7^^ P 296 , .T45 Copy 1 French Settlement of the Southwest. — Hamilton. 163 Here of Fort Louis de la Mobile by Pierre LeMoyne Sieur d'Iberville and Jean Baptiste LeMoyne Sieur de Bienville." At night, in Mobile, a large audience assembled in Tem- perance Hall to listen to a varied musical and literary pro- gram, including an essay by Miss Adele Batre, herself of French extraction, graphically describing the life of the colonial French woman. There was also read a prize poem written by Miss Annie L. Shillito, a seventeen year old girl in Merton Academy, the largest of Mobile's public schools. She was the successful competitor for the purse of twenty- five dollars offered for a metrical commemoration of the occasion. AN EARLY DECISION ON IMPERIALISM.^ By David Y. Thomas. Not every layman knows that the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the thirty-first degree of north latitude eastward to the Perdido River was claimed by the United States as a part of the Louisiana Purchase, but was actually acquired by conquest, or, to put it more mildly, by "occupation" upon the lapse of the sovereignty of Spain. The westernmost part was secured in this way in 1810, when the inhabitants declared their independence, raised their own flag, and asked to be taken into the fold of the Union. May 14, 1812, Congress passed an act de- claring that Mobile and its environs, then in the possession of Spain, should be regarded as a part of the Mississippi Territory, should be entitled to a representative in the leg- islature of said Territory, and subject to the laws of the United States. A little more than a month before this the embargo act, forbidding American vessels to land goods at foreign ports, had been passed and was still in force. Now, it so hap- pened that the schooner Maria, which had sailed from New Orleans, touched at Mobile, May 15, and then came on to Fort Stoddart, where she was seized for violating the em- bargo. Only one part of the defence — that the embargo had not been violated, since Mobile was a domestic port, though the act of Congress so declaring it was, of course, not known at the time of the alleged violation — concerns us here. The question to be decided, said Judge Toulmin, of the Mississippi Territory, vested with the powers of a judge of ^ U. S. vs. Schooner Maria, Nile's Weekly Register, Vol. III., 181 ff. 1 An Early Decision on Imperialism. — Thomas. 165 the United States, was whether Mobile was a foreign place on May 15, or was to all intents and purposes an append- age of the United States. On a mere perusal of the law it did not seem possible for such a question to arise, but the case was complicated by the fact that a foreign govern- ment claimed and exercised jurisdiction over said port. "The question then is, what constitutes a country foreign or domestic? "If it be nothing but occupancy by military force, no part of the district added by Congress to the Mississippi territory, but the sand hills of the pass of Christianne, is comprehended within the hmits of the American republic. If it be the exercise of jurisdiction, then the limits of our territory will vary with the times, and the energy of Amer- ican magistrates, or the vigor of conflicting authorities, will alone describe our national boundaries. If it be the exercise of the constituent privilege, in electing members to the representative assembly, it will then depend on the fears and hopes — upon the timidity and courage — upon the slavish submission or manly independence of private individuals. "But if it be the law, then have we a plain and definite Hne of demarkation. The national will is the basis of our pretensions ; and the national energies are the guarantee of their integrity." The Judge then recited that his situation was perplex- ing and painful, since his decision seemed to involve a question of war and peace, a matter more properly resting with other departments of the government. But the ques- tion whether Mobile was a foreign place, though merely involving the fate of a single vessel under a law already expired, depended on general principles which would be continually forced upon our attention, and a more proper time to settle them could not be found. "I must acknowledge that when I find the Congress of the United States declaring that a certain portion of ter- uj.Dr(HKT Ul- mnOKEbb 014 495 376 9 1 66 Southern History Association. ritory described by that body is annexed to the Mississippi territory ; that it shall be governed by the laws thereof, and entitled to a representative in the general assembly; I feel it impossible to say, as an American magistrate, that any part of the territory so described is a foreign country. I know of no better criterion by which to determine the na- tional character of any part of the country, but the supreme law of the land. If the 'judges are bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state of the country not- withstanding' (Con. U. S., Art. VI.), surely they are bound thereby notwithstanding any pretensions set up by an as- semblage of individuals professing allegiance, not to an American state, but to a foreign power. ■"On the whole view of the subject, therefore, I cannot regard any part of the territory lying east of the Pearl river, west of the Perdido, and south of the 31st degree of latitude, as having been a foreign country since the 14th day of May last. — Judgment, therefore, is given in favor of the claimant, and the bond entered into by him is di- rected to be cancelled." This decision was rendered October 19, 1812. Judge Toulmin did not trouble himself with laborious citations, but seems to have thought the Constitution and laws of the United States sufficient authority, and that he should bow with patriotic subserviency to the will of Congress. ^f0 014 495 376 9 •