The Pirates Laffite

by William C. Davis

  While he had not done business with the Laffites, and apparently had no acquaintance with them, Livingston had defended some of the privateer community in court in the past, and the Laffites must have known him by reputation.85 He was witty, urbane, highly cultured, fluent in French, and married to the sister of Auguste Davezac, refugee from San Domingue and a member of the committee.86 Moreover, perhaps thanks to Blanque, word of Livingston's agency on their behalf at the supposedly confidential committee meetings filtered back to the German Coast by the end of September. At some point after their flight, the brothers took refuge on the plantation of one of the LaBranche brothers, Alexandre or Jean Baptiste, on the left or east bank of the Mississippi. This put them within twenty land miles of the city, close enough to communicate with friends, yet in an area the authorities were unlikely to search.87 Word of Livingston's advocacy was the first good news to reach the brothers since Pierre's escape, and Jean wasted no time in sending his thanks. "I have found out directly about your good intentions for me," he wrote to Livingston on October 4. "I find no expressions to explain how touched I was." Passing into the flattery that he almost always used with people in prominent positions, he averred that if his already lofty opinion of Livingston were capable of increase, "then certainly it would have overflowed after the solicitude you have shown for me in the committee sessions over which you preside."

  Laffite went on to claim that Livingston was "all my hope in my unhappy position," and prayed that he would continue to speak in the brothers' behalf. "There is only you to pull me out of the trouble where I am." Livingston had done much already, not only arguing in favor of pardoning the Baratarians in exchange for their enlistment, but also directly challenging the basis for the brothers' indictments. More was required, but Laffite expressed confidence that Livingston would stay the course and "that you will be my liberator." Indeed, Jean seemed to believe that Livingston's efforts were the only reason that the brothers had not been further pursued into the German Coast, for his informant on the committee had alerted him that some attempt would have been made but for the committee's intercession. This may or may not have been the case, but what was important was that Laffite believed it. He counted on Livingston to counsel him on his future actions, pending the decisions of the committee and the other authorities. Should some arrangement be proposed that was agreeable to them, he enjoined Livingston to make him immediately aware of his obligations in the bargain. Laffite closed by reiterating his trust in the committee chair, declaring "it is this degree of confidence that has made me more secure in my opinion concerning my present safety."88

  Interestingly, in his letter Jean Laffite spoke only in the first person and of himself, making no mention of Pierre or the dispersed Baratarians. Of course, in speaking of his own safety, Jean naturally spoke for Pierre, since they faced the same indictments for piracy. His establishment being broken up, Jean could no longer presume to represent the smugglers. However, he and Livingston knew that many if not most would continue to take their lead from the Laffites, and that any deal made by the brothers would likely be embraced by their followers under arrest by Patterson or under indictments of their own. It was the best these men could hope for.

  In the weeks following Jean's letter, a flurry of piracy indictments came out of the district court. It began on October n with a presentment against Manuel Joachim. A week later came charges against merchant Henri de St. Géme, followed on October 19 by presentments against Jacques Cannon, René Roland, and Alexander St. Helme, all men captured at Barataria.89 The grand jury called for indictments of the bigger fish on October, starting with Lafon for taking two Spanish vessels. It charged Alexander Bonnival as well, and then addressed the biggest name from those taken at Barataria, Captain Dominique, "alias Frederique Youx."90 None of these presentments mentioned specific dates or vessels, but were general, counting on testimony to fill in the blanks after indictment. The case against Dominique, however, came with testimony averring $6,000 worth of goods taken by him, and stating that no prizes were taken to Cartagena, and that neither Dominique nor any of the other captains ever displayed commissions from Cartagena, France, or any other nation. Andrew Whiteman was heard from yet again, as well as a deponent who explained how the privateers changed the names of their vessels, sometimes after every cruise, to confound later efforts to recover prize goods and ships in the district court.91 The grand jury was systematically building a case to penetrate the workings of the Baratarian establishment, and to make its indictments foolproof.

  All told, eleven indictments came down by October 29. Patterson turned over to the court the papers captured at Barataria, and based on them the grand jury began issuing presentments against several city merchants, too. The merchants turned primarily to Livingston for their defense, knowing him to be against Claiborne's and Judge Hall's rigid enforcement of the revenue and embargo laws.92 Then, as if to demonstrate how wide a net it intended to cast, the grand jury struck at the filibusters in the community with a piracy indictment against Toledo for his work against the Spaniards. He was arrested on November n.93

  None of this boded well for the Laffites, but apparently they left the issue in Livingston's hands.94 Meanwhile Claiborne's warnings to both Jackson and Secretary of War James Monroe that a permanent naval force would be necessary to keep Barataria clear proved correct.95 Soon after Patterson left Grand Isle, and despite the soldiers Ross left there as a guard, many of the smugglers returned, while the privateers merely shifted their operation to Cat Island.96 Ten days earlier Patterson had sent Lieutenant Thomas Jones with three gunboats and a schooner to drive the smugglers away and take their leaders if possible. Jones reached Grand Isle on October 17, and took charge of the General Bolivar, which had been left behind with the military guard. The next day he sighted Cat Island, and thereafter spent some time searching the islands in the vicinity, finding only the litter remaining from the recent landing of the two prizes, including the remains of the vessels themselves. He concluded that the area had not been "much frequented by Lafitte s parties for a length of time past," and so returned to Grand Isle and then to Chenier Caminada. On the morrow he came upon Gambi and several others who had escaped Patterson's raid, and they quickly disappeared up the Lafourche with the aid of friends.97 Patterson resolved to continue sending unannounced sorties after the fugitives attempting to land prizes until they ceased. Toward that end, he proposed that the navy buy three of the vessels he took at Barataria and with them augment his squadron. The Gulf was full of armed privateers under Cartagenan colors who plundered vessels of every nation, and he suspected most of them were connected to the Baratarians. Meanwhile their confederates in and around New Orleans intercepted at least one of his letter bags, and he felt it prudent not to send another until he secured his mail route. 98

  Word from local residents suggested that the Laffites and some of their captains were now in the Lafourche country.99 Apparently after first withdrawing to the German Coast, Pierre at least used the brothers' old smuggling route from Napoleonville on the Lafourche to pass through the Attakapas canal and Lake Verret down to the hamlet of Brashear City near the mouth of Bayou Teche where it flowed into Berwick Bay. There he stayed in an inn for a time, protected by associates. A traveler to whom the Laffites had once done a good service chanced to meet him there, and was forcefully impressed that "he certainly had many good friends." To remain close to both New Orleans and Pierre, Jean stayed near Napoleonville, and from there kept up correspondence with the city via Donaldsonville.100 The situation should have brightened a bit for the Laffites as the content of the correspondence sent to Blanque became more widely known. By October 1 news of the Laffite-Lockyer episode, including Pierre's September 10 offer, reached Senator James Brown in Washington, perhaps before it reached Monroe. In fact, Brown misinterpreted Laffites offer, or Claiborne misstated it, to include volunteering to defend New Orleans.101

  Yet Patterson apparently still did not know of Pierre's "stray sheep" letter to Claibor
ne as of October 10, for in sending Washington copies of the Nicholls and Percy materials, along with Jean's September 4 letter to Lockyer, the commodore stated that this was the whole of the documentation in the matter. Claiborne had already sent copies to the State Department, but again without the September 10 offer from Pierre. Singing his own praises a bit, Patterson declared that "this correspondence shews the importance of the expedition, and the important [elements] of force we have prevented the enemy's receiving by their proposed alliance with the Pirates." 102 The day after Patterson wrote his report, news of the episode appeared in the city press, and again no mention was made of the Laffite offer of service in return for pardon. Rather, the report stopped at Jean's request for "fifteen days to decide the subject of adhesion" to the British.103

  Someone was withholding the important September 10 letter, though if Blanque and Livingston knew of the missive, it is strange they did not make it public. The likely reason is that the Laffites' offer was caught up in the contest for control going on between the governor and Livingston. Both also vied for the favor of General Jackson. Livingston clearly identified himself and his Committee of Public Safety with the Laffite offer, and Claiborne was not about to abet anything coming from that quarter. Livingston was trying, so far unsuccessfully, to gain a position as a volunteer aide on Jackson's staff. Claiborne concentrated on posing the perilous state of the city's defenses. The general's initial reaction to news of the Lockyer visit was to send a proclamation on September 21, exhorting Louisianans to their defense, and condemning the British for seeking an alliance with "pirates and robbers." It did not reach New Orleans until October 15.

  Just when Claiborne informed Jackson of Pierre's September 10 offer, if he ever did, is unclear, but the general's opinion of those he called "hellish Banditti" remained unchanged for weeks.104 In fact, he wrote to the governor on the last day of the month, long after he should have been made aware of the letter, scolding Claiborne for not taking action against "those wretches, the refugees from Barataria and its dependencies." He said he was shocked that the refugees from Patterson's raid "should even be permitted to remain in [New Orleans], without being strictly scrutinized under your existing vagrancy laws." He warned Claiborne to arrest them immediately, for the city was at risk of being "reduced to ashes by these incendiaries." 105

  A chastened Claiborne did not write to Jackson again for more than two weeks, until he informed the general on October 17 that the Baratarians had resumed smuggling at Cat Island, which worked against the Laffites and Livingston. The governor told Jackson at the end of the month that he was sending one hundred state militia to the pass at Grand Isle, both to watch for the British and to keep an eye on the smugglers and prevent them from assembling.106 Meanwhile the court continued to publish in the city press the announcement of the reward for Pierre's recapture, and would do so until the end of November.

  By mid-October Livingston changed his approach. Early that month he sent the general several bottles of what he called "Claret of Barataria," probably spoils of Patterson's raid, but possibly a more direct gift from the Laffites now that he and Jean were in communication.107 Thereafter he probably continued to try to soften Jackson's attitude toward the Laffites and their one-time followers. He was in frequent conference with Dominique and others in the city jail who appealed to him to get them out on terms of military service. Then came the flurry of piracy presentments and indictments.

  Perhaps it was more than coincidence that on the day of Dominique's indictment, October 24, Livingston bypassed Jackson and wrote directly to President James Madison. "A number of privateers, first sailing under the French, afterwards under the Carthaginian flag, have for four years past brought their prizes to the Bay of Barataria in this State," he told the chief executive, as if Madison did not already know. Without naming Claiborne, he went on to say that the local government had neglected its obligation to deal with the smugglers, with the result that "they became bold from impunity." Patterson and Ross had destroyed the establishment now, with many of the prisoners in the city jail and their business associates in the city exposed by the captured documents, but "the number of them as well as their influence is great." New Orleans was a city badly divided ethnically and socially, and even Claiborne feared that the citizens might not unite in its defense. Livingston suggested to Madison that a general pardon extended to all the Baratarians would "quiet the public mind." Moreover, making service in arms a condition of pardon would add as many as five hundred sailors to the city's defense. He went so far as to suggest that most of the miscreants were not knowingly pirates, but had "embraced that kind of life more from an idea that their commissions were good than from any piratical design." Knowing of the privateers' experience against Spanish shipping, he also dropped the hint that if the United States and Spain went to war, the Baratarians "will be of the greatest service." 108

  Less than a week later, Claiborne followed Livingston's approach to Madison with his own to Attorney General Richard Rush. Claiborne granted that Barataria should have been taken sooner, as familiarity "led the people here to view their course as less vicious." He had struggled to convince the people that smuggling was an evil, but with scant success. Now Claiborne expected Judge Hall to bring many of the Baratarians to trial. "Justice demands that the most culpable be punished with severity," he averred, but acknowledging the same social dynamics that Livingston cited to Madison, Claiborne proposed that Grymes be instructed to select a few of the most flagrant offenders for prosecution and free the rest. "It will have a salutary effect on the community," he promised.109

  Though each acted for his own ends against the other, Claiborne and Livingston had unwittingly cooperated in suggesting amnesty for some or all of the Baratarians. Meanwhile, in mid-October Claiborne gave the local press a "true copy from the original in my possession," of Nicholls's August 31 letter to Laffite, along with Percy's proclamation and his letter to Laffite. Still, he withheld Laffites September 10 letter, likely knowing the reaction it might spark in the community. 110 By early November the documents appeared in newspapers as far east as Baltimore.111 In the circumstances, clemency seemed a wise course to the president, and in late November or early December he told Rush to pass this preference along to Claiborne.

  Jackson finally arrived in New Orleans on December 1, after a long time of uncertainty for the American cause. The war had not gone well for the United States from its outbreak, punctuated on August 24 when the British took Washington and burned the capitol. Now the enemy planned to take the Mississippi Valley and its cornerstone, New Orleans. On September 18, while the fires on Grand Isle still smoldered, threescore warships left England bound for the Caribbean, and on November 26 they departed Jamaica for the Gulf. The armada mounted more than one thousand cannon and carried some eight thousand experienced soldiers, many of them veterans of victories over Napoleon. Its goal was first the taking of Mobile, and then Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

  At Mobile, Jackson assembled a force sufficient to turn back Admiral Percy on September 12 when he made an attempt to take the city in advance of the armada's arrival. Jackson followed his victory by marching on Spanish Pensacola, which the British fleet had used as a base, and occupied the town on November 8. Jackson then returned to Mobile, not knowing that his small twin victories had shifted British plans. Now the armada would go after New Orleans first. Jackson remained in Mobile only three days after his November 19 arrival, however, before receiving intelligence of the new strategy from Secretary of War Monroe. It took the general some time to disabuse himself of his conviction that Mobile was the danger point, but on November 22 he left for the Mississippi, rallying forces and making his plans as he rode.

  The Laffites and their "hellish banditti" were hardly on Jackson's mind in these early days in New Orleans. After he made his headquarters on Royal Street, the general conferred with Claiborne and the Committee of Public Safety and then addressed the public from a balcony, Livingston ingratiating himself by acting as t
ranslator for the largely French-speaking audience. Jackson and Livingston were old friends, and that plus the lawyer's obvious influence in the city's American and French communities was enough to persuade the general to appoint Livingston to his staff at last. This done, Jackson began acquainting himself with the city's defenses and the land and water approaches the British might use. The day after his arrival he reviewed some local volunteers and then went on an inspection tour to Fort St. Philip, accompanied by another new appointment to his staff, Arsene Latour. For the next week Jackson feverishly directed construction of earthworks and batteries.

  Jackson made it clear that he was his own man, neither welcoming persuasion nor giving in to it. After two weeks in New Orleans, he apparently gave no notice to the Laffite question, though now he had two Laffite proponents on his staff. Civic officials and private citizens added their voices to the committee's urgings to take advantage of Pierre's "stray sheep" offer, but Jackson did not budge. On December 13 Major General Villere of the militia visited Jackson and pled with him to accept the Baratarians into service to man Patterson's understrength warships and help crew the army's land batteries. Villere left disappointed, but he may have perceived some weakening in the general's resolve and communicated it to the committee. The next day Bernard de Marigny de Mandeville and the committee called on a harried Jackson at his headquarters. Davezac was there, too, and probably Livingston. Still Jackson remained immovable, pointing out that Dominique and many others were in prison under civil prosecution, while many more faced prosecutions in the parish courts. He had neither the inclination nor the authority to interfere with civil officers, and he did not have to add that it hardly served his purpose to enlist men who might be yanked from the ranks at a moment's notice by a summons or a jury verdict.