The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 76, July 1972 - April, 1973 Page: 256
539 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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256 Southwestern Historical Quarterly
schemes to increase the province's loyal population. In the end, the
war Jefferson thought might come was averted as Spain retroceded the
colony to France, which in turn soon sold it to the United States.
The changed attitude toward Anglo-American colonization in Loui-
siana and West Florida began immediately after Francisco Luis Hec-
tor, baron of Carondelet, became governor of these provinces on De-
cember 30, 1791.8 Only two weeks after assuming the governorship,
he recommended to Madrid that Europeans be encouraged to come to
Louisiana and, contrary to earlier Spanish policy against making ex-
penditures to bring in immigrants, he urged that they be assisted in
their settlement, beyond being given free lands, a liberal commercial
policy, and religious tolerance. While the baron did not suggest stop-
ping Anglo-American immigration-believing it impossible to do-he
and subsequent governors were very much concerned about becoming
outnumbered by what they increasingly regarded as a subversive ele-
ment.4 Thus with Carondelet, immigration policy reverted to securing
a loyal European Catholic population, one which would be compatible
with Spanish rule and monarchical government.
Through the spring of 1792, Governor Carondelet continued to pro-
mote the immigration policy he thought was best for the colonies in his
charge. He began issuing announcements which favored the admittance
of French emigres, and Irish, Flemish, and German immigrants. When
he learned that growing numbers of these people were arriving in the
United States, he exhorted the court to bring them to Louisiana and
advised making "small expenditures," such as furnishing their trans-
portation from New Madrid in Upper Louisiana to their new homes
down river, and supplying them with food and seed. He believed
that once the first settlers were established, the malicious lies that ex-
isted about the tyranny of the Spanish government would be dissipated.
3 Arthur Preston Whitaker, The Spanish-American Frontier: 1783-1795 (Boston, 1927),
162, states that Spanish policy against permitting Anglo-Americans to enter Louisiana
changed as a result of the French terror and a reactionary government in Spain. How-
ever, archival documentation clearly indicates that Governor Carondelet initiated it. See
also Lawrence Kinnaird, "American Penetration into Spanish Louisiana," in New Spain
and the Anglo-American West (2 vols.; Los Angeles, 1932), I, 22o.
4 Baron of Carondelet to the count of Floridablanca, January 13, 1792, Archivo Hist6rico
Nacional (Madrid), Estado, leg. 3,898, no. 1 reservada; ibid., February 25, 1792, no. 9 reser-
vada, Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, "Documentos de la Luisiana," III, 19,246. The Archivo
Hist6rico Nacional, Estado, is hereafter cited as AHN, Est. Governor Manuel Gayoso de
Lemos of the Natchez District advised Floridablanca that it was impossible to prevent
Americans from entering Louisiana. Gayoso to Floridablanca, January 26, 1792, AHN, Est.
leg. 3,902, no. 4 reservada. On Carondelet's character see Whitaker, Spanish-American Fron-
tier, 153-156.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 76, July 1972 - April, 1973, periodical, 1973; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101202/m1/298/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.