These different elements in the region W. of the Mississippi are arranged from N. to S. in the order of decreasing geologic age and maturity. Beginning with elevations of about 400 ft. near the Arkansas line, there is a gentle slope toward the S.E. The northern part can best be regarded as a low plateau (once marine sediments) sloping southward, traversed by the large diluvial valleys of the Mississippi, Red and Ouachita rivers, and recut by smaller tributaries into smaller plateaus and rather uniform flat-topped hills. The " bluffs " (remnants of an eroded plain formed of alluvion deposits over an old, mature and drowned topography) run through the second tier of parishes W. of the Mississippi above the Red river. Below this river prairie areas become increasingly common, constituting the entire S.W. corner of the state. They are usually only 20 to 30 ft. above the sea in this district, never above 70, and are generally treeless except for marginal timber along the sluggish, meandering streams. One of their peculiar features - the sandy circular " mounds," 2 to 10 ft. high and 20 to 30 or even 50 ft. in diameter, sometimes surmounted by trees in the midst of a treeless plain and sometimes arranged in circles and on radii, and decreasing in size with distance from the centre of the field - has been variously explained. The mounds were probably formed by some gentle eruptive action like that exhibited in the " mud hills " along the Mississippi below New Orleans; but no explanation is generally accepted. The prairies shade off into the coast marshes. This fringe of wooded swamp and sea marsh is generally 20 to 30, but in places even 50 and 60 m. in width. Where the marsh is open and grassy, flooded only at high tides or in rainy seasons, and the ground firm enough to bear cattle, it is used as range. Considerable tracts have also been diked and reclaimed for cotton, sugar and especially for rice culture. The tidal action of the gulf is so slight and the marshes are so low that perfect drainage cannot be obtained through tide gates, which must therefore be supplemented by pumping machinery when rains are heavy or landward winds long prevail. Slight ridges along the streams and bayous which traverse it, and occasional patches of slightly elevated prairie, relieve in a measure the monotonous expanse. It is in and along the borders of this coast swamp region that most of the rice and much of the sugar cane 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.
of the state are grown. Long bar-like " islands " (conspicuous high land rising above the marsh and prairie) - Orange, Petite Anse, Grand Cote, Cote Blanche and Belle Isle - offer very interesting topographical and geological problems. " Trembling prairies "- land that trembles under the tread of men or cattle - are common near the coast. Most of the swamp fringe is reclaimable. The marshes encroach most upon the parishes of St Charles, Orleans and Plaquemines. In St Charles the cultivable strip of land along the river is only about 3 m. wide. In Orleans the city of New Orleans occupies nearly all the high ground and encroaches on the swamps. In Plaquemines there is practically no cultivable land below Forts Jackson and St Philip, and above there is only a narrow strip.
The alluvial lands include the river flood plains. The principal rivers are the Mississippi, which flows nearly 600 m. through and along the border of the state, the Red river, the Ouachita (or Washita), Sabine and Pearl; all except the last are navigable at all stages of the water. There are many " bayous," several of which are of great importance, both for navigation and for drainage. They may be characterized as secondary outlets of the rivers or flood distributaries. Among them are Bayou Teche, Bayou Plaquemine, Atchafalaya Bayou,' Bayou Lafourche and Bayou Boeuf. Almost all secondary water-courses, particularly if they have sluggish currents, are known as bayous. Some might well be called lakes, and others rivers. The alluvial portion of the state, especially below the mouth of the Red river, is an intricate network of these bayous, which, before their closure by a levee system, served partially, in time of flood, to carry off the escaping surplus of river waters. They are comparatively inactive at all seasons; indeed, the action of the tides and back-waters and the tangle of vegetation in the sombre swamps and forests through which they run, often render their currents almost imperceptible at ordinary water. Navigable waters are said to penetrate all but four of the parishes of the state, their total length approximating 3800 m.
Each of the larger streams, as well as a large proportion of the smaller ones, is accompanied by a belt of bottom land, of greater or less width, lying low as regards the stream, and liable to overflow at times of high water. These flood plains form collectively what is known as the alluvial region, which extends in a broad belt down the Mississippi, from the mouth of the Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico, and up the Ouachita and its branches and the Red river to and beyond the limits of the state. Its breadth along the Mississippi within Louisiana ranges from to to 50 or 60 m., and that along the Red river and the Ouachita has an average breadth of to m. Through its great flood-plain the Mississippi river winds upon the summit of a ridge formed by its own deposits. In each direction the country falls away in a succession of minor undulations, the summits of the ridges being occupied by the streams and bayous. Nearly all of this vast flood-plain lies below the level of high water in the Mississippi, and, but for the protection afforded by the levees, every considerable rise of its waters would inundate vast areas of fertile and cultivated land. The low regions of Louisiana, including the alluvial lands and the coast swamps, comprise about 20,000 sq. m., or nearly one-half the area of the state. The remainder consists of the uplands of prairie and forest.
The alluvial region of the state in 1909 was mainly protected against overflow from the Mississippi river by 754 m. of levee on the Mississippi river within the state, and 84 m. on the Mississippi river, Cypress and Amos Bayou in Arkansas, forming part of the general system which extends through other states, moo m. up to the highlands about the junction of the Ohio river. The state and the national government co-operate in the construction and maintenance of this system, but the Federal government did not give material aid (the only exception being the grant of swamp lands in 1850) until the exceptionally disastrous flood in 1882. For about a century and a half before that time, levee building had been undertaken in a more or less spasmodic and tentative way, first by riparian proprietors, then by local combinations of public and private interests, and finally by the state, acting through levee districts, advised by a Board of Engineers. The Federal government, after its participation in the work, acted through a Board of Engineers, known as the " Mississippi River Commission." The system of 754 m. of Mississippi river levees, within the state, was built almost entirely after 1866, and represents an expenditure of about $43,000,000 for primary construction alone; of this sum, the national government contributed probably a third (the state expended about $24,000,000 on levees before the Civil War). Some of the levees, especially those in swampy regions where outlet bayous are closed, are of extraordinary solidity and dimensions, being 20 to 40 ft. high, or even more, across streams or bayous - formerly outlets - with bases of 8 or 10 ft. to one of height. The task of maintenance consists almost entirely in closing the gaps which occur when the banks on which the levees are built cave into the river. Levee systems on some of the interior or tributary rivers, aggregating some 602 m., are exclusively built and maintained by the state. Louisiana also contributes largely to the 84 m. of levee in Arkansas, necessary to its security from overflow. The improvement of bayous, channels, the '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.
construction of canals and the drainage of swamp lands also contribute to the protection of the state.
The lakes are mainly in three classes. First come the coast lagoons, many of which are merely land-locked salt-water bays, the waters of which rise and fall with the tides. Of this class are Pontchartrain, Borgne, Maurepas and Sabine. These are simply parts of the sea which have escaped the filling-in process carried on by the great river and the lesser streams. A second class, called " ox-bow" lakes, large in numbers but small in area, includes ordinary cut-off meanders along the Mississippi and Red rivers. A third class, those upon the Red river and its branches, are caused mainly by the partial stoppage of the water above Shreveport by the " raft," a mass of drift such as frequently gathers in western rivers, which for a distance of 45 m. almost completely closed the channel until it was broken up by government engineers. These lakes are much larger at flood season than at other times, and have been much reduced in size by the cutting of a channel through the raft. Lakes of this class are sometimes formed by the choking of the mouth of feeble tributaries by silt deposited by the Red river where the currents meet.
Forestry
These forests are the greatest and finest of their kind remaining in the United States. In 1898 it was estimated by Henry Gannett (followed by the Federal census of 1900) that the timbered area covered 28,300 sq. m. Professor C. S. Sargent estimated in 1884 that the stand of short-leaf and long-leaf pines aggregated respectively 21,625 and 26,558 million feet. The timber product of 1900 ($17,294,444) was almost ten times that of 1880 ($1,764,640); and in 1905 the product value ($35,192,374) was more than twice that of 1900. Nevertheless, in 1900 the cypress forests remained practically untouched, only slight impression had been made upon the pine areas, and the hard-wood forests, except that they had been culled of their choicest oak, remained in their primal state (U.S. census). Between 1900 and 1905 furniture factories and planing mills became somewhat important. Pond pine occurs only near the Pearl river. Curly pine is fairly abundant. The eastern pine belt is composed of the long-leaf pine, interspersed with some loblolly. It covers an area of about 3900 sq. m. The south-western pine belt contains the heaviest growth of long-leaf pine timber in the world, covering an area of about 4200 sq. m., and occasionally interspersed with short-leaf pine. The short-leaf growth is especially heavy in the north-western portion of the state, while the long-leaf is found mainly in large masses N. and S. of the Red river around Alexandria as a centre. The cypress forests of the alluvial and overflowed lands in the S. of the state are among the largest and the most heavily timbered known. The hard-woods are found in the river bottoms throughout the state.
Agriculture and Soils. - Agriculture is the chief industry of the state. In 1900 26.2% of the land was in farms, and of this area about two-fifths was improved. The size of the average farm decreased in the two preceding decades from 171.3 to 95.4 acres. The percentage of farms operated by owners (i.e. owners, part owners, owners and tenants, and managers) fell from 64.8 to 42.1% from 1880 to 1900, and the percentage operated by cash tenants increased from 13.8 in 1880 to 24.9 in 1900, and by share tenants from 21.5 in 1880 to 33
o in 190o; the percentage of farms operated by white farmers was 49.8 in 1900. The value of farm property, $19 8,536,906 in 1900, increased 79.8% in the preceding decade. The value of live stock in the latter year was $28,869,506. The total value of all farm products in 1899 was $72,667,302, of which $59,276,092 was the value of the distinctive crops - cotton, sugar and rice. The state bureau of agriculture in 1903 estimated that of the total area 14.9 millions of acres were timber land, 5.7 millions pasture and marsh, and 5
o millions cultivated farm land.
In the N. there are many sandy districts in the uplands, also sandy clays; in the " second bottoms " of the streams fertile sandy loams; abundant tertiary marls in the north-central region; some gypsum in the cretaceous " islands "; and some fossiliferous marls with decomposed limestones. The prairies of south-western Louisiana have much yellow marl underlying them. Alluvial soil and bluff, the location of which has been indicated, are of primary agricultural importance. Reclaimed marsh-land and fresh alluvium (the so-called " front-lands " on rivers and bayous) are choice soil for Indian corn, sugar-cane, perique tobacco, semi-tropical fruits and cotton. The bluff lands are simply old alluvium now well drained and above all floods. The prairies of the S.W. are devoted almost exclusively to rice. On the hills yellow-leaf tobacco can be grown. Cereals and forage plants can be successfully grown everywhere, and varied and profitable agriculture is possible even on the " pine-barrens " or uplands of the N.; but more intelligent and more intensive farming is necessary than that practised by the average " pineywoods " farmer. The alluvial section of lower Louisiana is mostly devoted to sugar, and farther northward to Indian corn and cotton.
Cotton is the principal crop. In 1907 Louisiana ranked eighth in acreage of cotton (1,622,000 acres) among the states of the United States, and in1907-1908the cotton crop (675,428 bales) was eighth among the crops of the states. The average yield per acre varies from about. 45 to
75 bale according to the season. In good seasons and exceptional localities the yield may approach a bale per acre, as in Assumption parish, and in the Mississippi valley at the junction of Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. For many years there has been a reaction against the all-cotton farming system. In general, the small cotton farmer was at the mercy of the commission merchant, to whom he mortgaged his crops in advance; but this evil has lessened, and in some districts the system of advancing is either nonexistent or very slightly developed.
In1907-1908all the sugar produced from cane grown in the United States came from Louisiana (335,000 long tons) and Texas (12,000 tons); in the same year cane sugar from Hawaii amounted to 420,000 tons, from Porto Rico to 217,000 tons and from the Philippines to 135,000 tons; and the total yield of beet sugar from the United States was 413,954 tons. Of all the cane grown, an amount between one-sixth and one-quarter - and that the best - must be reserved for seed every other year, and this is a great handicap to the state in competing with other cane regions and with the sugar beet. Of the total sugar consumption of the country in1899-1904Louisiana produced somewhat more than a fifteenth. Since about 1880 there have been central factories, and their increase has been a very prominent factor in the development of the industry, as it has been in Cuba. Though very much of the region S. of the Red river is fairly well suited to sugar-growing, it is still true that sugar cannot, over much of this area, be grown to so great advantage as other crops. Its hold upon the delta region is, however, almost unchallenged, especially since the rice farmers have found in the prairie lands that excel the delta for their purposes. Sugar is grown also in St Landry and the eastern part of Attakapas - a name formerly loosely applied to what are now St Mary, Iberia, Vermilion, St Martin and Lafayette parishes. Though introduced with success from Santo Domingo about the middle of the T 8th century, the sugar industry practically dates from 1796, when Etienne Bore first succeeded in crystallizing and clarifying the syrup. Steam motive power was first introduced on the plantations in 1822. The average product of the ten seasons1894-1904was 299,745 tons. A state sugar experiment station is maintained at Audubon Park in New Orleans, its work embracing the development of seedlings, the improvement of cane varieties, the study of fungus diseases of the cane, the improvement of mill methods and the reconciliation of such methods (for example, the use of sulphur as a bleaching and clarifying agent) with the requirements of " pure food " laws. Good work has also been done by the Audubon sugar school of the state university, founded " for the highest scientific training in the growing of sugar cane and in the technology of sugar manufacture." Tobacco might be grown profitably over a large part of the state, but in reality very little is grown. The strong, black perique of the delta - cultivated very generally in the lower alluvial region before the Civil War, but now almost exclusively in St James parish - is a famous leaf, grown since early colonial times. Bright or yellow plug and smoking leaf are grown on the pine uplands and pine " flats," and a small amount of cigar tobacco on the flats, prairies and " bluffs." The total value of the tobacco crop of 35,000 ib in 1907 was only $to,000, an amount exceeded by each of the other 24 tobacco-growing states, and the crop was about one-twentieth of % of the product of the whole United States.
Rice farming, which had its beginning immediately after the Civil War and first became prominent in the 'seventies, has developed enormously since 1880. From 1879 to 1899 the product increased twenty-five fold. Formerly the grain was raised by preference in the river bottoms, which still yield, almost invariably, the earliest rice of the season and perhaps the finest. The " buckshot clays " of the backlands, which are so stiff that they can scarcely be ploughed until flooded and softened, and are remarkably retentive of moisture, are ideal rice soil; but none of the alluvial lands has an underlying hardpan, and they cannot as a rule be drained sufficiently to make the use of heavy harvesting machinery possible. In 1880 the prairies of the S.W. were opened to settlement by the railway. These prairies are traversed by ridges, which facilitate irrigation, and are underlaid by an impervious subsoil, which facilitates both effective storage and drainage. Thus the use of machinery became possible, and this revolutionized the entire industry. The year 1884 may be taken as the initial date of the new period, and the grain is now harvested exactly as is wheat in the west-central states. Previously the grain had ordinarily been cut with sickles and harvested by hand. The farms were also small, usually from 5 to to acres. They are now very much larger. All the prairies district - the centre of which is Crowley - is becoming one great rice field. Some rice also is grown on the lowlands of the Mississippi valley, notably in Plaquemines, Jefferson and Lafourche parishes. In the decade1881-1890Louisiana produced about half of the total yield of the country, and from 1891 to 1900 about five-sevenths. In 1904 and 1906 the Louisiana crop, about one-half of the total yield of the country, was larger than that of any other state; but in 1905 and in 1907 (6, 1 9 2 ,955 ib and 7,378,000 lb respectively) the Louisiana crop was second in size to that of Texas. Carolina and Honduras rices were practically the only varieties until after 1896. Since that time select Japanese species, chosen for superior milling qualities, have been widely introduced, as the market prejudice in favour of head rice made the large percentage of broken rice a heavy handicap to the farmers. Hundreds of varieties have been tested by the state and federal agricultural experiment stations. A strong tendency to run to red rice (hardier, but not so marketable) has been a second great difficulty to overcome.
Irrigation is almost entirely confined to rice farms. In the prairie region there is abundant water at depths of too to 400 ft. beneath the surface, but this was little used for irrigation for the first few years of the development of this field, when water was pumped from the streams and canals. In 1902 nearly one-eighth of the acreage irrigated was by systems supplied from wells. The irrigated rice area increased 92.9% from 1899 to 1902, and the construction cost of irrigation works ($4747,359 in 1902; $12.25 per irrigated acre) 87.7% in the same years. This increase was almost wholly in the prairie parishes. Of the total irrigated area for rice of 387,580 acres in 1902, 310,670 acres were in the parishes of Calcasieu, Acadia and Vermilion. In the Mississippi valley water is taken from the river by flumes in the levees or by siphons. The danger of floods and the difficulty of drainage make the extension of the practice unprofitable, and the opening of the prairies has made it unnecessary.
Many of the fruits of warm-temperate and semi-tropical lands, whether native or exotic, including oranges, olives, figs, grape-fruit, kumquats and pomegranates are cultivated. Oranges are grown especially on the coast. There are many fine groves on the Mississippi below New Orleans. The fig is a common door-yard tree as in other Gulf and South Atlantic states, and is never killed down by frost. Louisiana produced in 1899 only a fifth as great a value in subtropic fruits as Arizona and Texas combined. Orchard fruits are fairly varied, but, compared with other states, unimportant; and the production of small fruits is comparatively small, the largest crop being strawberries. Oranges and pears are seriously damaged by insect and fungus pests. The total value of fruit products in 1899 was $412,933. Among nuts the native pecan is exceptionally abundant, the product (637,470 lb in 1899) being much greater than that of any other state save Texas.
The total value of cereal products in 1899 was $ 1 4,49 1 ,79 6, including Indian corn valued at $10,327,723 and rice valued at $4, 0 44,4 8 9; in 1907 it was more than $27,300,000, including Indian corn valued at $19,600,000, rice valued at $7,378,000 and oats valued at $223,000. Indian corn is grown only for home use. Dairying interests are not largely developed, and in Texas and the adjoining states the " Texas fever " and " charbon " have done great damage to cattle. Forage crops are little grown, though soil conditions are `. ,vourable. Cowpeas are a common fertilizer. Garden trucking 1s :eery slightly developed, but has been successful where it has been tried. The state maintains a crop pest commission, the duties of which include the inspection of all nursery stock sold in the state.
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 Pineda, 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 twentyone, 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,' 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 181 2, 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 I Other acts bearing on Territorial government are those of the 31st of October 1803 and the 23rd of March 1805.
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 in1849-1864and 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 independenceday. 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 1 9 00 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 1 French Domination 1682-1762. A. le Moyne, Sieur de Sauvolle (died in office).1699-1701J. B. le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville..1701-1713M. de Muys, appointed 1707, died en route, Bienville continuing to serve.
Lamothe Cadillac. ..1713-1716Sieur de Bienville, acting governor.1716-1717De l'Epinay..1717-1718Sieur de Bienville.1718-17241 Terms of actual service in Louisiana; Gayarre is the authority for the French and Spanish period.
Boisbciant, ad interim. Perier .
Sieur de Bienville. .
Marquis de Vaudreuil. .
L. Billouart, Chevalier de Kerlerec. D'Abbadie. .
Philippe Aubry. .
Bibliog Ra Phy. - 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 agri 1 Did not openly assume power or supersede Aubry.
' Captain-general charged to establish order and settle Unzaga as governor.
3 At first, till 1779, only acting governor.
Actual exercise of power 20 days.
5 Counted out by partisan returning-board and not recognized by U.S. government.
6 Not recognized by U.S. government.
7 Lieut.-governor, succeeded on Sanders's election to U.S. Senate.
culture: 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 18 99); 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 1ilississIPPI 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 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 Alcee 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. Gayarre, 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 Orleans, 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); a second edition of the last two works, supplemented by The American Domination (N.Y., 1866-1867, 4 vols. in 3); a third edition of the whole (4 vols., New Orleans, 1885); a final edition, edited by Alcee Fortier (New Orleans, 1905). 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 Gayarre. Le Page du Pratz, author of Histoire de la Louisiane (3 vols., Paris, 1758; 2 vols., London, 1763), was the first historian of Louisiana. BerquinDuvallon, 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 Lozieres, Voyage a la Louisiane (Paris, 1802) and Second Voyage a 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 EtatsUnis (Paris, 1829; in English, Philadelphia, 1830) by Barbe-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, Decouvertes et etablissements des Francais (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 Spanish Domination 1762 (1769)-1803. Antonio de Ulloa 11766-1768Alejandro O'Reilly'.1769-1770Luis de Unzaga.1770-1777Bernardo de Galvez 3. ...1777-1785Estevan Miro (ad interim 1785-1786)1785-1791F. L. Hector, Baron de Carondelet. 30 Dec.1791-1797M. Gayoso de Lemos (died in office)1797-1799Francisco Bouligny, Jose M. Vidal, acting mili tary and civil-political governors 1799 Sebastian de Casa Calvo de la Puerta, Marquis de Casa Calvo. ..1799-1801Juan M. de Salcedo. .. ...1801-1803French Domination 1800-1803.4 Laussat, Colonial Prefect.. 30 Nov.-20 Dec. 1803 American Domination since 1803. Territorial Period. William C. C. Claiborne (appointed 1803)1804-1812Statehood Period. William C. C. Claiborne, Democratic Republican1812-1816Jacques Villere, Democratic Republican..1816-1820Thomas B. Robertson, Democratic Republican (resigned). Henry S. Thibodaux, Democratic Republican (acting). .
Henry S. Johnson, Democratic Republican Pierre Derbigny, Democratic Republican (died in office) .
Armand Beauvais and Jacques Dupre (acting) Andre B. Roman, Whig. Edward D. White, Whig. Andre B. Roman, Whig. Alfred Mouton, Whig.. Isaac Johnson, Democrat. Joseph Walker, Democrat. Paul O. Hebert, Democrat. Robert C. Wickliffe, Democrat. Thomas O. Moore, Democrat. George F. Shepley, Military Governor Henry W. Allen, Confederate.. Michael Hahn, Unionist and Military James M. Wells, Democrat (acting) .
Benjamin F. Flanders, Military. .
Joshua Baker, Military .
Henry C. Warmoth, Republican .
Pinckney B. S. Pinchback, Republican (acting) John McEnery, 5 Democrat-Liberal Republican William P. Kellogg, Radical Republican.. Stephen B. Packard, 6 Radical Republican (con testant) .
Francis T. Nicholls, Democrat. .
Louis A. Wiltz, Democrat (died in office). Samuel D. McEnery, Democrat (Lieutenant Governor, succeeded).. Samuel D. McEnery, Democrat. Francis T. Nicholls, Democrat. Murphy J. Foster, Democrat. William W. Heard, Democrat. Newton C. Blanchard, Democrat Jared Y. Sanders, Democrat. P. M. Lambemont, 7 Democrat .
1820-1822-1822-18241824-1828-1828-18291829-1831-1831-18351835-1839-1839-18431843-1846-1846-18501850-1853-1853-18561856-1860-1860-18621862-1864-1864-18651864-1865-1865-186718671867-1868-1868-1873 1873 1873-1873-187718771877-1880-1880-188 11881-1884-1884-18881888-1892-1892-19001900-1904-1904-19081908-1910-1910.
1724-1726
1726-1733-1733-1743
1743-1753 1753-1;63
1763-1765-1765-1769Historical 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.
