Governor in the name of the King. Even the police regulations were issued by the same official.
In 1804, the year after the United States obtained possession, President Jefferson said that “the position of New Orleans certainly destines it to be the greatest city the world has ever seen;” but the growth for many years, though rapid, did not come up to the general expectations. In 1805 New Orleans was regularly incorporated, and the inhabitants elected a city council. This was the first occasion on which the right of public suffrage was ever exercised in Louisiana. Americans now crowded into the newly acquired city. In the winter of 1806-07 wild rumors were abroad that Burr intended to make New Orleans the capital of a new empire. The city was placed under martial law by General Wilkinson, and it was some time before the excitement subsided.
A great impetus to the prosperity of the city was given in 1812, when the first steamboat arrived from Pittsburg. The Mississippi was now to become a great highway of commerce, and New Orleans was to flourish accordingly. Growth was checked for a time by the war with Great Britain, which followed soon. When, however. General Jackson won his great victory at Chalmette in 1815 (see New Orleans, Battle of), attention was speedily directed to the city that he had saved, and its population increased more rapidly than ever before. By 1830 it had risen to 46,000, and in 1840 to 102,000. The city was extended beyond its old boundaries, gas and other improvements were introduced, and a more cosmopolitan spirit began to appear. In 1837 the city became involved in the speculative mania of the day and suffered severely from the ensuing panic. Nothing, however, could permanently check the prosperity of New Orleans, not even the terrible ravages of the yellow fever, which in the decade before the Civil War were more fatal than ever before. In 1836 the Creoles were so little in accord with the Americans that a novel form of government was tried. The city was divided into three municipalities, each with a recorder and a council of aldermen. There were a mayor and a general council (embracing the councils of the different municipalities) to control the affairs of general interest, but each municipality could tax itself and manage its local affairs. This anomalous state of things continued until 1852. In 1849 the State capital was transferred to Baton Rouge, but later New Orleans was again for a time the capital (1868-80).
In the Civil War New Orleans was an important centre of Confederate military and commercial operations until captured by a Federal fleet under Admiral Farragut in April, 1862. (See Fort Jackson.) Thereafter it proved an important strategic point for attacks upon other parts of the Confederacy. Under the administration of Gen. B. F. Butler (q.v.), which lasted from May to December, 1862, the city suffered the extreme rigor of martial law. Butler's successor, Gen. N. P. Banks, was far more conciliatory. During the period of reconstruction New Orleans was the headquarters of the politicians and of the ‘carpetbaggers’ who, with their freedmen allies, governed the State during this stormy period. In 1866 there was a serious riot at Mechanics' Institute (now Tulane Hall), in which a constitutional convention was broken up by the Democrats and a number of persons killed. In 1874 the Republican Governor, William Pitt Kellogg, fearing an uprising of the people, denied the inhabitants the right to bear arms, and whenever arms were found on any person they were seized by the police. ‘The White League,’ a Democratic organization, determined to procure arms at all hazards. Arms were ordered by steamer from the North, and when the steamer arrived at the levee, the League, arming itself as best it could, marched down to the dock on Canal Street to receive them. Here a conflict was precipitated with the metropolitan police of the Governor. The police were scattered, and the artillery which they had placed upon the levee was turned against themselves. The White Leaguers lost sixteen men. Seventeen years later a monument was erected to their memory on the spot where they fell. While an appeal to the President once more restored the Governor to power, this affair of September 14, 1874, is generally regarded as the beginning of the end of reconstruction in Louisiana. In 1877 the United States troops were withdrawn, and with them the ‘carpetbag’ rule disappeared. With a free government restored, the city turned its attention to the development of its great opportunities, and steady progress has marked its subsequent history. In 1884 a Cotton Centennial Exposition was held here—the first bale of cotton exported from this country having been shipped from Charleston in 1784. In 1880 the capital of the State was removed from New Orleans. In 1891 nine Italians, members of the Mafia (q.v.), who had been arrested for the murder of the chief of police, David C. Hennessy, were lynched by a mob, after being acquitted by the courts. This gave rise to considerable controversy between the United States and the Italian governments.
Consult: Standard History of New Orleans (Chicago, 1900); King, New Orleans, the Place and the People (New York, 1890); Martin, History of Louisiana (New Orleans, 1882); Gayarré, History of Louisiana (ib., 1903); King and Ficklen, History of Louisiana (ib., 1893); Waring and Cable, “Social Statistics of Cities, History and Present Condition,” in Tenth United States Census (Washington, 1881); Howe, “Municipal History of New Orleans,” in Johns Hopkins University Studies, ser. vii., No. 4 (Baltimore, 1889); Commercial, Industrial, and Financial Outlook for New Orleans (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1894).
NEW ORLEANS, Battle of. The last battle of the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain, fought at Chalmette, near New Orleans, La., January 8, 1815. On December 10, 1814, a British fleet of more than fifty sail with about 7000 troops on board arrived off the eastern coast of Louisiana and came to anchor near the entrance to Lake Borgne. Twelve days later a division of the troops, by the aid of treacherous Spanish fishermen, made its way up Bayou Bienvenu, and on the afternoon of the 23d reached the right bank of the Mississippi, some miles below New Orleans. A few hours later the Americans, who for some weeks had, under the leadership of Major-Gen. Andrew Jackson, been preparing to resist the invasion, made a night attack upon the division and inflicted considerable loss, but did not succeed in overwhelming it. Next morning Gen-
