Notes on Upper Louisiana, 14 July 1804
Notes on Upper Louisiana
[before 14 July 1804]
Louisiana
probable numbers from latest accounts1 |
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St. Andrews. | 361 | |||
38°–30’ | St. Charles | 840 | 1201. | 1559 |
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Marais des liards | 337. | |||
St. Ferdinand | 259 | |||
38–15 | St. Louis | 601. | ||
Carondelet | 181. | |||
Marameg | 115 | 1493 | 1939 | |
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37–52 | <Marameg | 115 > | ||
37–36 | Ste. Genevieve | 636 | ||
New Bourbon | 445 | 1081.2 | 1402 | |
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37°–5’ | Cape Girardeau | 416 | ||
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36–34 | New Madrid | 711 | ||
Petite Prairie | 46. | 1173 | 2100 | |
35–40 | Lance la grace | |||
34–15 | Arkansa | |||
4948 | 7000 |
There shall be a district to be called the district of St. Charles which shall comprehend the town of St. Charles as it’s chief post and all the part of Louisiana North of the river Missouri.
there shall be one other district to be called the district of St. Louis which shall comprehend the town of St. Louis as it’s chief post, and all that part of Louisiana South of the Missouri which is nearer to the town of St. Louis than to any other chief post.
there shall be one other district to be called the district of Ste. Genevieve which shall comprehend the town of Ste. Genevieve as it’s chief post and all that part of Louisiana North of Table river which is nearer the town of Ste. Genevieve than to any other chief post.
there shall be one other district to be called the district of New Madrid which shall comprehend the town of New Madrid as it’s chief post and all that part of Louisiana from Table river and a parallel of Latitude passing Westwardly from3 it’s Western source to the4 Southern boundary of the sd territory of Louisiana.
Stoddert. June 3.
whites | blacks | |
N. of Missouri & West of Misipi | 1219 | 107 |
between Missouri & Platiné creek dividg. St. Louis & Genevieve | 2519. | 560 |
Ste. Genevieve. from Platiné cr. to Apple creek | 1978. | 520. |
Cape Girardeau & New Madrid. from Apple cr. to Little Prairie | 2000. | 300. |
Arkansas & 45. miles up it. | 160. | 12. |
7876 | 1497 | |
9373. |
1. the District of St. Louis extends from the Missouri to Platiné creek
2. that of Ste. Genevieve from Platiné cr. to Apple creek
3. that of Cape Girardeau from Apple creek to the great bend of Mispi next5 abve. Madrid
4. that of New Madrid from to Little Prairie
all of these are bounded Westwardly by the river St. Francis
which | at Ste. Genevieve is | 50. miles distant |
at Cape Girardeau | 30. | |
at New Madrid | 24. |
from Platine creek to the mouth of St. Francis is 370. miles
1. All that portion of Louisiana lying North of the river Missouri, shall constitute one district by the name of the District of St. Charles
2. all that portion6 which heretofore constituted the district of St. Louis7 shall be one district by the name of the dist. of St. Louis
3. all that portion which heretofore constd. the distr of Ste. Genevieve8 shall be one district by the name of the distr. of Ste. Genevieve
4. all that portion which heretofore constd. the dist. of Cape Girardeau9 shall be one distr. by the name of the distr. of Cape Girardeau
5. all that portion which heretofore constd. the distr. of New Madrid and that lying Westward, & Southward thereof to 33.° of latitude shall be one district by the name of the distr. of New Madrid.
& all the residue of sd country shall be divided by lines running due West from the Western termination of the present lines dividing the sd districts and each division thereof so formed shall be annexed to & make part of the district to which it is adjacent
MS (DLC: TJ Papers, 137:23686); entirely in TJ’s hand on a clipped address leaf with remnant text in an unidentified hand.
TJ compiled these notes on both sides of a single sheet of paper. The work was clearly done in several different sittings as information became available to him. Statistics for St. Andrews and other communities in upper Louisiana match census data from 1799, which Daniel Clark sent to Madison in August 1803. TJ chose to replicate only the figures Clark supplied for the white population of each locality, although Clark’s data also included population totals for free blacks, slaves, and “free mulattoes” (DNA: RG 59, TP, Orleans; Madison, Papers, Sec. of State Ser., 5:317-18; Vol. 41:258n). The source for updated population figures along the right margin of that section of the notes is less certain. The population total of 7,000, however, matches the total for upper Louisiana that appeared in an issue of the New Orleans Moniteur de la Louisiane. Although the issue in question is no longer extant, a transcription of an article entitled “Population de la Louisiane” ended up in TJ’s papers. The article listed population totals for all the major territorial divisions, as defined by the Spanish, for lower Louisiana. The Moniteur did not specify totals for most individual localities in upper Louisiana, but did add New Madrid’s 1802 population of 1,500 to an 1803 estimate of 5,500 persons living in the communities north of New Madrid (MS in DLC: TJ Papers, 146:25365-6; in a clerk’s hand; endorsed by TJ: “Moniteur de la Louisiane. 1804. Apr. 7.” and “Louisiana. population”).
Those figures, as well as TJ’s first effort to delineate district boundaries for upper Louisiana, all of which he entered on the recto of the sheet, clearly predate the information that Amos Stoddard (Stoddert) sent Dearborn in a letter of 3 June 1804. Stoddard’s population totals and geographic divisions match the information that TJ entered on the verso and appear to have encouraged the president to revise the districts he had previously worked out. On 14 July, he informed William Henry Harrison of his determination to divide Louisiana District into five districts, which roughly conformed to those established under Spanish governance. Stoddard had separately advised Harrison on a different districting plan, which would have combined the St. Louis and St. Charles districts and created a new district for Arkansas. Harrison advised the president to adopt this plan in his letter of 24 June, but TJ did not receive that letter until 28 July and did not change his instructions (Glimpses of the Past, 2 [1935], 104-10; William E. Foley, The Genesis of Missouri: From Wilderness Outpost to Statehood [Columbia, Mo., 1989], 84; Vol. 43:640-2).
1. Written perpendicular to “1559” at top right margin.
2. TJ overwrote this figure in recalculating the total, and rewrote the numbers for clarity.
3. TJ first wrote “the parallel of Latitude of” before altering the phrase to read as above.
4. TJ here canceled “33d degr.”
5. Word interlined.
6. Here and at this place in the descriptions of the other districts below, TJ canceled “of Louisiana.”
7. TJ here interlined and then canceled “and that which lies Westward from that district thereof & Northward to the Missipi.”
8. TJ here interlined and canceled “and that which lies Westward thereof.”
9. TJ here interlined and canceled “and that which lies Westward thereof.”