Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 85

Author: Dunbar Rowland
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant
Number of Pages: 1020

USA > Mississippi > Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II > Part 85

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Spanish Dominion. After the occupation by Galvez in 1779, the Natchez district was under the administration of a commandant, subject to the governor of Louisiana. The Spanish records at Mo- bile show that affairs at Pass Christian, Cat Island and Biloxi were regulated from Mobile, and the grants of land at Mobile were made by the governors at New Orleans. In the treaties of 1784 Galvez is entitled governor of Louisiana and West Florida. In the Spanish census of 1785 and again in 1788 these districts of Natchez and Mobile are enumerated along with Louisiana, of which they were originally a part, under the French dominion. As for Flor- ida, east of Mobile, it reverted to the old Spanish system of gov- ernors at Pensacola and St. Augustine, with their jurisdiction separated by the Apalachicola river. The Spanish governor at Pensacola was not the successor in scope of territory, of the Eng- lish governor at Pensacola. "West Florida" was a British name and province. But the Spanish continued the use of the name West Florida, because it was their policy, immediately after the treaties of 1782-83, to save whatever rights they might have within the disputed limits of British West Florida.

All of what is now the State of Mississippi was under the ad- ministration of the government of Louisiana, which comprised the governor-general, with civil and military powers; the intendant, who looked after the revenues, navy and commerce; the comp- troller, auditor, etc. "In certain cases there was an appeal from the highest tribunal of the province (Louisiana) to the captain- general of the island of Cuba, from him to the royal audiencia in St. Domingo, and thence to the council of the Indies at Madrid."- (Gayarre.) This was true at Mobile the same as at New Orleans. "The laws of Spain were made by the king with the advice of his councils ; and the laws of Spanish America were made by the king through the Council of the Indies. In fine, Spanish America did not belong to Spain, but was a part of the hereditary domains of the sovereigns of Castile as heirs of Queen Isabella, with which the cortes of Castile had little more to do than with the kingdom of Naples or the Netherlands."-(Bourne, "Spain in America.")

The Council of the Indies was a body of greater powers than the British colonial board of trade and plantations. Its great digest of colonial law. "Recopilacion de Leyes de los Reinos de las In- dias," published long before this time, says Bourne, in spite of shortcomings as to finance and variances with modern ideas, was, "in its broad humanity and consideration for the general welfare

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of the king's American subjects, far superior to anything that has been shown for the English or French colonies."

The viceroy of Mexico and the captain-general of Cuba were of equal dignity, except in importance of their domains. When Lieu- tenant-General Galvez was transferred from Cuba to Mexico, he was allowed to retain, apparently as a special honor, the adminis- tration of the province of Louisiana and both Floridas in addition to the kingdom of New Spain. The audiencia was the viceroy's or captain-general's council, made up of judges. "The administrative subdivisions of the audiences were the 'gobiernos,' or govern- ments, the 'corregimientos,' and the 'alcaldes mayores.'" The alcalde mayor was a district magistrate, sometimes a local gover- nor. In 1786 the local government was reorganized and the viceroyalties and captaincies-general were subdivided into inten- dencies. The corregidors and alcaldes mayores were then displaced by the subdelegates of the intendants. Spanish town government was by the cabiloo or municipal council, composed of regidores or aldermen, which was an inherited or purchased honor, and a smaller number of alcaldes, or justices, elected to the council by the regidores, also perhaps an alferez real (royal ensign), an algua- cil mayor (sheriff), and a subordinate officer or two. The public service in such offices as sheriff, court clerk, depositary, regidore, treasurer, sealer of weights and measures, notary, etc., was let out to the best bidder, as it is the present custom to let out the work of municipal improvements. (Bourne.)

In the Natchez district, as at Mobile, "the commandant exercised jurisdiction, often a very summary one, over almost every kind of dispute, including contract, attachment and damages. There seemed to be no lawyers in the American sense, but there were clerks and notaries to aid the litigants. In criminal cases the ap- peal [to New Orleans] was only in capital offences, and from the expense, practically did not exist. Punishment was mild, generally a fine or stocks, and serious crimes were rare. The alcalde, like our justice of the peace, heard civil and criminal causes summarily and without written proceedings. His jurisdiction was limited to complaints in which the matter in dispute did not exceed twenty dollars."-(Hamilton.)

Outside of Natchez and Baton Rouge districts the population was mainly French and German. Trade was in the hands of the French merchants, under the royal schedule of January 22, 1782, which allowed the colonists to supply their wants from France and its colonies. French was the language of the province, except among the officials and in the courts. The attempt to establish Spanish schools, even at New Orleans, was a failure. The Natchez district records were written in Spanish, French and English.

Bernardo de Galvez, promoted to lieutenant-general, count, etc., was captain-general of Louisiana, including Natchez and Mobile, until 1785, when he was promoted to captain-general of Cuba, Louisiana and the Floridas. A few months later he succeeded his father as viceroy of Mexico or New Spain, which was the highest

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Spanish dignity in the Americas, except as the viceroyalty of Peru was a more desirable station in the same rank. His successor in Louisiana was Col. Estevan Miro, who was commissioned in 1786 as "governor, civil and military, of Louisiana and West Florida." With promotion to brigadier-general, he acted as governor and intendant both, after the departure of Intendant Martin Navarro. On December 30, 1791, Miro was succeeded by the Baron de Car- ondelet, who was promoted from governor of San Salvador. He was given an intendant in 1794, in the person of Francisco de Ren- don, late secretary of legation to the United States, who was suc- ceeded by Don Juan Bonaventura Morales in 1796. Carondelet was succeeded by Brig .- Gen. Gayoso de Lemos, lately commandant of Natchez, August 1, 1797. He died in 1799, and for a while Col. Francis Bouligny, of the Creole regiment, was military commander and Jose Maria Vidal was civil governor, Morales being the effec- tive head of the government. The Marquis de Casa Calvo (O'Fer- rall) was governor ad interim, later, until Brig .- Gen. Juan Manuel de Salcedo came in June, 1801, and with him the line ended.

The names and titles of the principal officials in 1795 were signed as follows to a land grant to the Marquis de Maison Rouge :

Francis Louis Hector, Baron de Carondelet, Knight of Malta, Brigadier-General of the Royal Armies of His Catholic Majesty, Military and Civil Governor of the Provinces of Louisiana and West Florida; Don Francis Rendon, Intendant of the Army and Deputy Superintendent of the Royal Domains in the said Prov- inces; and Don Joseph de Orne, Knight of the Royal and Dis- tinguished Order of Charles III, Principal Accountant of the Royal Chests for this Army, exercising the functions of Fiscal of the Royal Domains. It may be added that Carondelet was also a Knight of St. John, and Marshal de Camp of the Royal Armies.

Spain proposed to hold West Florida as it had been conquered by Galvez, the conquest having been recognized by formal cession by Great Britain in the treaty with Spain, 1783, without defining boundaries. True, Great Britain had in 1782, agreed with the United States that to prevent future disputes between Great Britain and the United States, the limits of the United States should be so and so, naming the parallel of 31°, but that could not bind Spain, a power that at that time possessed by conquest, ter- ritory within those limits that Great Britain had administered as West Florida. Spain claimed more than what was usually called West Florida. As Gardoqui, commissioner of the king to nego- tiate this question, informed the American government in 1785: "The King will not permit any nation to navigate between the two banks [of the Mississippi river] belonging to His Majesty, from the extent of his conquests made by his royal arms over the English in East and West Florida, according to the dominion for- merly held by the English, and the jurisdiction exercised by the commandant of Pensacola, on which it depended, as well as the countries east of the Mississippi, of which formal possession was

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taken by Capt. Don Baltazar de Villers, commandant of the post of Arkanzar, for his majesty" [November 22, 1780.].

"His Majesty does not consider the regulation made between the United States and Great Britain respecting the territories con- quered by his arms, but as a conditional agreement, in which they tacitly leave safe the territorial rights which he possessed in those parts. Those territories were in that same state of conquest and in possession neither of England nor of the United States, when they disposed of them. There can be no doubt but that the treaty of 30th of November, 1782, when the war between Spain and Eng- land was in continuance, could not fix the limits of countries which were not in possession. His Majesty therefore, understands these stipulations as conditional and dependent on the situation in which things might be left by a general peace." Suggesting, by way of comfort, that Spain would be a valuable ally in the Amer- ican troubles with the African powers, and holding up the promise of trade in the Spanish dominions, including the Philippines, Gardoqui added that it was "equally just to remind the honorable Congress of the generosity with which His Majesty has delayed requesting, until now, the payment of the principal of the debts contracted by the United States, both in Spain and America, being so delicate as not to apply even for the interest due thereon, not- withstanding the difficulties with which he provides for his own treasury." As may be inferred from the above, Spain claimed not only up to the Yazoo line, but on northward. The Louisiana gov- ernor exercised some jurisdiction in western Tennessee, and estab- lished a post at Chickasaw Bluffs, the site of Memphis.

Spain was not then what it had been lately, or what it was soon to be. Under the administration of the great Florida Blanca the home country was prosperous, with manufactures and trade and a good banking system, the kingdom had been cleared of beggars, and only sixty heretics were burned during the whole period of Blanca's supremacy. England and France, on the other hand, were crippled and enormously in debt. Blanca's policy in making peace (1782-83) was to hold the entire Mississippi valley, and it is not unlikely that he would have favored its retrocession, when Span- ish title was secured, to France. After the check administered to Spain and France by the separate arrangement between the United States and Great Britain, which was, in effect, an Anglo-Saxon alliance to defeat the Latin projects, Spain, in behalf of the Bour- bons, held to what she could, and bided her time, expecting, as did all Europe, the speedy collapse of the American confederation, as it was contrary to all philosophy and history that so large a repub- lic could endure. What the result would have been, barring George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte, is an interesting problem. Probably philosophy and history would have scored an- other "I told you so."

In 1784, on the suggestion of the great Scotch-Tallapoosa states- man, Alexander McGillivray, Governor Miro, going to Mobile, made a treaty with the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Alabamons, and

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smaller tribes, which amounted to taking under Spanish protec- tion and guarantee the territorial claims of the Indian nations. About the same time, Governor O'Neill, of Pensacola, made an identical treaty with the Tallapoosas (Creeks) and Cherokees, through McGillivray. The reason McGillivray gave for suggest- ing the alliance was the probability of the formation of a new and independent American government by the frontier settlers in the Mississippi valley, who would invade the Spanish domain at the earliest opportunity. He represented to Miro that there was danger of an Indian alliance with that movement, and he proposed to throw the Indian strength to Spain in return for commercial advantages and privileges for his people. The result was that the houses of William Panton, at Pensacola, and James Mather, at Mobile, were intrusted with the commercial care of the Indians, and Spain acquired the right, as she asserted it, to defend the In- dian title to all the country from the Oconee river in Georgia to the Mississippi, and north to the Ohio. On the basis of these treaties the Spanish government explicitly denied the claim of the United States to sovereignty over the Indian nations, and exclu- sive right to acquire land of them. This was convenient to the Creeks, as they had been allies of Great Britain during the Revo- lution. McGillivray was made a Spanish colonel, with a pension of $600 a year. He was also associated with the business of Will- iam Panton, who was possibly at the head of the whole plan. The commercial side of it interested Great Britain as an ally in fact, in this project to annul the treaty of peace. In the Northwest she asserted the same control over the Indians as did Spain in the Southwest, and she maintained military posts within the agreed limits of the United States, as Spain maintained them from Mem- phis down. Navarro, the intendant, wrote to Madrid that with McGillivray on their side, "we may rely on having established, between the Floridas and Georgia, a barrier which it will not be easy to break through."

In 1785 commissioners from Georgia demanded the surrender of all the region claimed by that State, north of latitude 31º, but this was easily evaded by referring them to the negotiations of the governments of Spain and the United States. (See Bourbon County.)

In 1787 some of the Choctaw and Chickasaw chiefs were feasted at New Orleans, and encouraged in allegiance to Spain. The giv- ing of presents to the Indians, so effectively promoted by the diplomacy of McGillivray, continued so that according to an ac- count rendered January 5, 1788, the expense of these donations, practically bribes to hostility against the United States, amounted to about $800,000.

Navarro warned Madrid, in 1787, that the real enemies of the province were not the English, but the Americans, "whom we must oppose by active and sufficient measures." The most active open measures were the exorbitant duties, and petty and vexa- tions restrictions to trade on the river, the seizures, fines, impris-

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onments, extortions, practiced upon the boatmen from the Ohio, who walked or rode horseback home through the Natchez district, swearing vengeance against Spain. This was intended to encour- age the desire in Kentucky for Western Independence, because the congress of the weak Confederation was impotent to relieve the sit- uation. The elusive James Wilkinson became a factor in the game in 1787 and certainly took up such relations that the Spanish government used him as their secret agent, for a valuable consid- eration, which was, in part, a salary, and in part, exclusive free- dom of trade at New Orleans. Miro intrigued for the "delivering up of Kentucky unto His Majesty's hands, which is the main object to which Wilkinson has promised to devote himself entirely," (dispatch to Minister Valdes Jan. 8, 1788) ; but Gardoqui, at the American capital, was using agents to induce the people of Ken- tucky and the Cumberland "to establish themselves in West Florida and the Florida district of Lower Louisiana under the protection of Spain," and he made them liberal grants of land, conceding also considerable privileges and favors. Gardoqui of- fered settlers the admission of slaves, stock and provision for two years, free of duty, and importation of merchandise under a duty of 25 per cent. When Miro was informed of this scheme he com- plained to Madrid that it was counter to his own, and yet he dare not tell Wilkinson or D'Arges, the agent of Gardoqui, of the plan of either. Wilkinson became conscious that Gardoqui, who had agents all over the United States, was watching him, but he imagined D'Arges was an emissary of France, because he drew his salary through the French minister, Marbois. The entangle- ment was complete, and tended to self-defeat. Congressman Brown, of Kentucky, who tried to make himself active as an ally of Wilkinson, blundered, and unbosomed himself to Gardoqui and was rebuffed. On the other hand, when Col. George Morgan, a Gardoqui man, obtained a grant for a province, which should have its capital at New Madrid, Wilkinson busied himself to destroy that project.

As the year 1789 approached, Miro was gratified by assurances from both the distinguished diplomats whom he regarded as allies, Wilkinson and McGillivray (one cannot say certainly that either was sincere), of the progress of disunion in the West. Kentucky was about to become a State independent of Virginia, and no doubt "our great scheme will meet with a favorable re- ception." The Cumberland people, discouraged by the suppres- sion of their State of Frankland, asked for peace with the Creeks and desired to be "vassals of His Catholic Majesty." In that region Spain was represented by Dr. James White. There is a letter from John Sevier stating that the people were unanimous in their desire to go under the protection of Spain. They had rechristened the Cumberland as the Miro district.

But Miro began to suspect that Wilkinson was a fraud. His good news accompanied a flatboat cargo from Kentucky, for which he asked generous treatment, and he wanted protection against

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any rude measures for the collection of $3,000 he had borrowed in New Orleans on the strength of Navarro's recommendation.

Before departing for Spain, in the spring of 1788, Martin Navarro, the intendant, sent a memorial to the king, again urging upon the government the great danger of the growth of the United States, and the necessity of promoting secession and division. "Grant," said he, "any sort of commercial privilege to the masses in the western region, and shower pensions and honors on their leaders." But no Spaniard could understand the situation. They could give money, but they could not give what the Americans demanded and Spain did not know-individual freedom to think and talk and trade.

In February, 1789, Wilkinson confessed, under a great show of fine phrases and glittering prospects, that the new Union was too strong for him and his fellow conspirators. He had even gone over to Miro's rival, Gardoqui, and applied for a grant of land on the Yazoo, as a place of refuge if it became necessary. That Spain continued her hopeless struggle after the inauguration of Presi- dent Washington, must be ascribed in considerable degree to the advice this faithless creature sent down to New Orleans by Major Dunn, that secession would be sure to come in time, and "to foment the suspicion and feelings of distrust already existing here, and inflame the animosity between the Eastern and Western States, Spain must resort to every artifice and other means which may be in her power." As the chief means, he urged Miro to obstruct the river to American trade.

There was considerable immigration, resulting from the efforts of Gardoqui, even of Pennsylvania Germans. To all claiming the promise of special privileges Miro replied, as to these: "I can only receive the foreigners who may come spontaneously and of their own free will, to swear themselves vassals of His Catholic Majesty. To them surveyed lands shall be granted gratis, in pro- portion to the laborers of whom each family may consist. The smallest concession shall not be less than 200 arpens; 400 to fami- lies of four to ten laborers, and 800 to those numbering from ten to fifteen hands or more." This policy was sustained by the edict of the King in 1790 to Las Casas, captain-general of Cuba.

Morgan came down to New Orleans in 1789, and Miro advised him to settle in the Natchez district. Of the terms Gardoqui had promised the old soldier and speculator, Miro wrote home that he could bring the American congress to New Orleans on such a proposition. "Already had Thomas Hutchins, their surveyor-gen- eral and principal geographer, written to Daniel Clark, a merchant and resident of this town, begging to be informed whether Mor- gan's propositions were accepted by me, because, disregarding the office and the salary he now enjoys, he would become the subject of His Catholic Majesty, being under the impression, as he declares, that New Jersey, with the districts of Fort Pitt and of Kentucky, would be deprived by emigration of their best inhabitants." But Hutchins died before that year was done, to be succeeded as fore-

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most surveyor by Andrew Ellicott. In view of the general effort of Gardoqui, Thomas Jefferson wrote to President Washington : "I wish a hundred thousand of our inhabitants would accept the invitation. It would be the means of delivering to us peaceably what must otherwise cost us a war. In the meantime we may complain of this seduction of our inhabitants, just enough to make the Spanish believe it is a very wise policy for them."

Three great events in 1789 determined the future of the West. The beginning of the French Revolution; the death of the liberal Charles III, and the accession of the worthless Charles IV, under whom an agent of the Holy Inquisition was established at New Orleans; the inauguration of President Washington as the execu- tive of what he called a "consolidated" republic, with Thomas Jefferson as his secretary of state.

Out of opposition to the new constitution, however, according to the story of O'Fallon, proceeded the first Yazoo grants by Geor- gia in 1789 to the South Carolinians, Moultrie, Huger and others. The agent of the adventurers was instructed to tell Miro that their proposed colony would form "a highly advantageous rampart for Spain." But Miro replied ominously that it would be very painful for him to be compelled to make war on citizens of the United States. Georgia had no rights in the territory, he said.

Miro did what he could to meet the new situation. He recom- mended that Wilkinson be continued in the service of the king at an annual pension of $2,000 and Sebastian hired to watch him. He used the occasion of the great fire in New Orleans to practically open the port to free ocean trade, giving the Southwest a great advantage over the interior. But the new order of things was indicated in 1790 by the suggestion of the United States, when a British invasion from Canada was feared, in case of war between Spain and England, that the United States would guarantee Louis- iana from such an attack in return for the cession of New Orleans and the Floridas. About this time McGillivray was persuaded to agree to acknowledge the supremacy of the United States, and was made a brigadier-general and given an annuity by the Federal government. He continued to maintain a show of loyalty to Spain, but was in failing health and died in 1793. Federal appoint- ments were used effectively in Kentucky, and the war in the North- west to destroy the British-Indian pretensions made an opening for General Wilkinson in the United States service. After France became a republic (1793), the intrigues of Genet kept the govern- ment of Louisiana in dread of invasion by Georgians, Carolinians and Westerners under the French flag, and even the people of New Orleans were exposed to seduction by the call to "liberty, equality and fraternity." An edict of June 9, 1793, on account of Louisiana being deprived of the French trade by the war that followed the beheading of Louis XVI, permitted commerce with all friendly na- tions, subject to a duty of 15 per cent. on imports and 6 per cent. on exports, except negroes, who might be imported free of duty.

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Wilkinson complained that this lowering of tariff would take the life out of the movement for Kentucky independence.

The complication of dangers and jealousies in Europe induced Spain, in 1795, to agree to relinquish all her claims outside of the limits yielded by Great Britain, but the turn of affairs that followed persuaded the Spanish government to obstruct the execution of the treaty in the hope that it might be altogether renounced. At the same time there was a second threat of British invasion, known as the Blount Conspiracy, which seemed to pick up the threads dropped by the French filibusters. In this situation of affairs Elli- cott brought the United States flag to Natchez.

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Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 85

Author: Dunbar Rowland Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Dunbar Rowland
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant
Number of Pages: 1020