The Pirates Laffite
Page 14
Jones concluded that the best means of achieving success would be to make seizures more profitable to inspectors than the bribes they might get, by giving the inspectors a share of what the collector received on behalf of the government when contraband was seized and sold. This procedure had worked on the Canadian frontier. Of course, Dubourg must also encourage district attorney Grymes to prosecute vigorously all cases with sufficient evidence. Jones could not go to the length of authorizing purchase of another revenue cutter, but he did approve the appointment of up to six new temporary inspectors, and if Dubourg wanted he could buy a cutter on his own and take his chances on the government covering the cost.55
It was half a loaf, and not very encouraging at that, but Dubourg took it. He granted temporary appointments as customs inspectors to several men besides Gilbert, though they would work solely for a percentage of the contraband they seized. Foley finally got his appointment on October 17, almost the instant that Dubourg would have learned of the attack on Gilbert.56 John Hughes received a similar appointment soon thereafter. The problem was that Dubourg could hardly know whom to trust. The situation became absurd late in October when Judge Hubbard secured a temporary appointment as a customs inspector on the Lafourche. Gilbert angrily complained that it was well known locally that Hubbard had a "friendship to those villens," and asked his superiors to suspend the appointment. 57 Foley seconded the complaint, reporting that a recent shipment of ship's biscuit that passed through the area for the privateers was transported to Lake Verret by a cart and a slave belonging to Hubbard, "who I believe to be concerned as he has on all occasions been very intimate with the Lafites."58
Gilbert gave the temporary commission to Hubbard, but told him to his face that he knew that Hubbard was close with Dumon and was suspected of dealings with the Laffites. Hubbard pretended outrage and refused to accept the appointment, even complaining to Dubourg. Told of the accusation that he had loaned his cart to Dumon for use in transporting contraband, Hubbard responded indignantly that Dumon was his near neighbor and that Hubbard's overseer had standing orders to loan Dumon anything he needed without asking how it was to be employed. "I have always made it a maxim never to believe more than one half of what the world says," Hubbard protested in denying the rumors. "I disclaim all converse with contrabandists." That said, he went on rather impudently to assert the "me too" defense by commenting that rumor put him in good company, since Claiborne and one of his militia generals were also rumored to be involved with the smugglers.59
In early November Donaldsonville became quieter with the "Cat Island boys" still elsewhere. "I have heard nothing of those people who have infested the vicinity of Lafourche for sometime," John Hughes reported on November 5.60 But they were hardly inactive. On the evening of November 14 Gilbert learned of a large cache of goods on a bayou not far from Donaldsonville, but under a heavy guard. He confessed that unable as he was to enlist help, he could do nothing about it. He did know of a person on the Lafourche who owed the Laffites 51,000 secured by a note in the hands of a third party, and it occurred to him that he could seize the note and hold it as an indemnification to cover a portion of the goods Jean had taken back from Gilbert in October, but it was a paltry gesture in the face of the scale of the smuggling operation. 61
Some believed that Jean Laffite was more than a mere smuggler, and might even be an exiled general from Napoleon's defeated armies.62 They were wrong, of course, but by the end of the year Jean and Pierre presided over an establishment worthy of a general. Having shifted their base from Barataria, they had now built Cat Island into a seemingly formidable position for their trade. Rumor said they had five or six vessels constantly coming and going, which may have been true, though nothing suggests that the Laffites themselves owned or operated more than their squadron of three—La Diligent, the Dorada, and the Petit Milan. Rumor also said their vessels were each crewed by sixty to ninety men and mounted a dozen cannon or more, which in fact only applied to La Diligent. Cat Island received the prizes of other owners and captains, including Dominique, who also took goods up the Lafourche on his way to New Orleans. Contrary to perceptions, Dominique was not an employee of the Laffites, but an independent corsair who sold prize goods to them from time to time.63 Gilbert, understandably prejudiced where the Laffites entered the picture, referred to them and their followers as "this banditti, the most base and daring ever known in any country on Earth." All told, the exaggerated reports that came up the Lafourche to him indicated that there were five hundred to six hundred men on the island with a shore battery of fourteen guns to protect their base, and that the brothers had sunk a prize brig in the main pass into the island to deter deep draft naval warships from getting too close.
"The quantity of goods brought in by this banditti is immense: I have not a doubt but they have entered & secured far more than a million of dollars within this last six months," he told his superiors. Up to five hundred citizens at a time could be found on Cat Island buying from them. "What depravity!—Men in office; Citizens hitherto of undoubted integrity and first respectability, uniting with a piratical band and sharing with them their ill gotten booty." When legal officers did not try to apprehend the smugglers or stop the trade, law-abiding citizens got the wrong message. 64 Even fines of up to three times the value of contraband purchased could not deter the bargain hunters from buying Laffite goods.65 Meanwhile those citizens who objected to smuggling complained that the smugglers had become "the strongest force in Louisiana," as one declared. "Such a nest of pyrates had never been known on the continent."66
Finally other forces came into play. The day after Gilbert learned of the guarded store of contraband, Patterson received orders to relieve the hapless Shaw of command of United States naval forces headquartered at New Orleans.67 Patterson had already sparred with the Laffites once. Moreover, he had the motivation of knowing a proportion of whatever vessels and goods he seized from them would be awarded to him in prize courts. There is no question that the contrabandists had been on his mind before he took his new command, and he made them a priority now. Within days of relieving Shaw, Patterson reported to the secretary of the navy that the smugglers "have now arrived to such a pitch of insolence and confidence from their numbers as to set the revenue laws and force at defence, and should they not be soon destroyed, it will be extremely hazardous for an unarmed vessel even American to approach this coast." He reported Jean Laffites attack on Gilbert, and the damage the corsairs were doing to the local economy. "The honest merchant cannot obtain a livelihood, by his sales while those robbers robe in riches piratically captured on the high seas and brought and sold in face of day in this place," he declared.68 Patterson took over on December 13, 1813, and on inspecting his new post he felt hopeful that he could put down the smugglers. He made it clear to Jones, however, that this could not be done with the men and vessels currently available at New Orleans. The secretary, belatedly responding to Shaw's pleas for faster ships to chase down the privateers, suggested sending in a force of speedy vessels, and Patterson felt encouraged. 69
The governor shared Patterson's indignation and embarrassment. He encountered the sympathetic attitude of the French and Creole people of New Orleans personally when he denounced smugglers as criminals to ladies on social occasions, and they only replied, as he put it, that "that is impossible; for my grandfather, or my father, or my husband, was, under the Spanish government, a great smuggler, and he was always esteemed an honest man."70 Patterson's appointment may have given the governor a renewed incentive to do something. On November 24 Claiborne issued another proclamation. Smuggling had lately increased, he said, and the brazen smugglers no longer tried to conceal their activities, selling their wares in open daylight. He referred to the attack on Gilbert, and for the first time specifically named the chief culprit as Jean Laffite. He now charged state, civil, and military officials to prevent these violations and apprehend those engaged in the smuggling, and issued an order for Laffites arrest. Claiborne warned that t
he apathy of the people could only further disgrace Louisiana, and instructed the people to give no aid to Laffite or his men, but to help arrest them. He offered a $500 reward to anyone delivering Laffite to the sheriff in New Orleans, or any other sheriff in the state.71
Now at last Jean Laffite had a price on his head, even if $500 was not much of a reward given his transgressions, or much of an inducement to his associates to turn him in. Indeed, Jean was in the city when Claiborne issued his proclamation, and any number of associates could have claimed the quick reward—at later risk of their lives, of course. Laffites own response revealed yet again the combination of bravado and impish humor in his personality. That day he hired a printer to produce some handbills of his own that his associates put up in the night. When New Orleans awoke the next morning, citizens saw posted at the Exchange Coffee House and elsewhere a $1,000 reward offered for apprehending Governor Claiborne and delivering him to Cat Island. 72 It was signed simply "Laffite." A memorandum at the bottom of the broadside stated that he was "only jesting & desired that no one would do violence to his Excellency."73
While most citizens saw the humor in it, Gilbert at least took it very seriously. "Le Fitte & Party," as he called them, were dangerous men. He believed that Claiborne was not personally safe. "I firmly believe that the Gov. runs a greater risk of being taken to Cat Island and tried for his life than Le Fitte does of being punished for his crimes in the State of Louisiana," Gilbert moaned. The signs of impending anarchy could hardly be worse than the fact that Governor Claiborne could not count on his own authorities for his protection.74
EIGHT
The Rise of the Filibusters 1814
With these he mingles not but to command;
Few are his words, but keen his eye and hand.
Ne'er seasons he with mirth their jovial mess
But they forgive his silence for success.
THE NEW YEAR brought an escalation both in the complaints against the smuggling and in the Laffites' brazenness and determination to hazard any risk. On the evening of January 14 some thirty or more armed men came into Donaldsonville to move a cargo, and when Walker Gilbert approached them they simply sneered at him. Two days later John Foley reported signs of a major sale approaching. The word was that a cargo of 415 slaves from Guinea had arrived at Cat Island, and that the wealthy sugarcane planters were going down to make their purchases. He knew at least four of the prominent men who had passed his place heading south, and heard also that a cargo of sugar and coffee had come into Lake Verret.1 In New Orleans Spanish consul Diego Morphy knew of that cargo, too, some three hundred barrels of coffee and two hundred boxes of sugar. He sent a warning to the Spaniard in command at Pensacola, cautioning him that every ship coming from there to New Orleans needed to have a precise manifest to prevent smugglers from trying to sneak goods into the city aboard her.2
The reports were right. In fact, the Laffites boldly advertised that they had a cargo of slaves they intended to auction within a few days. Gilbert pleaded to his superior in New Orleans that if he had only fifteen men he could stop the slaves en route.3 Gilbert's and Foley's warnings got the attention of Pierre Dubourg, who was about to succeed to the post of collector of customs for the port of New Orleans, and had already begun some of his duties. He informed Claiborne on January 20, and taking Gilbert at his word, asked for men to help Gilbert halt the proceeding.4 By then, however, events had come to a tragic, and inevitable, collision. In October 1813 Dubourg swore into service as a temporary revenue inspector John B. Stout, an experienced man who came highly recommended by concerned citizens thanks to his recent service as a city constable in New Orleans.5
Dubourg had stationed Stout and a dozen customs officers at the Temple, where they made camp and stood ready to halt traffic of contraband going northward or potential buyers going south. On or about January 16 Stout saw a substantial party of smugglers approaching in pirogues, most likely the same aggressive band that Gilbert met in Donaldsonville a few days earlier. The customs men took to their boats to give chase, but it is unclear who became the prey. Soon the smugglers opened fire. Two customs men went down with wounds, and then a musket ball hit Stout, who was either killed instantly or else drowned when he fell overboard and disappeared.6 The smugglers swarmed the officers and took them prisoner. News of the skirmish reached New Orleans on January 18 or 19, and with it began rumors that the privateers would take the captured officers to Cartagena.7 Within two weeks of the outrage news reached Donaldsonville that the smugglers had the captured men in close confinement, and one of them "sentenced" to ten years' hard labor with a fifty-six-pound weight chained to his leg.8
Surely this would be more than enough to stimulate a definitive response. At the first word of the incident, Governor Claiborne denounced the act, and on January 24 he attributed these "horrible violations of the Laws" to "Lafite &. his associates," adding that "some thing must be done to arrest the progress of these lawless men." Apparently one or more of the customs officers had escaped after recognizing Jean or Pierre in the attacking party, or else smuggling in Louisiana had become so dominated by the Laffites that Claiborne and others now attributed all of it to them. Either way, the Laffites were now wanted not only for smuggling, but possibly for murder. "It is high time that these contrabandists, dispersed throughout the State, should be taught to respect our laws," Dubourg declared. The problem was that General Flournoy did not have enough men available to detach some to deal with the problem, and federal authorities were too distracted with the war. Dubourg suggested to the governor that he order out militia, which Claiborne could do under his own authority. Afraid of the risk of failure, Claiborne prudently submitted the question to the legislature on January 25.
Claiborne confessed hesitance. The militia had failed before in dealing with the smugglers, and he suspected that loyalties to the Baratarians on the part of men in the state service could compromise the effort. "So numerous and bold are the followers of Lafitte, and, I grieve to say it, such is the countenance afforded him by some of our citizens, to me unknown—that all efforts to apprehend this high offender have hitherto been baffled." Nevertheless, "the evil requires a strong corrective," he demanded. "Force must be resorted to. These lawless men can soon be operated on by their fears and the certainty of punishment." The legislature showed even more hesitance than the governor, and simply tabled his appeal.
Which made it all the more irritating that, having consistently escaped the federal criminal court, Pierre Laffite could not stay out of trouble with the petty civil bench. Though he kept out of New Orleans by day to avoid arrest, he transacted business there through his attorney, Louis Morel, who coincidentally lived on the Bayou St. John smuggling route. Now the April 1813 suit that resulted in Pierre's brief arrest resurfaced. In June 1813 the plaintiff had transferred all claims in the suit to prominent Toulouse Street merchant Paul Lanusse, a thirty-year-old civic leader born on the French side of the Pyrenees. When Pierre failed to appear in court, he defaulted on the case, and now Lanusse came to collect. On February 21, 1814, he or a court officer searched the city but could find no known residence of Pierre Laffite, and no Pierre Laffite. 9
Lanusse and three other parties to the claim went to district court and obtained a judgment against Laffite for $9,557.62 for "money robbed by him from them." The judgment allowed them to seize any and all property belonging to Pierre, and a week later, on February 28, he responded in court—no doubt through Morel—with, of all things, a petition for bankruptcy. Being nothing if not brazen, Pierre claimed that he owned "nothing but his industry"—no house, no carriage, no assets in banks—in spite of the common knowledge that he and his brother were acquiring substantial assets. The court issued an order calling his creditors to meet, meanwhile staying execution against Laffite or his property.
Lanusse was not to be put off so easily, for he knew better. "In the fact," said Lanusse, "he is part owner of several armed vessels or privateers and of Ladiligente and he does also possess wit
hin the jurisdiction of your honorable court valuable effects and other moveable property, which he concealed from his creditors." Lanusse and the other parties also protested that since the stay of execution, Pierre had kept himself concealed, and they had strong reasons to fear that he was "about to depart fraudulently and permanently from this state and carry with him his concealed property." Thus they asked for a sequestration order against him and his arrest unless he posted bond of $21,454.62, representing the total amount that Pierre owed his creditors in his bankruptcy declaration.10
The court approved Lanusse's appeal, and on March 9 ordered the sheriff to sequester "all and singular the property of the said Lafitte, wheresoever the said property may be found in the Parish aforesaid," and that Pierre be arrested and held until he posted the security. Not surprisingly, when the sheriff went to serve the orders, he had to report that "after diligent search I have neither been able to find the body of the within named Peter Lafete nor any of the property to him belonging."11 All he could do was leave a copy of the court petition and citation, along with orders to appear or file a response within eight days, "at the ordinary place of residence of the defendant"—meaning that even court officials knew where Pierre was likely to be found when he risked coming to town, just as Flournoy had known to no avail.12 On March 15, the day before the deadline, Morel appeared in court and moved that the court order Pierre's creditors to show cause within ten days why his bankruptcy petition should not be ratified.13 Despite their knowledge of Pierre's deception, Lanusse and his associates could not offer definitive proof of Laffite having property within the jurisdiction of the court, and so the judge granted Pierre bankruptcy. Lanusse would not forget.