"The present price of sugar, at 5-1/2 cents, is sustained by a duty of 3 cents a pound. If that duty was removed, foreign sugar would be sold 3 cents less, and ours would fall in the same proportion. That reduction would bring sugar below the actual cost, and therefore it could not be made, even if slaves and lands cost nothing. A reduction of 2 cents would bring the price to the exact amount of 3-1/2 cents a pound, the precise cost of the sugar, independent of the capital, and therefore would yield nothing to the cultivator. A reduction of 1 cent would bring sugar to 4-1/2 cents, which would leave only 1 cent profit to pay for the capital—that is, the lands and slaves. That would diminish the present profit one half, and the value of the slaves in the same proportion. This reduction of duty operates entirely upon the profit; and a reduction of one-third of the duty operates a reduction of one-half of the profit, and thereby one-half of the value of the capital, and one-half of the slaves. Capital has been invested in Louisiana by the present standard of value. A reduction in that standard would produce a corresponding reduction in the value of all property. A reduction of one-third of the duty would sink half the value of property in the state, and ruin all those who have made engagements upon the faith of the laws."

The writer subsequently presents very precise and satisfactory statements, to show the capital required for this branch of agriculture, and the prices which are necessary to sustain it; with some calculated anticipations of its increase, if not crushed by foreign competition. Should it be asked, what interest have the other states of the Union in this concern? It may be a very profitable employment of the money and slaves of the rich planters of Louisiana; but is this a fair reason for imposing heavy duties on a necessary of life, thus enhancing its cost to those who consume it? To meet this inquiry, and remove the objection contained in it; to show that the citizens of the states who consume the sugar have an immediate participation in the profits of its cultivator, Mr. Johnston says—

"It is said that this is a local concern, interesting only to Louisiana. The slaves are taken, as beforementioned, from cotton and tobacco, and are furnished by the Southern States.

"The provisions and animals come from the Western States.

"The clothing from the North.

"The engines, machinery, &c. come from the different foundries in the United States—principally from the West.

"One-third of the capital comes from the South—and more than three-fifths of the whole production goes either in sugar or money to the other states, as their portion of the contribution in making it. The remaining two-fifths, being the profit on the capital, goes back chiefly to Virginia and Maryland, to purchase more slaves.

"There are estimated now, 35,000 slaves: it will require 26,000 more to supply the consumption of 1835.

"There are estimated 725 plantations, which, when brought into operation, will yield an average of 300 hogsheads, sufficient for the consumption of 1836.

"These have required 725 mills for grinding, as many sets of kettles, &c. There are now about 100 steam engines—there will be required in addition, upwards of 600 steam engines.

"These plantations require also a large amount of horses, mules, and oxen; carts, wagons, ploughs, tools, iron, &c.

"The present consumption for the slaves, is 35,000 barrels of pork.

"Which will be increased in 1835 to—say 60,000 " "

"They purchase now about ... 50,000 barrels of corn.

"Each mill, with steam engine and kettles, &c. will cost $5,000.

"There are employed on the sugar plantations (independent of the cotton estates) 22,000 horses—value $1,500,000. These are to be renewed every seven years, or it will require $200,000 a year to supply the market. There were purchased in 1827-8, 2,500 horses—in 1828-9, 2,800—in 1829-30, 3,000 horses.

"Of the 100,000 hogsheads of sugar made in Louisiana, 50,000 hogsheads are transported up the Mississippi in steam-boats, for the supply of the Western States, who obtain it in exchange for their productions. Here, then, there is an internal trade of five millions, created in the Western States.

"The remainder of the sugar is transported coastwise by our vessels, to the North, to restore the balance of trade with that quarter, as well as with foreign nations.

"Thus every interest of agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, connects itself intimately with this object.

"The sugar is indeed made in Louisiana, but a portion of the money on which the establishments are founded, the whole of the labour by which it is produced, the chief supply of food, and the entire amount of clothing, and the transportation of the article, are furnished from the different states."

A prospect is reasonably held out of the reduction of the price of the article, by continuing the protection, to a point as low as need be desired, or could be obtained if we were to depend upon a foreign supply.

"When the estates are paid for, and the general diminution of value in other things takes place, with the improvements in machinery and other causes, sugar will be profitably made at 4 cents, and that is about the price at which we purchase it now in the islands: at that price we can, after supplying this country, enter into the general market of the Baltic, Mediterranean, and Black Seas."

On this part of the case a more satisfactory ground is taken; and it is made manifest, by authentic documents, that since the production of sugar in Louisiana, with the duties by which it is protected, a reduction has taken place in the price of the article, of one-half. The results of the tables annexed to the letter are thus given.

"The protecting duty on sugar, besides opening a new field of industry, diverting a large portion of labour from other objects, maintaining the value of all the slave property in the country, and supplying the people with an article of general use and prime necessity, has actually diminished the price one-half in twelve years.

"In paper A, it will be seen that the prices in 1818 ranged from $14 to 15, and that in 1829 they had fallen to $7.50.

"In paper marked B, it will be seen, that the brown of Havana has fallen 3 cents in 6 years, from 10 to 7 cents, while the sugar of Louisiana has varied from 8-1/2 to 6-1/2. The price of sugar has in that time depreciated more than the duty, and will produce still greater effect. The general average of Havana brown, for six years, is 9-3/4, which now sells at from 7 to 8. The general average of Louisiana for the same period is 8-1/4; the present price ranges from 6-1/2 to 7-1/2. The sugar of Louisiana now sells in New-Orleans at 5-1/2; freight, &c. will bring it to 6-1/2 in the Atlantic ports."

Mr. Johnston has no doubt of the capacity of the sugar region of the United States to supply all our demands for it, for a long period to come.

"Without entering into any exact calculation, I can with confidence assure you, that Louisiana alone can produce enough for the consumption of the country for twenty-five or thirty years, and including Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia south of the 32d degree, will supply it for twice that period.

"It thus appears, that the people of Louisiana, under a confidence in the permanency of the policy of the government, have embarked their fortunes in the production of an article of extensive use; that they are now in the course of successful experiment, which promises, in a few years, to supply the consumption of the country; that they have opened a new field of agricultural industry and enterprise, requiring a vast amount of labour and capital; that they have actually reduced the price of the article one-half, and have saved the country an expense of six or seven millions a-year, and will reduce the price still lower, when the experiment is complete."

Having found in our "History of Louisiana," the feeble commencement of the culture of the sugar cane in that country, we thought it not beside our purpose, and likely to be agreeable to our readers, to trace it to its present strong and flourishing condition; to show the causes of its increase, and its immense value to those who have embarked their fortunes in it; to those by whom its produce is consumed, and finally to the revenue of the government. All these matters, doubtless, will be carefully examined and considered by the public councils whose right and duty it is to decide upon them.

We return to our history; the colony seems now to have attracted the attention of the mother country, and liberal assistance was given to advance its population.

"The ships landed also sixty poor girls, who were brought over at the king's expense. They were the last succour of this kind, which the mother country supplied. They were given in marriage to such soldiers whose good conduct entitled them to a discharge. Land was allotted to each couple, with a cow and calf, a cock and five hens; a gun, axe, and hoe. During the three first years, rations were allowed them, with a small quantity of powder, shot, and grain for seed."

This was in 1751.

An anecdote is recorded, exhibiting at once a feature of aboriginal justice, and the strength of parental affection in the "poor Indian."

"In a quarrel between a Choctaw and a Colapissa, the former told the latter his countrymen were the dogs of the French—meaning their slaves. The Colapissa, having a loaded musket in his hands, discharged its contents at the Choctaw, and fled to New-Orleans. The relations of the deceased came to the Marquis de Vaudreuil to demand his surrender: he had in the mean while gone to the German coast. The Marquis, having vainly tried to appease them, sent orders to Renaud, the commandant of that post, to have the murderer arrested; but he eluded the pursuit. His father went to the Choctaws and offered himself a willing victim: the relations of the deceased persisted in their refusal to accept any compensation in presents. They at last consented to allow the old man to atone, by the loss of his own life, for the crime of his son. He stretched himself on the trunk of an old tree, and a Choctaw severed his head from the body, at the first stroke. This instance of paternal affection was made the subject of a tragedy by Leblanc de Villeneuve, an officer of the troops lately arrived from France. This performance is the only dramatic work which the republic of letters owes to Louisiana."

In the same year the white men furnished a subject for a tragedy far more cruel and vindictive than the self-immolation of an Indian father, and far less just and amiable.

"During the summer, some soldiers of the garrison of Cat Island, rose upon and killed Roux, who commanded there. They were exasperated at his avarice and cruelty. He employed them in burning coal, of which he made a traffic, and for trifling delinquencies had exposed several of them, naked and tied to trees in a swamp, during whole nights, to the stings of musquetoes. Joining some English traders in the neighbourhood of Mobile, they started in the hope of reaching Georgia, through the Indian country. A party of the Choctaws, then about the fort, was sent after and overtook them. One destroyed himself; the rest were brought to New-Orleans, where two were broken on the wheel—the other, belonging to the Swiss regiment of Karrer, was, according to the law of his nation, followed by the officers of the Swiss troops in the service of France, sawed in two parts. He was placed alive in a kind of coffin, to the middle of which two sergeants applied a whip saw. It was not thought prudent to make any allowance for the provocation these men had received."

The removal of the Acadians from their country; stripping them of their lands and goods; permitting them to carry nothing away but their household furniture and money, of which they had but little; laying waste their fields and their dwellings, and consuming their fences by fire, was another awful tragedy performed by civilized man upon the weak and defenceless, upon the pretences of policy. It was an act of British inhumanity; the sufferings of these miserable outcasts and wanderers are described by our author.

"Thus beggared, these people were, in small numbers and at different periods, cast on the sandy shores of the southern provinces, among a people of whose language they were ignorant, and who knew not theirs, whose manners and education were different from their own, whose religion they abhorred, and who were rendered odious to them, as the friends and countrymen of those who had so cruelly treated them, and whom they considered as a no less savage foe, than he who wields the tomahawk and the scalping knife.

"It is due to the descendants of the British colonists, to say, that their sires received with humanity, kindness, and hospitality, those who so severely smarted under the calamities of war. In every province the humane example of the legislature of Pennsylvania was followed, and the colonial treasury was opened to relieve the sufferers; and private charity was not outdone by the public. Yet but a few accepted the proffered relief, and sat down on the land that was offered them.

"The others fled westerly, from what appeared to them a hostile shore—wandering till they found themselves out of sight of any who spoke the English language. They crossed the mighty spine, and wintered among the Indians. The scattered parties, thrown off on the coast of every colony from Pennsylvania to Georgia, united, and trusting themselves to the western waters, sought the land on which the spotless banner waved, and the waves of the Mississippi brought them to New-Orleans."

The practice of shipping off individuals who were obnoxious to the dominant party, seems to have obtained in Louisiana at a very early period; and, as we shall see, became a favourite process in the administration of justice. A pretty strong case of this employment of physical force, without any consultation with the officers of the law, or any regard to the civil rights of the people, occured in 1759. We shall give it to our readers.

"Diaz Anna, a Jew from Jamaica, came to New-Orleans, on a trading voyage. We have seen, that by an edict of the month of March, 1724, that of Louis the Thirteenth, of the 13th of April, 1615, had been extended to Louisiana. The latter edict declared, that Jews, as enemies of the Christian name, should not be allowed to reside in Louisiana; and if they staid in spite of the edict, their bodies and goods should be confiscated: Rochemore had the vessel of the Israelite and her cargo seized. Kerlerec sent soldiers to drive away the guard put on board the vessel, and had her restored to the Jew. Imagining he had gone too far to stop there, he had Belot, Rochemore's secretary, and Marigny de Mandeville, de Lahoupe, Bossu, and some other officers, whom he suspected to have joined the ordonnateur's party, arrested, and a few days after shipped them for France."

Thus far we have seen this province under the dominion of France, and gradually ameliorating its condition under her government. We come now to the period when a new master was to be given to it, or rather, when it was to be given to a new master. It is thus that kings have used territories and their people, their industry and their wealth, as subjects of diplomatic traffic and political accommodation. "On the 3d of November 1763, a secret treaty was signed between the French and Spanish kings, by which the former ceded to the latter the part of the province of Louisiana which lies on the western side of the Mississippi, with the city of New-Orleans, and the island on which it stands." When the rumours of this cession reached the colonists, it produced the deepest distress; they had a dread of passing "under the yoke of Spain." Official intelligence of the event was not received until October 1764, when an order came from the king to deliver possession of the ceded territory to the governor of the Catholic king. "This intelligence plunged the inhabitants in the greatest consternation;" especially as it estranged them from their kindred and friends in the eastern part of the province—transferring them to a foreign potentate. Every effort was made by meetings and memorials to avert the calamity. The actual delivery was delayed; and a hope was entertained that the cession might be rescinded, for two years had elapsed since the direction had been given to surrender the province to Spain. In the summer of 1766, intelligence was received that Don Ulloa had arrived at Havana, to take the possession, for Spain, of Louisiana. Soon after he landed at New-Orleans, and was received "with dumb respect." He declined exhibiting his powers, and of course delayed to receive the possession of the country. In 1768 the council insisted that Don Ulloa should produce his powers or depart from the province; he chose the latter alternative, and sailed for Havana, and from thence to Spain. In the following year a governor of a different temperament was sent from Spain, attended by a strong military force, with a large supply of arms and ammunition. On the 24th of July, Don Alexander O'Reilly landed on the levee. "The inhabitants immediately came to a resolution to choose three gentlemen to wait on him, and inform him that the people of Louisiana were determined to abandon the colony, and had no other favour to ask from him, but that he would allow them two years to remove themselves and their effects." O'Reilly received the deputies with great politeness; made professions of his desire to promote the interests of the colonists, and said every thing he thought would flatter the people. At this time the Spanish armament had not reached the city; it cast anchor on the 16th of August. In the afternoon of the 18th, the Spaniards disembarked; the French flag was lowered, and the Spanish was seen flying in its place in the middle of the square. We have been thus particular in narrating these events, because they were the precursors of a proceeding of military violence, astonishing even for that day, and under circumstances of open disaffection and opposition to the government; for some of the planters had taken up arms on the arrival of O'Reilly.

One of the first acts of O'Reilly's administration was to take a census of the inhabitants of New-Orleans. The aggregate population was 3190, of every age, sex, and colour; of these 1902 were free; 1225 slaves, and sixty domesticated Indians; the number of houses was 468; the whole province contained but 13,538 inhabitants.

We have seen that the cession of the province had created the utmost discontent; and the arrival of O'Reilly was considered as a general calamity. The transfer had been impeded and resisted by all the means in the power of the colonists. Although Don Ulloa had not ventured to execute his commission with the force at his command, he had, nevertheless, "set about building forts and putting troops into them." On the other side, plans of resistance were contemplated by the people; and assistance looked for from their English neighbours in West Florida; and in the fall of 1768 Don Ulloa was, as we have seen, ordered away. By this brief retrospect, the temper of the colonists, on the arrival of O'Reilly, will be understood, and will serve as a key to his proceedings. He resolved to lose nothing by timidity and hesitation. In the reckless pride and unbridled passions of military despotism, he disdained to temporize, or endeavour to sooth the irritated feelings of the people, or to conciliate their confidence, or calm their fears. He had been accustomed to rely upon no power but that of the sword, and to respect no authority but a military commission. To him the law was a subject of scorn, and the civil rights of citizens or subjects an idle tale. He looked upon his five thousand troops, with their arms and ammunition, and he saw there the only power be respected, or would condescend to use to maintain his government. Such principles led or drove him to a course of desperate violence, having then no parallel in any country pretending to a government of laws, or any civil rights. We shall give his proceedings in the language of our historian.

"Towards the last day of August, the people were alarmed by the arrest of Foucault, the commissary-general and ordonnateur, De Noyant and Boisblanc, two members of the superior council; La Freniere, the attorney-general, and Braud, the king's printer. These gentlemen were attending O'Reilly's leve, when he requested them to step into an adjacent apartment, where they found themselves immediately surrounded by a body of grenadiers, with fixed bayonets, the commanding officer of whom informed them they were the king's prisoners. The two first were conveyed to their respective houses, and a guard was left there: the others were imprisoned in the barracks.

"It had been determined to make an example of twelve individuals; two from the army, and an equal number from the bar; four planters, and as many merchants. Accordingly, Marquis and De Noyant, officers of the troop; La Freniere, the attorney-general, and Doucet, (lawyers,) Villere, Boisblanc, Mazent, and Petit, (planters,) and John Milhet, Joseph Milhet, Caresse and Poupet, (merchants,) had been selected.

"Within a few days, Marquis, Doucet, Petit, Mazant, the two Milhets, Caresse, and Poupet, were arrested and confined.

"Villere, who was on his plantation at the German coast, had been marked as one of the intended victims; but his absence from the city rendering his arrest less easy, it had been determined to release one of the prisoners on his being secured. He had been apprized of the impending danger, and it had been recommended to him to provide for his safety by seeking the protection of the British flag waving at Manshac. When he was deliberating on the step it became him to take, he received a letter from Aubry, the commandant of the French troops, assuring him he had nothing to apprehend, and advising him to return to the city. Averse to flight, as it would imply a consciousness of guilt, he yielded to Aubry's recommendation, and returned to New-Orleans; but as he passed the gate, the officer commanding the guard arrested him. He was immediately conveyed on board of a frigate that lay at the levee. On hearing of this, his lady, a grand daughter of La Chaise, the former commissary-general and ordonnateur, hastened to the city. As her boat approached the frigate, it was hailed and ordered away. She made herself known, and solicited admission to her husband, but was answered she could not see him, as the captain was on shore, and had left orders that no communication should be allowed with the prisoner. Villere recognised his wife's voice, and insisted on being permitted to see her. On his being refused, a struggle ensued, in which he fell, pierced by the bayonets of his guards. His bloody shirt thrown into the boat, announced to the lady that she had ceased to be a wife; and a sailor cut the rope that fastened the boat to the frigate.

"O'Reilly's assessors heard and recorded the testimony against the prisoners, and called on them for their pleas.

"The prosecution was grounded on a statute of Alfonso the eleventh, which is the first law of the seventh title of the first partida, and denounces the punishment of death and confiscation of property against those who excite any insurrection against the king or state, or take up arms under pretence of extending their liberty or rights, and against those who give them any assistance.

"Foucault pleaded he had done nothing, except in his character of commissary-general and ordonnateur of the king of France in the province, and to him alone he was accountable for the motives that had directed his official conduct. The plea was sustained; he was not, however, released; and a few days afterwards, he was transported to France.

"Brand offered a similar plea, urging he was the king of France's printer in Louisiana. The only accusation against him, was that he had printed the petition of the planters and merchants to the superior council, soliciting that body to require Ulloa to exhibit his powers or depart. He concluded that he was bound, by his office, to print whatever the ordonnateur sent to his press; and he produced that officer's order to print the petition. His plea was sustained and he was discharged.

"The other prisoners declined also the jurisdiction of the tribunal before which they were arraigned: their plea was overruled. They now denied the facts with which they were charged, contended that if they did take place, they did so while the flag of France was still waving over the province, and the laws of that kingdom retained their empire in it, and thus the facts did not constitute an offence against the laws of Spain; that the people of Louisiana could not bear the yokes of two sovereigns; that O'Reilly could not command the obedience, nor even the respect of the colonists, until he made known to them his character and powers; and that the Catholic king could not count on their allegiance, till he extended to them his protection.

"It had been determined at first, to proceed with the utmost rigour of the law against six of the prisoners; but, on the death of Villere, it was judged sufficient to do so against five only. The jurisprudence of Spain authorizing the infliction of a less severe punishment than that denounced by the statute, when the charge is not proved by two witnesses to the same act, but by one with corroborating circumstances.—Accordingly two witnesses were produced against De Noyant, La Freniere, Marquis, Joseph Milhet, and Caresse. They were convicted; and O'Reilly, by the advice of his assessor, condemned them to be hanged, and pronounced the confiscation of their estates.

"The most earnest and pathetic entreaties were employed by persons in every rank of society, to prevail on O'Reilly to remit or suspend the execution of his sentence till the royal clemency could be implored. He was inexorable; and the only indulgence that could be obtained, was, that death should be inflicted by shooting, instead of hanging. With this modification, the sentence was carried into execution on the twenty-eighth of September.

"On the morning of that day, the guards, at every gate and post of the city, were doubled, and orders were given not to allow any body to enter it. All the troops were under arms, and paraded the streets or were placed in battle array along the levee and on the public square. Most of the inhabitants fled into the country. At three o'clock of the afternoon, the victims were led, under a strong guard, to the small square in front of the barracks, tied to stakes, and an explosion of musketry soon announced to the few inhabitants who remained in the city, that their friends were no more.

"Posterity, the judge of men in power, will doom this act to public execration. No necessity demanded, no policy justified it. Ulloa's conduct had provoked the measures to which the inhabitants had resorted. During nearly two years, he had haunted the province as a phantom of dubious authority. The efforts of the colonists, to prevent the transfer of their natal soil to a foreign prince, originated in their attachment to their own, and the Catholic king ought to have beheld in their conduct a pledge of their future devotion to himself. They had but lately seen their country severed, and a part of it added to the dominion of Great Britain; they had bewailed their separation from their friends and kindred; and were afterwards to be alienated, without their consent, and subjected to a foreign yoke. If the indiscretion of a few of them needed an apology, the common misfortune afforded it.

"A few weeks afterwards, the proceedings against the six remaining prisoners were brought to a close. One witness only deposing against any of them, and circumstances corroborating the testimony, Boisblanc was condemned to imprisonment for life; Doucet, Mazent, John Milhet, Petit, and Poupet, were condemned to imprisonment for various terms of years. All were transported to Havana, and cast into the dungeons of the Moro Castle."

O'Reilly was not satisfied with this bloody vengeance on the individuals who had incurred his resentment and offended his pride. The "Superior council" in a body must be prostrated by his power.

"A proclamation of O'Reilly, on the twenty-first of November, announced to them that the evidence received during the late trials, having furnished full proof of the part the superior council had in the revolt during the two preceding years, and of the influence it had exerted in encouraging the leaders, instead of using its best endeavours to keep the people in the fidelity and subordination they owed to the sovereign, it had become necessary to abolish that tribunal, and to establish, in Louisiana, that form of government and mode of administering justice prescribed by the laws of Spain, which had long maintained the Catholic king's American colonies in perfect tranquillity, content, and subordination."

A year after these deeds of military heroism, O'Reilly took passage for Europe. But what said his royal master, the King of Spain, for such outrages upon the lives and liberty of his newly acquired subjects? We are told in one short paragraph—"Charles III. disapproved of O'Reilly's conduct, and he received on his landing at Cadiz, an order prohibiting his appearance at court." Well, it is something that his conduct was disapproved of, and not rewarded with new honours and powers. Some sovereigns might have done this.

We pass from these distressing and disgraceful scenes, and find nothing of peculiar interest in our History, until we come to the period of our revolution. Although in 1778, the people of Louisiana could have had no prophetic vision to warn them that they would become a member of the American Republic, they felt and manifested a friendly disposition toward us, and rendered us efficient aid in the struggle then carrying on for our independence.

"During the month of January, Captain Willing made a second visit to New-Orleans. Oliver Pollock now acted openly as the agent of the Americans, with the countenance of Galvez, who now, and at subsequent periods, afforded them an aid of upwards of seventy thousand dollars out of the royal treasury. By this means, the posts occupied by the militia of Virginia on the Mississippi, and the frontier inhabitants of the state of Pennsylvania, were supplied with arms and ammunition."

Now that we have become one people, and our Independence has made the independence of Louisiana, it is gratifying to recall to our recollection every testimony that may draw us closer together in our affections, as we are in our interests and common welfare. We take pleasure also in presenting an instance of American enterprise and gallantry, which ought not to be forgotten.

"Colonel Hamilton, who commanded at the British post at Detroit, came this year to Vincennes, on the Wabash, with about six hundred men, chiefly Indians, with a view to an expedition against Kaskaskia, and up the Ohio as far as Fort Pitt, and the back settlements of Virginia. Colonel Clark heard, from a trader who came down from Vincennes to Kaskaskia, that Hamilton, not intending to take the field until spring, had sent most of his force to block up the Ohio, or to harass the frontier settlers, keeping at Vincennes sixty soldiers only, with three pieces of cannon and some swivels. The resolution was immediately taken to improve the favourable opportunity for averting the impending danger; and Clark accordingly despatched a small galley, mounting two four pounders and four swivels, on board of which he put a company of soldiers, with orders to pursue her way up the Wabash, and anchor a few miles below Vincennes, suffering nothing to pass her. He now sat off with one hundred and twenty men, the whole force he could command, and marched towards Vincennes. They were five days in crossing the low lands of the Wabash, in the neighbourhood of Vincennes, after having spent sixty in crossing the wilderness, wading for several nights up to their breasts in water. Appearing suddenly before the town, they surprised and took it. Hamilton for a while defended the fort, but was at last compelled to surrender."

We now approach a period in the History of Louisiana when her direct communication and commerce with the United States began; and from this moment she became an object of great and growing interest to us. The commencement of this intercourse is of a singular character, and was conducted with singular address.

"The foundation was now laid of a commercial intercourse, through the Mississippi, between the United States and New-Orleans, which has been continued, with but little interruption, to this day, and has increased to an immense degree; and, to the future extent of which, the imagination can hardly contemplate any limit. Hitherto, the boats of the western people, venturing on the Mississippi, were arrested by the first Spanish officer who met them; and confiscation ensued, in every case; all communication between the citizens of the United States and the Spaniards being strictly prohibited. Now and then, an emigrant, desirous of settling in the district of Natchez, by personal entreaty and the solicitations of his friends, obtained a tract of land, with permission to settle on it with his family, slaves, farming utensils, and furniture. He was not allowed to bring any thing to sell without paying an enormous duty. An unexpected incident changed the face of affairs in this respect.

"The idea of a regular trade was first conceived by General Wilkinson, who had served with distinction as an officer in the late war, and whose name is as conspicuous in the annals of the west, as any other. He had connected with it a scheme for the settlement of several thousand American families in that part of the present state of Louisiana, now known as the parishes of East and West Feliciana, and that of Washita, and on White river, and other streams of the present territory of Arkansas. For these services to the Spanish government, he expected to obtain the privilege of introducing, yearly, a considerable quantity of tobacco into the Mexican market.

"With a view to the execution of his plan, Wilkinson descended the Mississippi, with an adventure of tobacco, flour, butter, and bacon. He stopped at Natchez while his boat was floating down the stream to New-Orleans, the commandant at the former place having been induced to forbear seizing it, from an apprehension that such a step would be disapproved by Miro, who might be desirous of showing some indulgence to a general officer of a nation with whom his was at peace—especially as the boat and its owner were proceeding to New-Orleans, where he could act towards them as he saw fit.

"Wilkinson having stopped at a plantation on the river, the boat reached the city before him. On its approaching the levee, a guard was immediately sent on board, and the revenue officers were about taking measures for its seizure, when a merchant, who was acquainted with Wilkinson, and had some influence with Miro, represented to him that the step Navarro was about to take might be attended with unpleasant consequences; that the people of Kentucky were already much exasperated at the conduct of the Spaniards in seizing all the property of those who navigated the Mississippi, and if this system was pursued, they would probably, in spite of Congress, take means themselves to open the navigation of the river by force. Hints were, at the same time, thrown out, that the general was a very popular character among those who were capable of inflaming the whole of the western people, and that, probably, his sending a boat before him, that it might be seized, was a scheme laid by the government of the United States, that he might, on his return, influence the minds of his countrymen; and, having brought them to the point he wished, induce them to choose him for their leader, and, spreading over the country, carry fire and desolation from one part of Louisiana to the other.

"On this, Miro expressed his wish to Navarro that the guard might be removed. This was done; and Wilkinson's friend was permitted to take charge of the boat, and sell the cargo, without paying any duty.

"On his first interview with Miro, Wilkinson, that he might not derogate from the character his friend had given him, by appearing concerned in so trifling an adventure as a boat-load of tobacco, flour, &c. observed that the cargo belonged to several of his fellow-citizens in Kentucky, who wished to avail themselves of his visit to New-Orleans to make a trial of the temper of the colonial government. On his return he could then inform the United States government, of the steps taken under his eye; so that, in future, proper measures might be adopted. He acknowledged with gratitude the attention and respect manifested towards himself, and the favour shown to the merchant who had been permitted to take care of the boat; adding, he did not wish that the intendant should expose himself to the anger of the court, by forbearing to seize the boat and cargo, if such were his instructions, and he had no authority to depart from them when circumstances might require it.

"Miro supposed, from this conversation, that Wilkinson's object was to produce a rupture rather than to avoid one. He became more and more alarmed. For two or three years before, particularly since the commissioners of the state of Georgia came to Natchez to claim the country, he had been fearful of an invasion at every rise of the water; and the rumour of a few boats having been seen together on the Ohio, was sufficient to excite his apprehensions. At his next interview with Wilkinson, having procured further information of the character, number, and disposition of the western people, and having revolved, in his mind, what measures he could take, consistently with his instructions, he concluded that he could do no better than to hold out a hope to Wilkinson, in order to secure his influence in restraining his countrymen from an invasion of Louisiana, till further instructions could be received from Madrid. The general sailed in September for Philadelphia."

In 1788, Don Martin Navarro, the intendant, left the province for Spain, and we cannot deny him the credit of sagacity, in his last communication to the king.

"Navarro's last communication to the king was a memorial which he had prepared, by order of the minister, on the danger to be apprehended by Spain, in her American colonies, from the emancipation of the late British provinces on the Atlantic. In this document, he dwells much on the ambition of the United States, and their thirst for conquest; whose views he states to be an extension of territory to the shores of the Pacific ocean; and suggests the dismemberment of the western country, by means of pensions and the grant of commercial privileges, as the most proper means, in the power of Spain, to arrest the impending danger. To effect this, was not, in his opinion, very difficult. The attempt was therefore strongly recommended, as success would greatly augment the power of Spain, and forever arrest the progress of the United States to the west.

"It would not have been difficult for the King of Spain, at this period, to have found, in Kentucky, citizens of the United States ready to come into his views. The people of that district met, this year, in a second convention, and agreed on a petition to congress for the redress of their grievances—the principal of which was, the occlusion of the Mississippi. Under the apprehension that the interference of congress could not be obtained, or might be fruitless, several expedients were talked of, no one of which was generally approved; the people being divided into no less than five parties, all of which had different, if not opposite, views.

"The first was for independence of the United States, and the formation of a new republic, unconnected with them, who was to enter into a treaty with Spain.

"Another party was willing that the country should become a part of the province of Louisiana, and submit to the admission of the laws of Spain.

"A third desired a war with Spain, and the seizure of New-Orleans.

"A fourth plan was to prevail on congress, by a show of preparation for war, to extort from the cabinet of Madrid, what it persisted in refusing.

"The last, as unnatural as the second, was to solicit France to procure a retrocession of Louisiana, and extend her protection to Kentucky."

We think the Don's scheme, for preventing the evils he anticipated, altogether chimerical; but our author has more faith in it, and believes "it would not have been difficult for the King of Spain, at this period, to find, in Kentucky, citizens of the United States ready to come into his views." We trust this is a mistake. The occlusion of the Mississippi was the grievance they deplored. It is, however, worthy of our special attention, that at the period when these matters were agitated in our western country, our states were held together by the weak and inefficient bonds of the old confederation, under which, state selfishness and state pride, now called state rights, predominated over the great and general interests of the Union; and the weaker members were neglected, having no superintending, supreme federal power to give an equal care and protection to every part. Our author distinctly says, that "it was in the western part of the United States that the inefficacy of the power of Congress was most complained of." The present strength and prosperity of the west, are the fruits of our "more perfect union," and the wisdom and gratitude of the west will forever make it the friend and support of that Union.

We are now introduced to the Baron de Carondelet, a name which afterwards became conspicuous in the History of Louisiana, and familiar to the citizens of the United States. He was appointed governor of the province, and entered upon his duties in 1792. "The sympathies and partialities of the people of Louisiana began to manifest themselves strongly in favour of the French patriots, principally in New-Orleans." The Baron thought it to be his duty, especially as he was a native of France, "to restrain excesses against monarchical government." He began by stopping "the exhibition of certain martial dances and revolutionary airs" at the theatre. He afterwards thought it necessary to adopt stronger measures to suppress the growing inclination to popular doctrines, and betook himself to the custom of the country, the New-Orleans common law, or rather the law of its governors, to ship off the obnoxious persons, without any form of trial or condemnation. He caused six individuals to be arrested and confined in the fort, and soon afterwards, "shipped them for Havana, where they were detained a twelve month." This may be a very pretty military mode of getting rid of disagreeable or troublesome people—the summary arrest—the fort—the ship and banishment; but we cannot reconcile it to our notions of liberty and law.

We pass over, as matters well known, the plans of Genet at this period, and the proceedings of the Baron to defeat them.—The Baron also followed up, with great perseverance, "his favourite plan for the separation of the western people from the Union," and he continued to do so, subsequent to the ratification of the treaty between the United States and Spain. The report made by Power, the Baron's agent, of the dispositions of the western people, was altogether unpropitious to his design. He, however, delayed the delivery of the posts, to which the United States were entitled, under various pretences; still having the separation in view. His proceedings to effect this object are detailed, and will be read with interest. It is needless to say, that no ray of success shone upon his enterprise. Power, the active agent of the mischief, came very near to be tarred and feathered at Louisville, and was afterwards arrested by General Wilkinson, at Detroit. The Baron must have opened his eyes in astonishment at his egregious miscalculation of the dispositions of the West, when Wilkinson informed him, "that the people of Kentucky had proposed to him to raise an army of ten thousand men to take New-Orleans in case of a rupture with Spain."

Our author gives a concise account of the cession of Louisiana by Spain to France, and again by France to the United States. The negotiator by whom the latter transfer was conducted, on the part of France, was M. Marbois, and his work is the most satisfactory authority for the curious details of that extraordinary proceeding. The general character of the transaction, and the terms of purchase, are sufficiently known; but M. Marbois lets us into some of the secrets of the negotiation, and of the reasons which induced the first consul to part with this valuable territory as soon as he had acquired it. We will be brief with them.

The cession of Louisiana by France to Spain in 1763, was not only, as we have seen, a cause of violent discontent to the inhabitants of that province, but was considered in all the maritime and commercial cities of France, as impolitic and injurious; and a general wish prevailed to recover the colony. This did not escape Bonaparte, who did not delay to renew with the court of Madrid, a negotiation on the subject; having also in view a diminution of the power of England, which was never out of his mind. Profiting by the ascendancy he acquired by the victory of Marengo, he easily persuaded the Prince of Peace to restore Louisiana to France. This was done by a treaty made in October 1800. It was stipulated that the surrender should be made six months after. The treaty of 21st March 1801, renews these dispositions; but Louisiana continued for some time longer under the dominion of Spain. The differences between the United States and the French republic were terminated by a convention at Paris, on 30th of September 1800; and on the next day the treaty above mentioned with Spain was concluded at St. Ildephonso. As the war between France and England still continued, the cession of Louisiana to France was not made public; nor was possession taken. This difficulty was not removed for some time. In October 1801, preliminaries of peace were signed at London, followed up by the treaty of Amiens in March 1802. In the following September General Victor was appointed governor general of Louisiana; and Laussat the prefect sailed for New-Orleans in January.

The retrocession of the province to France created much uneasiness and alarm in the United States. The free navigation of the Mississippi became daily of more importance, and it was apprehended that the French would not be found as peaceable neighbours as the Spaniards. Every one remembers the short and uneasy existence of the insincere peace of Amiens. A renewal of the war was seen to be inevitable, and the American cabinet perceived that, in such an event, France would postpone the occupation of Louisiana. This state of things was justly thought to be favourable to an arrangement with France on the subject of the deposit at New-Orleans and the navigation of the river. Mr. Monroe was sent to that country for this purpose, where Mr. Livingston, our minister, had been pursuing it for many months; his overtures received little or no attention. The debates in our senate are not forgotten, on the motion of Mr. Ross; nor the prospect then in view of our taking by force of arms what it was believed would never be gained by treaty. In the spring of 1803, war was clearly inevitable between France and England; and Bonaparte knew that Louisiana, in that event, would be at the mercy of his enemy. He at once determined to change his policy in regard to that province, and to part with it, as the only means of saving it from England. On the 10th of April 1803, he entered upon the execution of his design, and called two counsellors to him, and addressed them "with that vehemence and passion which he particularly manifested in political affairs." He said he knew the full value of Louisiana, and had been desirous of repairing the fault by which it was lost—that "a few lines of a treaty have restored it to me, and I have scarcely recovered it when I must expect to lose it." Looking to the strength it would give to the United States, he said: "But if it escapes from me, it shall one day cost dearer to those who oblige me to strip myself of it, than to those to whom I wish to deliver it." After some remarks upon the naval strength in the Gulf of Mexico, and the ease with which they might take Louisiana, he added;—

"I think of ceding it to the United States. I can scarcely say that I cede it to them, for it is not yet in our possession. If, however, I leave the least time to our enemies, I shall only transmit an empty title to those republicans whose friendship I seek. They only ask of me one town in Louisiana, but I already consider the colony as entirely lost, and it appears to me that in the hands of this growing power, it will be more useful to the policy and even to the commerce of France, than if I should attempt to keep it."

The counsellors differed in their opinions, diametrically, each giving his reasons at large. The first consul decided the question immediately; he promptly declared, that

"Irresolution and deliberation are no longer in season. I renounce Louisiana. It is not only New-Orleans that I will cede, it is the whole colony without any reservation. I know the price of what I abandon, and I have sufficiently proved the importance that I attach to this province, since my first diplomatic act with Spain had for its object the recovery of it. I renounce it with the greatest regret. To attempt obstinately to retain it would be folly. I direct you to negotiate this affair with the envoys of the United States. Do not even await the arrival of Mr. Monroe: have an interview this very day with Mr. Livingston."

We hope and believe that one of the predictions of this luminous mind will not be fulfilled, although we have lately seen some appearances of its accomplishment.

"Perhaps it will also be objected to me, that the Americans may be found too powerful for Europe in two or three centuries: but my foresight does not embrace such remote fears. Besides, we may hereafter expect rivalries among the members of the Union. The confederations, that are called perpetual, only last till one of the contracting parties finds it to its interest to break them, and it is to prevent the danger, to which the colossal power of England exposes us, that I would provide a remedy."

"The conferences began the same day between Mr. Livingston and M. Barbe Marbois, to whom the first consul confided the negotiation." Pending the preliminary discussions, Mr. Monroe arrived at Paris; but even then Mr. Livingston despaired of success, and said to Mr. Monroe, "I wish that the resolution offered by Mr. Ross in the senate had been adopted. Only force can give us New-Orleans; we must employ force; let us first get possession of the country and negotiate afterwards." Mr. Livingston, however, was happily mistaken. "The first difficulties," says M. Marbois, "were smoothed by a circumstance which is rarely met with in congresses and diplomatic conferences. The plenipotentiaries having been long acquainted, were disposed to treat each other with confidence." The negotiation, under such auspices, proceeded rapidly, but not without some distrust on our part.

"Mr. Monroe, still affected by the distrust of his colleague, did not hear without surprise the first overtures that were frankly made by M. de Marbois. Instead of the cession of a town and its inconsiderable territory, a vast portion of America was in some sort offered to the United States. They only asked for the mere right of navigating the Mississippi, and their sovereignty was about to be extended over the largest rivers of the world. They passed over an interior frontier to carry their limits to the great Pacific ocean."

The termination of this important negotiation was as speedy and satisfactory, as it has been and will be important in its consequences. M. Marbois truly observes, "the cession of Louisiana was a certain guarantee of the future greatness of the United States; and opposed an insurmountable obstacle to any design formed by the English of becoming predominant in America." In relation to the stipulations in the treaty, that the inhabitants should be incorporated in the Union, and, in due time, be admitted as a state, &c. M. Marbois records.

"The first consul, left to his natural disposition, was always inclined to an elevated and generous justice. He himself prepared the article which has been just recited. The words which he employed on the occasion are recorded in the journal of the negotiation, and deserve to be preserved. 'Let the Louisianians know that we separate ourselves from them with regret; that we stipulate in their favour every thing that they can desire, and let them hereafter, happy in their independence, recollect that they have been Frenchmen, and that France, in ceding them, has secured for them advantages which they could not have obtained from a European power, however paternal it might have been. Let them retain for us sentiments of affection; and may their common origin, descent, language, and customs, perpetuate the friendship.'"

The arrangement being completed, M. Marbois says—"the following words sufficiently acquaint us with the reflections which then influenced the first consul. This accession of territory, said he, strengthens forever the power of the United States, and I have just given to England a maritime rival, that will sooner or later humble her pride."

We return to the History of Judge Martin, who describes the ceremonies of delivering the colony to the United States. Some citizens of the United States waved their hats, but "no emotion was manifested by any other part of the crowd. The colonists did not appear conscious that they were reaching the Latium sedes ubi fata quietas ostendunt."

We pass on to the year 1806, when the celebrated plot of Aaron Burr is introduced. The president had received information of it, but not at first with such certainty as warranted any steps to be taken against the accused. General Wilkinson, then commanding in the west, afterwards made communications to the president, "involving men distinguished for integrity and patriotism; men of talents, honoured by the confidence of the government, in the flagitious plot." The designs of Burr and his associates were fully developed on his trial, and we need not repeat them here; but the proceedings of General Wilkinson are not so generally understood, and it is well that they should be. Nobody can be better qualified than our historian to give the information, nor to obtain implicit belief of all he narrates. We shall here see again that the old practice of shipping off obnoxious individuals was resorted to by a military commander; as if there was something in the climate of New-Orleans to excite men in power to this mode of punishment or revenge. We cannot present these transactions better than in the language of our author.

"On Sunday, the fourteenth, Dr. Erick Bollman was arrested by order of Wilkinson, and hurried to a secret place of confinement, and on the evening of the following day application was made on his behalf, for a writ of habeas corpus, to Sprigg, one of the territorial judges, who declined acting, till he could consult Mathews, who could not then be found. On the sixteenth, the writ was obtained from the superior court; but Bollman was, in the meanwhile, put on board of a vessel and sent down the river. On the same day, application was made to Workman, the judge of the county of Orleans, for a writ of habeas corpus, in favour of Ogden and Swartwout, who had been arrested a few days before, by order of Wilkinson, at Fort Adams, and were on board of a bomb ketch of the United States lying before the city. Workman immediately granted the writ, and called on Claiborne to inquire whether he had assented to Wilkinson's proceedings: Claiborne replied he had consented to the arrest of Bollman, and his mind was not made up as to the propriety of that of Ogden and Swartwout. Workman then expatiated on the illegality and evil tendency of such measures, beseeching Claiborne not to permit them, but to use his own authority, as the constitutional guardian of his fellow-citizens, to protect them; but he was answered that the executive had no authority to liberate those persons, and it was for the judiciary to do it, if they thought fit. Workman added, that he had heard that Wilkinson intended to ship off his prisoners, and if this was permitted, writs of habeas corpus would prove nugatory.

"From the alarm and terror prevalent in the city, the deputy sheriff could procure no boat to take him on board of the ketch, on the day the writ issued. This circumstance was made known early on the next morning, to Workman, who thereupon directed the deputy sheriff to procure a boat by the offer of a considerable sum of money, for the payment of which he undertook the county would be responsible. The writ was served soon afterwards, and returned at five in the evening by Commodore Shaw, and the commanding officer of the ketch, Lieutenant Jones; Swartwout had been taken from the ketch before the service of the writ. Ogden was produced and discharged, as his detention was justified on the order of Wilkinson only.

"On the eighteenth of December, Wilkinson returned the writ of habeas corpus into the superior court, stating that, as commander in chief of the army of the United States, he took on himself all responsibility for the arrest of Erick Bollman, charged with misprison of treason against the government of the United States, and he had adopted measures for his safe delivery to the government of the United States: that it was after several conversations with the governor and one of the judges of the territory, that he had hazarded this step for the national safety, menaced to its basis by a lawless band of traitors, associated under Aaron Burr, whose accomplices were extended from New-York to New-Orleans: that no man held in higher reverence the civil authorities of his country, and it was to maintain and perpetuate the holy attributes of the constitution, against the uplifted arm of violence, that he had interposed the force of arms in a moment of the utmost peril, to seize upon Bollman, as he should upon all others, without regard to standing or station, against whom any proof might arise of a participation in the lawless combination.

"This return was, afterwards, amended, by an averment that, at the time of the service of the writ, Bollman was not in the possession or power of the person to whom it was addressed.

"On the following day Ogden was arrested a second time by the commanding officer of a troop of cavalry of the militia of the territory, in the service of the United States, by whom Alexander was also taken in custody; on the application of Livingston, Workman issued writs of habeas corpus for both prisoners.

"Instead of a return, Wilkinson sent a written message to Workman, begging him to accept his return to the superior court, as applicable to the two traitors, who were the subjects of his writs. On this, Livingston procured from the court, a rule that Wilkinson make a further and more explicit return to the writs, or show cause why an attachment should not issue against him.

"Workman now called again on Claiborne, and repeated his observations, and recommended, that Wilkinson should be opposed by force of arms. He stated, that the violent measures of that officer had produced great discontent, alarm, and agitation, in the public mind; and, unless such proceeding were effectually opposed, all confidence in government would be at an end. He urged Claiborne to revoke the order, by which he had placed the Orleans volunteers under Wilkinson's command, and to call out and arm the rest of the militia force, as soon as possible. He stated it as his opinion, that the army would not oppose the civil power, when constitutionally brought forth, or that, if they did, the governor might soon have men enough to render the opposition ineffectual. He added, that, from the laudable conduct of Commodore Shaw and Lieutenant Jones, respecting Ogden, he not only did not apprehend any resistance to the civil authority from the navy, but thought they might be relied on. Similar representations were made to Claiborne by Hall and Mathews; but they were unavailing.

"On the twenty-sixth, Wilkinson made a second return to the writ of habeas corpus, stating that the body of neither of the prisoners was in his possession or control. On this, Livingston moved for process of attachment.

"Workman now made an official communication to Claiborne. He began by observing, that the late extraordinary events, which had taken place within the territory, had led to a circumstance, which authorized the renewal, in a formal manner, of the request he had so frequently urged in conversation, that the executive would make use of the constitutional force placed under his command, to maintain the laws, and protect his fellow-citizens against the unexampled tyranny exercised over them.

"He added, it was notorious that the commander in chief of the military forces had, by his own authority, arrested several citizens for civil offences, and had avowed on record, that he had adopted measures to send them out of the territory, openly declaring his determination to usurp the functions of the judiciary, by making himself the only judge of the guilt of the persons he suspected, and asserting in the same manner, and as yet without contradiction, that his measures were taken, after several consultations with the governor.

"He proceeded to state, that writs of habeas corpus had been issued from the court of the county of New-Orleans: on one of them, Ogden had been brought up and discharged, but he had been, however, again arrested, by order of the general, together with an officer of the court, who had aided professionally in procuring his release. The general had, in his return to a subsequent writ, issued on his behalf, referred the court to a return made by him to a former writ of the superior court, and in the further return which he had been ordered to make, he had declared that neither of the prisoners was in his power, possession, or custody; but he had not averred what was requisite, in order to exempt him from the penalty of a contempt of court, that these persons were not in his power, possession, or custody, at the time when the writs were served, and, in consequence of the deficiency, the court had been moved for an attachment.

"The judge remarked, that although a common case would not require the step he was taking, yet, he deemed it his duty, before any decisive measure was pursued against a man, who had all the regular force, and in pursuance of the governor's public orders, a great part of that of the territory, at his disposal, to ask whether the executive had the ability to enforce the decrees of the court of the county, and if he had, whether he would deem it expedient to do it, in the present instance, or whether the allegation by which he supported these violent measures was well founded?

"Not only the conduct and power of Wilkinson, said the judge, but various other circumstances, peculiar to our present situation, the alarm excited in the public mind, the description and character of a large part of the population of the country, might render it dangerous, in the highest degree, to adopt the measure usual in ordinary cases, of calling to the aid of the sheriff, the posse comitatus, unless it were done with the assurance of being supported by the governor in an efficient manner.

"The letter concluded by requesting a precise and speedy answer to the preceding inquiries, and an assurance that, if certain of the governor's support, the judge should forthwith punish, as the law directs, the contempt offered to his court: on the other hand, should the governor not think it practicable or proper to afford his aid, the court and its officers would no longer remain exposed to the contempt or insults of a man, whom they were unable to punish or resist.

"The legislature met on the twelfth of January. Two days after, General Adair arrived in the city, from Tennessee, and reported he had left Burr at Nashville, on the twenty-second of December, with two flat boats, destined for New-Orleans. In the afternoon of the day of Adair's arrival, the hotel at which he had stopped was invested by one hundred and twenty men, under Lieutenant Colonel Kingsbury, accompanied by one of Wilkinson's aids. Adair was dragged from the dining table, and conducted to head quarters, where he was put in confinement. They beat to arms through the streets; the battalion of the volunteers of Orleans, and a part of the regular troops, paraded through the city, and Workman, Kerr, and Bradford, were arrested and confined. Wilkinson ordered the latter to be released, and the two former were liberated on the following day, on a writ of habeas corpus, issued by the district judge of the United States. Adair was secreted until an opportunity offered to ship him away."

We approach a very interesting portion of our history, in which certain transactions are detailed, with great precision, for some of which General Jackson has obtained, and deserved, a brilliant crown of military glory, and for others has been visited with deep and indignant reproaches; whether justly or not, the reader will decide by the facts of the case.

On the 2d of December 1814, General Jackson reached New-Orleans; and on the next day commenced his operations to put the city in a state of defence against the attack expected to be made upon it. A large naval force of the enemy was off the port of Pensacola; and it was understood that New-Orleans was their object. The force in New-Orleans consisted of seven hundred men of the United States regiments; one thousand state militia, and some sailors and marines. Reinforcements from Tennessee and Kentucky were looked for. It is not to our purpose, and must be unnecessary, to recapitulate all the interesting occurrences which took place at this alarming crisis; all evincing the gallantry and patriotism of our countrymen. In this early stage of the contest, our author, with great warmth and strong testimony, asserts the unshaken fidelity and active efficient attachment of the people of New-Orleans to the government of the United States, and repels with an honest indignation the charges of disaffection and treason which were on various occasions made upon them, to justify the tyrannical violence of certain proceedings against them. He says, "although the population of New-Orleans was composed of individuals of different nations, it was as patriotic as that of any city in the Union." We believe him most sincerely; and who does not? Can any just and candid man doubt it after a sober perusal of his details, having a particular relation to this question? To suppose that they had any sympathies with the invading foe; any treasonable correspondence with them; any desire for their success; is to calumniate a people as deeply and dearly interested in our independence, as devotedly attached to our institutions, as any portion of the republic. We therefore not only excuse, but applaud, the feelings of resentment with which Judge Martin, himself one of the people of Louisiana, and honoured by her confidence, meets every assertion and insinuation of treachery or disaffection cast upon her. He assures us, that "Claiborne (the governor) was sincerely attached to the government of his country, and the legislature was prepared to call forth and place at Jackson's disposal, all the resources of the state." Again he says, "If some, in the beginning, doubted whether General Jackson's military experience had been of a kind to fit him for this service, his conduct very soon dispelled the doubt."

"The want of an able military chief was sensibly felt, and notwithstanding any division of sentiment on any other subject, the inclination was universal to support Jackson, and he had been hailed on his arrival by all. There were some, indeed, who conceived that the crisis demanded a general of some experience in ordinary warfare; that one whose military career had begun with the current year, and who had never met with any but an Indian force, was ill calculated to meet the warlike enemy who threatened; but all were willing to make a virtue of necessity, and to take their wishes for their opinions, and manifested an unbounded confidence in him. All united in demonstrations of respect and reliance, and every one was ready to give him his support. His immediate and incessant attention to the defence of the country, the care he took to visit every vulnerable point, his unremitted vigilance, and the strict discipline enforced, soon convinced all that he was the man the occasion demanded."

The general had, however, imbibed strong prejudices against the inhabitants of the city, infused into him by bad advisers who surrounded him.

"Unfortunately he had been surrounded, from the moment of his arrival, by persons from the ranks of the opposition to Claiborne, Hall, and the state government, and it was soon discovered that he had become impressed with the idea, that a great part of the population of Louisiana was disaffected, and the city full of traitors and spies. It appears such were his sentiments as early as the 8th of September; for in a letter of Claiborne, which he since published, the governor joins in the opinion, and writes to him, 'I think with you, that our country is full of spies and traitors.'"

The interest we feel to vindicate the people of Louisiana from the suspicions that were long entertained of their loyalty, and may not be yet wholly eradicated, induces us to trouble our readers with further extracts on this subject.

"The legislature was in session, since the beginning of the preceding month. We have seen that Claiborne, at the opening of the session, had offered them his congratulations on the alacrity with which the call of the United States for a body of militia had been met, which, with the detail of the proceedings of that body, is the best refutation of the charges which have been urged against them. It will show, that in attachment to the Union, in zeal for the defence of the country, in liberality in furnishing the means of it, and in ministering to the wants of their brave fellow-citizens who came down to assist them in repelling the foe, the general assembly of Louisiana does not suffer by a comparison of its conduct with that of any legislative body in the United States. The assertion, that any member of it entertained the silly opinion, that a capitulation, if any became necessary, was to be brought about or effected by the agency of the houses, any more than by that of a court of justice, or the city council of New-Orleans, is absolutely groundless."

A proposition was made by the governor to the legislature, to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, in order that men might be pressed for the service, particularly naval, of the United States: the legislature knew it to be a dangerous measure, and thought it unnecessary.

"Coming from every part of the state, the representatives had witnessed the universal alacrity with which Jackson's requisitions for a quota of the militia of the state had been complied with; they knew their constituents could be depended on; they knew that Jackson, Claiborne, and many of the military, were incessantly talking of sedition, disaffection, and treason; but better acquainted with the people of Louisiana, than those who were vociferating against it, they were conscious, that no state was more free from sedition, disaffection, and treason, than their own; they thought the state should not outlaw her citizens, when they were rushing to repel the enemy. They dreaded the return of those days, when Wilkinson filled New-Orleans with terror and dismay, arresting and transporting whom he pleased. They recollected that in 1806 Jefferson had made application to congress for a suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, but that the recommendation of the president was not deemed sufficient to induce the legislature of the Union to suspend it: that of Claiborne, as far as it concerned Jackson, was not therefore acted on. The members had determined not to adjourn during the invasion, and thought they would suspend the writ when they deemed the times required it, but not till then."

That the refusal to put an uncontrouled power over the persons of the citizens, to withdraw from them the protection of the law, did not proceed from an unwillingness to obtain for the service the force required, is made manifest by the substitute adopted. "A sum of five thousand dollars was placed at the disposal of the commodore, to be expended in bounties; and, to remove the opportunity of seamen being tempted to decline entering the service of the United States, by the hope of employment on board of merchant vessels, an embargo was passed."

The general does not seem to have been satisfied with the reasons of the legislature for denying the power he desired, nor with their substitute for it.

"The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and adjournment of the houses, were measures which Jackson anxiously desired. There was a great inclination in the members of both houses to gratify him, in every instance in which they could do it with safety: in these two only, they were of opinion it would be unsafe to adopt his views."

General Carroll, with a brigade of Tennessee militia, arrived on the 19th, and the legislature were indefatigable in preparing for the expected attack.

"At this period the forces at New-Orleans amounted to between six and seven thousand men. Every individual exempted from militia duty on account of age, had joined one of the companies of veterans, which had been formed for the preservation of order. Every class of society was animated with the most ardent zeal; the young, the old, women, children, all breathed defiance to the enemy, firmly disposed to oppose to the utmost the threatened invasion. There were in the city a very great number of French subjects, who from their national character could not have been compelled to perform military duty; these men, however, with hardly any exception, volunteered their services. The Chevalier Tousard, the Consul of France, who had distinguished himself, and had lost an arm in the service of the United States, during the revolutionary war, lamenting that the neutrality of his nation did not allow him to lead his countrymen in New-Orleans to the field, encouraged them to flock to Jackson's standard. The people were preparing for battle as cheerfully as if for a party of pleasure: the streets resounded with martial airs: the several corps of militia were constantly exercising, from morning to night: every bosom glowed with the feelings of national honour: every thing showed nothing was to be apprehended from disaffection, disloyalty, or treason."

On the 21st, the enemy landed with a strong force, and a proud one, confident of an easy victory. They looked upon all the wealth and comforts of New-Orleans as already their own. The battle that shortly after ensued, sought for and won by the Americans, can never be forgotten. The promptitude, decision, and skill, with which General Jackson took his measures; the bravery with which they were executed; and the glorious success which crowned the bold attack upon an enemy greatly superior in numbers, discipline, and experience, will be ranked among the most gallant achievements of military history. Our author assures us that the invading army "had a force of very near five thousand men; that which opposed him was not above two thousand." Preparations against the grand attack upon the city continued with unceasing vigilance and labour. The members of the legislature—the suspected legislature—old and young, joined some of the military corps; but lest their legislative aid might also be required, they continued their sessions; when a most extraordinary proceeding occurred.

"Every day, towards noon, three or four of the members of each house, who served among the veterans or on the committees, attended in their respective halls to effect an adjournment, in order that, if any circumstance rendered the aid of the legislature necessary, it might be instantly afforded. On going for this purpose to the government house, Skipwith, the speaker of the senate, and two of its members, found a sentinel on the staircase, who, presenting his bayonet, forbade them to enter the senate chamber. They quietly retired, and proceeded to the hall of the sessions of the city council, where an adjournment took place. The members of the other house, who attended for the same purpose, were likewise prevented from entering its hall, and acted like those of the senate."

A committee was appointed to wait upon the general, and inquire into the reasons of these violent measures against the legislature. The general gave his reasons, which, in short, were, that he had received information "that the assembly were about to give up the country to the enemy." The author goes into a full examination of this charge; and the refutation of it is entirely satisfactory.

The spirit of defence even entered the walls of the prisons.

"A number of debtors, who had taken the benefit of the acts establishing the prison bounds, were anxious to join in the defence of the city, but were apprehensive of exposing their sureties. On this being represented to the legislature, an act was passed, extending the prison bounds, until the first of May following, so as to include Jackson's line."

The last effort of the invader was made by the battle of the 8th of January, and is described in our book with much effect. Long may it be read and remembered with an unextinguishable glow of pride and patriotism! The contest was ended; the foe hastily abandoned our shores, on which they left nothing but memorials of their defeat and shame, in the melancholy monuments of their slaughtered companions. Our author concludes his narrative of these eventful days, with an eloquent tribute to the general, by whose indefatigable activity and fearless gallantry a rich and populous city was saved.

"If the vigilance, the activity, and the intrepidity of the general had been conspicuous during the whole period of the invasion, his prudence, moderation, and self-denial, on the departure of the enemy, deserves no less commendation and admiration. An opportunity was then presented to him of acquiring laurels by a pursuit, which few, elated as he must have been by success, could have resisted. But, he nobly reflected that those who fled from him were mercenaries—those who surrounded his standard, his fellow-citizens, almost universally fathers of families;—sound policy, to use his own expressions, neither required nor authorized him to expose the lives of his companions in arms, in a useless conflict. He thought the lives of ten British soldiers would not requite the loss of one of his men. He had not saved New-Orleans to sacrifice its inhabitants."

On his return to the city, he was greeted with "tears of gratitude"—why were they not perpetual? His cruel suspicions; his unjust accusations of treason and disaffection, were forgotten or forgiven, and no sentiment remained in the hearts of the people of Louisiana, but admiration of his conduct in the day of trial, and gratitude for his services; why was not this perpetual? We shall see.

"By a communication of the 13th of January, from Admiral Cochrane, Jackson was informed that the Admiral had just received a bulletin from Jamaica, (a copy of which was enclosed) proclaiming that a treaty of peace had been signed by the respective plenipotentiaries of Great Britain and the United States, at Ghent, on the 24th of December. The despatch did not arrive till the 21st, by way of Balize; but the intelligence had been brought to the city by one of Jackson's aids, who had returned from the British fleet with a flag of truce." As in canvassing the subsequent proceedings of the General at New-Orleans, his advocates have pretended that he had no information of the peace to which he ought to have trusted, that point must not be overlooked in our inquiries. What was the evidence at this period, that is, on the 21st of January? A communication directly addressed to him, by and under the name of the British Admiral, with every sanction that honour and good faith could give it. This communication, so vouched, was accompanied by a copy of a bulletin which the Admiral declared he had just received from Jamaica, too distant to have been fabricated there for the occasion; and all this was confirmed by the intelligence brought by one of the General's aids from the fleet. Is there any degree of military caution that would have doubted the truth of this information, in the manner and for the purposes for which the doubts, real or pretended, were used by the General? We will not say that he should, on such intelligence, have exposed himself to an attack from the enemy; that he should have disbanded his army, or thrown by his guards and defence, as if the intelligence had been authentic from his own government; but, assuredly there was that in the information he received, on which a strong reliance might reasonably and safely have been placed; at least enough to have suspended military operations against his own fellow-citizens. He must have imputed fraud, falsehood, and forgery, to an officer, who, although an enemy, was entitled to a more just and respectful consideration. No usage of modern warfare would have justified such practices, and therefore they ought not to have been presumed. With no disposition to "set down aught in malice" against the General, we cannot refrain from saying, that, whatever he may have found it convenient to believe or disbelieve, to justify the extravagance of ungovernable passions inflamed by evil counsellors, in his moments of sober thoughts, if any such happened to him, he could not reject the testimony before him, of the termination of the war. He certainly, at least, thought it worthy to be announced to the people, although he "forewarned them from being thrown into security by hopes that might be delusive." This was a prudent caution, and sufficient. "On the 22d, the gladsome tidings were confirmed, and a Gazette of Charleston was received, announcing the ratification of the Treaty by the Prince Regent." We assume then, that on the 22d of January, such intelligence was received of the Peace at New-Orleans, as might, and should have satisfied the most sceptical military caution, of its truth, at least to the extent required for our examination into the General's subsequent conduct.

It seems that a discontent had arisen, which led to serious consequences. The French subjects resident at New-Orleans, "had flocked round Jackson's standard, determined to leave it with the necessity that called them to it, and not till then." They endured much privation, toil, and danger; their families also were in a state of suffering, to whose relief they were anxious to return after the enemy had left the state. A few solicited a discharge; but the General insisted on their being retained. Some then demanded of the French consul, certificates of their national character, which were presented to the General, who countersigned them, and the bearers were permitted to return home. So many, however, applied for this indulgence, that the General believed that the consul too easily granted his certificates, "and considering a compliance with his duty, as evidence of his adhesion to the enemy, ordered him out of the city."

We now come to a false step, of more importance, made by the General, to which he was led by that which has overthrown many men placed in elevated stations. It has been the misfortune and ruin of great men who were high; and, more frequently so, of high men who were not great; weak and evil counsellors.

"Yielding to the advice of many around him, who were constantly filling his ears with their clamours about the disloyalty, disaffection, and treason of the people of Louisiana, and particularly the state officers and the people of French origin, Jackson, on the last day of February, issued a general order, commanding all French subjects, possessed of a certificate of their national character, subscribed by the consul of France, and countersigned by the commanding general, to retire into the interior, to a distance above Baton Rouge:—a measure, which was stated to have been rendered indispensable by the frequent applications for discharges. The names were directed to be taken of all persons of this description, remaining in the city, after the expiration of three days.

"Time has shown this to have been a most unfortunate step; and those by whose suggestions it was taken, soon found themselves unable to avert from the general the consequences to which it exposed him. The people against whom it was directed were loyal—many of them had bled, all had toiled and suffered in the defence of the state. Need, in many instances, improvidence in several, had induced the families of these people to part with the furniture of their houses to supply those immediate wants, which the absence of the head of the family occasioned. No exception, no distinction was made. The sympathetic feelings of every class of inhabitants were enlisted in favour of these men; they lacked the means of sustaining themselves on the way, and must have been compelled, on their arrival at Baton Rouge, then a very insignificant village, to throw themselves on the charity of the inhabitants. Another consideration rendered the departure of these men an evil to be dreaded. The apprehension of the return of the enemy was represented, as having had much weight with Jackson in issuing his order. Their past conduct was a sure pledge that, in case of need, their services would again be re-offered; there were among them a number of experienced artillery-men; a description of soldiers, which was not easily to be found among the brave who had come down from Kentucky, or Tennessee, or even in the army of the United States. These considerations induced several respectable citizens to wait on Jackson, for the purpose of endeavouring to induce him to reconsider a determination, which was viewed as productive of flagrant injustice and injury to those against whom it was directed, without any possible advantage, and probably very detrimental, to those for whose benefit it was intended."

To quiet and console this distressed and injured people under this wanton decree of military power; this cruel exile; it was recommended to them to submit without resistance to the order.

"They were assured, that the laws of the country would protect them, and punish, even in a successful general, a violation of the rights of, or a wanton injury to, the meanest individual, citizen or alien. They were referred to the case of Wilkinson, against whom an independent jury of the Mississippi territory had given a verdict in favour of Adair, who had been illegally arrested and transported, during the winter of 1806."

It must be recollected, that this order was issued and executed on the last day of February, six weeks after the Charleston Gazette had announced at New-Orleans, the ratification of the treaty of peace, as above stated. During all this period, there had not been an appearance of the enemy, or a movement by them, or the slightest occurrence or rumour, to raise a doubt of the truth of this intelligence. Not a doubt of it was expressed by any body or from any quarter. On the 14th of February, two weeks after the sentence of banishment upon the French subjects, "the mail brought northern Gazettes, announcing the arrival of the treaty at Washington." Was this also a British trick and delusion, not to be trusted even by a relaxation of the severest military discipline, or a mitigation of the dangerous predominance of martial law? Our author says, "the hope that had been entertained that Jackson would now allow these unfortunate people to stay with their families, was disappointed."

Louallier, a member of the House of Representatives, had been conspicuous in bringing forth the energies of the state for its defence. His activity and usefulness were properly appreciated by his fellow-citizens. An opinion prevailed, that Jackson was unfriendly to the French citizens, and to the officers of the state government.

"A report, which now was afloat, that those who surrounded Jackson were labouring to induce him to arrest some individuals, alluded to in the general orders of the 28th of February, roused his indignation, to which (perhaps more honestly than prudently) he gave vent in a publication, of which the following is a translation, in the Courier de la Louisiane of the 3d of March."

The publication is of considerable length, and written with warmth and ability. Our author, after giving it at large, proceeds—