USA > Louisiana > History of Louisiana, the Spanish domination > Part 44
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
"Copies of every deliberation were to be sent yearly to the Minister.
" Vacant lands were to be granted by the Captain- General and Colonial Prefect; but, in case of disagree- ment, the opinion of the former was to prevail.
* Martin's History of Louisiana, vol. ii., p. 182.
INTENDED REORGANIZATION OF THE COLONY. 579
" Vacancies in the departments of the Colonial Pre- fect and Commissary of Justice were to be filled by the Captain-General on their nomination; but no appoint- ment was final until confirmed by the First Consul.
" In case of the absence of the Captain-General, he was to be represented by the Colonial Prefect, or by the highest military officer.
"The Colonial Prefect's powers extended to the administration of the finances, the general accountability and destination of all officers of administration. He was exclusively charged with the police of the colony, in- cluding all that related to taxes, receipts and expendi- tures, the Custom House, the pay of the troops, the public stores, agriculture, navigation, commerce, the census, the suppression of contraband trade, the police of slaves, highways, levees, public instruction and wor- ship, the press, and generally all the powers formerly exercised by Intendants and ordaining Commissaries (Commissaires ordonnateurs). In the assessment of taxes he was to consult three merchants and three plan- ters. In case of absence, he was to be represented by the officer of administration next in rank.
" The Commissary of Justice had the superintendence of all the courts of justice and their ministerial officers : he was to have an eye to the regular administration of justice, the safety and salubrity of jails as well as the con- duct of officers and clerks, and was intrusted with the po- lice of vagrants. He might preside and vote in any court of justice, he was to require monthly statements of every case tried from the President and clerks of each court, and he communicated them to the Captain-General. He was authorized to make rules for the administration of justice, and, with the consent of the Captain-General, to order them to be observed. Agents of government were not suable for any matter relating to their offices,
580
THE COLONIAL PREFECT LAUSSAT.
nor could any citizen in the public service be arrested without the Commissary's fiat, and said Commissary was to give an account of his proceedings in this respect to the Minister. He was to prepare a civil and criminal code, and submit it to the Captain-General and Colonial Prefect for their examination, and transmit it, with the procès-verbal of their deliberations thereon, to the Minister." Such were the principal outlines of a govern- ment which was destined to be never carried into exe- cution.
On the 26th of March, the Colonial Prefect Laussat arrived at New Orleans, and was received with the customary honors on such occasions, by the Spanish Governor and Intendant, round whom had assembled, for the reception of the French Dignitary, all the Clergy of New Orleans, and the principal officers of the regular troops, of the militia, and of the civil administration. The circumstance called for an address from the new ruler of the land, and he expressed those conciliating sentiments which were expected to flow of course from his lips. The French Government,* he said, would have but one object in view, which was the prosperity of the colony ; this had been the sole aim of the French Consul in making this important acquisition ; order was to be rigidly maintained; laws and customs were to be respected; treaties with the Indian nations were to be observed; and no change was intended in the public worship and in the organization of the clergy, over which the most liberal protection was to be extended. Notwithstanding the suavity of these promises, a good deal of excitement prevailed in the province, and some there were, who, considering the course pursued by the French in St. Domingo, entertained considerable fears
* Martin's History of Louisiana.
581
FEARS OF THE COLONISTS.
as to the security of the tenure of a certain kind of pro- perty. Those fears were made more keen by the dis- covery of a conspiracy among the colored population, at the instigation and under the leadership of an American, named Sopper. This fact is related, and the name thus spelt, in a despatch from Morales, of the 29th of March, to the Spanish government.
" The Louisianians," says Barbe Marbois in his History of Louisiana, "had reason to fear for themselves the calamities which had been, for many years, ruining the other colonies of France. St. Domingo was the most agitated and unfortunate of all. The colonists repeated with horror, at New Orleans, these words which the First Consul had caused to be proclaimed, in his name, in the revolted colony, and which were addressed to all classes. " Inhabitants of St. Domingo, whatever may be your color or your origin, you are all free ; all equal in the eyes of God and the Republic." General Leclerc, on his arrival in the colony, had said : " I promise liberty to all the inhabitants."
* % * * * *
"Some of the refugee colonists of St. Domingo had brought a part of their negroes to Louisiana, and were therefore, secretly, far from desiring another removal, or participating in the views of those who had lost every thing. They easily made the Louisianians acquainted with the danger that they would incur, in case the French Republic, as the supreme Legislative power, should one day proclaim manumission and freedom in this colony * From all those disasters the Louisianians expected to be preserved, if the sovereignty of the Catholic King was not transferred to the French Republic."
If these facts had been taken into due consideration, an eye-witness, speaking of the sentiments which were
582
THE FRENCH COLDLY RECEIVED.
manifested on the occasion of the arrival and reception of Laussat, would not have been as much surprised as he was. "Every one," said he," "will be astonished to learn, that a people of French descent have received with- out emotion and without any apparent interest a French magistrate, who comes to us, accompanied by his young and beautiful family, and preceded by the public esteem. Nothing has been able to diminish the alarms which his mission causes. His proclamations have been heard by some with sadness, and by the greater part of the inha- bitants with the same indifference as the beat of the drum is listened to, when it announces the escape of a slave or a sale at auction."
One of Laussat's first cares was to examine the fortifi- cations which, eleven years before, had been erected by the Baron de Carondelet, and this is the description which he gave of them to the minister Decres : "The fortifications have never been kept up, and are falling into decay; the ditches are filling up; the terraces are crumbling down; the palisades are wanting, or rotten ; the bridges have given way, or consist only of one or two beams; the gates are off their hinges, and are lying on the ground. It had lately been proposed to the King of Spain to raze or at least greatly to reduce these works, as being useless and even mischievous, because the fevers which every year carry off the most valuable portion of the population of this city, date from the time when were dug round it those ditches which are always full of stagnating water. The precarious condition in which the Spanish government found itself has alone prevented it from deciding on this matter, which is now left to the consideration of the French Government.
" With regard to public edifices, those which we find
* Barbé Marbois's History of Louisiana.
583
LAUSSAT ON THE STATE OF THE COLONY.
here are the same which had been left by the French. The Spaniards have not made any solid and permanent constructions. They contented themselves with renting, or, when compelled to do so, with erecting wooden edi- fices, which are of no value. A rich Spaniard, however, (Andres Almonaster) has built up with brick and mor- tar a charity hospital, a town hall, and a church."
As to the administration of justice under the Spanish Government, Laussat thus expressed his opinion in a des- patch of the 24th of May :
"I will now proceed to say how justice is administered here, which is worse than in Turkey.
" All judgments are given in the name of the Governor, except in matters appertaining to the revenue, in which the authority of the Intendant is supreme.
" The Governor signs his name as a mere formality, his signature is a matter of course and entitles him to a fee, and this is one of the branches of the contingent salary allowed to his office.
" But at the elbow of the Governor is what is called an auditor, who is a sort of Lieutenant-Governor, and the Governor cannot decide on any thing, except in mili- tary matters, before having taken the advice of this individual, who is, in fact, the sole judge both in civil and criminal cases. Assessors are not even required to act with him as assistants or adjuncts. A power which a justice of the peace in France could not exercise in rela- tion to an amount of twenty dollars, is allowed to the auditor in New Orleans as to any amount. For these reasons, his judgments are not relied on, and command no respect. Whether they be correct or not, they never fail to be the object of the most shameful suspicions.
" At times, it is a capital accusation, the character of which is suddenly changed, or which, after having been permitted to be kept aside and forgotten for months,
584
LAUSSAT ON THE STATE OF THE COLONY.
disappears for ever from the docket. Frequently, there is to be no end to a lawsuit, and it is destined to be eter- nal, because the auditor has got possession of all the papers, and will never give them up.
" Besides, suits are so expensive, that a good many in- dividuals prefer to sacrifice their interests, however con- siderable they may be, than to maintain them at law.
" The right of appeal to Cuba and to Madrid, is a slow and ruinous remedy, &c., &c.
Laussat's statement is unfortunately confirmed by a communication from Daniel Clark, the United States' con- sul at New Orleans, addressed in 1803 to the Depart- ment of State at Washington : "The auditor of war," said he, "and the assessors of government and inten- dancy, have always been corrupt ; and to them only may be attributed the mal-administration of justice, as the Governor and other judges, who are unacquainted with law, seldom dare to act contrary to the opinions they give. Hence, when the auditor, or assessor, was bribed, suitors had to complain of delays and infamous decisions. All the officers plunder when the opportunity offers ; they are all venal. A bargain can be made with the governor, intendant, judge, or collector, down to the con- stable ; and if ever an officer be displeased at an offer of money, it is not at the offer or offerer, but because impe- rious circumstances compel him to refuse, and the offerer acquires a degree of favor which encourages him to make . a second offer, when a better opportunity is presented." This is a frightful picture. That there were but too many cases of corruption seems to be true, but that it should have been systematically carried to the extent here described by Laussat and Daniel Clark, is somewhat rebutted by other testimony, and not confirmed by living witnesses of great respectability.
Immediately after his arrival, Laussat obtained from
585
LAUSSAT ON THE RIGHT OF DEPOSIT.
the Intendant, that French vessels, on their coming into the colony and on their going out, be put exactly on the same footing with Spanish vessels.
On the right of deposit which had been granted by the Spaniards to the Americans, Laussat said, in a de- spatch to his Government: "The consequence of this privilege is, that the Anglo-Americans can keep their goods and effects in deposit at New Orleans, without paying anything else than storage. So far, this deposit has been effected on the single declaration of the owners of the goods when putting them in the stores of indi- viduals, whereby the profits of the storage accrued only to the merchants in whose hands the merchandise was placed. But the Government made nothing by it, be- cause in an open city and in an open province like these, every sort of fraudulent importation may be safely car- ried on. To remedy this evil, all that is necessary is, that the goods of the Americans be deposited in the stores of the Government, out of which they would not be taken without its knowledge ; or, in conformity with the right reserved by Spain to establish the place of de- posit elsewhere after the expiration of a certain time, should it be required by her interests, it would be proper to designate, instead of New Orleans, the Balize, or some other untenable spot." It appears by this document that the French Prefect, Laussat, was quite as hostile to the continuation of this privilege in favor of the Americans, as the Spanish Intendant, Morales.
Struck with the necessity of increasing as soon as pos- sible the population of the boundless province he had been sent to govern, Laussat hastened to write to Chap- tal, the Minister of the Interior, that it was of the utmost importance to transmit annually to Louisiana, at least from one thousand to twelve hundred families, from the departments contiguous to Switzerland, the Rhine, or the
586
LAUSSAT'S PROCLAMATION.
Low Countries, " because," said he, "the emigrants from the southern provinces are good for nothing."
A few days after his arrival, Laussat had issued a pro- clamation in the name of the French Republic.
This document begins, says Judge Martin,in his History of Louisiana, " by stating that the separation of Louisiana from France marked in the annals of the latter one of the most shameful eras under a weak and corrupt Govern- ment, after an ignominious war and dishonorable peace. With this unnatural abandonment by the mother coun- try, the love, loyalty, and heroic courage of the people of Louisiana formed a noble contrast, with which every heart in France was now moved, and would long preserve the remembrance of. The French still remembered that a portion of the inhabitants of Louisiana were their de- scendants, with the same blood running in their veins. As soon as France, by a prodigious succession of triumphs in the late revolution, had recovered her own freedom and glory, she turned her eyes towards Louisiana, the retrocession of which signalized her first peace. But the period was not yet arrived-it was necessary that a man, who is a stranger to nothing that is national, great, mag- nanimous, or just ; who, to the most distinguished talent for conquering, adds the rare one of obtaining for his conquests the happiest results, and who, by the ascen- dency of his character, at once strikes terror into his enemies and inspires his allies with confidence-whose expansive mind discovered at once the true interests of his country, and was bent on restoring to France her pristine grandeur and her lost possessions-should ac- complish this important work.
" This man," said the Prefect, "presides over the des- tinies of France and Louisiana, to insure their felicity. In the latter nothing more is necessary than to improve
587
LAUSSAT'S PROCLAMATION.
the advantages of which nature has been so prodigal towards her.
" He observed that it was the intention of the Govern- ment to live in peace and amity with the neighboring Indians, and to protect the commerce of the colony, en- courage its agriculture, people its deserts, promote labor and industry, respect property, opinions, and habits, protect public worship, preserve the empire of the laws, amend them slowly and with the light of experience only, maintain a regular police, introduce permanent order and economy in every branch of the administration, and tighten the bonds which a common origin and a similarity of manners had already established between the colony and the mother country.
" After a short eulogy of the two high magistrates with whom he was associated, and of the officers who had hitherto governed the colony under the authority of Spain, whom he said that the French officers would endeavor to imitate, he concluded with the assurance that the devotion of the people of Louisiana to the French Republic, their gratitude for those by whom they were reunited to it, and the spectacle of their prosperity, were the rewards which he aspired to, and should endeavor to deserve by a zeal which would know no limits in the fulfilment of his duties."
These were honied words indeed-promising halcyon days ; but not many changes of the moon had happened since they were uttered, when the magnanimous, just and powerful government of Bonaparte, after a pro- digious succession of triumphs, and after having recovered for France her freedom and glory, did exactly what had been done by the shameful, weak and corrupt govern- ment of Louis XV., after an ignominious war and dis- honorable peace. Bonaparte had been as anxious to sell
588
ADDRESS OF THE PLANTERS.
what he could not keep, as Louis had been to give what was an expensive encumbrance to him. There is no doubt that France, when ceding Louisiana to the United States, acted wisely for herself and beneficially for that province. But it is not the less true, that the similarity of the policy which she was compelled to pursue, with that which her representative had so bitterly censured, shows the imprudence of vituperation, particularly in connexion with any thing dependent on the political mutability of human affairs.
A large number of planters, among whom were A. Trouard, De Pain, Manuel Andry, Jacques de la Groue, Noel Perret, P. St. Martin, Louis Foucher, Charles Per- ret, &c., replied to Laussat's proclamation by a spirited address, in which they declared that their most ardent wish had always been to resume the glorious name of Frenchmen, and that the proclamation which announced to them that their long cherished hope was gratified had filled their souls with the delirium of extreme felicity. " But," said they, "we should be unworthy of what is to us a subject of so much pride, if we did not imitate you in the example you have given us by your expressing such generous sentiments, and if we did not acknowledge that we have no cause of complaint against the Spanish Government. We have never groaned under the iron yoke of an oppressive despotism. It is true that the time was, when our unfortunate kinsmen reddened with their blood the soil which they wished to preserve for France. A weak and unfeeling Government aimed at depriving us of that cherished possession. But the calamities which were inflicted upon us were due to the atrocious soul of a foreigner (the Irishman O'Reilly ) and to an extreme breach of faith. O plaintive shades, if you still haunt the spot which witnessed your martyr- dom, forget your sorrows ! Your descendants, your
ADDRESS OF THE INHABITANTS OF NEW ORLEANS. 589
friends, are called back to the bosom of their beloved mother. Their grateful tears will wash out the traces of the blood you have shed. Long ago, we proved to the Spaniards, in the plains of Baton Rouge, of Mobile, and Pensacola, that we did not consider them as the accomplices of those atrocities. We have become bound together by family connexions and by the bonds of friendship. Let them have the untrammelled enjoyment of all the property they may own on the soil which has become the land of freedom, and let us share with them, like brothers, the blessings of our new position."
The inhabitants of New Orleans presented also an ad- dress to Laussat. It was signed by M. Fortier, Cavalier Sr., Etienne Boré, Labatut, M. Lefebvre, G. Debuys, J. Livaudais, P. Derbigny, N. Broutin, St. Avid, E. Plauché, L. Chabot, B. Durel, A. Garidel, F. Blache, S. Hiriart, J. B. Verret, R. Ducros, and many others. It read thus :
" Citizen Prefect,-France has done justice to our sentiments, when believing in the unalterable attachment we have preserved for her. Thirty-four years of foreign domination have not weakened in our hearts the sacred love of country, and our joy in returning to our national flag is equal in intensity to the grief we felt when we were forcibly separated from it. Happy are the colonists of Louisiana who have lived long enough to see their re- union to France, which they had never ceased to desire, and which now satisfies their utmost wishes !
" In an age so fruitful in astonishing events, it is un- questionable that some have occurred, which are greater, more imposing and more memorable, but perhaps none offer a spectacle as interesting and as affecting as that of victorious and triumphant France holding out a pro- tecting hand to her children cast away, of old, from her bosom, in consequence of the weakness and prevarication
·
590 ADDRESS OF THE INHABITANTS OF NEW ORLEANS.
of a pusillanimous government, and calling them to a share in the fruits of a glorious peace, which has termi- nated in so brilliant a manner the most bloody and terrible revolution.
" You have signalized, Citizen Prefect, the return of the French Government, by strikingly authenticating its beneficent views. Your proclamation, in announcing them to us, has filled us with gratitude for the parental care of France. The blessings of our union with the French Republic begin already to be felt. The fortu- nate selection of the patriotic chiefs whom she has desig- nated to govern us, and whose honorable reputation has already reached the colony, the choice troops she sends for our protection, are sure pledges of the prosperity which she has in store for us. In return we tender her our zeal, obedience and love, and we swear to prove ourselves ever worthy of being incorporated with her.
"Perhaps France would attach less value to the homage of our fidelity, if she saw us relinquishing with- out any regret our allegiance to the sovereign who has loaded us with favors, during all the time he has reigned over us. Such culpable indifference is not to be found in our hearts, in which our regret at our separating from him occupies as much space as our joy in securing the nationality we had lost, and it is by keeping up an eternal recollection of his favors, that we intend to show ourselves worthy of the parental attachment and of the benefits which we expect from the French Government."
These two addresses are very remarkable testimonials in favor of the Spanish administration in Louisiana. It is not often that departing power is greeted with such hosannas, and that the incense of public worship is offered to the setting sun.
On the 10th of April, Sebastian de Caso Calvo de la Puerta y O'Farril, Marquis de Casa Calvo, who, it will
591
SPANISH COMMISSIONERS' PROCLAMATION.
be recollected, had acted formerly as military governor of Louisiana after the death of Gayoso de Lemos, arrived from Havana, he and Salcedo having been made joint commissioners to deliver the province to France. On the 18th of May, they issued a proclamation,* in which they announced the intention of their sovereign to sur- render the province to the French Republic, and declared that his Majesty, retaining as ever the same affection for the inhabitants of Louisiana, and desiring to continue to them the same protection which they had enjoyed, had determined :
" That the cession of the colony and island of New Orleans should be on the same terms as those of the cession made by his most Christian to his Catholic Majesty ; and that, consequently, the limits on both sides of the river St. Louis, or Mississippi, should con- tinue as they remained by the 5th article of the definitive treaty of peace concluded at Paris on the 10th of December, 1763, and accordingly, the settlements from the Bayou Manchac to the line of separation between the dominions of Spain and those of the United States, should remain a part of the monarchy of Spain and be annexed to the province of West. Florida.
" Every individual, employed in any branch of the King's service, and wishing to remain under his govern- ment, might proceed to Havana or any other part of his dominions, unless he preferred entering into the service of the French Republic, which he was permitted to do ; but if any just reason prevented his immediate departure, he might urge it in proper time. .
" The King's generosity induced him to continue to widows and others their respective provisions, and he would make known in due time, in what manner he wished they should avail themselves of this favor.
* Martin's History of Louisiana, vol. ii., p. 188.
592
SPANISH COMMISSIONERS' PROCLAMATION.
"They declared it to be the expectation of the King, their master, that, from the sincere friendship and alli- ance which existed between him and the French Repub- lic, orders would be given to the governors and other officers employed by France in Louisiana, to the effect that the clergy and the other religious institutions should be permitted to remain in the discharge of their offices within their respective curacies and missions, and enjoy their former emoluments, privileges and exemp- tions-that the tribunals established for the administra- tion of justice should be allowed to continue to adminis- ter it according to the former laws and usages of the province-the inhabitants maintained in the peaceable possession of their property, and all grants made to them by the former governors confirmed, even when not ratified by the King-and finally, that the French Government should continue to the people of Louisiana the favor and protection they had enjoyed under Spain."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.