XVII. Almost simultaneously with this emancipation of Lou- CHAPTER isiana from dependence on Europe, France lost her hold on Western St. Domingo, which thus became the second 1803. independent state in America. Rochambeau, with the remnant of the French, amounting to eight thousand men, driven into the town of Cape Français, was compelled to capitulate to the insurgent negroes, now commanded by Dessalines and Christophe. Having failed to comply with his stipulations, his people were only saved from total destruction by flying on shipboard, and throwing themselves into the hands of the English blockading squadron. The independence of Hayti was pro- Nov. 29. claimed. Protection was still promised to the white proprietors and inhabitants, and even to absentees who might return and behave in a peaceable manner. But as the whites showed their sense of this clemency only by new intrigues against the black government, a new massacre and a new flight presently ensued, under a proclamation 1804. issued by Dessalines, upon whom the negro and mulatto April 28. generals had conferred the governor-generalship, and who presently declared himself emperor. The French authorities continued, however, to maintain themselves for some time longer in the eastern, the late Spanish part of the island, where the larger part of the population was white. The peaceful acquisition of Louisiana for so trifling a sum, securing to the rising settlements on the Western waters an uninterrupted river communication with the sea, the fear of losing which had been heretofore the occasion of so many jealousies and such serious embarrassments, was celebrated at Washington by a public dinner, given by the administration members of Congress to the president, vice-president, and heads of departments, and by similar festivals among the Republicans in different CHAPTER parts of the Union. This peaceful annexation, so charXVII. acteristic of Jefferson's policy, was exultingly contrast1804. ed with the violent method of seizing New Orleans by force, recommended by the Federalists. The Federalists, however, were prompt to reply that the sum paid for Louisiana was just so much money thrown away, or, rather, was an unjustifiable douceur to France-the same, in substance, with that for which Monroe, during his first embassy to that country, had been so zealous since Bonaparte sold what he could not keep, and what the breach of the Spanish treaty as to the right of deposit, and other claims on that nation for spoliations on our commerce, would well have justified the United States. in seizing without any payment at all. It was, they averred, no policy of Jefferson's, but the war in Europe, that had brought about the cession. The idea of obtaining the whole tract west of the Mississippi was, in fact, altogether too vast for Jefferson. Bonaparte had forced it upon him. Such an acquisition of territory seemed, indeed, to many, and Jefferson himself had serious doubts on the subject, to tend directly to the dissolution of the Union. The settlers west of the mountains had already more than once threatened to separate themselves from their Atlantic brethren, and to form an independent republic. Such threats, which had been very rife in Kentucky, and even in Western Pennsylvania during the Whisky Insurrection, had made a deep impression on Jefferson's mind. The Federalists foretold, and he feared, that the removal of all external pressure on the side of the Mississippi would precipitate this danger-an apprehension which time has completely falsified, the crack having been proved to run in quite a different direction. Another objection, seriously felt by many, and especially by the New England Federalists, XVII. was, that the throwing open to emigration of such new CHAPTER and vast territories tended to increase an evil already sufficiently felt; the stripping of the old states of their in- 1804. habitants, and the dwarfing them in political importance. The Nor were these considerations without their weight in the arrangements adopted for the newly-acquired territory. By an act originating in the Senate, that territory was divided into two provinces by a line drawn along the thirty-third parallel of north latitude. province south of this parallel, named the Territory of Orleans, already possessed a population of 50,000 persons, of whom more than half were slaves. Within the last ten years the cultivation of the sugar-cane had been successfully introduced, in part by refugee planters from St. Domingo, and that, together with cotton, had already superseded the production of indigo, formerly the chief staple. So lucrative were these new branches of industry the decreased product of St. Domingo making an opening in the sugar market, and cotton, under the increased demand for it by the English manufacturers, bringing to the producer twenty-five cents per poundthat the chief planters enjoyed incomes hardly known to landed proprietors any where else north of the Gulf of Mexico. Of the white inhabitants the greater part were French Creoles, descendants of the original French colonists, with an admixture, however, of French, Spanish, and British immigrants. Under France the colonists had possessed hardly any political power; under Spain, none at all. With a cautious imitation of these models, which in Federalists would have been denounced as exceedingly anti-republican, the president was authorized not only to appoint the governor and secretary of the new Territory, but annually to nominate the thirteen members who were to compose the legislative coun CHAPTER Cil. This provision, though strongly objected to and XVII. struck out by the House as contrary to Democratic prin1804. ciples, was reinstated by the Senate, and, on the report of a committee of conference, was finally agreed to. The laws of Louisiana, down to the period of the cession to Spain, had been, like those of Canada, the custom of Paris and the royal ordinances of France. The Spanish governor, on taking possession, among other very arbitrary acts, had issued a proclamation substituting the Spanish code, and such remained the law of the colony when it passed into the hands of the United States. This Spanish code, so far as it was not repugnant to the Constitution and laws of the United States, was continued in force, subject to such alterations as the new territorial Legislature might make. Under the Spanish system, the governor had been sole judge, being bound, however, to consult an assessor learned in the laws. The present act established, besides a District Federal Court, a Superior Territorial Court, to consist of three judges. The organization of inferior tribunals was left to the local Legislature. Trial was to be by jury in all capital cases; also in all other cases, civil as well as criminal, at the demand of either party. The writ of habeas corpus was secured to the inhabitants, and the privilege of giving bail, except in capital cases where a strong presumption of guilt appeared. Claiborne was still continued as governor of this new territory, the administration of his government of Mississippi being temporarily intrusted to the secretary. To New Orleans, already a city of seven or eight thousand inhabitants, a considerable immigration at once began. Among others who resorted thither was Edward Livingston, who had lately become a defaulter to the government to a large amount, through the failure of a speculating friend, perhaps a partner, to whom XVII. he had inconsiderately trusted government money in his CHAPTER possession as attorney for the District of New York. The hope, finally realized, of finding, by new specula- 1804. tions in this wealthy and promising country, means for discharging his liabilities to the government, had induced his removal to this new territory, of which he ultimately became the legislator, or rather the codifier. All that region west of the Mississippi and north of the Territory of Orleans, was constituted by the same act into the District of Louisiana. It included one little village on the Arkansas, and several on or near the Mississippi, the principal of which was St. Louis. The white population of this region, embracing the present states of Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa, had been somewhat augmented of late by immigrants from the old French villages on the other side of the Mississippi, and by Anglo-American adventurers, who already outnumbered the French inhabitants. But the increase of this population, which did not exceed three or four thousand, was not considered desirable. It was proposed to reserve this region for the Indians; and the president was authorized to propose to the tribes east of the Mississippi an exchange of lands, and a migration on their part across the river-a policy since extensively carried out. Meanwhile the jurisdiction over the few white inhabitants, and nominally over the whole district, was annexed to the Territory of Indiana, thus made to include the whole region north of the Ohio River and the thirty-third degree of north latitude, and west of the State of Ohio. With the view of facilitating settlements east of the Mississippi, all those tracts to which the Indian title had been extinguished were directed, by another act, to be surveyed, and land-offices were established at Detroit, Vincennes, and Kaskaskia. The public lands were hence |