USA > Mississippi > A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river > Part 31
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"This," said Mr. Lincoln, "is a most valuable and most sacred right. A right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world."
"Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it."
"Any portion of such people that can. may revolutionize, putting down a minority intermingled with or near about them who oppose their movements."
"Such a minority was precisely the case of the Tories of the Revolution. It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines or old laws, but to break up both and make new ones."
And yet when the hour of parting came, the hearts of the members of the Convention, and the large number of spectators, who were present to witness the final act in the great drama, were filled with a feeling of undefinable sad- ness. As the last words of the earnest and fervent invoca- tion to the great white throne fell upon the ears of the hearers, men "all unused to the melting mood" found their eyes growing dim with "the spring dew of the heart." All felt that they were turning their backs upon the old home and the old flag that they had loved so well. They all felt that they were leaving the house builded by their ancestors, every stone of which was consecrated in the blood of their fathers, and bedewed with the tears of their mothers. The starry old flag, too, whose folds their fathers and brothers had garlanded with new glories, was to be henceforth a strange, and possibly a hostile one. With these memories of the glorious past crowding thick and fast upon them, it is not strange, therefore, that their hearts should have been stirred, or that their "eyes should have
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played the woman." It was at this moment that the roar of artillery was heard from the outside, and the sound of bells was heard ringing in the halls and corridors of the capitol. These sounds were intended to voice the joy of the people, but they fell with a harsh and discordant tone upon the ears of the listeners in the hall of the House of Representatives, and it is questionable it any who heard them did not incontinently pronounce them,
"Sweet bells jangled harsh, and out of tune,"
so inapposite were they to the over-laden hearts of those who listened.
Governor Pettus labored zealously and co-operated earn- estly with both the Convention and the Legislature of Mis- sissippi to put the State in the best possible condition for defensive operations.
In November, 1861, Governor Pettus was re-elected for a second term, and when, in January, 1862, he was again inducted into office, war was flagrant, and its baleful fires were blazing in nearly every Southern State. In the course of the year 1863, by virtue of constitutional authori- ty vested in him, and by reason of the close proximity of the forces of the enemy and the threatened danger to the archives of the State, Governor Pettus ordered the removal of all the government offices to a place of safety. The city of Columbus, in Lowndes county, was selected as the tem- porary seat of government, and to that place all the offices and their records were removed.
Governor Pettus was unquestionably an earnest and honest patriot. He labored zealously to advance the best interests of the State, and to promote the happiness of all its people. He was succeeded in January, 1864, by Gen- eral Charles Clark, who had been elected at the general election in November, 1863.
With the surrender of General Robert E. Lee, and the consequent termination of hostilities, Governor Pettus lost heart and hope. He abandoned Mississippi, went to the State of Arkansas, lived the life of a recluse, and soon passed away.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR CHARLES CLARK.
O HARLES CLARK, born in the State of Ohio, May, 1811, was elected in November, 1863, and thus became the seventeenth Governor of Mississippi, and the twelfth chosen under the Constitution of 1832.
Governor Clark was lineally descended from one of two brothers, Clark, by name, and both natives of England, who came over in the Mayflower. The elder of the brothers remained in the colony of Massachusetts, but the younger drifted to the colony of Maryland, where he married and raised a large family. From this Maryland progenitor was descended Charles Clark, who was the seventeenth chief magistrate of the commonwealth, and who embodied in his own person all the better elements of the lawyer, the soldier, the statesman, the planter and the gentleman.
After graduating at the Augusta College, in Kentucky, young Clark migrated to Mississippi as a school teacher. He was first employed as a teacher in Natchez, when a yellow fever epidemic scattered his pupils, and broke up his school. Not desiring a closer acquaintance with yel- low fever, he walked to Benton, the seat of justice for Yazoo county. He arrived there with precisely seventy-five cents in his pocket, but there was in the vocabulary of Charles Clark, glowing with youth, energy and ambition, "no such word as fail." He soon obtained a school in Yazoo, and while there formed the acquaintance of John M. Sharp. That acquaintance ripened into a life-long friendship be- tween those sturdy men of action and energy.
During his hours of leisure, Clark never for a moment lost sight of the object he had in view. He had determined to adopt the law as a profession, and as soon as he was
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prepared, was admitted to the bar. After passing his ex- amination he located in Fayette, in Jefferson county, where he soon secured the friendship and the influence of General Thomas Hinds and other prominent gentlemen, and his suc- cess was assured. He had secured a large planting inter- est in Bolivar county, which he finally made his home. He served as a representative of both counties in the Leg- islature. His connection with the second regiment in Mexico has been adverted to elsewhere, as is his command of brigades and divisions in the Confederate army. It is only necessary to add that at the battle of Baton Rouge in August, 1862, where he was desperately wounded and dis- abled for further military service, the people called him from his retirement to perform executive duties.
General Clark was inducted into office in January, 1864, and labored zealously to improve the condition of the soldiers of Mississippi already in the field, and to bring forth every man for the defence of the women and children left at home. When the end came, in the total failure of the cause for which General Clark had perilled his life and shed his blood, he met the result with the calm fortitude of a hero.
Immediately after the surrender of Lieutenant-General Taylor, commanding the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana, to General Canby, commanding the Uni- ted States forces in this quarter, Governor Clark convened the Legislature, in order that the State might be speedily placed in accord with the government at Washington, un- der the new order of things. The Legislature was sum- moned to meet at the capital on the 18th day of May, 1865. The offices and archives were ordered to be removed to Jackson, and on May 6th, 1865, Governor Clarke issued the following proclamation to the people. It will be read to-day with interest :
PROCLAMATION.
MERIDIAN, MISS., May 6, 1865.
To the People of Mississippi :
General Taylor informs me that all Confederate armies east of the Mississippi river are surrendered, with all government
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cotton, quartermaster, commissary and other stores. Federal commanders will only send such troops as may be necessary to guard public property. All officers and persons in possession of public stores will be held to a rigid accountability, and all em- bezzlers certainly arrested. Arrangements will be made to is- sue supplies to the destitute. I have called the Legislature to convene at Jackson on Thursday, the 18th inst. They will doubtless order a Convention.
The officers of the State government will immediately return with the archives to Jackson. County officers will be vigilant in the preservation of order and the protection of property. Sher- iffs have power to call out the posse comitatus, and the militia will keep arms and obey orders for that purpose, as in times of peace. The civil laws must be enforced, as they now are, until repealed. If the public property be protected, and the peace preserved, the necessity for Federal troops in your counties will be avoided. You are therefore urged to combine to arrest marauders and plunderers.
The collection of taxes should be suspended, as the laws will doubtless be changed. Masters are responsible as heretofore, for the protection and conduct of their slaves, and they should be kept at home as heretofore. Let all citizens fearlessly adhere to the fortunes of the State, aid the returned soldiers to obtain civil employment, maintain law and order, contemn all twelfth- hour vaporers, and meet stern facts with fortitude and common sense.
CHARLES CLARKE, Governor of Mississippi.
It is evident, from the tenor of this proclamation, that if Governor Clarke had been let alone, his wonderfully sound sense and almost unerring judgment would have soon put the State into harmonious relations with the fed- eral government, and thus have averted nearly ten years of ruin, wrong and outrage upon a defenceless people. This was not to be so, however.
Instead of commending and supporting the wise and patriotic course of the Governor in his efforts for restora- tion and peace, the grand old soldier was arrested, torn from the bosom of his family, and under a military guard sent to Fort Pulaski and there imprisoned. It was at that time alleged that Andrew Johnson, President of the Uni- ted States, and commander-in-chief of the army and navy, had issued this harsh and disgraceful order, that sent into confinement, while suffering from severe and pain- ful wounds, as true a gentleman and brave a soldier as ever drew a sword in defence of the honor of his coun- try.
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How gladly President Johnson would have recalled his action is shown by a message to Congress in the early part of 1867, in which he said: "Mississippi, in common with other seceding States, had a government with all the powers, executive, judicial and legislative, which belong to a free State." If he had upheld and promoted the pol- icy inaugurated by Governor Clark, instead of exhibiting that moral weakness which came near destroying the whole machinery of republican government, this State would have taken its place with restored relations, and would have been exempt from the plundering and brain- less adventurers who congregated here from every quarter of the country. These pilgrims of plunder, with Federal protection as their capital, and robbery as their purpose, induced the negroes, by appeals and avowals of friend- ship, to join secret societies, loyal leagues, etc., until they had full control of those ignorant, poor and misguided creatures, who were used at the ballot box, reckless of right, and with self-gain as the only object of those whose instruments they were ..
Governor Clark survived the wounds he had received during the war, until December, 1877. He had been ap- pointed by Governor John M. Stone in 1876, to the posi- tion of Chancellor for the Chancery district in which he resided, and the duties of that position he discharged with exemplary patience and diligence to the last, and with a degree of ability and moral uprightness rarely surpassed.
Among the distinguished soldiers that have led the sons of Mississippi to battle, none were braver, none more pru- dent. In every position to which he was called, whether as a member of the Legislature, Governor of the State, or Chancellor, no man ever discharged his duty with more courage, honor and fidelity. Though born in Ohio, Missis- sippi has never had a son truer to her interests and her honor than was Charles Clark.
President Johnson appointed Judge Wm. L. Sharkey, an old line Whig, and a prominent Union man in the seces- sion contest, Provisional Governor in 1865, and in July fol- lowing Governor Sharkey issued a proclamation advising the people of the State of his appointment, and his desire to 23
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organize a State government; that he was also charged with the duty of convening a Convention, to be composed of delegates who were loyal to the United States, for the purpose of "altering or amending the Constitution," to enable the State to "resume its place in the Union."
Governor Sharkey retained county officers who were then discharging their duties as such, except where charges of disloyalty were made and sustained. He ad- monished the people that the negroes were "not only free by the fortunes of war, but by common consent."
The convention which assembled under the proclamation of the Provisional Governor adopted the policy suggested in that instrument and so framed the amendments as to be in full accord with the Constitution of the United States.
In the meantime, President Johnson, realizing his blun- ders in his efforts to induce northern Republicans to be- lieve him true to them, and at the same time realizing that
Congress was daily growing more inimical to him, made haste, in December, 1865, to submit to that body a mes- sage, in which he was pleased to say that "the rebellion had been suppressed ;" that the Confederate States "ac- knowledged obedience to the government of the United States ; that United States Courts had been re-established and their jurisdiction accepted."
The Convention of 1865 convened on the 14th day of August. Permanent organization was effected by the elec- tion of Hon. Jacob S. Yerger, of Washington, President ; J. L. Power, of Hinds, Secretary ; T. C. McMackin, of Hinds, Sergeant-at-arms; and Wm. J. Brown, of Hinds, Door- keeper.
It may be safely stated that there has never been assembled in this State a deliberative body composed of men of more marked and distinguished abilities than those who sat in that Convention. Ministers, planters, physi- cians and merchants, who were members of the Conven- tion, were men of ability in their several vocations, and were chosen because of their sound judgment and known conservatism. Among the lawyers were many of the most prominent and distinguished in the State-Judge Jacob S. Yerger of Washington county, E. J. Goode of Lawrence,
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Jas. T. Harrison of Lowndes, David W. Hurst of Amite, Jas. S. Hamm of Kemper, Lock E. Houston of Monroe, Amos R. Johnston of Hinds, Harvey F. Johnson of Smith, Wm. Yerger of Hinds, Hugh A. Barr of Lafayette, Jas. S. Bailey of Tallahatchie, Thomas A. Marshall of Warren, Will T. Martin of Adams, E. G. Peyton of Copiah, George L. Potter of Hinds, Jno. W. C. Watson of Marshall, Rich- ard Cooper of Rankin, Robert A. Hill of Tishomingo, Hampton L. Jarnagin of Noxubee, Robert S. Hudson of Yazoo, Wm. A. Stone of Copiah, Jason Niles of Attala, Jas. H. Maury of Claiborne, and other younger but promis- ing members of the bar.
The Convention consisted of ninety-eight delegates- seventy Whigs and twenty-eight Democrats. Twenty-one were natives of Tennessee, fourteen of South Carolina, twelve of Virginia, eleven of Mississippi, ten of North Carolina, nine of Georgia, eight of Kentucky, three of Alabama, two of Pennsylvania, one of New York, one of Vermont, one of Connecticut, one of Maine, District of Columbia one, and Ireland one. The youngest man in the Convention was Hon. J. P. Carter, of Perry county.
The leading spirits of the Convention were in full accord with the Provisional Governor, and realized that four years of war had reduced the people of the State from a high degree of wealth and prosperity to absolute poverty, and that having staked all on the arbitrament of war and suffered defeat, they desired for themselves and the people they represented that the State should resume its former relations to the general government, and the restoration of civil law. To this end an amendment to the Constitution was adopted recognizing the abolition of slavery, and pro- viding that "neither slavery or involuntary servitude, other- wise than in the punishment of crimes, shall hereafter exist in the State," and also declared the ordinance of secession passed by the Convention of 1861, null and void.
An ordinance was also passed repealing all ordinances and resolutions adopted in the Convention of 1861, having for their object "the regulation of the military system," raising revenue for war purposes, etc.
The members of the Convention undertook, in a sensible
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and manly way, to deal with the situation as it existed. They were not unmindful of the fact that pending the armistice between Generals Wm. T. Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston, while the troops of the latter were at Greens- boro, North Carolina, it was agreed among other things that the proclamations touching slavery should be deter- mined by the Supreme Court of the United States.
'This writer, without consultation with his associate, submits the subjoined letter addressed to the delegates of the Convention as expressive of the feelings of all the peo- ple of the State at the time it was penned.
[From the Jackson Daily News.]
To the Members of the State Convention :
GENTLEMEN-Among the many delicate and important duties devolved upon you in this trying hour, there is one which should be, to every Mississippian at least, a most solemn as well as grateful duty-one which should neither be forgotten nor neglected by any man who respects himself, or regards the honor of Mississippi. I allude to the present condition of Jeffer- son Davis, lately President of the Confederate States, and Charles Clark, late Governor of our own State. They are both the inmates of a loathsome prison. The one is immured in Fortress Monroe, and the other is incarcerated in Fort Pulaski, near Savannah. Of the treatment of Governor Clark, nothing is known. Of that of President Davis, we only know from con- current newspaper reports, that he is denied the privilege of speech, even with his jailers, when they bring him his daily food, and is not permitted to confer with his legal advisers save in writing, transmitted through Mr. Secretary Stanton.
He is not allowed either books or papers, and in the lonely hours of his imprisonment his own high thoughts and the recollections of the stirring past are his only companions. Jefferson Davis and Charles Clark were our chiefs-the one was our President, the other was our Governor. The time was when the people of Mississippi delighted to honor both, but each conferred more honor upon the State than he ever derived from it. In the day of their power and glory, there were sycophants without num- ber to fawn upon and flatter them. In the dark hour of their adversity will the men of Mississippi refuse to sustain and sup- port them? They are now State prisoners, each charged with treason, and President Davis is, in addition, charged with an atrocious crime, one from which every instinct of his honorable and lofty nature revolts with loathing and horror.
If President Davis and Governor Clark are traitors, what man in the State is not also a traitor ? If they are guilty,, are you and I, gentlemen of the Convention, innocent ? You and I have
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accepted the amnesty offered us by President Johnson, and by taking the oath of amnesty and allegiance have purged ourselves from the effects of our alleged treason ? Shall we now, having, as much from our official and personal insignificance, as from any other cause, perhaps, secured our own safety, ignobly pursue our favorite vocations in quiet, and leave the men whom we placed in the front rank of honor and danger to drag out a miserable existence in a loathsome dungeon, without an effort on our part to ameliorate their condition or procure their release ? For the honor of Mississippi, I hope not.
The manhood of her sons-the virtue and constancy of her daughters forbid it. For all physical purposes we are powerless, but brave men can always make themselves respected, even in the hour of their direst misery .. There is a dignity in misfor- tune, when bravely borne, which commands admiration. It is in your power, gentlemen, to show to the world how a brave people can bear misfortune without forfeiting their self-respect, or forgetting their manliness. You represent the people of Mis- sissippi in their sovereign capacity. You are assembled to per- form the highest duties, and there is none higher, more sacred, and let me add more honorable, than a manly and honest effort to procure the discharge of Jefferson Davis and Charles Clark. Adopt unanimously, gentlemen of the Convention, a memorial to President Johnson, asking for their discharge, or if this be impracticable, for their parole until they shall be tried on sueh charges as may be preferred against them. Let the memorial be respectful, manly and firm, indicating neither the spirit of the bully nor the abjectness of the craven.
Let the President be informed that every man, woman and child in the State would hail with delight the discharge of Jeffer- son Davis and Charles Clark, and that while performing an act of humanity which will do him honor long after the perishable vanities of this world shall have faded from his vision, that from every altar where brave men and virtuous women kneel to offer their invocations to "the great white throne," for years to come the name of Andrew Johnson will be remembered and coupled with prayers for blessings upon the man who while passion reigned supreme and hate ruled the hour, dared to be generous and magnanimous to fallen foes.
Make the effort, gentlemen, and if you fail, you will at least be consoled with the reflection that you have made an honest and manly effort to save two old men, " broken with the cares of state," who, whatever their faults, have been true to us ; men who were faithful among the faithless, who, when the false, the base and the cowardly fell from us, stood only the firmer by their colors.
In fortune and adversity Jefferson Davis and Charles Clark have illustrated the dignity of manhood and ennobled human
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nature, and in attempting to serve them in this dark hour you will be honoring yourselves.
I am, gentlemen, very respectfully, your fellow citizen, WILLIAM H. MCCARDLE.
Jackson, Miss., August 17th, 1865.
When General Sherman reported the terms in this re- gard he was ordered at once to resume hostilities and ad- vised that his duty was to deal with the enemy in his front. The prompt rejection by the Federal authorities of the proposition to submit the question of slavery to the Supreme Court of the United States, was but a declaration that the emancipation proclamation would be sustained and enforced.
It was understood at the time that severe criticisms were visited upon General Sherman by the authorities at Washington, especially by the Secretary of War, E. M. Stanton, and also by the Northern press, going so far as to say he had been over-reached by General Johnston.
When hostilities had ceased, and General Sherman had reached Washington at the head of his large army, among the many who rushed to pay their respects was the Secre- tary of War, Mr. Stanton, but when he extended his hand the General drew back and declined to touch it.
The amendments to the constitution were broad, conser- vative and patriotic. They recognized that slavery was abolished, and that this State was the home of the negro; that it was not only necessary to enact a code of laws for his protection in the new relation of freedman, but at the same time direct his mind to the necessity for honest labor.
The Legislature convened at the city of Jackson, on October 16th, 1865, in compliance with an ordinance adopted by the convention in August. The Senate was organized by the election of Hon. J. M. Simonton, Presi- dent, D. P. Porter, Secretary, and D. M. Wilkinson, Door- keeper. The House elected Hon. S. J. Gholson, of Monroe, Speaker, Robt. C. Miller, of Clarke, Clerk, and Henry Moode, of Hinds, Doorkeeper.
Immediately upon the organization of the two houses, they went into joint convention to count the vote for Gov-
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ernor, the candidates being Judge E. S. Fisher, Hon. Wm S. Patton and General Benjamin G. Humphreys. General Humphreys having received the largest number of votes was declared duly and constitutionally elected.
On the same day the two houses again met in joint assembly and were addressed by the Provisional Governor, W. L. Sharkey, after which the Governor-elect delivered his inaugural and took the oath of office, administered by Hon. W. L. Sharkey.
ยท
CHAPTER XVIII.
ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR BENJ. G. HUMPHREYS.
B ENJAMIN G. HUMPHREYS, born in what is now known as Claiborne county, in the year 1808, became the eighteenth Governor of the Commonwealth of Missis- sippi and the thirteenth chosen under the constitution of 1832. He was born nine years before the Territory was admitted to the rights and honors of Statehood. He was the son of George Wilson Humphreys, who was a promi- nent and influential factor in all Territorial affairs. Col. Ralph Humphreys, who commanded a Virginia infantry regiment during the entire revolutionary struggle, was his paternal grandfather and he was closely related to the Hon. James Wilson, one of the very great men who sat in the convention which framed the Constitution of the United States, as a delegate from the colony of Pennsylvania. The name Wilson has been borne in the family of Hum- phreys for three generations, and is still proudly worn.
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