USA > Mississippi > Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II > Part 20
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In the meantime, Governor McNutt had inaugurated an unrelenting war against the Union bank, as well as all the other banks in the state. Two years previously, he had approved a law providing for the election by the legislature of three bank commissioners, who were to examine once a year into the condition of the several banks in the state and ascertain their capacity to meet their obligations, which, however, from many practical diffi-
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culties, was not productive of any good. In the governor's annual message to the legislature January, 1840, he recommended an immediate repeal of the charters of all the banks that were not able to meet promptly their obligations to their note-holders and depositors. In support of this proposition, he urged "the existing banks cannot be bolstered. Destitute as they are of credit and available means, it would be folly to attempt to infuse vigor and stability into their lifeless forms. They are powerless to do good, but capable of inflicting irreparable injuries."
In his next annual message, bearing date January 5, 1841, the governor renewed his assaults upon the Mississippi Union bank with great vigor, calling attention to the insolvent condition of the Mississippi Railway company, the Planters' bank of the state and the Missis- sippi Union bank, and their inability to resume specie payments or to make further loans. He favored, like his party (the democratic), the repudiation of the Union bank bonds. He argued that they were sold on a credit, instead of for cash, at their par value; that they had been purchased in the name of an institution-the United States bank of Pennsylvania-the charter of which absolutely prohibited that bank from buying or selling bonds or stocks other than issued by authority of the United States, or of the state of Pennsylvania. The legislature of that year, however, differed with the executive, and both houses, by decisive majorities, passed resolutions declaring that the honor of the state demanded that both the Union and Planters' bank bonds should be paid, both principal and interest.
The subject now had reached the proportions of a tremendous party question, and the whole state was stirred upon it with great popular excitement and partisan zeal. The demo- cratic convention which assembled in January, 1841, nominated Tighlman M. Tucker for governor, and other officers, but made no reference in the platform adopted to the bond question. There was an ominous silence upon this point. A little later, the whigs met in convention and nominated a full ticket with Judge David O. Shattuck as governor, all in entire accord with the convention on the bond question, which had taken in its platform strong ground in favor of paying the state bonds. After one of the most exciting political campaigns in the state, the democratic party was successful in electing its whole state ticket, and a majority in both branches of the legislature. The largest taxpayers were of the opinion that the obligation on the part of the state thus created should be met honestly, basing their advocacy of payment upon the broad ground of equity and fairdealing. Leading citizens of the state at this day, survivors of that period, regard the policy of repudiation, then adopted, as a blunder of the magnitude which Talleyrand said was worse than a crime. It was a thrilling party fight. The ablest men of the time-and there were many in the state then-were engaged in it on either side of the great question. It was upon this question that the golden mouthed orator furnished by the great state of Maine to the youth- ful southwestern Commonwealth, then in the zenith of his fame, extending with the confines of the Union, shed the transcendent glory of his imperial genius upon that memorable con- troversy in behalf of the good name and honor of Mississippi. It has been well said that he was to the whig party of Mississippi then what Charles Fox was to the whig party of England in his day. Albert Gallatin Brown, of South Carolina, was the fifth governor of the state chosen under the constitution of 1832. He was elected for two terms. During his second administration war commenced with Mexico, and with the aid of his skill, judgment and patriotism the first regiment of Mississippi, under the call made for volunteers from the Federal government, was organized and sent to that historic scene of international warfare, contributing much of the renown, prowess and valor which the American arms shed upon the flag of the United States. Governor Brown was one of the most prominent men of the
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state, and a strong pillar of the democratic party. He was essentially an ardent devotee to popular government and the principle of not tampering with the powers reserved to the people. He was for several terms in the national house of representatives, and from 1855 to '59 was a distinguished member of the United States senate. He and his colleague, Jef- ferson Davis, resigned their seats upon the receipt of the intelligence that the state had passed an ordinance of secession from the Union. His service as a member of the Confede- rate senate closed his public life.
John A. Quitman, of New York, after returning from Mexico with the fresh laurels won as a major-general on that foreign battlefield in behalf of his country, became the nominee of the democratic party for governor, being easily elected, and was inaugurated in January, 1850.
Under Governor Quitman's administration, the compromise measures pending in con- gress were the vital subject of public interest and discussion. The first legislature during the administration of Governor Quitman called a convention of delegates to meet in Sep- tember, 1851, to take measures for the " redress of grievances." California, with a consti- tution prohibiting the introduction of slaves into her territory, had just been admitted into the Union. Public opinion in the state was to the effect that this was the denial of an invi- olable right. A convention composed of delegates from several Southern states had assem- bled at Nashville in 1850, adopting inflammatory resolutions. Mississippi soon became precipitated into a wild scene of political excitement over the all-absorbing question. Old party ties were loosened, and new political organizations of the old ones formed.
General Quitman had been renominated for election as governor by the democratic party, and his opponents, composed in great part of the old whig party, reinforced by a considerable contingent of democrats, and calling themselves the Union party, nominated for governor Henry S. Foote, then a United States senator from Mississippi. The canvass was a warm and heady contest and much bitter feeling and excitement was engendered. Each party had its candidate for the convention and the legislature in the field in every county in the state. The election of delegates took place in August, 1851, and resulted in an overwhelming triumph of the Union party. Governor Quitman, seeing that the people had pronounced against him by very decided action, abandoned the contest. This left the party resisting the policy of the compromise measure without a leader, and all eyes were turned to Jefferson Davis, with the confident hope that he would be enabled to stand the tide that had set in with such increasing momentum and fury against the old order of political thought and organization in the state. He entered upon the herculean task of seeking to overcome a majority of nearly seven thousand which the Union party had obtained at the August election of delegates to the convention, but succeeded only in reducing it to about nine hundred votes, the majority by which Senator Foote was elected. The convention which had been called had assembled in September and declared its unalterable fealty to the Union.
Henry S. Foote, a native of Virginia, was elected governor in 1854, and was the eighth chosen under the constitution of 1832. As has been alluded to, he was a member of the United States senate when nominated for governor by the Union party. He was a doughty fighter in party warfare, and a very prominent figure in the politics of Mississippi a half century ago. During Governor Foote's administration the legislature passed an act submit- ting the question to the people whether or not they should repudiate the bonds of the state, the proceeds of which had been used to pay for the stock subscribed and owned by the state in the Planters' bank. The question was presented to the people at the presidential election of that year and the debt was repudiated, which had been unanimously pronounced by the
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senate as a legal and binding obligation, and to meet the payment of which the faith of the state had been repeatedly pledged. The high court of errors and appeals during Gover- nor Foote's administration affirmed the validity of the issuance and sale of the bonds of Mississippi sold to raise money with which to pay for the stock owned by the state in the bank. The court was unanimous and the opinion clear and emphatic that the state was justly indebted to the holders of the bonds, and that they should be paid; but the decision of the court was of no avail, as they remain to this day unpaid.
Governor Foote removed, finally, to Tennessee, after the close of his term, which state he represented in the Confederate congress. He was appointed by General Grant superin- tendent of the United States mint at New Orleans, which position he held at the time of his death, in 1880.
John J. Pettus, a native of Alabama, was nominated by the democratic party in 1859 for governor, and was elected and installed in office in January, 1860. In the second year of his administration the secession convention met on the 7th day of January, 1861, in pur- suance of an act of the legislature, directly representing the sovereignty of the people. Hon. William S. Barry was elected president. L. Q. C. Lamar, who has been a member of both houses of congress since the war, secretary of the interior under Cleveland's adminis- tration, and now an associate justice of the supreme court of the United States, was a mem- ber of that memorable convention. He offered a resolution that a committee of fifteen be appointed by the president to prepare and report an ordinance for the withdrawal of the state from the Federal union, with a view to the establishment of a new confederacy to be composed of the seceding states. The committee consisted of L. Q. C. Lamar. Wiley P. Harris, Samuel J. Gholson, James L. Alcorn, Henry T. Ellett, Walker Brooke, Hugh R. Miller, John A. Blair, Alexander M. Clayton, Alfred Holt, James Z. George, E. H. Sanders, Ben. King, George R. Clayton, and Orlando Davis. These were among the most lead- ing and prominent men in the state at that period. Mr. Lamar, from the committee, reported: "An ordinance to dissolve the union between the state of Mississippi and the states united with her under the compact entitled the 'Constitution of the United States,' recommending that it do pass." Jacob S. Yerger, a member of the convention, offered an amendment by way of substitute, providing "for the final adjustment of all difficulties between the free and slave states of the United States by securing further constitutional guarantee within the present union." This substitute was lost by a vote of seventy-eight to twenty-one. James L. Alcorn offered an additional section that, " The ordinance shall not go into effect until the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana shall resolve to secede from the Union and resolve their sovereignty." This was lost by a vote of seventy-four to twenty-five. Walker Brooke offered an amendment, submitting to the qualified electors of the state the ordinance for their ratification or rejection. This amendment was likewise voted down. Mr. Lamar then reported the following ordinance of secession, which was passed by a vote of eighty-four to fifteen: "The people of the state of Mississippi, in con- vention assembled, do ordain and declare, and it is hereby ordained and declared as follows, to-wit: Section 1. That all the laws and ordinances by which the said state of Mississippi became a member of the Federal union of the United States of America, be, and the same are hereby, repealed, and that all the obligations on the part of said state or people thereof, to observe the same, be withdrawn, and that the said state doth hereby assume all the rights, functions and powers which by any of said laws or ordinances were conveyed to the govern- ment of the said United States, and is absolved from all the obligations, restraints and duties incurred to the said Federal union, and shall from henceforth be a free, sovereign and inde-
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pendent state. Sec. 2. That so much of the first section of the seventh article of the constitution of the state as requires members of the legislature, and all officers, executive and judicial, to take an oath or affirmation to support the constitution of the United States, be, and the same is, hereby abrogated and annulled. Sec. 3. That all rights acquired and vested under the constitution of the United States, or under any act of congress passed, or treaty made, in pursuance thereof, or any law of this state, and not incompatible with this ordinance, shall remain in force, and have the same effect as if this ordinance had not been passed. Sec. 4. That the people of the state of Mississippi hereby consent to form a federal union with such of the states as may have seceded, or may secede, from the Union of the United States of America, upon the basis of the present constitution of the said United States, except such parts thereof as embrace other portions than such seceding states.
"Thus ordained and declared in convention the ninth day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
"In testimony of the passage of which and the determination of the members of this convention to uphold and maintain the state in the position she has assumed in said ordi -. nance, it is signed by the president and members of this convention this the 15th day of January, A. D. 1861."
There were ninety-seven members of this convention, chosen upon the representative basis of the counties in the legislature. Every member of the convention signed the ordi- nance except one-Dr. J. J. Thornton, of Rankin county.
Mr. Lamar offered the following resolution in the convention: "That the commissioners appointed by his excellency the governor, in pursuance of a resolution of the legislature of the state of Mississippi providing for the appointment of commissioners, approved November 30, 1860, be furnished each with a copy of the ordinance of secession adopted by this convention, and that they be requested to submit the same to the conventions of the states to which they have been accredited and solicit the cooperation of said states with the action of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama." The following gentlemen were elected delegates to the Montgomery convention of the seceding states which formed the Confed- erate government: Wiley P. Harris, Walter Brooke, W. S. Wilson, A. M. Clayton, W. S. Barry, James T. Harrison and J. A. P. Campbell. The following were elected to the congress of the new confederacy when it should be established: Jefferson Davis and Albert G. Brown to the senate; Reuben Davis (a brother to Jefferson Davis), L. Q. C. Lamar, William Barksdale, Otho R. Singleton and John J. McRae to the house.
The governor of the state, charged with sending commissioners to several slave-holding states, asking them to cooperate with the state of Mississippi in seceding from the Federal union, appointed the following commissioners: To Tennessee, Thomas J. Wharton; to South Carolina, Charles Edward Hooker; to North Carolina, Jacob Thompson; to Louisiana, Wirt Adams; to Maryland, A. H. Handy; to Arkansas, George R. Fall; to Kentucky, W. S. Featherston: to Georgia, W. L. Harris; to Virginia, Fulton Anderson.
Governors Pettus and Charles Clark, a native of Ohio, presided over the destinies of the state during the war. In May, 1865, Governor Clarke issued the following executive order: "General Taylor informs me that all Confederate armies east of the Mississippi river are surrendered, with all government cotton, quartermaster, commissary and other stores. Federal commanders will only send such troops as may be necessary to guard public prop- erty. All officers and persons in possession of public stores will be held to a rigid account- ability and all embezzlers certainly arrested. Arrangements will be made to issue supplies to the destitute. I have called the legislature to convene at Jackson on Thursday, the 18th
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instant. 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. Sheriffs have power to call out the posse comitatus and the militia will keep armed 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 county will be avoided. You are therefore urged to combine to arrest the 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. That 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."
By order of the president Governor Clarke was imprisoned at Fort Pulaski and William L. Sharkey, an old-line whig and a prominent Union man in the secession contest, appointed by President Johnson provisional governor in 1865. Governor Sharkey issued a proclama- tion calling 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."
The convention which assembled in response to the proclamation adopted the policy suggested by it and so framed the amendment as to be in full accord with the constitution of the United States. The convention was composed of ninety-eight delegates, seventy whigs and twenty-eight democrats. The convention adopted an amendment to the constitu- tion recognizing the abolition of slavery and providing that "Neither slavery or involuntary servitude, otherwise 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."
The amendments to the constitution fully recognized the abolition of slavery and that the negroes were to be citizens of the state and that they would at least for some time reside there, and that it was not only necessary to provide such legislation for their protection and education, but also to throw all possible moral influences around them.
Benjamin G. Humphreys, a native of the state, was the first governor elected by the people after the war. He was installed in October, 1865. In his inaugural address he said:
"It has been reported from some quarters that our people are insincere and the spirit of revolt is rampant among us. But if an unflinching fidelity in war gives evidence of reliable fidelity in peace, if the unvarying professions that spring from private and public sources furnish any evidence of truth, it is sufficiently demonstrated that the people of the South, who so long and against such terrible odds maintained the mightiest conflict of modern ages, may be safely trusted when they professed more than a willingness to return to their allegiance.
"The South, having ventured all upon the arbitrament of the sword, has lost all save her honor, and now accepts the result in good faith."
At this session of the legislature Judge William L. Sharkey and James L. Alcorn were elected United States senators. They were both leading old-line whigs before the war, both gentlemen of high character, education and refinement. Judge Sharkey had been chief justice of the supreme court of the state for many years. He was eminent as a jurist of commanding and imperishable fame among Mississippians. The admirable equipoise of judgment, well-tempered views and safe conclusions which distinguished his course always
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in the politics of the state when called upon for advice made him the oracle of the people, without party distinction, in time of public trial, peril and calamity. General Alcorn was a leader of his party. With his enlarged views of governmental polity and attachment to American institutions and to his own state, with a trained intellect and the grasp of mind of the philosophic statesman, the state was fortunate in having his services in the executive department of the government, as well as in the national senate, where he was afterward seated during the "reconstruction era."
These gentlemen, having opposed the secession of the states, were, from the considera- tion of their conservatism and unquestioned abilities, selected because it was thought there would be no objection offered to their being admitted to seats in the senate, and that they would exercise a wholesome influence toward restoring the state to her former relations in the Union.
A committee had been appointed by the convention, in August, to submit to the apprcaching legislature such new laws and changes in existing statutes as they deemed expedient to meet the changed domestic relation, and secure obedience to law and order. It was necessary to clothe the negroes with civil rights. At the session of the legislature, Governor Humphreys, in his special message, recommended the enactment of statutes con- ferring upon freedmen the right to testify in all cases in court. In October, 1866, Governor Humphreys convened the legislature in extra session. In his message to the body he took the ground that the proposed amendment to the constitution of the United States would destroy the rights of the state, and referred to the antagonism existing between the presi- dent and congress.
It was at this session that the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States was submitted to the legislature for its action. The joint standing committee on state and Federal relations recommended that the state refuse to ratify the amendment to the constitution of the United States, which was adopted without a dissenting vote. Judge H. F. Simrell was the chairman of this committee, who has since sat upon the supreme court bench of the state, appointed by a republican executive. Mississippi had not yet been restored to the Union. Her senators and representatives were refused seats in the national congress. The states of Mississippi and Arkansas were made a military district, with Gen. Edwin Ord in command, who issued an order in March, 1867, for an election of delegates to a convention to revise or make a new constitution of the state. This convention, on account of the many negroes of which it was in great part composed, was dubbed "the black and tan convention." The constitution of 1868 was submitted to the people for their ratification or rejection, and it was defeated. It was contended by the republican party, which was now thoroughly organized in the state, that the result was accomplished by intimidation and fraud. It was sought, when President Grant was elected, to invoke the power of the Fed- eral government to consummate an effort which was made to save the constitution as submitted. General Grant thought, however, that it would be just and proper to recom- mend to congress to provide for the holding of another election, and allow the people the privilege of voting for or against the disfranchising clauses which it contained, separately, as well as for state officers, representatives in congress and in the legislature, which had been denied in the former election.
This provision, as submitted, embraced the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the constitution of the United States, which provided for the right of suffrage without regard to race, color or previous condition of servitnde. The election was held in 1869, and the white people of the state accepted the constitution as modified and recommended by the
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president. This constitution has existed for sixteen years of democratic administration of the state government, and when it was changed, many leading democrats in the party of to-day, among them Gen. Edward Walthall, now in the United States senate from Mississippi, opposed it.
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