New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-03-05

NUMBER TwEETY-sIX.

the year 1858. These buildings fronting the rive,
from the Ursulines Convent to the Barracks street
near the present United States Mint, we found in
good state OF repair on our arrival in the country
mere had been stationed, in regular SUGGESTIONS
hrst the French regiments of the line, until, in
i'oo' LOUISIANA was ceded to the Spanish NOR
afchy; after that PERIOD when under the cruel
command OF Governor O'Reilly in 1863, Spanish
regulars occupied these same quarters; and finally
i'll lso5' the United States troops, under the sue
cessiVe commands of Generals Wilkinson, Wade
hampton, Floyd and Flournoy, to the time of
winch we speak. The barracks proper formed
one great long building nearly the length of a
square and half two stories high built of bricks
plastered with coating of lime, and having in
the front as well as rear, a wide gallery. which
was supported by row of strong SQUARE pillars,
also constructed of the same material bricks. and
plastered with the common cement made of the
muscle shell lime. A part of this ancient bnild;nc
10 s''ii Ill existence and can be seen though under
soihe"hat renovated exterior, at the corner of
street and Chartres or Conde, as that end
or the street was formerly named.
Ihls building, private residence will indicate
TO the reader the precise location of the ancient
structure, as it has not been moved from the site.
and stands, therefore, the same line of the for
mer entire building, whose other parts have been
successfully demolished, in order to make room
Tor the modern private residences erected upon
this locality. Fronting, primtively, the river. on
old LeVee street, as we have mentioned above
there was yet, between the high wall of mason
work enclosing the Barracks squares or area and
the river or levee, an open lot of green parad-
ground, upon which the troops in garrison WON g
exercise occasionally, when the daily turnout in.
side the walls did not take place. This forme r
open parade ground constitutes at present the sew.
eral squares OF buildings traversed by Gallatin
street, at one time in our city annals the most
noted quarter of ill-fame and murderous propen-
slty 1or who OF the old residents does not reco-
lect the red shirts of the Gaatin elections, the
pipe layers or notorious ballot rowdies. Under
the Spanish government, that is to say, after the
arrival OF the first military governor, the already
noted O'Rely, that very same spot of our city
had been the scene of the bloody execution of
some five or six of the patriotic inhabitants. who
had been opposed to the transfer of Louisiana
from France to the Spanish monarchy, which
then was reported as most tyrannical
colonial mother country, These victims, whose
names have been preserved in history, had commit
ted no other crime than that of manifesting their
lncreduty in the belief that their mother country,
France, should have given up and transferred to
foreign power colony and possession which it
had cost SO much means and men to establish
and now that the country seemed to have taken
an actual start, should all on sudden be left
abandoned to itself. When we reflect that the
most important buildings and Notifications had
hardly been completed, it appears indeed most
strange that the mother country should have
acted in this unaccountable manner, and the only
way to explain this shameful proceeding must be
sought in the then existing influence-the female
government, the petticoat regime, which held the
French nation, by its king, Louis XIV, under its
complete control. Had it not been for this
sinister influence, neither the Canadas, nor all
Louisiana, would have been lost to France; but
when these important colonies were wrested from
the French commerce, and the even more import.
ant island OF st. Domingo afterwards, followed the
general wreck of the grand system of outward
colonial possessions, France seemed indeed to
have formed another policy, and hence we find
her advocating the mere establishment of trading
companies in the former trans-oceanic colonies
and empires. 1t is then easy to understand how
n the course of time, and under the very mild
colonial system adopted by Spain in regard to
louisiana, and particularly the city of New Or
cans, the French commerce and inhabitants
became afterwards completely reconciled to their
ate and situation. Indeed, the two countries,
Srance and Spain, seem to have had pretty nearly
he same interest in Louisiana, which France alone
IA had before the cession, and this position was
ather an improvement than otherwise
Now, if it be said, that notwithstanding the
lOifal affnrta nf +uo
hat of the English in the neighboring Floridas
ldded thereto, it did not much advance the
commercial Importance of our place, we mnst not
ose sight in our mind of the principal cause of the
reat prosperity the lower delta of the Mississippi
Which is, indeed, the advances or progress which
he Northwest had first to make in agriculture and
commerce; and also the former want of that great
Improvement, the steam power, which seems, quite
'rovidentially, to have been applied Just in time
% the navigation of the Mississippi current in or
Ter to conquer the greatest obstacle to the rapid
md successful settlement of the Western wids
before that modern invention. Hence e/when in
SIG commerce took new start in Louisiana, it
vas no longer indigo that supported the burthens
II the plan ter's expenses; rice was yielding, no
loubt, tolerable revenue to its cultivator, but
It'll sugar and cotton were the main pillars of
4ouisiana's agriculture. We had in the country
tome little tobacco farms, which product at one
line had been much priced, but when, in a
ew years later the culture of this plant
lad been most inordinately extended in the
State of Kentucky, the tobacco of the
coast, meaning the river parishes and Red River
Mostly formed in the shape of carrots, be-
came drug in our market, and we have known
his article wholly unsaeable for number of
'ears. Nay, it is only of late, that we have no.
iced that the attention of our farmers has again
oeen directed to this weed; no doubt the high
,rice offers some inducement once more to under
AXE its culture; still, all the old planters up Red
river, in Natchitoches parish with whom we had
aiken information upon this subject, were unan-
nous in stating that generally speaking the to-
,acco plant required the very richest land or soil,
md that after some crops it would exhaust the
terreau," that is, the m uld, or earth mixed with
lung, and demand constantly increased addition of
ertilizing substances. We therefore observed that
me planter after the other would give up this sta
lie article for making of crops, and in 1928 we
new of hardly any one in that parish, Natch:-
oches-n which the tobacco culture had been car.
led on the largest in our State-with the single ex.
option of the Bayou Pierre settlement some
There in the neighborhood of the great raft in
led River, where carrots were still fabricated and