Louisiana

On Aug. 18, 1769 Louisiana was formally transferred to Spain. Spanish law and language replaced the French officially, but the colony remained essentially French. Many French Creoles were appointed to office, intermarriages of French and Spanish and even English were encouraged by the highest officials, and in general a liberal and conciliatory policy was followed, which made Louisiana under Spanish rule quiet and prosperous. Ber nardo de Galvez a brilliant young officer of twenty one, when he became the governor of the colony, was one of the most liberal of the Spanish rulers and of all the most popular. During the American Revolution he gave valuable aid to the United States; and when Spain finally joined in the war against Great Britain, Galvez, in a series of energetic and brilliant cam paigns (1779-81), captured all the important posts in the British colony of West Florida. The chief interest of the Spanish period lies in the advance of settlement in the western territories of the United States, the international intrigues—British, French and Spanish—involving the future of the valley, the demand of the United States for free navigation on the Mississippi, and the grow ing consciousness of the supreme importance of the river and New Orleans to the Union.

In 1794 Spain, hard pressed by Great Britain and France, turned to the United States, and by the treaty of 1794 the Missis sippi river was recognized by Spain as the western boundary of the United States, separating it from Louisiana, and free navi gation of the Mississippi was granted to citizens of the United States, to whom was granted for three years the right "to deposit their merchandise and effects in the port of New Orleans, and to export them from thence without paying any other duty than a fair price for the hire of the stores." At the expiration of the three years the Spanish governor refused the use of New Orleans as a place of deposit, and contrary to the treaty named no other port in its place. Spanish rule, however, came unexpectedly to an end by the retrocession of Louisiana to France in 180o; and French dominion gave way in turn in 1803—as the result of a chain of events even more unexpected, and for the United States fortunate—to the rule of the last-named country. On Nov. 30, 1803, the representatives of the French republic received formal possession from the Spanish governor, and on Dec. 20, lower Louisiana was transferred to the United States. (See LOUISIANA PURCHASE.) American Control and Statehood.—By an Act of Congress, of March 25, 1804, that portion of the Louisiana Purchase south of 33° was organized as the Territory of Orleans, and was given a government less democratic than might otherwise have been the case, because it was intended to prepare gradually for self government the French and Spanish inhabitants of the territory, who desired immediate statehood. The foreign slave-trade was forbidden by this organic act. English was made the official language.

In Nov. 1811 a convention met at New Orleans and framed a Constitution under which, on April 30, 1812, the Territory of Orleans became the State of Louisiana. A few days later the portion of West Florida between the Mississippi and Pearl rivers (the present "Florida Parishes") was included in its boundaries, making them as they are to-day. In this same year the first steam boat reached New Orleans. It descended the Ohio and Mississippi from Pittsburgh, whence there had already been a thriving river trade to New Orleans for about 3o years. During the War of 1812 a decisive victory was won by the American forces at Chal mette, near New Orleans, on Jan. 8, 1815. (See NEW ORLEANS, BATTLE or.) Up to 186o the development of the State in popu lation, agriculture and commerce was very rapid. Donaldson ville was the (nominal) capital in 1825-31, Baton Rouge in 64 and again after 1882. At other times New Orleans has been

the capital, and here too have always been various State offices which, in other States, ordinarily are in the capital.

The Civil War Period.

By an ordinance of secession passed Jan. 26, 1861, Louisiana joined the Confederate States. In the first year there was very little military activity in the State, but in April 1862 Admiral D. G. Farragut, with a powerful fleet, ascended the Mississippi past Forts Jackson and St. Philip, which defended the approach to New Orleans, and a military force under Gen. B. F. Butler occupied that city. The navigation of the river being secured by this success and by later operations in the north ending in July 1863 with the capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the State was wholly at the mercy of the Union armies. Later, in April 1864, the Confederates under Gen. Richard Taylor won a success against the Unionists under Gen. N. P. Banks at Sabine Cross Roads near Mansfield and were themselves repulsed at Pleasant Hill, these battles being incidental to a campaign undertaken by the Union forces to crush opposition in western Louisiana.

Reconstruction.

As early as Dec. 1862 the Union military Government, at President Lincoln's direction, had ordered elec tions for Congress, and the men chosen were admitted in Feb. 1363. In March 1864 also a State Government to supersede the military rule was established under the president's auspices. The radicals among the loyal element demanded the calling of a Constitutional Convention and the abolition of slavery. By a Convention that assembled in April 1864 a Constitution was framed closely following that of 1852 but repudiating the debt incurred by Louisiana as one of the Confederate States and abol ishing slavery. The legislature was ordered to establish free schools for the blacks, and was empowered to give them the suffrage : neither of these provisions, however, was carried out. The extent of the Union control is shown by the fact that the legislature of 1864 represented half of the area and two-thirds of the population of the State. The army stood at the back of the new government, and by the end of 1864 Louisiana was ap parently "reconstructed." But in 1864 the opposition of Con gress to presidential reconstruction had clearly developed, so that the electoral votes of Louisiana (like those of Tennessee) for president were not counted. By the spring of 1866 the ex Confederates had succeeded in gaining possession of most of the local government and most of the State offices, although not of the governorship. The Republican Party naturally became ex tremely radical. The radicals wished to have negro suffrage in order to get possession of the government. They, therefore, wanted still another Constitutional Convention. A clause in the Constitution of 1864 provided for the reconvening of the con vention in certain circumstances, but this clause referred only to necessities prior to the establishment of a government, and had therefore determined. Nevertheless, the radicals, because it was impossible to call a convention through the medium of the State Government, took advantage of this clause to reconvoke the old convention at New Orleans. The ex-Confederate party deter mined to prevent the gathering, but the idea of interference by force seems to have been abandoned. A street riot was precipi tated, however, incidental to a procession of armed negroes; the metropolitan police fired upon the assembled convention; and altogether some 200 persons, mostly negroes, were killed. This incident raised the crucial question of national politics in 1866: namely, whether the States reconstructed by the president should not again be reconstructed.