District of Louisiana - Inhabitants' Concerns

Inhabitants' Concerns

Under the terms of the act establishing the temporary government, the governor and judges of the Indiana Territory were to meet twice a year in St. Louis. However, the settlers west of the Mississippi River complained strongly about the arrangement. Opposition was indicated by:

• Protests of policies not recognizing the previous Spanish land grants (including property belonging to Daniel Boone);
• Objections to policies evicting settlers from land in anticipation of areas to be given to American Indians —who were to be relocated west of the Mississippi River;
• Disapproval over the implementation of common law when the land had been governed previously by civil law;
• Arguments over the introduction of new taxes;
• Dissatisfaction over the lack of provisions for schooling the French speaking majority;
• Heated debate over fears that Northwest Ordinance provisions prohibiting slave ownership would be implemented in areas where slavery had historically been allowed;
• Concerns that the territorial capitol, Vincennes, was more than 180 miles away from district capitol, St. Louis.

Upset citizens of the Louisiana District met in St. Louis in September 1804 to sign a declaration formally protesting the annexation. Among the signers were Auguste Chouteau.

A notable event during this period was the signing of the Treaty of St. Louis, in which the Sac and Fox Indian tribes ceded northeastern Missouri, northern Illinois, and southern Wisconsin to the United States. Resentment over this treaty was to cause the tribes to side with the British during the War of 1812 in raids along the Missouri, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers and was to spur the Black Hawk War in 1832.

On March 3, 1805, Congress enacted legislation organizing the District of Louisiana into the Louisiana Territory, effective July 4, 1805. The territorial government was organized similarly to that of the Indiana Territory.