This proposition was
declined, and the bill after a most exciting struggle became a law.
Under its provisions a new council and recorder were chosen, and a new
impetus was given the Faubourg St. Mary, which was now, under this
law, the second municipality. Extensive wharves were erected along the
front of the municipality; streets were paved, and the whole trading
community felt the improvements were assuming gigantic proportions,
and trade relieved of onerous and vexatious impositions. Property rose
in value rapidly; Canal Street grew speedily into importance. The
dry-goods trade, hitherto confined almost exclusively to Chartres
Street, came out upon this magnificent street as rapidly as it could
be accommodated. From an almost deserted suburb, it became the centre
of business and the great boulevard of the city. A company built the
great St. Charles Hotel, and here were first opened hotel
accommodations for ladies in New Orleans, thirty-one years ago.
The commercial crisis of 1837 retarded temporarily the improvements,
but only for a day as it were, and in a few years there was a great
American city, fashioned by American energy and American capital from
the unsightly and miserable mire of the Faubourg St.
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