USA > Louisiana > History of Louisiana, from its first discovery and settlement to the present time > Part 12
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1817 .- Increase of population necessarily lead- ing to increase of crime, the Legislature enacted a variety of new penal laws.
Masters of vessels concealing fugitive slaves on board of the same, as well as owners of mort- gaged slaves who should send them away, were
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HISTORY OF LOUISIANA.
made liable to punishment by hard labour for a limited term. .
Insolvent debtors could not be imprisoned after surrendering all their property for the bene- fit of their creditors ; but if fraud were commit- ted, they were declared ineligible to any office of profit or honour in the State.
A free woman, except she were a merchant, could not be imprisoned for debt.
Any person depriving another of an eye, or be- ing guilty of incest, infanticide, forgery, or arson, might be sentenced to hard labour. Against some of these crimes provision had already been made in the law of 1805.
Any one introducing into the State a slave convicted of crime, or any one purchasing such slave, knowing his character, was liable to pay a fine and forfeit the slave.
No free coloured man convicted of a crime in another state was allowed to settle in Louisiana, under penalty of imprisonment at the discretion of the court, after which he was required to be sent out of the State ; and should he return, was to be sold as a slave.
Theft, not connected with housebreaking, for- gery, manslaughter, and receiving stolen goods, were punishable by hard labour.
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PENAL LAWS.
A robber arrested with arms in his hands, and any person killing another in a duel, were liable to be punished with death.
Fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court were decreed against any one seeking to corrupt a judge, or who should obstruct a public highway, or keep a house of ill fame, or become accessory after the fact to any of these offences.
The governor and the Senate might commute any punishment except that of a slave sentenced to death.
1818 .- This year the Bank of Louisiana was incorporated, with a capital of two millions of dollars, being the first bank established since Louisiana had been made a state.
1819 .- Farther additions were this year made to the Black Code. Any person carrying away a slave was made punishable by hard labour ; and any one carrying off a free negro, conceal- ing a maroon slave, or breaking the collar or chain of a slave, was liable to a fine and impris- onment ..
A master preventing the law from taking ef- fect on a slave accused of a capital crime was liable to a fine.
At this time the prediction of Jefferson was accomplished. Some one observing to him, at
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the time Louisiana was ceded, that the Floridas would have formed a more important acquisition, he replied that Florida, being now surrounded by the territories of the United States, must neces- sarily, at no distant period, fall into their hands. The Seminole Indians within the Spanish territo- ry having the last year made hostile incursions into the neighbouring states, General Jackson, commanding the forces in the South, was ordered to reduce them to submission, but not to enter · Florida except in pursuit of the enemy. He found it necessary to enter this territory ; and while there, having reason to believe that the Spanish garrisons gave aid and protection to the savages, he marched to Pensacola, and, expelling the Spanish authorities, took possession of the place.
For this occupation of a neutral territory, and for the trial by court-martial and subsequent ex- ecution of two Englishmen, named Arbuthnot and Ambrister, accused of assisting the Indians, the general was called to account by Congress ; and a committee was appointed to investigate the whole conduct of the Seminole War. Their re- port was unfavourable, and the subject was warm- ly debated ; but he was finally acquitted.
In this state of things, the Spanish minister
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ACQUISITION OF FLORIDA.
signed a treaty ceding Florida to the United States. The king, however, refused to ratify it, though in 1821 he consented to the cession.
1820 .- Thomas B. Robertson, an upright and learned lawyer, was this year chosen governor. Louisiana had now 153,407 inhabitants, 53,041 of whom were engaged in agriculture, 6251 in commerce, 6041 in manufactures, and 69,060 were slaves. The population had more than doubled in ten years.
Notwithstanding the prosperous state of agri- culture, commerce did not recover from its de- pression till the end of the year. Public confi- dence had been seriously impaired, and it was slow in reviving. All admitted that the financial system of the country was now satisfactory, but it had taken three years to bring about this con- viction.
This year the legion of Louisiana was formed, one of the finest military corps in the United States.
1822 .- Louisiana had no good roads except those along the banks of the Mississippi and some of the smaller water-courses. An act was passed for making a road from New-Orleans to the frontier of the State, in the direction of Nash- ville, in Tennessee; all the proprietors whose
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lands it crossed, as well as those possessing lands within fifty miles of it, being required to contrib- ute towards keeping it in repair.
1823 .- The Legislative Assembly, strange to say, authorized at this time the establishment of six gaming-houses in New-Orleans, on condition of their each paying annually the sum of five thousand dollars, to be applied to the support of the Hospital of Charity and the College of Or- leans. However beneficial this might be to the revenues of the State, it could not fail of being highly injurious to public morals.
Power was now given to the governor, with the approval of the Senate, to commute the pun- ishment of a slave under sentence of death when recommended to his clemency-a prerogative that was refused in 1818.
The weather had been remarkably warm for some time, when, on the 16th of February in this year, the frost set in with so much severity that the river was partially frozen, and people skated on the marshes. The orange-trees were all de- stroyed : a loss which was the more sensibly felt, as many of the small proprietors derived the principal part of their income from them. Sev- eral watermen perished with cold in their boats, and also negroes in their cabins, and animals were found dead in the woods.
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EDWARD LIVINGSTON.
1824 .- Henry Johnson, a very popular man, was now made governor, in opposition to General Villeré, who was a candidate for the third time.
The flourishing condition of agriculture and commerce, and the immense profits realized from these sources, excited at this time a spirit of overtrading, and a general desire among mer- chants and others to extend their business. But for this additional funds were required, and these were provided by the creation of the Bank of Louisiana, with a capital of four millions, the State taking half the stock-a step which sound policy should have prevented.
A code of civil law, which has received very high commendations, and also a system of rules for the regulation of legal proceedings, were drawn up by Edward Livingston, under the di- rection and at the expense of the State; and Louisiana is also indebted for her penal code to the learning and the persevering industry of this gentleman .. After having nearly completed this arduous work, it was destroyed by fire; but the next day he was seen again at his labours, and by untiring application he completed his task in an incredibly short space of time.
1825 .- At the commencement of this year Louisiana was honoured with a visit from the
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Guest of the Nation-the friend and the brother in arms of Washington-the Hero of the Old and of the New World, who had hazarded his life and expended his fortune in the struggle for American liberty-the brave, the incorruptible Lafayette. He landed on the celebrated battle-ground where, ten years before, American freemen had given proof to the world that they were not degenerate sons of their revolutionary sires, and was con- ducted in triumph to the city. -
1826. - The following laws were this year passed in the Assembly : That any attorney neg- lecting or refusing to pay to his client moneys collected on his account, should have his name erased from the list of lawyers authorized to practise in the courts of the State; and no at- torney should be permitted to take the benefit of the act relating to insolvent debtors.
That jurors, both in civil and criminal trials, should be free white men, of sound mind, who had attained the age of twenty-one, and resided for the last six months in the district or parish where the case was pending ; and that all com- missioned officers, members and clerks of the Legislature during its sitting, mayors and record- ers, lawyers, notaries, ministers of the Gospel, clerks in the banks, physicians, apothecaries, and
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PLANTERS' BANKING ASSOCIATION.
inspectors, should be exempt from serving on juries.
At the same session an act was passed pro- viding for a board of internal improvements, con- sisting of five members, who were to receive no salary, and to be appointed annually by the governor, who was to be, ex-officio, president of the board.
1827 .- Since the merchants had their banks, the planters thought they must have one also. They therefore formed a banking association among themselves on a new plan, with a capital of 2,000,000 dollars, which was afterward in- creased to 2,500,000 and was secured on land- ed property, and even slaves. This system of mortgage enabled a great many planters to become stockholders without advancing any- thing, but it also ruined not a few of them. Money obtained thus easily was spent with the same freedom, without a thought of being called upon for its re-imbursement. This inflated state of the currency naturally augmented the impor- tations beyond the real wants of the country, and thus aggravated the financial crisis which took place ten years after.
The General Assembly had been in the habit of granting divorces on very slight pretences ;
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and no less than thirty-nine had been thus ob- ' tained in the space of fourteen years, or since Louisiana had become a state. To prevent their frequency, the present Legislature passed a law that no divorce should be allowed except for infidelity either in the husband or wife, for ill · treatment, condemnation for crime, or desertion for a period of five years. It also decreed that the wife, in case of divorce, should be entitled to one third of the husband's income so long as she continued to be of good character or did not marry again ; and that the husband convicted of infidelity should not be permitted to marry the partner of his guilt, under penalty of being pun- ished as for bigamy.
Louisiana duly appreciated her indebtedness to Thomas Jefferson for the civil and political liberty she now enjoyed, and for the position she occupied in the American Union, and, in token of her gratitude, the General Assembly present- ed ten thousand dollars to his family.
An act was passed exempting whites from the punishment of whipping and of the pillory. It had, indeed, been matter of wonder, that in such a state of society, where part of the population was free and part in a state of slavery, a punish- ment of this kind, common to both, should ever have been in force.
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SPANIARDS FROM MEXICO.
Political revolutions having driven the native Spaniards from Mexico, many of them came to New-Orleans, where a great number died of the yellow fever; and their sufferings from this dis- ease they repaid by communicating to the Louisi- anians a hitherto wholly unknown malady, call- ed dinguet, which, without being dangerous, oc- casioned violent pains in all the limbs.
1828 .- Pierre Derbigny, a man of learning · and an eloquent speaker, was now chosen gov- ernor.
By the existing laws, widows and spinsters were held in tutelage, though they should be of legal age; but this act was repealed, allowing them to give bail, and to endorse for others, in the same manner as men who were of age.
Another law was passed, making the crime of arson punishable with death; decreeing, at the same time, severe punishments against any who should prepare combustibles to be employed for this object. This act, however, has done but lit- tle to diminish the number of fires in the city.
Persons maliciously destroying the public works of a corporation, or carrying arms about them, and inflicting a wound with the intent to kill, or any one procuring the escape of a criti- nal condemned for a capital crime, were to be
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sentenced to hard labour for a term of years. (See 1805, p. 183.)
General Jackson had now succeeded to the Presidency of the United States.
1830 .- The General Assembly met at Donald- sonville, now become the seat of government.
At this period several persons were detected in travelling about the country and endeavour- ing to excite the blacks to insurrection, and the populace would have punished them very sum- marily had they been permitted. The Legisla- ture thereupon passed a law, making it death for any one to excite the slaves against the whites, either by writings, sermons, or speeches made at the bar or in the theatre, or to bring into the State any pamphlets having that tendency and for that object.
But it was deemed not sufficient to prohibit such writings: they must also be rendered pow- erless. It was declared, therefore, that any one teaching slaves to read, or having them so taught, should be punished with imprisonment.
Any slave selling spirituous liquors without a written permission from his master was punish- able by whipping, and any white man buying liquor of a slave was made liable to a fine.
This year the railroad company of Pontchar-
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DEATH OF DERBIGNY.
train was incorporated, being the fifth of the kind in the United States.
The severity of the winter, which set in early in December with frost and ice, and lasted through February, destroyed the orange-trees.
The population of Louisiana now amounted to 215,275, having increased two fifths in the last ten years.
1831 .- The deplorable death of Pierre Der- bigny, occasioned by his horses taking fright and running away with his carriage, having left the office of governor vacant, it was temporarily filled by Jacques Dupré, president of the Senate; and there being no law providing for the elec- tion of a chief magistrate until his term of four years should expire, he might have retained the post. But this he did not wish; and Bienvenu Roman, who had received a majority of votes over M. Beauvais, his competitor at the last year's election, assumed the reins of government, the seat of which was again transferred to New- Orleans, which, though less central than Donald- sonville, was more convenient for business.
An act was this year passed, providing that the militia and the volunteer companies should be furnished with arms and equipments at the ex- pense of the State. A charter was also granted
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to the Canal Bank, with a capital of four mill- ions ; one to the City Bank, with a capital of the same amount ; and one to the Railroad Company of West Feliciana.
A tremendous storm, setting in from the east, afterward shifting to the south, and continuing from the 16th to the 17th of August, drove back the waters of the gulf into the lakes and bayous, so as to flood New-Orleans and the whole coun- try bordering on the sea. The water, indeed, was so high that many vessels were driven on to the levee. The damage to the town exceeded a hundred thousand dollars, and the loss of the planters was still more severe.
The Legislature having at this time submitted to Congress a plan of the mouths of the Missis- sippi and of the adjacent coast, showing, as they believed, the urgent necessity and the facility of excavating a ship-canal, to commence at a point below Fort St. Philip, and terminate at the Isle au Breton, in 1839 the work was begun under a law passed for that object ; it was found to be impracticable, however, as it filled with fresh ac- cumulations of sand nearly as fast as it was dug out, and was accordingly abandoned. Those familiar with the river assert that one passage deepens as fast as another fills up ; and that on
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APPEARANCE OF THE CHOLERA.
the bar, in the deepest part, there is never less than fourteen feet of water, which is as much as there was when the country was first settled. Bienville, in 1699, found eleven feet water ; and the Chevalier Bossu, an officer of the French navy, in passing üp the river in 1770 with a ves- sel drawing eleven feet, stated that he got through the passage without unloading.
1832 .- The old Hospital, belonging to the city, was this year purchased by the State as a place for holding the sittings of the General Assembly and of the Supreme Court.
A penitentiary was also erected at Baton Rouge, on the plan of that at Wethersfield, in Connecticut.
Another banking establishment was now in- corporated, under the name of the Union Bank, with a capital of eight million dollars, based upon landed property, like that of the Planters' Association, and was guarantied by the State.
This year the Asiatic cholera, after extending its ravages over Asia and a part of Europe, made its appearance in Canada, where it was supposed to have been brought by an English vessel. Passing through the states to the north and west, it at length reached Louisiana ; and in New-Orleans alone not less than five thousand
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HISTORY OF LOUISIANA.
persons fell victims to it. The yellow fever was raging at the time. Many unfortunate creatures · were supposed to have been buried alive; while others, suffering under quite different illnesses, were treated for cholera, and killed by the vi- olence of the remedies. The blacks had been spared by the yellow fever, but the cholera almost exterminated them. There were planta- tions in the environs of the town which lost from seventy to eighty slaves in two or three days. The disease appeared again the following year, but with greatly diminished violence.
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CHAPTER XIX.
Țariff .- Speculation .- Lotteries .- Banks .- Madame Lalaurie. -New-Orleans Divided .- Stoppage of Specie Payments.
1833 .- THE first blow given to the agriculture of Louisiana was by the new tariff, providing for a gradual reduction of duties" on foreign goods to twenty per cent., taking off every two years one tenth of all there was above that, as fixed by the former tariff. This minimum was to be reached on the first of July, 1842. The
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SUGAR CULTURE.
·effect of this change would be to diminish the price of foreign sugars, and, consequently, that of the domestic article. The first few years but lit- tle alteration took place, and the sugar trade was in a highly flourishing condition.
On the strength of the tariff of 1816, fixing the duty upon imported sugars at three cents, the culture had been greatly extended, and the crop had increased in 1828 from fifteen thousand hogsheads to forty-five thousand. At that time there were more than three hundred sugar plan- tations, with a capital of thirty-four million dol- lars; twenty-one thousand men, twelve thousand head of working cattle, and steam-engines equal to sixteen hundred and fifty horse power, being employed in this branch of industry; and from this time to 1830, nearly four hundred new es- tablishments were formed, with a capital of six millions, making the whole number of sugar plantations no less than seven hundred, with a capital of forty millions. Louisiana already fur- nished half the sugar consumed in the country, and bade fair to supply the rest. The sugar planters were at this time looked upon as the most prosperous class in society : they had two banks, which liberally supplied them with funds, and a third, called the Citizens' Bank, with a
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capital of twelve millions, was now started. The plan of this institution was to advance to any planter, on a mortgage of his lands, slaves, and cattle, one half of their estimated value in spe- cie, at six per cent., for twenty years, he being obliged to pay back each year one twentieth of the sum loaned.
The abundance of paper money gave rise, also, to other speculating companies, and among them four new railroad companies. In short, there were chartered this year corporate institutions . with an aggregate capital amounting to the enor- mous sum of eighteen millions nine hundred and eighty-four thousand dollars. Never had the Legislative Assembly been so unboundedly lib- eral.
By this stock-jobbing system real estate was inflated to an exorbitant nominal value. During the past year a banking corporation had paid half a million of dollars for a piece of land which might have been bought for fifty or sixty thou- sand but a short time before. Towns were laid out in the environs of New-Orleans ; and the pur- chasers of lots no sooner began to realize large profits by their sale, than they rose to twice, ten times, nay, a hundred times their actual value.
To the Legislative Assembly of this year the
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ABOLITION OF LOTTERIES.
abolition of lotteries is due. They were not sup- pressed in France till 1836. The first lotteries were introduced into Italy by the Jews. Louis XIV. distributed his presents to his courtiers by means of lotteries-an adroit contrivance for pre- venting jealousy.
The Legislature of Louisiana had heretofore authorized the raising of money by lotteries for founding schools, building churches, making roads, canals, and bridges, and improving the navigation of rivers. Individuals were some- times even allowed the privilege of a lottery to dispose of a valuable property. But they were not only a serious tax on the people, but highly injurious to public morals, and their suppression was loudly called for. Still, in spite of the law, lotteries continued, though not to the same ex- tent nor with the same publicity.
Moneyed difficulties came on apace at this time, and 15, 18, and 24 per cent. was demanded on good paper. Bankruptcies, though as yet at long intervals, began to take place among the principal merchants ; and to remedy, or, rather, increase the evil, there was a loud call for more banks from the State Legislature. Louisiana was, however, so far fortunate as to have none granted this year, though the way was preparing for their increase at no distant day.
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1834 .- The aggregate capital of the institu- tions chartered this year amounted to but one million six hundred and twenty thousand dollars.
The increasing frequency of steamboat acci- dents was an evil of great magnitude, and one which loudly called for correction. All captains or owners of steamboats were therefore required to have their boilers examined by an engineer appointed by the State, under the penalty of fine and imprisonment, besides being responsible for all losses or damage on the goods they might have on board, and to the punishment provi- ded for manslaughter in case of the loss of life. Other states either had adopted or soon after did adopt similar regulations, though apparently with but little effect. From 1816 to 1838, two hun- dred and thirty steamboats were lost, of which one hundred and thirty-seven were destroyed by explosions, occasioning a loss of nearly seventeen hundred lives. In the explosion of the Ben Sherrod, one hundred and thirty persons were blown up; and in that of the Monmouth, three hundred : both of them took place in 1837, on the Mississippi.
This year was marked by a horrible discovery. One of those interpositions of Providence, which often bring to light crimes perpetrated in dark-
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CRIMES OF MADAME LALAURIE.
ness, disclosed the dreadful atrocities committed by a woman who had hitherto been admitted to the first society in New-Orleans. Her name was Lalaurie. Her house taking fire, while efforts were making to extinguish it, a rumour was spread that some slaves were confined in an out- building which was locked up. Mr. Canonge, the judge of the Criminal Court, applied to her for the key, which she refused to give him. He then, with some gentlemen, broke into the build- ing, and discovered in different parts of it seven slaves chained in various ways, and all bearing marks of the most horrible treatment. One of them declared that he had been confined for five months, with no other sustenance than a handful of meal a day. These wretched beings were the property of this woman, and had been treated by her in this outrageous manner. As soon as she found that her barbarity was on the point of being discovered, she contrived to make her es- cape, and, strange to tell, by the aid of some of her own slaves, who conveyed her to a carriage while the crowd were occupied at the other end of the house. Had she remained, her life would probably have been taken, for the fury of the people knew no bounds : they broke into the house, destroyed every article of furniture, and
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