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Charles Gayarré | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Secretary of State of Louisiana | |
| In office 1845–1853 | |
| Governor | Alexandre Mouton Isaac Johnson Joseph M. Walker |
| Preceded by | Zenon Ledoux |
| Succeeded by | Andrew S. Herron |
| Member of theLouisiana House of Representatives | |
| In office 1856–1857 | |
| In office 1844–1846 | |
| In office 1830–1831 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1805-01-09)January 9, 1805 New Orleans,Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | February 11, 1895(1895-02-11) (aged 90) New Orleans,Louisiana, U.S. |
| Political party | Jacksonian(1834–1844) Democratic(1844–1895) |
| Spouse | Sarah Sullivan |
| Children | 1 |
| Education | College d'Orléans |
| Signature |  |
Charles-Étienne Arthur Gayarré (January 9, 1805 – February 11, 1895) was an American historian,attorney, and politician born to a Spanish andFrench Creole planter family inNew Orleans,Louisiana.[1][2]
Gayarré composed plays, essays, and novels. He also wrote histories of Louisiana and penned an exposé of U.S. Army generalJames Wilkinson, whom he outed as a Spanish spy in 1854.[3]
The grandson ofÉtienne de Boré, New Orlean's first mayor who introduced cultivation of indigo and sugarcane to the area, Charles Gayarré was born at the Boré plantation, which was then outside the city limits of New Orleans. (It has long been incorporated into the city asAudubon Park.) His paternal grandfather, Don Esteban de Gayarré, arrived in the area with Spanish GovernorAntonio de Ulloa after France ceded it to Spain, and had been comptroller of the province of Louisiana. His other maternal grandfather was the former colonial treasurer under the French and master ofDestrehan Plantation, which was involved in a suppressedslave revolt when Charles was a boy. After studying at theCollege d'Orléans Gayarré began in 1826 legal studies inPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania.
On January 28, 1856, Gayarré married Sarah Anne (Shadie) Sullivan (1820–1914) inLowndes County, Mississippi. In the 1860 census, he owned about a dozen slaves.[4] His only child was the son of Delphine Le Maitre, a slave in his household when Gayarré was twenty-one years old. The child was also named Charles Gayarré and was baptized in theSt. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans.[5]
In 1825, Gayarré published a pamphlet criticizing changes thatEdward Livingston proposed in the Louisiana Criminal Code, particularly with respect to capital punishment (the fate of nearly 100 recaptured slaves during the1811 German Coast revolt when he was a child).[3] He then traveled to Philadelphia for his legal studies, and was admitted to the Pennsylvaniabar in 1829.
In 1830, upon returning to New Orleans, Gayarré was elected a member of theLouisiana House of Representatives, and the leadership asked him to draft an address complimenting the French legislators during theRevolution of 1830. In 1831, after admission to the Louisiana bar, Gayarré became his state's DeputyAttorney General. In 1833, he became presiding judge of the city court of New Orleans. In 1834, he was elected as aJackson Democrat to theUnited States Senate. However, he resigned, citing health reasons, before taking his seat. For the next eight years, Gayarré traveled in Europe and collected historical material from France and Spain.[6] Some of the historical documents that he used were written by his ancestor, Esteban de Gayarré.
In 1844–1845 and in 1856–1857, he again served as aDemocratic Party member of the state House of Representatives, and, from 1845 to 1853, was the appointedSecretary of State of Louisiana.[6] In 1853, he failed to win election to the U.S. Congress as an Independent, but he remained active in Louisiana politics as an ally ofJohn Slidell in the "Regular Democratic" movement.
Gayarré became a member of the LouisianaKnow Nothing Party from 1853 to 1855. He joined the party despite him being Catholic, and left the party because they were anti-Catholic.[7]
In 1854, following extensive research of theSpanish government archives inMadrid, Gayarré exposed U.S. Army generalJames Wilkinson as having been "Agent 13", a highly paid spy in the service of theSpanish Empire from 1787 until his death in 1825.
Gayarré lost his fortune of $400,000[8] by supporting theConfederacy during theCivil War.[citation needed] In 1863 Gayarré proposed that slaves be emancipated and armed, provided that France and England recognized the Confederacy (no foreign country recognized it).
After the war, Gayarré published his three-volume History of Louisiana (with an introduction byGeorge Bancroft) and a biography ofPhilip II of Spain, but was never elected to any office. He became a reporter of decisions for theLouisiana Supreme Court, but he lived chiefly by his pen. He had a long-standing association with theLouisiana Historical Society, of which he was the unpaid President from 1860 to 1888,[9] thus working with former Confederate PresidentJefferson Davis after his release from federal custody.
Gayarré wroteHistoire de la Louisiane (1847);Romance of the History of Louisiana (1848);Louisiana: its Colonial History and Romance (1851), reprinted inA History of Louisiana;History of Louisiana: the Spanish Domination (1854);Philip II of Spain (1866); andA History of Louisiana (4 volumes, 1866), the last collecting and adding to his earlier works in this field. The whole covered the history of Louisiana from its earliest discovery by Europeans to 1861. He wrote also several dramas andromances, includingFernando de Lemos (1872).[6]
Gayarré died in New Orleans on February 11, 1895, survived by his widow, and is buried at St. Louis Cemetery in New Orleans.
In French:
In English:
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gayarré, Charles Étienne Arthur".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 542.
Media related toCharles Gayarré at Wikimedia Commons Works by or aboutCharles Gayarré atWikisource| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Secretary of State of Louisiana 1845–1853 | Succeeded by |
