Mississippi, allowing steamships, steamboats and barges to come together, putting the shipping in immediate communication with the railroads and offering the finest opportunities for the transhipment of freight. The harbor is from forty to fifty feet deep immediately off the wharves, and 200 feet deep in the center of the river. This harbor is furnished with a fine system -of wliarves newly constructed along a large part of the frontage, supplemented by the dock and warehouses of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad above the city at Southport, the extensive wharves, presses and elevators of the New Orleans & Western Railroad just below the city at Port Chalmette, the wharves, elevators, etc., of the Texas & Pacific Railroad at Westwego, just opposite the terminal facilities of the Southern Pacific Railroad at Algiers, also opposite the city proper; and the complete docks of the Illinois Central Railroad, in the very center of the river front, and knoM-n as the Stuyvesant Docks.
4. Deep water to the Gulf of Mexico, open at all times of the year and free from all danger of ice and storms, and promising still gTcater improvement when SoutliAvest Pass shall have been jettied, improved and deepened, and an alternative route thus assured to tlie shipping, permitting vessels of thirty-five feet draft to reach ~Sew Orleans witliout a delay or hindrance.
5. Ample warehouse facilities, grain elevators and cotton-presses sufficient to handle all the warehouse and shipping business of the city, these establishments being located convenient to the trade, and rates of handling being 'fair and reasonable.
6. Railroad switches running from tlie trunk lines and belt-line railroads, into the factories both in the front and rear of the city, supplying them with such materials as they may need, and taking their output to market, at a minimum expense in loading, unloading, hauling and handling.
7. There is practically a belt road, in the 'New Orleans & Western Railroad, which runs in the immediate rear of the city, extending from Avondale above, where it is proposed to construct a bridge across the Mississippi River, to Port Clialmette below, thus imiting the various railroads entering the city. The Illinois Central Railroad also enjoys belting privileges on St. Joseph street and Louisiana avenue; and the city council has undertaken to arrange for the continuation of a belt Jine along the entire river front, which will be o^^^aed by the city and controlled and operated in the interest of all the railroads centering there.
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
8. Satisfactory labor conditions. The cost of handling goods has been very materially reduced of late by the \itilization of labor-saving machinery and devices, instead of depending on rough manual labor as formerly. Xew Orleans has been but little interfered with by strikes, labor disturbances and similar economic obstacles, as compared with other ports, American and European.
9. The nearness of New Orleans to the chief interior centers of production, as well as to the Latin-American countries to the South, making it the port through which the products of the South and West can be marketed in the shortest possible time,—-this question of time and expedition having become of late the most important element in commerce. A comparison of the differences in distance between New Orleans and its chief rival, New York, shows how great is the advantage in point of time the former possesses:
Miles from Miles from New OrleanB. New York.
Memphis 394 1,158
Cairo 517 1,132
Nashville 595 998
St. Louis 700 1,058
Decatur 755 1,065
Champalg-n 787 940
Blooming-ton 799 1,037
Peoria 875 1,072
Louisville 746 857
Miles from Miles from
New Orleans. New York.
Kansas City 878 1,335
Chicago 912 912
Dubuque 988 1,079
Cedar Kapids 1,019 1,131
Omaha 1,070 1,402
Sioux City 1,177 1,409
Denver 1,356 1,932
St. Paul 1,268 1,322
New York is 350 miles, or fifty per cent, further from St. Louis than New Orleans, and the freight rate ought to be half as great again. Even Louisville is 121 miles nearer the "Crescent City." West of the Mississippi the differences reach tremendous proportions. Kansas City is 457 miles nearer the Gulf port. Omaha, far in the North, is 332 miles nearer the Gulf than the Atlantic; and Denver is 576 miles nearer. If a division of the trade of the country were based on distances. New Orleans would be entitled to all the business south and west of Chicago and Cincinnati, as compared with New York and other Atlantic ports.
In the foreign trade. New Orleans has similar advantages, as far as that of Latin-America and the Pacific is concerned. If an Omaha dealer wants to send his pork or flour to Guatemala, he will find the New Orleans route 1,012 miles shorter than the New York one; while from Denver to Vera Cruz the ad-
vantage in favor of Hew Orleans is 1,834 miles. The following table gives the relative distances from Latin-American ports to New York and New Orleans:
Miles from Miles from
New Orleans. New Sfork.
Tampico, Mexico 705 1,986
Tnxpan, Mexico 744 2,017
Vera Cruz, Mexico 788 2,046
Tabasco, Mexico 745 2,020
Carmen, Mexico 738 2,032
Campeclie, Yucatan 655 1,764
Havana, Cuba 597 1,227
Cienfuegos, Cuba 851 1,342
Port Rojal, Jamaica 1,112 1,452
Port au Prince, Hayti 1,215 1,320
Cape Haytien, Hayti 1,189 1,333
Belize, British Honduras 882 1,482
Greytown, Nicaragua, entrance of the
Nicaraguan Canal 1,250 1,970
Colon, Colombia 1,380 1,981
Cartagena, Colombia 1,462 1,970
Curagiao 1,702 1,820
New Orleans controls the bulk of the Central American trade and handles a large business with the West Indies and Colombia, but it has as yet little traffic with the rest of South America. In the event of the constniction of the Nica-raguan Canal, it will have an advantage over New York of 711 miles in distance to all points on the Pacific,—a difference equal to two days in time. By the Colon-Panama route its advantages over New York is 601 miles.
In the earlier days of New Orleans, its principal commercial dependence was upon the Mississippi River and its tributaries. It neglected the railroads; and it is only of recent years that it has enjoyed any railroad business of importance. Now the bulk of its business is done by rail, and the railroad companies are deeply interested in its trade and development, and are doing all in their power to stimulate it.
New Orleans is the terminus of six of the largest railroad systems in the United States, so that what it lacks in the number of its lines it makes up for in mileage. These roads are the Southern Pacific, Illinois Central, Louisville & Nashville, Texas & Pacific, Southern and the Queen & Crescent routes, the latter
e^ STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
two roads entering the city over the j^ew Orleans & Northeastern. The mileage of the several roads is as follows, extending into all jiarts of the conntrj:
Miles.
Southern Pacific 7,372
Illinois Central 3,130
Louisville & ITashville 5,027
Texas & Pacific, including the Missouri Pacific 5,324
Southern 4,827
Queen & Crescent 1,201
Total mileage of jSTew Orleans trunk lines 26,881
This is one-sixth the total railroad mileage of the United States, and the railroads hei-e mentioned are among the greatest in the country, besides having other important connections. Its railroads place New Orleans in direct and immediate communication with every part of the Union, as its steamship lines do with all foreign ports.
The Southern Pacific, through its railroad and steamship lines, place New-Orleans in close connection with New York on the one hand, and the Pacific coast and the Orient on the other. It is one of the great routes of commerce around the globe, and carries freight between Europe on. the one side and Australia, India, China and Japan on the other. But two changes are necessary in transporting goods from New York to Hong Kong—at New Orleans and San Francisco—and the route is the shortest in time between our Atlantic coast and the Orient. There pass over this line the products of Alaska, of the whale and seal fisheries of the Northern Pacific; teas, matting and silks from China and Japan and Indian goods of all kinds. With its line of steamers to New York and other points, the Southern Pacific has secured the business of distributing the various manufactured products of the Eastern States, as well as large quantities of European imported goods through Texas, California, the Northwest and ports of the Mississippi Valley. The Southern Pacific is the finest coastwise steamship line in the world, and owns a number of vessels of from 4,000 to 5,000 tons, which leave New Orleans three or four times a week with cargoes of over half a million dollars each.
The terminal facilities of the several railroad trunk lines terminating at New Orleans are given elsewhere. The Illinois Central has no less than seven depots or yards within the city limits of New Orleans, covering an area of 240 acres;
and its yards at Soiithport and Ilarahan, both above the city, will increase its property for the storage of freight and cars to 982 acres. On this it has no less than five grain elevators and some twenty odd warehouses.
What is true of the Illinois Central is largely true of the otlier railroads, particularly of the Southern Pacific, Texas & Pacific and ISTew Orleans & Northeastern lines, all of which have large and perfect terminal facilities.
New Orleans, therefore, which a few years ago had the very poorest railroad facilities, is now one of the very best provided cities in the Union in this respect. Its railroad traffic is entirely the creation of the last quarter of a century. In 1876 it railroads handled in the city only 731,514 tons of freight, against 5,262,-825 tons in 1899, having increased their business sevenfold during that period.
Such are the commercial advantages that New Orleans offers to-day. Even greater improvements are proposed and more or less under way, as follows:
1. Absolute free wharfage, with no charge whatever on vessels landing at New Orleans.
2. The improvement of Southwest Pass, so as to offer an alternative route to the gulf.
3. A bridge across the Mississippi river at Avondale, just above New Orleans, which will better facilitate the interchange of freight between the Texas lines and the railroads on the east of the Mississippi.
4. A deep canal across the Florida isthmus, which will shorten the trip from New Orleans to all Atlantic ports 600 to 700 miles.
Such, in brief, are the commercial advantages that New Orleans enjoys in terminal facilities, in its river traffic and in ocean vessels and railroads, and in its position for trade, both the interior and with foreign covmtries. No other city in the world has similar advantages. There is, for instance, no other river like the Mississippi, with as many miles of navigable stream, with as fertile a valley depending on it or containing so large a population and turning out such valuable products. There is no city on the gulf having so deep a harbor, and therefore admitting such large vessels to its wharves; and only two or three cities Avith such important railroad connections. With these three transportation routes—river, rail and ocean—-united, New Orleans has better opportunities to collect and distribute products in the region tributary to it than any other city on the continent.
Again, in the matter of markets. New Orleans is, as Jefferson pointed out, specially favored, having the Mississippi Valley at its back and Latin America
fronting it, and being therefore the port for the interchange of the products and coniniodities of N'orth and South America, as well as for their shipment to Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. If, then, it should accomplish all that has been predicted for it by the great economists of the world, it will not do more than its facilities and advantages entitle it to.
But it is not in commerce alone that New Orleans offers such extraordinary advantages, for it is equally well situated and has equal advantages to make it a great city.
New Orleans has become an important manufacturing city in the past quarter of a century. During that period, from 1875 to 1900, the output of its factories has increased sixfold, while the increase in commerce was only thirty or forty per cent. It is growing much faster as a manufacturing than as a commercial city, but not as fast as its advantages should make it grow. In regard to manufactures, it is probably the best-situated city in the United States, having the following specified advantages, some of which are enjoyed by other cities, but no other town has all of them, or to the same degree or extent as jSew Orleans: First, climate; second, raw materials; third, labor; fourth, markets; fifth, cheap transportation of materials and manufactured producls; and, sixth, cheap living.
The climate in New Orleans is probably the best in the Union for manufacturing, and there is no loss of time from any interruption from the elements. The winter is never cold enough to stop work, as in New England, and there is no snow fall to prevent employes from getting to the factories where they work. The mills are not tied up by freezes, as in the central Southern States. On the other hand, the hot spells which occur so frequently in the larger cities of the North because Nature has been outraged, the shubbery destroyed and there is nothing left but brick and stone and iron to store up and accumulate the heat, are unknown in New Orleans. Sunstrokes and heat prostrations are very rare here, and no factories, not even the sugar refineries, have had to close on account of heat of summer, as has occurred more than once in New York and other Northern cities. The summer in New Orleans, while long, is not hot, and is the busiest season of the year for manufactories. A cool breeze blows from the gulf, and the nights are always cool and not hot like the summer nights of the Atlantic Coast, which wear out the people by depriving them of sleep and render them prone to sxinstroke the next day. New Orleans covers a large area, and there is ample room for gardens and shrubbery of all kinds, which serve to
mitigate the summer heat, and the flushing of glitters tends to the same resnlt.
Again, tlie climate possesses that moisture which is so necessary in textile manufactures. In the Southern mills outside of New Orleans the dryness of the climate lias a bad eifect on the yarns, and it is necessary to employ machinery in the mills in order to produce that moisture which is essential to the successful working of them. In New Orleans, however, this is wholly unnecessary.
But the greatest boon that New Orleans enjoys is in the abundance and cheapness of the raw^ materials employed, not in one but in all lines of manufactures, and its prosperity to-day is based upon its wealth and resources in this matter. It is the port of export for these materials, and they can therefore be obtained there on the most favorable terms, in the best condition and of the highest quality: and this is true not of one but of a dozen articles—cotton, wool, hemp, cypress, pine and lumber of all kinds, iron, copper, lead, hides, leather, tobacco and a hundred other necessary articles, including such essentials to manufacturing as cheap and abundant fuel.
Take cotton, for instance. New Orleans is the best cotton port and the best cotton-purchasing center in America. It is the market for the South and Southwest, and exports the bulk of the cotton used in Europe and New England. Cotton can be bought in New Orleans for from $3 to $5 a bale cheaper than in Boston; and it is in better condition for spinning, for it has not suffered from a long voyage and the misusage it gets on a voyage, nor has it been so pressed and repressed that the fibre has been affected. Then again, in the matter of quality. New Orleans offers the purchaser opportunities he can find nowhere else. It monopolizes the handling of long-fibre cotton of the Tensas and Yazoo bottoms, which has from that very fact been named "Orleans" cotton. With this advantage, and the other advantage already noted in the matter of the moisture of the climate, it can readily be seen how favorably it is situated for the manufacture of cotton goods.
It is equally well situated for woolen and mixed goods. The wool crops of California and Texas, the largest in the Union, are shipped through New Orleans, reaching that city over the Southern Pacific. These shipments run as high as 20,000,000 pounds a year, and the wool is naturally cheaper by the difference in freight, insurance and handling than in Boston or Philadelphia, to which the bulk of it goes. The advantages the city offers for the manufacture of woolen and mixed goods have only recently been appreciated l)y the erection here of several w^oolen mills manufacturing hosiery, underwear and similar articles. These mills have been most successful, and their products are shipped
to all parts of the country and sell readily iu New York and Chicago in eom-l>etition with the output of the Eastern mills. Only a small portion of the wool which passes through New Orleans is retained here for manufacturing purposes; and the possibilities of this city in textile goods, both cotton and wool, are as yet not fully developed.
In the matter of hemp, and the manufacture of ropes, cordage, baggage, etc., New Orleans has great opportunities, for it handles the Kentucky product as well as imports—most of the istle or Mexican hemp. It has always done some business in the manufacture of ropes and bagging—even in ante-bellum times; but has never fully utilized its chances.
In respect to lumber, New Orleans stands first among American cities, in variety, quality and price. It has been an exporter of lumber for nearly two centuries, supplying the AVest Indies and Mexico and Central America with such wood as they needed. At the same time it is the importer of most of the mahogany, Spanisii cedar and other tropical woods used in the West and Southwest, and its mills supply the factories with the timber used in the manufacture of furniture, cigar boxes, etc. New Orleans is the center of the cypress region, which covers the lower delta of the Mississippi, and of the Southern yellow pine district, and is able, therefore, to handle both of these woods to advantage. It is also the exporting point for the shipment of oak staves, and supplies nearly all the staves used in Europe for marketing the wine crop of that continent. Its cypress is especially adapted for the manufacture of shingles, cistern tanks, etc., and twenty-seven States are supplied with these articles, as well as nearly all the coast of the gulf of Mexico and Caribbean seas. Its pine is sent to all points of the world, and is shipped to Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.
Much of the lumber comes to New Orleans in a manufactured state and the city merely exports it; but the Ncav Orleans sawmills and other factories do a large manufactiiring business themselves. For this they have great facilities. The mills are situated either on the river front, getting such timber as they need from the Mississippi itself, as it can be floated down to them from that river or any of its tributaries, or on the New or Old Basin, while they can receive timber from Lake Ponchartrain or the Mississippi gulf coast. The logs are brought direct to the mill, while the finished product can be similarly shipped directly. Besides the timber brought by the waterways. New Orleans receives a considerable amoimt by its railroads, especially the New Orleans & Nortlieastern, Illinois Cent)-al and Yazoo k [Mississippi Vailey lines. Timber being a bulk}' article
and being brought to the city almost without cost—that is, tiinited (h)\vu during high water—it is from forty to fifty per cent, cheaper than in the Eastern cities, and the industries which utilize wood or are of the chief material in their lines of manufactures, are therefore at a great advantage over those in most other cities.
The development of the iron industry of Alabama of recent years has given the New Orleans foundries and machine-shops an advantage which they did not previously enjoy. These shops did a big business even when they had to get their iron from as far distant a point as Pittsliurg. To-day they are getting iron at much cheaper figures from the Birmingham district. Indeed, New Orleans is so favorably situated as far as Birmingham is concerned that a large part of the Alabama iron shipped abroad is sent via the "Crescent City." It is believed that still more favorable conditions can be arranged by the improvement of the Alabama streams so as to give the furnace men a chance to ship their products to seaboard by an all-water route and thence through Mississippi Sound to New Orleans. This would give the city factories iron at practically cost price.
It may be mentioned, in regard to the foimdry, machine and iron business in New Orleans, that it is nearly three-quarters of a century old, and that it has in consequence a large amount of skilled labor at hand.
At one time New Orleans handled the entire lead product of the country. It has lost the bulk of the business of late; but enough lead passes through the city to give employTnent to many paint and other factories. It still ships an immense amount of copper ore, coming from the copper mines of New Mexico and Arizona; but nothing has been done towards utilizing the possibilities this supply oilers.
New Orleans ships each year from four to five million dollars' worth of hides, and with possibly one exception is the largest handler of hides in the United States. It receives the immense output from the millions of cattle of Texas, as well as the bulk of the product from the ranches of the plains, Mexico, Central America and other countries of the Gulf and Caribbean. Only a small portion of these hides, however, are treated in New Orleans or converted into leather here; the greater portion are shipped North and tanned in that section; and such leather as New Orleans needs for its boot and shoe, tnmk, harness and saddlery and other factories is generally bought in the North and brought back here. In spite of this extravagant policy, instead of manufacturing the hides into leather. New Orleans does a large business in shoes and nearly all otJier classes of goods into which leather enters as a principal constituent. In this, as in other matters, it has not fully utilized the opportimities it enjoys.
It is the same story in regard to tobacco. New Orleans stands at the meeting point of the two great tobacco crops. It is the nearest American city to Havana, and, as a consequence, is the importer of most of the Havana tobacco ci-op sold in this market. It is the point of export of the tobacco crops of Kentucky and Ohio. At one time it was the largest tobacco market in the world, and while it has lost this superiority, it still handles an immense amount of American tobacco; and the German, French and Spanish bviyers make most of their purchases in the "Crescent City." It was only a quarter of a century ago that these advantages were first utilized, and the city ventured into the manufacture of cigars and tobacco. In the matter of cigars it uses mainly Havana tobacco, and largely Cuban labor, thus turning out a Havana cigar in every respect except that it is mauufactured in the United States. Its cigars have atr tained a world-wide reputation and it possesses, in the Hernsheim Factory, the third largest cigar factorv in the United States. Its tobacco business has not been quite as successful, but it fills an important position in the country as a manufacturer of tobacco.
This emimeration of the raw materials whicli can be obtained in New Orleans in gi'eater quantities, at cheaper prices or of better quality than in other American cities Avill give some idea of its opportunities for manufacturing. Equally important is that other element which plays so important a part in manufacturing, coal.
There are no coalfields near New Orleans, but it gets its fuel for domestic and factory use as cheaply as thoiigh it was in the coal districts of Pennsylvania. It owes this to the Mississippi Eiver, down which the coal is shipped in barges, at a minimum cost, from the mines of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Ken-tuckv and Tennessee. This water transportation is so cheap that New Orleans, although 1,000 miles further from the coalfields than New England, gets its coal from 20 to 30 per cent, cheaper; and as coal foi-ms so important an element in the cost of manufacturing, the expense is very considerably reduced in the "Crescent City." The railroads also bring coal into New Orleans, but the water route still remains the cheapest.
New Orleans has another advantage as a manufacturing city. Most of the factories in the city being immediately on the river bank or close to it, the coal can be delivered to them direct.
The labor supply of New Orleans is abundant and orderly, and strikes are few. In consequence of the utilization of more economic methods in handling
the cDinincrcp of tlie city, a much smaller force is requireil than of old, for the transportation is done mainly by railroads, and nuieh of the unloading and loading by macliinei-y. This leaves some 40,000 to 50,000 persons available for factory work. The proportion of skilled labor is not very large save in one or two branches; but it is increasing as fast as the needs of the city require, with the experience gained in the factories as well as the instruction given in the technical and other schools.
A very considerable proportion of the labor is female, especially in the cotton, tobacco and clothing factories and knitting-mills. A far larger proportion of the work is done at home, by pieces, than in other cities. This is specially the case with clothing and pant factories, nearly three-fourths of the output being made by the operatives in their own homes instead of in the overcrowded sweatshops which ai'c a feature of the industry in Xew York and other Northern cities. It is needless to say that this results to the great comfort and advantage of the working peojilc, who have plenty of fresh air, their own hours and such conveniences as they can aiford. The other operatives have other advantages in a climate where the weather is never too hot or too cold for work, and where the cost of living for the poorer classes is exceptionally low. The cost of fuel, in an average household in New Orleans, is hardly one-fourth what it is in the Xortli: and there is a corresponding reduction in the cost of overcoats, cloaks and other winter apparel. The rent is lower for a small cottage than for a room in a New York tenement house, and being nearer the center of production the cost of food, if they live after the New Orleans style, is less. It is ^wssible, therefore, for a mill operative in New Orleans to live for 20 to 30 per cent, less than in a similar style in the Eastern States. This is practically demonstrated by the manv thousands of skilled laborers who have settled in New Orleans of late from the North and West, brought here by the progress of its industries.
While there have been several large strikes in New Orleans, nearly all of them have been in the commercial lines, due to the shrinkage in commercial profit and an attempt to rearrange wages. In the manufacturing lines proi>er, strikes of all kinds have been few, as the government reports show, and the interruption and injury to factory work have been insignificant.
In the matter of markets all that applies to the commerce of New Orleans equally applies to its manufactures. It is a case where manufactures follow the ship. Whei'ever New Orleans has lines of steamers running, it is able to furnish all kinds of goods at an advantage over competing cities.
Thus, the extension of its trade in bananas, eocoanuts and tropical fruits generally, has been followed by a great extension of its manufactures and their shipment to the tropical countries of Central and South America. New Orleans furnishes the bulk of the manufactured goods to those countries, a large proportion of them manufactured in the city itself. Nine-tenths of the articles used on the Atlantic coast of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua come from New Orleans. Practically all the cisterns, tanks, etc., used in Central America, Mexico and Colombia are made in or around the "Crescent City." The same is true of the lumber used in Mexico. The New Orleans breweries furnish a large part of the West Indian trade. In the matter of cigars. New Orleans supplies Texas and the Southwest generally. Its canned goods go over the world, for many of them are manufactured nowhere else. Its canned shrimp are sent by the thousands of cases to India. It furnishes two-thirds of the cottonseed oil and cottonseed cake and meal used in Europe, the oil going through Marseilles, Genoa, Naples and other centers of the olive-oil industry. It can thus be seen that it has for its market all qujirters of the globe—Europe, Asia and South America. The fact that it lias steamship lines to more than eighty different ports gives it an opportunity to sell its manufactured products in all the countries in which these ports are situated. It cannot, of course, sell in all of them, but it has them all as markets to be utilized in the course of time when its manufactures develop. There are very few countries, or states in the Union, into which goods manufactured in New Orleans do not find their way.
In New England and the Eastern States are sold its '"pants," clothing, hosiery, molasses and canned goods, and rice.
In the West its canned oysters, rice, sugar, hosiery, tanks, shingles and lumber.
In the South its cotton goods, tobacco, cigars, lumber and miscellaneous goods of all kinds, its food products, chemicals, fertilizere, etc.
In Mexico, Central and South America, its cotton goods, lumber, machinery ami fomidrv work, beer, etc.
In Europe, molasses, staves, canned goods, cottonseed oil, fertilizers, etc.
In Japan, its fertilizers and canned goods.
In Africa, lumber of vai'ious kinds.
Roughly estimating, New Orleans now supplies more than a third of the city demand for manufactured goods; but seven-eighths of the output of its factories are shipped away, either to neighboring districts or to foreign lauds;
and the proportion of these exports is steadily increasing. Its steamships, -which now give it connection with every part of the globe, offer it manufacturing opportunities unexcelled anywhere. With a direct line running to Japanese ports, via the Suez canal, established for the purpose of supplying Japan with cotton for its mills, New Orleans can ship its manufactured goods to the more distant points of the East.
The facility for obtaining raw materials and for handling them, through the fact that the factories are on the river front, as well as the excellent markets New Orleans enjoys through its many steamship lines, have resulted in bringing to the city from many parts of the South and West manufacturing plants which have found that they can do better there than in the interior. The fact that New Orleans is a commercial city has been of immense advantage to its factories, by giving them new markets and cheaper transportation which they would otherwise have never enjoyed. This is an advantage possessed by few other cities in America, because in the commercial centers like New York and Boston, the cost of living and of land is so high that manufacturing is expensive.
It is narrated of one of the early settlers in California, in the days when it was a great mining center and was turning out a million dollars of gold annually, that he would not give a hundred dollars for all the agricultural land in the state. At that time it was all gold on the Pacific, and California was thought to be too dry ever to become of any value as an agricultural or horticultural country; but time has sho^^Ti that the pioneers could not appreciate the real wealth of the land of gold; for to-day its mining output has become an insignificant item in comparison with the magnificent crops it raises on its fertile soil. Similarly in New Orleans the possibilities of manufacturing were looked on with more or less contempt in the earlier days, and the people pinned all their faith on its commerce. To-day they see that manufactories support a larger population than commerce, and hold out the greatest advantages and possibilities of the city for the future. As these manufactories are of recent growth. New Orleans has had no chance to fully test what they will do for it; but, judging by the experience of some ten or twenty years, they should build it up beyond even the grand prediction and promise of Jefferson. It is not a Liverpool only, but a Liverpool and Manchester combined, with equal advantages and chances of becoming a great commercial and a great manufacturing city.
The other advantages of New Orleans are more or less treated elsewhere.
Its climate is comfortable and pleasant, neither too hot nor too cool. Its
temperature has fallen only once below eighteen degrees, and has never reached 100°, which can be said of few other American cities. It seldom has more than one day of freeze during the year, and its winter temperature averages fifty-eight. It has more hours of sunshine than any city of the Iforth or West, and for nine months of the year its skies are as bright as those of Italy.
In the past it has siiffered somewhat from dampness, due to the supersatura-tion of its soil, resulting from a defective drainage; but this objection has been removed by tlie new drainage system which has so recently been constructed. It is now dryer than Florida, with a winter temperature from two to five degrees higher than that of most of the tourist cities of the "Land of Flowers."
As a residence city, New Orleans has made great improvement of recent years. Its old houses, while admirably adapted for its climate, with their big halls, wide galleries and thick walls, were lacking in many modern conveniences. The newer residences contain these conveniences, and are a combination of the best features of the old Creole home and the latest inventions in household comfort. !New Orleans residences boast of ample grounds, such as are to be foimd in no other city in the Union. The city covers an immense area of territory (1S3 square miles), and thus offers plenty of room for yards and gardens, even for the poorest. As a consequence it boasts of large gardens, a great deal of shrubbery and trees, particularly live oak, magnolias, orange trees and other evergreens in abundance. Even in the midst of winter the city seems an immense mass of verdure. Its flowers are famous and its roses are the wonder of all visitors.
The markets of Xew Orleans are good. In the immediate vicinity are hundreds of truck gardens, which send early fruit and vegetables to the Northern cities. It has the first pick from them. The swamps of Southern Louisiana yield an abundance of game, especially ducks, deer, wild turkey snipe, papa-bottes and other birds peculiar to Louisiana. The Gulf of Mexico yields nn abundance of fish, among which are the pompano, which, it is claimed, is the best food fish caught anywhere, redfish, red snapper, sheep's-head and crabs, both hard and soft. It is claimed, and not seriously disputed, that the oysters of Louisiana and Mississippi are the best found anywhere in the world; and this is universally admitted of its shrimps, of which there are two entirely different varieties,—river and lake shrimp. The latter is canned by the ton or dried and packed in barrels and sent to all parts of the world, thousands of barrels of them going each year to China. The Louisiana orange is the juiciest produced, and is declared in Europe to be the best grown anywhere.
This brief eniimeration of some of the table delicacies enjoyed in New Orleans will give some idea of the pleasures of the table in this city; and it should be further noted that the open season—that in which these delicacies can be obtained—much longer than elsewhere, because the closed season—winter —is so much shorter. Finally, New Orleans possesses an abundance of good cooks, which it owes to its large French population, as the French are the inventors of the modem cuisine. Its Creole cooks are famous throughout America, and Creole cookery is known everywhere as a synonym for all the gourmand desires. It has given to the world a number of toothsome concoctions, among them the gumbo—or rather gumboes, for there are more than a score of combinations— the "jambalaya" (something like the Spanish "olla"), the court bouillon, bouillabaisse aiid others.
Social life in New Orleans is made enjoyable in many ways. The population, being a mixed one, has given to the city a marked cosmopolitanism, so that one may live as he chooses—in the French, English, German or American style. The city is remarkable, linguistically. While practically its entire population speaks or understands English, half speak French also, while 15,000 understand Spanish, as many Italian and even more German. A large proportion of its population understands more than one language.
The liasis of the social life is French, derived from the earlier French or Creole settlers. To them it owes its gaiety, its love for the theater and opera, its public balls, the carnival and similar holidays. It boasts of some of the finest clubs in the United States. Its balls, given mainly during the carnival season by clubs or associations, have no counterpart anywhere else in the world. It is one of the best theatrical cities in the Union; and in the matter of opera it is the only American city with a first-class record. Opera is an institution dating back nearly a century. During all that time, except the period of the civil war. New Orleans has had its seasons of from three to five months of grand opera ; and this has developed and built up an operatic and musical taste which naturally does not prevail elsewhere.
All these things tend to make New Orleans a very pleasant city to live in-—• pleasant from tlie standpoint of society, of the table, of its festivities and enjoyments, its theaters, opera, balls, carnival, etc.
It has preserved the best features of French and American life. This is an advantage, which is not overtopped by the advantages New Orleans enjoys aa a commercial and manufacturing city.
CHAPTER IV.
MUNICIPAL GOVEENMENT. By Noeman Walker.
THE early history of New Orleans will explain its remarkable municipal experiments and changes. This history is different from that of most of the other American cities, for New Orleans was under dominations and political systems of which they knew nothing. It was at one time a French, and at another a Spanish, city; and while such, conformed to the political usages and mujiicipal systems of France and Spain. The cosmopolitanism of the town and the presence of a large negro population compelled other modifications in its government, unnecessary elsewhere. Again, for long periods of time the city was in open or quasi rebellion against the constituted authorities, and its municipal government had to be modified in consequence. The great area over which the city was built, the peculiarities of the location, below the level of the river and a hundred other incidents resulted in producing conditions which occurred nowhere else in America, or, for that matter, in the world; and to meet these conditions experiments of vai-ious kinds, some of them the crudest imaginations, were tested from time to time. It can be said of New Orleans that every variety of municipal government that has ever been tried anywhere on the face of the civilized earth has been tested in the "Crescent City," from the centralized government dominated entirely by the State or by the military power, to an almost separate and independent municipality. Conseils superieux, cabil-dos and municipalities have followed each other in rapid succession. Now the French, now the Spanish, now the pretended American form of government has been adopted, each of them to last for a few years; and charter has succeeded charter, each radically different from the other. At times, so impossible did it seem to reconcile the differences, racial and political, which existed between the population of the different districts of New Orleans, that the Legislature in despair split the city up into several municipalities or cities, each with an independent government of its own, thereby reverting to the system which prevails
in Oriental cities, where the European population lives in a different quarter and under different laws and regulations from the Orientals or natives.
It can be imagined from these facts how interesting the municipal history of 'New Orleans must be, especially as in 189C this city secured one of the most "up-to-date" and advanced charters possessed by any municipality in the United States, and containing in it all the reform provisions inculcated and proposed by the Municipal Reform League and other organizations, which have worked for the better government of American cities. Perhaps the history of New Orleans is lacking in some of the poetry that clings to the earlier colonial story of Louisiana as told by Gayarre, but it is rich «nd profitable in all matters of economical and mimicipal politics, and teaches a far more valuable lesson than the "Romance of Louisiana."
From 1718 to 1900, New Orleans has passed through several forms of government, each radically different, as follows:
1718 to 1767—Superior Council (French).
1767 to 1803—Cabildo (Spanish).
1803 to 1805—Appointive (temporary).
1805 to 1836—Council (American).
1836 to 1852—Separate municipalities (American and Creole).
1852 to 1862—Council (bi-cameral).
1862 to 1866—Military (martial law) .
1866 to 1870—Council (bi-cameral).
1872 to 1882—Administrative (Legislative and executive the same).
1882 to 1896—Cameral (one chamber).
1896 to —Model charter, civil-service reform, etc.
THE SUPEEIOE COUI^CTI,.
The first governing body of the city of New Oi'leans was the Superior Council, which was created by the King of France, Louis XIV. This Superior Council continued, more or less, the governing body of the city during all the earlier French days and up to 1767, when Spain took possession of Louisiana and substituted for it a Spanish organization, but it changed and modified from time to time. It was composed originally of only two persons, the Governor and the commissary ordonnateur. This coimcil was subsequently increased to three, the Governor's clerk being added to it; later to six, when it included the Governor, commissioner, clerk, chief engineer, military commander and attorney general. It was still further enlarged in 1732, when the council, besides
those already enumerated officials, included the two lieutenants de roi (lieutenant governors) and four of the more proiuinent citizens. Finally, in 1742, in view of the fact that the litigation before the Superior Council had become so great—for the council was not only the governing body of the city, but the supreme court as well, hearing all the higher cases, where the amount in dispute exceeded $22—the Governor and the commissary ordonnateur were in the King's letters patent directed to appoint foiir assessors to serve in the Superior Council. They ranked after the Councilors proper and their votes were received only when the record was referred to them to report on, or when they were called upon to complete a quorum, or in a case where the council was equally divided upon any question coming before it.
The Superior Council, however, was not always in control of the government, and was subject to those frequent changes and revolutions which occur in countries where pure autocracy prevails. The real governing power was the Council of State of France, or rather the King himself who interfered frequently and arbitrarily in the most trivial matters in the government of Xew Orleans. All the laws for New Orleans were framed by this Council of State, or rather tl;e King; and they were often wholly unsuited to tlie country to which they Avere applied. Thus, in 1723, among the laws passed by the Council of State for Louisiana and New Orleans, was one punishing with death any person who killed a cow or horse belonging to another, and punishing the owner of a cow with a fine of 300 livres if he killed it without a pei"mit from the government.
In that same year, 1723, the power of the Superior Council was suppressed and remained suppressed for some years. The Council of State had sent over an inspector to examine into the condition of affairs in New Orleans. This inspector, de la Chaise, presented a vigorous report in which he showed the gross mismanagement existing in the colony. The result of his report was the removal of the coimcilors, who were ordered to report in Paris, and the government was given into the hands of the Governor, Perier and the Inspector Gen^ eral de la Chaise. These continued in charge imtil tlie India Company sur-renderd its charter in 1732. It was a better government than New Orleans had had before, though somewhat severe and rigid, and a number of important and indeed necessary improvements were made by it for the little city. The most important of these was the constiuction of a broad and high levee in front of the town and it< foiitiiiuatinii above and below for a distance of eighteen miles.
When tlie city was founded by Bienville, it was believed to be safe from any overflow from the river; but this was soon afterwards discovered to be a mistake, and the frequent floods left the streets in a muddy and almost swampy condition for a large part of the time. Levees were therefore absolutely necessary, and Perier's levee has been kept up ever since.
Governor Perier also founded for the protection of the city from another danger. The jSTatehez massacre had caused a great excitement among the colonists and there seemed a possibilty that the hostile Indians might descend upon Xew Orleans. To protect the city from them or other marauders, it was provided with a stockade and with eight small forts. The manner in which public works Avere done at that time is well illustrated in the construction of the levee and forts. Governor Perier assessed the inhabitants for the work, not in money, but fixing how many negro slaves each should contribute to the force at work. Their labor was contributed by their owners without charge, but the government fed them. At that time there was no tax of any kind and there seemed a complete ig-norance on the subject of taxation.
Governor Perier was a man of most progressive ideas for his time and his regime saw the passage of the first sanitary ordinance for New Orleans. He arrived at the conclusion that the sickness which prevailed in the city during the suimner was due to the dense forests that grew between it and Lake Pontchartrain, and which, as he thought, prevented the winds from blowing freely from the lake. In order to allow the "proper ventilation of the city" he began the gigantic task of removing these forests and put a large force of negro slaves at work felling the trees; but he did not complete the undertaking; it was too great for the time and his resources and the other work he had undertaken.
He also undertook to construct a canal from 'New Orleans to Bayou St. John, so as to connect with Lake Pontchartrain, and pursued the same plan of obtaining the necessary labor as with his other improvements assessing the OAvners of slaves for as many negroes as he thought each of them could afford to contribiite. This improvement also was left uncompleted and not taken up again until 1790.
Governor Perier received special recognition from the government for the services which he rendered in the way of public improvements in Xew Orleans, and was given, in addition to his regular salary as governor, a large grant of land, and as an additional salary eight negroes each year of his term of office.
The government of the city, at the time, was as far from municipal as it
is possible to conceive. The people of 'Nev. Orleans had no hand or part in the government of their city, and were in no wise consulted as to it. The police power was in the hands of the governor, and was enforced by him through the military. There Averc no provisions whatever for the extinguishment of fires; Iwt when a fire occiirred the population was impressed into service to put out the flames as best they coiild. There were no engines or other implements that could be used, and when a fire became very threatening it was fought by tearing do\vn exposed buildings with pikes and halberds borrowed from the arsenal.
Education was entirely in the hands of the regular authorities, the Ursu-lines providing for the education of the girls on the condition that the governor general should furnish them with quarters and support, and caring also for the hospital, while the Jesuits looked after the boys.
The lawmaking power was vested in the Council of State or King of France. The basis of the laws was what was known as "the custom of Paris," which became the common law of Louisiana as it was of the other French colonies. This common law had been supplemented by statutes passed by the Superior Council, supposed to control local matters. Such, for instance, is the Black Code of 1724, which bears the signature of Bienville and de la Chaise, and was the first system of law adopted for Louisiana and New Orleans. This Black Code gives an excellent idea of the political and legislative conditions of the colony at the time.
It makes the Catholic religion the only one to be practiced in New Orleans and decrees the expulsion of all Jews from Louisiana.
It requires masters to impart religious instruction to their negroes, and provides that negroes placed \mder the direction or supervision of any person who is not a Catholic shall be confiscated.
It contains a very rigid Simday law, for it declares that Sundays and holidays (saints' days) are to be strictly enforced, and any negroes found working on these days were siibject to confiscation.
It will be seen from these ordinances that the religious sentiment in the colony was very strong, and that great care was taken to make Christians and Catholics of the slaves.
It is imnecessary here to go into the other provisions of this law, which merely covers the regulation of slavery. The code was less severe than those proclaimed in the Southern States later, as indeed the last article (No. 56) may be considered a very liberal one for the tiinc, iiroviding tliat "all manumitted
or freed slaves shall enjoy the same rights, privileges and immunities as those enjoyed by free-born persons. Their merit in having their freedom shall produce in their favor not only in regard to their persons, but also as to their property, the same effects which other subjects deserve from the happy circumstance of being born free." This liberal spirit prevailed during most of the French regime and long after New Orleans passed under the power of the United States, and free negroes were employed on both the police force and the fire department ; nor were they debarred from municipal service until in the days just previous to the Civil War, when the abolition movement reached fever heat. But the police regulations as to negroes published elsewhere in this article were, as will be seen, very severe and harsh.
The Superior Council when in office represented the judicial department of the Governor. In civil cases three members constituted a quorum; in criminal cases, five. In the event of the proper absence of members (who excused themselves because of personal interest in the suit before them) or their absence from some other reason, a quorum was obtained by summoning to the council as many notable citizens of New Orleans as were needed. Originally the sessions ■ were monthly, and it vvas afterward provided that two or more members might be delegated to meet bi-weekly, when eases were numerous and pressing. The council was a court of last resort. Its jurisdiction at the beginning extended to original cases; but later on it was elevated into a jurisdiction purely appellate and such tribunals as were found necessary were established. In 1723-24, it exercised the powers of police; in 1728 the King assigned to the council the supervision of land titles; and in 1748 the power of the council over land deeds was so extended as to allow it to make titles good upon inventories prepared in good faith and recorded, although unofficial and informal, when the defects in the title were due to the absence or incompleteness of the public officials.
The legislation was arbitrary and despotic. As shown elsewhere, the government changed the currency no less than three times, and swindled the people each time; and to j^revent any opposition to its changes it passed severe laws against those who refused to accept whatever currency it might issue or who dealt in other currency—these offenses, when repeated, being punished l>v jiublic whipping upon the bare back. The Council of State also arbitrarily fixed the price at which the people should sell tobacco, rice and such products as they raised; assumed absolute control over all commerce, and either operated all industries itself or sold the monopoly of dealing in goods. For instance, in 1700
the monopoly of printing books and papers in Louisiana was sold to one Braxnl, and it was made a penal otTense for any one else to publish a book, pamphlet or paper of any kind.
As for such functions as the government had to perform, they were, in nearly all eases, performed badly. The numerous investigations made of the local oiBcials closed with nearly the same severe arraignment of the mismanagement, and indeed corruption, that prevailed. The government, that is, the King, found it necessary to interfere again and again to protect the people. He did this in the case of the paper money, issued without authority by Governor Vaudreuil; and again in 1760, when, as the ordinance declares, the mails had been so tampered with and so many letters opened, lost or misappropriated, that it became necessary to take some action to protect the inhabitants, in consequence of which it was provided that any officials tampering with the mail should be punished by a fine of 500 livres.
The local authorities were limited to police regulations. Those adopted in 1751 by Governor Vaudreuil and de la Rouvilliere, at that time Commissary General and Intendant, were practically the laws governing Xew Orleans during the entire French regime.
By these police regulations six taverns or barrooms were allowed in Xew Orleans. N^one but these licensed taverns could sell liquor, under a penalty to the seller of one month's imi)risonment,a fine of ten crowns in favor of the poor, and a confiscation of all the liquors found in the house violating this regulation, the money derived therefrom to be paid into the King's treasury. The six li-
censed taverns, however, were subject to many restrictions in the sale of liquor. They could sell only to travelers, sick people, residents of Xew Orleans and seafaring men; and they must do this "with requisite moderation." To sell liquor to a soldier, a negro or an Indian was to subject the tavern-keeper, thus violating the law, to a fine of ten crowns, sentence to the i>illory, confiscation of all wines and liquors found in the house, and for a repetition of the oifense, to be sent to the galleys for life. It is doubtful if there was ever a more severe liquor law in America.
All saloons were required to be closed on Sunday and other holidays during divine service, under penalty of having their licenses repealed, and must be closed at 9 at night. The licenses cost 300 livres each, 200 of which amount went "to the ecclesiastical treasury," which, it is naively remarked, "needs verv
m\\e\\ such relief," while the other hundred livres went to the maintenance of the poor of New Orleans, "who are in a great state of destitution."
The soldiers, ho-\vever, were not only altogether shnt off from drinking, Imt were required to patronize different establishments from the resident population and thus present trouble between themselves and the civilians. Two military barrooms were established; they would be called "canteens" to-day. One of them was under the control and management of the major in command of the troops at JSTew Orleans, and the other under the captain commanding the Swiss company; for, as always imder the Bourbons, a considerable portion of the garrison were composed of Swiss. The residents of New Orleans were prohibited from drinking at the canteens, as also were sailors, travelers, negroes and Indians. The last two races were altogether denied the right of drinking liquor at any saloon or cabane whatever. The police i-egulations punished those who sold liquor to negToes, declared to be "tramps" those who had deserted tlicii-plantations and had come to New Orleans without permission, and ordei-ed tlirir return to the coimtry.
The regulations as negroes were very severe. Parties, dances and assemblages of all kinds were prohibited. They could go nowhere on the strict, whether by day or night, without a pass which they had to show to any white person who claimed the right to look at it. Perhaps the most severe provision was one similar to a custom which prevails in the Transvaal Republic to-day— that "any negro who shall be met in the streets carrying a cane, a rod or a stick shall be chastised by the first white man who may meet hiiu, Avith the instrument found in the jx)ssession of the negro—that is, the cane, stick or rod." Any negro found on horseback who did not stop when ordered to do so by a white man "shall be shot." Any negro who shall offend his master, "in any way whatsoever," shall be punished with fifty lashes and branded with "the fleur-de-lys in the back," in order to make known the nature of the crime." These regulations Avere made after a negro insurrection which had greatly alarmed the whites.
The severity of these and other laws passed in the colony was more ap]!:!-rent than real. It would seem that Draco was alive again, when the killing of a calf meant death, the sale of liquor to soldiers or Indians imi^risonment fur life in the gallej's, and when a negro could be shot doAvn by any white man who met him stealing a ride on a horse. As a matter of fact, these laws were seldom, if ever, enforced. They were mere dead letters—all sound and fury, and nothing else.
It canot be said that !N^e\v Orleans made much progress towards municipal government during the French regime. The severity of its police.ordinances was slightly mitigated from time to time, and some improvements were made in its judiciary system, but the government remained autocratic and arbitrary, and the people themselves had little part or share in it.
THE CABILDO.
With the Spanish dominion, a radical change was made from the French to the Spanish system. The Superior Council was abolished and the Cabildo was established. In the redistribution of the powers of administering the laws a much larger share of the power passed into the hands of the military and ecclesiastical representatives of the cro\vni and church—as is always the case in Spanish countries—while the Cabildo, which may be regarded as representing the civil poM'er, was given far fewer privileges than its predecessor, the Superior Council, had enjoyed.
The Cabildo consisted of ten members, in addition to the governor and a secretary, called the escribando. The governor was, ex-oiScio, president, presiding at all meetings. There were two classes of membership in the Cabildo. One class, consisting of six members, acquired their seats by purchase and held office for life; the other class, consisting of four, were elected annually on the first of each year, the retiring members participating in this ballot. They were required to be residents of Xew Orleans and householders. They coidd not be reelected to the Cabildo until they had been out of office two years, except by a unanimous vote. All the financial officers of the colony, as well as their bondsmen, were prohibited from election to the Cabildo, as well as those under 26 years of age or who had ouly recently became converted to the Catholic faith.
From the Cabildo, two members were elected alcaldes ordinaries, or judges, who probably were the most important officers. The alcaldes held court—each a separate court—daily in the town hall, having jurisdiction over all cases, civil and criminal, where the amount in dispute did not exceed $20, thus corresponding to the recorders and justices of the peace of a later day. The alcaldes ordinaries also held evening court at their residences, at which only oral decisions were rendered. Their judgments were subject to appeal in all civil cases. They had no jurisdiction over any one connected with the military or ecclesiastical branches of the government, all such matters being given to the ecclesiastical and military tribunals.
Another of the four elective members of the Cabildo were called the sindico-procurador general, or attorney general syndic, who acted as the official representative of the i>eople in the deliberations of the Cabildo. He was the prosecuting officer against the town; he sued for revenues and other debts due the city; and he was present at all apportionments of lands.
The fourth elective officer was the mayor domo proprios, or municipal treasurer, who paid out money on the warrants of the Cabildo and who gave at the end of the year, when his term of office expired, a full account of the revenues and expenses of the city.
The rest of the memberships in the Cabildo were obtained by purchase, and it is probably the only instance in the history of American cities where the offices were put up for sale—at least openly, although stories have been frequently told of their purchase at private sale by prominent politicians. The seats in the Cabildo were sold by auction to the highest bidder. When a citizen who had purchased a seat in the Cabildo died, his heirs were allowed to use it, provided half the price of the transfer and one-third of the price of subsequent sales were turned into the royal treasury.
In these six seats sat the six regidors or administrators, the first of whom held the honorary office of Alferez real, or royal standard-bearer. The Alferez real was without official function, except in the case of the death or absence of one of the Alcades, when he filled the vacancy. He also enjoyed the great privilege of carrying the royal standard in parades.
The second regidor was A Icalde mayor provincial, or extra muros, a magistrate who had jurisdiction over offenses and misdemeanors committed outside the limits of the city, and with power and authority to overtake and capture those seeking to escape to the rural districts—such, for instance, as runaway slaves or fugitives from justice.
The third regidor was Alcuazil mayor, and acted as sheriff, superintendent
of police and prisons; but the police did not exist until the last days of Spanish
rule.
Two other regidors were deposidores general, or keeper and dispenser of
government stores; and recebidor de penas de camarara—receiver of fines and penalties. The sixth regidor had no special duty or assignment.
The Cabildo met every Friday in the town hall, or Jackson Square, which, from the body sitting there then, has earned for itself the title of Cabildo to this day. It sat both as a council and as a court—in the latter case as a court of appeal from the decisions of the alcaldes ordinaries, through two of the
.88 STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
regidors chosen bv it, with the Alcaldes who had rendered the judgment appealed from, but only when the judgment was for less than $350. Cases involving larger sums were assigned specially by the king to such tribunal as he selected. The Cabildo had the right to fix the price of provisions, to sell the privilege of pro-vidingthe city with meat, and many other petty privileges permitted municipalities under the Spanish rule.
Appeals from the decisions of the Cabildo were carried to a special court in Cuba, or even to Madrid itself, if the matter was one of importance.
All matters aifecting the soldiers and ecclesiastics were carried before a military or ecclesiastical tribunal, and judged by the fueros militares or fueros eclesiasticos. In civil matters the ordinary laws of Spain were in force—the reeopilaciones of Castile, the fuero viejo, fuero jurico, partidas and accordados.
The governor exercised a certain control and power over the Cabildo very similar to the power exercised by the mayor of the city in later days; and no appropriation could be made by this municipal council, save for the most trifling and necessary expenses, without a permit from him.
The imderlying design of the Spanish government in establishing the Cabildo was to so scatter the power in the hands of the royal and government officials as to neutralize its possibility for harm. After the experience of Spain with the old Sui^erior Coimcil, which had rejected the government of the Spanish, that power was determined that it would never again have that trouble to face; and it therefor created a council which had its hands tied and could do little or nothing.
The first Cabildo of New Orleans met December 1st, 1769, Governor O'Reilly acting as President. It included Francisco Maria Reggio, Pedro Francisco Olivier de Vezin, Carlos Juan Bautista Fleurian, Antonio Bienvenu, Jose Ducros and Dyosio Brand. Juan Bautista Garic, who had been secretary of the old Superior Council, bought the office of secretary of the Cabildo.
Reggio was Alferez real, or royal standard-bearer; Fleurian, Alcuazil mayor, or sheriff^; Ducros was receiver of supplies; Bienvenu, receiver of fines and penalties; and de Yezin, principal Alcalde provincial, or extra muros.
It is not stated how much the purchasers of the office of regidor paid for the honor; but some years afterwards, when Bienvenu, who was one of the regidors, (lied, the position was bought from liis heirs by Fagot de la Garinere for $1,400, money being then worth al)out five times its present value.
Besides the offices already mentioned, the government included a treasurer, a eontador or comptroller, a storekeeper and purveyor, a surveyor-general, three notaries and a cashier.
The Cabildo met January 1, 1770, and elected as Alcaldes ordinarios the principal officers in the city, de la Chaise and St. Denys. They were succeeded as follows:
1771—Chabert and Forstall.
1772—Amelot and Chevalier de Villiers.
1773—Duplessis and Doriocourt.
1774—Forstall and Chabert.
1775—Dufossat and Duplessis.
1776—D'Ernonville and Livandais.
1777—Forstall and Chevalier de Villiers.
1778—Navarro and Dufossat.
1780—Piernas and Duverger.
1783—Le Breton and Morales.
1785—Forstall and Kernion.
1786—Orne and Dufossat.
1787—Cliabert and Reggio.
1788—Foucher and Argotte.
1790—Ortega and Almonaster.
1791^—Marigny de Mandeville and de la Pena.
1794—Serano and Daunoy.
1795—Loris and Pontalba.
1796—Perez and de la Chaise.
1798—Serano and Argotte.
1800—Perez and Poyfarre.
1802—Forstall and Cassergues.
1803—Forstall and Lanusse.
The clerks of the council were Garic, Rodriguez and Mazange.
In 1790 the number of regidors were increased by six, on the ground of the
large increase in population of the city.
In organizing the Cabildo, Governor O'Reilly prepared the schedules of rules and regulations fixing the powers of the several officers. These rules and regidations were, to all intents and purposes, the charter of the city. They are very full and complete, covering even the minutest details.
Few changes occurred in the government of the city during the Spanish rule. This, as iisual with Spain, was of a most conservative character.
It will be noticed from the names of the members of the Cabildo that the Spaniards were glad to have the French Creoles take part in the city government of New Orleans. The provincial government, which was more important and had greater power, was, however, restricted to Spaniards alone. In the last decade of Spanish rule the two Alcaldes ordinaries were iisually divided between the French and Spanish population.
On taking possession of the government in 1786, Miro issued his baiido de buen gobierno. This is the proclamation which the governor of a Spanish colony generally issues when taking possession, making known the principles under which he proposes to operate and the public ordinances he proposes to enforce. These ordinances, in brief, were as follows: ISTo labor of any kind on Sunday or other public holidays; all stores and shops to be closed during the hours of divine service; no dance of slaves in the public squares during church time; a warning to "women of the town" not to pay "excessive attention to dress;" women of color (mulattOes) foi-bidden to wear jewelry or pliunes, and required to wear handkerchiefs or turbans (tignons) aroimd their head so as to distinguish them from the whites ; gambling and duelling prohibited; rigorous prohibitimi of the carrying of dirks, pistols and other weapons (up to that time the better class of the population had been accustomed to wearing their swords, as in France) ; no meetings of negroes allowed at night; no person allowed to leave or enter the city without passports; those leaving the colony required to give security for the payment of their debts; all persons reaching !N"ew Orleans required to present themselves at once at the government house and obtain a permit to remain in the city; all public meetings prohibited without a permit from the governor; all walking out at night prohibited, except in cases of necessity, and not even then unless the walker carried a lantern (it was not until some years later that the city provided street lamps) ; no houses or apartments to be leased to a slave; saloonkeepers required to close their saloons at regular hours, and prohibited from selling wine to soldiers, negi'oes or Indians; purchases from soldiers, Indians, convicts or slaves prohibited; hogs prohibited from running at large in the streets of the city, and the number of dogs to be kept by a citizen was limited. Measures were also taken to guard against conflagrations, for draining the streets and keeping the public landing on the levee unobstructed.
These ordinances, which it will be seen, are those of a very primitive company, about illustrate the municipal and police government of New Orleans during Spanish rule, when the governor did not hesitiate to interfere in the most
private concerns, even as in Italy during the Middle Ages, in the dress of the people, particularly that of the women.
The hando de buen gobierno issued by Governor Carondelet in 1792 was very similar to that of Miro. He, however, took the slaves more into consideration and issued a number of provisions in their favor, fixing the amount of food they were to be furnished with and the clothing to receive. He forbid their being given more than twenty-five lashes at one time, and provided that their Sundays belonged to them when they could not be compelled to work for their masters except in urgent cases, and must then receive pay for their services. It was the most liberal treatment they had ever received—far more liberal than they received afterwards.
The most important changes were made under the administration of Governor Carondelet in 1792, when the presence of the Americans in the colony began to be felt. He divided the to^vn into four wards, placing an Alcalde de Barrios with a commissary of police over each ward, with official control of fire engines, firemen and axmen. He appointed policemen, provided first for the lighting of the streets with lamps. In 1796 there were thirteen serenos, or night watchmen, in the city, and eighty street lamps. The expense of these improvements was borne by a chimney tax of nine reales ($1.12^) on every chimney. This tax being found insufficient, another levy was substituted for it—a tax on wheat bread and meat.
The many important public improvements made in the city under Carondelet were made on an entirely different basis from those instituted by the early French and Spanish governors. The latter had compelled the inhabitants to furnish them negro slaves for the purposes of work. Carondelet tried a different plan of taxing them. In the matter of the fortifications erected around the city, which were then considered necessary, for the situation was growing rather threatening in the Southwest, he regarded the expense as belonging properly to Spain, and the people of New Orleans were required to contribute nothing, but merely to keep up the fortifications. The expenses of light, police, etc., etc., were borne by the inhabitants, being raised by a tax on chimneys and food.
The resources of the citj at the time, that is, for the hist year of Spanish rule, 1802, were as follows:
Hire of stalls in the meat market $ 2,350
Tax on beef, seven-eighths of a dollar 3,325
Tax on veal, niuttoii or pork, on each carcass 1,200
Hire of stalls in the vegetable and fish market 1,383
Tax on bread, half a dollar a barrel on flour baked in the city* 2,800
Licenses, $40 on barrooms, $20 on lodging houses, and $40 on billiard
tables 3,500
Port charges, $3 on all ships at anchorage except American shippingf. • 500
Tax on Tafia (rum), $2 per pipe 800
Ground rent on great square 132
Rent of the old market house, then used as a ball room and gaming house 1,800
Ground rents on the square opposite the hospital 693
Moveable shops and stalls (peddlers) 360
Tax on vessels entering Bayou St. Jean, $1 a vessel 470
Total revenue $19,278
This table gives the basis upon which the city revenue was raised for many years afterwards. As in France and Spain, the principal dependence was on the tax on food and the revenues from markets and licenses. These indeed produced three-fourths of the total revenue. The direct tax on real estate and personal property, capital, houses and furniture was altogether ignored.
The expenditures are equally interesting, although not given in the accoimts of the time as completely and fully. They were:
Commission of five per cent, to treasurers for all siims received by them $
Salaries of regidors, about $5 a month 350
Salary of clerk of council 200
Salary of porters (who collected the licenses) 420
Salary of sergeant (head of the street repairing department) 144
Salary of corporal (who superintended street cleaning) 144
City crier 144
City executioner 180
Lighting the city, including 14 watchmen (serenos), who were also lamplighters 2,980
No itemized account was kept of the other expenses, such as cleaning and repairing the streets, etc.
• It was recognized that the bakers swindled the municipality in this matter, and did not pay their full dues.
"t This money was received to keep the wharves in order.
The Cabiklo and the Spanish system remained in force until the cession of Louisiana to France. When Laussat, the French Intendant of Louisiana, took possession of the colony in 1803, he abolished the Cabildo, or old Spanish council, and established in its place a regular municipal government. Etienne de Bore, the first of the Louisiana sugar-planters, was chosen as mayor, and the council vas composed of Villere, Fortier, Jones, Donalson, Faurie Allard, Trideaux and Watkins—five Creoles and three Americans. The secretary of the council Avas Derbigny, and the treasurer, Labatut. This government was intended merely as a stop-gap until a charter could be obtained for the city from the Territorial legislature ; but it continued in office more than two years. De Bore, however, resigned and Pierre Petit succeeded him as mayor pro tern.
CITY CHAKTEK.
Although the bill for the incorporation of the City of New Orleans had been introduced in the legislature as early as 1803, it was not passed until February 17, 1805. The city included then what are now the first, second and third municipal districts and some territory on the west bank of the river. Under the charter the government was placed in the hands of a mayor, treasurer, recorder, and a city council of fourteen aldermen, apportioned among the several wards as follows, until a census of the city could be taken, when the aldermen were to be apportioned according to population, one for each 700 inhabitants:
Ward. Aldermen.
1—Canal to Conti 2
2—Conti to St. Peter 2
3—St. Peter to St. Philip 2
4—St. Philip to Esplanade 2
5—Faubourg Marigny (third district) 2
6—Faubourg St. Marie (first district) 2
7—Upper portion of city (now part of first ward of New Orleans) .... 1
8—Settlements on Bayou St. Jean 1
The election was held in March, and resulted in the choice of James Pitot as major, and the following aldermen:
Ward. Aldermen.
1—Felix Arnauld and James Garriek. '
2—Francis Duple_ssis and Joseph Faurie. i
3—Col. Bellechasse and Guy Dreux.
4—Antoine Arzotte and La Bertoimiere.
5—Thomas L. Harman and P. Lavergne.
7—Perez.
8—Guerin.
The city government thus organized was largely on the model of other American municipalities. It was decidedly more American than French, and contained very few of the principles of Spanish municipal government, save in the control of the markets, licenses, fixing the price of bread, meat and other products. On account of the small revenue of the city, it often ran behind in its expenses, and more than once the salaries, from the mayor down, had to be cut in order to meet the deficit.
The mayor exercised the usual powers of a chief magistrate. He presided over the council; he was the head of the police and fire departments. Both of these were largely volunteer. There was a small force of watchmen (the city guard), ill paid ($20 a month) ; but the services of policing was done by the militia (the militia patrol), and an attcnipt was made to organize a force of firemen. It is noticeable, as showing the condition of affairs then prevailing, so different from what it was a few years afterwards, that a large proportion of both the jwlice and firemen were free negroes.
James Pitot had been elected mayor in ^larch, 1S04, but served only until July, 1805, wlien he was succeeded by Dr. John Watkins. On March 9, 1807, James Mather became mayor and served until 1812, when Nicholas Girod was elected by a vote of 859 out of 1,411. Pierre Meissonier was elected recorder at the time. On September 4, 1815, Augustin Macarty, a creole of Irish descent, was elected to the mayoralty.
The new government went energetically to work to improve the city, taking up the work where Gov. Carondelet, who had been the most progressive of the Spanish governors, had left off. An order was issued by it in 1805, requiring the laying of banquettes, or side-walks, with which, up to that time, very few of the streets, save in the center of the tovm, were provided. It was required that these banquettes should be at least five feet wide, with curbs of cypress and the pavement of wood, brick or masonry.
In 1810 a still greater improvement was begun, one Louis Gleises obtaining the right to establish water-works, which would not only provide the inhabitants with such drinking water as they needed, but would be of assistance in the extinguishment of fires.
The city charter of 1805 lasted thirty-one years—imtil 1836—a longer period than any subsequent charter. It must not be imagined, however, that during all that time it remained unchanged. On the contrary, there was scarcely a session of the legislature in M-hich some important modifications and changes
M-erc not made, in the vain attempt to straighten out matters and overcome the difficulties and jirejudices which, from the very start, threatened the new government, and which finally resulted in the repeal of the city charter and the substitution of an entirely new government, built on radically different foundations. The difficulties that faced the government were racial. The great majority of the population of New Orleans at the time of its purchase by the United States was Creole French. The Spanish government had humored the race, and national sentiment of the native j^opulation, and while it held a tight hand on the colony, it allowed the Creoles control of local affairs, or at least appeared to do so. While Spanish became the official language, French was also permitted, and the deliberations of the Cabildo were conducted in that language. The an-nextion of Louisiana to the United States brought in a new race, the American, speaking a new tongue, known to very few of the native population, and there was a more or less natural clash between the two races.
The Creoles objected to the introduction of English, which so few of them tmderstood, as the official language of the city, and especially that the governor, Claiborne, did not imderstand their tongue, the French. They complained of a large number of Americans appointed to the now courts and offices instead of these positions being filled by natives of New Orleans, and they asserted that the new courts showed favoritism to Americans in their decisions. Other causes of objection to the new dominion was the foi*mation of American military companies and their indiscreet parades in the public streets, the interference of the American authorities with the public balls, Avhich were one of the chief amusements of the Creoles, and the scarcity of money. The principal currency in use in Louisiana under the Spanish had been Mexican dollars. These ceased to be imported when the Spanish loft, and there was, consequently, a scarcity of currency, until Louisiana could put a new and American banking system into operation.
The two races did not fuse well at first. In the early days of the American dominion those Am.ericans who had immigrated to New Orleans settled in the city proper, the vieiix carre of Bienville; but that section is limited in area, and the rents demanded were so high that most of the immigrants after 1815 moved into Faubourg St. Marie beyond the walls, which had been of old the Jesuit plantation, and which is to-day the first municipal district of New Orleans. These people complained that the American section of the city was greatly neglected for the Creole portion, and that the public revenues were expended almost
entirely in the improvement of the city proper and none in the suburbs. As the Creoles were in a large voting majority in the city and possessed three-fourths of the members of the city council, they found this easy enough—indeed they were in complete control of the municipality. Against this condition of affairs the American element frequently appealed, and finally secured, in 1836, what they aimed at—a division of the city.
During these years of Creole supTemacy, "New Orleans grew rapidly in wealth, commerce and population. Many important public improvements were made, especially in the city proper; but it cannot be said that the improvements kept up with the progress made by he city in other directions.
In 1817, in the face of much skepticism on account of the yielding nature of the soil, the first cobble-stone pavement was laid—on Gravier and Magazine, in the new American section. Previous to that the streets had all been unpaved— dirt or mud streets. In 1820 the wooden sidewalks and curbs gave way, in the main thoroughfare, to others of brick and stone. In 1822 a general paving of the commercial streets was begun in both the old and new quarters. This improvement boom did not last long, however, and up to 1835, although there had been a second improvement movement in 1832-4, only two streets in the city had been paved any considerable distance.
Still less had been done in the matter of drainage and sanitation. Between 1835 and 1838, a natural drain in the rear of the American section was improved and deepened into Melpomene Canal. In 1836 a municipal draining company began operations with a draining machine on Bayou St. John, but it drained only a very small portion of the city even in that neighborhood.
THE THEEE MUNICIPALITIES.
The strife between the American and the Creole had, during all that time, continued to call forth exhortations from the governors against jealousies and party spirit with reference to the accidental circumstance of language and birth. These prejudices culminated in 1836, when the legislature, principally in response to the appeals of the American section in New Orleans, repealed the charter of the city and provided for an entirely new municipal organization, the like of which has never been seen in the country, save, perhaps, in the charter of (Greater) New York. The latter is very similar, in some respects, to that of New Orleans in 1836. To prevent racial ill feeling the city was di-
viJcd into tlircc iiumicipalities, each with a separate government of its own ami independent power, but with a mayor and a general council (composed of tlie coimcils of the three municipalities) over the whole city.
The old town, the "city i>roper," as it is called in the charter (and what is now the second municipal district), formed the first miuiicipality, the bulk of its population being Creoles or French.
The Faubourg St. Marie, what is now the first municipal district and above the city proper, formed the second municipality.
The Faubourg Marigny, what is now the third municipal district and below the city, formed the third municipality.
The first municipality composed the first, second, third, and fourth wards of New Orleans as it existed in 1836 ; the second municipality, the sixth and seventh wards; and the third municipality, the fifth ward. Each of the municipalities was governed by a recorder and a council of aldermen elected by wards. The councils were composed as follows: First municipality—12 aldermen, 3 from each of its four wards; second municipality—first ward, Ganal to Poydras, 4 aldermen ; second ward, Poydras to Calliope, 2 aldermen ; third ward, Calliope to upper end of city, 2 aldemien; total 8 aldermen; third municipality —first ward, Esplanade to Marigny, 2 aldermen; second ward, Marigny to Eng-hien, 2 aldermen; third ward, Enghien to Lafayette, 2 aldermen; fourth ward, below Lafayette, 1 alderman; total, 7 aldermen.
The municipalities had complete control of all their local affairs, paving, improvements, etc.; they could fix taxes and issue bonds, which they did quite actively.
The recorders of the several municipalities performed all the duties of magistrates, and were conservators of the peace.
Once a year, on the first of May, the general council, which was composed of the aldermen from the several municipalities, met in the City Hall of the city proper on Jackson Square, and attended to such matters as belonged to the city as a whole, that is, to all the municipalities. The division of powers between the general council and the separate municipal councils, was on much the same lines as that between the Federal and the State governments. The general council enjoyed only such powers as were specially delegated to it; all other municipal powers belonged to the several municipalities. The general council, for instance, had control of all matters relating to wharfage rates, charges and dues, and all licenses. It had the care and control of the police and supervision
over all incorporated companies, and it was its duty to provide for the salary of the mayor.
The parish prison, which was situated in the city proper, was the property equally of all the municipalities, who could use it on paying pro rata for its maintenance. The revenues derived from the licenses on drays were to 1)0 divided among the several municipalities in proportion to the amount of revenue collected by each. The old debt was similarly divided, that is, the share which each municipality was to assume was estimated on the bases of its revenues.
A further provision was that all rules and ordinances of the old city should continue in force in all the municipalities until repealed by any of them.
The division of the city into three municipalities seemed to give an impetus to public improvement, the three councils competing with each other to see which could make the most progress. The next few years, therefore, chronicle a great advance in all respects. The city was provided with water-works and gas. The year 1837 saw the completion of the new canal, which gave the second : municipality (the American city) connection with Lake Pontchartrain, the construction of the Merchant's Exchange, St. Charles Hotel, St. Louis Hotel and a number of large and influential banks. The progress was slightly checked soon after by the big panic of 1837.
The division of New Orleans into three cities continued until 1852, when the animosities between the Creoles and Americans had disappeared, The necessity for union had, by that time, become apparent. The city finances, for instance, had been badly managed and a large debt created, confusion prevailed in nearly all branches, and, as the report of the commissioners declared, "the people were disheartened."
A BI-CAMEKAL COUNCIL.
The legislature in 1852 repealed the charter of the three mimicipalities and consolidated them into one. On the same day it annexed the City of Lafayette, now the fourth municipal district of New Orleans, which had grown up just above the city limits. The debt of the three municipalities and Lafayette at the time was $7,700,000, of which $2,000,000 was over due. Commissioners of the consolidated debt were appointed, who soon straightened out this confusion and ]iiit the debt on a better basis. Throiigh the improved credit of the city some $5,000,000 of this indebtedness was extinguished, and in 1853, one year after the consolidation, tlie liondcd debt of the city wa? given as only $3,000,000.
The new city government was bi-cameral—with two chambers, one of aldermen and the other of assistant aldermen. The former were elected by municipal districts, which were then fixed by the charter, and have remained unchanged up to this day. The assistant aldermen were chosen by the wards, of which eleven were created, and which also remain unchanged. The representation was as follows: Aldermen—first district, 5; second, -i; third, 2; fourth, 2; total, 13. Assistant aldermen—first ward, 2; second, 3; third, 6; fourth, 3; fifth, 3 ; sixth, 2; seventh, 2 ; eighth, 2 ; ninth, 1; tenth, 2 ; eleventh, 1; total, 25. Besides the aldermen there was a mayor, who was ex officio chief of police, and M'ho received a salary of $4,000 a year; a controller, 3ur%'eyor and street commissioner. The city election was held in March.
This municipal system continued eighteen years, until 1870; but a considerable portion of that time it was under suspension, because of the civil war, during which period New Orleans was imder martial law and the municipal affairs were administered by the military authorities. Considerable modifications were made in the city charter in 1S5G, with reference to assessments and taxation ; and in 1866, in order to provide for the reorganization of the civil government, which had so long been suspended.
During the military occupation of New Orleans^ a military officer was detailed by the commandant to act as mayor of the city, but possessed little real power. Such municipal matters as required attention were performed by a finance committee and a committee on streets and landing. The street-cleaning v.-as attended to by the military authorities, and was well done. A new department of the municipality had sprung up in consequence of the war: this was some provision for the poor. The suspension of commerce and of all industries had greatly increased the number of the }X)or in New Orleans, and the situation was made worse by the large number of negroes who fled to New Orleans to seek refuge within the Union lines. These people had to be fed, and public markets were provided, whence free rations were distributed. The money Jieccssary therefor was obtained in fines and assessments levied on the banks and other corporations, and even on private individuals, for assistance given by them to the Confederate cause.
THE ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM.
In 1870, another experiment was made in city government by the establishment of what is known as the "administrative system." The government of the municipality was vested in a mayor and seven administrators elected on a
L.ofC.
loo STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
general ticket. Eacli of these administrator? presided over a separate department of the city government. They were severally administrators of finance (about equivalent to comptroller), commerce, improvements (similar to a commissioner of public works), assessments, police, public accounts (treasurer), water works and public buildings. Some of these titles were more or less absurd and did not cover the duties of the office held by the administrator. Thus the city had practically no control over assessments and there was no reason why it should have an administrator of assessments, and as it parted with its conti-ol of the water-works in 1877 there was equally little reason why it should have an administrator of v/ater-works. However, each administrator had certain executive duties to perform. The mayor and the seven administrators were constituted a city council for local purposes, thus combining the executive and legislative branches of government in one body.
This council was too small to have committees, and each administrator was allowed freedom in his special department. Weekly meetings of the council M'ere held to consider general municipal matters; but they were, from the very small number of members, necessarily of a somewhat informal character.
Judge W. W. Howe, in his "Municipal Government of New Orleans," expresses the opinion that the administrative system, 1870-82, was the best the city had ever had. This view, however, it is difficult to accept, and Judge Howe's opinion was probably based on the fact that the municipal government of New Orleans was exceptionally bad at the time he wrote his pamphlet. The administrative system had the advantage of compactness and of working quickly. There was no dauger of a conflict between the legislative and administrative branches, as is so frequently the case in American cities. The administrators fully understood the legislation coming before them, and vice versa, since they first made laws for themselves and then carried them out. It is admitted that the conncilmanic system is slow and cumbrous; but it is sometimes wise to "go slowly" in legislation, and to give the people time to consider and pass on public matters. The new system was naturally more secret, and the people knew less of what was going on. Several scandals occurred ; and whether from the form of government or from other causes, the municipality drojDjjed behind and surrendered many of the functions of a city government. It would be unJTist to attribute this decay wholly to the several city governments which administered the affairs of New Orleans between 1870 and 1882. The city was decaying in many other ways during that period. It had lost heavily in commerce
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. loi
and business, in consequence of the civil war, and overflow and pestilence. The general panic of 1877-8 cut down values and reduced the assessment and revenue far below what it had been for years. The lowest depth was reached in 1880, when assessments fell to $91,117,918. Moreover, during most of this period the city was at the mercy of the legislature, which i^layed shuttlecock with it, changing its boundaries, rearranging its courts, and constantly tampering with its bonds and indebtedness. Finally a low condition of political morality was prevalent, which, while it was far worse in the State government, yet more or less reflected itself in the municipal government.
But aside from these outside influences, the municipality of 'Sew Orleans seemed to be drifting backwards. It lost conti'ol of the water-works in 1877, it being sho\\'n that the city was unable to administer them without loss; it surrendered control of its wharves and leased them out to a jirivate company. The necessity for this action was recognized by all, as the wharves had got into a thoroughly bad condition \mder the city government, and it became obvious that the city could not prop)erly administer them.
The treatment of the city debt was equally bad. The debt was made up of various kinds of bonds, differently guaranteed, bearing different rates of interest and wholly different in their character. The conflict between the consolidated bonds and premium bonds, which were supported by different administrations, led to a great deal of litigation and brought discredit on the city's bonds, some of which sold at less than twenty-three cents on the dollar. Finally the city's credit got so bad, and so many judgments were outstanding against it, that the creditors searched right and left to find public property subject to seizure, and even threatened to seize the parish prison and public markets. The tax rate of the city, which had been 1.5 per cent, in 18G0, and 1 per cent, during the greater part of the Civil War, rose to 2.375 per cent, in 1869, 2.025 in 1870, 2.75 in 1871, and 3 per cent, in 1873. It was cut down afterwards, but this accomplished only by defaulting on many of the debts of the city. The result was a great deal of litigation and many judginents against New Orleans, which had to be included in the taxes of 1882, the last year of the administrative government. The tax rate of that year was the highest ever known in New Oi--leans, reaching a total of 3.175 per cent., of which 1.675 i>er cent, was a special judgiuent tax, levied by order from the United States Court to satisfy judgments that had been found against the city.
In 1870, Algiers and Jefferson City were annexed to Xew Orleans and be-
came the fifth and sixth municipal districts respectively; in 1874, CarroUton was annexed as the seventh district.
Under the circumstances that existed it was not to be wondered at that popular sentiment should demand an entirely new charter for the city. This was granted by the Legislature in Jime, 1882.
THE COUNCILMANIC SYSTEM.
As usual in the frequent changes in municipal government in Xew Orleans, the transformation was a radical one. The administrative system was entirely abolished and for it was substituted the councilmanic government, but wholly different from the councilmanic government which had existed from 1852 to 1S70. The coiuicil consisted of one instead of two chambers, but the old distinction of districts and wards was preserved. Each of the seven districts elected one councilman at large without regard to population, while the seventeen wards elected twenty-three councilmen, based on their population. The council was thus composed of thirty members, there being no difference whatever in the powers between the district and ward councilmen. The councilmen received no pay. The council was the legislative department of the government, levying taxes and licenses, having control over all expenditures, over the rtepairs of the streets, lights, the extinguishment of fires, the maintenance of levees, the streets, squares, cemeteries, etc.
The executive department was in the hands of the mayor, treasurer, comptroller, commissioner of public works and commissioner of police and public buildings—all of whom were elected at the same time on a general ticket. The other municipal officers, such as surveyor, city attorney, etc., were elected by the council.
The mayor was commander-in-chief of the police and appointed the entire force, which was subject to radical changes with each change of administration. The police ordinances were enforced by four police courts, presided over by recorders, while in the fifth, sixth and seventh districts the justices of the peace had the power of committing magistrates.
The fire department at the time was completely out of the control of the city, being in the hands of the Firemen's Charitable Association (the volunteer firemen), under a contract with the city, which was renewed every five years. (There was, as a matter of fact, four fire departments, for the volunteer firemen
c^^^-^^-i^^-e^, '^^n-^-^U^,
S^^^Smj^
had organized separate and independent associations in the fifth, sixth and seventh districts.)
The new city government had really very little to do, the several departments that properly belong to a municipality having been lopped off at various times. The fire department, as already noticed, had always been separate and independent.
In order to protect the city, as well as the bondholders, against the mismanagement which had been the feature of the city government from 1870 to 1882, all control over the debt was taken from the city iu 1880 and given to a Board of Liquidation, consisting of six members, two of whom were chosen by the Governor, two by the Lieutenant-Governor and two by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The mayor, comptroller and treasurer were ex-officio members of this board. With this exception, the city had nothing to do with its municipal debt except to provide for the payment of interest on it; and this act was nearly perfunctory, as the Legislature required that the proper provision be made.
The wharves had been surrendered as early as 1882, when they were leased to a private corporation, the lease being renewed from time to time. As the United States had decided that the revenue derived from wharfage diies could be used only for the commercial improvement of the city, the lease made to the lessees was for so much money to be expended in improving the wharves and port facilities of the city. There can be no question that under the wharf lease a great improvement took place over the conditions that had prevailed under the municipal ovsmership and control.
In 1892, the city government, having shown itself in no position, from lack of funds, to deal with the problem of the construction and maintenance of levees, and the city being put in danger of a general overflow, the council's control of the levees was taken from it and given to a board, known as the Orleans Levee Board, with power to levy district taxes for the construction, repair and maintenance of levees. This board was appointive, and named by the governor, and was a state rather than a municipal body, althoiigh its jurisdiction was restricted to the City of New Orleans.
The control of the city's public schools was wholly out of the hands of the city council, which had no control over them, save in the election of some of the members of the school board. This, however, had always been the case, save for a short period after 1852, when the council had organized the public schools and created three districts, maintaining its control over these three boards.
What WHS \vuo of the public schools was equally true of the Board of Health. This was a peculiar body, half state and half city, with certain iiuinicipal as well as state powers. Its members wore partly elected by the city council and partly named by the governor.
To sucli a dctiree was this disiMisition to vote away municipal functions, rights niid duties I'arricd fliat even the parks, squares and principal streets were given over to eoiiimissions, consisting of tax payers of the vicinity. Tiie eitv being unable to nud<e provisions for keeping these parks, squares, etc., in good condition, the duty of raising the necessary funds by subscription or public entertainments devolved u[)on the commissioners. In fine, the City of New Orleans had surrendered nearly all its franchises and duties, had sold, leased or transferred the municiiial pioperty and privileges to various private individuals or corporations, to state boards or conunissions of citizens. About 1884 the city had reached, perhaps, the lowest depths as a municipality. It is true that its credit had improved and its wharves were in better condition, but the city government was jHnverless and had no jurisdiction or city property to administer.
Perhaps the only function which still belonging to the city, was the control of its |)oliee force. This was wholly in the hands of the mayor, and had been so administered that the [loliee was overrun with politics and infected with cor-ruptii>n. Mayor Shakespeare, 1878-82, took the bull by the horns in the matter of blacknuiil and corruption that existed in the police force, growing out of the gand)ling business, and introduced a system known as the Shakespeare plan. It was peculiar to New Orleans, and never attempted ani^-Avhere else in the country, and [irovi'd what could scarcely have been conceived from so remarkable a plan— a success.
Gambling had always betni very prevalent in New Orleans, in spite of the fact that the earliest French colonial ordinances contained numerous edicts against it. Mayor Shakespeare took the view that it was useless to carry on the statute books ordinances against gambling that could not be enforced and which only gave the police opportunity to blackmail the gamblers. He could not license gambling; that was against the State constitution; but he argueil with tli<> gandders that if they paid so much into his hands monthly and carried on an "honest game," he, as chief of the police, would not allow the officers to interfere, or molest them. They accepted this agreement, and the money derived from this source was nsi^d by the niavor in erecting the Shakespeare Almshouse —an institution tin- need id' which had been greatly felt—and in nuiintaining
that and other charity institutions. The whole transaction was extrajudicial. The money paid into the hands of the mayor did not have to be accounted for to any one and could be used by him as he saw lit. Its administration and expenditure called for the utmost confidence in the chief magistrate. The system ultimately was abused and the Shakespeare fund gradually disappeared from the extraordinary revenues of the city.
The charter of 1882 lasted fourteen years, until 1896. It was badly shaken by the elections of 1888 and 1896, in both of which the issue of municipal reform was a prominent feature and succeeded in carrying the election. The administration of the city had grown very bad between 1882 and 1888, and the popular demand was for the protection of the public interests from politics and politicians.
The election of a reform city administration in 1888 led to several important changes, especially in the matter of the police and firemen. The police department had become permeated with politics. It was badly demoralized, moreover, by the radical change in the force which came with each change of administration. To correct these evils it was decided to take fro!u the mayor some of the supreme power he exercised over the force and to put it more or less under the control of a police board. This was accomplished in 1890-91 by the passage of the Police Board Act.
The fire department has been for nearly seventy years and from the earliest days of New Orleans, outside the control of the city and in the hands of the Firemen's Charitable Association (the Volunteer Firemen). The contract of the Volunteers, which expired in 1891, was taken advantage of to organize a municipal fire department under the control of the city, through the Board of Fire Control and the Fire and Lighting Committee of the council.
The city soon began to feel the influence of these changes. The administration of municipal affairs showed a marked improvement beginnihg in 1888, when a groat deal of paving was done, and New Orleans began to release itself from the decay into which it had fallen in all matters of municipal administration. This improvement created such public enthusiasm and desire for still further advance that the election of 1896, like that of 1888, turned almost wholly on the question of mimicipal reform; and it was given out that the suc-eess of the reform movement would mean a new charter for the city. The movement having won, the members of the Legislature elected on that ticket set at work at once to carrj' out the promises made to the people, and the result was the passage of the charter of 1896.
A MODEL MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
The latter charter is an ideal one, from the standpoint of the political and municipal economist. It is in line with the suggestions of the Mimicipal Reform League and contains almost all the suggestions of that body as to what should be contained in a model charter. Perhaps its chief defect lay in the fact instead of going into operation all at one time, the charter became operative partly in 1896 and partly in 1900. The Legislature did not like to disturb the new city government so soon after it has been installed, and hence it provided that there should be no change in the officers imtil after the next election (1900). This fact has led to considerable confusion and litigation to determine what part of the charter of 1896 went into immediate operation and what part was postponed until 1000.
The charter of 1896 continued the councilmanic system, but witli only one council, of smaller dimensions than that created by the charter of 1882—seventeen instead of thirty members. The councilmen, as formerly, are elected by districts and wards; but—and this was a radical innovation—are paid for their services, whereas all the previous councilmen and aldermen had served without pay. The other elective officers are few in number—mayor, comptroller and treasurer—the latter two to prevent the mayor having too great control over the finances of the city. The other officials—commissioners of streets, surveyor, city attorney, etc., are appointed by the mayor, with the approval of the council. Under this charter the power of the mayor is very great, and he practically names the other officials, who constitute his cabinet. This is in full accord with the recommendations of the Municipal Reform League, which claims that it assures a harmonious administration, prevents a division of resjwnsibility, and that it increases the chances of the people securing good government as tihey ought to be able to elect a lit and proper mayor; whereas they may, if they are compelled to choose a half dozen officers, make a mistake as to some of them.
The principles of civil service reform were recognized and endorsed in the new charter. A board was created to prepare and put in operation a system of civil-service rules for the new government; and it was provided that all appointments and promotions thereafter would be made in accordance with these rules.
The new charter was a model one. The only fault that could be found with it was tiiat it was somewhat in advance of public sentiment in New Orleans, in too great contrast with the political conditions that had prevailed there;
in fine, that the reforms it proposed were too radical and svidden and did not take local conditions sufficiently in account.
Under the charters of 1870 and 1882, the city had lost and surrendered most of its municipal functions, which had been sold or leased. Beginning in 1888, the disposition had been for the city to regain control of these fimctions, but to safeguard them against the danger of partisan politics by placing them under the control of boards and commissions, beyond the reach of politics and popular elections. This idea was undoubtedly the fruit of the success met with by the Board of Liquidation in dealing with the city debt. That debt had been so mismanaged by the city and so admirably managed by the Board of Liquidation that public sentiment strongly favored placing as many as possible of the functions of the city beyond the reach of politics. This plan has been steadily carried on since then until the government of New Orleans as it exists to-day is a most composite one, made up of a dozen different bodies, distinct and separate from the municipal government proper—the mayor, city officials and council—and in most cases absolutely independent of it. These independent boards and commissions are as follows:
Civil Service Commission.—Three members appointed by tlie mayor and serving each for twelve years. Commission created in 1896 by the city charter. The commission makes rules and regiilations for the selection of minor officials, recommends persons for appointment and hears complaints of removals without cause.
Board of Liquidation of the City Debt.—Created in 1880 by an act of the Legislature. Composed of nine members; six citizens chosen; two by the Governor, two by the Lieutenant-Governor and two by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Mayor, Treasurer and Comptroller of the city ex-officio. This board has control of the city debt and of all revenues coming to the city from the sale franchises.
Police Board.—Created in 1888 by the Legislature, with control over the police force. It consits of members chosen by the council for twelve years each, and the Mayor ex-officio.
Board of Fire Commissioners.—Created in 1891, by the council. It consists of nine commissioners, chosen by the council, and the Mayor and Commissioner of Police and Public Buildings, ex-officio, and has control over and regulation of the fire department.
School Board.—It consists of twenty members, of whom eight are appointed by the Governor and twelve elected by the city council.
Board of Health (two boards, one State and one city).—Chosen partly by appointment by the Governor and partly by election by the council. These boards exercise jurisdiction over quarantine and all sanitary matters.
Orleans Levee Board.—Created by the Legislature in 1890. The board consists of seven members, and has full control over all levee matters—the construction, repair and maintenance of levees and the drainage of the city. It exercises the right to levy a tax not to exceed one mill for levee purposes, and to issue bonds to raise the necessary funds for levee construction.
Port Commission.—Created by the Legislature in 1896. This board has charge of the wharves, the collection of port dues, etc. Its powers will be greater after the expiration of the wharf lease (1901) and the return of the wharves to the possession of the city. The board consists of six members, appointed by the Governor.
The Drainage Commission.—Composed of nine members, including five chosen from the Orleans Levee Board. The commission has charge of all matters relating to drainage and the work of providing the new drainage system of the city.
Water and Sewerage Board.—Established by the Legislature in 1899 and going into active operation in 1900. It consists of seventeen members, appointed from the Orleans Levee Board, from the Board of Liquidation, the Drainage Commission, and seven commissioners, one from each district, appointed by the Mayor. The board has charge of the sewerage and drainage, of providing New Orleans with a sewerage system and with water-works. It levies taxes and is authorized to raise bonds thereon to carry on the work entrusted to it.
Thus it will be seen that the control of the police, fire deparment, schools, wharves, levees, sewerage, drainage, water supply, the public debt, sanitation and the appointment of minor ofiicials have been taken from the city government proper and given to various boards and commissions, selected by the Governor, Legislature, Mayor or Coimcil, all acting independently of the city and not answerable to it, and holding their several positions for long terms or even for life.
THE POLICE.
The police system of New Orleans has passed through the same changes and transformations as other branches of the city government; indeed, there have been even more changes from the purely military system of the early days
to the effective civil and municipal system which prevails to-day under the control and management of a Board of Police Commissioners. Under the French and Spanish rule, there was practically no police force for New Orleans. The preservation of the peace of the city was delegated to a few soldiers and civilians who patrolled the streets at night. As in mediaeval times, these watchmen called out the hours, as well as the state of the weather, and, in order to give a feeling of confidence to citizens, shouted, if everything was satisfactory, "Tout va bien!"—"All is well!" The patrolling was not done by single men but by squads of iowr or five gens d'armes (the city guard), who wore the usual French or Spanish uniform of gens d'armerie—cocked hat, deep blue frock coat and breast straps of black leather supporting a cartridge-box. They went armed, too, and carried an old-fashioned flint-lock musket with sword bayonet and short sword.
The only policing was done at night, when malefactors were thought to be about. Early in the evening the sergeant collected his squad at the guard-room which adjoined the old calabosa (calaboose or prison). Here the gens d'armes were put through the manual of arms, after which, with each squad under the command of a corporal, they marched, at "shoulder arms," to the section of the city they were detailed to patrol and guard. The city was very much limited in area then, including only the vieux carre bounded by what are now Canal, Rampart and Esplanade streets and the Mississippi. After making a round of the city, the several squads returned to the g\iard-house to make a report, and with such prisoners as they had picked up—negroes and drimken wayfarers. There was naturally a strong prejudice against the gens d'armes or serenos and the civil population, a majority of the former being Spainiards, whom tlie Creoles detested. The gens d'armes were accordingly the butt of the people, the subject of frequent lampoons and burlesque songs. In scrimmages, which were frequent, they suffered from their popular dislike, for a prisoner who was arrested by them had only to set up a cry to call his neighbors to his rescue. In nearly all such encounters the gens d'armes were outnumbered and overpowered and their prisoners released. The police were ordered by the Spanish officers to use their weapons as little as possible, so as not to intensify the Creole opposition to Spanish rule, which, always strong, grew stronger during the latter days of that domination. The calabosa, which was the police headqiiarters, was situated on St. Peters street in the rear of the present Louisiana Supreme Court building, having been erected there in 1795 by Don Andres Almonaster, builder of the St. Louis cathedral.
no STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
The actual police system of New Orleans, as distinguished from the military police system that prevailed under French and Spanish rule, dates from the establishment of the American dominion in Louisiana. After the abolition of the Spanish Cabildo or government of New Orleans and the establishment of the temporary municipal government under Mayor Etienne de Bore, one of the ■first acts of the new council was to provide for a proper police force; and Messrs. Livandais and E. Jones, members of the council, were appointed special police commissioners to inspect the prisons and formulate police regulations. The regulations drawai up by these commissioners were 108 in number. They are yet in existence among the city archives and give an excellent idea of the social as well as the police conditions which then existed in the little city. Some of them were so thoroiighly in popular favor that they are continued to this day, with scarcely verbal changes.
Article 1 prohibits blasphemy (cursing) on the public streets. Article 2 prohibits "the driving of carts on the streets on Sunday" without a good excTise therefor, the punishment for "breaking the Sabbath" being twenty-four hours' imprisonment in the calabosa. Article 3 prohibits gambling of all kinds. On the third offense the gamblers as well as those who played with them were subject not only to a heavy fine but were ordered to receive "twenty-five lashes on the bare back." There is no evidence that this severe law was ever enforced or had the slightest effect in suppressing or even reducing the gambling. New Orleans, on the contrary, stuck to gambling and indulged in more games of chance than any other city in the Union.
The Police Regulations of Messrs. Livandais and Jones were very well prepared and covered nearly all the offences against the peace and order of the commimity. A police being necessary to see to their enforcement, one was created to consist of twenty-five men, with Pierre Achille Rivery at their head as "Commissioner General of Police in the city and suburbs of New Orleans." M. Pierre Pedesclaux was made clerk to the chief and two aids provided for. The pay of the officers was very snuill, the two aids getting $20 and $25 only, respectively. The latter amount, $25, was paid to the second aid because he was required to know English as well as French. The American immigration was already pouring into the city, and the first comers, rude pioneers and flat-boatmen from the West, were a most troublesome class, who set at defiance the police force of New Orleans.
The small pay allowed the police rendered it no easy matter to secure white
men for the force as was desired, and the council finally provided that if white men could not be found to do the police duty mulattoes might be employed; but the officers must be white—a remarkable provision in view of the existence of negro slavery at the time, and the strong prejudice afterward shown to the employment of negroes as officers. The patrol of the police was no longer restricted to the city limits, but they were required to go beyond the "walls" when requested by citizens "to catch runaway negroes, and put a stop to looting and other crimes."
In 1805 the temporary municipal government of oSTew Orleans, which had existed from the time of the American purchase of Louisiana, was abolished, and the city was regularly incorporated by the Territorial Legislature. Mr. Regnier was appointed sub-inspector of police, and the police was recognized as a part of the municipal and civil government instead of the military government as heretofore. In August, 1804, the patrol militia was reorganized, with Col. Bellechasse as commandant. It was made up of firemen and hunters, and consisted of four squads of fifteen men each, the squads changing every eight days.
The militia patrol under Col. Bellechasse did duty in the outlying districts where there was a large disorderly and turbulent population. There was, in addition, a city patrol, composed of sixteen soldiers, two officers, two sergeants and two corporals, to be chosen each in turn from the militia and the volunteers. The patrol was divided into two sections for the night service, the first patrol going on in the evening and remaining on duty until midnight, when it was relieved by the second watch, which remained on duty until daybreak. The police headquarters were in the city hall, and were maintained by the city government. The militia patrol received no pay. It made an application to the city for the necessary appropriation to arm the men, asking for fourteen sabers, nineteen guns and thirty-nine pistols; but the council refused to make the necessary provision. On the contrary, the popular prejudice increased against the militia patrol, many of whom had been soldiers on the police force under the Spanish government; and in 1806, in deference to popular sentiment, the council decided to create a city police force, to be known as the "garde de ville." Thus in the short space of four years the police of N^ew Orleans had been four times changed from the military to the gens d'armerie, the constabulary, the militia patrol, and, finally, the garde de ville.
The new organization was intended to be a purely civic police, with the
military element, whicli had survived from the Spanish and French days, eliminated. It consisted of one chief, two sub-chiefs or assistants and twenty men for the city proper; and for the Fauxbourg Ste. Marie, the American section, now the first municipal district, the same chief, two sub-chiefs and eight men; a total force of thirty-three. The chief was provided with a horse and allowed $60 a month, from which he had to provide food for the animal. The sub-chief received $25 a month, and each watchman $20. The police were armed with the old half pike and a saber suspended from a belt of black leather. They wore long brass buckles, on which was engraved "Garde de Ville" (City Watch). The headquarters were still in the city hall, where two men as a relief force and one sub-chief were always on duty. The reliefs were at 7 a. m. in the summer and 9 a. m. in winter.
The new police force went on duty March 14, 1806. It was in trouble within a very short time; for in an encounter in May of the same year the police were overpowered by a number of rioters, dispossessed of their weapons and badly beaten. For this cowardice the force was formally deprived of its weapons by an ordinance of the city council. The grand jury joined in the popular denunciation of the new force for their failure to do their duty, and declared that the city was "at the mercy of brigands to loot and pillage at pleasure." The grand jury cited a very strong case to support the denunciation—that of a man murdered in the Faiixbourg Ste. Marie, whose body was left lying where it fell for three days, until buried by charitable persons.
The next council decided that the city was wasting money on such a police force, and reduced it to eight men, restoring the militia patrols, and thus going back to the military system, the civic police having failed after two years' trial. The chief of the city guard was placed in charge of the militia patrol, who were designated as "const^ibles."
This condition of affairs continued for fourteen years, and was found generally satisfactory. As the city grew in size, the constabulary force was increased, and in 1822 it consisted of fifty men, who patrolled the city at night in small squads. This police force, like the fire department, was voluntary and composed of private citizens.
With the division of the city into three municipalities, the patrol was gradually abolished and the constabulary increased, each section having its captain and high constable.
The marauding of the "levee rats" on the freight on the river front led, in 1851, to the organization of a levee police force of nine men, imder a sergeant.
In 1852 the three mimicipalities and the City of Lafayette (now the fourth municipal district) were consolidated into one government, and John Youennes was appointed the first chief of police of the entire city. Under this charter the mayor was constituted the head of the jwlice force of the city, with power to appoint officers, to make regulations and to exercise general control over the police.
This was the condition of affairs up to the time of the Civil War. The occupation of New Orleans by the military force under Gen. B. F. Butler suspended all civil government. The city was placed under martial law, the police were superseded by the soldiers, and the head of the police department was the provost marshal, an army officer detailed for that purpose. The violation of ordinances or regulations was punished with severe imprisonment or transportation to Ship Island, or some other of the military prisons established by Gen. Butler.
With the restoration of civil government in Louisiana in 18G6, under ilayor John J. Monroe, a police force was reorganized, a large proportion of whom were veterans of the Confederate army. This force figured very conspicuously in the Mechanics' Institute riot of 1866, and an investigation was made into the matter, which resulted in finding that the police had done their duty, and that tire riot was caused by the negroes who were taking part in the convention.
With the establishment of the Republican government in 1868 the entire police system of New Orleans was again changed, and the force again reverted to the military system. The act organizing the metropolitan police force of New Orleans, which was changed and amended from time to time, practically created a military force very similar to the Pra-torian guards in the days of the Roman Empire. The force was very much increased, amounting at one time to 800 men. It was reorganized and well paid, so as to get men on it who were willing to fight, and a very considerable portion of the force consisted of veterans of the Civil War, both from the Union and Confederate armies. The police, while bearing only side arms when on ordinary duty, owned rifles and even Gatling guns and other cannon ; and the arms apportioned among the states by the general government were given to them rather than to the militia. In fine, tlie police practically superseded the militia, under the title of the "Met-
114 ■ STANDARD HISTORY OF NE]Y ORLEANS.
ropolitan Brigade," although a nominal militia force was kept up independent of them. As a militia the metropolitan police force was of great convenience to the de facto state government, as it was well disciplined and continuously on duty. The men were chosen with care and well equipped. There was a considerable mounted police force, which served as cavalry. In the subsequent difficulties which grew out of the dual state government, when New Orleans was for several years in a state of civil war, the police were frequently called on to make exi")editions to the neighboring parishes to suppress popular movements that refused to recognize the de facto (Kellogg) state government or to pay taxes to it. A steamer was purchased for the purpose of making this expedition, thereby constituting the nucleus of a navy.; The police thus became both army and navy, the army being divided into infantry, cavalry and artillery.
Under the several laws passed in regard to the metropolitan police, they were constituted a state militia and given power and jurisdiction throughout the state, becoming in their power very like the Royal Irish constabulary', the situation in Louisiana at the time being very similar to that of Ireland when a large part of the population refused to recognize the government. There is no counterpart in the United States to the metropolitan police force of New Orleans from 1868 to 1877—not even in the other Southern States where reconstruction was going on; and the situation in Louisiana, with two state governments, was sui generis and different from that of its neighbors.
"The Metropolitans," as the police were called, were used in several military movements to suppress popular uprisings and establish the authority of the Kellogg government. They were sent to St. Martin's, where the people under Gen. Alcibiade de Blanc maintained their allegiance to the McEnery state government. This coixntry campaign was a failure. A condition of actual war prevailed in the parish of St. Martin for some weeks, but the Metropolitans made no headway; and Gen. de Blanc finally surrendered to the L^^nited States marshal, but refused to recognize the Metropolitans or state constabulary. In New Orleans the police were at first somewhat more successful. They captured the building occupied by the McEnery government as a legislative hall, and they dispersed the citizen militia who had assembled in Jackson Square for the purpose of establishing the McEnery state government by force of arms; but in the battle on the levee, at the foot of Canal street, on September 14, 1874, the power of the Metropolitans was completely broken. Under the command of
Generals A. S. Badger and James Longstreet, the Metropolitans, some 600 strong and with several cannon, Gatling guns and jSTapoleons, marched to Canal street to disperse the White League and similar organizations which sought to overthrow the Kellogg state government and establish that of McEnery. The result was a battle equal to many unfortunate engagements in actual warfare. The Metropolitans were defeated, losing some sixty-odd men, killed and wounded. Among the latter was the commander, Gen. Badger, while the citizen soldiery lost eighteen killed and a number woimded. Most of the other Metropolitans surrendered, and the next day, with the capture of the State House and Armory, the Kellogg government was dissolved. This defeat broke the power of the Metropolitans. With the restoration of the Kellogg government on May 17, 1874, the Metropolitans were reorganized, but as a city police force, not as a state constabulary. They made no more expeditions to the country, and they no longer attempted to act as militia. In the subsequent capture of the Supreme Court buildings by the citizens' soldiery, on January 9, 1877, they made no resistance, nor during the long siege of the State House (afterward the Hotel Eoyal) did they attempt any military movements.
After the breaking up of the Metropolitans 'New Orleans was for a short time without any police whatever, and police duty was done by the citizens' soldiery. It was practically martial law, and the ijeace and order of the city was never better preserved or crimes and misdemeanors more infrequent.
With the establishment of the Nicholls government in 1877 the Metropolitan jjolice force Avas abolished and a new force organized. Few of the old members were given service, so strong was the popular hatred of the Metropolitans, who had ruled with a high hand and most arbitrarily during their years of power. Nearly all the statutes giving the Metropolitans extraordinary power were repealed, and the force again became a police force in fact.
While the new police was in many respects a great improvement on the Metropolitan, many defects had crept in which soon showed how necessary was the reorganization on an entirely new basis. Under the existing ordinances the police were entirely under the control of the mayor, who as chief had the power of appointment and removal". With this power it was natural that politics should creep in, and that appointments should be made because of political services. The police exercised an important, if not a dominant, influence in primaries and elections, and, moreover, considerable corruption prevailed, especially in the matter of gambling, which at that time was tolerated, or at least overlooked, in !New Orleans.
When, in 1888, a reform administi-ation went into power, it set to work at once to reform both the fire and the police departments, which were permeated with politics. Popiilar sentiment demanded a change, and strongly supported the bill introduced by Mr. Felix Dreyfous, member of the Legislature from the sixth ward of New Orleans, reorganizing the jxjlice force, which law was at once passed. It contained the provisions usual in most of the police laws of the large American cities. The mayor continued as commander-in-chief of the police, but the force was controlled and directed by a board of six commissioners, representing the several municipal districts of the city. This board was to formulate rules and regulations to try all delinquent officers, and to have the power to fine, suspend or remove officers for cause. All officers were appointed to the force after physical and other examinations as to their fitness, and were imder civil service rules, and could not be removed without cause. Provision was also made for the establishment of a police pension fimd.
The new law worked well, and the jwlice board set vigorously to work to reorganize the force; this took nearly a year. All the officers had to stand examinations, physical and otherwise, and the imworthy and unfit we.re weeded out. The board, however, came in conflict with the mayor during this work, and a serious clash of authority resulted.
The practical exj>erience in organizing the police force had disclosed several defects in the law. The police board met and suggested certain changes in this law in the direction of increasing their power. The mayor, Joseph A. Shakespeare, who had not received the law with favor, because it curtailed his power, proposed amendments which, while they continued the police commission, materially increased his powers. The controversy lasted some months, and foimd its way into the courts. A majority of the police commissioners were removed by the mayor and new members of the board apjjointed. The Stat« Supreme Court, however, overturned this action and restored the commissioners who bad been removed; and the Legislature amended the law, as the police board had asked that it be amended. It was a triumph of the principle of the government of the police by a commission instead of a single individual—the triumph of the principle of the civil service as opposed to the political system which had been in operation previously.
It was during this period of strife between the mayor and council that an event occurred which stirred Xew Orleans to a pitch of frenzy, caused more or less excitement throughout the country and led the United States into serious
diplomatic difficulties and even into the possibility of a foreign war. This was the assassination of the newlv-appointed chief of police, D. C. Hennessey, by members of the Mafia, on the night of October 15, 1890, and led to the Parish Prison lynching the next year, for which Italy niade demands for reparation of the United States.
The dispute between Mayor Shakespeare and the Police Board in 1890 settled the question of the control of the police. The Mayor abandoned his resistance to the law, and it was universally recognized that the force had greatly improved in morale, efficiency, and in every other way since the change in the system, and the adoption of civil-service rules for its control. Differences, however, crept up from time to tinie between the Police Board and the several mayors as to the limit of power between them. Thus Mayor Fitzpatrick, who succeeded Shakespeare, quarelled with the board over the appointment of civil officers for the police courts, and in 1894 brought action to secure the removal of the commissioners. The court decided against him and thus entrenched the board in power and fixed the limits of its authority.
The original police act of 1S8S had been amended in 1890, and was still further amended in 1896, in order to make it clear and cover all the disputed points which had led to the differences between the mayor and board. The last police act provided how the commissioners niight be removed by legal proceedings, authorized the mayor to ap}X)int emergency officers without pay, altered the qualifications of the police force, changed the examination board for promotion from a committee appointed by the superintendent of police to a committee appointed by the board, made the decision of the board final in all eases and not subject to revision, prohibited policemen from engaging in other pursuits, and finally set aside a portion of the police a])propriation to the pension fund. It was a move in the right direction, tended to make the police force still more independent and free from politics. It will be thus seen that the police of New Orleans have been through every possible status. It has been a volunteer force, a military force (a detail from the army), a constabulary, a genuine municipal police, to revert back to the militia system, again to a city police, and finally to adopt the principles of civil service, under the control of a board, the force being responsible to the mayor yet independent, to a large extent, from the legislation and interference of the council and city government.
The police pension fund was established by the act of 1888, reorganizing the police force. It provides a pension for the widows of all officers wlio may
lose their lives in the performance of their duties, and had in 1900 eleven families on the pension roll.
The Police Mutual Benevolent Association was organized in 1893. By voluntary contributions to the fund of this association, police officers receive so much per day when sick, and a gross amount is paid to their families in the event of death. It received and disbursed $31,511 during the six years 1893-99.
FIEE DEPAKTMENT.
The Fire Department of New Orleans passed through the same changes and vicissitudes as other branches of the municipal government, and as have occurred in other cities of the same age. It began Avith no firemen at all, followed by a vohmtcer fire force, which assumed more and more the characteristics of a paid department, until finally the vohmteer force went out altogether and a paid department came into service.
There were no firemen in the earlier days of jSTew Orleans, and no means of fighting fire. When flames broke out in the little city, the neighbors flocked to the scene of the fire and did what they could with buckets to extinguish the flames. The soldiers also turned out and did the heaviest work.
With the lack of firemen, in a city where houses were almost all of wood and roofed with shingles, it was was natural that a great conflagration should occur. Such a fire came on Good Friday, March 21, 1788, and it was one which the city had cause long to remember. A high wind, amounting almost to a gale, carried the flames from house to house and from street to street. The entire business portion of the city was destroyed, including the parochial church (succeeded by St. Louis' Cathedral), the Presbytery (where the civil courts are now situated), and with it nearly all the archives of the colony, the municipal building or Cabildo, the military barracks and arsenal, with large supplies of arms and ammunition and the calaboose or public jail, from which the prisoners were narrowly rescued from burning to death. Altogether between 800 and 900 houses were destroyed by fire, the total loss being estimated at $2,595,-fil(i. It was the first big fire New Orleans ever had, and it has never had one a* large since.
The conflagration had one good effect; it called attention to the utter de-iieicncy of the city in the matter of preparations to fight fires. There were not even enough buckets to use, and no organization to pass up the buckets to put out the fire where it bui'ned or to wet the roofs of the houses which stood in its path.
While the city was in flames the Governor sent the soldiers to the artillery quarter to search for such military implements as were best adapted to the purpose of staying the flames, such as axes, military picks, etc., with which to p\ill down houses and parts of houses and parts of houses left standing that might feed the flames with fuel.
The result of the great fire, which was felt in New Orleans for many years afterwards, was the organization of a fire department. Only four years afterwards another severe fire broke out in the city. Thanks to the improvement that had been made in fighting fires, it was not nearly as destructive as that of 1788, for not only were there buckets ready for vise but engines as well, the latter being, however, without trucks and carried in carts. The city at that time was divided into iowr wards or districts, in each of which was an Alcalde de Barrios, a commissioner of police, who had charge not only of the police or se-renos, but also of fire matters as well. The alcaldes were directed to take charge of the engines and implements, to assume command at all fires and to organize new companies as the occasion demanded. It Avas the first fire department New Orleans boasted of, and it proved efficient in spite of tlie very crude engines then in the city. In 1794 another destructive conflagration occurred, which burnt over a considerable portion of the city destroyed in 1788. The fault did not lay with the alcaldes or the firemen, but was due to the lack of necessary provisions in regard to the style of the new houses erected. Most of them were of wood and of a very flimsy character, and a fire once started was difficult to extinguish.