USA > Louisiana > The province and the states, a history of the province of Louisiana under France and Spain, and of the territories and states of the United States formed therefrom, Vol. I > Part 27
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About this time Aubry wrote to France as follows: "At the very moment when all seemed lost, Providence took compassion on our calamities, and when we were near being submerged by the storm, sent us a liberator, who by his mere presence and by his wisdom has in an instant re-established order and tranquil- lity in a country which for a long time past was in an indescribable state of disorder and confusion. After having experienced the most terrible alarms and afflictions in governing a colony, which I several times saw on the very brink of ruin and destruction, it has been my good luck, by the grace of God, to deliver it up in its integrity into the hands of a general, to whose presence, wisdom and firmness it is now indebted for its tranquillity. Listening with the greatest kindness to those who have any business to transact with him, he fills with hope and satisfaction all the inhab- itants, who after so many disturbances and disorders see at last the restoration of peace and justice in the country."* It is well known that Aubry favored the punishment of the leaders, but there is nothing to show that he was actuated by any other senti- ment than that of justice. To him the treatment of D'Ulloa was a most outrageous performance, little less atrocious than an attack on the crown itself would have been. He was actuated not by revenge, but by justice.
Having secured all the evidence possible, O'Reilly set the
* Charles Gayarre.
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wheels of the law in motion. The communication of Aubry was so sweeping and conclusive, so like an indictment by a grand jury, that it served as a basis for the proceedings of the prosecu- tion. In the mind of O'Reilly it warranted the immediate arrest of the leaders and their confinement to await trial. On the 21st of August, on one pretense or another, nearly all of the leaders were attracted to the house of the governor, and when there were informed that they were under arrest. Those thus arrested were Nicolos Chauvin Lafrenière, Joseph Villere, Jean Baptiste D'Noyan, Pierre Marquis, Pierre Caresse, Joseph Milhet, Bal- thasar D'Masan, Joseph Petit, Pierre Poupet, Hardy D'Boisblanc and Jerome Julien Doucet. They were informed of the nature of their offenses, and were told that O'Reilly had been ordered to bring them to trial according to the laws of the kingdom of Spain. Having expressed the wish that all might be able to prove their innocence, he disarmed them and ordered them into confine- ment, some on the Spanish ships and some in houses, but all under guard. They were not permitted to communicate with each other nor with their friends. Under the laws of Spain, he ordered all the property of the accused sequestered, and permit- ted them to appoint an assistant to take the inventory of their estates.
A squad of soldiers having Joseph Villere in charge conveyed him on board of one of the ships. Here within a short time he was killed by his guards with bayonet thrusts, probably in an attempt during an outburst of passion either to resist his captors or to escape. His death and the arrest of the leaders produced the utmost consternation ; but a proclamation of O'Reilly to the effect that no others would be brought to trial served to quiet the public mind, although every breath was held in expectancy as to what would be done with the others. By another proclamation, O'Reilly requested all the people to appear at New Orleans on the 26th to take the oath of fealty to the Spanish crown. Subsequent dates were set apart for the more remote settlements to do like- wise. Upon further investigations, the arrest of both Foucault and the printer, Braud, was ordered; but the latter upon establish- ing his innocence, was released, while Foucault was sent to France upon his own demand and was there incarcerated in the bastile. 'The Acadians and the Germans took the oath of allegiance on the 27th. Messengers were sent to all the distant settlements appris- ing them of the change in rulers ; and the messengers were author- ized to see that the French flag was lowered and that of Spain raised. Prompt and energetic measures were taken to put the colony in such a condition of confidence as had never before been
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witnessed in Louisiana. The energy of the commander seemed to be infused into all classes of the population. For almost the first time in the history of Louisiana, there was present a governor in fact as well as in name. This is the reason why Aubry wrote so enthusiastically, as quoted above.
He wrote on another occasion, "After so many disturbances and disorders, which had so long desolated this colony, it is sur- prising that the mere presence of one individual should in so short a time have restored good order, peace and tranquillity. Had it been the good fortune of this province that General O'Reilly had arrived sooner, it would never have seen all the calamities from which it has suffered. With the exception of a small number of families, which are in a state of consternation on account of what lias so justly befallen some of their members, who have been arrested, all the rest of the colonists are quiet and satisfied. They are grateful to his Catholic Majesty for having sent them a governor, who listens with kindness to those who Irave any business with him, and who, although respected and feared, is not the less loved for his generosity, his magnanimity and his equity, of which all of us feel the effects. He will make the hap- piness of this colony."* Can it be possible that Aubry thor- onghly mistook the character of the new governor? . Even after the arrest of the leaders, he was still enthusiastic over the quali- ties of O'Reilly. It cannot be said that he was influenced by fear, for no smell of sedition was upon his garments. He was intlu- enced solely by his desire to have the guilty leaders brought to justice. Had he concealed the evidences against the leaders, or connived at their escape, he would have been guilty as an acces- sory after the fact. But he has been blamed for furnishing the evidence in such detail and for refraining or neglecting to recom- mend the leaders to the clemency of O'Reilly. He thought they should be punished, and therefore made no recommendations of the kind.
The trial of the revolutionists is the most momentous event in the history of Louisiana Province. The bringing to trial for sedition and high treason of twelve of its most prominent citizens . was an occurrence tragical in the extreme. Besides, they were related by ties of blood to hundreds of their fellow citizens, and were arrested while indulging the fond hope that their offenses would be forgiven. While not given a trial such as is known to present generations, there is nothing to show that they were not
* Translation of Mr. Charles Cavarre.
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given every opportunity to answer the charges preferred against them. In fact, their own confessions, coupled with the corrobo- rative evidence of many credible witnesses, left no room for the slightest doubt of their guilt. Any judge of the present day, with the same evidences before him, would be forced to arrive at the same conclusions.
T'he defense endeavored to show that, as the province had never been taken possession of by D'Ulloa, and, as a corollary, had never been surrendered by France, the charge of sedition or treason could not lie as against Spain. The Spanish prosecutor took the ground that the cession was alone sufficient to pass the title without an act of formal possession. He went farther and contended that practical possession of the province had been taken by Spain. This was shown by the acknowledgment of the French colonial leaders of D'Ulloa as the representative of Spain and the accredited governor of the colony ; by the fact that he was ten- dered more than once complete possession; by his declination solely on the ground that he had not sufficient force to defend the colony; by the surrender of French administrative authority and the assumption of governmental duties by D'Ulloa and the execu- tion of his decrees by Aubry; by the payment of the colonial expenses after March, 1766, from the Spanish treasury; by the recognition of the Spanish orders by the Supreme Council; by the passage of commercial, financial and military control to D'Ulloa ; by the payment from Spanish funds of the salaries of Lafrénière, the chief revolutionist, and of others ; by passports to the merchants, continuiances in office, supplies of provisions sent to famishing colonists, payment of the clergy, granting of privi- leges of export and of the right to buy negroes-all ordered by D'Ulloa and executed by Aubry. It was shown that for two years, possession was an accomplished fact, and that the formality of taking possession was not necessary when actual possession was abundantly recognized as an actuality. Unquestionably, the revolutionists failed to show sufficient cause to justify their course. The evidence was conclusive that Spain had taken practical pos- session, and, therefore, the course of the revolutionists was sedi- tion and treason against Spain.
At the conclusion of the evidence and of the addresses of the attorneys, the court, by O'Reilly, president, pronounced judgment · to the following effect : That Lafreniere, Marquis, Noyan, Car- esse, and Joseph Milhet, the principal authors of the revolution, should be mounted upon asses, each of the condemned with a rope around his neck, should thus be led to the place of execution,
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and should there be hung by the neck until dead; that Joseph Villère, already dead, but likewise guilty, should be rendered infamous ; and that the others should be condemned to imprison -. ment as follows : Petit for life; Doucet and Masan for ten years ; and Poupet, Jean Milhet and Boisblanc for six years. The prop- erty of all was sequestered, and the documents, manifestos, etc., of the revolution were gathered into a heap and publicly burned.
As soon as this sweeping sentence became known, the friends of the condemned men made every effort possible to save them, but without avail. Even the ladies made tearful and passionate appeals to O'Reilly, but he would not be swerved from what he considered his duty. However, the impossibility of finding a hangman even among the negroes, finally induced him to commute the sentence to shooting instead of hanging. Accordingly, on the 25th of October, 1769, Lafrenière, Marquis, Caresse, Noyan and Joseph Milhet were shot dead in public by platoons of Span- ish grenadiers. Those who had been condemned to imprisonment were pardoned, after having served a short time. Owing to the numerous relatives left by the men who were shot, their trial, condemnation and execution are to this day regarded by many of their descendants as wholly unwarranted. It has been claimed, upon what good authority is not mentioned, that the governments of both France and Spain blamed O'Reilly for having ordered too rigorous a punishment. Even Aubry, whose loyal and consis- tent course throughout challenges admiration, has not escaped the odium of subsequent, sympathizing generations. But what- ever may be said in this connection, the truth is clear that the course of the revolutionists was sedition and treason, for which the legal punishment was death. O'Reilly's barbarity on the one hand, or his devotion to duty on the other, does not alter the nature of the offense against Spain.
Whether O'Reilly was justified in rendering so vigorous a sentence will never cease to be a matter of dispute, because his complete authority has never been published. If D'Grimaldi was right in his letter to Fuentes, O'Reilly exceeded his authority- in fact was prohibited from going beyond a sentence of expulsion from the colony. On the other hand, the almost boundless authority known to have been given to O'Reilly, his high char- acter, his strict obedience of orders and his devotion to duty, lead to the conclusion that, in the face of positive directions to the con- trary, he never would have been guilty of an act so grave as to shoot these men, if he had not had ample and definite discretion and authority ; indeed, he would not have dared to do so, because
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it would have been a positive disobedience of his king's com- mands. It would thus seem that he must have had abundant authority for his rigorous course ; but it also seems that he must have had considerable discretion, and could therefore have refrained from ordering the death penalty.
But it must be admitted that the shooting of some of these men and the imprisonment of the others, was the first martyrdom on the altar of liberty in the Western Hemisphere. Why did these men hate Spain? Because she represented the servitude of the common people to a degree far beyond any other nation of that period ; her rule in Louisiana meant the serfdom of the colonists. Her plan of crushing Louisiana in the dust for the benefit of Mexico and as a barrier against Great Britain, had become known to the inhabitants. They, therefore, desired to remain with France, or to join the English, or to become independent-any- thing rather than become the slaves of the Spanish grandees. There was no disloyalty to France. Great effort was made, even the tender of money, to secure the co-operation of the English governor, Elliott, of Pensacola. But independence, the highest boon, was a remote hope, owing to their numerical weakness. There was shown a splendid and memorable love of liberty in both the "Decree of the Council" and the "Memorial of the Inhab- itants of Louisiana," the first declaration of independence in the New World. Whether the probable course of Spain was suffi- cient to justify the revolution, has nothing to do with the spirit of liberty sounding high through all the speeches and manifestos. The commercial decree was declared to be an attack upon the ancient liberties of the merchants. Lafreniere insisted that they were threatened with slavery. He maintained that the subjuga- tion of the Supreme Council by Governor D'Ulloa was a death stroke at the rights of the people; that the cession itself guaran- teed the preservation of existing customs and rights; and that "population and commerce are fed by liberty and competition, which are the nursing mothers of the State, of which the spirit of monopoly is the tyrant and step-mother. Without liberty there are but fer virtues. Despotism breeds pusillanimity and deepens the abyss of vices. Man is deemed as sinning before God, only because he retains his free will. Where is the liberty of our planters, of our merchants, and of all our inhabitants?" That sounds as if it might have been uttered by Patrick Henry a few years later. Lafrénière goes on to specify the various wrongs imposed upon Louisiana, just as the usurpations and injuries of George III are defined in the Declaration of Independence.
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However, his cause was clouded, and the spirit of independence shown was weak. The wrongs complained of were not sufficient to warrant revolution. The movement was doomed from the start, because the reasons were too faint and remote to carry all the people along on the golden tide, and because the revolution- ists were not numerically strong enough to conquer success with the sword. The conquered rebel is a conspirator and traitor; the successful rebel is a hero and patriot, and becomes the founder of a State. If the British had conquered George Washington, he would have been either shot or hung; his success placed his name high above the glittering titles of kings and conquerors. What would have been the fame of Lafreniere and his liberty- loving associates, had they succeeded in achieving their inde- pendence? It would have been done had they been strong enough. It made all the difference in the world whether they failed or succeeded.
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CHAPTER VIII
Louisiana Under the Spanish Cabinet
MMEDIATELY succeeding the stern measures of O'Reilly in suppressing the revolution and punishing the leaders, steps were taken wholly to reorganize the military, judicial and commercial departments of the province. Although it had been the intention of Spain to retain the established order of affairs in Louisiana, the revolution caused the abandonment of this design and the substitution therefor of a rule wholly in accordance with the Spanish colonial policy. The Supreme Council, which had in reality headed the revolutionary movement, was succeeded by the Cabildo, composed of six perpetual regidors, two ordinary alcaldes, an attorney-general Syndic and a clerk, over which body the provincial governor was authorized wholly to preside. The governor was made subordinate to the captain-general of Cuba, and the intendant controlled the revenues. Many subordinate officers were provided for, and the Spanish language was substituted for that of the French in all proceedings, except the judicial and notarial acts of the commandants. The Cabildo con- vened in its first session December 1, 1769, with O'Reilly presid- ing. He had been given "special power to establish in this new part of the king's dominions with regard to the military force, police, administration of justice and finances, such a form of gov- ernment as might most effectually secure its dependence and subordination, and promote the king's service and the happiness of his subjects." Judge Martin says, "It is oppressive in the .. highest degree to require that a community should instantane- ously 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 1-18
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totally ignorant." While that statement is true, it must also be admitted that, in view of the revolution, the colonists had forfeited their rights to ordinary and proper treatment and had brought upon their own heads repressive measures, which would not have been resorted to under normal conditions. Under his instruc- tions, O'Reilly was authorized to render the province dependent and subordinate, and was given unlimited power for the accom- plisliment of these ends. The fact that O'Reilly thought it neces- sary to execute several of the leaders of the revolution, furnishes the reason why he also thought it necessary to change the laws governing the province. It was necessary to root out the spirit of independence prevailing throughout the entire province ; hence a complete change of laws and customs was employed to show the power and authority of Spain.
But the change did not produce serious hardship, because the law of Spain, which was substituted for that of France, likewise originated in the Roman Civil Law, and hence its general prin- ciples were familiar to the colonists. In several proclamations, O'Reilly made known his will to the people. Every parish was provided with a civil and military commandant, who was required to attend to the observance of law, to examine the passports of travelers, to permit no one to settle within his jurisdiction without a license from the government, to preside in the trial of civil causes where the contention did not exceed twenty dollars, to pun- ish slaves, to arrest and imprison free persons guilty of offenses, to serve as notary public, to attend to the sales of the estates of deceased persons, and to execute the judgments rendered in New Orleans against citizens of his parish. It will thus be seen that the commandant possessed extreme power over the people within his jurisdiction ; but as he was sworn to maintain and defend the Catholic faith, he was subordinate to the parish priest in all eccle- siastical matters.' In fact, inasmuch as the Catholic church ruled Spain at that date, the will of the church prevailed in all things where a conflict between church and state occurred.
In 1763, when all of Louisiana Province east of the Missis- sippi passed to Great Britain, there was but one settlement in upper Louisiana west of the river-Ste Genevieve. D'Ulloa had ordered the Spanish flag raised in "the Illinois," and doubtless that ceremony was performed at the little village of Ste Gene- vieve ; also at St. Louis, which was founded as a consequence of the division of the upper country between Spain and Great Brit- ain. The people of the upper colony, though entertaining the same sentiments toward Spain as did their neighbors to the south,
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resorted to no extreme measures, and hence escaped the rigor of O'Reilly. In fact, St. Ange had communicated his allegiance to Spain soon after the appearance of D'Ulloa at New Orleans, and as a reward for his promptness and adherence had been appointed commandant of Upper Louisiana. Although St. Ange was a Frenchman, it was not found necessary to retire him even under the rigorous policy of O'Reilly. On the contrary, Upper Louis- iana was constituted more of an independent province than ever before, though still subordinate to the jurisdiction of the colonial governor. It embraced all of the province north of a line fixed approximately near the present Memphis, and had an estimated population of eight hundred ninety-one. During the Spanish reign, no settlements were formed in Upper Louisiana except in what is now the State of Missouri. But the province as a whole received such an influx of population that many new towns were founded in what is now Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri.
All new laws went into operation December 1, 1769. "They were precisely like those prevailing in the other Spanish American colonies, and hence were the same as those governing the Council of the Indies. As a whole, the province was made a dependency of Cuba. Among other things, O'Reilly instructed the com- mandant at Natchitoches to terminate the illicit trade between that point and the Mexican provinces and took steps to prevent the future enslavement of the Indians. He issued the following order: "The aforesaid commandants shall take special care that the inhabitants carry on no trade with the English vessels which navigate the Mississippi, nor with any of the settlements situated on the territory of his Britannic Majesty, and that the king's sub- jects do not go out of the limits of this province without a written permission from the governor general. Those acting in viola- tion of the provisions of this article shall be arrested by said com- mandants and sent to this town (New Orleans), in order that their case be submitted to the further consideration of the gov- ernment, but the first proceeding shall be to sequestrate their property." The wisdom of every order issued by O'Reilly is not questioned at this day. The kind treatment of the Indian's, charity to the poor, proper respect for the church, consideration for the rights of foreigners on the Mississippi, vigilance in uprooting immorality, the rigid observance of law, and many other sound prnciples were instituted. He issued the following instruction : "The great distance from the capital to the Illinois requires proportionate discretion and prudence in the commandant of that remote district. There are three important objects recom-
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mended to his special vigilance and attention. Those are: That the domination and government of his Majesty be loved and respected; that justice be administered with promptitude and impartiality and in conformity to law ; and that commerce be pro- tected and extended as much as possible. Should any subject of his Catholic Majesty commit any excess or trespass in the territory of the English, or offer any insult to those of that nation who navigate the Mississippi, the commandant shall do prompt justice, and shall give full and immediate reparation, on the just complaints of the English officer, but without failing to observe the formalities prescribed by law. The com- mandant shall take care that all the Indians who may come to St. Louis and St. Genevieve be well treated, and be paid an equi- table price for the hides they may bring to market, and for what- ever other things they may have for sale, and that in the barters or purchases they may make, they be served with good faith. In this way they will derive more benefit from their trade with us; they will provide themselves with what their wants require, with- out its being at the expense of the king; and the English will not reap all the profits of a commerce which ought to be in our hands.
· This province wants flour, wine, oil, iron instruments, arms, ammunition, and every sort of manufactured goods for clothing and other domestic purposes. These can only be obtained through the exportation of its productions, which consists of timber, indigo, cotton, furs and a small quantity of corn and rice. By granting to this province, as formerly to Florida, the benefit of a free trade with Spain and with Havana, its inhab- itants would find in that very city of Havana a market for all their produce, and would provide themselves with all the articles of which they stand in need. It would also be proper that the vessels belonging to this colony be received in Havana and the ports of Spain on the same condition and footing with Spanish vessels; but with the understanding that no vessels, except they be Spanish or belong to the colony, shall. be admitted in this port, or employed in transporting goods, and that this be recommended to the special care of my successor. I found the English in complete possession of the commerce of the colony. They had in this town their merchants and traders with open stores and shops, and I can safely assert that they pocketed nine-tenths of the money spent here. The commerce of France used to receive the productions of the colony in payment of the articles imported into it from the mother country ; but the English, selling their goods much cheaper, had the gathering of all the
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