USA > Louisiana > History of Louisiana, the Spanish domination > Part 30
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" 11º-No land is to be granted to a trader.
"12°-Immediately on the arrival of a settler, the
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338
GAYOSO'S BANDO DE BUEN GOBIERNO.
oath of allegiance is to be administered to him. If he has a wife, proof is to be demanded of their marriage ; and, if they bring any property, they are to be required to declare what part belongs to either of them; and they are to be informed that the discovery of any wilful falsehood in this declaration will produce the forfeiture of the land granted them, and of the improvements made thereon.
" 13º-Without proof of a lawful marriage, or of the absolute ownership of negroes, no grant is to be made for any wife, or negro.
"14°-The grant is to be forfeited, if a settlement be not made within the year, or one tenth part of the land put in cultivation within two.
" 15°-No grantee is to be allowed to sell his land, until he has produced three crops on a tenth part of it; but, in case of death, it may pass to an heir in the pro- vince, but not to one without, unless he come and settle on it.
" 16°-If the grantee owes debts in the province, the proceeds of the first four crops are to be applied to their discharge, in preference to that of debts due abroad. If, before the third crop be made, it becomes necessary to evict the grantee, on account of his bad conduct, the land shall be given to the young man and young woman, residing within one mile of it, whose good conduct may show them to be the best deserving of it; and the decision is to be made by an assembly of notable planters, presided over by the Commandant.
" 17º-Emigrants are to settle contiguous to old esta- blishments, without leaving any vacant lands between- in order that the people may more easily protect each other, in case of any invasion by the Indians, and that the administration of justice, and a compliance with police regulations, may be facilitated."
389
ILLUSTRIOUS STRANGERS IN 1798.
In the beginning of this year, 1798, New Orleans was visited by three illustrious strangers, the Duke of Or- Jeans, with his two brothers, the Duke of Montpensier and the Count of Beaujolais, who were striking exam- ples of those remarkable vicissitudes of fortune with which the annals of history are so replete. The royal fugitives who had thus come to claim the hospitality of the humble town which, under the patronage of their ancestors, had been founded in the wilderness, on the distant bank of the Mississippi, were the descendants of the celebrated regent, Duke of Orleans, and, through him, of Louis XIII., king of France. They were of a race which, without interruption, had given monarchs to that kingdom for centuries ; and if there ever was a house that could boast of pretensions to durability, it was theirs, so profoundly and ineradicably laid had seemed to be its foundations in the very depths, not only of the broad kingdom of France, but also of the whole continent of Europe. There was a day, however, when " the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it!" Men, who had suddenly been precipitated so low from the heights of a prosperity which seemed des- tined to be the everlasting and lawful possession of their family by the prescriptive right derived from so many centuries, were certainly fit objects of sympathy in their misfortune, and they met with a generous and warm- hearted reception, both from the Spanish authorities and from the inhabitants of Louisiana. Costly entertain- ments were given to them, and they spent several weeks in New Orleans and its neighborhood. They appeared to take much interest in the destinies of a colony which was the creation of France, and they examined minutely the sugar plantation which had been lately established by Etienne Boré, near the city. When a " mousque-
390
DUKE OF ORLEANS AND HIS BROTHERS.
taire," or guardsman in the household troops of Louis XV., and watching over the safety of the majesty of France, little did he dream that the day would come when three princes of the blood would be his guests in the wilderness of America! What strange events will not time bring on, and how shifting are the scenes in which it delights! The Count of Beaujolais and the Duke of Montpensier soon slept in the tomb ; but the other fugitive exile-the Duke of Orleans -- whose father's head had fallen on the scaffold, ascended the throne of France, and the planter's grandson became, in his turn, in the gorgeous halls of royalty, the guest of him who had been the planter's guest. But again "the rain de- scended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon the king's house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it," for it was not strong, and not "built upon a rock." Now are the king's children exiles and wander- ers on the face of the earth. Will it be the decree of capricious fortune that one of them shall taste the hospi- tality which his royal father enjoyed in Louisiana in 1798 ?
But, to return to events having a more direct bearing on the destinies of the colony, it must here be recorded that Colonel Charles Grandpré had been appointed by the Spanish authority to take the command at Natchez, in the place of Brigadier-General Gayoso de Lemos, who had now become Governor of Louisiana. But Grand- pré's energy, and the little favor with which he looked upon the Americans, being well known, the." Permanent Committee of Public Safety" declared unanimously that his presence would not be acceptable, and might be the cause of a dangerous outbreak. Under such circum- stances, it was thought prudent to leave the command of that post to Captain Minor, who was then acting as civil and military commandant ad interim. Captain Minor, as Gayoso had done before, recognized the powers of the
391
CAPTAIN GUION AT NATCHEZ.
' Permanent Committee," and this concession restored so much harmony between the two parties, that Lieutenant Pope, with the men under his orders, retired a few miles from Fort Panmure into the interior.
In the meantime, General Wilkinson, who was the commander-in-chief of the American army, thought that it was opportune to make some demonstration that would satisfy the Federal Government of the sincerity of his zeal, gratify the impatience of the Western people, and so far operate upon the Spanish authorities as to induce them to evacuate the forts of which they were still in
possession. In consequence of this determination, he sent Captain Guion at the head of a detachment, with orders to assume the command of Natchez. He also in- trusted Captain Guion with a despatch for Gayoso, in which he said of the bearer : "This officer's experience and good sense, and the powers with which he is clothed by the President of the United States, conspire to pro- mise a happy result to his command, in which I flatter myself I shall not be disappointed." In obedience, no doubt, to the instructions which had been given to him by Mr. Wilkinson, and perhaps from his own sense of propriety, Guion, on his arrival at Natchez, behaved to- wards the Spaniards in the most conciliatory manner. He checked any public manifestation of disrespect to them, and exerted himself to the utmost to allay the excite- ment which prevailed in the district. He almost annihi- lated the authority of the "Permanent Committee of Public Safety," which had adopted, he thought, impru- dent and improper measures, and he went even so far as to threaten* to break it up by force. But Guion's liberality and the amiableness of his deportment towards the Spaniards did not seem to accelerate their move- ments, and to procure their desired removal from the
* Monette's History of the Valley of the Mississippi, vol. i., p. 530.
392
FORMATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY.
forts Panmure and Nogales (or Walnut Hills), which were the only remaining ones to be evacuated-so that Guion himself, becoming impatient, declared that he would not wait further than the 1st of April, 1799, and would then attack the forts.
But, at last, the Spaniards having lost, as it has been seen by Power's report to Carondelet, all hopes of ope- rating a dismemberment of the Union, an order was sent by the court of Madrid to comply with the stipulations of the treaty, to have the line of demarcation surveyed, and to surrender the ceded territory. Thus, on the 23d of March, Fort Nogales, at Walnut Hills, was evacuated, and its garrison came down to Natchez, where they remained until the 29th, when, during the night, the Spaniards, without having given any previous notice to the Americans, abandoned the fort, after having sent all their artillery, ammunition, baggage, &c., on board of the boats and. galleys they had on the river. By day- break, the Americans entered the fort, which they dis- covered to be vacant, and the gates of which had been left open.
In virtue of an act of Congress approved on the 10th of May, 1798, the territory thus surrendered by the Spaniards was organized into a territorial government, and designated as the "Mississippi territory." On the 26th of the same month, General Wilkinson arrived with the federal forces at Natchez, where he established his head-quarters, and, shortly after, removed to the well known spot on the river, called "La Roche à Davion" by the French, "Loftus's Heights" by the English, and, subsequently, Fort Adams by the Americans, from the fortifications which were then begun by Wilkinson.
Thus were defeated all the schemes and efforts of Spain to protect her American colonies against the en- croachments which she foresaw ; and from the day when
393
COUNT ARANDA'S PROPHECY.
her feeble hand thus relinquished the grasp of so impor- tant a portion of her dominions in Louisiana, may be said to date the rapid decay of her power on the conti- nent which she claims to have discovered, and where she had accomplished so much. The danger that threat- ened Spain in America had long been foreseen by one of her ablest statesmen, the Count of Aranda, who, in the cabinet council which was convened in Madrid by the King to determine whether Spain, after the revolu- tion of 1768 which had resulted in the expulsion of Governor Ulloa from Louisiana, should persist in accept- ing the donation of that province by the French King and make the necessary efforts to recover its possession, had so strenuously spoken in the affirmative, on the ground of the urgent necessity of establishing a perma- nent barrier between the growing power and ambition of the northern British colonies and the wealthy but weak provinces of Mexico. After signing the treaty of Paris, in 1783, the same minister had submitted to his Catholic Majesty a secret memoir,* in which he declared that the independence of the British colonies filled his mind with grief and fear, and expressed his belief that both France and Spain acted in opposition to their inte- rests when they espoused the cause of those colonies, because he regarded the existence of the United States of America as highly dangerous to the Spanish Ameri- can possessions, and, on this subject, used the follow- ing very remarkable language:
"This federal republic is born a pigmy, if I may be allowed so to express myself. It has required the sup- port of two such powerful States as France and Spain to obtain its independence. The day will come when she will be a giant, a colossus formidable even to these
* De Bow's Review May number, 1847, p. 411
394
COUNT ARANDA'S PROPHECY.
countries. She will forget the services she has received from the two powers, and will think only of her own aggrandizement. The liberty of conscience, the facility of establishing a new population upon immense territo- ries, together with the advantages of a new government (meaning free, no doubt), will attract the agriculturists and mechanics of all nations, for men ever run after fortune; and, in a few years, we shall see the tyrannical existence of this very colossus of which I speak.
"The first step of this nation, after it has become powerful, will be to take possession of the Floridas in order to have the command of the Gulf of Mexico, and, after having rendered difficult our commerce with New Spain, she will aspire to the conquest of that vast em- pire, which it will be impossible for us to defend against a formidable power established on the same continent, and in its immediate neighborhood. These fears are well founded; they must be realized in a few years, if some greater revolution, even more fatal, does not sooner take place in our Americas."
In conclusion, he proposed, as the best means of averting this imminent danger, that Spain should relin- quish the Americas and establish therein three of the Infantes, one to be king of Mexico, one of Peru, and the other of Costa Firme, retaining under the dominion of the mother country only Porto Rico and Cuba; and he recommended that a treaty of commerce be entered into between France and Spain in relation to these countries, from the advantages of which Great Britain should be excluded.
These views explain the tenaciousness with which, to the last moment, Spain held fast to every inch of the ground which she considered as constituting a rampart against the anticipated aggressions of her great north- western neighbor. In relation to her late intrigues with
395
REFLECTIONS ON GEN. WILKINSON.
Wilkinson, in which she had engaged in the vain hope of crippling, when still in the cradle, the new-born giant pointed out to her by Count Aranda, Monette says, in his History of the Valley of the Mississippi : "The te- merity of this last intrigue, put in operation by the Governor of Louisiana, astonishes every reflecting mind. But General Wilkinson was a talented and ambitious man ; he had received many favors from the Spanish governors nearly ten years before; he had received exclusive privileges in the commerce with Louisiana ; a long and confidential intercourse had existed between him and Governor Mirò; he was known to have in- dulged a predilection for Spanish authority, and was ambitious of power and distinction ; he was now at the head of the western armies, and, with the power and influence of his station, he might effectually bring about a separation of the West, the formation of a new repub- lic, of which he himself might be the supreme ruler, and conduct the alliance with Spain. Such may have been the reasonings of Baron de Carondelet, at this late period.
" But General Wilkinson had already proceeded too far in his treasonable intrigues and correspondence with the Spanish Governor, and the suspicions of his own govern- ment rested upon him. The brilliant prospects and the bright hopes of becoming the head of a new confedera- tion, had vanished from his imagination, and he was anxious to retain his command, and with it his standing as a patriotic citizen of the United States. Hence, in the summer of 1797, he had given to Power a cold reception ; he had informed him that the time for a separation had passed by ; that now the project of the Baron de Carondelet would be chimerical in the extreme ; that the Western people, by the late treaty, had obtained all they desired, and that now they entertained no wish for
396
CHANGE IN GEN. WILKINSON'S VIEWS.
an alliance with either Spain or France ; that the politi- cal ferment which existed four years previously had en- tirely subsided ; and that, far from desiring an alliance with Louisiana under the Spanish Crown, the people of Kentucky, prior to the treaty of Madrid, had proposed to invade Louisiana with an army of ten thousand men, to be put in motion upon the first open rupture between the two governments ; and that now they were highly exasperated at the spoliations committed upon the Ameri- can commerce by French privateers, who brought their prizes into the port of New Orleans for condemnation and confiscation. He gave it as his opinion that the Governor-general would therefore consult his own in- terest, and the interest of his Catholic Majesty, by an immediate compliance with the terms of the treaty.
" General Wilkinson also complained that his connec- tion and his correspondence with the Spanish Governor had been divulged ; that all his plans had been defeated, and the labor of ten years had been lost; that he had now burned all his correspondence and destroyed his cyphers, and that duty and honor forbade a continuance of the intercourse. Yet he still indulged the hope of being able to manifest his confidence in the Baron ; for it was probable that he would receive from the Federal Government the appointment of Governor over the Natchez district, after its surrender agreeably to treaty, when he should not want an opportunity of promoting his political projects."
Although Spain had been drawn into the wars which desolated the European continent, still Louisiana had felt none of their direful consequences, and had continued to enjoy an uninterrupted tranquillity, which was only marred by the fears resulting from the rapid extension · of the American settlements. She could already see the
397
DANIEL CLARK APPOINTED CONSUL.
shadows of the coming giant shooting across her bosom and darkening her sky.
The commerce of New Orleans, however, had been steadily increasing, particularly with the United States, and this circumstance was deemed sufficient to require the appointment of an official agent by the Federal Government, to protect their commercial interests. "Be- sides," says Colonel Ellicott, in his journal, "the French privateers had now become very troublesome to the trade of the United States in the West Indies, and about the Gulf of Mexico. A number of our captured vessels were taken into the port of New Orleans, condemned, and confiscated with their cargoes at a trifling price, our seamen treated in the most shameful manner, and our trade otherwise brought into great jeopardy." This induced the American commissioner, Colonel Ellicott, to prevail upon the Governor of Louisiana to recognize Daniel Clark, Jr., as consul for the United States until the President should make a regular appointment, which was shortly after conferred on Evan Jones, with Huling as vice-consul .*
In consequence of the close proximity of the American and Spanish posts, a convention was entered into be- tween Governor Gayoso and General Wilkinson for the mutual surrender of deserters, and also an agreement, somewhat of the like nature, was made between the Governor of the Mississippi territory, at Natchez, and Don Jose Vidal, Commandant of the Spanish post, on the opposite side of the river, for the reciprocal sur- render of fugitive slaves. The animosity which had existed between the American and Spanish authorities seemed to have disappeared entirely, and to have given way to an amicable intercourse and to good feelings.
* Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, vol. i., p. 540.
398
INTENDANT MORALES AND HIS MEASURES.
In commemoration of this happy change, the Spanish Commandant, Don Jose Vidal, gave the name of "Con- cord" to the fort which was erected on the west side of the river, in front of Fort Panmure on the east side, and the present parish of Concordia derives its appella- tion from this circumstance. The village of Vidalia now existing opposite Natchez, is so called from the old Spanish Commandant, Don Jose Maria Vidal.
Under the royal decree, of the 24th of August, 1770, the civil and military governors of Louisiana had alone been empowered to make concessions of the lands belonging to the Crown; but, on the 21st of October, in the year 1798, the King of Spain thought proper to vest that power exclusively in the Intendant of the provinces of Louisiana and West Florida.
In consequence of this royal schedule, the Intendant Morales issued, on the 17th of July, 1799, a set of regu- lations, to which the concessions of land should hereafter be subjected." These regulations were considered at the time inimical to the Americans, and calculated to prevent their emigration into Louisiana. Another measure adopted by Morales was looked upon as still more hostile and as the harbinger of future oppressive acts, aimed at crippling the commerce of the United States.
It will be recollected that, by the treaty of Madrid concluded in October, 1795, between Spain and the United States, the citizens of the latter power had secured to themselves the right of deposit in New Orleans for their western produce, for the space of three years, to be counted from the date of the ratification of the treaty, and that his Catholic Majesty had bound himself, at the expiration of the three years, to extend the time, or to designate some other suitable point within
* See the Appendix.
399
MORALES QUARRELS WITH GAYOSO.
the island of New Orleans, to serve as a place of de- posit .* The Intendant Morales, considering that three years had elapsed since the ratification of the treaty between his Sovereign and the United States, issued an order,; prohibiting the use of New Orleans as a place of deposit by the western people, but without designat- ing any other suitable point. When this measure be- came known in the West, it excited the most intense indignation, and an expedition against New Orleans was openly contemplated. President Adams himself had been obliged to make some demonstrations in the way pointed out by the current of popular opinion, and had ordered three regiments of the regular army to con- centrate on the Ohio, and to wait for further orders. Twelve additional regiments were ordered to be raised by Congress, and other preparations were made, which seemed to indicate that an immediate campaign was projected against Louisiana.
When, to meet such dangers, all the resources of the colony should have been carefully husbanded, and when the greatest harmony should have prevailed among the Spanish officers, a misunderstanding of a serious nature had sprung up between the Intendant Morales and Governor Gayoso-between the purse and the sword. On the 31st of January, 1799, Morales, in a despatch to his government, complained bitterly of the temper of the Governor, of his mode of thinking, of his disposition to indulge in useless expenses, and said that, in such circumstances, he, Morales, could not have it in his power to serve the King as effectually as he wished. On the 31st of March, he again complained that the
Monette's Valley of the Miss., vol. i., p. 543.
+ Martin's History of Louisiana, vol. ii., p. 158.
1 Dice que es tal el caracter del gobernador, tal su modo de pensar, y tan propenso á hacer gastos inutiles que no podrá servir á su Majestad, como el deseará.
400
MORALES QUARRELS WITH GAYOSO.
Governor illegally assumed powers which belonged to the Intendant; that he, Morales, was obliged to yield to many of the Governor's unjust exigencies, in order to avoid scandalous disputes, and that he had in vain made to that officer confidential observations on the subject; he further went on animadverting with severity on seve- ral acts of Gayoso's administration . "The" Governor's natural disposition," said Morales, "to waste what he owns as well as what he borrows, and to cause those about him to do the same, and his desire to increase his prerogatives and power, and to show himself generous at the expense of the King, are much more the causes of all the defensive preparations which he requires, than his fear of the invasion from the Americans, which serves as a pretext for his demands." He then recites in detail the reasons why he thinks that the Americans have given up all ideas of attacking Louisiana, ever since they have been put in possession of the ceded territory, and he comments on the smallness of Wilkinson's forces, which do not exceed four hundred men. He complains also of the orders issued and of the measures taken by Gayoso, in relation to the galleys and boats which con- stituted the naval resources of the colony. "Without knowing more than I dot in this matter," writes Morales,
* Su propension natural á gastar lo suyo, y lo que pide prestado, y a hacer gastar á quantos le circundan, y el deseo de tener objetos en que extender sus facultades, y manifestarle generoso á costa del Rey, eran mas bien los agentes de los preparativos de defensa que exigía, que los recelos de invasion de parte de los Americanos a cuya sombra se solicitaban.
+ Sin entender mas que yo, se cree este gobernador sobresaliente á los mejores generales de marina. Aquellas cosas han producido entre nosotros contestaciones bastante agrias y desagradables, hasta el punto de pretender que la Intendencia, sin hablar palabra, se someta á todos sus caprichos, depreciando cuantas razones se alegan para evitar á S. M. gastos inútiles. Creo de absoluta y indispensable necesitad que el Rey se digne tomar una de dos determinaciones que son : ó cohartar las facultades de este gobernador en los terminos que sean de su real agrado: ó con el conocimiento que doy de la situacion de estas Reales Cajas proporcionar á la Intendencia medios para que pueda llenar los deseos de este gefe.
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