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

       I am My Dear Sir Yours Most Sincerely.

       (Signed) Will'm Henry Harrison.

       The Hon'ble

       Charles DeHault Delassus

       Colonel in the Service of His Catholic Majesty, etc., etc.

       St. Louis.

      Even after the formal transfer of sovereignty, when his authority was no more, Governor Delassus was sought and cultivated for the moral effect of his influence. In May, two months after the stars and stripes had been raised at St. Louis, Governor Harrison addressed Delassus as "My Dear Friend," and bespoke his good will and action in the arrangement of details as follows:

       Vincennes, 6th May, 1804.

       My Dear Friend: —

       Since I wrote to you last I have received a letter from you, for which I thank you. The law for the Government of Louisiana has at length been published. The upper part of that province, viz. from the 33 degree of latitude, is placed under my government, but as a separate territory, entirely distinct from Indiana.

       By the above mentioned law it becomes my duty to lay out the Province in Suitable Districts and form the Inhabitants of each into a Militia, but as I am entirely unacquainted with the strength and situation of the several settlements I must request your friendly aid in the affair and will thank you to give me as soon as possible a list of the several settlements, their distance from each other, their strength of population, white and black, together with any other facts you may think proper to mention. Each of the above mentioned districts is to have an officer of Militia, who is, besides his commission in the Militia, to have brevet rank from the United States and is to command under the Governor the Regular troops as well as Militia in his District. He is to be under the same pay with an officer of the same rank in the Regular Army. It will be my endeavor to procure for your Respected father one of these appointments.

       I am sorry to be under the necessity of troubling you for the information asked for above but I know of no person who possesses so much knowledge on that subject as yourself and as the information is necessary to me I am sure you will give it with cheerfulness. My powers do not extend to Louisiana until the 1st of October but it is necessary that every arrangement should be previously made particularly as I have to communicate with the President on the subject of the Districts.

       If I was not very much pressed with business at this moment I would answer by the present conveyance a letter which I received some days ago from your venerable father. I will however soon write to him. In the meantime present me Respectfully both to him and Madam your Mother.

       I shall not fail to pay all the attention in my power to the gentlemen you were so good as to mention to me.

       As soon as you know your destination let me hear from you. If it is to be Madrid I wish you to take a letter to an intimate friend who is Secretary to the American Ambassador there and will by the time you reach it probably be our Charge d' affaires.

       God bless and prosper you. Your friend

       (Signed) Will'm Henry Harrison.

       Col 'o Delassus

       I recommend the bearer hereof Judge Jones to your notice.

       Charles DeHault Delassus, Esq.

       Colonel in the Service of His Catholic Majesty.

       St. Louis.

      Thus was paved the way to peaceful acquisition of St. Louis and of all Upper Louisiana by the United States. The result was a transfer of territory and of citizenship which could hardly have taken place more smoothly if it had been annexation sought by the people rather than involuntary sale to serve the ends of a European government.

      When congress met it authorized the governor and the judge of Indiana Territory, which extended to the Mississippi, to put into form some laws for the District of Louisiana, as it was called. William Henry Harrison was the new governor of Louisiana. He had been looking forward to this work. He came over to St. Louis for a close view of conditions.

      A court of quarter sessions was established for St. Louis. The District of Louisiana was divided into five sub-districts — St. Louis, St. Charles, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid. Each sub-district had a sheriff.

      One of the earliest acts of the court was the fining of James Rankin, sheriff, $6.33 "for insolence and contempt of court."

      St. Louis, as seen from the Illinois side in 1807, was inspiring. So it seemed to a lady traveler. With artistic vision and facile pen the impression was preserved. It appeared in the "Literary Gazette" of Cincinnati. The name of the writer does not accompany the article. Influx of "the Bostons,", as the old French habitants called the newcomers, had begun. It is surmised that the contributor to this pioneer periodical was the wife or daughter of some American who was staking his fortune on the future of St. Louis:

       The traveler that pauses upon the eastern bank of the river immediately directs his eye to the opposite side of the river. He there contemplates a bold and rocky eminence, where the primeval materials of nature's strength seem piled in rude and disordered magnificence. The ascent is steep and difficult, and has the aspect at a distance of threatening to exclude you from the town, which it beautifully elevates to a considerable height above the water, at the same time proving an impenetrable rampart to ward off the encroachments of the river. You would almost believe the houses were united and that the roofs upheld and supported one another, so gradually and so beautifully has nature bent her brow for the reception of this village. From the opposite shore it has a majestic appearance, which it borrows from its elevated site and from a range of Spanish towers that crown the summit of the hill and lend their Gothic rudeness to complete a picture which scarcely has a parallel. The principal houses of St. Louis are surrounded by massive walls of stone to serve as defense in time of danger, the port holes with which they are pierced testifying that they were constructed as fortifications to repel the bold and sanguinary savage. Within these rough enclosures are planted trees of various descriptions, which, like infancy smiling in the arms of age, serve to decorate the otherwise somber aspect of the town.

      St. Louis became a town under act of the territorial legislature which "authorized the people of any village in the territory on petition of two-thirds of their taxable inhabitants to be incorporated into a town on application to the proper court." This act became effective on the 18th of June, 1808. Residents of St. Louis lost no time in moving to incorporate. They circulated a petition in this form:

       To the Honorable Court of Common Pleas for the District of St. Louis:

       By virtue of a law passed by the legislators, which authorizes the inhabitants of the towns and villages of this Territory to incorporate themselves if two-thirds of them should agree to the same, the undersigned citizens of the circuit of St. Louis, forming at least the number required by the said law, and wishing to establish an incorporation, beg of you to put the said law in force, in order that they may procure themselves the good order and a durable police in the inward parts of the circuit of their town and common, according to the plan that has been made of the said common, and following as much as possible the enclosure that served to separate the lands of the inhabitants and those of the common.

       The undersigned reposing themselves in your wisdom have the honor to remain,

       Gentlemen, your most devoted servants.

       St. Louis, the 5th of July.

      Then