In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Opposition’s Representatives in Territorial and National Government •  • CHAPTER FIVE “A Severe Shock to W. C. C. and His Gang” The Opposition’s Representatives in Territorial and National Government A aron Burr enjoyed a pleasant stay in New Orleans in the first weeks of July 1805. He met many of the elite of New Orleans society and was especially friendly with Governor Claiborne’s political opponents. He stayed with Edward Livingston and was “lavishly entertained by Daniel Clark.” Claiborne noted that Burr, while he was in New Orleans, was in “habits of intimacy with Livingston, Clark and Jones,” but the governor gave no hint of the reason for the amicable relations between these men. 1 “Burr’s visit to New Orleans in 1805 coincided with the activities of the ‘Mexican Association.’” This organization of about 300 members was founded “shortly after the American occupation of Louisiana,” and “its avowed purpose was to bring about the conquest—or liberation—as they put it of Mexico.” Daniel Clark and Edward Livingston were said to be “leading spirits.” Clark, however, denied that he was a member of the Mexican Association, “yet he consistently worked with it.” Whatever Clark’s status with the Mexican Association , it is clear that he was impressed with Burr’s visit. He went as far as to advise Lieutenant William A. Murray, an American officer stationed at Fort Adams, to make preparations to secure the fort as a base of operations for an attack on Baton Rouge and an invasion of Mexico. When Burr left Orleans Territory on July 14, 1805, he did so with two horses and a servant provided by Daniel Clark. Burr appeared satisfied with his visit. He found that “the populace in general” was “sympathetic to the plan to revolutionize Mexico” and promised to return in October 1806. 2 While Clark dreamed of the wealth that he might gain from the conquest of Mexican land, the U.S. government targeted some of his property in the Opposition’s Representatives in Territorial and National Government •  • territory of Orleans for an investigation under the Act for Ascertaining and Adjusting the Titles and Claims to Land within the Territory of Orleans (Act for the Adjustment of Land Titles) passed on March 2, 1805. On July 8, 1805, Secretary of the Treasury Gallatin commissioned Allan B. Magruder and James Brown to ascertain and adjust titles and claims to land within Orleans Territory. Brown was the agent for the Eastern District of Orleans Territory, and Magruder was assigned to the Western District of Orleans Territory. Along with his general instructions, Magruder was instructed that two tracts of land would “require particular investigation, especially in order to ascertain , what conditions were affixed to the grant, and whether they have been fulfilled.” These were grants of land on the Ouachita River, “one twelve leagues square, in favor of Baron Bastrop, and another about twelve leagues in length by two leagues in breadth, originally granted to the Marquis de Grandmaison and now claimed by Daniel Clark.” 3 Why was Clark specifically targeted for an investigation under the Act for Adjustment of Land Titles? It was probably due in part to the size of the tract and the circumstances under which Clark acquired it. On March 17, 1795, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, the Baron de Carondelet, who hoped to halt American settlement in Louisiana through Spanish land grants, deeded the Marquis de Maison Rouge, “an emigrant French knight,” 4,000 arpents of land on the Ouachita. The condition attached to this grant was the settlement of thirty families of farmers “to be composed of French, Hollanders, Flemish and German royalists.” The Spanish Crown approved this contract on July 17, 1795. Within two years, however, through an updated contract, Maison Rouge came to own four large tracts of land that bordered on both sides of the Ouachita River. The total amount of land amounted to 208,344 superficial arpents, or thirty leagues. 4 The Marquis de Maison Rouge had little time, however, to develop his new lands. In the summer of 1799 he became ill and traveled to New Orleans to stay at the home of a friend, Louis Bouligny. On August 26 he drafted his will and named Bouligny his “sole and universal heir.” Maison Rouge “made no reference to any claim of a grant of land made to him by the Spanish Government of thirty leagues of land; nor was it included in the inventory of his estate which was made by...

Share