A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river, Part 21

Author: Lowry, Robert, 1830-1910; McCardle, William H
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Jackson, Miss. : R.H. Henry & Co.
Number of Pages: 674


USA > Mississippi > A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river > Part 21


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and men out. Col. Nixon, of Lawrence county, at another time had fifteen hundred men on the Alabama river at Fort Claiborne. Col. Nelson, of Amite county, had about twelve hundred men out at New Orleans, Mobile and Mobile Point, or Fort Boyer; all these, exclusive of large volunteer troops of cavalry, from the counties of Clai- borne, Jefferson, Adams, Wilkinson and Amite, made up of the elite of the country, commanded by Colonels Hinds, Kemper and Richardson. At each draft, and there were many, every seventh man was taken to perform a tour of duty of from three to six months ; or find an able bodied substitute in his place. Those who hired themselves as substitutes obtained from three to six hundred dollars as compensation for the risk and service of a tour of duty. These circumstances are mentioned to show the state of the country at that time. Some of the citizens who en- rolled themselves in the rifle corps, had previously served one, and others of them two of these tours of duty. For- tunately at this time, an old leaky barge was found at the landing ; she was pressed at once into service, in a rain storm, and amidst the prayers and tears of a feeble and powerless population, about 4 o'clock on the afternoon of the 1st of January, 1815, the corps embarked on their voyage for the scene of military operations; their num- ber, about eighty men, including officers, non-commissioned officers, privates and three colored servants. After inces- sant muscular toil, by day and by night, in uncommonly boisterous weather, the barge landed safe, with all well, at a point immediately above New Orleans, on the evening of the 6th of January, where a portion of the American army was encamped.


On the morning of the 7th, the commanding officer, Cap- tain James C. Wilkins, lost no time in reporting himself to the commanding general at Camp Jackson, distant eight or nine miles from where the barge landed, and re- ceived orders to repair to the lines. "Early on the morn- ing of the memorable eighth of January," continues Mr. Campbell, "on the march between New Orleans and Camp Jackson, the shouts of victory on the left bank, and the visible evidences of defeat on the right bank of the Mis-


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sissippi were simultaneous. General Morgan's portion of the American army was distinctly seen on the right levee, retreating in the greatest confusion. Under positive orders to take his position on the lines at Camp Jackson, and without orders, Captain Wilkins bravely took the respon- sibility, and promptly crossed the river to throw himself and his corps in front of the advancing enemy, and afford the flying fugitives time and opportunity to rally. Cap- tain Wilkins marched three miles downwards on the right levee, passing Morgan's flying troops, and every moment expecting to encounter their pursuers, but when arrived at a certain point, in view of the enemy, near Dr. Flood's plantation, whose buildings he had just fired, he made a precipitate retreat. During the whole night of the 8th, a great part of the corps had volunteered, and actually per- formed a hazardous and fatiguing duty, and from which the hardy and courageous chief, Lafitte, shrank. On the 9th, the corps put General Morgan and his command in pos- session of the position they had abandoned on the preceding morning. On the 10th, they re-crossed the river and took a position on the breastworks at Camp Jackson, under tbe eye of the commanding general.


"As a band of brothers they set out to repel the enemies of their country or die in the attempt; as a band of broth- ers they returned to their friends and homes in good health ; and thanks to a superintending Providence, with- out the loss of a single individual. They returned home by crossing Lake Ponchartrain, and from the mouth of Chefuncte river to Natchez, they had a fatiguing march of five days, frequently wading through swamps covered with water, and swimming rivers swollen with recently fallen rains.


"Upon the return of the company commanded by Cap- tain Wilkins, the soldiers were met by the entire popula- tion of Natchez, a short distance from the city, and a con- gratulatory address was delivered to them by the Hon. Edward Turner, on behalf of the citizens of the commu- nity."


But these were not all the Mississippians who were pres- ent and participating in that memorable battle. The Hon.


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George Poindexter, then a judge of the United States Court for the Territory, served as a volunteer on the staff of General Carroll. Major Chotard, a gallant gentleman of Adams county, well known and highly esteemed for his many noble qualities, served as a volunteer aid on the staff of General Jackson. In his report of the affair of December 23d. 1814, the old chief thus refers to Major Chotard : "Cols. Butler and Piatt, and Major Chotard, by their intrepidity, saved the artillery." Major Chotard was wounded in the battle of the 8th of January, by a shell, near the Villere mansion.


The famous Indian scout and veteran partisan fighter, Captain Sam Dale, was there with his trusty rifle, to perform his devoirs in behalf of his lady-love, the young and blooming Territory of Mississippi. And right well did he do his duty. He rarely touched the trigger of his unerring rifle but a foeman fell, a victim of the prowess of the heroic Sam Dale.


The battle of New Orleans was fought some days after the signing of a treaty of peace at Ghent, which had been agreed on by the English and American commissioners entrusted with that duty, but as there were neither steam- ships nor ocean telegraph cables in those early days, the American government, equally with the commander of the British forces then operating against the United States, were in total ignorance of the event.


The stunning defeat of the British army commanded by General Sir Edward Packenham, and the death of that offi- cer in the battle of New Orleans, would unquestionably have brought peace within a very brief period.


With the return of peace, at the close of a bloody and exhausting war, there came great additions to the popula- tion, the wealth, and prosperity of the people of the Ter- ritory, and with these came a yearning desire to merge the existence of a Territorial government into that of an independent commonwealth, and to be admitted into the great sisterhood of the American Union.


Nothing worthy of particular notice occurred in the Ter- ritory after the battle of New Orleans, until March 1st, 1817, when President Madison approved an act to enable


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the people "to form for themselves a constitution and State government, and to assume such name as they shall deem proper; and the said State, when formed, shall be admitted into the Union upon the same footing with the original States, in all respects whatever."


Section 2 of this act defines the boundaries of the pro - posed State as follows :


"That the said State shall consist of all the territory in- cluded in the following boundaries, to-wit: Beginning on the river Mississippi at the point where the southern boundary line of the State of Tennessee strikes the same ; thence east along the said boundary line to the Tennessee river ; thence up the same to the mouth of Bear Creek ; thence by a direct line to the northwest corner of the county of Washington ; thence due south to the Gulf of Mexico ; thence westwardly, including all the islands within six leagues of the shore, to the most eastern junc- tion of Pearl river with Lake Borgne; thence up said river to the thirty-first degree of north latitude; thence west, along the said degree of latitude to the Mississippi river ; thence up the same to the place of beginning."


The total area embraced within the foregoing boundaries include 46,810 square miles, the water surface amounting to 470 square miles. Reduced to acres, Mississippi pos- sesses an aggregate of 29,953,400 acres.


Section 3 provides "That all free white male citizens of the United States, twenty-one years of age, and residing within the Territory one year prior to the election, and who shall have paid a Territorial or county tax, are authorized to choose representatives to form a constitu- tion."


The same section apportioned the delegates among the several counties as follows : Adams county, eight ; Amite, six ; Claiborne, four; Franklin, two; Greene, two; Han- cock, two; Jackson, two; Jefferson, four ; Lawrence, two; Marion, two; Warren, two; Wayne, two; Wilkinson, six ; and Pike, three.


This "enabling act" required that the election for the choice of delegates to the constitutional convention should be held at the various polling places in the several counties.


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on the first Monday and the following Tuesday in June, and the delegates so chosen should assemble in the town of Washington, in Adams county, on the first Monday in July, A. D., 1817.


In accordance with this "enabling act," and the election held under it, the delegates so chosen assembled in the town of Washington, on the 7th day of July, 1817. A roll call of the delegates developed the fact that the people of the fourteen counties in the Territory were represented by forty-seven delegates as follows :


ADAMS COUNTY-David Holmes, Josiah Simpson, James C. Wilkins, John Taylor, Christopher Rankin, Edward Turner, Joseph Sessions and John Steele.


AMITE COUNTY-Henry Hanna. Thomas Batchelor, John Burton, Thomas Torrence, Angus Wilkinson and William Lattimore.


CLAIBORNE COUNTY-Walter Leake, Thomas Barnes, Daniel Burnett and Joshua G. Clarke.


FRANKLIN COUNTY-John Shaw and James Knox.


GREENE COUNTY-Laughlin McCoy and John McCray. HANCOCK COUNTY -- Noel Jourdan and Amos Burnett. JACKSON COUNTY-John McLeod and Thomas Bilbo.


JEFFERSON COUNTY-Cowles Mead, Cato West, Hezekiah J. Balch and Joseph E. Davis.


LAWRENCE COUNTY-Harmon Runnells and George W. King.


MARION COUNTY-John Ford and Dugal Mclaughlin.


PIKE COUNTY-David Dickson, William J. Minton and James Y. McNabb.


WAYNE COUNTY-James Patton and Clinch Gray.


WARREN COUNTY -- Henry D. Downs and Andrew Glass.


WILKINSON COUNTY-George Poindexter, Daniel Wil- liams. Abram M. Scott, John Joor, Gerard C. Brandon and Joseph Johnson.


The Convention organized by the election of David Holmes, (at the time Territorial Governor,) as President, Louis Winston, Secretary and John Lowry, Door-keeper.


After the organization of the convention it was developed that there was a respectable minority of the body who


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deemed it inexpedient to adopt a constitution and form a State government at that time. This view was maintained by some of the ablest men in the convention, among whom were Gerard C. Brandon, Abram M. Scott, both of whom were subsequently Governors of the State, and Joseph E. Davis, a distinguished lawyer and scholar, and the elder brother of Ex-President Jefferson Davis.


The vote on the resolution declaring it "expedient at this time to form a constitution and State government," was taken on the third day of the session and adopted by a vote of 36 ayes to 11 nays.


The features of the constitution of 1817, prescribing the qualifications prerequisite for the Governor, for senators and for representatives in the legislature, as well as for the qualification for electors, are wholly unlike any to be found in either the constitution of 1832, or that of 1868.


A residence of five years in the State, the age of thirty years, and the possession of a freehold estate of 600 acres of land within the State, or of real estate of the value of two thousand dollars, were prescribed as necessary to the eligibility of the Governor. The Lieutenant-Governor was required to have the same qualifications. The qualifica- tions of a State senator were to be twenty-six years of age, four years residence in the State, he should be the owner, in his own right, of 300 acres of land, or an interest in real estate of the value of one thousand dollars.


To be eligible to the position of representative in the legislature, the person must be a citizen of the United States, have been an inhabitant of the State for two years, and the last year thereof of the county, city or town for which he shall be chosen. Should be twenty-two years of age, and hold, in his own right, one hundred and fifty acres of land, or an interest in real estate of the value of five hundred dollars, at the time of his election and for six months previous thereto.


Every free white male of the age of twenty-one years or upwards, a citizen of the United States, and who has re- sided in the State one year, and the last six months in the county, city or town, who had been enrolled in the militia, except exempted by law from military service, and shall


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have paid a State or county tax, was declared to be an elector.


All judges were made elective by the Legislature, were to hold office during good behavior, but no person could be elected as judge who had attained the age of sixty-five years, and no judge could continue to hold his position after reaching that age.


No person who denied the existence of a God or of a future state of rewards and punishments, was eligible to any office in the civil government.


Section seventh of "general provisions," was in these words :


" Ministers of the gospel being dedicated to God, and the care of souls, ought not to be diverted from the great duties of their functions. Therefore, no minister of the gospel, or priest of any denomination whatever, shall be eligible to the office of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, or to a seat in either branch of the general assembly."


The Attorney-General, Secretary of State, Treasurer and Auditor, were made elective by the Legislature.


The delegates to this, the first Constitutional Conven- tion ever held in Mississippi, were able, earnest and patri- otic men, and fully realized the difficulty and delicate du- ties confided to them. It may be safely stated that they enjoyed the unstinted confidence and patriotic support of their constituents, and it is worthy of remark, that quite a number of them subsequently reached the highest official positions within the gift of the people.


From the county of Adams, one of their delegates, David Holmes, became the first Governor of the State, and final- ly a Senator in Congress. Another delegate, Christopher Rankin, became a Representative in Congress; a third, Edward Turner, was first a Circuit Judge, and was for years a Judge of the High Court of Errors and Appeals ; and a fourth, Josiah Simpson, was for a number of years a distinguished Circuit Judge. In honor of his memory and public services his name was given to one of the counties of the State.


From Amite county, one of their delegates, Dr. Wil- liam Lattimore had previously been a delegate in Con- gress from the Territory for a period of eight years.


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From Claiborne county, delegate Walter Leake became a Senator in Congress and Governor of the State ; and Joshua G. Clarke, another delegate from Claiborne, be- came Chancellor of the Superior Court of Chancery, where he presided for years with signal ability, purity of char- acter and dignity.


From Pike county, one of its delegates, Dr. David Dick- son, became Lieutenant-Governor and a Representative in Congress.


Wilkinson county was prolific in future honors to be won by her delegates on the floor of the Constitutional Convention. George Poindexter, who had been a delegate in Congress from the Territory, was destined to be the first Representative, the second Governor of the State, and a Senator in Congress. Gerard C. Brandon, and Abram M. Scott, each became Governor of the State, and each performed their official duties with ability and with un- questioned integrity. Gerard C. Brandon was a native of Mississippi, and Abram M. Scott was an immigrant from South Carolina, where he was born.


From this brief review it will be seen that this Constitu- tional Convention of forty-seven members contained no less than five future Governors, three United States Sena- tors, and four Representatives in Congress, one Judge of the High Court of Errors and Appeals, and one Chancellor of the Superior Court of Chancery.


When the first Constitution of Mississippi was formed and put into operation, in the forty-second year of the Inde- pendence of the United States of America, those who were then endeavoring to increase the population and wealth of the Mississippi Territory, and charged with the delicate and responsible duty of passing from a Territorial to that of a State government, were not unmindful of the bless- ings of liberty guaranteed by our system of government, founded upon the will of the people, and to be adminis- tered for their benefit.


The struggle for liberty was fresh in the minds and hearts of those who formed the first organic law in this State, seventy-four years ago, and the admirable system securing to all citizens the full enjoyment of every privi-


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lege which had been maintained for forty-two years by the general government, had commended itself to an enlight- ened world. It is not strange, therefore, that the men to whom were committed the destinies of the Mississippi Territory in 1817, were gratified to participate in all the rights, and to assume all the obligations and duties as citizens of the American Union.


In adopting the preamble to the Constitution forming a free and independent State, Mississippi came within seven votes of being called the State of Washington, Mr. Cowles Mead, of Jefferson county, having proposed that name. It was supported by George Poindexter and others, but the motion failed by a vote of seventeen ayes to twenty-three nays. Thus an opportunity was afforded for the appropri- ation of that revered name by the young, growing and pros- perous State of the North-west, seventy-three years later.


The Convention having been in session one month and eight days, adjourned sine die on the 15th day of August, 1817.


Previous to the adjournment of the Convention, that body adopted, with entire unanimity, a resolution thank- ing their President, Governor Holmes, for the ability, courtesy and impartiality with which he had performed his duties. The President returned his thanks in a brief but graceful speech.


The following resolution was adopted prior to the ad- journment of the Convention, upon the motion of Mr. Cowles Mead :


"Resolved, That the President of this Convention be au- thorized and required to draw on the Territorial Treasury for one hundred dollars, to be paid over to the trustees of the Methodist meeting house in the town of Washington, as a compensation for the time it has been occupied by the Convention."


The Governors of the Mississippi Territory, during its Territorial existence, were :


First-Winthrop Sargent, a native of Massachusetts, who served from May, 1798, to March, 1801.


Second-William Charles Cole Claiborne, a Virginian 16


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by birth, who served from March, 1801, to the first day of October. 1804.


Third-Robert Williams, a native of North Carolina, who served from December, 1804, to March, 1809.


The Fourth, and last Territorial Governor, was David Holmes, a native of the ancient commonwealth of Virginia, the mother alike of States, statesmen and soldiers, who served as Territorial Governor from March, 1809, until De- cember, 1817, a continuous service of more than eight years. Governor Holmes had the honor to close the career of the Territorial government, with its long array of illus- trious names and noble deeds, and the proud privilege of introducing into the Union another free, sovereign and in- dependent commonwealth, thus adding another star to the flag of the country.


As the young people of the present busy and bustling age may desire to know something of the character of the sturdy patriots who represented the people of the Terri- tory of Mississippi as delegates in the halls of Congress in those early and troublous years, the following informa- tion is subjoined :


The Honorable Narsworthy Hunter was a native of Vir- ginia, though in what county he was born is not known to this writer. He was sent to the Territory of Mississippi in July, 1797, with credentials to Major Isaac Guion, of the United States army, then in command of United States troops in the Territory. A letter from the Honorable James McHenry, the Secretary of War, under President John Adams, to Major Guion runs thus :


"Captain Narsworthy Hunter, who carries this dispatch, is a person in whom I believe confidence may be placed. He has been appointed inspector of the public stores and buildings at the posts on the east side of the Mississippi. You will see that he is respected accordingly."


Captain Hunter soon commended himself to the people of the Territory by his intelligence, purity of character, discretion and unquestioned patriotism. He was an edu- cated and cultivated gentleman, and before his election as the first delegate to the House of Representatives, he had been appointed as "agent of the people of the Territory,"


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to proceed to Philadelphia, the then Capital of the Govern- ment, and lay before the Congress of the United States the complaints of the citizens of the Territory of Mississippi, and the disabilities they were laboring under. These duties were performed with so much courage, ability, pru- dence and discretion, that Captain Hunter became im- mensely popular, and when the time arrived for the selec- tion of a delegate to represent the Territory in Congress, he had no difficulty in being chosen as the first delegate.


Captain Hunter took his seat December 7, 1801, in the Seventh Congress, and served until March 11, 1802, when he died, thus closing, prematurely, what might have been a long, useful and honorable career.


The Honorable Thomas Marston Green was elected to succeed Mr. Hunter in the Seventh Congress. He took his seat in the House in December, 1802, and served until March 3, 1803, when he declined a re-election. Mr. Green was the third child of Col. Thomas Green, who was an officer in the Provincial army, and his wife, Martha Wills, and was born in James City county, Virginia, February 26, 1758.


Mr. Green traced his lineage, through his maternal grand- mother, to the distinguished English Howard family, of which the Earl of Surry, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, was the head, whose daughter, Catherine Howard, became the fifth wife of King Henry VIII, and consequently Queen of England. He was also the cousin of General Green Clay, conspicuous in the early history of Kentucky-the father of the latter having married a sister of Thomas M. Green's father, and hence the name Green Clay. This name has been perpetuated in the family, and the name Green Clay is borne to-day by a prominent citizen of Mis- sissippi.


General Green Clay was the cousin of the Hon. Henry Clay, the "great commoner," and the father of Brutus Junius, and Cassius Marcellus Clay, the latter of whom became conspicuous fifty years ago by his opposition to the institution of slavery. During the administration of President Lincoln, Cassius M. Clay represented the United States at the court of the Colossal Empire of Russia.


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Mr. Green was a man of education and fortune. He came to the Mississippi Territory with his father and family in the year 1780. He settled in what is now Jeffer- son county, near Cole's Creek, in what was then known as the county of Pickering, where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred. February 7, 1813. He left many descendants, all of whom are recognized to-day as honorable and upright citizens in the States of Mississippi and Louisiana. His home, his broad acres, the oaks he planted, the house in which he lived for nearly a quarter of a century, built by him a hundred years ago, still re- main in the possession of his descendants.


Dr. Wm. Lattimore was born in the vicinity of Norfolk, Virginia, from where he migrated in company with his brother, Dr. David Lattimore, to Natchez, in the year 1801, where they soon succeeded in establishing a large and lucrative practice. Both were accomplished physicians and thorough gentlemen. Dr. Wm. Lattimore, however, soon developed a fondness for political life, and when the Hon. Thomas Marston Green, who had succeeded Hon. Narsworthy Hunter as a delegate in the 7th Congress, de- clined a re-election, Dr. Lattimore was chosen as his suc- cessor in the 8th, and was re-elected to the 9th Congress, serving from March 4th, 1803, to March 3d, 1807.


Hon. George Poindexter, a native of Louisa county, Virginia, was the fourth delegate chosen to represent the people of the Mississippi Territory, and served in the 10th, 11th and 12th Congresses of the United States. His service embraced a period of six years, from March 4th, 1807, to March 3d, 1813. Mr. Poindexter declined a re-election.


Dr. William Lattimore was again chosen to represent the people as the successor of Mr. Poindexter, and he con- tinued to serve as a delegate through the 13th and 14th Congresses. The last Congressional service of Dr. Latti- more extended from March 4th, 1813, to March 3d, 1817. In December of that year the Mississippi Territory ceased to exist, and Mississippi as a free, independent and sov- reign commonwealth, was admitted into the Union.




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