Pierre-Clément de Laussat

Pierre-Clément de Laussat
Claude Carra de Saint-Cyr
Succeeded by	Pierre Bernard Milius [fr]
2nd Colonial Prefect of Martinique
In office 1804–1809
Monarch	Napoléon I
Preceded by	Charles-Henri Bertin
Succeeded by	Sir George Beckwith British Occupation
1st Colonial Prefect of Louisiana (French First Republic)
In office 1803–1803
Monarchs	Napoléon Bonaparte First Consul of France
Preceded by	Juan Manuel de Salcedo as Spanish Governor of Louisiana
Succeeded by	William C.C. Claiborne as Governor of the Territory of Orleans William Henry Harrison Sr. as Governor of the Louisiana District
Personal details
Born	(1756-11-23)November 23, 1756 Pau, France
Died	April 10, 1835(1835-04-10) (aged 78) Bernadets, France
Spouse	Marie-Anne-Joséphine de Péborde de Pardiès ​ ​ (m. 1790; died 1827)​
Military service
Allegiance	Kingdom of France  French First Republic Kingdom of France
Awards	Order of Saint Louis Chevalier

Pierre-Clément de Laussat (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ klemɑ̃ də losa]; 23 November 1756 – 10 April 1835) was a French politician, and the 24th Colonial Governor of Louisiana, the last under French rule. He later served as colonial official in Martinique and French Guiana, as well as an administrator in France and Antwerp.

Biography

Laussat was born in the town of Pau. After serving as receveur général des finances in Pau and Bayonne from 1784 to 1789,^[1] he was imprisoned during the Terror, but was released and recruited in the armée des Pyrénées. On April 17, 1797, he was elected to the Council of Ancients. After the coup of 18 Brumaire, he entered the Tribunat on December 25, 1798.^[2]

He was appointed by the soon-to-be Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte to be colonial prefect (sort of governor, a high-ranked position in the French administration newly created by Napoleon that still exist to this day) of Louisiana in August 1802 and arrived in the colony on March 26, 1803.^[3] In his procolomation introducing himself and his fellow Republican colonial administrators, Laussat described the transfer of Louisiana from France to Spain as "... one of the most shameful epochs of her [France's] glory, under an already weak and corrupt Government, after an ignominious war and following a withering peace." He praised Bonaparte's desire to regain Louisiana and to see the colony thrive.^[4] Laussat also provided an outline for how the colony would be governed with a captain general overseeing internal and external defense of the colony; a colonial prefect overseeing administration and finances; and a commissary of justice overseeing civil and criminal tribunals.^[5] Two weeks later, Bonaparte made his decision to sell Louisiana to the United States.^[3]

Laussat was initially only to be the interim head of Louisiana until arrival of the Governor General

Laussat envisioned bringing forth a rebirth of a prosperous French La Nouvelle-Orléans; however, not all Louisianans were eager to see Republican France in control of the city. Three-fifths of the Ursaline sisters in New Orleans, along with their mother-superior, decided to abandon the city and head to Havana when the Spanish handed over the city.^[8] Lassat and other French officials were contemptuous towards the Spanish officials in charge of the territory; he contrasted the "Spanish spirit" as senile, corrupt, racially weak and effeminately degenerate with the "austerity, efficiency, and virility" of Bonapartist republicanism.^[9]

Within several months, Laussat heard that Louisiana had been sold to the U.S., but he did not believe it. On July 28, 1803, he wrote to the French government to inquire whether the rumor was true.^[3] On August 18, 1803, he received word from Bonaparte that France had declared war on Great Britain and that he was to transfer Louisiana to the United States.^[10][11]

On November 30, 1803, Laussat served as commissioner of the French government in the retrocession of Louisiana from

On April 21, 1804, Laussat left Louisiana to become colonial prefect of Martinique, serving until 1809 when he was captured and imprisoned by the British.^[12]

In 1810, Laussat returned to France and sought a new governmental posting. He was sent to the

During the Bourbon Restoration, he served as commandant of French Guiana from 1819 to 1823,^[14] during which time he advanced efforts to attract American farmers and settlers to the colony. Laussat had been impressed during his short tenure in Louisiana by the way Americans had settled the trans-Appalachian region and he envisioned a similar settlement plan for a site in the Kourou watershed. Only two small groups arrived to found the short-lived settlement of Laussadelphie.^[15]

In 1823, Laussat retired to his ancestral château in France where he died in 1835.

Personal life

In September 1790, Laussat married Marie-Anne-Joséphine de Péborde de Pardiès (1768–1827), the daughter of Laussat's mentor, Jean-Nicolas de Péborde, seigneur de Cardesse.^[16] They had three daughters — Zoé, Sophie, and Camille — and one son, Lysis Baure Pierre.^[17]

Bibliography

• Laussat, Pierre-Clément de (1831). Mémoires sur ma vie à mon fils: pendant les années 1803 et suivantes, que j'ai rempli des fonctions publiques, savoir à la Louisianne, en qualité de commissaire du gouvernement français pour la reprise de possession de cette colonie et pour sa remise aux Etats-Unis; à la Martinique, comme préfet colonial; à la Guyane française, en qualité de commandant et administrateur pour le roi [Memoirs on my Life to My Son During the Years 1803 and following, that I Filled Public Office in Louisiana, as Commissioner of the French Government for the Repossession of This Colony and for Surrender to the United States; in Martinique, as Colonial Prefect; and in French Guiana, as Commander and Administrator for the King] (in French). Pau, France: É. Vignancour, Imprimeur - Libaire. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
• Laussat, Pierre Clement de (1978). Bush, Robert D. (ed.). Memoirs of My Life: Beyond the Bayou. Translated by Pastwa, Agnes-Josephine. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: LSU Press.
  ISBN 978-0-8071-2870-1
  . Retrieved 2 November 2018.
• Laussat, Pierre-Clément de (1989). Lebel, Maurice (ed.). Louisiana, Napoleon and the United States: An Autobiography of Pierre-Clément de Laussat, 1756-1835. Translated by Pastwa, Agnes-Josephine. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America.
  ISBN 978-0-8191-7448-2
  . Retrieved 2 November 2018.
• Kuka, Jon; Rosal, Angelita; Lemmon, Alfred Emmette, eds. (1993). A Guide to the Papers of Pierre Clément Laussat: Napoleon's Prefect for the Colony of Louisiana and of General Claude Perrin Victor at the Historic New Orleans Collection. New Orleans, Louisiana: The Historic New Orleans Collection.
  ISBN 978-0-917860-33-1
  . Retrieved 2 November 2018.