Étienne Mazureau

Background

Etienne Mazureau was born in France in 1777.

Education

Mazureau began his schoolling at the age of nine and after his father died, four years later, entered a lawyer's office. When war was declared in 1793 he enlisted in the navy and saw service on L'Entreprenant and Le Formidable. The latter ship was captured at the battle of Groces off the coast of Ireland during the winter of 1794 and Mazureau was taken prisoner. He was exchanged after four months' incarceration in England and accompanied Delatouche on a legal mission for the French government to Spain, where he remained long enough to acquire a thorough knowledge of the language and law of the country most useful to him in later years.

Career

After various adventures he found himself at the age of twenty-two inspector of agriculture of French Guiana, but he returned to Paris when the Directorate fell. One evening he was told that Napoleon was about to crown himself Emperor of France, and indiscreetly replied that although he greatly admired Napoleon, he would regard him in that position as the usurper of the throne of the Bourbons. The remark was reported to the authorities and brought about his imprisonment. As soon as he was released he sailed for New York, and after fifteen months spent in New Jersey, in March 1804 went to New Orleans and was soon after admitted to the bar. His industry and his familiarity with both French and English were of great assistance to him in this bilingual city where most of the jurors and witnesses spoke only one of these languages, and where the law required an interpreter to be present in every court room. For a time he was a partner of the well-known attorney, Edward Livingston, and in 1815 was appointed attorney-general of Louisiana, a position he repeatedly occupied later. He also served two terms in the state legislature. In his day, he appeared on one side or the other in every important case tried. The best known were the famous Batture Case, in which he argued against his former partner, Edward Livingston, who was conducting a long-drawn-out litigation to obtain possession of a valuable piece of ground formed by accretions from the river; and the case of The State vs. Hyppolite Truette in which the defendant was charged, under a new law prohibiting dueling, with the murder of Paulin Prué. He died in New Orleans in 1849, a very poor man.

Achievements

• Etienne Mazureau is known as Attorney General of Louisiana and as Secretary of State of Louisiana. Mazureau was the prosecutor and his attack upon the code duello aroused a great furore in a day when gentlemen considered this method the only one by which a personal disagreement could be settled.

Personality

Mazureau was short and stout, with a head much too large for his body. As an orator he was fiery, adroit, convincing, and eloquent. His knowledge of the law was encyclopedic, and the income from his practice was great, but his generosity and extravagance were greater.

Connections

Mazureau was married to Aimee Grima Mazureau.

Wife:

Aimee Grima Mazureau

6 June 1787 - 4 January 1851

Daughter:

Maria Clara Mazureau

1826 - 16 February 1887

Daughter:

Polyxene Mazureau Reynes

25 February 1808 - 2 March 1879

Daughter:

Louise Stephanie Mazureau

17 September 1812 - 2 May 1882

Son:

Adolphe Mazureau

19 June 1806 - 19 December 1874

Son:

Edouard Mazureau

18 August 1814 - 23 March 1836

References

• Louisiana Folk-Tales; In French Dialect and English Translation
• The Bench and Bar of the South and Southwest (Classic Reprint)
• The Memories of Fifty Years: Containing Brief Biographical Notices of Distinguished Americans, and Anecdotes of Remarkable Men; Interspersed With ... of Observation Chiefly Spent in the Southwest