USA > Louisiana > The history of Louisiana : from the earliest period, Volume II > Part 12
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.27. Care shall be taken to observe in the said sales, that which is recommended in the 11th article, seeing the advantages and utility which result from consoli- dating the establishments always when it is practica- ble.
28. The titles to the property of lands which are sold, or granted by way of compromise, shall be is- sued by the general intendant, who, after the price of estimation is fixed, and of the media annata (half year's) rent, or quit-rent, the said price of estimation shall have been paid into the treasury, shall put it in writing according to the result of the proceeding which has taken place, with the intervention of the king's attorney.
29. The said procedure shall be deposited in the office of the finance, and the title be transcribed in another book, intended for the recording of deeds and grants of land, in the same manner as is order- ed by the 17th article, concerning grutuitous conces- sions. The principal chamber of accounts shall also have a separate book, to take a note of the titles is- sued for sales and grants under compromise.
30. The fees of the surveyor, in every case com- prehended in the present regulation, shall be propor- tionate to the labour and that which it has been customary until this time to pay. Those of the se- cretary of finances, unless there has been extraordi- nary labour, and where the new settlers are not poor [for in this case he is not to exact any thing of them) shall be five dollars; and this shall include the re- cording and other formalities prescribed, and those of the appraisers, and of the interpreter, if, on any occasion, there is reason to employ him to translate papers, take declarations or other acts, shall be regu- Jated by the provincial tarif.
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31. Indians who possess lands within the limits of the government, shall not, in any manner, be disturb- ed; on the contrary, they shall be protected and supported; and to this, the commandants, syndics, and surveyors, ought to pay the greatest attention, to conduct themselves in consequence.
-32. The granting or selling of any lands shall not bé proceeded in without formal information having been previously received that they are vacant; and, to avoid injurious mistakes, we premise that, beside the signature of the commandant or syndic of the district, this information ought to be joined by that of the surveyor, and of two of the neighbours, well understanding. If, notwithstanding this necessary precaution, it shall be found that the land has ano- ther owner besides the claimant, and that there is sufficient reason to restore it to him, the comman- dant or syndic, the surveyor, and the neighbours who have signed the information, shall indemnify him for the losses he has suffered.
33. As far as it may be practicable, the inhabitants must endeavor that the petitions presented by them, to ask for lands, be written in the Spanish language; on which ought, also, to be written the advice or in- formation which the commandants are to give. In the posts where this is not practicable, the ancient usage shall be followed.
31. All the loss or seats belonging to the domain, which are found vacant, either in this city, or bo- roughs, or villages, already established, or which may be established, shall be sold for ready money, with all the formalities prescribed in article the twenty-fourth, and others, which concern the sale .. of lands.
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35. The owners of lots or places, which have been divided, as well those in front, as towards the N. E. and S. W. extremities, N. E. and S. W. shall, within three months, present to the intendancy the titles which they have obtained; to the end that, in examining the same, if any essential thing is found wanting, it may be supplied, and they assured of their property in a legal way.
36. The same thing must be done before the sub- delegates of Mobile and Pensacola, for those who have obtained grants for lots in these respective es- tablishments; to the end that this intendancy, being instructed thereon, may order what it shall judge most convenient to indemnify the royal treasury, without doing wrong to the owner:
37. In the office of the comptroller, contadoria of the army, or chambers of accounts of this province, and other boards under the jurisdiction of this inten- dancy, an account shall be kept of the amount of sales or grants of lands, to instruct his majesty every year what this branch of the royal revenue produces, according as it is ordered in the thirteenth article of the ordinance of the king, of the 15th of October, 1751.
38. The commandants, or syndics, in their re- spective districts, are charged with the collection of the amount of the taxes or rents laid on lands; for this purpose the papers and necessary documents are to be sent to them : and they ought to forward annually, to the general treasury, the sums they have collected, to the end that acquittances, clothed with the usual formalities of law, may be delivered . to them.
Gayoso now received and executed a commission of judge of residence of his predecessor. One act
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of the Baron's administration was deemed repre- hensible. He had been deluded, by an excess of zeal for what he conceived to be the public good, to take upon himself the responsibility of condemn- ing to death a slave, who had killed his overseer. The fact was proven, but Vidal, the assessor of gov- ernment, conceived that the circumstances, which attended it, did not bring the case under any law au- thorising a sentence of death, and had recommended a milder one. At the solicitation of a number of re- spectable planters, and of the owner of the slave, Marigny de Mandeville, a knight of St. Louis and colonel of the militia, who represented to the Baron that an example was absolutely necessary, especially so soon after the late insurrection, he visregarded the opinion of his legal adviser and ordered the execution of the slave. It was thought the life of a human being, although a slave, ought not to depend on the opiinon of a man, in any case where its sacrifice was not ex- pressly ordered by law. A fine of five hundred dol- lars was paid by the Baron.
Don Francisco de Boutigny, who had succeeded Piernas in the command of the regiment of Louisia- na, died and was succeeded by colonel Howar .
The Marquis de Someruelos, succeeded the Count de Santa Clara, as capain-general o the island of Cuba, and the provinces of Louisiana and East and West Florida. The Marquis retain- cd this office until the cession.
The increase of the commerce of the United-States with New-Orleans, induced the appointment of a consul there, and the President commissioned Evan Jones as such.
The post of New-Madrid was this year annexed to Upper-Louisiana.
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Gayoso died on the 18th July, in his forty-eighth year. Don Maria Vidal, the lieutenant-governor, now acted as civil governor of the two provinces, and the captain-general, on hearing of Gayoso's death, sent over the Marquis de Casa-Calvo, to act as military governor.
Don Ramon de Lopez y Angullo, a knight pen- sioner of the royal and distinguished order of Charles III. who had been appointed intendant of the provin- ces of Louisiana and West-Florida, arrived at New- Orleans in the latter part of the year.
A report made by Don Carlos Dehault Delassus, commandant general of Upper-Louisiana, presents the following result on the last day of this year.
. CENSUS. :
St. Louis,
925
Carondelet,
184
St. Charles,
875
St. Fernando,
276
Marais des Liards,
376
Maramec,
115
St. Andrew,
393
St. Genevieve,
.949
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New-Bourbon,
560
Cape Girardeau,
521
New-Madrid,
782
Little Meadows,
49
6028
The white population was 4948 souls; the free coloured 197; that of slaves, 883.
During this year there were 34 marriages, 191 births, and 52 deaths.
There were in the different settlements, 7980 head of horned cattle, and 1763 horses.
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THE NINTH.
[1800
The crops amounted to SS,349 minots'of wheat, 84,531 of Indian corn, and 28,627lbs. of tobacco. The exports to New-Orleans, consisted of:
1754 bundles of deerskins, at 40, $70,160
8 do. bearskins, at 32, 256
18 do. buffalo robes, at 30, 540
360 quintals of lead, at 6,
2160
20 do. flour, at 3, 60
73,176
1340 quintals of lead were exported to the United States, by the Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee rivers.
One thousand bushels of salt were made yearly
The United-States had been induced, by the con- duct of France and Spain, to make warlike prepa- rations ; both of those powers having committed spoliations on their trade, and the latter (in violation of her treaty, as the United-States considered it) having ceased to allow their citizens a place of de- posit in New-Orleans. General Washington had accepted the chief command of the armjes of his country, but had stipulated that he should not be called on to take the field until his presence became absolutely necessary; and in the meanwhile the su- perintendance of the forces had been committed to generals Hamilton and Pinkney. The agency of the former had been extended to all the western army, exce' t that part which might be within the states of Kentucky and Tennessee; and it was deemed that Wilkinson's presence at his head-quarters was indis- pensable to a full and satisfactory discussion of mat- ters relating to a section of country, with many of the most important transactions of which he had been,
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CHAPTER
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in some way or other, concerned. He accordingly descended the Mississippi, and took shipping for New-York.
Government had determined on a mode of redress, of which the conception was as bold as its execution was difficult. This was nothing less than the acqui- sition of New-Orleans, which appeared calculated to indemnify the United-States for their losses, and ap- pease the fears of the western people. The success of the enterprise depended almost entirely on its be- ing conducted in such a way as not to awake the suspicions of Spain. The differences with France offered a cover for the real design. Twelve regi- ments were this year added to the army, to serve during the continuance of the differences. Three of these regiments were ordered to the mouth of the Ohio, and to keep their boats in constant readiness. . The assent of congress was to be asked at their next meeting.
General Washington dicd on the fourteenth of December.
The ordinary alcades for the year 1800, were Perez and Povfarre.
Application having been made to Don Henry Peyroux, the commandant at Now-Madrid, for the purchase of several very large tracts of land, parti- cularly one of one hundred thousand acres, he con- sulted Lopez, the new intendant, who refused his assent, being of opinion that it never was the inten- tion of the king to dispose of the vacant lands, in quantities so large. He admitted the new regulations were made with a view to the sale of lands; but they were to be disposed of in compliance with the pre- vious formalities, and a reference to the abilities and
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· THE NINTH.
forces of the parties desirous of purchasing; because it would not be just that, for a small consideration, one or more speculators should engross a vast ex- tent of land, to the prejudice of others who came to settle, who would consequently find themselves dri- ven to purchase those lands which they might have gratuitously, or at any rate at a low price.
The culture of the cane requiring an additional number of hands, the colonial government, in the beginning of November, at the solicitation of the cabildo, issued a proclamation, suspending, until the pleasure of the king should be known, the exist- ing prohibition of the introduction of African ne- groes.
On the seventh of May, the north-western territo- ry of the United-States was divided: the western part of it was erected into a distinct government, under a form similar to that established by the ordi- nance of 1787. It was called the Indiana territory.
'The marked determination of the people of the United-States not to re-elect the president, induced him to abandon the plan he had formed for the sei- zure of New-Orleans.
By the third article of a treaty concluded at St. Ildefonso on the first of October of this year, between the Catholic king and the first consul of the French republic, the former promised and engaged on his part, to cede to the French republic, six months after the full and entire execution of the conditions therein stipulated, in relation to the duke of Parma, the colony and province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it then had in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, and such as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other powers.
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CHAPTER
[1801
Forstall and Caisergues were the ordinary alcades for the year 1801 and 1802.
Don Dominique Bouligny took his seat in the ca- bildo as a perpetual regidor.
The king having disapproved of the suppression of the right of deposit in New-Orleans, allowed to citizens of the United States, right was now re- stored to them.
'The suspension of the prohibition of the introduc- tion of Guinea negroes, met with the king's ap- probation, and he decreed it to continue until he gave order to the contrary.
On the twenty-first of March, the cession of Lou- isiana to France was effected. Buonaparte took immediate measures to possess himself of his acqui- sition. An immense body of troops was destined to this service. A form of government was adopted for the province. Victor was appointed captain-ge- neral, Laussat colonial prefet, and Ayme chief jus- tice.
By a royal schedule of the tenth of May, the king gave his assent to the proposition of the Baron de Carondelet, that three hundred toises of the commons behind the city and near the fortifications, which in their then situation produced nothing, being covered with water during one half of the year, should be divided into lots of seventy toises in front, and one hundred and forty in depth, and let out for a mode- rate rent to such inhabitants of the city as might wish to occupy them as gardens, and the money thus raised applied to the lighting of the city, so that in the course of a few years the whole ground could by tillage be raised above the level of the water, and the occupier of these lots draining them by trenches into the canal Carondelet. would put an end to the
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THE NINTH.
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putrid fevers occasioned by the stagnation of water in ponds near the city, which was the cause of much mortality.
Thomas Jefferson succeeded John Adams in the presidency of the United-States, on the fourth of March.
The differences that had prevailed between the United-States and the French republic, were termi- nated by a treaty entered into at Paris, and ratified on the first day of June.
Archives-Gazettes.
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[1801
CHAPTER X.
Don Juan M. de Salcedo -- Treaties with the Chic -. kasaus and Choctaws -- Don Carlos de Jaen- Royal schedule-The land office shut-The de- posit disallowed-The state of Ohio -- The depo- sit partially restored-Form of government- Laussat, his proclamation -- Address of the inha- bitants -- The Marquis de Casa Calto-Com- missioners' proclamation -. Cession of Louisiana to the United States-Possession delivered to the commissioner of France -- His proclamation- Municipal body-Claiborne and Wilkinson re- ceire possession for the United States.
Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo, a brigadier-ge- ' neral of the royal armies, arrived towards the middle of June, with a commission of governor of the pro- vinces of Louisiana and West-Florida, and the Marquis de Casa-Calvo sailed for Havana.
Daniel Clark, a citizen of the United-States, re- · siding in New-Orleans, was appointed consul of these states in said city.
Lopez sailed for Spain, and the duties of his office were provisionally performed by Morales, the con- tador.
'The Mississippi territory was separated from the United States, by lands belonging toIndians, through which travelling was often difficult; a remedy was how applied to this evil.
-
1801]
THE TENTH. 179
On the twenty-fourth of October, a treaty was concluded on the Chickasaw Bluffs, between the United-States and the Chickasaw nation of Indians, by which the latter permitted the former to lay out, open, and make a convenient waggon-road through the Indian land, between the settlements of Miro dis- trict, in the state of Tennessee, and those of Natchez in the Mississippi territory; and it was provided that the necessary ferries over the water courses crossed by the road, should be deemed the property of the Indians.
On the seventeenth day of December, another treaty was concluded at Fort-Adams, on the Missis- sippi, between the United-States and the Choctaw nation of Indians, by which the latter gave their consent that a convenient and durable waggon road might be explored, marked, opened, and made thro' their land, to commence at the north-western extremi- ty of the Mississippi territory, and extend to the land of the Chickasaws. The Choctaws agreed that the old boundary line, heretofore established by the ofli- cers of the king of Great-Britain and the Choctaw nation, which runs in a parallel direction with the Mississippi river eastward, should be retraced and plainly marked, and be held ever after as the boun- dary between the settlements of the Mississippi territory and the Choctaw nation. The Choctaws relinquished to the United-States all their rights to the land between this line and the Mississippi, bounded on the south by the thirty-first degree of north latitude, and on the north by the river Yazoo, where the line shall strike the stream. 'The United- States engaged that all persons who might settle be- yond this line, should be removed within it, on the 'side towards the Mississippi, together with their
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CHAPTER
1
[1802
slaves, household furniture, tools, stock, and mate- rials, and their cabins or houses demolished.
'On the twenty-fifth of March, 1802, a definitive treaty of peace, between Spain, France, and Great- Britain, was signed at Amiens.
Don Carlos de Jaen came over with and executed 'a commission of judge of residence of Miro.
By a royal schedule of the eleventh of June, the contribution to be paid on legacies, devises, and suc- cessions ab intestaio, in favour ofrelatives and rela- tions of deceased persons or strangers, was reduced to and fixed at four per cent. That on legacies or devises to a husband or wife, at one half of one per cent. This charge, however, was not to extend to estates of less than two thousand dollars, nor to be- quests for the benefit of the soul of the deceased.
The Baron de Bastrop having ceded to Moor- house, a citizen of the United-States, a part of the grant he had obtained from the Baron de Caronde- let, in 1796, on the Washita, the king disapproved of this arrangement, and by. a royal schedule of the eighteenth of July, forbade the grant of any land in Louisiana to a citizen of the United-States.
Serano, the assessor of the intendancy, died on the first of December. Morales, in consequence of this event, and of the absence of a legal character to supply his place, closed the tribunal of affairs and causes relating to grants and compositions of royal lands, the ordinance for the intendants of New Spain, providing that for conducting the affairs of that tribunal and substantiating its acts, there should be the concurrence of such a character.
During the last quarter of this year, citizens of the United-States were not allowed the right of a depo-
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13.1
THE TENTH.
1803]
sit in or near New-Orleans, and the importation of goods in American bottoms was not permitted.
Lopez, having lost the office of intendant by the cession of Louisiana to France, was appointed con- sul-general of Spain at New-Orleans, and embarked on board of a vessel for that city, but died on the passage.
On the twenty-ninth of November, the people of the E. division of the N. W. territory of the United- States, became a state under the name of the state of Ohio, being the seventeenth.
Forstall and Lanusse were the ordinary alcades during the year 1803.
Towards the latter part of January, Morales issu- ed a proclamation, allowing the importation of flour anu provisions from the United States, on payment of a duty of six per cent. subject to exportation in Spanish bottoms only.
On the first of March, the king disapproved of the order of Morales, prohibiting the introduction and deposit of goods, wares, and merchandize, from the United States, in the port of New-Orleans; and ordered that the United States should continue to enjoy their right of deposit in New-Orleans, without prejudice of his to substitute some other spot on the banks of the Mississippi.
By an act of congress of the ninth of February, provision was made for granting licenses, at the custom-house at Fort-Adams, to vessels owned by citizens of the United States, Iving on the Mississip- pi, below the thirty-first degree of northern lati- tudc.
General Victor had been appointed, by the first consul, commissioner for receiving possession of the
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province of Louisiana, and his arrival being daily expected, the cabildo, on the twenty-third of March, 1803, caused the supply of meat for the French troops accompanying him, to be put at auction to the lowest bidder, with the exclusive right of supplying the inhabitants of the city. The contractor was re- quired to keep constantly a stock of at least one thousand head of cattle in or near the city of New- Orleans.
A vessel, arriving from Havre-de-Grace, on the following day, brought the baggage of Laussat, the colonial prefect, who was preceding the captain- general, with a special mission, for the purpose of . providing whatever might be necessary on the arrival of the troops, and making arrangements for the esta- blishment of the government of the republic.
By this vessel the people of Louisiana were in- formed of the form of government provided for the province by its new master.
Its principal officers were a captain-general, a co- lonial prefet, and a commissary of justice.
The captain-general was commander in chief of the land and naval forces, and had the care . of the exterior and interior defence of the colony. He provisorily filled the vacancies in military offices, according to the order of advancement, as far as the grade of chief of division or squadron, and propo- sed to the minister proper persons to fill higher grades. Ile delivered passports, regulated the bear- ing of arms, and corresponded with the governors of other colonies, whether belonging to allies, neu- trals, or enemies. With the colonial prefect, here- gulated the works to be done on the fortifications, and the new roads to be opened; and finally exer- cised all powers formerly granted to governors-
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183
THE TENTH.
1803]
general. He was forbidden to interfere with the attributions of the colonial prefect or commissary of justice; but was authorised to require from either of them information on any matter relative to the ser- vice. Power was given him to suspend provisorily the execution of laws, in whole or in part, on his re- sponsibility, after having consulted the colonial pre- fect, or the commissary of justice, according to the nature of the case.
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.
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 ap- pointment was final until confirmed by the first con- sul.
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 account- ability and destination of all officers of administra- tion. He was exclusively charged with the police of the colony, including all that related to taxes, receipts and expenditures, the custom-house, the pay of the troops, the public stores, agriculture, na- vigation, commerce, the census, the suppression of contraband trade, the police of slaves, highways, levees, public instruction and worship, the press, and generally all the powers formerly exercised by intendants, commissaries-general, and ordonnateurs. In the assessment of taxes he was to consult three
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merchants and three planters. In case of absence, he was to be represented by the officer of adminis- tration next in rank.
The commissary of justice had the superinten- dence of all courts of justice and their ministerial officers: he was to have an eye to the regular admi- nistration of justice, the safety and salubrity of gaols, as well as the conduct of officers and clerks. He might preside and vote in any court of justice. He was to require monthly statements from the president and clerk of each court, of every case tried, and communicate it to the captain-general. He was authorised to make rules for the administration of justice, and, with the consent of the captain-general, order them to in observed. Agents of government were not suable for any matter relating to their offi- cers, nor any citizen in the public service arrested without his fiat, and he 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 process verbal of their deliberations thereon, to the minister. - He had the police of vagrants.
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