USA > Louisiana > The history of Louisiana : from the earliest period, Volume II > Part 8
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sessions in America, from hostilities with Great Bri- tain, or the seizure of New-Orleans by the United States.
The opinion that, in the event of a war between Great Britain and Spain, Louisiana would be inva- ded from Canada, was not a mere suggestion for aid- ing the negotiations at Madrid ; it was seriously con- templated by the American government; and the attention of the executive was turned to the measures which would be proper to pursue, should application be made for permission to march a body of troops through the unsettled territory of the United States, into the denminions of Spain, or if such an at- tempt should be made without permission.
The western people continued loudly and justly to complain of the inattention of congress to the hostile temper of the Indians, to which an unusual degree of importance was given, by the apprehension that it was fomented by the intrigues both of Great Britain and Spain. From Canada, the northern Indians were understood to be supplied with the means of prose- cuting a war, which they had been stimulated to con- tinue; and to the influence of the governor of East Florida, and perhaps to that of Louisiana, had been partly attributed the late failure of a negotiation with the Creeks.
To conciliate the latter Indians, colonel Willet, a distinguished officer of the late revolution, was sent among them. He acquitted himself so well of the duties assigned to him, that the chiefs of that nation, with M'Gillivrey at their head, repaired to New- York, where negotiations were immediately begun, and terminated by a treaty of peace on the seventh of August.
On the first information, at St. Augustine, that
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M'Gillivrey was about to proceed to New-York, the intelligence was immediately conveyed to Las Casas, the captain-general at Havana, and the secretary of the government of East Florida was sent at the same time with a large sum of money, as it was said, to purchase flour; but his real object was believed to be, to embarrass the negotiations with the Creeks. He was closely watched, and measures were taken to render any attempt, he might make, abortive.
'The overtures the American government made to the Indians on the Wabash and the Miamis, were not so successful. The western frontiers of the mid- dle states were still exposed to the destructive inva- sion of the savages, and there was reason to believe that the inhabitants could only be released from the terrors of the tomahawk and scalping knife, by the vigorous exertion of military force; and general Hammer was directed by the president of the Unit- ed States to march against the Indians, bring them, if possible, to an engagement, but in any event, to des- troy their settlements on the Wabash and Scioto.
With three hundred and fifty regulars, and a body of militia of eleven hundred men from the state of Virginia and the district of Kentucky, he received a check carly in October; but finally succeeded in re- ducing to ashes the villages of the enemy on the Scioto, and destroying their winter provisions. Ile retreated, without effecting any thing on the Wabash, and the Indians were again successful in a second attack. The supineness of congress, who neglected, notwithstanding the recommendation of the president to raise a force sufficient to the protection of the wes- tern people, increased their discontents.
Congress, this year, accepted a cession made to the United States, by North Carolina, of all her lands on
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the western side of the mountains; and a distinct government was established for the people who dwelt to the south-west of the Ohio. It was called the South-western Territory, and William Blount was governor of it, until the erection of the state of Tennessee.
Morales and Marigny de Mandeville were chosen ordinary alcades for the year 1791.
Don Nicholas Maria Vidal succeeded Postego, as auditor of war and assessor of government.
Congress now added a now regiment to the military establishment, and authorised the president to raise a body of two thousand men for six months. The president placed this force under major-general St. Clair, governor of the North-western Territory, who had served with distinction in the army of the revolution, and had filled the chair of congress.
In the summer and fall, two expeditions were con- ducted against the villages on the Wabash, in which, with a very small loss, a few of the Indian warriors were killed, some of their old men, women and chil- dren made prisoners, and several of their towns, with extensive fields, were destroyed. The first was led by general Scott, in May, and the second by general Wilkinson, in September.
The major-general was more unfortunate. His small army, consisting of about fourteen hundred ef- fective rank and file, was routed by the Indians on the third of November. His defeat was complete. Six hundred and thirty-one were killed or missing, and two hundred and sixty-seven wounded. Among the killed was the brave and mach lamented general Batler. This happened about fifty miles from the Miami villages.
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The people of Kentucky complained that congress were too sparing in furnishing means for their proter- tion. They were clamorously calling for admission into the Union as a state. Altho' Miro favoured them with an intercourse with Louisiana, in which they found a vent for their produce, they were dissatis- fied with the terms under which they were permitted to enjoy the navigation of the Mississippi.
In the night of the twenty-third of August, a pre- concerted insurrection took place throughout the French part of the island of Hispaniola, and an in- mense portion of its white inhabitants were mas- sacred. Those who were so fortunate as to make their escape, sought a refuge in the islands of Cuba and Jamaica, or the United States, and a few came to Louisiana. Among these, was a company of comedians from Cape Francois; and the city of New-Orleans now enjoyed, for the first time, the ad- vantage of regular dramatic exhibitions. Some of the other refugees, availing themselves of the wants of the province, opened academies for the instruction of youth. Hitherto, the only means of education were confined to a school in which a Spanish priest, aided by two ushers, taught the elements of the Spanish language, and the convent of the Ursuline nuns.
Miro sailed for the peninsula, where he was em- ployed in the army, and obtained the rank of mariscal de camp. He carried with him the good wishes and the regrets of the colonists. Altho' not a man of superior talents, he governed the province in a manner that accorded with the views of his sovereign and of the colonists. He showed every possible in- dulgence to a commerce with the United States. 'Since the conflagration, vessels came frecly from Philadelphia, and some other ports of the Union;
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and the people of Tennessee afterwards manifested their gratitude towards him, by giving his name to one of their judicial districts.
On the fourth of March, the state of Vermont was admitted into the confederacy of the United States, as its fourteenth member.
Archives-Gazettes-St. Mery -- Clark-Marshal,
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CHAPTER VII.
The Baron de Carondelet .- Bando de buen gobi- erno .- Regulations as to slares .- Gen. Wayne .- Guinea trade -- Louis XVI -- Waragainst France -Fortifications -- Militia-New commercial re- gulations .-- Don Francisco de Rendon .- Bish- oprick of Louisiana -Don Louis de Penalvert. -Genet's meditated expedition against Louisi- ana .- The Floridas .-- Moniteur de la Louisiane. -Canal Carondelet .- Manufacture of sugar resumed .- Conflagration-Negro plot at Pointe Coupée .- Police regulations-Extensive grants -The Marquis de Maisonrouge .- Gayosoe sent to confer with Kentucky patriots .- Treaty of Lorenzo.
Don Francisco Louis Hector, Baron de Caronde- let, colonel of the royal armies, was promoted from the government of San Salvador, in the province of _ Guatimala, to the rank of governor and intendant of the provinces of Louisiana and West Florida, and cn- tered on the duties of these offices on the first of Janu- ary, 1792.
The ordinary alcades, for this year, were Marigny de Mandeville and de la Pena.
Don Nicholas Maria Vidal, the auditor of war, rc- ceived a commission of lieutenant-governor.
The Baron's bando de buen gobierno was pub- lished on the twenty-second of January. Among the new regulations it introduced, it provided for the division of the city of New-Orleans into four wards.
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in each of which, an alcade de barrio, or commissa- ry of police, was to be appointed. In order to pro- cure to government a knowledge of all the inhabi- tants, and every stranger among them or in the city, it was made the daty of all persons renting houses or apartments, to give the names of their new tenants to the alcade of the district, on the first day of their occupation, or, at farthest, on the succeeding one. The alcades de barrio were directed to take charge of fire engines and their implements, and to command the fire and are men companies, in case of confla- gration. They were also empowered to preserve the peace, and to take cognizance ofsmall debts.
. In one of his first communications to the cabildo, the Baron recommended to them to make provision for lighting the city and employing watchmen. The „revenue of the corporation did not amount, at this period, to seven thousand dollars. To meet the charges for the purchase of lamps and oil, and the wages of watchinen, a tax of one dollar and twelve and a half cents was laid on every chimney.
In a letter to the minister, the Baron, this year, mentioned that the population of New-Orleans . was under six thousand.
Having received instructions from the king to at- tend to the humane treatment of slaves in the pro- vince, he issued his proclamation on the eleventh of July, establishing the following regulations:
1. That each slave should receive monthly, for his food, one barrel of corn, at least.
2. That every Sunday should be exclusively his own, without his being compelled to work for his mas- ter, except in urgent cases, when he must be paid or indemnified.
3. That, on other days, they should not begin to
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work before day-break, nor be continued after dark. Ouie half hour to be allowed at breakfast, and two hours at dinner.
4. 'I'wo brown shirts, a woolen coat and panta- loons, and a pair of linen pantaloons and two hand- kerchiefs, to be allowed, yearly, to cach male slave, and suitable dresses to female.
5. None to be punished with more than thirty lashes, within twenty-four hours.
6. Delinquents to be fined in the sum of one hun- dred dollars, and in grave cases, the slave may be or- dered to be sold to another.
At the solicitation of the cabildo, the Baron issued a proclamation prohibiting the introduction of negroes from the French and British islands, the province being, by such importation, drained of its specie, and apprehension being entertained of an insurrection.
In the month of June, the people of Kentucky were admitted into the Union, as a state.
A settlement of the difficulties relating to Nootka Sound having taken place, without a rupture between Great Britain and Spain, the latter power had ex- pressed a wish for an adjustment of the matters in controversy between it and the United States, by a negotiation to be carried on at Madrid. Carmichael and Short were chosen by the president as commis- sioners for that purpose. In the meanwhile, the offi- cers of that monarchy persisted in measures calcula- ted to embroil the United States in a war with the southern Indians. By their intrigues, they succeed- ed in preventing the ratification of the treaty entered into, in 1790, with M'Gillivrey; and the line agreed on as the boundary, was not permitted to be run, The indefinite claim to territory, set up by Spain, VOL. II. 15
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was said to constitute a sufficient objection to any · line of demarcation, until it was settled; and the pre- vious treaties and relations of Spain with the Creeks were declared to be violated by the acknowledgment of their being under the protection of the United States.
General St. Clair having resigned the command of the western army, it was committed to general Wayne, and the greatest exertions were made to complete its ranks; but so small were the induce- ments to enter into the service, that the highest grades below the first, were tendered in vain the money. The recruiting service went on so slowly, that no hope was entertained of any decisive expedition this year; and it was thought expedient to negotiate a peace. This attempt proved very unfortunate, at least for those who were engaged in it. Colonel Hardin and major Trueman, having been despatched several- ly with propositions of peace, were both murdered by the Indians.
Serano and Daunoy were the ordinary alcades for · the years 1793 and 1791.
The king expressed to the Baron his approbation of the prohibition of the importation of slaves from the British and French West India islands; but de- clared his wish'to have their importation from Guinea, by his subjects, encouraged and promoted; and, for this purpose, he issued a royal schedule on the first of January.
After stating that Spain was one of the first nations, the ships of which visited Africa in search of negroes, and his belief that great advantages would result to his subjects if they were to resume that trade, the king declares that every Spaniard may send vessels
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to the coast of Africa for negroes from any part of his dominions in Europe or the Indies, provided the master and one halfof the crew be Spamards; and all merchandise, purchased expressly for that trade, shall be exempted from duty, as well as every for- eign vessel expressly purchased for the purpose of - being employed therein.
Vessels continued to trade between Philadelphia and New-Orleans since the conflagration of 1238. Miro, in the latter years of his administration, and the Baron, from the commencement of his, conunved at this violation of the positive instructions of the minister of finance in Europe; but on the repre- sentation of the governors of the utility of the measure, it was approved by the king. From this period, a number of merchants in Philadelphia established commercial houses at New-Orleans.
All trade is absolutely forbidden in the colonies of Spain, by the letter of the commercial law, to any but natural subjects or naturalised persons residing there. The extreme rigour of this provision had, however, in some degree, defeated it, as the very existence of several colonies depended upon its relaxation, which, in New-Orleans, began to take place in the latter part of the administration of Miro, after the conflagration, and was continued by the Baron, who extended it in favour of foreign merchants residing in the province, altho' not naturalised. After this, the officers of the custom house contented themselves with the simple declaration or an individual, generally the consiguee, that he was owner of the vessel. No oath was ad- ministered; the production of no document was re- quired. The declaration was even accepted from an individual who did not reside in the province, on his asserting that he meant to do so, or on his producing
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a license to import goods. No one was thereby de- ceived, but the custom-house officers were funished with a rretext for registering a vessel as a Spanish bottom, and thus to preserve an appearance of a com- . pliance with the law. So little attention was paid to . this, that at times the governor and intendant certified that a vessel was American property, while she ap- pcared on the custom-house books as a Spanish ves- sel.
Louis the sixteenth died on the scaffold, on. the 21st of January, 1793, and the popular party being now predominant in France, the Catholic king de- clared war against the new republic.
'The sympathies and partiality of the people of Lou- isiana now began to manifest themselves strongly in favour of the French patriots, principally in New- Orleans. The situation of the Baron was rendered extremely delicate, by the circumstance of his being a native of France, and obliged by the duties of his station, if not urged by inclination, to restrain ex- cesses against a monarchical government. He pre- pared, and promoted the subscription of, a paper, in which the colonists gave assurances of their loyalty to, and affection for the Catholic king, and bound themselves to support his government in Louisiana. He put a stop to a practice, which had of late been introduced, of entertaining the audience at the thea- tre, with the exhibition of certain martial dances to revolutionary airs. He caused six individuals, who had manifested their approbation of the new French principles, and evinced a desire to see them acted upon in Louisiana, to be arrested and confined in the fort. At the intercession of several respectable inhabitants of New-Orleans, he promised to liberate
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them; but believing afterwards that he had discover- ed new causes of alarm, which rendered a decisive step necessary, he shipped them for Havana, where they were detained during a twelve month.
'The fortifications, with which the French had sur- rounded the city, being a heap of ruins, he caused new ones to be erected. A fort was built immedi- ately above, and another immediately below the city, upon the river, and a strong redoubt on the back part towards the middle of the city, and one other at each of the angles. They were connected by deep ditches. There was a battery in the middle of each flank of' the city, which were also surrounded by strong pali- sades.
The two batteries built by the French at the Eng- lish Turn were abandoned, and the fort of St. Philip erected on Plaquemines, with a small one on the opposite bank of the river.
He had the militia trained, and enforced the laws relative to it.
According to a statement which he sent to Madrid this year, it appeared there were between five and six thousand men enrolled, and he was of opinion that the colonial government could, at any time, bring three thousand men, within three weeks, to any given point in the province.
There were four companies, of one hundred men each, between the Balize and the city.
In New-Orleans, there were five companies of vol- unteers, one of artillery and two of riflemen; each of one hundred men.
The legion of the Mississippi, consisting of the mi- litia of Baton Rouge, Galveztou, Pointe Coupee, Fe- liciana, Atakapas, and Opelousas, had two companies of grenadiers, ten of fusiliers, and four of dragoons.
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At Avoyelles a company of infantry, at Washita one of cavalry ; at the Illinois, two of each.
A regiment of the German and Acadian coasts, of one thousand men.
At Mobile, a company of infantry and one of ca- valry.
The attention of the colonists was, however, drawn to matters more immediately interesting to them, by the publication of a royal schedule of the month of February, extending great commercial advantages to them.
In the preamble of this document, the king declares his impression of the impossibility of the merchants of New-Orleans continuing their expeditions to the ports of France designated in the schedule of the twenty-second of January, 1782, and the consequent necessity of some provision for the exportation of the produce of the provinces of Louisiana, East and West Florida, and for enabling the inhabitants to import the merchandise they stood in need of. With the view of encouraging the national commerce, and that of these provinces, the period of ten years, mentioned in said schedule, is provisionally prolonged, until regulations suitable to these provinces and the gene- ral system of commerce in the other colonies of Span- ish America may be made.
Permission is given to the inhabitants of these co- lonies to carry on commerce freely, in Europe and America, with all the nations, with which Spain had treaties of commerce, from the ports of New-Orleans, Pensacola, and St. Augustine, to any ports of' said nations, (the vessels of which may there be also re- ceived) under the condition of stopping, in going and returning, in the port of Concurbion, in Galicia, or that of Alicante, to take a passport.
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2. The merchandise, produce and effects, trans- ported, in this foreign commerce, shall be charged with a duty of importation of fifteen per cent, and one ofexportation of six; but the exportation of slaves was to continue exempt from duty. The exporta- tion of specie, for any purpose whatever, to continue prohibited.
3. The commerce between the peninsula and these provinces is likewise to be free; and the king declares he will view, with particular benevolence, those who may in any manner encourage it.
4. Spanish subjects are permitted to trade to the provinces, from any port of the peninsula, to which the commerce of the Indies is permitted, in vessels exclusively Spanish, providing themselves with regu- lar documents.
5. Permission is given to import into the ports of the peninsula, all kinds of foreign goods, wares and merchandise destined for any of these provinces, al- though their introduction be prohibited for all other purposes. Likewise tobacco, or any other article of produce of these provinces, and the importation of which is forbidden to individuals, may be brought in, provided it be afterwards exported to a foreign port.
6. Such prohibited produce, the importation of which is only allowed to facilitate returns from these provinces, shall be deposited, on landing, in the ware- houses of the custom-house, from which it shall be drawn only to be carried on board of the vessels in which the importation is to be made.
7. The importation of rice from foreign countries into Spain is prohibited; and the king del.res he will likewise prohibit that of any other article of pro- duce, which these provincesmay supply, in sufficient quantity for counsumption.
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. 8. Goods exported from any of the allowed ports of the peninsula, for the commerce of the provinces, to be exempt fromt duty, and that which may have been paid on their exportation shall be returned.
9. Foreign merchandise, coming from any of the allowed ports of the peninsula, on its importation in any of these provinces, in foreign bottoms, shall pay a duty of three per cent; but that imported in national vessels shall not pay any.
10. Merchandise or specie, exported from these provinces to any of the allowed ports of the peninsula, shall be free from duty.
11. The exportation to foreign ports of the produce of these provinces, brought to any of the allowed ports of the peninsula, shall be free from duty.
12. 'The exemptions from duty then granted, in- clude that of all local or municipal ones, which, by custom or otherwise, may be claimed.
13. In order to enjoy the exemptions hereby grant- ed, every vessel must be provided with a manifest of her cargo, distinguishing national from foreign goods, certified at the custom-house of the place of her depar- ture, and give bond with security to present it at the place of destination, and bring a certificate of the landing of the goods; and every vessel, on her re- turn, shall be provided with a minifest and certifi- cate, that the whole of her cargo is of the produce of the country.
14. Spanish vessels, bound from the peninsula to Louisiana or either of the Floridas, which may de- sire to return with the produce of the country, direct- ly, to any port of Europe, may do so on paying a duty of three per cent, on the produce thus ex- ported.
15. But this advantage is not to be enjoyed by ves-
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sels engaged in a direct trade between a foreign port and these provinces.
16. Vessels of the king's subjects, sailing from New-Orleans, Pensacola, or St. Augustine, are to have a minifest of their cargo, to be presented to his consul, and on their return they are to bring another, subscribed by him, to be presented at the custom- house; and those proceeding directly from Spain to these provinces, are to bring, on their return, besides the manifest of the inward cargo, a certificate of the landing of the outward, in order to have their bonds cancelled.
17. 'The ports of Bilbao and San Sebastian, which, being in exempt provinces, are reputed foreign, may, as such, trade to these colonies, according to the faculty herein granted, paying the duties imposed thereon; but, in consideration of the importance of enlarging and extending the maritime relations be- tween the mother country and these colonies, vessels from these two ports shall enjoy the favours of exemp- tions granted to the allowed ports of the peninsula, with the sole difference that the vessels from Bilbao and San Sebastian shall be bound to touch at San Ander to take a passport, before they proceed on their voyages.
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