[32] The French civil law still prevails in Louisiana.
For a good monograph on the Ordinance of 1787, and the text of the same, see Jay Amos Barrett, Evolution of the Ordinance of 1787, with an Account of the earlie Plans for the Government of the Northwest Territory (New York, 1891).—Ed.
[33] Under the feudal régime in France, the local or customary laws of the more important centres of population came gradually to extend their sway over larger and larger districts. With the rising importance of Paris, the coutume de Paris (common law of Paris), reformed in 1580 by order of the parliament, in time displaced all others; it breathed the national spirit. Codified, it was in a sense the forerunner of the Code Napoleon.—Ed.
[34] Breckenridge—to whom the author is indebted for other facts relative to these early settlements.—Flagg.
Comment by Ed. Henry Marie Brackenridge (not Breckenridge), Views of Louisiana (Pittsburgh, 1814).
[35] Sganarelle.—Flagg.
Comment by Ed. Sganarelle is a character in Molière's plays, notably in "Le Médicin malgré lui."
[36] A land-office was established at Kaskaskia by act of Congress approved March 26, 1804, "for so much of the lands included within the boundaries fixed by the treaty of the thirteenth of August, one thousand eight hundred and three, with the Kaskaskia tribe of Indians, as is not claimed by any other Indian tribe;" this was discontinued by order of the president, November 12, 1855. The records were transferred to Springfield the following February.—Ed.
[37] During the Indian troubles a fort was erected in 1736 on an eminence, later known as Garrison Hill, opposite Kaskaskia. It was repaired and occupied by a French garrison at the opening of the French and Indian War. In 1766 the fort was burned, but another soon afterward built, was occupied by the English (1772) and named Fort Gage, in honor of the British commander-in-chief. On the night of July 4, 1778, Colonel George Rogers Clark captured the fort and made it his headquarters while in Illinois. It was abandoned at the close of the Revolution, but was re-occupied for a short time by American troops in 1801. Colonel Pike's regiment was stationed there for a short period. See R. G. Thwaites, How George Rogers Clark Won the Northwest (Chicago, 1903).—Ed.
[38] The reader will recollect that these notes were sketched two years ago. Since that time some changes in this old edifice have taken place; the whole southwest angle has fallen to the ground, and, agreeable to the text, the entire roof would have followed but for the extraordinary strength of one solitary piece of timber. High mass was in celebration at the time, and the church was crowded, but no accident occurred. The old building has been since dismantled, however; its bell removed from the tower, and the whole structure will soon, probably, be prostrated by "decay's effacing finger."—Flagg.