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

to the Spanish authority went to Ulloa 's house, barricaded and prepared for siege. There was no assault. Sentiment was all one way, but not disposed to violence. The superior council was in session the 28th and 29th of October. It adopted the Declaration of Independence, the sentiments of which have been given. It decreed that Ulloa, as the representative of Spain, must leave and gave him three days in which to take his departure. Before the decree was made public, Ulloa had betaken himself to a frigate in the river. On the 31st day of October, without waiting for his days of grace, he sailed away. Aubry again protested in the name of the King of France. The superior council proceeded to govern the province and to prepare papers for the establishment of the Republic of Louisiana with Lafreniere as "Protector." The patriot leaders worked upon a republican constitution and they sent throughout the province republican documents.

      At Madrid, the Spanish capital, the character of this movement in the Province of Louisiana was not misunderstood; the importance was not mistaken. After Ulloa, the Spanish Governor, had been expelled by the revolution, the King of Spain called on his ministers to advise. Aranda was then the leading statesman of Spain. He counseled the prompt suppression of the revolution no matter at what cost. His reason was given in plain words. Spain could not afford to have an American Republic on the Gulf of Mexico and in the Mississippi Valley, endangering her other possessions on the east and on the west. For it must be remembered that at this time Spain claimed sovereignty over the Floridas, parts of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. State papers of Spain tell of the serious estimate put upon this revolution at New Orleans and its possible consequences. Aranda submitted to the Royal Council at Madrid March 22nd, 1769, this statement:

       The insurrection at New Orleans see ma to be an object of the greatest importance, not only for the reasons which have been expressed above bat on account of its consequences. Its situation on the Gulf of Mexico— it being already as it were, a European town, by its population, and it being converted into a free port which no doubt would be the ease, — would attract thither Urge numbers from Europe. A republic in Louisiana would be independent of all European powers. It would then become the interest of all to keep on terms of amity with her, and to support her existence. The favorable position in which Louisiana would then be placed, would not only increase her population, but also enlarge her limits, and transform her into a rich, flourishing and free State in sight of our provinces which would present the melancholy contrast of exhaustion and want of cultivation. From the example under their eyes the inhabitants of our vast Mexican domains would be led to consider their utter want of commerce, the extortions of their different governors, the little esteem in which they are held, the few offices which they are permitted to fill. These things will weigh the great inducements which they have to hate still more the Spanish domination and to think they can brave it with more security, when they shall see that a province, weak when compared with their extensive and populous country, can make good her position with impunity and secure her prosperity.

      From October, 1768 to July, 1769, the condition continued in Louisiana while in the Thirteen Colonies the discontent with English rule was growing apparent. When General Gage at Boston was calling in the British red coats from outlying western posts and getting ready to suppress revolt against the stamp taxes of King George the Third, the Count O'Reilly sailed up the Mississippi with a powerful Spanish fleet to suppress the Republic of Louisiana. O'Reilly had been given by King Charles a fleet of twenty-four vessels and 2,600 men to put down the revolution and to establish Spanish dominion. There were 1,398 men able to bear arms on the part of the republic. But they were not all willing. There were royalists who, if they could not have France, preferred Spain to the dangers of an infant republic. There were others who urged the uselessness of a struggle in which it was evident Spain, France and England would be arrayed against them.

      Marquis, the Commander-in-Chief of the Republican forces, made a final appeal to his troops to rally and resist the Spanish army. The number that responded was insufficient to justify defense. The odds were pitiful.

      The leaders of the revolution conferred with Aubry, the retiring French official. Aubry undertook to act as the medium of communication with O'Reilly. He encouraged the belief that terms might be arranged and suggested general amnesty. As the result of negotiations Lafreniere, Marquis, Milhet and other leaders were induced to go aboard the flagship and meet O'Reilly. They were invited to dine and were treated with great apparent consideration. The Spanish troops landed without any show of resistance. O'Reilly immediately ordered the arrest of all the leading patriots. Villare, the commander of the German colonists in the army of the republic, was bayonetted by the Spanish soldiers who went to take him and died in prison. Nevertheless his memory was tried by military court and condemned with the others to infamous death.

      The sentence was pronounced by Count O'Reilly in these words:

       I have to condemn and I do condemn the aforesaid Nicholas Chauvin de Lafreniere, Jean Baptiste Noyan, Pierre Carisse, Pierre Marquis and Joseph Milhet as chiefs and principal movers of the conspiracy aforesaid to the ordinary pain of the gallows which they have deserved by the infamy of their conduct and ipso jure by their participation in so horrible a crime; and to be led to the place of execution, mounted on asses and each one with a rope around his neck, to be then and there hanged until death ensues and to remain suspended on the gallows until further orders, it being hereby understood that anyone having the temerity to carry away their bodies without leave, or contravening in whole or in part the execution of the said sentence shall suffer death. And as it results from the said trial and from the declarations of the aforesaid attorney general, that the late Joseph Villare stands convicted likewise of having been one of the most obstinate promoters of the aforesaid conspiracy, I condemn in the like manner his to be held forever infamous; and doing equal justice to the other accused after having into consideration the enormity of their crime as proved at the trial, I condemn the said Petit to perpetual imprisonment in such castle or fortress as it may please his Majesty to designate; the aforesaid Balthasar Masan and Julien Jerome Doucet to ten years' imprisonment; and Pierre Hardy de Boisblanc, Jean Milhet and Pierre Poupet to six years' imprisonment with the understanding that none of them shall ever be permitted to live in any dominions of His Catholic Majesty, reserving to myself the care to have every one of these sentences provisionally executed and to cause to be gathered up together and burnt by the hand of the common hangman all the printed copies of the document entitled "Memorial of the Planters, Merchants and other Inhabitants of Louisiana on the event of the 28th of October, 1868," and all other publications relative to said conspiracy to be dealt with in the same manner; and I have further to declare and I do decree in conformity with the same laws that the property of every one of the accused be confiscated to the profit of the King's Treasury.

      The common hangman refused to carry out the sentence. The united voice of the people of Louisiana Province cried out in protest. No one could be found to conduct the execution. O'Reilly changed the sentence to death by shooting. Noyan was young and just married. Friends planned for him an escape, to which O'Reilly consented. The young patriot refused it and declared he would die with his friends.

      On the 25th of October, 1769, Lafreniere, Noyan and Milhet were led out to the Place d'Armes and shot to death by a file of Spanish soldiers. The others were sent to prison. On the day following the execution the Spanish troops were drawn up on the Market Place. The Declaration of Independence and all documents relating to the Republic of Louisiana were burned by the common hangman. But the words of Lafreniere still lived — "Without liberty there are few virtues — Despotism breeds pusillanimity and deepens the abyss of vices."

      While revolution ran its unsuccessful course at New Orleans, the government established at St. Louis still lived. Lefebvre, as assistant to the commandant, relieved him of much of the detail of civil affairs, for which St. Ange had no liking. Labusciere, the scrivener, was secretary to the government. He kept the records. He wrote marriage contracts, deeds, inventories, wills, leases, affidavits. He signed papers as "Labusciere, notary."

      In the summer of 1766, Lefebvre was appointed by St. Ange keeper of the king's warehouse. Before the removal from Fort Chartres took place, a variety of military stores not included in the cession was taken to St. Louis. Of these Lefebvre remained the custodian until his death. The inventory then taken, 1767, showed guns,