CHAP. XXV1I.J HOUSES OF LEGISLATURE. 99 



discussion was going on as to the propriety of changing the seat 

 of government from New Orleans to some other place in Louisi 

 ana, for it had been determined, though by a majority of one 

 only, in a convention appointed for that purpose, that they should 

 go somewhere else, to a place at least sixty miles distant from 

 the metropolis. I remarked, that the accessibility of New Or 

 leans was so great, and so many must be drawn to it by business, 

 that the determination to seek out a new site for a capital, seemed 

 to me incomprehensible. &quot; You will wonder still more,&quot; he re 

 plied, &quot; when I tell you, that when the convention had been some 

 time at Baton Rouge to frame the new constitution, they thought 

 it advisable to adjourn to New Orleans, where they could consult 

 with lawyers who were attending the courts, and with the prin 

 cipal merchants, and where they might have access to good libra 

 ries, and be in daily communication by steam with all parts of 

 the state. In short, they found that for the faithful discharge of 

 their task, they stood in need of a great variety of information 

 which they could obtain nowhere so readily as in the metropolis. 

 Yet it seems never to have struck them that our future law 

 makers might, with equal profit to the state, derive knowledge 

 from the same sources.&quot; 



In the House of Representatives, English is spoken exclusively, 

 but in the Senate many were addressing the House in French, 

 and when they sat down an interpreter rose and repeated the 

 whole speech over again in English. An orator was on his legs, 

 maintaining that Baton Rouge had the best claims to become the 

 future capital, a proposition soon afterward adopted by the major 

 ity. Another contended that Donaldson ville ought to be the 

 place, as it would suit the convenience of 26,000 white male 

 citizens, while Baton Rouge would only favor the interest of 

 12,000. This line of argument seemed to me to contain in it 

 an implied censure on the abandonment of New Orleans, but 

 that was no longer an open question. When I afterward saw 

 the insignificant village of Donaldsonville, I could not help being 

 diverted at the recollection of the inflated terms in which its 

 future prospects had been dwelt upon. The speaker said, &quot;He 

 liked to lift the vail off the face of futurity and contemplate the 



