Chapter V: H. S (11)

_Law._--Louisiana has been peculiar among the states of the Union in the history of the development of its legal system. In Louisiana alone (as the state is known to-day), out of all the territory acquired from France as the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, was the civil law so established under French and Spanish rule that it persisted under American dominion. In all the other states formed from the Purchase, the civil law, never existent practically, was early expressly abrogated, and the common law of England established in its place. After O'Reilly established his power in 1769 (see _History_, below), the Spanish law was supreme. All the old codes of the Peninsula, as well as the laws of the Indies and special royal decrees and schedules, were in force in the colony. The United States left the task of altering the laws to the people, as far as there was no conflict between them and the Constitution of the United States and fundamental American legal customs. Copies of the Spanish codes were very rare, and some of them could not be had in the colonies. Discussions of the Roman Institute and Pandects were common in the deliberations of the courts. Great confusion prevailed in the first years of American dominion owing to the diversities of languages and the grafting of such Anglo-Saxon institutions as the jury upon the older system. A provisional code of judicial procedure, prepared by Edward Livingston, was in effect in 1805 to 1825. The earliest digest, completed in 1808, was mainly a compilation of Spanish laws. The project of the _Code Napoléon_, however--the _code_ itself not being available in Louisiana, though promulgated in France in 1804--was used by the compilers in the arrangement and substance of their work; and the French traditions of the colony, thus illustrated, were naturally introduced more and more into the organic commentaries and developments that grew up around the _Code Napoléon_. This evolution was little marked, so similar in large parts were the systems of France and Spain (although in other parts, due to the Gothic element in the Spanish, they were very different)--a similarity which explains the facility with which O'Reilly and his successors introduced the Spanish laws after 1769. The Louisiana code of 1808 was not, however, exhaustive; and the courts continued to go back to the old Spanish sources whenever the digest was inconclusive. Thus so late as 1819, when the legislature ordered the compilation of such parts of King Alfonso's _Siete Partidas_ (the most common authority in the colony) as were considered in force, this compilation filled a considerable volume. In 1821 the legislature authorized Livingston to prepare the "Livingston Code" of criminal law and procedure, completed in 1824 (in French and English) and published in 1833, but never adopted by the state. In 1825 legislative sanction was given to the greater part of a civil code prepared by a commission (including Livingston) appointed in 1821, and the French element became steadily more important. In its present form the law shows plainly the Latin and English elements. English law has largely moulded, for example, criminal and commercial law and the law of evidence; the development of the law of corporations, damages, prohibitions and such extraordinary remedies as the mandamus has been very similar to that in other states; while in the fusion of law and equity, and the law of successions, family relations, &c., the civil law of Spain and France has been unaffected.

_Education._--Schooling was very scant before the creation of the
public schools in 1854. Very little was done for education in the
French and Spanish period, although the Spanish governors made
commendable efforts in this regard; the first American Territorial
legislature began the incorporation of feeble "colleges" and
"academies." To some of these the state gave financial aid
($1,613,898) before 1845. The public schools were flourishing at the
outbreak of the Civil War. War and reconstruction threw upon them the
new burden of the black children. The constitution of 1879 was
illiberal in this respect, but a healthier public opinion soon
prevailed. The money given by the state to the public schools is
distributed among the parishes according to their school population,
and the constitution of 1898 set a generous _minimum_ to such aid. An
annual poll-tax is also collected for the schools from every adult
male. Local taxes, besides, are imposed, and these are becoming
heavier. The parishes retain primary control of the schools.
Institutes, summer schools and rural libraries have been introduced.
The salaries of white teachers advanced from a monthly average of
$38.87 in 1903 to $61.84 in 1906. The average attendance of enrolled
black and white pupils is practically identical, but the enrolment of
whites (about 52% in 1902) is somewhat higher and that of the blacks
about a third lower than their ratio in the population. The school
term for white children is much longer than for negroes, and white
teachers are paid much better salaries--in 1906 the average monthly
salary of a negro teacher was $29.15. The total enrolment is very low.
But progress is now being made very rapidly in the improvement of the
educational system. Higher schools include: the State University and
Agricultural and Mechanical College (1860) at Baton Rouge (q.v.);
Tulane University of Louisiana (1864) in New Orleans; Jefferson
College (1864; Roman Catholic) at Convent; the College of the
Immaculate Conception (1847; Roman Catholic) in New Orleans; St
Charles College (1835; Roman Catholic) at Grand Couteau; St Joseph's
College (1849; Roman Catholic) at Baton Rouge; the following colleges
for women--Silliman Collegiate Institute (1852; Presbyterian) at
Clinton, Mansfield Female College (1854; Methodist Episcopal, South)
at Mansfield, the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College for women (a part
of Tulane University) in New Orleans and the Louisiana Female College
(1856; Baptist) at Keatchie; the State Normal School of Louisiana
(1884) at Natchitoches and the New Orleans Normal and Training School;
the South-western Louisiana Industrial Institute at Lafayette; the
Louisiana Industrial Institute at Ruston; and, among schools for
negroes, the Peabody State Normal and Industrial School at Alexandria
and New Orleans University (1873; Methodist Episcopal), Luther College
(Evangelical Lutheran), Leland University (1870; Baptist), Straight
University (Congregational) and Southern University (1883; aided by
the state), all in New Orleans.

_Charitable and Penal Institutions._--The State Board of Charities and
Correction, for which the constitution of 1898 first made provision,
and which was organized under an act of 1904, is composed of six
members, appointed by the governor for six years, with the governor as
_ex-officio_ chairman. The members of the board serve gratuitously,
but elect a salaried secretary. The board has no administrative or
executive power, but makes annual inspections of all public
charitable, correctional or reformatory institutions, all private
institutions which receive aid from, or are used by municipal or
parochial authorities, and all private asylums for the insane; and
reports annually to the governor on the actual condition of the
institutions. Any suggestions as to improvements in institutions must
be approved by the majority of the governing body of that institution
before they may be put into effect. The charitable institutions
include two charity hospitals--at New Orleans (1832) and Shreveport;
an Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, a Hôtel Dieu, the Touro
Infirmary and a Home for Incurables, all at New Orleans; an Institute
for the Deaf and Dumb (for whites--there is no state provision for
negro deaf and dumb) and an Institute for the Blind, both at Baton
Rouge; an Insane Hospital at Jackson and another at Pineville; and the
Louisiana Retreat for the Insane at New Orleans. At Monroe there is a
State Reform School, and at New Orleans a Coloured Industrial Home and
School. There is also a state home for disabled Confederate soldiers
at New Orleans on Bayou St John. The State Penitentiary is at Baton
Rouge, and a House of Detention at New Orleans; and there are parish
prisons. State convicts, and all places in which they are confined or
employed, are under the supervision of a Board of Control appointed by
the governor. This board may allow commutation or diminution of
sentence for good behaviour, meritorious services or exemplary
conduct. The leasing or hiring of state convicts is prohibited by the
constitution, but parish convicts may be hired or leased for farm and
factory work, work on roads and levees, and other public undertakings.
Such convicts are classified according to physical ability and a
minimum rate is fixed for their hire, for not more than ten hours a
day. Many state convicts are employed in levee construction, and there
are convict farms at Angola, Hope, Oakley and Monticello.

_History._--The early history of Louisiana belongs to the romance of American history. It is possible that the mouth of the Mississippi was discovered in 1519 by Alonso Alvarez de Piñeda, but this interpretation of his vague manuscript remains conjectural; and that it was discovered by the expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez cannot be established. That Hernando de Soto entered the borders of the present state of Louisiana, and that his burial place in the Mississippi was where that river takes the waters of the Red, are probable enough, but incapable of conclusive proof. Survivors of de Soto's expedition, however, descended the Mississippi to its mouth in 1542. Spain set up no claim to the region, and when Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, came down the river in 1682 from the French possessions to the north, he took possession in the name of France, which hereby gained her first title to the vast drainage basin of the Mississippi. In honour of Louis XIV. the new possession was named "Louisiana"--a name then and until 1812 applied to a much larger area than that of the present state. La Salle attempted to settle a colony in 1684, but missed the Mississippi's mouth and landed in Texas, where he was murdered in 1687 by some of his followers. In 1697, after Ryswick, Pierre le Moyne d'Iberville (1662-1706) was chosen to lead another colony, which reached the Gulf coast early in 1699. Soon after Iberville had built Fort Maurepas (near the present city of Biloxi, Mississippi) in 1699, a fort was erected on the Mississippi river about 40 m. above the mouth.

This was the earliest settlement in what is now the state of Louisiana. It was unhealthy and unprosperous. From 1712 to 1717 "Louisiana," or the French possessions of the Mississippi valley, was held by Antoine Crozat (1655-1738) as a private grant from the king. It proved as great a drain upon his purse as it had proved to the crown, and he willingly parted with it to the so-called "Western Company," afterwards incorporated with the great Company of the Indies. The head of this company was John Law, who, after spreading glowing accounts of the new land, launched his famous "Mississippi scheme" (see LAW, JOHN). The company accomplished much for the colony of Louisiana. Jean Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville (1680-1768), a brother of Iberville, was sent out as governor. For forty years he was the life of the colony. One of his first acts was to found the city of New Orleans on its present site in 1718. In this same year seven vessels were sent from France with stores and immigrants; eleven followed during the next year. Five hundred negroes from the Guinea coast were imported in 1719, and many hundreds more soon followed. The Law company eventually came to an end fatal to its creditors in France, but its misfortunes did not check the prosperity of "Louisiana." The company retained its grant of the colony until 1731, when it reverted to the crown. Meantime New Orleans had become the seat of government in 1722. In 1766 an official census showed a total population of 5552. The years of royal rule were uneventful. Cotton culture began in 1740, and sugar-cane was successfully introduced from Santo Domingo by the Jesuits in 1751. Tafia rum and a waxy, sticky sugar syrup subsequently became important products; but not until the end of the century were the means found to crystallize sugar and so give real prosperity to the industry.

By a secret treaty of the 3rd of November 1762, "Louisiana" was transferred from France to Spain. This treaty was not made public for a year and a half, and Spain did not take full possession of the colony until 1769. By a treaty between Spain and France on the one hand and Great Britain and Portugal on the other, signed at Paris in February 1763, all that portion lying E. of the Mississippi river, the Iberville river, and Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain was ceded to Great Britain. The international interests thus created, and others that sprang from them, heavily burdened the diplomacy, and even threatened the safety of the United States after they were placed in possession of the eastern bank of the Mississippi down to 31° in 1783.

The news of the cession of the colony to Spain roused strong discontent among the colonists. Antonio de Ulloa (1716-1795), a distinguished Spanish naval officer and scholar, came to New Orleans in 1766 to take possession for his king. Merchants, people, and many civil officers held toward him from the beginning a hostile attitude; the military, especially, refused to pass into the Spanish service as stipulated in the treaty; and Ulloa was compelled to continue in an ambiguous and anomalous position--which his lack of military force probably first compelled him to assume--ruling the colony through the French governor, Philippe Aubry (who loyally supported him throughout), without publicly exhibiting his powers. The fear of Spanish commercial laws powerfully stimulated resistance to the transfer, and though Ulloa made commercial and monetary concessions, they were not sufficient. When the colonists found protests at Paris unavailing, they turned to the idea of independence, but sought in vain the armed support of the British at Pensacola. Nevertheless they compelled Ulloa to leave the colony or exhibit his credentials. He took his leave in November 1768. The open resistance by the colonists (October 1768) was a carefully planned revolt. There is no doubt that the men who led the Creole opposition contemplated independence, and this gives the incident peculiar interest. In the summer of 1769 Alejandro O'Reilly came to New Orleans with a strong military force (3600 troops). Beginning his rule with an affability that allayed suspicions and securing from Aubry proofs against the popular leaders, he invited them to a reception and arrested them while they were his guests. Five were put to death and others were imprisoned at Havana. O'Reilly put down the rebellion with determination and in accord with the instructions of his king. Regarded without republican sympathies, and in the light of 18th-century doctrines of allegiance, his acts, however severe, in no way deserve the stigma of cruelty ordinarily put upon them. He was liberal and enlightened in his general rule.

Among the incidents of these troubled years was the arrival in Louisiana (after 1765) of some hundreds of French exiles from Acadia, who made their homes in the Attakapas country. There their descendants live to-day, still somewhat primitively, and still in somewhat of the glamour thrown over land and people by the _Evangeline_ of Longfellow.

On the 18th of August 1769 Louisiana was formally transferred to Spain. Spanish law and Spanish tongue replaced the French officially, but the colony remained essentially French. The Spanish rulers made efforts to govern wisely and liberally, showing great complaisance, particularly in heeding the profit of the colony, even at the expense of Spanish colonial commercial regulations. The judicial system was much improved, a better grade of officials became the rule, 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. Bernardo de Galvez (1756-1794), 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 War of Independence 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 campaigns (1779-1781), 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 growing consciousness of the supreme importance of the river and New Orleans to the Union. With the Spanish governor Estevan Miro, who succeeded Galvez in 1785, James Wilkinson of Kentucky, arrested at New Orleans with a flat-boat of supplies in 1787, intrigued, promising him that Kentucky would secede from the United States and would join the Spanish; but Wilkinson was unsuccessful in his efforts to carry out this plan. In 1794 Spain, hard pressed by Great Britain and France, turned to the United States, and by the treaty of 1794 the Mississippi river was recognized by Spain as the western boundary of the United States, separating it from Louisiana, and free navigation 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 1800; and French dominion gave way in turn in 1803--as the result of a chain of events even more unexpected, startling, and for the United States fortunate--to the rule of the last-named country. On the 30th of November 1803 the representatives of the French republic received formal possession from the Spanish governor, and on the 20th of December lower Louisiana was transferred to the United States. (See LOUISIANA PURCHASE.)

By an Act of Congress of the 25th of March 1804,[4] that portion of the Louisiana Purchase S. 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. The introduction of English law, and the changes made in the judicial and legal systems of Louisiana after 1804 have already been described.

The machinations of Aaron Burr are of interest in connexion with Louisiana annals, and likewise the settlement and revolutionizing of West Florida by Americans. In November 1811 a convention met at New Orleans and framed a constitution under which, on the 30th of April 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 steamboat reached New Orleans. It descended the Ohio and Mississippi from Pittsburg, whence there had already been a thriving river trade to New Orleans for about thirty years. During the War of 1812 a decisive victory was won by the American forces at Chalmette, near New Orleans, on the 8th of January 1815. Up to 1860 the development of the state in population, agriculture and commerce was very rapid. Donaldsonville was the (nominal) capital in 1825-1831, Baton Rouge in 1849-1864 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 state capital.

By an ordinance of secession passed on the 26th of January 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 General 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. The intervening months were signalized by the capture of Baton Rouge in May 1862--the Confederates vainly attempting to recapture it in August. Later, in April 1864, the Confederates under General Richard Taylor won a success against the Unionists under General 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. A large portion of the state was occupied by them in 1862-1865. There were various minor skirmishes in 1862 and 1863 (including the capture of the Federal camp at Berwick Bay in June 1863).

As early as December 1862 the Union military government, at President Lincoln's direction, had ordered elections for Congress, and the men chosen were admitted in February 1863. In March 1864 also a state government to supersede the military rule was established under the president's auspices. By 1863 two parties had arisen among the loyal classes: one of radicals, who demanded the calling of a constitutional convention and the abolition of slavery; the other of conservatives. The former prevailed, and 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 abolishing slavery. Two-thirds of the delegates were from New Orleans. 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 apparently "reconstructed." But in 1864 the opposition of Congress 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 extremely 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 convention 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 day set was the 30th of July 1866. The ex-Confederate party determined to prevent the gathering, but the idea of interference by force seems to have been abandoned. A street riot was precipitated, 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.

This being settled affirmatively, Louisiana was reconstructed with vigour. A constitution of 1868 gave suffrage to the blacks, and disfranchised all whites made ineligible to office under the proposed Fourteenth Amendment to the national Constitution, and also (practically) those who had by word, pen or vote defended secession. Then the state ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, and was declared readmitted to the Union in July 1868. Probably no other southern state suffered equally with Louisiana from the corruption of "carpet-bag," "scalawag," negro legislatures. For four years (1868-1872) the government expenses increased to ten times their normal volume, taxation was enormously increased, and about $57,000,000 of debt was created. But a quarrel broke out among the Republicans (1872), the result of which was the installation of two governors and legislatures, one supported by the Democrats and Liberal Republicans and the other by the radical Republicans, the former being certainly elected by the people. The rivalry of these two state governments, clashes of arms, the recognition by the Federal authorities of the radical Republican government (Pinchback and Kellogg, successively governors) followed. One historic clash in New Orleans (on the 14th of September 1874) between the "White League" ("White Man's Party") and the Republican police is commemorated by a monument, and the day is regarded by Louisianans as a sort of state independence-day. Finally, in 1876, Francis Tillon Nicholls (b. 1834), a Democrat, was chosen governor, but the Republican candidate, S. B. Packard, claimed the election, and with a Republican legislature for a time occupied the State House. In the national election of 1876 there were double returns (Republican: 75,315 for Hayes and 70,508 for Tilden; and Democratic: 83,723 for Tilden and 77,174 for Hayes) from Louisiana, which, as was the case with the double electoral returns from Florida, Oregon and South Carolina, were adjudicated by the Electoral Commission in favour of the Republican electors voting for Hayes. Civil war being threatened within the state President Hayes sent to Louisiana a commission composed of Wayne McVeagh, Gen. J. R. Hawley, Charles B. Lawrence, J. M. Harlan, and John C. Brown, ex-Governor of Tennessee, which was instructed to promote "an acknowledgment of one government within the state." The rival legislatures united, organizing under the Nicholls government, which the commission found was upheld by public opinion. The president ordered the withdrawal of Federal troops from the capitol on the 20th of April 1877, and the white party was thus left in control.

After 1877 the state prospered markedly in all material respects. Of subsequent political events perhaps the most notable, besides the practical disfranchisement of the negroes, are those connected with the Louisiana State Lottery Company (1868-1893). For the renewal of its privileges in 1890 the company finally agreed to give the state $1,250,000 yearly, and despite strenuous opposition by a powerful party the legislature voted a renewal, but this measure was vetoed by the governor. The United States government, however, forbade lotteries the use of the mails, and the company withdrew its offers. The constitution of 1898 prohibits lotteries and the sale of lottery tickets within the state. In 1891 the lynching of eleven Italians at New Orleans gave rise to grave difficulties involving Italy, the United States, and the state of Louisiana. Since 1900 a white Republican Party has made some headway in Louisiana politics, but in national and state elections the state has been uninterruptedly and overwhelmingly Democratic since 1877.

GOVERNORS OF LOUISIANA[5]

_French Domination 1682-1762._

A. le Moyne, Sieur de Sauvolle (died in office) 1699-1701
J. B. le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville 1701-1713
M. de Muys, appointed 1707, died en route,
Bienville continuing to serve.
Lamothe Cadillac 1713-1716
Sieur de Bienville, acting governor 1716-1717
De l'Épinay 1717-1718
Sieur de Bienville 1718-1724
Boisbriant, _ad interim_ 1724-1726
Périer 1726-1733
Sieur de Bienville 1733-1743
Marquis de Vaudreuil 1743-1753
L. Billouart, Chevalier de Kerlerec 1753-1763
D'Abbadie 1763-1765
Philippe Aubry 1765-1769

_Spanish Domination 1762 (1769)-1803._

Antonio de Ulloa[6] 1766-1768
Alejandro O'Reilly[7] 1769-1770
Luis de Unzaga 1770-1777
Bernardo de Galvez[8] 1777-1785
Estevan Miró (_ad interim_ 1785-1786) 1785-1791
F. L. Hector, Baron de Carondelet 30 Dec. 1791-1797
M. Gayoso de Lemos (died in office) 1797-1799
Francisco Bouligny, José M. Vidal, acting
military and civil-political governors 1799
Sebastian de Casa Calvo de la Puerta, Marquis
de Casa Calvo 1799-1801
Juan M. de Salcedo 1801-1803

_French Domination 1800-1803._[9]

Laussat, Colonial Prefect 30 Nov.-20 Dec. 1803

_American Domination since 1803._

_Territorial Period._

William C. C. Claiborne (appointed 1803) 1804-1812

_Statehood Period._

William C. C. Claiborne, Democratic Republican 1812-1816
Jacques Villeré, Democratic Republican 1816-1820
Thomas B. Robertson, Democratic Republican
(resigned) 1820-1822
Henry S. Thibodaux, Democratic Republican
(acting) 1822-1824
Henry S. Johnson, Democratic Republican 1824-1828
Pierre Derbigny, Democratic Republican (died
in office) 1828-1829
Armand Beauvais and Jacques Dupré (acting) 1829-1831
André B. Roman, Whig 1831-1835
Edward D. White, Whig 1835-1839
André B. Roman, Whig 1839-1843
Alfred Mouton, Whig 1843-1846
Isaac Johnson, Democrat 1846-1850
Joseph Walker, Democrat 1850-1853
Paul O. Hébert, Democrat 1853-1856
Robert C. Wickliffe, Democrat 1856-1860
Thomas O. Moore, Democrat 1860-1862
George F. Shepley, Military Governor 1862-1864
Henry W. Allen, Confederate 1864-1865
Michael Hahn, Unionist and Military 1864-1865
James M. Wells, Democrat (acting) 1865-1867
Benjamin F. Flanders, Military 1867
Joshua Baker, Military 1867-1868
Henry C. Warmoth, Republican 1868-1873
Pinckney B. S. Pinchback, Republican (acting) 1873
John McEnery,[10] Democrat-Liberal Republican 1873
William P. Kellogg, Radical Republican 1873-1877
Stephen B. Packard,[11] Radical Republican
(contestant) 1877
Francis T. Nicholls, Democrat 1877-1880
Louis A. Wiltz, Democrat (died in office) 1880-1881
Samuel D. McEnery, Democrat (Lieutenant-Governor,
succeeded) 1881-1884
Samuel D. McEnery, Democrat 1884-1888
Francis T. Nicholls, Democrat 1888-1892
Murphy J. Foster, Democrat 1892-1900
William W. Heard, Democrat 1900-1904
Newton C. Blanchard, Democrat 1904-1908
Jared Y. Sanders,[12] Democrat 1908

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Compare the bibliography under NEW ORLEANS and consult
also the following. For general description: _The Geology and
Agriculture of Louisiana_ (Baton Rouge, Agric. Exper. Station, pts.
1-6, 1892-1902); also publications of U.S. Geological Survey, _e.g.
Water Supply and Irrigation Papers_, No. 101, "Underground Waters of
Southern Louisiana." For fauna and flora: publications of U.S.
Biological Survey (Department of Agriculture, Bibliographies). For
climate: U.S. Department of Agriculture, _Climate and Crop Service_,
Louisiana series (monthly). For soil and agriculture: the above state
geological report and material on irrigation in publications of the
U.S. Geological Survey and in the U.S. Census publications; also
Commissioners of Agriculture of the State of Louisiana, _Annual
Report_ (Baton Rouge, biennial until 1899); State Agricultural
Society, _Proceedings_ (annual); Louisiana State University and
Agricultural and Mechanical College, _Bulletin of the Agricultural
Experiment Station_ and _Biennial Report_ of same (Baton Rouge); U.S.
Department of Agriculture, various publications of the divisions of
botany, agrostology, pomology, forestry, farmers' bulletins, &c. For
manufactures and other industries: primarily the publications of the
national Census, 1900, and preceding decades. For commerce and
communications: Railroad Commissioners of Louisiana, _Annual Report_
(New Orleans, 1900 ff.); U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission,
_Statistics of Railways_ (annual, Washington); on river navigation and
river improvements, especially of the Mississippi, an enormous mass of
material in the _Annual Reports_ of the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army
(consult _Index to Reports_ of same, 1866-1900, 3 vols., Washington,
1902, and cp. article on MISSISSIPPI RIVER); on river commerce see
_U.S. Census of 1880_, vol. 4 (report on steam navigation of the
United States by T. C. Purdy), and _Census of 1890_ (report on
transportation by T. J. Vivian; Rivers of the Mississippi Valley). For
population: various national censuses and _Bulletins_ of the Bureau of
Census, 1900, e.g. No. 8, "Negroes in the United States"; on the
Acadians, _In Acadia, The Acadians in Song and Story_ (New Orleans,
1893; compiled by M. A. Johnston). For pictures of Creole life and
traits, George W. Cable, _The Creoles of Louisiana_ (New York, 1884),
and his later writings; but Mr Cable's views of the Creoles are very
unpopular in Louisiana; for other views of them, and for a guide to
the English and Creole literature of Louisiana, consult Alcée Fortier,
_Louisiana Studies--Literature, Customs and Dialects, History and
Education_ (New Orleans, 1894). For administration: see reports of the
various executive officers of the state (Baton Rouge); the various
constitutions are printed in the report of the Secretary of State, as
well as in B. Perley Poore's _Constitutions_ (2 vols., Washington,
1877); a special account of the government of the territorial period
may be found in D. Y. Thomas, _History of Military Government in Newly
Acquired Territory of the United States_ (Columbia University Studies
in History, Economics and Public Law, vol. xx. No. 2, 1904); for the
Civil War and Reconstruction period compare below, also American
Historical Association, _Annual Report_, 1892; (for courts during
Civil War); also John R. Ficklen, _History and Civil Government of
Louisiana_ (Chicago, New York, c. 1899), a brief and popular account;
on education, in addition to the Biennial Reports of the Board of
Education, consult annual reports of the U.S. Commissioner of
Education.

For history: the standard work is that of Charles E. A. Gayarré,
coming down to the war, based on deep and scholarly research, and
greatly altered in successive editions. The style is that of the
classic school, that of Prescott and Motley, full of colour,
characterization and spirit. The editions are as follows: _Romance of
the History of Louisiana_ (New York, 1837, 1848); _Histoire de la
Louisiane_ (2 vols., Nouvelle Orléans, 1846-1847); _Louisiana: its
Colonial History and Romance_ (N.Y., 1851); _Louisiana: its History as
a French Colony_, Third Series of Lectures (N.Y., 1852); then, based
upon the preceding, _History of Louisiana: The French Domination_ (2
vols., N.Y., 1854) and _The Spanish Domination_ (N.Y., 1854); _The
American Domination_ (N.Y., 1867); and third edition (4 vols., New
Orleans, 1885). More important for the recent period is Alcée Fortier;
_A History of Louisiana_ (N.Y., 4 vols., 1904) devoting two volumes to
American domination. The _History and General Description of New
France_ of P. F. X. de Charlevoix (best ed. by J. G. Shea, New York,
1866, 6 vols.) is a famous old work, but now negligible. Judge F. X.
Martin's _History of Louisiana_ (2 vols., New Orleans, 1827-1829,
later ed. by J. F. Condon, continued to 1861, New Orleans, 1882) is
also valuable and supplements Gayarré. Le Page du Pratz, author of
_Histoire de la Louisiane_ (3 vols., Paris, 1758; 2 vols., London,
1763), was the first historian of Louisiana. Berquin-Duvallon, _Vue de
la colonie espagnole du Mississippi_ (Paris, 1805; published in
English under the name of John Davis, New York, 1806); L. N. Baudry de
Lozières, _Voyage à la Louisiane_ (Paris, 1802) and _Second Voyage à
la Louisiane_ (Paris, 1803) may be mentioned among the travels just
preceding, and A. Stoddard, _Sketches of Louisiana_ (New York, 1811),
among those just following the establishment of American dominion. The
_Histoire de la Louisiane, et de la cession de colonie par la France
aux États-Unis_ (Paris, 1829; in English, Philadelphia, 1830) by
Barbé-Marbois has great importance in diplomatic history. The rarest
and most valuable of early memoirs and much archive material are
embodied in Benj. F. French's _Historical Collections of Louisiana_ (5
series, N.Y., 1846-1853) and _Historical Collections of Louisiana and
Florida_, New Series (N.Y., 1869, 1875). Documentary materials on the
greater "Louisiana" between the Gulf of Mexico and Canada will be
found in the _Jesuit Relations_, edited by R. G. Thwaites (Cleveland,
1896 ff.); and on early voyages in Pierre Margry, _Découvertes et
établissements des Français_ (6 vols., Paris, 1879-1888). John G. Shea
published an edition of Louis Hennepin's _Description of Louisiana ...
Translated from the Edition of 1683_, &c. (New York, 1880). On this
greater "Louisiana" the student should also, consult the works of
Francis Parkman. And see publications of the Louisiana Historical
Society (New Orleans). Of brief general histories there is that of J.
R. Ficklen above cited, another by the same author in collaboration
with Grace King (New Orleans, 1902) and another (more valuable) by
Albert Phelps (Boston, 1905), in the American Commonwealth Series. For
the Reconstruction period see bibliography under UNITED STATES.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A sixth, less characteristic, might be included, viz. the "pine
flats," generally wet, which are N. of Lake Pontchartrain, between
the alluvial lands and the pine hills, and, in the S.E. corner of the
state, between the hills and the prairie.

[2] The original channel of the Red river. It has been so useful in
relieving the Mississippi of floods, that the Red river may possibly
be permanently diverted again into the bayou artificially.

[3] The population was 76,556 in 1810; 153,407 in 1820; 215,739 in
1830; 352,411 in 1840; 517,762 in 1850; 708,002 in 1860; 726,915 in
1870; 939,946 in 1880; 1,118,588 in 1890; and 1,381,825 in 1900.

[4] Other acts bearing on Territorial government are those of the
31st of October 1803 and the 23rd of March 1805.

[5] Terms of _actual service in Louisiana_; Gayarré is the authority
for the French and Spanish period.

[6] Did not openly assume power or supersede Aubry.

[7] Captain-general charged to establish order and settle Unzaga as
governor.

[8] At first, till 1779, only acting governor.

[9] Actual exercise of power 20 days.

[10] Counted out by partisan returning-board and not recognized by
U.S. government.

[11] Not recognized by U.S. government.

[12] Elected U.S. Senator 1910; accepted, but afterward withdrew.

LOUISIANA, a city of Pike county, Missouri, U.S.A., situated below the mouth of the Salt river, on the western bank of the Mississippi, about 90 m. N. of St. Louis. Pop. (1900) 5131, including 1075 negroes and 161 foreign-born; (1910) 4454; there is also a considerable suburban population. Louisiana is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and the Chicago & Alton railways, and by several lines of river steamboats. The river is spanned here by a railway bridge. The city is laid out fairly regularly in the river valley and on bluffs along the river, and has attractive residential districts, commanding good views. It has very active and varied industries, and is a trade centre for a large grain- and fruit-producing and stock-raising region, and has one of the largest nurseries in the United States. Louisiana was laid out in 1818, was the county-seat from that date until 1825, was incorporated as a town in 1845 and was chartered as a city in 1849.

LOUISIANA PURCHASE, a large portion of the area of the United States of America, purchased from the French Republic in 1803. The territory to which France held explorer's title originally included the entire valley of the Mississippi (see Louisiana); but the "Louisiana" which was ceded by her to Spain in 1762 (England refusing it, preferring the Floridas), retroceded to France in 1800,[1] and ceded by Napoleon to the United States--in violation of his pledge to Spain that he would not alienate the province--embraced only the portion W. of the river and the island of New Orleans on the E. (and, as might be claimed with some show of argument, West Florida to the Perdido river).

With the settlement of the trans-Alleghany region, the freedom of the Mississippi had become of vital importance to the western settlements, and Spain had recognized these interests in her treaty with the United States of 1795, by guaranteeing freedom of navigation and the privilege of deposit at New Orleans. The transfer of Louisiana from a weak neighbour to so powerful and ambitious a state as France was naturally unwelcome to the United States, and Robert R. Livingston, the American minister in Paris, was instructed by Secretary-of-State Madison to endeavour to prevent the consummation of the retrocession; or, should that be irrevocable, to endeavour to buy the Floridas (either from France, if they had passed with Louisiana, or through her goodwill from Spain)--or at least West Florida--and if possible New Orleans, so as to give the United States a secure position on the Mississippi, and insure the safety of her commerce. The United States was also trying to collect claims of her merchants for spoliations by French cruisers during the late war between France and Great Britain. In his preliminary propositions Livingston lightly suggested to Talleyrand a cession of Louisiana to satisfy these claims; following it with the more serious demand that France should pledge observance of the Spanish concession to the Mississippi trade. This pledge Napoleon readily gave. But during these negotiations a suspension by the Spanish governor of the right of deposit aroused extreme apprehension in America and resulted in warlike votes in Congress. Of these, and of London reports of a British expedition against New Orleans preparing in anticipation of the imminent rupture of the peace of Amiens, Livingston made most capable use; and pressed for a cession of West Florida, New Orleans and Louisiana north of the Arkansas river. But without New Orleans Louisiana was of little present worth, and Napoleon--the collapse of whose American colonial schemes seemed involved in his failure in Santo Domingo, who was persuaded he could not hold Louisiana against Great Britain, and who was already turning from projects of colonial empire toward his later continental policy--suddenly offered to Livingston the whole of the province. Livingston disclaimed wanting the part below the Arkansas. In even mentioning Louisiana he had gone outside his instructions. At this stage James Monroe became associated with him in the negotiations. They were quickly closed, Barbé Marbois acting for Napoleon, and by three conventions signed on the 30th of April 1803 the American ministers, without instructions, boldly accepted for their country a territory approximately 1,000,000 sq. m. in area--about five times the area of continental France. For this imperial domain, perhaps the richest agricultural region of the world, the United States paid 60,000,000 francs ($11,250,000) outright, and assumed the claims of her citizens against France to the extent of 20,000,000 francs ($3,750,000) additional; the interest payments incidental to the final settlement raising the total eventually to $27,267,622, or about four cents an acre.

Different writers have emphasized differently the various factors in this extraordinary diplomatic episode. Unquestionably the western people were ready to war for the navigation of the Mississippi; but, that being guaranteed, it seems certain that France might peaceably have taken and held the western shore. The acquisition was not a triumph of American diplomacy, but a piece of marvellous diplomatic good fortune; for the records abundantly prove, as Madison said, that the cause of success was a sudden policy of Napoleon, forced by European contingencies. Livingston alone of the public men concerned showed indubitably before the event a conception of the feasibility and desirability of the acquisition of a vast territory beyond the Mississippi. Jefferson had wished to buy the Floridas, but alarmed by the magnitude of the cession, declared his belief that the United States had no power to acquire Louisiana. Though such strict construction of the constitution was a cardinal dogma of the Democratic party, this dogma was abandoned outright in practice, Jefferson finding "but one opinion as to the necessity of shutting up the constitution" (or amending it, which was not done) and seeking justification of the means in the end. The Federalist party, heretofore broad-constructionists, became strict-constructionists under the temptation of factious politics, and a very notable political struggle was thus precipitated--notable among other things for strong expressions of sectionalism. The net result was the establishment of the doctrine of "implied powers" in interpreting the constitution; a doctrine under which the Supreme Court presently found power to acquire territory implied in the powers to wage war and make peace, negotiate treaties, and "dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States."

The exact limits of the acquisition were not definitely drawn. The French archives show that Napoleon regarded the Rio Grande as the W. boundary of the territory of which he was to take possession, and the United States up to 1819 ably maintained the same claim. She also claimed all West Florida as part of Louisiana--which, in the usage of the second half of the 18th century, it apparently was not. When she acquired the Floridas in 1819-1821 she abandoned the claim to Texas. The line then adopted between the American and Spanish possessions on the W. followed the Sabine river from the Gulf of Mexico to the parallel of 32° N., ran thence due N. to the Red river, followed this to the meridian of 100° W. and this line N. to the Arkansas river, thence along this to its source, thence N. to the parallel of 42°, and along this line to the Pacific. Such is the accepted description of the W. boundary of the Louisiana Purchase--waiving Texas--thus retrospectively determined, except that that boundary ran with the crest of the Rocky Mountains N. of its intersection with the parallel of 42°. No portion of the Purchase lay west of the mountains, although for some years after 1870 the official maps of the United States government erroneously included Oregon as so acquired--an error finally abandoned by 1900.

On the 20th of December 1803, at New Orleans, the United States took possession of the lower part of the province, and on the 9th of March 1804, at St Louis, of the upper. The entire region then contained possibly 80,000 residents. The treaty of cession required the incorporation of Louisiana in the Union, and the admission of its inhabitants, "as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States." By act of the 26th of March 1804 the region below 33° N. was organized as the Territory of Orleans (see Louisiana), and that above as the District of Louisiana. The region above 33°, renamed in 1805 the Territory of Louisiana, and in 1812 the Territory of Missouri, was divided as time went on into many Indian reservations, territories and states. Thus were carved from the great domain of the Purchase Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Oklahoma in their entirety, and much the greatest part of Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. There is justification for the saying of Thiers that the United States were "indebted for their birth and for their greatness"--at least for an early assurance of greatness--"to the long struggle between France and England." The acquisition of so vast a territory proved thus of immense influence in the history of the United States. It made it possible for them to hold a more independent and more dignified position between France and England during the Napoleonic wars; it established for ever in practice the doctrine of implied powers in the interpretation of the Federal Constitution; it gave the new republic a grand basis for material greatness; assured its dominance in North America; afforded the field for a magnificent experiment in expansion, and new doctrines of colonization; fed the national land hunger; incidentally moulded the slavery issue; and precipitated its final solution.

It is generally agreed that after the Revolution and the Civil War, the Louisiana Purchase is the greatest fact in American history. In 1904 a world's fair, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, was held at St Louis in commemoration of the cession. After one hundred years the wilderness then acquired had become the centre of the power and wealth of the Union. It contained in 1903 15,000,000 inhabitants, and its taxable wealth alone was four hundred times the fifteen millions given to Napoleon.

AUTHORITIES.--The official literature is in the _American State
Papers, Foreign Relations_, vol. 2, and _Public Lands_, vol. 2;
diplomatic papers reprinted in _House Document 431, 57^th Congress,
2nd Session_ (1903); to which add the _Histoire de la Louisiane et de
la cession_ (Paris, 1829; Eng. trans., Philadelphia, 1830), by
François Barbé-Marbois. This book abounds in supposed "speeches" of
Napoleon, and "sayings" by Napoleon and Livingston that would have
been highly prophetic in 1803, though no longer so in 1829. They have
been used liberally and indiscriminatingly by the most prominent
American historians. See also T. Donaldson, _The Public Domain, House
Miscellaneous Document 45, pt. 4, 47^th Congress_, _2nd Session_. For
the boundary discussions by J. Q. Adams and Don L. de Onis, 1818-1819,
_American State Papers, Foreign Relations_, vol. 4; also in Onis's
_Official Correspondence between Don Luis de Onis_ ... _and John
Quincy Adams_, &c. (London, 1818), or _Memoria sobre las negociaciones
entre España y los Estados Unidos que dieron motivo al tratado de
1819_ (Madrid, 1820). See also discussion and map in _U.S. Census,
1900, Bulletin 74_; and the letters of Thomas Jefferson, James
Madison, Rufus King and other statesmen of the time. By far the best
general account of the diplomacy is in Henry Adams's _History of the
United States_, vols. 1 and 2; and of Western conditions and American
sentiment in J. B. McMaster's _History of the United States_, vols. 2
and 3. Consult also Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_,
vol. 7; and various valuable periodical articles, especially in the
_American Historical Review_, by F. J. Turner and others. Reference
may be made to B. Hermann, _The Louisiana Purchase_ (Washington,
1898), and Theodore Roosevelt's _Winning of the West_, vol. 4. Of the
various special but popular accounts (by J. K. Hosmer, Ripley
Hitchcock, R. Blanchard, K. E. Winship, &c.), not one is worthy of its
subject, and all contain various inaccuracies.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] By the treaty of San Ildefonso, signed the 1st of October 1800.
This was never ratified by Charles IV. of Spain, but the treaty of
Madrid of the 21st of March 1801, which confirmed it, was signed by
him on the 15th of October 1802.

LOUISVILLE, the largest city of Kentucky, U.S.A., and the county-seat of Jefferson county, on the Ohio river, 110 m. by rail and 130 m. by water S.W. of Cincinnati. Pop. (1890) 161,129; (1900) 204,731, of whom 21,427 were foreign-born (including 12,383 Germans and 4198 Irish) and 39,139 were negroes; (1910 census) 223,928.

Louisville occupies 40 sq. m. of a plain, about 70 sq. m. in extent, about 60 ft. above the low-water mark of the river, and nearly enclosed by hills. The city extends for 8 m. along the river (spanned here by three bridges), which falls 26 ft. in 2 m., but for 6 m. above the rapids spreads out into a beautiful sheet of quiet water about 1 m. wide. The streets intersect at right angles, are from 60 to 120 ft. wide, and are, for the most part, well-shaded. The wholesale district, with its great tobacco warehouses, is largely along Main Street, which runs E. and W. not far from the river; and the heart of the shopping district is along Fourth Street in the dozen blocks S. of Main Street. Adjoining the shopping district on the S. is the old residence section; the newer residences are on "The Highlands" at the E. end and also at the W. end. The city is served by the Baltimore & Ohio South-Western, the Chesapeake & Ohio, the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, the Louisville, Henderson & St Louis, the Illinois Central, the Chicago, Indiana & Louisville, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, the Southern and the Louisville & Nashville railways; by steamboat lines to Memphis, Cairo, Evansville, Cincinnati and Pittsburg; by an extensive system of inter-urban electric lines; and by ferries to Jeffersonville and New Albany, Indiana, two attractive residential suburbs.

Many of the business houses are old-fashioned and low. The principal public buildings are the United States government building, the Jefferson county court house and the city hall. In front of the court house stands a bronze statue of Thomas Jefferson, designed by Moses Ezekiel (b. 1844), and inside of the court house a marble statue of Henry Clay by Joel T. Hart (1810-1870). There are few or no large congested tenement-house districts; most of the wage-earners own their own homes or rent cottages. Louisville has an extensive park system, most of which was acquired after 1889 and is on the outskirts. From the heart of the city South Parkway, 150 ft. wide, extends S. 6 m. to the entrance to Iroquois Park (670 acres) on a wooded hill. At the E. end of Broadway is Cherokee Park (nearly 330 acres), near which is the beautiful Cave Hill Cemetery, containing the grave of George Rogers Clark, the founder of the city, and the graves of several members of the family of George Keats, the poet's brother, who lived in Louisville for a time; and at the W. end of Broadway, Shawnee Park (about 170 acres), with a long sandy river beach frequented by bathers. Central Park occupies the space of two city squares in the old fashionable residence districts. Through the efforts of a Recreation League organized in 1901 a few playgrounds are set apart for children. Louisville is a noted racing centre and has some fine tracks; the Kentucky Derby is held here annually in May.

The United States government has a marine hospital, and a life-saving station at the rapids of the river. The state has a school for the blind, in connexion with which is the American Printing House for the Blind. There are state hospitals and many other charitable institutions.