St. Louis - The Fourth City, Volume 1. Walter Barlow Stevens

Commandant

      and Acting Governor of

      Upper Louisiana.

      Thus a third great day was entered upon the calendar of St. Louis. True to his character as a soldier, St. Ange made a full report of the conditions which had led to the establishment of government extraordinary in form for those times. Promptly the report was sent to New Orleans. At St. Louis it was known that the land was Spain's; that had been formerly announced at New Orleans in October, 1764. d'Abbadie had died in February, 1765, Aubry was in command only until the Spanish arrived to take possession. It was known that a condition of great uncertainty prevailed at New Orleans, with a movement gathering head to proclaim a republic rather than to accept Spanish domination.

      To Aubry was conveyed the report of the radical steps taken at St. Louis. The records are silent as to the identity of the person who carried the report of St. Ange, but it is not unreasonable to suppose that Laclede made the horseback journey in midwinter and presented in person the account of what had taken place. Aubry was expecting Ulloa, the Spanish governor, by every sailing. A revolution was impending. It bore such close relation to St. Louis that the story of it, briefly told, is not out of place.

      "Without liberty there are few virtues. Despotism breeds pusillanimity and deepens the abyss of vices."

      So read the first American Declaration of Independence. It was proclaimed against the King of Spain, not the King of England. The initial stand of this hemisphere for republican principles was made on the bank of the Mississippi.

      For freedom of conscience men laid down their lives in the Province of Louisiana before they did in the Colony of Massachusetts. The protest against monarchy blazed from the musket's mouth at New Orleans earlier than it did at Lexington. Years before the taxed tea was thrown overboard in Boston harbor, the revolution in Louisiana had sent about his business the Spanish Governor who came to rule over the people of that Province. In the decree of expulsion it was declared:

       Without population there can be no commerce and without commerce no population. Both are fed by liberty and competition which are the nursing mother of the State; of which the spirit of monopoly is the tyrant and stepmother. Where is the liberty of our planters, of our merchants, of all our inhabitants t Protection and benevolence hare given way to despotism. A single authority seeks to absorb and annihilate everything. Without running the risk of being taxed with guilt, no man of any class can longer do anything but tremble; bow his neck and kiss the ground.

      These were bold words. They were pronounced with all of the authority of an organized movement at New Orleans nearly ten years before Thomas Jefferson put pen on paper to write "When in the course of human events" — They were uttered with all the formality by the superior council of Louisiana, a body which had taken the place of royal authority to govern.

      In the histories of the United States there is but brief mention of the first revolution on American soil against absolutism. And yet the 28th of October, 1768, is entitled to a red letter place in the American calendar of patriotic days. The name of Lefreniere deserves rank with those of foremost American patriots.

      This movement for independence in America began when Louis XV. in 1764 sent a letter to d'Abbadie in New Orleans, telling him that France had withdrawn her sovereignty from all parts of North America and had divided her colonies there between England and Spain. The King of France commanded d'Abbadie to deliver the Province to Spanish authority. d'Abbadie communicated the letter to the superior council which shared with him the administration of government in the Province. At the head of the council, with the title of King's Attorney, was Nicholas Chauvin de Lafreniere. He became the head of the movement to found a Republic on American soil. George Washington was then in his early twenties, passing through some interesting lovemaking experiences. Patrick Henry was a student and had not thought of "Give me Liberty, or give me Death." Lafreniere was a native of the Province of Louisiana, the son of a Canadian woodsman. His father had followed Bienville, the explorer, to Louisiana. He had acquired sufficient means to send Nicholas to France to be educated. Returning to the Province the young man had risen until he had become the orator and lawyer of the Colony. He had received the appointment of King's Attorney in the superior council and was the recognized popular leader of Louisiana. His talents and following fitted him to be the head of the revolutionary movement.

      In the house of Madame Pradel, retired from the street and surrounded by a large garden, where magnolias of luxurious foliage defended them from observation, Lafreniere, the King's Attorney, and his associates, met night after night to plan the Republic of Louisiana. Among these patriots were Chevalier Masan, Captain and Lieutenant Bienville, nephews of the great explorer; Jean and Joseph Milhet, Commander Villare, Hardy dc Boisblanc, Marquis, Cariss, Petit, and several others.

      The influential merchants and planters were in sympathy with the movement. Lafreniere retained his place in the superior council, which body the patriots controlled. There was no disposition to move rapidly or prematurely.

      In the midsummer of 1765 a letter received at New Orleans prompted the first public act of the revolutionary movement. It was from Don Antonio de Ulloa, who wrote from Havana that he had been appointed by the King of Spain to take possession of Louisiana Province and was on the way to do so.

      Following the publication of this letter from Ulloa, a popular convention of the Province of Louisiana was called. It was the first of its kind on American soil. It was composed of delegates from the parishes. In that convention the leaders of the movement came into public view. Lafreniere was the dominant spirit. This convention appointed Jean Milhet, the richest business man in the colony, to go to France and to urge that Government to recede from the treaty with Spain and to retain possession of Louisiana.

      Just at the time the Acadians, expelled by England from Nova Scotia upon the cession of that province by France, were arriving in Louisiana. The sufferings of the exiles served to intensify the feeling of hostility at New Orleans toward Spain. Milhet went upon his mission.

      Ulloa arrived in New Orleans in the spring of 1766. He had two companies of Spanish regulars. He learned quickly that it would be useless to attempt to take control. He induced Aubry, the French officer, who had succeeded d'Abbadie, to remain temporarily to administer government in the name of France. He postponed the raising of the Spanish flag. In September of that year Ulloa sent a squad of his soldiers through the streets and, with the beating of a drum to command attention, announced a decree. This proclamation ordered all ship owners, on arrival in New Orleans, to appear before Ulloa that he might fix the prices at which their cargoes must be sold. The penalty of refusal was that they would not be allowed to sell in the colony. The decree further ordered that the depreciated paper money must be accepted. It sought to regulate outgoing cargoes so that the government could control the exports.

      The shipping interests at once allied themselves with the people on the side of Lafreniere and the patriot leaders. Ulloa left the city and went down to the mouth of the river to spend the winter.

      Milhet came back from France. He had been unable to accomplish the thing desired. The King of France considered Spain already in possession of Louisiana.

      Milhet reported the failure of his mission. The revolutionists agreed that the time had come. They were in control of the superior council, which, by the failure of Spain to assume sovereignty, was the highest authority in the Province.

      In the dead of night, October 28, 1768, preceding the day on which a meeting of the superior council had been called, a band of patriots gathered about the cannon at the Tchoupitoulas gate of the city and spiked them. At daybreak Captain Noyan, who had held a commission with the French regulars, marched in at the head of a body of Acadian exiles. About the same time the German colonists came in from the east, under command of Villare. The planters from the south forced their way through the gates on that side. New Orleans was in possession of the revolutionary army of the Republic of Louisiana. The description of the forces recalls the conditions at Lexington a few years later. The revolutionists were armed with all manner of improvised weapons, but they were enthusiastic. Aubry, the French representative, protested, but offered no resistance. A few persons