USA > Louisiana > The history of Louisiana : from the earliest period, Volume II > Part 2
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Posterity, the judge of men in power, will doom this act to public execration. No necessity demand- ed, no policy justified it. Ulloa's conduct had provo- ked the measures to which the inhabitants had re-
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: sorted. During hcarly two years, he had haun- ted the province as a phantom of dubious au- thority. The efforts of the colonists, to prevent the transfer of their natal soil to a foreign prince, ori- ginated in their attachment to their own, and the Ca- tholic king ought to have beheld in their conduct a pledge of their future devotion to himself. 'They had but lately scen their country severed, and a part of it added to the dominion of Great Britain; they had bewailed their separation from their friends and kin- dred; and were afterwards to be alienated, without their consent, and subjected to a foreign yoke. If the indiscretion of a few of them needed an apology, the common misfortune afforded it.
A few weeks afterwards, the proceedings against the six remaining prisoners were brought to a close. One witness only deposing against any of them, and circumstances corroborating the testimony, Bois- blanc was condemned to imprisonment for life ; Dou- cet, Mazent, John Milhet, Petit and Poupet were condemned to imprisonment for various terms of years. All were transported to Havana, and cast into the dungeons of the Moro Castle.
Conquered countries are generally allowed, at least during a few years, to retain their former laws and usages. Louis the fifteenth, in his letter to d'Abadie, had expressed his hope, and declared he expected it from the friendship of the king of Spain, that, for the advantage and tranquility of the inhabitants of Louisiana, orders would be given to the governors and other officers sent to the province, that the infe- rior judges, as well as those of the superior council, should be allowed to administer justice according to
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the laws, forms, and usages of the colony. It is op- pressive, in the highest degree, to require that a com- munity should instantaneously submit to a total change in the laws that hitherto governed it, and be compelled to regulate its conduct by rules of which it is totally ignorant.
Such was, however, the lot of the people of Louisi- ana. A proclamation of O'Reilly, on the twenty- first of November, announced to them that the evi- dence received during the late trials, having furnished full proof ofthe part the superior council had in the re volt during the two preceding years, and of the in- fluence it had exerted in encouraging the leaders, in- stead of using its best endeavours to keep the people in the fidelity and subordination they owed to the . sovereign, it had become necessary to abolish that tribunal, and to establish, in Louisiana, that form of goverment and mode of administering justice pre- scribed by the laws of Spain, which had long main- tained the Catholic king's American colonies in per- fect tranquillity, content, and subordination.
The premises might be true, but the conclusion was certainly illogical. The indiscreet conduct of a few of the members of the council, the violent mca- sures adopted by some of the inhabitants, could not certainly be attributed to the organization of that tri- bunal, nor to the laws, customs and usages that had hitherto prevailed in the province. Aubry was about to depart; and were he to stay, the presidency of the council would not belong to him, but tothe Spanish chief. Foucault had been transported; La Freniere and De Novant shot; and Boisblanc was in the dungeons of the Moro Castle. Nothing compell- ed the new sovereign to retain any of the old mem- bers as judges.
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.. The proclamation mentioned, that to the superior council a cabildo would be substituted, and be composed of six perpetual regidors, two ordinary alcades, an attorney-general-syndic, and a clerk; over which the governor would preside in person.
The offices of perpetual regidor and clerk were to be acquired by purchase, and for the first time, at auc- tion. The purchaser had the faculty of transferring his office, by resignation, to a known and ca; able person, paying one half of its appraised value on the first, and one third on every other inutation.
Among the regidors were to be distributed the of- fices of Affires real, or roval standard-bearer ; prin- cipal provincial alcade; Alguacil mayor, or high sheriff; depositary-general, and receiver of fines.
The ordinary aleades and attorney-general-syndic, were to be chosen on the first day of every year by the cabildo, and were always re-eligible by its unani- mous vote, but not by the majority, unless after the expiration of two years. At such elections, the votes were openly given aud recorded.
The ordinary alcades were individually judges within the city, in civil and criminal cases, where the defendant did not enjoy and claim the privilege of being tried by a military or crelesiastical judge, fuero militar, farro ecclesiastico. They heard and de- cided in their chambers summarily, and without any written proceeding, all complaints in which the vaino of the object indispute did not exceed twenty dollars. In other cases, proceedingsbefore them were recorded by a notary; and in an apartment :of a part for this purpose, and where the value of the object in disputeexceeded ninety thousand maravedis, orthree hundred and thirty dollars and eighty-eight cents, an appeal lay from their decision to the cabildo.
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This body did not examine itself the judgment ap- pealed from, but chose two regidors, who, with the alcade who had rendered it, reviewed the proceed- ings; and if he and either of the regidors approved the decision, it was affirmed.
The cabildo sat every Friday, but the governor had the power of convening it at any time. When he did not attend it, one of the ordinary alcades presided, and immediately on the adjournment, two regidors went to his house and informed him of what had been done.
'The ordinary alcades had the first seats in the ca- bildo, immediately after the governor; and below them the other members sat, in the following order: The alferez real, principal provincial alcade, alguazıl mayor, depositary-general, receiver of fines, attorney-general-syndic, and clerk.
The office of alferez real was merely honorary, no other function being assigned to the incumbent but the bearing of the royal standard in a few public cere- monies .. 'The principal provincial alcade had cogni- sance of offences committed without the city; the al- guazil mayor executed personally or by his deputies, all processes from the different tribunals. The de- positary general took charge of all moneys and effects placed in the custody of the law. The faactions of the receiver general are pointed ont by his official denomination. The attorney-general-syndic was not, as might be supposed from his title, the prosecuting officer of the crown. His duty was to propose to the cabildo such measures as the interest of the people required, and defend their rights.
The regidors received fifty dollars cach, annually, from the treasury. The principal provincial alcade, alguazil mayor. depositary general, receiver of fines.
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and ordinary alcades, were entitled, as such, to fees of office.
- The king had directed a regiment to be raised in the province, under the style of the Regiment of Louisiana, and had made choice of Don J.Estecheria as its colonel. This officer not having as yet arrived, Unzaga regulated its organization, and assumed the provisional command. A number of commissions for officers in this regiment were sent by O'Reilly, They had been filled with the names of such inhabi- · tants as Ulloa had recommended. These commis- sions were cheerfully accepted; the pay and emol- uments in the colonial regiments of Spain being much more considerable than in the French. The ranks of the regiment were soon filled, soldiers in the service of Franceand in the regiments brought by O'Reilly being permitted to enlist in it.
The supplies which the Spanish government had destined to its military force in Louisiana were un- accountably delayed. The dearth of provisions in New-Orleans became excessive, owing to an increase of population, much larger than that of the city be- fore the arrival of the Spaniards. Flour rose to twenty dollars the barrel. A momentary relief was obtained by the arrival of Oliver Pollock, in a brig from Baltimore, with a cargo of that article, who of- fered the load to O'Reilly on his own terms. He declined accepting it thus, and finally purchased it at fifteen dollars the barrel. O'Reilly was so well plea- sed with the bargain, that he told Pollock he should have a free trade to Louisiana as long as he lived, and a report of his conduct on this occasion would be made to the king.
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'The cabildo held its first session on the first of De- cember, under the presidency of O'Reilly. The re- gidors' offices had been purchased by Don Francisco Maria Reggio, Don Pedro Francisco Olivier de Ve- zue, Don Carlos Juan Bautista Fleurian, Don An- tonio Bienvenu, Don Jose Ducros, and Don Dyonisio Braud. Don Juan Bautista Garic, who had held the office of clerk of the superior council, had acqui- ted the same office in the Cabildo.
Reggio was alferez real; De Vezin, principal provincial alcade; Fleurian, alguacil mayor; Du- cros, depositary general; aud Bienvenue, receiver of fines.
Don Louis de Unzaga, colonel of the regiment of Havana, one of those who had come with O'Reilly, had the king's commission as governor of the pro- vince, but was not authorised to enter upon the duties of that office, until the departure of O'Reilly, or the declaration of his will. Immediately after the instal- lation of the cabildo, he made this declaration, and yielded the chair of that tribunal to Unzaga.
O'Reilly never came to the cabildo afterwards. Unzaga exercised the functions of governor; but the former, as captain-general, continued to make regu- lations.
Hle caused a set of instructions, which Don Jose de Uristia and Don Felix de Rey had prepared by his order, to be published. They related to the institu- tion of, and proceedings in, civil and criminal actions, according to the laws of Castille and the Indies, and for the government of judges, officers and parties, till by the introduction of the Spanish language ingthe province, they might have the means of acquiring a better knowledge of those laws. To them was an-
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nexed a compendious abridgment of the criminal laws, and a few directions in regard to last wills and testaments.
From this period, it is believed the laws of Spain became the sole guide of the tribunals in their deci- sions. As these laws, and those of France, proceed from the same origin, the Roman code, and there is a great similarity in their dispositions in regard to matrimonial rights, testaments and successions, the transition was not perceived before it became com- plete, and very little inconvenience resulted from it.
The provincial officers of Louisiana were, besides the captain-general, a governor, vested with civil and military powers; an intendant, charged with the ad- ministration of the revenue and admiralty matters, the same person acting offen in the double capacity of governor and intendant; an auditor of war and as- sessor of government, whose duty it was to furnish legal advice to the governor, the first in military, the second in civil affairs; an assessor of the intendan- cy, who rendered a like service to the intendant. Professional characters being very few in Louisiana, the same individual ofien acted as auditor of war and assessor of the government and intendancy, and he also assisted the cabildo, principal, provincial, and ordinary aleades; a secretary of the government and one of the intendant; a treasurer and a contador or comptroller ; a store keeper and a purveyor ; a sur- veyor general; a harbour master; an interpreter of the French and English languages, and an Indian interpreter; three notaries public; a collector and comptroller of the customs; a cashier; guarda major, searcher, and notary to the custom house.
Every officer who received a salary of more than
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three hundred dollars a year, was appointed by the crown; others were so, by the governor or intendants in their respective departments.
'The governor exercised judicial powers in civil and criminal matters throughout the province, as did the intendant in fiscal and admiralty, and the vicar- general in ecclesiastical. These officers were sole judges in their respective courts. The two former were assisted by an auditor or assessor, whose opin- ion they might, on their own responsibility, disregard.
In every parish, an officer of the army or militia, of ho higher grade than a captain, was stationed as civil and military commandant. His duty was to attend to the police of the parish and preserve its peace. He was instructed to examine the passports of all travel- lers, and suffer no one to settle, within his jurisdiction, without the license of the governor. He had jurisdic- tion of all civil casesin which the value of the object in dispute did not exceed twenty dollars. In more important cases, he received the petition and answer, took down the testimony, and transmitted the whole to the governor, by whom the record was sent to the proper tribunal. He had the power to punish slaves, and arrest and imprison free persons charged with of- fences, and was bound to transmit immediate infor- mation of the arrest, with a transcript of the evidence, to the governor, by whose order the accused was ei- ther discharged or sent to the city. They acted also as notaries public, and made inventories and sales of the estates of the deceased, and attended to the execu- tion of judgments rendered in the city against defen- dants who resided in the parish.
When the commandant was taken from the army, he continued to receive the pay and emoluments of his rank. When he was not. and bad not any pen-
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sion from the king, an annual sum of one hundred dollars was paid to him from the treasury, for station- ary and other small expenses. All were entitled to fees in the exercise of judicial and notarial functions.
The Spanish language was ordered to be employ- ed by all public officers in their minutes; but the use of the French was tolerated in the judicial and nota- rial acts of commandants.
Towards the middle of December, O'Reilly left the city to visit the settlements of the German and Acadian coasts, Iberville and Pointe Coupee.
On the first of January, the cabildo made choice of Lachaise, a grand-son of the former commissary- general and ordonnateur, and St. Denis, as ordinary alcades for the year 1770.
Don Cecilio Odoardo arrived with a commission of auditor of war and assessor of the government; and Don Joseph de Uristia and Don Felix de Rey sailed for Havana.
Meetings of the most notable planters were con- vened, on the arrival of' O'Reilly, in each parish, on his way up the river. Altho' his conduct at New- Orleans was ill calculated to attach the people to the sovereign whom he represented, he was every where received with dumb submission: but they did not appear very anxious to improve the opportunity. which his visit was intended to offer, or make him any communication or remonstrance.
A number of French soldiers enlisted in the Span- ish service Many were discharged and received grants of land. Those who did not choose to remain under the authority of the Catholic king, were offered the alternative of a passage to France or Hispaniola.
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Aubry sailed with those who preferred returning . home: The artillery was put on board of a vessel which carried those who were destined for St. Do- mingo. She was never after heard of.
Bobe Descloseaux, who had acted, during a short time, as commissary-general and ordonnateur, on the death of Larouvilliere in 1759, remained in New- Orleans, by order of the French, and with the con- sent of the Spanish king, to attend to the redemption of the paper securities, emitted by the former coloni- al administration; a very considerable quantity of which was still in circulation.
Peter Chester, on the death of governor Elliot of West Florida, succeeded him in the latter part ofJan- uary.
On his return, O'Reilly published, on the 8th of Fe- bruary, a number of regulations, in regard to the grant of vacant land.
To every family, coming to settle in the province, a tract was to be granted of six or eight arpents in front, on the Mississippi, with a depth of forty; on condition that the grantee should, within three years, construct a levee and finish a highway of forty feet, at least, in width, with parallel ditches towards the levee, and on the opposite side, with bridges at regu- lar distances, and enclose and clear the whiole front of the grant to the depth of two arpents at least.
The arable land, on the points formed by the river, having but little depth, it was provided that grants might be made there of twelve arpents in front, or the land was granted to the owners of the adjacent tracts, in order to secure an uninterrupted continuation of the levee and highway.
In order to secure an early compliance with the conditions of the grants, the grantee was declared in- YOL. IJ. 3
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capable of alienating the land until the stipulated im- provements were made.
Grants of a square league were authorised in the . districts of Attakapas, Opelousas and Natchitoches, where the inhabitants paid more attention to raising cattle than to the culture of the soil. Where the land was less than a league in depth, the grant was of two leagues in front, with a depth of half a league, But no grant of forty-two arpents in front and depth was authorised to be made to any person who was not the owner of one hundred head of tame horned cattle, a few horses and sheep, and two slaves.
All cattle were required to be branded by the own- er before the age of eighteen months; and all older unbranded cattle were declared unclaimable.
Nothing being thought more injurious to the peo- ple than strayed cattle, without the destruction of which the tame ones cannot increase, time was given till the first day of June, 1771, to collect the strays; after which period, it is declared they may be considered as wild, and killed by any one: none may oppose it, or claim property in such cattle.
All grants are to be made, in the king's name, by the governor of the province, who is, at the same time, to appoint a surveyor to fix the boundaries both in front and depth, in presence of the ordinary judge of the district, and in that of the two ad- joining settlers, who are to be present at the survey, and are to subscribe the process verbal which is to be made. The surveyor is directed to make three co- pies of it, one of which is to be deposited in the office of the clerk of the cabildo. another in that of the go- vernor, and the third delivered to the grantec.
In a proclamation of the twenty-second of Februa-
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ry, the captain-general assigned a revenue to the city of New-Orleans. It was to consist of an annual tax of forty dollars on every tavern, billiard table, and coffee-house; another of twenty dollars on every boarding-house; an imposition of one dollar on every barrel of brandy brought to the city; and a tax of three hundred and seventy dollars, to which the butchers voluntarily submitted, under an express de- claration that they thereby meant to authorise no al- teration now or thereafter in the price of meat, which they said ought not ever to take place without ne- cessity.
'To enable the city to defray the expenses necessa- ry to keep up the levee, an anchorage duty was granted to it, of six dollars upon every vessel of two hundred tons and upwards, and half that sum on smaller ones.
O'Reilly further granted to the city, in the king's name, the ground on both sides of the public square, or place d'armes, from Levee to Chartres and Conti streets, having a front of three hundred and thirty-six feet on the square, and eighty-four feet in depth. The ground was soon afterwards sold on a perpetu- al yearly rent. Don Andre Almoster became the purchaser of it.
By a special proclamation, the black code, given by Louis the fifteenth to the province, was re-enacted.
With the view of putting an end, in some degree, to the practice of the Indians of dooming prisoners of war to death, with cruel and protracted torments, the colonial government allowed the colonists to pur- chase and hold them as slaves; and there was a considerable number of them in the possession of
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planters. O'Reilly, by a special proclamation, de- clared that the practice of reducing Indians to slave- ry, was contrary to the wise and pious laws of Spain; but that until the pleasure of the sovereign was mani- fested, the owners of such slaves might retain them.
With the view of guarding against the introduction of foreigners into the province, . all persons were prohibited to receive or entertain any foreigner not provided with a passport from the governor, or to furnish him with any horse, or land or water car- riage.
It was also expressly prohibited to purchase any thing from persons navigating the Mississippi, or lakos, without a passport: it was, however, permit- ted to sell fowls and other provisions to boats or ves- sels, provided the fowls or provisions were delivered on the bank of the river, and payment received in money.
A fine of one hundred dollars, and the confiscation of the articles purchased, was denounced against the delinquent, one third of the whole being the reward of the informer.
A number of police regulations were made.
No change took place in the ecclesiastical govern -. ment of the province. Father Dagobert, the superior of the capuchins, was permitted to continue in the ex- ercise of his pastoral functions, as curate of New-Or- leans, and in the administration of the southern part of the diocess of Quebec, of which the bishop had constituted him vicar-general. ^ 'The other capuchins were maintained in the curacies of their respective parishes.
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'The attendance of the Ursuline nuns, in the hospital, according to a bull they had obtained from the pope; was dispensed with; the services of these ladies had become merely nominal, being confined to the daily attendance of two nuns, during the visit of the king's physician. Having noted his prescriptions, they withdrew, contenting themselves with sending from the dispensary, which was kept in the convent, the medicines he had ordered. The Catholic king had directed that two nuns should be maintained at his expense; for each of whom, sixteen dollars were be paid, monthly, to the convent out of his treasury.
Don Francisco de Loyola died, and was succeed- ed in the intendancy, per interim, by Gayarre, the contador.
By a vessel from Bordeaux, the colonists were in- formed, in the latter part of the spring, of the fate of their late chiefs. The conduct of Foucault had been disapproved by his sovereign, and he had been lodged in the bastille, where he was still confined. The vessel, in which Aubry had sailed, foundered in the Garonne, near the tower of Cordovan. Every one on board perished, except the captain, doctor, a ser- jeant, and two sailors. The king evinced his sense of Aubry's services, by pensions to his brother and sister. He had served in Canada and Illinois before he came to Louisiana, and was at Fort Duquesne, when it was attacked by the British under General . Forbes.
()'Reilly took passage in the suminer, with all the troops he had brought, except twelve hundred men, who were left for the service of the province, leaving behind no favourable impression of the government
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by whom he was sent. Most of the merchants and mechanics of New-Orleans had withdrawn to Cape Francois, in the island of Hispaniola. Many of the easiest planters (for there were no wealthy ones) had followed them; and the emigration was so great, that O'Reilly, a few days before his departure, determin- c'd to check it, by withholding passports from appli- cants. This measure excited great uneasiness, and a general dissatisfaction pervaded every class of so- ciety. The motto on his coat of arms was Fortitu- dine et Prudentia. He does not appear to have at- tended to the admonition it contained. It is in the combined practice of both these virtues, that those who rule others find their greatest glory; because it best promotes the felicity of the people. The chief, who attends alone to the display of the former, may obtain a momentary glaire, but will sooner or later find himself disappointed, and the people will be the victims of his error.
The year 1770 is remarkable in the annals of North America, by the first effusion of blood, in the dissentions between Great Britain and her colonies, which originated in the passage of the stamp act, soon after the peace of Paris, and terminated in the inde- pendence of the latter. The inhabitants of Boston viewed with displeasure two British regiments quar- tered there. Frequent quarrels had arisen between them and the soldiers. On the fourth of March, an affray took place, near the barracks, which brought out a part of the main guard, between whom and the townsmen blows ensued. The soldiers fired; three of the inhabitants were killed, and five danger- ously wounded. The aların bells were immediately rung, the drums beat to arms, and an immense multi-
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