USA > Louisiana > Louisiana; comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, and persons, Volume II > Part 52
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until Jan. 1, 1900, when Mr. Sigur retired. On July 1, 1900, Murphy J. Foster, upon retiring from the governor's office, became a member of the firm, which then took the name of Foster, Milling & Sanders, and the following February Emile Godchaux was taken into partnership. In Jan., 1907, Mr. Sanders withdrew from the firm and began the practice of law by himself. Mr. Sanders' po- litical career began in 1892, when he was elected to the general assembly from the parish of St. Mary, and continued to serve in that body for twelve years. In 1900 he was chosen speaker of the house, receiving every vote, making it one of the most unusual elections that ever occurred in the Louisiana legislature: He con- tinned as speaker until in 1904, when he was elected lieutenant- governor on the ticket with Newton C. Blanchard, and in 1908, at the close of his term, was elected governor.
Sandidge, John M., planter and member of Congress, was born in Franklin county, Ga., Jan. 7, 1817. He moved to Louisiana, where he became a planter, entered politics and was elected to the lower house of the state legislature, where he served from 1846 to 1855, 2 years as speaker. In 1852 he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention ; in 1854 was elected a representative from Louisiana to the 34th Congress as a Democrat, and was re- elected in 1856.
San Patricio, a post-village in the western part of Sabine parish. is a station on the Shreveport, Noble & Southern R. R., about + miles west of Noble and some 15 miles northwest of Many, the parish seat. It has important lumbering interests, and in 1900 reported a population of 58.
Santiago, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Grant parish, is about 5 miles east of Ravenscamp, the nearest railroad station, and 8 miles southeast of Colfax, the parish seat.
Sarah, a post-station in the northwestern part of Avoyelles par- ish, is about 7 miles northwest of Marksville, the parish seat and nearest railroad town.
Sardis, a postoffice in the northwestern part of Sabine parish, is about 4 miles northeast of Noble, the nearest railroad station, and about 16 miles northwest of Many, the parish seat.
Sarepta, a money order postoffice and station in the northwest- ern part of Webster parish, on the Louisiana & Arkansas R. R .; about 25 miles northwest of Minden, the parish seat. It is one of the shipping and supply towns of the northern part of the parish and in 1900 had a population of 74.
Sauvolle, M. de, was one of the most accomplished officers who ever came to Louisiana. Of high birth and fortune, he preferred a life of activity to one of ease, and when he learned that M. d'Iberville was about to sail for Louisiana, he received permission to join the expedition. When Iberville had established his colony at Biloxi and had built Fort Maurepas for their protection, he sailed for France in May, 1699, and appointed Sauvolle and his brother Bienville his lieutenants until he should again return : the first named was given command of the fort, and the other was
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second in command. When Iberville returned once more to the Mississippi in January. 1900, he brought royal commissions for the officers of the colony. Sauvolle was commissioned governor, Bienville lieutenant, and Boisbriant major, being the three officer- in chief command. During the brief period of Sauvolle's adminis- tration, he faithfully conformed to Iberville's instructions with reference to the exploration of the Mississippi river, and the other streams of the surrounding country, and also entered into friendly relations with the neighboring Indian tribes, such as the Biloxi, Mactobi, Pascagoula, Bayagoula, Mobilian, Natchez, etc. He sent an expedition overland to the Natchez on the Mississippi, to ascer- tain the distance of their country from Biloxi, and to find out the character of the intervening regions. The expedition reported that it had found one river 4 days' journey from the fort, which was believed to be the Colapissas (Pearl ) ; that the country of the Natchez was a beautiful region and that it was distant 50 leagues. Writing of the reputed abundance of pearls, he said that lie had never actually seen any, but had been informed that there were a great many in the Colapissas river. It was during Sauvolle's ad- ministration that Bienville discovered the English expedition attempting to ascend the Mississippi, and induced the English commander to return to the Gulf. The spot where the latter turned about is still known as the "English Turn." Gov. Sauvolle has left to posterity a narrative of great interest in his Historical Journal, wherein is embodied many details concerning the first French establishment in Louisiana. His career in the new world was short and brilliant. Aug. 21, 1701, he succumbed to a malig- nant fever which had devastated the ranks of the new colony (doubtless yellow fever), and was succeeded by the youthful Bien- ville.
Historians have repeatedly asserted that Sauvolle was a brother of Iberville and Bienville. but there is nothing in the letters or journal of Sauvolle to support this (See His. Coll. of La., p. 111, 2nd series). Still another evidence of this fact is contained in the letter written by Iberville to Le Comte de Pontchartrain, July 3, 1699, which states: "I left M. de Sauvolle, naval ensign, in com- mand, who is a man of merit, and capable of fulfilling his duty ; my brother. De Bienville, as Kings' Lieutenant. the Sieur Levas- seur, a Canadian, as Major. with M. de Bordenave, the Chaplain of the Badine, and eighty men as garrison."
Schley, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Vernon parish. is situated on a confluent of Bayou Castor. about 5 miles west of Orange, the nearest railroad station, and 12 miles northwest of Leesville, the parish seat. It is located in the lumber district east of the Sabine river, and had a population of 50 in 1900.
School System, Public .- Upon the organization of the first legis- lature of the Territory of Orleans, public education was immedi- , ately considered. Prior to the year 1803. well attended private French schools and one poorly attended Spanish school. had fur- nished the only educational opportunities. These were succeeded
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by the parish academies, one in each county, for which provision was made by the same legislative enactment that instituted the University of Orleans. (See College of Orleans). May 2, 1806, the territorial council passed "an act to provide for the establish- ment of public free schools in the several counties of the territory," but it was repealed in 1808 and only since 1847 has Louisiana had an all-free public school system. Annual grants from the legis- lature were received by the county academies and indigent chil- dren were received without charge in these schools, which were not otherwise free. May 3, 1847. the first free-school act was adopted in the state. In 1862, the Confederate legislature made an appropriation of $485,000 for the free public schools.
In 1868 the state constitution provided that no public school maintained by the state should make any distinction of race, color or previous condition, and that any child between the ages of 6 and 21 should be admitted. This law was seldom rigidly enforced, but where enforced it resulted in the attendance at the public schools of colored children exclusively. Concerning the situation thus developed, the report of the superintendent of public instruc- tion, R. M. Lusher, for 1877, speaks as follows: "The senseless inhibitions of articles 135 and 136 have been generally disre- garded in the rural parishes of the state, and the system of public education has steadily gained favor from the popular mind only where separate schools for white and colored children, respectively, were established and maintained. Under the present law the parish directors have cheerfully opened and liberally sustained a white and a colored school apart in each ward, to the mutual satisfac- tion of both races, and only the continuance of this equitable plan can possibly secure contributions from tax payers for the preserva- tion and maintenance of any system of education whatever at the public expense."
The Peabody fund was at this time administered for the benefit of whites exclusively. The public schools were maintained by local taxation and the income from lands granted to the state for educational uses by Congress. These grants consisted of the 16th section of every township of land within the state, given in 1826, and 10 per cent of the proceeds of all public lands sold by the United States, given in 1841.
In 1850 over 50 per cent of the educable children of the state attended the public schools; in 1861 the attendance was 39 per cent for the state at large and 48 per cent in New Orleans: in 1870 almost no white children attended the public schools : in 1877 when separate schools for white and colored children had been reestab- lished, the attendance reached nearly 20 per cent.
The state constitution of 1898 contained the following provisions :
"Art. 248. There shall be free public schools for the white and colored races, separately established by the general assembly, throughout the state, for the education of all children of the state between the ages of 6 and 18 years; provided, that where kinder- garten schools exist, children between the ages of 4 and 6 may
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be admitted into said schools. All funds raised by the state for the support of public schools, except the poll tax, shall be dis- tributed to each parish in proportion to the number of children therein between the ages of 6 and 18 years. The general assembly at its next session shall provide for enumeration of educable children.
"Art. 249. There shall be elected by the qualified electors of the state a superintendent of public education, who shall hold this office for the term of 4 years and until his successor is qualified. His duties shall be prescribed by law, and he shall receive an annual salary of $2,000. The aggregate annual expenses of his office, including his salary, shall not exceed the sum of $4,000.
"Art. 250. The general assembly shall provide for the creation of a state board and parish boards of public education. The parish boards shall elect a parish superintendent of public education for their respective parishes, whose qualifications shall be fixed by the legislature, and who shall be ex-officio secretary of the parish board. The salary of the parish superintendent shall be provided for by the general assembly, to be paid out of the public school fund accrning to the respective parishes.
"Art. 251. The general exercises in the public schools shall be conducted in the English language ; provided, that the French lan- guage may be taught in those parishes or localities where the French language predominates, if no additional expense is incurred thereby.
"Art. 252. The funds derived from the collection of the poll tax shall be applied exclusively to the maintenance of the public schools as organized under this constitution, and shall be applied exclusively to the support of the public schools in the parish in which the same shall be collected, and shall be accounted for and paid by the collecting officer directly to the treasurer of the local school board.
"Art. 253. . No funds raised for the support of the public schools of the state shall be appropriated to or used for the support of any private or sectarian schools.
"Art. 254. The school funds of the state shall consist of: 1 .- not less than one and one-quarter mills of the six mills tax levied and collected by the state : 2 .- The proceeds of taxation for school purposes as provided by this Constitution : 3 .- The interest on the proceeds of all public land heretofore granted or to be granted by the United States for the support of the public schools, and the revenue derived from such lands as may still remain unsold ; 4 .- Of lands and other property heretofore or hereafter bequeathed, granted or donated to the state for school purposes: 5 .- All funds and property, other than unimproved lands, beqeathed or granted to the state, not designated for any other purpose: 6 .- The pro- ceeds of vacant estates falling under the law to the State of , Louisiana : 7 .- The Legislature may appropriate to the same fund the proceeds of public lands not designated or set apart for any other purpose, and shall provide that every parish may levy a
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tax for the public schools therein, which shall not exceed the entire state tax; provided, that with such a tax the whole amount of parish taxes shall not exceed the limits of parish taxation fixed by this constitution. The city of New Orleans shall make such ap- propriation for the support, maintenance and repair of the public schools of said city as it may deem proper, but not less than eight-tenths of one mill for any one year; and said schools shall also continue to receive from the Board of Liquidation of the City Debt the amounts to which they are now entitled under the Con- stitutional Amendment adopted in the year 1892.
"Art. 261. All pupils in the primary grades in the public schools throughout the parish of Orleans, unable to provide themselves with the requisite books, an affidavit to that effect having been made by one of the parents of such pupils, or if such parents be dead, then by the tutor or other person in charge of such pupils, shall be furnished with the necessary books, free of expense, to be paid for out of the school fund of said parish; and the school board of the parish of Orleans is hereby directed to appropriate annually not less than $2,000 for the purpose named, provided such amount be needed."
Further details have been planned and executed by enactments of the general assembly and increasing appropriations made. Pub- lic schools for the education of colored children are maintained in every parish in the state. By means of these provisions, the free public school system has steadily grown in popularity ; substantial and well equipped school buildings have been erected and modern text-books introduced ; and the total enrollment has increased from 59,491 in 1883 to 243,731 in 1907, of which number 163,603 were white children and 80,128 colored.
Schriever, a village in the northern part of Terrebonne parish, is a station on the Southern Pacific R. R., and is the terminus of a branch of the same system that runs to Houma, the parish seat, 12 miles south. Schriever has a money order postoffice, telegraph and express offices, a large retail trade, and in 1900 reported a population of 175.
Scott, a money order post-village in the central part of Lafayette parish, is on the Southern Pacific R. R., 5 miles west of Lafayette, the parish seat, in the great rice district of the southwestern part of the state. It has a rice mill, telegraph and express offices, a good retail trade, and in 1900 had a population of 125.
Scott, Thomas M., soldier, entered the service of Louisiana at the. outbreak of the Civil war as colonel of the 12th Louisiana ' volunteers. With the men under his command he was on duty at Island No. 10. near New Madrid, Mo., during the bombardment of March and April, 1862, and later at Fort Pillow. Later in the year he served in Mississippi, and during the fall of 1862 and spring of 1863 operated around Port Hudson in Gen. Gardner's dis- trict. When Vicksburg was threatened he went there with his regiment ; took part in the battle of Baker's creek, and was engaged in the operations for the relief of Vicksburg and defense of Jack-
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son. He remained with the army in Mississippi until the spring of 1864, when he took part in the campaign from Dalton to Atlanta, commanding his own and 5 Alabama regiments. He was soon promoted to brigadier-general. and at Peachtree creek led his brigade at the assault, for which piece of bravery he received special mention by Gen. Loring. After Atlanta fell he marched with Hood into Tennessee and fell on the field at Franklin, killed by the explosion of a shell.
Sea, a post-hamlet in the western part of Vernon parish, situated on a confluent of the Sabine river, about 12 miles west of Neame. the nearest railroad station, and 20 miles southwest of Leesville, the parish seat.
Seal of State .- On April 19, 1805. the council of the Territory of Orleans passed an act providing for a public seal for the governor, and designated the governor's private secretary as the official sealer. The device selected by the governor was that of an American eagle, bearing in its beak a laurel wreath, which encir- cled its head. In the upper half of the margin were the words, "Territory of Orleans," and in the lower half were 15 stars. The constitution of 1812 provided that "The governor of this state shall make use of his private seal until a state seal shall be pro- cured." Concerning this language, Favrot says: "It seems an open question here as to whether it was the intention of the members of the constitutional convention to continue in force the seal previously chosen by the governor as the territorial seal, or whether the governor had a personal seal for his personal use that it was the intention to bring into requisition temporarily."
An act of the legislature, approved Dec. 23. 1813, contained the provision that "The state government shall be provided with a public seal, with such device as the governor may direct," and the secretary of state was named as the official custodian of the seal. Prior to this time, however. a seal had been adopted by the governor, as documents dated in June, 1813, bear the impress of a seal showing a pelican over a nest of her young; above were the word "Justice." a pair of scales and 15 stars; in the upper margin were the words "State of Louisiana," and below was the motto "Union and Confidence." Again quoting from Favrot: "There is an old legend that the pelican will tear her own breast to feed her offspring, but standard authority denies its authenticity. There seems to be no doubt-if tradition can be invoked for his- torical purposes-that this was a reason for Governor Claiborne's choice of that peculiar bird." The first seal of this pattern showed too many young pelicans-probably a dozen-in the nest, natural history according to the bird a brood rarely exceeding three. The judiciary acts of 1855 and 1868 authorized the courts of the state to adopt for their use the seal of the state, with its inscription and the name of the court. Before the war the state land office used a seal bearing the device of an American eagle and the words "Land Office of the State of Louisiana." The constitutions of 1845 and 1852 said nothing on the subject of a state seal, and when the
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state seceded in 1861 the seal remained unchanged. The consti- tution of 1864 directed that "all commissions shall be sealed with the state seal," but preseribed no device. After Gov. Allen was elected in 1864 a new die for a seal was ordered, in which the pelican was more clearly defined, with four young in the nest. the remainder of the design being the same as before. Gov. Wells adopted a similar seal. only the head of the bird was reversed. or turned in the opposite direction. About 1870 the seal as it is today, with three young birds in the nest, was adopted. The constitutions of 1868, 1879 and 1898 make no mention of a design for a seal of state, and it seems that the governor has always had the discretionary power to select the device for Louisiana's coat of arms. The departmental seals, with the exception of that of public education, all bear the pelican in some form, with the inscription of the state seal and the name of the department.
Seale, a post-station in the western part of Calcasieu parish, is on the Kansas City Southern R. R., about 25 miles northwest of Lake Charles, the parish seat. It is located in the great pine forest east of the Sabine river and is the shipping and supply town for a considerable district of timber land.
Secession .- More than 40 years have elapsed since the Southern states, imbued with the idea that they were not being accorded their constitutional rights, adopted the bold and decisive plan of withdrawing from the Union, and it is now possible to discuss without passion or prejudice the secession movement of 1860-61. the causes which led up to it and the men who participated in it. In the early years of the Federal government the ideas of union and secession might be said to have been concurrent. It is cer- tainly true that for many years after the formation of the republic few would have questioned the legality of the theory upon which the Southern states based their right to withdraw, whatever resis- tance might have been offered to the movement. The constitu- tional convention of 1787 found it necessary to appease jealousies and adjust delicate situations before the constitution could win the necessary support of a sufficient number of states to insure its adoption. This condition of affairs brought about the many well known compromises, together with some significant omissions in the organic law of the nation. If the right of secession was nowhere affirmed. neither was it denied. Nor was there anywhere a grant of power to the Federal government to coerce a recalci- trant state. Although only occasionally alluded to as a possibility, there were some who held tenaciously to the theory that if a state voluntarily entered into a compact she had a right voluntarily to withdraw, while others just as tenaciously clung to the theory that no state, having once been admitted into the Union, had the right to withdraw without the full consent of the sister states.
The prevailing early view of the constitution and the nature of the Union is well illustrated in the Virginia and Kentucky reso- lutions of 1798; the attitude of those New England states that refused to enforce the embargo act of 1808 because they deemed
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it unconstitutional; and the action of Massachusetts and Con- necticut in 1812 in refusing to honor the president's requisition for the militia of those states when said militia was to be used outside the states. But the first important discussion of the advis- ability of secession as a corrective for governmental measures was in the Hartford convention, which met on Dec. 15, 1814. This convention was made up of delegates from the New England states, the call for it having emanated from the Massachusetts legislature, and George Cabot of that state was elected president of the convention. It grew out of the declaration of war against England in 1812. As the war injured the commerce of the New England states, there was a violent opposition from that quarter to the action of Congress in declaring war, and, although the sessions of the convention were held behind closed doors, and "no treasonable intention was proved," it is known that secession was seriously considered as a remedy. Following the Hartford con- vention came the action of Georgia in 1828-30, when the state refused to abide by an act of Congress relative to the lands of the Cherokee Indians, and of South Carolina in 1832, when a state convention and an act of the legislature declared null and void the tariff law of 1828. All these incidents serve to show that the secession idea was not a new one in 1860-61. Prior to that time opinion on the subject was divided, but the division was not marked by sectional lines. All over the South could be found honest and sincere men who opposed secession, some of whom, while not questioning the right, deemed it inexpedient, while in every Northern state were men, equally honest and sincere, who maintained that the South not only had a right to secede, but also that it was her duty to do so, and that the Federal government had no constitutional power to coerce a state into remaining in the Union against the dictates of the people's judgment.
Abraham Lincoln, who was elected to the presidency in 1860, through a division of the Democratic party, said in a speech in the national house of representatives on Jan. 12, 1848: "Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a sacred right-a right which, we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may revolutionize, and make their own of so much territory as they inhabit. More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize, putting down a minority, intermingled with or near about them, who may oppose their movements."
On Nov. 9, 1860, three days after Mr. Lincoln was elected, Horace Greely, one of the most uncompromising advocates of the abolition of negro slavery, used the following language in an edi- torial in the New York Tribune: "The telegraph informs us that most of the Cotton states are meditating a withdrawal from the
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