USA > Mississippi > A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river > Part 17
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On the 8th of January, 1802, Governor Claiborne wrote to Mr. Madison :
"The Legislature progresses slowly, but their proceed- ings evince a careful attention to the public interest. Po- litical excitement has nearly disappeared. The only dis- content is with the judges. I have endeavored to allay this feeling and restore confidence, but ineffectually. The Chief Justice, Mr. Lewis, is a learned lawyer and a man of talents. But his colleagues, Messrs. Tilton and Bruin, (however amiable in private life), have not had the train- ing for the bench. The former, it is said, read law for a few months, but never practiced. The latter was brought up a merchant. The litigation here will involve conflict- ing titles to vast and valuable tracts of land, and will de- mand profound legal attainments on the bench. If these gentlemen, or either of them, should resign, as is now rumored, I respectfully urge the appointment of thor- oughly trained lawyers of the highest character. Col. Steele continues in bad health, and I am much inconve- nienced for aid in my office."
On the 6th day of February, the Governor again wrote to Mr. Madison and said :
"The old factions still survive to some extent. It is gratifying to me to know that they were created before my arrival. I believe I have firmness enough to be indepen-
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dent of any of them, and virtue sufficient to be just to all. The legislature will probably adjourn in a day or two. With patriotism and honesty they are liberally endowed, but lack experience, and are consequently slow. Most of the laws passed by Governor Sargent and the judges have been repealed, and almost an entirely new code substituted.
"I hope you will approve the enclosed letter to General Wilkinson, urging him to establish at this place a small arsenal of the surplus arms now at Fort Adams, with one company in charge. We are now defenceless and without arms."
The reader is invited to contrast these letters of Governor Claiborne, to the State department, with the official utter- ances of his predecessor, Governor Sargent, to the same department. Nothing can better illustrate the difference in character, nature and human sympathy, of the two officials, and nothing can better demonstrate the superior fitness of the one for official position in an infant Territory, and the absolute unfitness of the other. In looking at the two men we may well exclaim with Hamlet, "Hyperion to a Satyr!"
In December, 1802, the Legislature was again in session. It enacted a number of laws, established Jefferson College, and elected Col. Thomas Marston Green, a delegate in Congress in place of Hon. Narsworthy Hunter, who died at the Capital during the session. Claiborne has the fol- lowing notice of the newly elected delegate :
"Col. Thomas Marston Green, an accomplished gentle- man, and most useful citizen, was the son of Col. Thomas Green, the head of a numerous family and influential con- nection. He was a Virginian, and an officer of the Conti- nental army. He removed to Georgia and was associated with General George Rodgers Clarke and General Elisha Clarke, of Georgia, in their schemes for an attack on the Spaniards. Col. Green, with a large party of friends, went to the Holston river, built boats and descended the Ten- nesse to its mouth, expecting there to find General George Rodgers Clarke, but not finding him, and being unable to ascend the Ohio with their boats, they continued on to Natchez. Col. Thomas Green, (the father of the delegate,) had an interview with the Spanish Governor, as agent for
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the State of Georgia, and claimed the entire district for that State. He was a bold, determined and persistent man. The Spanish authorities finding that he was likely to excite a tumult, had him arrested and sent to New Orleans. His devoted wife soon followed, and from exposure and anxiety died shortly after her arrival. This touched the heart of the Spanish Governor and Col. Green was released. The family settled on the waters of Cole's Creek, in Jefferson county.
"Col. Cato West and General Thomas Hinds were his sons-in-law, and by intermarriage it constituted one of the largest connections in the district. His son, Abner Green. married a daughter of Col. Anthony Hutchins."
A large brick house, built by Col. Thomas Marston Green, in 1790, is still standing, and is occupied by one of his descendants. Though built a hundred years ago it is still sound. The brick were manufactured on the place by the slaves of the owner. The timbers were all sawed by the laborious process of the whip-saw, known to the early pioneers, and every nail, and all the hinges for doors and window shutters, were manufactured in the blacksmith shop on the plantation. The sands are level for the most part, and very fertile, and though a portion has been in constant cultivation for one hundred and twelve years, the present occupant expects to make a bale of cotton to the acre year by year, and growls lustily if he does not secure the product he expects. On the oldest portion of the cultivated land, the present occupant made a bale and a half of cot- ton to the acre in the year 1889.
In the year 1802, the seat of government was removed from Natchez to the town of Washington, six miles east of the former place.
Governor Claiborne purchased, by authority from the War Department, fifty acres of land from Thomas Calvit, at $15.00 per acre, for a cantonment, some four hundred yards outside the corporate limits of the town of Washington, which became the camping place for all the United States troops in this quarter of the country. Lieutenants Win- field Scott and Edmund Pendleton Gaines, then young sub-
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alterns, were on duty there, and Major-General Wade Hampton, of the United States army, the grandfather of the late senator from South Carolina, was frequently seen at the Washington cantonment. It was here that Win- field Scott fought his first and only.duel.
In 1802, Governor Claiborne established trading houses for the Indian tribes in Mississippi. The one for the Choc- taws was located on the Tombigbee river, and for the Chickasaws, near Fort Pickens. The first goods sent to the Choctaws were confided to Louis La Fleur, a native of Canada, and the father of Greenwood La Fleur, who later became chief of the Choctaw Nation. He became very wealthy, owned large tracts of valuable land and numerous slaves. He represented Carroll county in the Senate of Mississippi fifty years ago, and was a very intelligent and honorable man. He was in the Senate at the same time the late Benjamin G. Humphreys represented Claiborne county in that body. Greenwood Le Fleur left a large number of descendants.
The following letter from the Hon. Edward Turner, a native of Fauquier county, Virginia, who migrated to Mississippi in the year 1801, gives the reader an insight into the character of the early settlers of our State; the men who gave tone to society, moral and political, and who laid the foundations deep and strong, of the moral and political structure which for so many years promoted the happiness as well as the material prosperity of the people. In his letter Judge Turner writes as follows :
"When I first came to Natchez I brought a letter from General Green Clay, of Kentucky, to his uncle, Col. Thomas Green. This led to my intimacy with the Greens, Hutchins, Wests and their extensive connections, and to my marriage with a daughter of Col. Cato West. General Clay (father of Cassius M.) had married my cousin. I was one of the aids of Governor Claiborne, and accompanied him and his staff, all in full uniform, to review the regi- ments in the different counties. This was the first the peo- ple here knew of citizen soldiers. The Governor was a fine speaker, with a clear, ringing voice, very fluent and graceful, and the regiments forming into a square, he ad-
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dressed them very eloquently in regard to their rights and duties. Governor Sargent never could organize the militia, and few men would accept his commissions.
"The Spaniards had no public schools in Natchez, and only one or two private tutors. In Governor Claiborne's time Jefferson College was incorporated. An association was formed in Jefferson county for the acquisition and dis- semination of useful knowledge. We held our meetings at Villa Gayoso. I delivered the first address, and it drew down on me the opposition of the whole Sargent party. A similar association was established in Natchez, and ex- cellent schools in each county."
The "Villa Gayoso" referred to in the letter of Judge Turner, was in Jefferson county, not far from Cole's Creek, where Governor Gayoso built a chateau as a summer res- idence. The land on which this chateau was built was claimed by Everard Green, son of Col. Thomas Green, and is still in the possession of his descendants, and the old Green homestead still bears the name of "Gayoso."
In 1802 Edward Turner was appointed clerk for Jefferson county in place of John Girault.
In January of that year, Judge Tilton, one of the three Superior Judges of the Territory, left the district without permission, repaired to New Orleans, and from there de- parted for Europe on a commercial expedition. Governor Claiborne, in notifying the Secretary of State of the depar- ture of Judge Tilton, said : "This, I submit. is such an aban- donment as will authorize an immediate appointment, and I recommend Daniel Kerr, Esq., of this Territory, a learned lawyer, and an upright man, who would fill this high office with credit."
The gentleman recommended by the Governor was ap- pointed one of the judges, and in December the Governor wrote to the Secretary of State that "Mr. Kerr's appoint- ment has given much satisfaction to a large majority of the citizens. He is a valuable acquisition to the bench."
The commission of John Steele as Secretary of the Terri- tory, having expired by limitation, Col. Cato West was appointed Secretary in his stead.
On December 6, 1802, Col. Thomas Marston Green ap-
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peared as the successor of Hon. Narsworthy Hunter, de- ceased, in the Seventh Congress and was sworn in.
In this year land offices were opened at Washington and at Fort Stoddart ; Edward Turner and Joseph Chambers, Registrars. Thomas Rodney, of Delaware, and Robert Williams, of North Carolina, were appointed Land Com- missioners for the district west of Pearl river, and Robert C. Nicholas and Ephraim Kirby, for the district east of the Pearl ; Isaac Briggs was appointed Surveyor-General.
There was a good deal of excitement among the people of Mississippi at this period, in consequence of the un- friendly action of the Spanish authorities of Louisiana, in closing the port of New Orleans as a place of deposit for their products. This policy of the Spanish authorities was in violation of treaty stipulations, and produced much hostile feeling among the hardy toilers of the great west- ern territories, whose commerce was entirely at the mercy of the Spaniards, by their closing the port of New Orleans, and depriving them of a market for their products.
As evidence of this state of unrest among the people of the Territory, Governor Claiborne wrote to the Secretary of State on December 18, 1802, "The port of New Orleans remains shut against the American deposite. American produce is permitted to be received by vessels lying in the middle of the stream, but the landing of produce is uncon- ditionally forbidden." On the third day of January, 1803, Governor Claiborne again writes to the Secretary :
"The Spanish authorities in Louisiana are manifesting a marked hostility to the United States. The people of this Territory are greatly agitated by the suspension of the right of deposite (secured to us by the treaty) and by a recent order prohibiting intercourse between the citizens of the United States and the subjects of Spain. There is a deep feeling of resentment in Louisiana at the prohibition, kept down, for the present, by Spanish bayonets. We have in the Territory of Mississippi about two thousand militia, well organized, and we can easily take possession of New Orleans now ; but re-inforced by French troops, according to current rumors, it may be more difficult. It is my duty to apprise you that on the river coast, and in
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New Orleans itself, there are many persons who would muster under our flag the moment it is displayed. There are many vessels now lying at New Orleans, in the stream, waiting for freight, and several are now on their way to Natchez to load with cotton."
Happily, these hostile sentiments were soon to be dis- pelled. Spain by a secret treaty had retroceded to France all her vast possessions in America, and France in turn, had sold to the United States, during Mr. Jefferson's first administration, for the sum of $15,000,000, the mag- nificent territory watered by the Mississippi river and its numerous tributaries.
On the 12th day of March, 1803, Governor Claiborne in- formed the Secretary of State that the " two Houses to day elected Dr. William Lattimore, of Natchez, delegate for the Territory. He is a young man of promising talents, and a firm and genuine republican." Col. Thomas Marston Green having declined further service in Congress.
Governor Claiborne having been appointed a commis- sioner, in conjunction with General James Wilkinson, of the United States army, to receive Louisiana from the official appointed by the French government to make the transfer, left Natchez on the 2d day of December, 1803, for New Orleans, leaving Col. Cato West, the efficient Secre- tary of the Territory, in charge of affairs as Governor ad interim.
The Governor was "escorted as far as Fort Adams by the Natchez artillery, the Natchez rifles, and a company of militia. Three companies of volunteers from Jefferson and Claiborne counties followed." The Governor received from the people many manifestations of their confidence and approval en route to Fort Adams, (where he met his co-commissioner, Gen. Wilkinson), with fervent wishes for the successful accomplishment of his object, and of his speedy return to Mississippi. This was not to be, however.
On the 20th day of December, 1803, Louisiana was for- mally transferred by M. Lausat, the regularly authorized agent of the French Republic, and was as formally received by the accredited American commissioners, Messrs. Clai- borne and Wilkinson, and thus perished forever, the dream
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that La Salle, the earliest navigator of the Mississippi river, had so fondly cherished.
There can be no question that Governor Claiborne pos- sessed the entire confidence of President Jefferson. For in addition to being appointed one of the Commissioners to receive Louisiana, he was immediately appointed by the President to administer the Province, with all the pow- ers and authority exercised by the former Spanish Captain Generals. He was also allowed to retain his office as Gov- ernor of Mississippi Territory, and to discharge the duties of both positions until an act was passed by Congress establishing the "Orleans Territory."
On the 1st day of October, 1804, he was appointed Gov- ernor of Orleans Territory and relieved from duty as Gov- ernor of the Mississippi Territory.
Governor Claiborne found Mississippi in a most dis- tressed condition. The people were dissatisfied with their local rulers, and torn with dissensions among themselves. By his wise and conservative course he healed all disen- sions, he satisfied the people, and left them contented. His administration promoted the prosperity of the Territory, increased its population, and largely advanced its agricul- tural and commercial wealth and importance.
Among the latest appointments of Governor Claiborne were F. Lewis, Ransom Harwell, Wm. H. Hargrove, James Callier, and William Pierce, justices of the peace for Washington county.
He also appointed Samuel Brooks, mayor of Natchez, with John Girault, Samuel Niel, and Joseph Newman, as aldermen ; P. A. Vandorn, marshal of the city, and Wm. Nicholls, sheriff of Adams county.
The total population of the Mississippi Territory in the year 1800 was 8,850.
Governor Claiborne retained his position as Governor of the Orleans Territory until Louisiana was admitted into the Union as a State. He was immediately elected Governor of Louisiana by the people. At the expiration of his term he was re-elected ; being no longer eligible to the guber- natorial office under the Constitution, he was elected by the Legislature to the Senate of the United States, but died
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before taking his seat in that body. He left numerous descendants, some of whom are still living in New Orleans, not one having proved unworthy of their distinguished and patriotic ancestor.
13
CHAPTER IX.
MISSISSIPPI AS A TERRITORY. FROM 1805 TO 1809.
R OBERT WILLIAMS, of North Carolina, was ap- pointed to succeed Governor Claiborne as Governor of the Mississippi Territory. He had been a member of Congress from his State, and had recently been acting as one of the commissioners to adjudicate the many conflict- ing land claims in the Territory of Mississippi. Governor Williams was not a man of any considerable ability and was not of a pleasing, conciliatory address. His manners were too peremptory and repellant to please the educated. intelligent and proud people he was sent to govern. The people of the Territory were anxious to have Col. Cato West, the able, efficient and popular Secretary of the Ter- ritory, appointed to the position of Governor, but then, as in these later years, it was thought proper to import a Governor from one of the older States.
Governor Williams arrived at Washington, the then seat of the Territorial Government, January 26th, 1805, where he was welcomed by a public dinner presided over by Judge Rodney and Thomas H. Williams. Judge Rodney was a native of Delaware, had been an officer in the revo- lutionary army, and was appointed a judge for the Terri - tory by President Jefferson. The village of Rodney, in Jefferson county, formerly known as Petit Gulf, and years ago an important shipping point on the Mississippi river, was named after this venerable and distinguished jurist.
Thomas H. Williams, a North Carolinian by birth, came to the Territory in 1802, and achieved a wonderfully suc- cessful career. He was successively Secretary of the Board of Land Commissioners, acting Secretary of the Territory,
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Register of the Land Office, Collector of Customs at the port of New Orleans, and later a Senator in Congress from the State of Mississippi. Like his namesake, the then Governor, Mr. Williams was not a man of much ability, but, unlike his official superior, he was a gentleman of pleasing address and attractive manners.
Col. Claiborne, in his volume, gives the annexed graphic pen picture of the town of Washington, the capital of Mississippi, as it existed at that day, and of the gay, re- fined and intelligent people who thronged its streets and brightened its hospitable homes :
"The town of Washington, six miles east of Natchez. in a rich, elevated and picturesque country, was then the seat of government. The Land Office, the Surveyor-Gen- eral's office, the office of the Commissioner of Claims, and the Courts of the United States, were all there. In the immediate vicinity was Fort Dearborn, and a permanent cantonment of United States troops. The high officials of the Territory made it their residence, and many gentlemen of fortune, attracted by its advantages, went there to re- side. There were three large hotels, and the Academical department of Jefferson College, established during the administration of Governor Claiborne, was in. successful operation. The society was highly cultivated and refined. The conflicting land titles had drawn there a crowd of law- yers, generally young men of fine attainments and bril- liant talents. The medical profession was equally well represented, at the head of which was Dr. Daniel Rawlings, a native of Calvert county, Maryland, a man of high moral character and exalted patriotism, eminent in his ยท profession, and who, as a vigorous writer and acute rea- soner, had no superior and few equals. The immigration from Maryland, chiefly from Calvert, Prince George and Montgomery counties, consisted, for the most part, of edu- cated and wealthy planters, the Covingtons, Chews, Cal- vits, Wilkinsons, Graysons, Freelands, Wailes, Bowies and Magruders ; and the Winstons, Dangerfields and others from Virginia, who for a long time gave tone to the society of the Territorial capital. It was a gay and fash- ionable place, compactly built for a mile or more from
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east to west, every hill in the neighborhood occupied by some gentleman's chateau. The presence of the military had its influence on society ; punctilio and ceremony, parades and public entertainments were the features of the place. It was, of course, the haunt of politicians and office hun- ters ; the center of political intrigue ; the point to which all persons in the pursuit of land or occupation first came. It was famous for its wine parties and its dinners, not un- frequently enlivened by one or more duels directly after- ward. Such was this now deserted and forlorn looking little village during the Territorial organization. In its forums there was more oratory, in its salons more wit and beauty than we have ever witnessed since, all now mould- ering, neglected and forgotten, in the desolate graveyard of the ancient capital of Mississippi."
Governor Williams proceeded to appoint his military staff, which was composed of the following gentlemen : William Scott, chief of staff with the rank of colonel. William B. Shields and William Wooldridge, with the rank of major, and Dr. John F. Carmichael, as medical officer, with the rank of major.
Major Shields was a native of Deleware, was a gentle- man of intellect, education, high character, and of unques- tioned courage and patriotism. He was a learned lawyer, a prominent and leading member of the Legislature, Attor- ney.General and Judge of the United States Court for the district of Mississippi, in all of which positions he acquitted himself with ability, dignity and impartiality. It was with the widow of Judge Shields that Sergeant S. Prentiss found his first home in Mississippi. The young pedagogue having learned that Mrs. Shields was looking for a tutor for her sons, visited "Rokeby," the name of the family mansion in Adams county, and made such a favor- able impression by his genial manners and evident capac- ity, that he was immediately employed and installed as tutor for her younger sons, the youngest of whom, Joseph Dunbar Shields, became the biographer of his gifted tutor. and in every line of this biography, there breathes the warmest admiration and affection of the pupil for his illus- trious tutor.
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Judge Shields left many descendants in Mississippi and Louisiana, of both sexes, not one of whom have ever dis- credited the name of their distinguished progenitor.
Governor Williams issued his proclamation convening the legislature on the 1st day of July, 1805.
The city of Natchez had been incorporated with what was thought to be ample powers in 1803, but at this session of the legislature these powers were greatly enlarged by the establishment of a mayor's court, having jurisdiction in all civil cases within the city to the amount of five hun- dred dollars. The proceedings of this court produced great dissatisfaction among the people. which resulted in a public meeting condemning the court, and finally culmi- nated in a presentment by the grand jury of Adams county, as a "public nuisance." The Hon. Edward Turner in referring to this incident says : "The court was highly , useful and respectable, but its monthly terms were too summary for debtors, hence the outcry."
During the year the Territory was greatly benefitted by treaties negotiated with the Cherokees, the Creeks and the Choctaws, by which the Indians conceded to the United States the privilege of opening roads through their respec- tive districts, thus affording facilities to immigrants desir- ing to enter Mississippi.
In the first year of the administration of Governor Wil- liams, there was a border foray on the dividing line of Mississippi and Louisiana (the thirty-first degree of north latitude) between the people residing above and below that line, but it did not amount to much, and very soon quiet was entirely restored.
In the year 1806 there came rumors to New Orleans and Natchez that the Spaniards in Mexico were encroaching on our border west of the Sabine river. This immediately aroused the martial spirit of the people of the Territory. General Wilkinson was moving with a body of United States troops and volunteers to attack and drive back the Spaniards, and the Natchez Herald of October 7, 1806, con- tained the following announcement :
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