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Note B—Page 178.
“The State senators of Louisiana are elected for four years,
one fourth vacating their seats annually. They must possess an
estate of a thousand dollars in the parish, for which they are chosen.
The representatives have a biennial term, and must possess 500
dollars' worth of property in the parish to be eligible. The governor
is chosen for four years; and is ineligible for the succeeding term.
His duties are the same, as in the other states, and his salary is
7,000 dollars a year. The judiciary powers are vested in a supreme
and circuit court, together with a municipal court called the parish
court.—The salaries are ample. The elective franchise belongs to
every free white man of twenty-one years, and upward, who has
had a residence of six months in the parish, and who has paid
taxes.
The code of laws, adopted by this state, is not what is called the
“common law,” which is the rule of judicial proceedings in all the
other states, but the civil law, adopted, with some modifications,
from the judicial canons of France and Spain. So much of the
common law is interwoven with it, as has been adopted by express
All the laws of the civil code purport to be written, and they are
principally selected from that stupendous mass of legal maxims and
edicts, called the Justinian code. Parishes in this state nearly
correspond to counties in the other states; and the parish judge
under the civil code, and according to the judicial arrangement of
this state, is one of the most responsible and important judicial
functionaries.
It would perhaps, be rather amusing than useful to go into much
detail, respecting the modes of administering justice under the
French and Spanish regime. The commandant, or governor-general,
was at the head of the judiciary and military departments.
His code was the Roman law, or that of the Indies, and he represented
the king. The department of finance was administered by
an officer, called the intendant general. The office of procureur
general was one of high consequence; and his duties had an
analogy to those of our prosecuting attornies. But of all the tribunals
of the Spanish in their colonies, the most important and popular
was the cabildo. The cabildos awarded the decisions in common
civil suits, and were a kind of general conservators of the
peace. Subordinate ministers of justice to them were alcaids,
regidors, syndics and registers. Subordinate to the department
of finance were the contadors, treasurer, interventor, auditor and
assessor. Most of these offices were venal, or acquired by
purchase. The processes were simple, but rigorous, and summary;
and many of their maxims of law seem to have been founded in the
highest wisdom and equity. From whatever cause it happened,
the yoke of their government always sat easy on the neck of the
Anglo Americans, who lived under it, and they still speak of
Spanish times, as the golden age. Crimes were rare. The forefathers
of the present race of Creoles were a mild and peaceable
race as are their descendants at the present day. The ancient inhabitants
attached more importance to a criminal prosecution, and
felt more keenly the shame of conviction, than the inhabitants of
the present day. Summary justice, the terror of the Mexican
mines, or the dungeons of Havana, had their share, too, no doubt,
in producing the spirit of submissive quietness and subordination,
that reigned among the people. The penal laws were not more
sanguinary, than those of most of the states of our union. Only
four crimes were declared capital. Persons sentenced to death, for
the commission of those crimes, often remained long in the prisons of
The code under which governor O'Reilly administered justice, is a
most singular specimen of jurisprudence. Among the most frequent
crimes against which it provides, are crimes of lust committed by
priests, or professed religious, and the heaviest punishments those
annexed to those crimes.—There are enumerated some amusing
cases, in which pecuniary mulcts are substituted for corporal punishments
in instances of conviction for these crimes.” Flint's
Miss. Valley.
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