'Vannah\r'

' devil hundred and sextet years ago, high officials of two peoples advisedly turned 5,000 square miles of southwestwardwest lah into a safe refuge for bowelless criminals who flocked to it from all oer the young nation. This is how it happened. In 1803, the united States had paid France $15 one cardinal million to abandon its cry to 828,00 square miles of globe in the brand-new the States. It was called the atomic number 57 purchase, that we TLD actually buy the land. America and France twain claimed the land, and e paid France SSL 5 million to abandon its claim, leaving us as sole owners of the land.When the lah Purchase was announced, Spain protested, say France had no right to include a 5,000-square-mile bare of land in what is presently Southwest Louisiana in the Louisiana Purchase. Spain said the land had been found by Spanish exp experiencers and claimed for Spain. We argued that the Louisiana Purchase was write up and we wouldnt try to change It. Spain said I t precious its land. The argument got hotter. When both sides hinted they might spend military machine force to support their claims, lore but not wiser heads stepped in.The cool heads suggested that the dis directe land be set divagation and hold up to nobody until ownership was obstinate by peaceful negotiation. Both America and Spain liked the idea. Thus was born the nonsubjective scavenge. The disputed land being put aside was bound on the west by the Sabine River in einsteinium Texas. It was bound on the East by El Arroyo, the Spanish name for what is in a flash the Calcifies River. It was bound on the South by the Gulf of Mexico, and on the North by the 32nd parallel, which was near Southeast in Red River Parish.The Neutral Strip include all or portions of the present Louisiana parishes of De Sotto, Sabine, Nuthatches, Vernon, Rapider, Beauregard, Allen, Calcifies,Jefferson Davis and Cameron. The rules or the Neutral Strip were simple-minded: I For whatever time it took to peacefully negotiate ownership, the disputed land would belong to nobody. I Nobody would be allowed to conk on the disputed land, which would withal be off-alms or bothone In the military or law enforcement. I Since the Neutral shimmy would have no Inhabitants, thither was no need for laws, ordinances, ales or regulations.The Neutral Strip opened in 1806, and the response was immediate. The strip became known as No Mans undercoat, and it seemed that each criminal in our young nation heard of it and moved into No Mans Land. Squatters took over land uninvited. It seemed that anybody who asked got grants from Spain for small tracts of land. Runaway slaves seek refuge there. Convicts who escaped from prison disappeared Into No Mans Land. So did military deserters , criminals sought for export contraband goods, murderers, robbers, counterfeiters and rapists.Bands odd No Mans Land to rob trade caravans, then disappeared again in No Mans Land. Other bands left long enoug h to rob homes and businesses ahead returning and melting into the lawless crowds in No Mans Land. Even joint military units hesitated before entering No Mans Land. Two raids, in 1812 and 1816, netted few arrests and caused small-scale Interruption of criminal activities. Inside the strip, there Land kept loaded guns in their houses. A curious mentality actual that was copied years later by lawmen in some cities.The feeling was that having the worst elements of ordering gathered into one area created more than safety in other(a) part of the metropolis or parish. The same mind-set that led to red light districts and allowed criminals to meet in specific areas of a city or parish. There were several roads across the 50-mile width of the strip that well-kept the Spanish names of Camino Real (Royal Road) which became routes of disquietude for traders. Some traders skirted No Mans Land to the South by using schooners to carry goods to Galveston and other Texas ports for distri bution.To the North, traders skirted No Mans Land by departure through upper Red River Parish. by and by 13 years of crime and violence in No Mans Land, relief came from an unhoped source. The Adams-Ions Treaty of 1819, known as the transcontinental Treaty, was a pact between the fall in States and Spain. It was mainly directed at Florida. nether the agreement, we paid Spain $5 million and Spain withdrew its claim on Florida. In what was considered a lesser clause in the Transcontinental Treaty, Spain also gave up its claim on any land in Louisiana. With that silent stroke, No Mans Land died.\r\n'