and who alone had a right to dispose of his life. What adds still more to our regret is, the generous manner in which this young man devoted himself to death, as we have already seen that it lay with him- · self to escape an arrest.
It is said that in the course of the interrogatories, O'Reilly. did all he could to save him, but that M. de Noyan, in hopes of exculpating his father-in-law, always turned the accusations on himself. It is added, that O'Reilly, when about to sentence him, said : "Sir, it depends on yourself to save your life ; give us a pretext for doing so ; say that you were led to the steps laid to your charge ; say that your father-in-law"-" I will not stain my name to save my life," replied this generous officer, "interrupting him, "I will die worthy of your csteem and your regret, nor will I tarnish my soul by an odious false- hood. No one could suggest to me the actions you make a crime; accuse my love of country, my love of the king I serve-this is the mainspring of my conduct." This magna- nimity made no impression on O'Reilly.
Wretched wives, desolate families! Your cause is that of humanity ; the whole universe is about to plead by my lips; let equity decide in this matter! The policy that they would set up in such cases is a barbarous atrocity. In vain did you
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try, by your mournful cries, to move the hardened heart ofthe most cruel of men. Bloodthirsty tiger! thy savage, barbarous soul still drinks in the tears of those wretched wives, vainly imploring at the door of justice (a virtue which you never knew), clemency and pity, sentiments foreign to your heart. Were you even touched at the moving spectacle of Mme. de Noyan, humbled so as to kneel at your door ? Shudder wretch! you should fall. Consider the illustrious blood to which that lady is allied, and kneel! Hear the mournful cry of that wretched mother, daughter, wife; behold her youth, her love, and extend a protecting hand-but no! close thy fierce eyes, close thy ears, open only to falsehood ; dread to hear the piercing ery of children for their fathers; wives for their husbands ; citizens for their virtuous countrymen. Re- spect neither the laws of humanity nor those of justice; sate thy rage and cupidity ; do more evil in a day than a Nero or a Caligula; dare more- dare to say that the sentences from thy infamous lips had been dictated by thy king. This hor- rible blasphemy alone was wanting.
But do not expect to impose upon the public by this respect- ·able veil. Thy conduct is still that of an imposter, a savage and a knave. Posterity will never believe that a beneficent king, a Bourbon (clemency and goodness are in the blood of every prince of that illustrious blood), resolved to shed innocent blood. It will scarcely be realized that he could have chosen one so false and unjust to bear to his sub- jeets the mark of the clemency, goodness, benevolence, with which the world knows his heart is filled .* The Eternal who judges us awaits thee in that fearful moment, when a strict
* This is certainly carrying flattery to its highest point. The orders of a Span- ish king of that day, were precise and without any liberty to the officer. The usual ending was, " So pena de muerte," which we need not translate.
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account, must be rendered of thy motives in acting. But before this public indignation, the contempt of a worthy nation whom thou wouldst make the accomplice of thy villany, the gnawing worm that will unceasingly attend thee, are the just feelings that thou shalt experience in this life."
Let us here repeat, what Capt. Pittmant writes on this fright- ful event: " You could cast your eyes on this bloody tragedy only with horror and execration. Such a treason, used to destroy an enemy or punish a criminal, dishonors a nation and degrades the name of justice."
But should publie indignation fall on O'Reilly or on Ulloa ? The former, it is said, only executed the orders of the court.
First let us lay it down as perfectly impossible that a cabinet as enlightened and equitable as that of Madrid, directed by a just and merciful king, should have pronounced a sanguinary decree against men accused indeed, but not yet heard. If on Ulloa's mere report they were judged guilty, the truth of that report was still to be examined; the accused must be heard and be confronted with their accusers. All these formalities should precede judgment. Hence it would be a breach of the respect due to the cabinet of Spain to suppose it had pro- nounced a definitive sentence in the matter. That O'Reilly had orders from his court to arrest them, to try them, is probable, as the Spanish king believed them his subjects, and in this point of view they would have been guilty of expelling a recognized officer. But Aubry, by absolving the colonists from' the oath of allegiance to France, declared that they had not ceased to be French, and O'Reilly, by taking the oath of allegiance to the Spanish king, established authentically and
* This prognostic was soon after realized.
t Pittman was an English officer belonging to the corps of engineers stationed at Mobile. He wrote a work on " The State of the European Settlements on the Mississippi," which was published in London, 1770.
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manifestly the injustice of all the proceedings he was about to institute. And against whom ? Against men who could not violate an oath they had not taken; whose actions all tended to show their attachment to the monarch whose subjects they still were. Then did it become a crime to be a faithful and patriotic subject ?
The Spanish court might have been deceived by the infor- mal act of possession passed between Aubry and Ulloa :# an act of no force as regards the colonists, who knew nothing of it, an act irregular on its very face. Ulloa may have persuaded his court what he could, but not O'Reilly, who was on the spot. Did he believe the act valid ? Did he believe the colo- nists subjects of his sovereign, at a time when he sees Aubry absolve them from the oath that bound them to the king of France; at a time when he receives their oath to be as faith- ful to the king of Spain as they had hitherto been to the king of France? Do not these formalities prove that O'Reilly believed the colonists still Frenchmen when he arrived in the colony, and that the dismissal of Ulloa was not the expulsion of a Spanish governor, but of a stranger, assuming to be invested with a title which would have given him a right to authority had he shown it. Is it not public and notorious that the dismissal, far from being seditious, was done with the greatest decency, the greatest respect for the Spanish flag, and the utmost attention to insult no native of Spain ? that the colo- nists, to obtain justice, had recourse to the tribunal appointed by the French king, whose sole authority was recognized ? .
Is the judgment of the Supreme Council on Ulloa made a
* See letter from Aubry to Choiseul, in the Archives at Paris, explaining the reasons why Ulloa hesitated taking possession of the province, and another from Choiseul to Aubry, approving his conduct of governing the colony for the king of Spain, July, 1766.
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crime ? Let us read its justification in the memorial on these sad events .*
" If, on the part of the inhabitants, representation to the
[This memorial was drawn up by Lafrenière, at the request of the merchants and planters, to justify the Resolution of the 28th of October, 1768.]
+ MEMORIAL OF THE MERCHANTS AND PLANTERS OF LOUISIANA, ON THE EVENTS OF THE 20TH OF OCTOBER, 1768.
To the World :- The magistrates of the Supreme Council of Louisiana, eye- witnesses of the calamity which afflicted us, could no longer turn a deaf ear to the plaintive eries of an oppressed people. The decree of October 29th, which followed our humble remonstrance, is a proof of the imminence of the dangers which environed us. and the weight of the yoke which begun to crush us. In- duced by the state of affairs to believe that great evils require prompt and power- ful remedies, our magistrates did not hesitate a moment to take the necessary step of sending off the self-styled governor, for his Catholic majesty to render him an account of his conduct. But their diligent care was not confined merely to calming the disgust of a groaning people ; they have also empowered them to bear this petition and requests to the foot of the throne, convinced that the com - passionate eye of their natural sovereign would turn to such devoted subjects, and that their respectful love for their monarch would not be rejected by his beneficent majesty, the image of the All-preserving Being for his people on earth. Zeal- ous Frenchmen, whose property and families are on this continent-you, whose pure hearts need not your monarch's eye to arouse you-you, whose zeal for your incomparable monarch has suffered naught by crossing the vast ocean, by min- gling with strangers, by the constant activity of a neighboring and rival nation, calm your disquiets as to the cession of this province. Our great king seems in his letter announcing it, to have a presentiment of the alarms. He made himself mediator of our cause with his Catholic majesty, induced us to expect from him · the same marks of good-will and protection as those enjoyed under his beloved rule. These august sentiments embolden our love. May the eries of joy, may the "Vive le Roi," so often shouted around our flag on the day of the revolution and the two following days, be renewed without fear ! May our feeble organ teach the world and posterity, even that this loved rule under which we wish to live and die, to which we offer the wreck of our fortunes, our blood, our children and families, is the rule of Louis, the well-beloved.
The colony of Louisiana was ceded to his Catholic majesty by a private act passed at Fontainebleau, November 3, 1762, and accepted by another act passed ., at the Escurial, on the 13th of the same mouth. The king, by a letter written at Versailles on the 21st of April, 1764, to M. d'Abadie, then director-general and commandant for his majesty in Louisiana, announcing this cession, testifies at the same time his hopes for the advantage and tranquillity of the colonists, and his trust that from the affection and friendship of his Catholic majesty, "ho will give orders to his governor, and all other officers employed in his service in
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