Abduction"
The
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THE " REY ABDUCTION." A CELEBRATED LOUISIANA CASE OF 1849. BY WM. C. DUFOUR.
Л RESEARCH of the records of the courts •^*- of Louisiana, and of New Orleans in particular, would no doubt reveal many a bit of interesting history in connection with the famous legal battles that have been waged within her boundaries in the days of Roselius, Soule, and their colleagues, when by reason of the profound intellect and bril liancy of its erstwhile members, the Bar of Louisiana stood,without a superior in this or any other country. Indeed, the juris prudence of Louisiana, from the date of her settlement to the present, has been wellnigh an unbroken link of celebrated con tests, interspersed at frequent intervals with some famous cause which has been watched and followed with interest by not only the legal fraternity, but by the entire coun try. A short sketch, therefore, of one of the most famous of these cases, known as the " Rey abduction," and one which almost resulted in a difficulty with Spain, might be of interest at this period, when the particu lars are but indistinctly remembered, even by the oldest inhabitants. It was in the summer of 1849 that quite a ripple of excitement was caused by the announcement that Don Carlos de Espana, Spanish consul at the port of New Orleans, had been arrested on a charge of being implicated in the kidnapping of one Jean Francisco Rey, alias Garcia, a Cuban refugee. Though now a common thing, at that period the arrest of the commercial agent of a foreign government, the real status of a consul, was a proceeding undreamt of by the American people; and consequently the arrest, coupled with the announcement that no effort would be spared by Cuban sympa thizers to secure the meting out of the
proper punishment to the guilty parties, could not but cause a ripple in public opin ion, and provoke much discussion as to its final outcome. New Orleans immediately became the cynosure of all eyes, and every move in the famous legal battle was watched and studied. Rey's crime against the dignity of Spain consisted in the betrayal of a trust reposed in him > as a keeper of the Presidio at a time when the revolutionary agitation which terminated in the Lopez invasion was in its infancy. It appears that one Vincent Fernandez had been convicted of fraudulent bankruptcy, and had been sentenced to a term at hard labor in the Presidio, which is the Cuban penitentiary. In company with Fernandez were two Cubans who had been sentenced to death for certain utterances deemed rev olutionary. It was for them that Rey betrayed his trust. Late one night a small boat hovered around the prison. At a given signal it made its way to a side entrance, from which four men emerged, — Fernandez, the Cubans, and Rey, who, fearing the ven geance of his superiors, sought safety in flight. The party succeeded in reaching the Florida coast, and then separated, Rey com ing to New Orleans. Shortly after his arrival he became ill and was confined to his bed in one of the small lodging-houses with which the lower portion of the city abounded. While in that condition his identity became known. Information was immediately forwarded to the Spanish authorities, who in turn forwarded instruc tions to their representative that he should be retaken and reconveyed to the port of Havana, coute que coute. The unfortunate man's place of shelter was soon discovered,
