New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-02-19

4 > "a
ish prison. III
Emile Albert for assault and battery, was fine
$50. - :,
John Collins, found guilty of larceny, was ser
| fenced to one month Imprisonment.
John, color ed for larceny, was sent to the paris
| prison for month.
/ Anthony Green colored, for carrying a coneeale
/ weapon. was sentenced to one days Imprisonment
and Win. Mcdonald, for a similar offense, was ol
dered to be incarcerated for one hour. Sufficient
lighs penalties, but we presume their imprisonmen
previous to sentence was not brief. 4a. A
4 The EnvIrons Of New Orleans. n =
! |--Nu" NUMBER TWENTY. .1 ~
1 The ancient French government house. erecte,
some time in 176l, at the corner of Toulous,
street and Old or Front LeHee, was inIsl6 still
used as the Governors official residence, and il
this same building, although much needing re
pairs, we have Witnessed the holding of the legis
lative sessions of our State up to 1921 or 22 if We
are not mistaken in the exact date of the year
after which the government State Offices were
transferred to the State house on Canal street
which had been erected out of the Charity Hos.
pltal; which latter again had been transferred to
the present extensive buildings on Common street
1 But to return to the first State house or govern.
ment building, which Stood with its wide wooden
1 galleries fronting the levee and the shipping in
sight, at the foot of Toulouse street. It was then
in 1916, in rather a dilapidated condition, and !
have often wondered how the people, in throngs,
would venture to go up the ricketty old staircase
when anything like an interesting debate in the
two chambers Of the legislature, which was then
holding its sessions in the upper rooms, was
going on to. attract the curious multitude X This
| was particularly the case in memorable debate
carried on at the above mentioned time, say 1922
to 1923, respecting conventional or legal interest
to be stipulated between creditors and debtors in
other words, about the usury laws, then still ex-
isting. X III "a
In these discussions, in which Stephen Mazu-
| reau, then at the head Of the New Orleans bar.
defended the conservative side-thatis tos saw. the
maintenance of the ten per cent. annual conven-
| tional interest-and A. P. Rost, then young re-.
preventative from the parish of Natchitoches lust
coming upon the scene of rhetorical fame, adyo-
Gated the freedom of all commercial transactions
or the abrogation, as it were, of the usury laws,
then was there most unusual athrong, because
the passage of such an innovating act would have
been of very great importance to the community.
Hence, compromise finally ended these fiery de-
bates by reducing the conventional rate to eight
per cent. interest per annunl, when expressly
stipulated between the parties, When we arrived,
in 1876 the State authorities had just decreed the
alienation of the empty or vacant lots surrounding
the public building, and for this purpose street
was opened, under the name of Jefferson which is
the one traversing the square from Chartres street
to the levee These vacant lots had partly served
for the purpose of some public stables in Spanish
| times, company of dragons being stationed
there and we still saw the remains of what an
pearea garden planted with orange trees. But all
this had to give way when the purchasers of these
lots sold upon groundless rights, began
building and erecting fire proof stores and dwell
ings upon the premise5W also called once or twice
in the lower part of the old State house building
where the subordinate offices for the Governors
department were kept, where people would call
for passports from the private secretary of tie
Executive, and where in one Of the yery damp
and gloomy rooms the public library was kept, or
so much of it as constituted then the yerv scanty
collection of books; still did we meet with what
we were in1uiring for, some of the most ancient
French works upon Louisiana and the former
French colonial possessions. 1t was in this same
building that in 1914, during the invasion of the
British army, say at the latter part of December
between the 2sd of that month and the 2sth, the
State legislature would assemble, in order to de.
Hberate upon the fate of the country, when it
should have been their duty to have adjourned to
the camp of General Jackson, and for every one
OF the members to have taken up his rife or
musket For, how is it possible quietly to discuss
questions of legislation when in sight of the enc.
my almost; for the distance from the State house
then to the camp of Chalmette is just five miles,
and from the front of the levee the enemy could be
seen through the haze of the river, just as the
English, from their position, could perceive the
spires of the city's churches Then again, the
Legislators could plainly hear the rafting of the
musketry and the booming of the cannon. <
At this present time, being far removed from
the then party strifes, we are in much better
position to judge of the righteousness of measures
then taken for the defense of the country: and
even admitting that some of these latter ones NAV
have been of too much of an arbitrary character |
we certainly now days cannot find aught to cen.
sure in them If it were not touching very deli
cate question of national feeling, we would saw,
that in one respect the sentiments of the ancient
population had received quite wrong di-
rection; for if it is historical truth that their
country and themselves were transferred as then
was the custom among the monarchical nations of
the old world to another sovereignty, to the gov.
of the United States for money. their
mode OF cesson not the fault of this latter for
It could not proceed otherwise, in order to obtain
what was absolutely indispensable to its security
Ind quiet that is to say, the possession of
The mouths of the Mississippi, and conse
luently the future command of the Gulf of
hexico-this being the outlet to their great
Western possessions Indeed, if the ancient
population felt sore at this re-transferrence
rom one power to another, it ought rather to have
hrown the blame of such diplomatic transactions
lpon the then arbiter of Europe, the first of the
Vapoleonic dynasty. For, if this historical genius
lad really had it in his generous mind to have ac
ualy benefited the Louisianans, whom he recall
ID apparently with pride to the ancient recoIlec.
ion OF the former mother country, there was an
asy wayto have operated this benefcence in their
avor; it was by handing over the acquired coun
ry to their own inhabitants-to have set them
ctually free and independent. Then, under sueb
ondtions, nothing would have been easier than |
D have come TO voluntary reunion with the s
ther free States of the great federation of tbe
orth American republic. Under such auspices
le position of the ancient colonial population of
ouisiana would certainly have assumed a more {
lgnlhed form or relation; they could not have
cen reproached in after time, as has been ton !
item the case, that they had been sold like cattle
the shambies. But again, we say, whose is tbe
sfprf fnr