Geographical Features of the State of Louisiana.--Conclusion.
Louisiana lies under the same degree of north latitude as Egypt, and
bears a striking resemblance to that country. Their soil, their climate,
and their very rivers, exhibit the same features, with the exception,
that the Mississippi runs from north to south, whereas the Nile takes an
opposite course. Close to the eastern bank of the former, we find a
continued series of Cyprus, swamps, and lakes, sometimes intersected by
a tributary stream of the Mississippi, with elevated banks or hills.
Farther towards the east are large tracts of lands, with pinewoods
stretching towards the river Mobile, which resembles the Mississippi in
every thing, except in size. Further southward, between the Mississippi
and Mobile, we find the rivers Amite, Tickfah, Tangipao, Pearl,
Pascagola, emptying themselves into a chain of lakes and swamps, running
in a south-east direction from the Mississippi to the mouth of the
Mobile. Further to the westward is the Mississippi in its meandering
course, its banks lined with plantations from Natchez to New Orleans,
each plantation extending half a mile back to the swamps. South of New
Orleans, is another chain of swamps, lakes, and bayons, terminating in
the gulf of Mexico. West of the Mississippi, a multitude of rivers flow
in a thousand windings, lined with impenetrable forests of cyprus,
cotton trees, and cedars, intermixed with canebrack and the palmetta. In
this labyrinth of rivers, the Red-river, the Arkansas, the White-river,
and Tensaw rivers are seen meandering. Farther east are the immense
prairies of Opelausas, and Attacapas, interspersed here and there with
rising farms, forests along the banks of the Red-river, and more to the
westward the great prairies, the resort of innumerable buffaloes and of
every kind of game. The Red-river, like the Mississippi, forms an
impenetrable series of swamps and lakes. Beyond this river are seen
pinewoods, from which issues the Ouachitta, losing itself afterwards in
the Delta of the Mississippi. Beyond these pine woods, in a north
western direction, rise the Mazernes mountains, extending from the east
to west 200 miles, and forming the boundary line between east and west
Louisiana. To the north and west of the Red-river, the country is dry
and healthy, but of inferior quality; to the east we find a chain of
lakes; to the south another chain. In summer they dry up, thus affording
fine pasturage to buffaloes. In autumn, with the rising of the rivers,
they again fill with water. Southward is a continued lake, intermixed
with swamps, which terminate at last in the gulph of Mexico.
Louisiana, though the smallest of the states and territories formed out
of the ancient Louisiana, is by far the most important, and the central
point of the western commonwealth. Its boundaries are, on the south, the
Gulph of Mexico; on the west, the Mexican province of Tecas; on the
north, the Arkansas territory, and the state of Mississippi; and on the
east, the state of Mississippi, and Mexico. The number of inhabitants
amounts to 190,000, 106,000 of whom are people of colour. The
constitution of the state inclines to Federal. The governor, the
senators, and the representatives, in order to be eligible, must be
possessed of landed property--the former to the amount of at least 5000
dollars, the next 1000, and the latter 500. Every citizen of the state
is qualified to vote. The government in this, as well as in every other
state, is divided into three separate branches. The chief magistrate of
the state is elected for the term of four years. Under him he has a
secretary of state. The present governor is an Anglo-American; Mr.
Johnson, the secretary, is a Creole.
The legislative branch is composed of the senators, and of the house of
representatives. The former consists of sixteen members, elected for the
term of four years. They choose from among themselves a president, who
takes the place of the governor, in case of the demise of the
latter.[K] The house of representatives consists of forty-four members,
headed by a speaker; the court of justice of three judges of the
district court, a supreme judge of the criminal court of New Orleans,
and eight district judges, with an equal number of district attorneys.
The sessions are held every Monday. The parish and county courts have
twenty-eight county or parish judges, twenty-six sheriffs, and 159
lawyers, to assist them in their labours. In a political view, the
acquisition of Louisiana is no doubt the most important occurrence in
the United States since the revolution; and, considered altogether, it
may be called a second revolution. Independently of the pacific
acquisition of a country containing nearly a million and a half of
square miles, with the longest river in the world flowing through a
valley several thousand miles in length and breadth, their geographical
position is now secured, and they form, since the further acquisition
of Florida, a whole and compact body, with a coast extending upwards of
1000 miles along the gulph of Mexico, and 500 miles on the Pacific
ocean. Whether the vast increase of wealth amassed by most of those who
settled on the banks of the Mississippi will prove strong enough to
retain this political link unbroken, is very much to be doubted. It is
very clear that the inhabitants of the valley of the Mississippi, and
especially of Louisiana, entertain a feeling of estrangement from their
northern fellow citizens.
[K] The governor of Louisiana has 5000 dollars a year: the governors of
other states either 2 or 3000 dollars. According to the American money,
four dollars forty-four cents make a pound: a dollar has 100 cents.
With the exception of a number of respectable Americans, Louisiana and
the valley of the Mississippi have hitherto been the refuge of all
classes of foreigners, good and bad, who sought here an asylum from
oppression and poverty, or from the avenging arm of justice in their
native countries. Many have not succeeded in their expectations--many
have died--others returned, exasperated against a country which had
disappointed their hopes, because they expected to find superior beings,
and discovered that they were men neither worse nor better than their
habits, propensities, country, climate, and a thousand other
circumstances had made them. The fault was theirs. Though there exists
not, perhaps, a country in the world where a fortune can be made in an
easier way, yet it cannot be made without industry, steadiness, and a
small capital to begin with--things in which these people were mostly
deficient. And there is another circumstance not to be lost sight of.
Whoever changes his country should have before him a complete view and a
clear idea of the state in which he intends to settle, as well as of the
rest of the Union: he ought to depend upon his own means, on himself in
short, and not upon others. Upon no other terms will prosperity and
happiness attend the emigrant's exertions in the United States. The
foreign mechanic who, emigrating into the United States, selects the
states of New York, Pennsylvania, or Ohio, will find sufficient
occupation, his trade respected, and his industry rewarded by wealth and
political consequence. The manufacturer with a moderate capital, will
choose Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and the like places. The merchant who is
possessed of 2 or 3000 dollars, and settles in Ohio, in the north
western part of Pennsylvania, or over in Illinois, will, if he be
prudent and steady, have no reason to complain of the Yankees. The
farmer, with a capital of from 3 to 4000 dollars, will fix upon the
state of Ohio, in preference to any other, especially if he comes
accompanied only by his own family, and is therefore obliged to rely on
the friendly assistance of his neighbours. He will there prefer the
lands adjacent to navigable rivers, or to the rise of the new canal. If
he goes beyond Ohio, he will find eligible situations in Illinois, and
in Missouri. Any one who can command a capital exceeding 10,000 dollars,
who is not incumbered with a large family, and whose mind does not
revolt at the idea of being the owner of slaves, will choose the state
of Mississippi, or of Louisiana, and realize there in a short time a
fortune beyond his most sanguine expectations. He has his choice there
of the unsold lands along the Mississippi, and Red-river, in the
parishes of Plaquemines or Bayon Bastier; in the interior, of La
Fourche, Iberville, Attacapas, Opelousas, Rapides, Nachitoches,
Concordia, New Feliciana, and all the way up the Mississippi, to
Walnut-hills, four hundred miles above New Orleans. All that has been
urged against the unhealthiness of the country may be answered in these
few words. Louisiana, though not at every season of the year equally
salubrious, is far healthier than Cuba, Jamaica, and the West Indies in
general. Thousands of people live free from the attacks of any kind of
fever. On the plantations there is not the least danger.--In New Orleans
the yellow fever has not appeared these four years past, and the place
is so far from being unhealthy now, that the mortality for the last
three years was less in this place than in Boston, New York and
Philadelphia. Cleanliness, sobriety, a strict attention to the digestive
system, and the avoiding of strong liquors, and exposure to heat, or to
the rising miasmata, will keep every one as healthy in Louisiana as any
where else. The neglect of proper precautions will cause as serious
inconvenience in Louisiana as in any other country. This is the real
condition of the state, and those acquainted with it will readily bear
testimony to the correctness of my opinion, that it holds out not only
to British emigrants, but also to capitalists of that country,
advantages far surpassing those of their own vast dominions in any
quarter of the globe.
In Louisiana they should embark a part of their capital, not in land
speculations, or in buying extensive tracts, which they have to sell in
the course of time in small parcels, but in plantations. These are
sources of wealth far superior to the gold mines of Mexico, and are
guaranteed by a firm constitution, and by the character and the habits
of a liberal people, taken in the whole, whatever John Bull may have to
say against it. In this manner may the said John Bull still reap the
reward of his having formed and maintained the first settlements in the
United States, at a vast expense of blood and treasure.
This would be the means of drawing closer the now rather relaxed ties
which formerly united him with his kinsman, for Brother Jonathan is
neither so bad as John Bull supposes him to be, nor so faultless as he
fancies himself.--_Medium tenuere beati._
THE END.
TABLE
OF THE
STATES, COUNTIES, CITIES, TOWNS, AND VILLAGES.
_Pittsburgh_, county town of _Alleghany_ county.
_Alleghany_ (river), _Monongehela_ (river).
_Oeconomy_, Rapp's Settlement in Beaver county.
_Zanesville_, capital of _Muskiagum_ county.
_New Lancaster_, capital of _Fairfield_ county.
_Columbus_, capital of the State of _Ohio_.
_Chilicothe_, capital of the _Sciota_ county.
_Franklintown_, capital of _Franklin_ county.
_Cincinnati_, capital of _Hamilton_ county.
_Newport_, capital of _Campbell_ county, in _Kentucky_.
_Vevay_, capital of _New Switzerland_ county, in the State of
_Indiana_.
_Madisonville_, capital of _Jefferson_ county.
_Charlestown_, capital of _Clark_ county.
_Jeffersonville_, capital of _Floyd_ county.
_Clarkesville_ and _New Albany_, villages of _Floyd_ county.
_Louisville_, capital of _Jefferson_ county, in _Kentucky_.
_Shippingport_ and _Portland_, villages.
_Troy_, capital of _Crawford_ county.
_Owensborough_, capital of _Henderson_ county.
_Harmony_, in _Indiana_, second settlement of _Rapp_, purchased
1823, by _Owen_, of _Lanark_.
_Shawneetown_, in the State of _Illinois_.
_Fort Massai_, in the State of _Illinois_.
_Golconda_, capital of _Pope_ county.
_Vienna_, capital of _Johnson_ county.
_America_, capital of _Alexander_ county.
_Trinity_, village of _Alexander_.
_Kaskakia_, _Cahokia_, towns of _Illinois_.
_Vandalia_, capital of the State of _Illinois_.
_Hamburgh_, village in _Illinois_.
_Cape Girardeau_, capital of the county of the same name.
_St. Genevieve_ and _Herculaneum_, towns of the State of _Missouri_.
_City of St. Louis_, capital of _Missouri_ (the state).
_New Madrid_, capital of _New Madrid_ county.
_Tennessee_, State of
_Nashville_, _Knoxville_, towns of _Tennessee_, and _New
Ereesborough_, capital of the State.
_Hopefield_, capital of _Hempstead_ county.
_St. Helena_, village of _Arkansas_ territory.
_Vixburgh_, capital of _Warren_ county.
_Warrington_, village of _Warren_ county.
_Palmyra Plantations_, _Bruinsburgh_, _Natchez_ (city of), in the
State of _Mississippi_.
_Gibsonport_, capital of _Gibson_ county.
_Baton Rouge_, _Plaquemines_, _Manchac_, _Bayon_, _Tourche_, the
former the capital of the county, and the latter bayons.
_New Orleans_ (city of), the capital of _Louisiana_.
IN CHAPTER XIX. THE FOLLOWING RIVERS OCCUR.
_Mobile_--the rivers _Amite_, _Tickfah_, _Tangipao_, _Pearl_,
_Pascaguala_, _Arkansas_, _White_ and _Red-River_, _Tensaw_.
_Plaquemines_, _Interior of la Tourche_, _Iberville_, _Attacapas_,
_Opelousas_, _Rapides_, _Natchitoches_, _Concordia_, _Avoyelles_,
_New Feliciana_, _Parishes of Louisiana_.
N.B. The Counties in the State of Louisiana, are called Parishes.
_Printed by Bradbury & Dent, Bolt-court, Fleet-street._
Transcriber's Note
Minor errors in punctuation are corrected silently.
In the final table of place names, 'New Ereesborough' is referred to
as the state capital of Tennessee. This seems a corruption of
'Murfreesborough', which was the capital until 1826.
The following issues, which were deemed printer's errors, and their
resolutions are described here:
p. ii [t]hroughout] Added.
p. 80 approach[e]d Added.
p. 82 Baton [D/R]ouge Corrected.
p. 99 hickor[i]y Removed.
p. 108 backswood-man / backwoods-man Corrected.
p. 206 Fran[s]cisville Removed.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Americans as They Are, by Charles Sealsfield