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

of high birth. The communities of Canada were formed upon much the same plan, with very few individual owners of real estate. In Louisiana, the lower part of the province, were plantations owned by colonists. St. Louis was of its own class. It began without the usual military garrison and Indian contingent. It had no landholding aristocracy and tenantry. It was no haphazard assembling of squatters about a central point. It started with a site mapped. To every family which came to settle was given a lot and the title was confirmed in writing. The joiner, the miller, the blacksmith, the baker were among the first to secure homes 'in fee simple those were words of the deeds which St. Ange signed. More than one clement of Americanism had its beginning in the founding, the self-government and the land system of St. Louis, before 1770. The battle of Lexington was in 1773.

      CHAPTER III. THE SPANISH GOVERNORS

       The source and origin of all empires has been the refuge and kind usage which men And In the gentleness of the laws. The evil administration of them Is the greatest impediment to the building of a government; for not only are those who are present and who are exposed to them exasperated, but others are prevented from coming. Hence, as our laws are extremely mild, they ought not to be obscured by ambition and self-interest as has been the case with some settlements formed by the king. — Royal decree sent to the Spanish Governor. St. Louis, 1778.

      With six officers and twenty soldiers, Don Pedro Piernas arrived in St. Louis in 1770. He was the first Spanish lieutenant governor. Making no demonstration of authority, he took his residence, as a guest, at Laclede's house. The government went on as before, except that no land titles were issued. The wife of Piernas was French. Laclede, it is said, spoke Spanish. Piernas made himself agreeable. He did not formally begin the discharge of the duties of his office for some weeks. The first official act of the governor found in the archives bears date of May 20, 1770. Laclede and St. Ange laid before Piernas the details of the de facto administration. Piernas accepted the forms and methods with only slight changes to conform to Spanish laws. He went even farther in his policy of conciliation. He retained in minor positions the appointees of the St. Ange government. He gave St. Ange a Spanish commission, said to have been that of captain of infantry. The old Canadian, however, declined further active service, and retired.

      Piernas did one thing which, more than all of the rest, made easy the transition of government. When St. Ange and Labusciere brought to the attention of the governor the eighty-one titles to ground in St. Louis which they had issued to settlers, Piernas accepted them and announced publicly his recognition of them so far as his authority went. In short, the Spanish official took St. Louis as he found it, ratified all that the community had done during the six years previous and proceeded along the lines familiar and acceptable to the seven hundred inhabitants.

      With all of his circumspection and mildness of method, Governor Piernas encountered at least one unpleasant proof of the spirit of liberty which the settlers of St. Louis had acquired in their experiment of governing themselves.

      Before he had been in office six months Don Pedro posted a notice declaring "Amable Latourneau duly attained and convicted of seditious language and a disturber of the public peace." The governor sentenced Latourneau to "ten years' banishment from His Majesty's settlements, with still heavier punishment should he disregard this sentence and reappear."

      Latourneau was a Canadian. He had come to St. Louis in 1764. Piernas, to obtain some revenue to pay the expenses of Spanish government, imposed a tax on provisions. The ordinance was posted in a public place. Latourneau saw it and spoke rebelliously. He claimed that all he said was that if the other young men in the community were like him they "would not work for forty sous a day in peltries." The governor took evidence and concluded that the time was opportune to make an example. Latourneau moved across the river. Before the term of Piernas expired the merchants of St. Louis were getting even with Spain for what they deemed excessive duty on imports. They were receiving goods through the British country across the river instead of by way of New Orleans and the Mississippi. Perhaps it was smuggling but it was peaceful evasion of what prompted the throwing overboard of the tea in Boston harbor sometime later. The offense of Latourneau was officially described in the records as "derisively commenting on an ordinance laying an excise tax on provisions." Others than Latourneau had the instinct of self-government but they were politic. They made no protest against the tax in theory but found ways to defeat it in practice.

      In strong contrast with his measures at New Orleans to suppress the movement for independence, was O'Reilly's policy toward St. Louis. In New Orleans the representative of Spain was "Cruel" O'Reilly. When he sent Piernas to set up Spanish authority at St. Louis he told him to cultivate friendly relations with St. Ange, the head of the de facto government. He spoke in his instructions of St. Ange as one whose practical relations with the Indians will be very useful. The lieutenant-governor was told to do whatever he could to gain the good will of St. Ange, to listen to the opinions of St. Ange, and to accept his views as far as possible without prejudice to the service.

       The lieutenant governor shall preserve the best of relations with Monsieur de Santo Ange. whose practical knowledge of the Indians will be very useful to him. He shall do whatever he can to gain his friendship and confidence, and shall listen to his opinion attentively in all matters, and shall condescend to him so far as possible without prejudice to the service.

      These instructions were given in February, 1770. not quite six months after Piernas returned to New Orleans from his first mission to St. Louis, and expressed himself rather savagely upon the kind of government he found there, reflecting especially upon what he considered the lack of authority exercised by St. Ange.

      Laclede's house was built originally with one chimney. The first St. Louis winter showed that more heat was needed. A second chimney was added. This was constructed on the outside of the north wall. An opening for the fireplace was made from the inside. At a later date more patching was applied to meet the needs of the seat of government of the growing settlement. An addition was built on the south side. This was intended for a prison when needed. At least one prisoner was confined in the jail. He was a soldier charged with homicide. What became of the case does not appear. That the prisoner regularly left the jail without escort to go to his meals and as regularly returned to confinement is recorded. In the yard of Laclede's house, after it became the property of Auguste Chouteau, was dug the first well. Until that time the river and the springs had been the sources of water supply. The river was within easy reach of all the houses of the period.

      With the coming of this first Spanish governor in 1770, Laclede's house lost none of its official significance. It was still government house. There the Spanish governor was quartered. In the high basement the Spanish soldiers on duty were stationed. The Spanish flag took the place of the French flag on the same flag staff. Successive Spanish governors occupied this house until the years of use and weather began to tell upon it. The time came when the governor decided that the house was no longer habitable. He moved his headquarters across the street on the south. When the estate of Laclede was settled and when the affairs of the firm of Maxent, Laclede and Company were adjusted, this house became the property of Auguste Chouteau. After the Spanish government moved out, Auguste Chouteau put the building in thorough repair adding another story. There he lived until his death in 1829. Even after the historic Laclede's house became the mansion of Auguste Chouteau, it was still the nursery of St. Louis. The mantle of the founder fell upon the shoulders of Auguste Chouteau. Although the officers of the government were moved formally over the way, questions of local policy were still settled in the old house. At Auguste Chouteau's the conferences were held. There the conclusions were reached, to be officially published from headquarters. Where the infant Fourth City was born, the cradle was rocked through forty years.

      When the first Spanish governor retired from St. Louis he carried this remarkable testimonial signed by fifty French residents, heads of families:

       We, the undersigned inhabitants, merchants, tradesmen, hunters and traders of the post of St. Louis, assembled in the government chamber by direction of Governor Don Francisco Cruzat, of the Illinois, certify to all whom it may concern, that