called upon the mayor to check the license of the stage, but the play was repeated the following year, and called forth another complaint from the mother superior and another appeal from the governor to the mayor.
One cannot but feel that it was a heroic triumph for Governor Claiborne, under the circumstances, to have secured a Fourth of July celebration in 1806. It was most grandiosely observed. All the stores and places of business were closed, salutes were fired from the forts; there was high mass, at the Cathedral, attended by all the civil and military functionaries, in the forenoon; a parade of the militia; in the afternoon, a Te Deum; at night a new and original tragedy, "Washington, or the Liberty of the New World," performed to an enthusiastic audience, and, ending it all, a grand ball.
It was a timely inspiration of patriotism, for during the following autumn the Spaniards and Aaron Burr gave the United States their last flurry of a scare. The cry was that Burr was coming down the river to capture New Orleans, and make it the capital of that separation from the Union for which he, according to public clamour, had been long conspiring. The city was thrown into one of its wild excitements. Old defences were hurriedly patched up, naval and land forces mustered, an embargo was laid upon shipping, and the habeas corpus practically suspended. The crisis proved not only harmless, but beneficial. Out of the tornado of suspicion and distrust that swept over the country, the Creoles of Louisiana came unscathed. Not they, but the Americans, were accused of traitorous designs, and their promptitude in tendering their service to the country called forth a special tribute from the President
