Baton-Rouge gazette. [volume] (Baton-Rouge, La.) 1819-1856, 1841-12-25
No Ac

liidn tnaI WHICH uepeHuS upon themselves to
establish by their application and their Ia
Tents" 1t appears to lie now that I can do no
better than to repeat fie same recommenda-
ton. The law passed 1T your last session to
create schools Of this Kind in New Orleans.
induces me 10 hope that you will feel the ad-
vantage of establishing them Throughout the
| State.
Attire which happened in the Penitentiary
at Baton Rouge, on the 4th Of last month, has
occasioned a los which it will require near
ten thousand dollars to repair. An attentive
examination Of this establishment has con-
WINGED me that the only means Of enabling it
to pay by the labour Of the c~oivicts, the
S3O,OOO it annually costs the state, will be to
employ all the prisoners in the manufacture
OF coarse cotton and woollen goods, which has
been put in operation there within the last
two years. The. additional appropriation which
would be required for the purchase of ma
chinery and the erection of the buildings
would, am confident, be repaid TO- the Treas
ury within three years, by the profits of this
branch of industry.
A very considerable number of old c%onvicrs
are annually sent back to the penitentiary.-
1t seems but just that those whose violation of
the laws is repeated should be sentenced to a
greater punishment thar is incurred by a first
offence.
Twenty-four slaves convicted in Virginia
OF heinous crimes, but whose punishment had
been committed to being carried out Of the
limits Of the United States; we're imported
and seized in this city. BY the law # the 29,h
January, 1917, they should be sold, and the
price divided between the state and the infOr-
mer. As there was no inforner in this case,
the slaves belong entirely to the state and
the attorney general his by my advice, post
poned the sale until after the meeting OF the
Legislature. 1t was no doubt an inadvertance
that led the legislature to ordain that convict
slaves whose Importation is prohibited undef
the penalty of fine and coniscatio1,, should
after their Importation be sold in the state,
and thus cause the very evil FROM which it
was the object of the law to protect our fell
low-citIzens. The oppoftunit. now presented
of making the first application of this law, al
lows you to correct its evil effects, by enact
ing that these, as well as all such others as
may hereafter be imported and seized under
similar circumstances, should be employed
for life, under strict guard, upon the public
works of the State. The men Of colour con-
demned to hard labor, the mixing Of whom
with the white convicts in the Fsnitentiary
seems to me, as | have already observed to
you, in opposition to our institutions, could
also during the tenn of their sentence be ad-
~vantageoisly transferred to our public wc-ks.
Having learned that there existed in the ar
thives OF the French Government a great
many manuscripts relative to the colonial his
tory of Louisiana, l have obtained through
the obliging exertinns of General Cass, our
minister near the Court of France, the per-
mission to have them examined and copied.
One of our fellow Citizens who was at Paris
at the tine, undertook that task, and has pre-
pared a catalogue of the manuscripts, with a
short synopsis of the contents of each. This
work which has required much time and H.
bouf, will soon be laid before you. The first
in date of these documents is the proces-ver-
bal of taking possession, by Lasss1Ie in 1852,
of the country to which he gave the name of
Louisiana, and the last is the account of the
trial of the Loaisia1fians, executed in 1869,
by order Of UReilly. Some of these papers
cast a new light upon many pages Of our an
nails, which the then government of France
and Spain did not think polite to make public.
1t Will appear; for instance, that the true OBJ
ject Of the Conspiracy which O'Reilly deemed
it bis duty to extinguish in the blood Of its
chiefs, was not as then proclaimed, to restore
the colony to the dominion of France, bit to
establish a republican government under tile
protection Of England. So that Lafreniere and
Where were the first martyrs of American
liberty, and poured out their blood in the at
tempt to establish a republic in Louisiana,
eight years before the declaration of hide
pendence of l776 Az no correct history of
Louisiana can be written without the aid of
the information contained in those manu-
scripts; you will DOUBTLESS appropriate with
pleasure the small sum necessary to have
them copied
A. B. ROMAN.
New O.leans, December 18th: ls4l.