USA > Louisiana > Historical memoirs of Louisiana, from the first settlement of the colony to the departure of Governor O'Reilly in 1770; > Part 22
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The council, entering into the spirit of the royal decree, has exam- ined with scrupulous attention all the dispositions of the said Don Alexander O'Reilly, with all his orders, and proceedings in Louisiana ; to which effect it has referred to all the documents accompanying the said decree, viz. : the credula, by which his commission was given, with power to take possession of said province, and six statements, made by him; together with six draughts of royal orders, approving the same-the whole drawn out at length.
O'Reilly sets forth in his first statement, that the province of Louisiana cannot subsist without trade, its inhabitants requiring flour, wine, oil, arms, ammunition, and all sorts of clothing; in exchange for which, they could give indigo, cotton, skins, Indian corn, rice, and especially woods, which could be sold to great advantage in Havana, if that port were opened to free trade with Spain, with the understand-
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ing, however, that the productions of the province should pay no duty on entering Havana ; nor any alcabala or export duty be laid on goods leaving that port for Louisiana ; that all vessels belonging to the colony should be admitted as Spanish into Ilavana, and all other ports of Spain, with the restriction, however, that no vessel be admitted into New Orleans, or employed in transportation, unless it be Spanish, or belonging to the province ; that vessels arriving from Catalonia with red wine, should take away wood and other artieles to Havana, and thence carry sugar ; that, for just reasons, he had ex- pelled from Louisiana the English merchants who were established there, and who ruined and impoverished the country by their monopolies and illicit trade; for which he hoped to receive your - majesty's approbation.
He merited such approbation in reality, as appears from the royal order accompanying ; and the council having heard the opinions of the attorneys and comptrollers general, declares, that the measures set forth in the said statement, by General O'Reilly, are so proper and so well calculated to render that province happy, that they alone are sufficient to show the profoundness of his comprehension, the su- blimity of his spirit, and the correctness of his judgment ; that there is nothing which should be altered in thein ; and in those measures, it can see the germ of many improvements, and much that may con- duce to the advantage and prosperity of the colony.
The council, however, considers, that it is not proper to exempt forever from duty goods transported from Louisiana to Havana, but only for a time, and until the motives for such an extraordinary favor shall have ceased. Your majesty is to resolve, also, whether they shall pay the duty of amorarifuzgo ; and, upon the whole, it is the opinion of the council, that proper cedulas should be issued for carrying into effect the system of commerce, as proposed by the said O'Reilly.
General O'Reilly, in his second statement, considers it necessary that the said province should be subject to the same laws as the other domin- ions in America ; and that all the proceedings should be carried on in the Spanish language ; that a new tribunal should be created, com- posed of judges understanding both languages, the appeals from , which should not be carried to the audiencia (a higher court) of Santo Domingo, with which the province has but little intercourse, but to Havana, where a tribunal should be established for the pur-
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pose, composed of the governor, the auditors of war and marine, the attorney of the royal hucienda, and the clerk of the government; and from which they should come to the council. Finally, that the government of Louisiana should be dependent on the captain- generalcy and ministry of the royal hacienda of Havana.
.. Your majesty approved these dispositions of O'Reilly, and the council, considering this as an evidence of the advantages to be de- rived, admires the measures of the said general, which prove the vastness of his genius, and that the establishment proposed by him is so far worthy of being made, that the necessary cedulus should be · issued to the ministers of Havana and New Orleans, regulated in all points according to your prudent orders, but with the condition, that the intendants of the royal hacienda and matine are to have voice and votes in the new tribunal to be formed in Havana.
O'Reilly, in his third statement, declares that he has chosen six regidores, or magistrates of New-Orleans, to form a municipal coun- cil (cabildo), two ordinary alcaldes, a syndic attorney-general, and a superintendent of public property (Mayordomo de Propios) ; giving the names of these persons, and annexing two principal copies of instructions-the one for the regulation of the cabildo, and the in- struction of its members-the other for the direction of the judges; that in the said cabildo, he had put Don Luis de Unzaga in possession of the government, and had abolished and suppressed the old council; that he assigned more proper salaries to the regidores, clerk, and assessor, and made arrangements for building a house of ayuntamiento (meeting of the municipal body), by a person to whom he had ceded the proprietorship of the land-destined for the government garden; and that as funds for the city, he had assigned certain duties on shops,. taverns, gaming houses, &c., the arrangements respecting which were received by the inhabitants with great satisfaction ; that there had been long established in that capital, a duty, under the denomi- nation of anchorage, destined for the preservation of the levy ; and as repairs were constantly required, he had made no innovation either in the duty or in its destination. . Finally, that the appointments of regidores, clerk, &c., as well as the assignment of funds for the city, merit your majesty's approbation to their firm establishment.
Your majesty has given this approval, and the council respects so. wise a resolution ; admiring in O'Reilly the energy with which he has proceeded in matters which were out of his ordinary employ-
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ment and sphere; in his provisions for the civil, economical, and political government, nothing has been found requiring amendment or addition; moreover, in both undertakings, there appears a delicate knowledge, and acute discernment of the laws of both kingdoms, as well as of the practical and the forensic styles of our courts. The council, therefore, conceives that proper cedulas should be issued, for the formal establishment of these excellent provisions, it being also ordered that some copies of the digests (Recopilacion) of the laws of the Indies, and of Castile, be sent to the colony, and deposited among the archives of the ayuntamiento, in order that the natives of the country may instruct themselves in the form of our government, more minutely than they can from the manual drawn up, with such discretion, by the said general, inasmuch as the latter, though very clearly and methodically expressed, is only an abridgment or com- pendium.
O'Reilly declares in his fourth statement, that conformably with your majesty's resolution, he had put Don Luis de Unzaga in posses- sion of the political and military government, with a salary of six thousand dollars, from which are to be discounted one-fifth as security, to be restored to him when his term of office expires ; it ap- pearing proper that he should be freed from the duty of media anata, as the office was one of recent creation.
These dispositions, also, merited your majesty's approval ; and the council is of opinion that the cedula should be made out; conforma- bly with what is proposed by the said general, who, in these, as well as in other provisions, has acted with the most consummate poliey.
With this fifth statement he sent a minute regulation, in which he detailed all the expenses of your majesty in that province, and which were considered necessary, under present circumstances, taking into view the commerce, genius, character, climate, and the causes of the date difficulties among the colonists ; he showed that he had reduced the number of persons employed in the comptroller's office, and in the public store, without any detriment to the prosecution of busi- ness in either office ; that eightech priests, understanding both French and Spanish, were required for the parishes of the country ; and that · supposing the spiritual affairs to remain under the direction of the bishop of Havana, that prelate might direct some friars of the com- munity of Saint Francis, at. that city, to learn the French language,
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. in order that these missions may at all times be filled ; and that if your . majesty approved the enclosed regulation, 130 dollars a year would be saved of the 250 with which the colony was endowed.
Your majesty also approved all that had been proposed and done by the said general ; and the council considers that it justly merited the royal approval, nothing appearing among the provisions which does not conduce to the interests of your majesty, and the happiness of the colony. It sees, by the admirable arrangement of pay and destination, which he has proposed in the military and political classes, the treasury gains 130 dollars, which advantage is due to the 'comprehensive and indefatigable genius of the commissioner.
The council also is of opinion that the commissioners should be sent, as proposed, and that the proper cedulas should be sent, for both purposes, as also for the establishment, as your majesty ordains, of public schools, in which the first principles of the Christian doctrine may be taught in the Spanish language, in order that the use of the same may be extended. The council hopes your majesty will have sent to him a copy of the contracts to be made with the director and . masters of public schools, and the salaries to be paid to the friars, while studying, in order that they be transmitted to the comptroller- general, to be included in the accounts of Louisiana.
In the sixth and last statement, he informs your majesty that he had appointed a lieutenant governor for the district of Illinois, Natchi- toches, &c., and giving instructions for the purpose of putting an end to illicit commerce, preserving good order, and maintaining the provi- sions of the supreme government ; he also encloses copies of the said instructions, adding that the colonists had admitted the regulations with good will, and they were likely to secure their affections for the sovereign under whose mild government they lived; that in order to complete this, he had gone himself into that distant province, visiting each village, listening to the colonists, and deciding in their disputes and complaints, without the embarrassing forms of forensic proceed- ings ; that he had caused the lands of the inhabitants to be surveyed, fixing the limits, and subjecting this distribution to the forms con- tained in a paper accompanying ; that he considered it proper that grants of lands to the colonists should, in future, be made by the governor alone; your majesty first authorizing him to make these grants ; and that they should be regulated according to a paper which O'Reilly caused to be drawn up, in a meeting (junta) called for that
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purpose, and composed of the persons best acquainted with the affairs of the colony.
Your majesty deigned to approve the provisions of this last state- ment, as well as those of all the preceding ones, except the article relating to the punishment of adulterers, which was ordered to be left in suspense. And the council considers, that in a commission so troublesome and difficult, and which, from the number of intricate matters embraced, met with numerous obstacles, and demanded a high degree of method and order, Don Alexandro O'Reilly has had the good fortune to be right in all cases, and to arrange things with so much prudence, that (provided his plans are suffered to continue) all will infallibly be conducted for the best interests of both their majesties. He has caused. the new power under which the colonists are placed, to be loved and respected ; he has enforced justice and the laws; has protected and extended commerce; has established harmony and concord with the neighboring Indians ; has ordered and placed troops at convenient positions, disciplining them with that skill which is so remarkable even among the many extraordinary qualities of this general officer; nothing has escaped his comprehen- sive penetration. The particular employments of persons destined for the public service-utensils to be distributed to the troops-the formation of various companies of militia, and their duties-and in a word, all that belongs to the political and military government of that province, has been disposed by this general with so much accu- racy, prudence, and wisdom, that the council finds nothing requiring the slightest amendment ; but, on the contrary, many things worthy of its admiration and praise, which it justly bestows ; all of which, it appears to the council proper that your majesty should approve, and that royal cedulas should be issued conformably with the representa- tions, instructions, and notices of this commissioner.
The chamber represents to your majesty, that at the same time the cedulas are sent, the royal will be expressed to the bishop of Cuba, that he, in exercise of his new jurisdiction and pastoral ministry, promote all that may conduce to the spiritual government and good of those parishes, and that he give account of what occurs, as well as of what he considers necessary for the improvement.
Determined March 23, 1772, thus :
" Let the above be carried into effect, and the proper cedulas be issued by the council, for the confirmation of those establishments, in all their points.
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6 X.
ORDINANCES AND INSTRUCTIONS OF DON ALEXANDER O'REILLY, Commander of Benfayan, of the order of Alcantara, Lieutenant-General of the armies of His Majesty, Inspector-General of Infantry, and, by commis- sion, Governor and Captain- General of the province of Louisiana.
THE prosecutions which have been had in consequence of the insurrec- tion which has taken place in this colony, having fully demonstrated the part and influence which the council have taken in those proceedings, countenancing, contrary to duty, the most criminal actions, when their whole care should have been directed to maintain the people in the fideli- ty and subordination which are due to their sovereign ; for these reasons, and with a view to prevent evils of such magnitude, it is indispensable to abolish the said council, and to establish in their stead that form of politi- cal government and administration of justice prescribed by our wise laws, and by which all the states of his majesty in America have been main- tained in the most perfect tranquillity, content, and subordination. For these causes, in pursuance of the power which our lord, the king (whom God preserve); has been pleased to contide to us by his patent, issued at Aranjuez, the 16th of April, of the present year, to establish in the military police, and in the administration of justice and of his finances that form of government, dependence. and subordination, which should accord with the good of his service and the happiness of his subjects in this colony : We establish, in his royal name, a city council or cabildo, for the administra- tion of justice and preservation of order in this city, with the number of six perpetual regidors, conformably to the second law, title 10, book 5, of the Recopilacion de las Indias; among whom shall be distributed the offices of alferes royal, alcade mayor provincial. alguazil mayor, depository general, and receiver of penas die camara, or fines for the use of the royal treasury ; these shall eleet, on the first day of every year, two judges, who shall be styled alcaldes ordinary, a syndic procurador general, and a man- ager of the rents and taxes of the city ; such as the laws have established for good government and the faithful administration of justice. And as the want of advocates in this country, and the little knowledge which his new subject possess of the Spanish laws, might render a strict observance of them difficult, and as every abuse is contrary to the intentions of his majesty, we have thought it useful. and even necessary to form an abstract or regulation drawn from the said laws, which may serve for instruction and elementary formulary in the administration of justice and in the economical government of this city, until a more general knowledge of Spanish language may enable every one, by the perusal of the aforesaid laws, to extend his information to every point thereof. In consequence
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whereof, and with the reserve of his majesty's good pleasure, we order and command the justices, cabildo, and their officers, to conform punctually to what is required by the following articles :
SECTION I.
Of the Cabildo.
1. The cabildo, at which the governor shall preside, or, in his absence, the ordinary alcalde, who shall have the first voice, shall assemble at the city hotel on the first day of every year, and proceed to the election of ordinary alcaldes and the other officers above mentioned; it shall also as- semble every Friday, for the purpose of deliberating on all that may con- cern the public welfare. The syndie procurator-general shall propose in these assemblies what may appear to him for the welfare of the colony. One or two regidors shall immediately after inform the governor, if he has not presided, of the resolutions that have been taken; and, except in pressing cases when the cabildo for very important reasons may assemble at the governor's dwelling, it shall not assemble in any other place than the city hotel; under the penalty, to the officers who compose it, of being deprived of their employments.
2. In urgent cases, which cannot be deferred until the usual day of meeting, the regidors may hold an extraordinary sitting; they shall be notified to that effect by one of the door-keepers of the cabildo; and if any one of the members shall not have been notified, the resolutions which may have been taken shall, if he shall challenge the same, be void; as also in case the majority should not have been notified, even if those who have not been notified shall not object thereto. No assembly shall ever be held but by order of the governor, and the assistants shall keep a pro- found silence in respect to the subject upon which the assembly may have deliberated.
3. The regidors shall have an active voice in the elections, as well as the alcaldes of the preceding year, who shall remain in the cabildo until the election of their successors shall be confirmed, and they shall have been received. The alcalde, however, who. in the absence of the gover- nor, shall exercise the functions of president, shall not have an active voice ; and so soon as the elections shall have been determined, the seero- tary of the cabildo shall give information thereof to the governor, who alone may decide on the validity of the opposition made by any member . to the persons elected to the municipal offices, and confirm the alcaldes and other officers.
4. The office of alcalde should be given to capable persons who may have the information necessary to fill worthily a charge so important. They shall have a house in the city, and shall reside therein. Those who
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are employed in the militia may be named to those offices; and they may also be given to the regidors, whose employments may not be incom- patible with those places.
5. The alcaldes, and the other elective offices of the cabildo, cannot be continued in their employments but when all the members without excep- tion shall have given their votes for their continuation. Without this con- dition, they cannot be re-elected until two years after they shall have quitted the distinguishing badge of their office.
6. Neither the officers of the finances, those who are indebted to the said finances, the sureties of cither the one or the other, those who have not attained the age of twenty-six years, nor the new converts to our holy faith, can be elected to the said offices.
7. The election being confirmed by the governor, the door-keepers shall deliver tickets from the escribano to the elected, notifying them to attend at the hall of the assembly, in order to take the oath prescribed by law ; the form of which will be found annexed to this regulation, and to be re- ceived and put in possession of their offices.
8. The escribano of the government will keep a book entitled "Resolu- tions," in which he shall record the elections and decisions of the assem- blies, ordinary and extraordinary ; and which shall be signed by all the judges and members who may have assisted thereat.
9. The regidors cannot give their votes for the said offices in favor of their father, son, brother, step-father, son-in-law, step-son, or step-brother, of their wives, although they may be elected by all those who shall be entitled to vote.
10. Whenever the cabildo shall deliberate upon an affair which may per- sonally regard a regidor, or other officer of the cabildo, or even any one of his kindred, or for other particular reasons which might induce a sus- pieion of partiality, he shall withdraw immediately, and shall not return until the affair shall have been decided.
11. All decrees, royal provisions, and dispatches, which may be ad- dressed to the corporation either by the governor or other authorized min- ister, shall be opened in the cabildo only, where they shall be recorded, and the originals preserved in the archives of the said cabildo.
12. In case of the death or absence of one of the ordinary alcaldes, the alferes royal shall exercise the duties of that office during the time that they may be wanting to complete the year of him who may be de- ceased or absent; and, if two alcaldes should be wanting at the same time, the other place shall fall of right to the senior regidor, provided he does not hold in the cabildo any office incompatible with that employ- ment, as is specified in the present regulation, under the heads of those several offices.
13. Whenever the regidors may assist in a body, they shall preserve the order following, as also in the cabildo, viz: the alferes royal shall
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. take the first place; the alcalde mayor provincial the next; the alguazil . mayor, and the other regidors according to their rank and their seniority.
14. Each regidor, according to his rank, and by turns, shall be charged with the maintenance of the municipal ordinances, and the other dispo- sitions of government for the public good. He shall attend to the prices of provisions, exacting the fines, and putting in force the penalties incurred by the delinquents.
15. Whenever there shall be the question of augmenting the price of meat, with which this city is abundantly and constantly supplied, the ca- bilda, at a publie bidding, shall adjudge the contract to him who shall oblige himself to furnish it on the best terms and for the greatest advan- tage of the public.
16. The cabildo shall have cognizance of appeals from sentences pro- nounced either by the governor, or by the ordinary alcaldes, where the sum does not exceed 90,000 maravedis; which must be understood as extend_ ing only to causes wholly civil, for in criminal cases the appeal must be made to the superior tribunal, which his majesty will have the goodness . to appoint, in consequence of my representations to him on that subject.
17. To legalize similar appeals, the cabildo shall name two regidors who, in quality of commissioners, and after having taken the oath, shall decide on the justice or injustice of the sentence from which an appeal is made, conjointly with the judge who may have pronounced the same. The nomination shall be made so soon as the cabildo shall be required thereto by the appellant; the form of which, and of the institution of the said appeal, will be detailed in their places.
18. In the first ordinary assembly which may be held after that for the elections of each year, the cabildo shall name two regidors to receive the accounts of the mayor-domo de proprios of the preceding year of the sums which he may have received for account of the city, and of the expendi- tures by order of the cabildo for the objects to which those sums are des- tined. They shall have those accounts rendered with the greatest exact- itude, and shall oblige the said mayor-domo to deliver up immediately to his successor the residue of the said account; the said regidors being re- sponsible for the total thereof when the said accounts shall be settled by one of the principal officers of finance.
19. Although the application and expenditure of the proprios for the objects to which they are destined belongs to the cabildo, it cannot. even in extraordinary cases, dispose of more than 3.000 maravedis thereof; and when a greater expenditure may be necessary, the consent of the governor must be previously obtained, without which the said cabildo cannot assign either salary or allowance upon any occasion whatsoever.
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