Notable New Orleanians: A Tricentennial Tribute

A. N. Yiannopoulos found “the 1808 Code was a concise statement of principles and rules easily
ascertainable and readily available to all.” 3 In the end Claiborne was more important to Louisiana
than his more well-known contemporaries Jean Laffite or Andrew Jackson.
Louisiana’s Civil Code continued the rational European codification of laws and practice introduced
by the French and Spanish. Its Civil Law system clashed sharply with the English system of
judicial law that has ruled the rest of the United States. In most particulars it was so modern compared
to American private laws that over the years other states have adopted many of its protections
for the family, the widow, and the orphan.
1 See R. Randall Couch, “William Charles Cole Claiborne: An Historiographical Review.” Louisiana History 36 (1995): 453-
465 and Francois-Xavier Martin, The History of Louisiana from the Earliest Period, 2 vols. New Orleans, 1827-29.
2 George Dargo, Jefferson’s Louisiana: Politics and the Clash of Legal Traditions (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975), 50.
3 A. N. Yiannopoulos, Louisiana Civil Law System (Baton Rouge: Claitor’s Publishing Division, 1977), 31.
J UDAH
T OURO
(1775-1854)
Judah Touro and John McDonogh (q.v.) were the most important philanthropists of antebellum
New Orleans, endowing religious, charitable, and educational causes. Touro and McDonogh also
shared remarkable personal histories. As young men, both participated actively in business, politics
and social life. But both, following their participation
in the Battle of New Orleans, gave up everything
but business and virtually ended all personal
relationships. Business dealings seemed to become
their only social outlets. It was almost as if the carnage
of the battle had lifetime effects on them.
The concerns that their wills addressed, Jewish
institutions in one case and public education in
another, were less evident in their lifetimes than
they were after their deaths. During his lifetime
Touro endowed the congregation Dispersed of
Judah, which became Touro Synagogue, and
founded what is now Touro Infirmary. “In later
life,” as Irwin Lachoff has written, “he sought to
return to his Jewish roots, donating generously to
the first Jewish congregations in the city. In the
will that made him famous, he bequeathed over
four hundred thousand dollars to Jewish and
Gentile institutions, both religious and secular.” 1
Earlier, Touro gave far more to explicitly Christian
institutions than to Jewish ones. As to McDonogh, he freed and educated most of his slaves, and
became the single most important factor in New Orleans Public Schools, but did not publically support
the public schools movement so crucial to the New Orleans American sector following 1840.
Born in Newport and orphaned as a youth, Touro was brought up by an uncle who eventually
established him in a mercantile business in Boston. In 1801, Touro left for New Orleans where he
established a merchant shipping business for his firm. As did McDonogh, he invested in New Orleans
real estate, a golden opportunity in the rapidly expanding city. Also like McDonogh in the decade
before the Battle of New Orleans Touro was active socially, yet by the Battle he too had remained single.
Judah Touro.
THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION,
1974.25.27.434.
BIOGRAPHIES
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