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. III > Part 12
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In 1852 the general assembly asked congress to donate to Louisiana the military reservation at Fort Jesup for seminary purposes ; consolidated the three municipalities of New Orleans into one government ; made provision for holding a state consti- tutional convention ; prohibited any person without authority from making a cut-off in the Mississippi river; contributed ten thousand dollars toward a statue of General Jackson; ordered built at a cost of thirty thousand dollars two hundred additional cells in the penitentiary ; authorized owners of plantations to build levees to protect their lands from inundation ; abolished the office of parish superintendent of free schools; encouraged ship build- ing at New Orleans by offering a bonus of five dollars on every ton over one hundred tons ; enacted that no slaves in Louisiana should be emancipated except upon condition that they should leave the state within twelve months, the owner to pay the cost of transportation to Liberia or elsewhere; established an institu- tion for the deaf, dumb and blind, and exempted homesteads from execution.
The constitution adopted at Baton Rouge July 31, 1852, made several important changes in the previous organic law. It extended the parish of Orleans so as to embrace the whole of the city of New Orleans and included that part of the parish of Jef- ferson formerly known as Lafayette. New enumerations were
provided for-1853, 1858 and 1865. Free white males over twenty-one years who had resided in the state a year and in the parish six months were declared electors. It provided that the secretary of state and the treasurer of state should be elected by the qualified electors of Louisiana. It constituted the supreme court of one chief justice and four associate justices, and directed the legislature to divide the state into four judicial districts, in each of which a justice of the supreme court was required to sit. Every person who should be convicted of having given or offered
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a bribe to secure his election to office was disqualified from hold- ing office. It was provided that the seat of government should remain at Baton Rouge, unless three-fourths of the assembly should order its removal. Probably the most important changes made, were those concerning corporations. The legislature was empowered "to grant aid to companies or associations of indi- viduals formed for the exclusive purpose of making works of internal improvement, wholly or partly within the State, to the extent only of one-fifth of the capital of such companies, by sub- scription of stock or loan of money or public bonds." The aggre- gate amount of such liabilities was limited to eight million dol- lars. When contracting a debt in excess of one hundred thou- sand dollars, the legislature was required to provide means for its liquidation and to meet its interest. It further provided that "Corporations with banking or discounting privileges may be cither created by special acts or formed under general laws; but the Legislature shall in both cases provide for the registry of all bills or notes issued or put in circulation as money, and shall require ample security for the redemption of the same in specie ; the Legislature shall have no power to pass any law sanctioning in any manner directly or indirectly the suspension of specie payments by any person, association or corporation issuing bank notes of any description."
This constitution made the sending or accepting a challenge to fight a duel sufficient ipso facto to vacate the office held by such person ; prohibited the diversion of the funds provided for drains and levees ; created a Board of Public Works to consist of four commissioners; directed the legislature to divide the state into four improvement districts; authorized the legislature to provide for the election and compensation of such commis- sioners ; stipulated their duties, and empowered the assembly by a three-fifths vote to abolish the Board when in their opinion it was no longer necessary.
The constitution of 1845 had provided for the appointment of a superintendent of public education, and made it the duty of the legislature to establish free schools throughout the state. They were authorized to provide means by taxation of property or otherwise for their support. The proceeds of land previously granted to the state for the use of schools and of lands there- after granted or bequeathed to the state, and the proceeds of the estates of deceased persons to which the state should become entitled by law, were ordered held by the state as a permanent loan for the benefit of the free public schools, the state to pay an annual interest of six per cent. In the same manner the
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lands previously granted for the benefit of a seminary of learning were to be sold, the proceeds to be likewise held by the state at an interest of six per cent for the use of such institution. This was the foundation of the present free public school fund. A university of the state was established at New Orleans.
The constitution of 1852 prohibited the legislature from abol- ishing the office of superintendent of public education "when- ever in their opinion said office shall be no longer necessary." It was provided that all moneys raised for the support of free public schools should be distributed in each parish in proportion to the number of free white children between such ages as should be fixed by the general assembly. The interest of the trust funds deposited with Louisiana by the United States under the act of congress approved June 23, 1836, and all the rents of unsold lands, were appropriated to the use of the free public schools.
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CHAPTER VII
Events from 1852 to 1860
N THE presidential campaign of 1852 Judah P. Benjamin, Christian Roselins and Randall Hunt were the leaders of the Whigs. The story of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Mrs. Stowe, cut an important figure in this contest, as showing the attitude of the North on the slavery question. The result was as follows: Scott 17,255, Pierce 18,647, Hale (Free Soil) 00. The Daily Delta of November 4 said, "The election excitement is passing; if it has not already passed away. The result has astonished both parties. The Democrats, it is true, went to the polls with a firm and abiding confidence of success, but the most sanguine of them never dreamt of so signal" a victory. The Whigs felt-there is no doubt but they did-that the general result would be against them; still they were certain of carrying this State and resolved to do it. They had determined among the faithless to prove faithful to their flag. Pursuant to this opinion they entered on the fight with ardor, but their utmost
efforts proved unavailing ; their opponents in overpowering nun- bers rushed on them, broke their ranks, threw them into dis- order, and obtained a victory such as is seldom achieved. Long live the Republic!" The two candidates for the governorship in 1852 were Louis Bordelon, Whig, and Paul O. Hebert, Demo- crat. The latter was easily elected, his majority being over 2,000 in the whole state. Both senate and house were Democratic. The compromise measures of 1850 and 1852, the Wilmot Proviso, the abolition speeches, free territory, etc., were the important questions.
In 1853 Paul O. Hebert took the governor's chair. In his message he seems to have favored the acquisition of Cuba in
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order to prevent the proposed cmancipation of the slaves there. The Lopez expedition, in which the South was much interested, had failed and the leader and many of his companions had been brought ignominiously to the scaffold. When their fate had become known in New Orleans the indignant people assaulted the Spanish consulate, for which act the United States later was called upon to make reparation. Many of the ill-stared expe- dition of Lopez had been residents of Louisiana, and their bloody and tragie fate occasioned great grief and indignation, partly because the citizens generally hoped to see the insurgents suc- cred. The freedom of Cuba, so thought the South, meant its carly attachment to the Union and meant the retention there of slavery and additional slave territory to the Union. During the summer and fall of 1853, Louisiana was visited by an epidemic of yellow fever by far the severest ever suffered by the state. Large numbers of the people passed away before its fiery breath and the distress was general and overwhelming. In January, 1854, the governor remarked upon the general prosperity. He. observed that the public schools were in better condition than ever before, that the construction of railroads was rapid and gratifying, that many works of internal improvement were in progress, but that the debt of the state had been increased.
The legislature of 1853 made it unlawful for any bank or per- son to emit money of less denomination than five dollars ; granted telegraph companies the right of way over state lands ; incorpor- ated the South Western Industrial Fair Association; urged con- gress to erect a marine hospital in the Teche district; incorpor- ated the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern Railroad, and the New Orleans, Opelousas & Great Western Railroad; granted large relief to the Charity Hospital, which, in five years ending in 1853, had extended assistance to 82,430 persons; urged congress to authorize the Charity Hospital to collect a per capita tax on citizens of the United States arriving in Louisiana, for the benefit of that institution; re-chartered the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce; subscribed largely to the stock of several projected railways; incorporated the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Texas Railroad, the Grosse Tete & Baton Rouge Plank Road and the New Orleans and Baton Rouge Railroad; repealed the act exempting from execution the home of a free-holder ; pro- vided for the advancement of medical education; took steps to rebuild the grand levee at Pointe Coupee; reorganized the free school system; re-divided the state into congressional districts; enabled riparian proprietors in incorporated cities and towns to recover "batture" when not needed for public use; established a
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general system of free banking, and incorporated the New Orleans, Red River & Texas Telegraph Company, besides sev- eral educational and industrial societies.
In 1854 the legislature took steps to revise the statutes ; favored the proposed Pacific railroad via the El Paso and Gila route; authorized New Orleans to subscribe largely in the stock of sev- eral railroads; established the free school accumulating fund; urged congress to open the big raft on Red river; asked con- gress for four townships to provide a fund for the education of the deaf and dumb and three townships for the education of the blind; deplored that course of Spain toward Cuba, which would tend to the abolition of slavery and the sacrifice by the whites of their arts, commerce and civilization "to a barbarous and nefarious race," and incorporated several educational associa- tions.
The legislature of 1855 incorporated the Physico-Medical Society of Baton Rouge; still further improved the condition of persons imprisoned for debt; incorporated the Mississippi & Lafourche Railroad; regulated costs and fees and defined cer- tain crimes and their punishments; regulated the mode of pro- cedure in criminal prosecutions; made wide provision for the incorporation of associations for public improvement and utility ; incorporated the Touro Alinshouse Association; limited the indebtedness of New Orleans; incorporated the Southern Pacific Railroad; provided for the liquidation of the Consolidated Asso- ciation of Planters; incorporated the South Eastern Railroad; improved court practice generally ; incorporated several savings banks and institutions; provided for the sale of 1,000,000 acres of swamp and overflowed land granted by congress, and estab- ished an insane asylum.
In 1854 and 1855 the yellow fever again swept over the state, but with not the same deadly results as in 1853, though many died. The governor called the attention of the legislature to the large quantity of overflowed land which had been already reclaimed under the Federal grant. The report of the superin- tendent of public education was not satisfactory to the governor, who proceeded to shatter the so-called "system." He advised the improvement of the militia. The Know-Nothing party of Louisiana in favoring Catholic proscription was obliterated this year, owing to its expulsion from the convention at Philadelphia. It was a plant which had never flourished in Louisiana soil.
Upon the organization of the Know-Nothing party carly in the decade of the fifties, a strong effort to defeat the Democracy
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LOUISIANA, FROM 1852 TO 1860.
was made, but without avail. Fierce political contests charac- terized all the elections of this memorable period. The state was rent asunder by local and national issues, but the Democrats con- tinued to control the ship of state until the guns of Sumter called to arms. The contests of 1853, 1854 and 1855 were sharp, but the field of battle was swept by the guns of the triumphant Democracy. The vote for United States senator in 1855 resulted as follows : Slidell 74, John Moore 38, scattering 7. The Courier (Democratic) said, "It is needless for us, in conjunction with the numerous friends of this gentleman, to express our satisfaction at this happy result. The valuable and manifold services rendered by him to our city and State, his indomitable championship of our rights whenever assailed, entitle him fully to the possession of this post of honor and confidence. He is one of those who have always proved true to the interests of the South." A little later the Courier also said, "Few persons have ever been so vehemently attacked as Jolm Slidell, and but few could have weathered so successfully the storm of rancorous . detraction, misrepresentation and slander which has been so lib- erally poured upon his head.
The re-election of Mr. Slidell should not by any means be regarded as solely the triumph of the man, but it should be looked on as that of the Democratic party over unusual combinations. The new political sect ( Know- Nothing ) which has grown up within the last year has made him the special butt of its hostility, and his exclusion from a seat in the senate after the expiration of his present term of service was a cherished object with its members."
In his message to the legislature in 1855, Governor Hebert said, "It is the duty of Louisiana-a duty which she owes to her own self-preservation and to her sister States of the South-to cultivate the martial spirit of her people. Her position exposes her to the first assaults of the enemy. She should be ready at all times to contribute her full share to defence. She must be pre- pared to meet the responsibilities which the spirit of fanaticism at home may impose upon her and which an attitude of firmness with all the preparation to maintain it may alone avert." The contest of 1855 for the governorship was between Robert C. Wick- liffe, Democrat, and Charles Derbigny, American or Whig or both. 'The result was as follows: Wickliffe 22,952, Derbigny 19,755. The new Republican party which had so phenomenal a growth in the North had no corresponding growth in the South, owing to its pronounced hostility to slavery. In the presidential contest of 1856 that party does not appear to have had a ticket in the field
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in Louisiana. The opponents of the Democrats were Whigs and Know-Nothings or Americans. The Kansas-Nebraska act was the all-absorbing topic. The Democrats at their meetings warmly approved the passage of that act, and extolled Stephen A. Douglas, the "Little Giant." The opponents of Democracy in Louisiana called themselves the American party, whose motto was "America for Americans." The Whigs were derisively called "the same old Coons." The following year the Buchanan and Breckenridge electors were C. J. Villere, W. A. Elmore, T. Landry, John McVea, T. O. Moore and H. Gray. The slavery question overshadowed all others in 1856.
At one of the Democratic meetings Pierre Soulé delivered one of his eloquent and masterly speeches, of which the Courier made the following report, "He then spoke of the true issues presented in this contest. Abolitionism had torn off its mask and raised as its war cry, 'Down with the Slave Power of the South.' Black Republicanism had its sturdy supporters even in Louisiana, who were ready under a false and spurious banner to give the vote of our State if possible virtually to the Black Republican can- didates." The attack of Preston S. Brooks on Charles Sumner was endorsed as a necessary act to check the insults of the Aboli- tionists. Wendell Phillips was denounced as an "arch traitor and uncompromising enemy of the South."
The Courier said, "The choice of every Southern man must be between Buchanan and Fillmore. Colonel Fremont is entirely cut of the question. There can be no uncertainty or indecision as to their course on the part of consistent Democrats or Know- Nothings. .
. The great and pervading issue of the can- vass is, on all hands, at the South, conceded to be that of slavery. All or almost all of those which formerly divided Southern Dem- ocrats and Whigs have been decided or abandoned.
Mr. Buchanan . . never gave a vote hostile to the South or her rights on this question. Mr. Fillmore never gave a vote on the slavery question, no matter in what shape it was presented, which was not hostile to the South and her interests." In this contest the bitterness was so severe that the Courier was compelled to ask for the special protection of the police. At more than one polling place was blood shed. The first result announced was as follows: Buchanan 21,910, Fillmore 20,593, Fremont oo, with Morehouse and Vermillion parishes to hear from. When the result thus far was known, the Courier said, "The great struggle is over. The Democracy is triumphant and the country is saved at once from that fanaticisin which would have raised the white race born abroad against the white race
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born here and that scarcely worse fanaticism which aimed at raising the black race against all white races whatever. The giant of Democratic patriotism has crushed Sam with one hand and his brother Sambo with the other and the country stands upright and strong with all its enemies under its feet." The final result was as follows: Buchanan 22,164, Fillmore 20,709. This was the most rancorous election ever suffered by the state.
After the election, and after it was realized by the South that their success had been achieved by the Northern Democracy, they saw that should that faction turn against them the safe-guards of slavery would be thrown down. As it was realized that this was likely to happen at some no distant date, it was seen that secession was a possible contingency of the near future. At the November election in 1857 the whole state went Democratic by increased majorities, the legislature being strongly of that party. The Courier of August 20 said, "While we admit that the Constitution guarantees the rights of the South, we do not agree that 'nobody in the North proposes to go behind that and attack slavery in the States where it now exists.' There is a party in the North, and a formidable one too, that aims at the ultimate extinction of slav- ery throughout the confederacy. . Their intention is, first, to prevent the admission of any more slave States; next, to repeal the Fugitive Slave Law; next, to abolish slavery in the Federal District, to forbid the acquisition of any more territory adapted to slave labor, to prevent the trade in slaves between the several States, to abolitionize every Northern State as thoroughly as they have Vermont and Massachusetts, thus to secure an anti- slavery Senate and an anti-slavery House, an anti-slavery Presi- dent and an anti-slavery Supreme Court to put whatever con- struction upon the Federal Constitution their purpose may require. Give that party all, branches of national power and slavery would be safe nowhere."
In 1856 Robert C. Wickliffe became governor. Like all the other recent chief magistrates, he commented at length on the attitude of the North on the question of slavery. In 1856 the elections had been attended with a spirit of such extreme bitter- ness, accompanied with riot and blood-shed, that the governor felt called to comment on the unhappy state of the country. He remarked that the course of the North, if unchecked, meant noth - ing short of a dissolution of the Union. He did not speak lightly, huit in all seriousness. The course of the North was an uncon- stitutional assault on the private and sacred institutions of the South, such an assault as would not be borne. Ile advised unity
111-9
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of action by the Southern states, and declared that their private institutions were more sacred than the constitution. In 1857 he congratulated the legislature on the selection of a Democratic president and vice-president. He expressed the hope that their administration would restore harmony to the Union. He asked the legislature to prevent the large immigration of free negroes to Louisiana.
In February, 1856, the legislature passed the following preamble and resolutions :
"WHEREAS, There is a determination on the part of many of our Northern brethren in the National Legislature to merge all prior differences of opinion and thrust upon the country a sectional issue that is utterly incompatible with the integrity of the Union; and,
"WHEREAS, It is the firm determination of the people of this state to sever all alliance with every party or faction entertaining views antagonistic to the vital interests of the South and to hold their party allegiance subservient to the great question of constitu- tional equality, and to use all proper means to sustain those patriots in the Northern States who revere the Constitution and are resolved to maintain it inviolable; therefore,
"Resolved, That the bold and unequivocal position assumed by President Pierce in his late annual message upon the consti- tutional relations of slavery meets the unqualified approbation of the people of this state."
'The legislature of 1856 incorporated the Howard Association of Baton Rouge; thanked Elisha Kent Kane for his great discov- eries in the arctic regions and ordered a gold medal presented to him; incorporated the New Orleans & Ohio Telegraph Lessees, and the Louisiana Central Stem of the Mississippi & Pacific Railroad; instructed the state engineer to report a complete sys- tem of internal improvement, particularly of keeping the Missis- sippi within its natural banks ; enabled railroad companies to bor- row money upon mortgages of their property ; urged congress to remove the obstructions placed in Atchafalaya bayou by the orders of General Jackson in 1814-15, and appropriated two hundred eighty thousand dollars for the support of free schools. At this time the state paid the following interest upon its railroad bonds : Mexican Gulf Railroad, six thousand dollars ; New Orleans, Jack- son & Great Northern, fifty-six thousand five hundred and fifty dollars; New Orleans, Opelousas & Great Western, thirty-eight thonsand four hundred and thirty dollars ; Vicksburg, Shreveport & Texas, eight thousand one hundred and ninety dollars; Baton
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Rouge, Grand Tete & Opelousas, one thousand two hundred and sixty dollars; New Orleans & Nashville, twenty-eight thousand nine hundred and eighty dollars.
By the act of June 3, 1856, congress made large grants of land to the following railroads: One extending from the Texas line west of Greenwood, via Greenwood, Shreveport and Monroe to a point on the Mississippi river opposite Vicksburg; one from New Orleans via Opelousas to the Texas state line, and one from New Orleans to the state line in the direction of Jackson, Miss. The railroads were given every alternate section of land desig- nated by odd numbers for six sections in width on each side of the road bed. In the place of tracts occupied by actual settlers, the roads were permitted to select other lands.
In his message of 1857, Gov. Robert C. Wickliffe called the attention of the legislature to the determination of a faction at the North that there should be no more slave states ; that it had opposed "the wise, safe and Constitutional doctrines, just to all parts of the common country, as contained in the Kansas- Nebraska bill;" that such "geographical party, composed of the worst of our people of the sixteen free States, had been formed, not for their protection, but for our ruin ;" that now the principle of non-intervention on the part of congress either to extend or limit slavery had been settled by the supreme court, "and that the people had been left free to decide for themselves whether slavery should or should not exist." Ile remarked that the elec . tion of Buchanan and Breckenridge had settled the matter in all probability, but "should these bright and cheering anticipations which we now so fondly indulge not be realized, when freedom and equality in the Union are denied us of the South by the people of the North, "then Louisiana will take her position and maintan her rights by the strong arms and bold hearts of her brave sons." Ile called attention to the exposed position of Louisiana on the Gulf, and to the importance of maintaining the Monroe doctrine. From the report of the state auditor, he showed that Louisiana had a balance in the treasury of $902,414, and that her receipts for the year 1856 had been $2,223,868, and her expenses had been $1,953,849. The common school system was in bad condition, and he wondered why. He noticed that the failure of the New Orleans & Nashville Railroad had caused a remarkable loss of confidence in such organizations. On December 31, 1856, the debt of the state was $10,703,1.12. To banks alone the state owed $6,322,551. At the same time the state assessment was as fol- lows: Real estate $67,160,115; slaves $5,183,580; capital $18,-
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