Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 53

Author: Dunbar Rowland
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant
Number of Pages: 1020

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John A. Quitman met him at Charlottesville in 1831, and wrote to J. F. H. Claiborne : "He is a man of extraordinary intellectual powers. You knew him from your childhood, and I do not now wonder at your risking your popularity to support him. He has fascinated me. How is it that his private character is so bad. Why do we hear so much said against him in Adams county? His intemperance, his gambling, his libertinism, and his dishon- esty? He gives no indications of these defects, and he is here, where he once resided, taken by the hand by the first people and followed by the crowd."

His message as governor, in the exciting period of the Missouri discussion, had shown his views on "state rights." In 1821 he said: "A confederacy of States, each independent within its sphere of action, united by the strong cords of interest and safety, and by solemn compact pledged to each other for the common defence and general welfare of the whole; with a constitution deriving its origin from these considerations and limited, by the written will of those from whom it emanated, to purposes in which all are alike interested, and conferring powers sufficiently comprehensive to enforce and maintain domestic order and tranquility and a due respect for our rights among the nations of the earth-a union thus constructed, having for its support the affections and con- fidence of a free people, cannot be severed by the jarrings of dis- cordant factions, or the combined efforts of all tyrants who wield with despotic sway the physical strength of Europe."

In 1819 he had said: "I too, am a conservator of the Constitu- tion ; I venerate that stupendous fabric of human wisdom.

I admonish gentlemen, who manifest such ardent zeal to fortify

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the powers of this house against military usurpations, that they do not suffer that zeal to precipitate them into an error equally repugnant to a sound construction of the Constitution." He cited the action of Washington in drawing money from the treasury without authority of law to suppress the insurrection of 1794, and denied the power of congress to censure Jackson, who was subject only to the orders of the president, as commander-in-chief of the army. He declared that these gentlemen who assailed the general were the same who had opposed the renewal of the charter of the old Bank of the United States, as unconstitutional, and later aided in establishing "the mammoth bank, which threatens to sweep with the besom of destruction every other moneyed institution in the nation into the gulf of ruin and bankruptcy."

But at the time of Poindexter's coming to the senate, there was a new alignment, created by the subtle genius of John C. Calhoun. Trouble began between Jackson and Calhoun on account of the revelation that the South Carolinian had been a secret enemy in the day when Poindexter was a friend. But the new alignment made Poindexter desert Jackson for Calhoun at this juncture. Always a fighter, the great Mississippian's nature was intensified by the torture.of illness and heart-breaking misfortune. Now he chose no mean antagonist, but entered the list against the foremost man of America.

His trouble with Jackson began over the federal appointments. There was no such portentous assumption of senatorial "patron- age" as now flourishes. Poindexter simply asked that Mississip- pians be appointed to the offices within the State. In 1831 Major Dowsing and Hanson Alsbury asked appointment to the office of surveyor-general. Jackson appointed his nephew, S. D. Hays, of Tennessee, whereupon Poindexter secured the defeat of the nomination by the senate. The president arranged it by promoting Fitz from the land office and appointing Hays to the latter vacancy. There was great irritation among the politicians over the neglect of Mississippians in the appointments in connection with the In- dian treaties and removals. But the great fight was over the ap- pointment of Samuel Gwin, of Tennessee, to a land office in Mis- sissippi. Poindexter said he tried to conciliate Jackson, at the same time insisting that the office should go to a Mississippian, but the president insisted. Gwin was rejected and then all inter- course between the president and senator ceased, Poindexter com- plaining that Jackson was extremely intemperate in his language and grossly vituperative. The purpose of Jackson to make Van- Buren his successor, closing the door in the faces of some eminent Southern statesman, was the heart of the fight. When the Clem- ents letter was sprung in the senate, to defeat the nomination of VanBuren as minister to England, Poindexter and Gabriel Moore were accused of having bought it of an intriguer.

In 1831 it was talked in the State that he had "deserted the Jackson cause." In a letter to Gen. Dickson he said that he must be loyal to principle and the rights of his constituents. "I cannot

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consent to worship men; I bow only at the shrine of principles ; and when these are departed from by any man in power, be he Jackson, Calhoun, Clay, or any one else, I depart from him, so far as his actions conflict with the good of the country and the rights of my constituents."

He opposed protection of domestic manufactures as being at the expense of the Southern system of industry; supported the bill for the distribution of proceeds of all sales of public lands among all the States; advocated the extreme doctrine of State sovereignty ; supported John C. Calhoun and nullification against President Jackson, and opposed the power of national coercion, which he had supported in President Madison's case when New England was the seat of proposed nullification. One of his very ablest speeches was in opposition to the bill empowering the execution of the laws of the United States in this emergency, called the Force bill. "It was widely circulated, in connection with the speeches of Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Webster, throughout the Union, and was regarded as a vigorous and powerful defence of the rights reserved to the separ- ate States of the confederacy at the adoption of the federal consti- tution."

He took an important part in the debates on the United States bank, in opposition to President Jackson, and was the first to apply the name of "Kitchen cabinet" to the group of Jackson's friends and intimate advisers. Because of this the personal charges made against the senator in Mississippi were widely spread by his political opponents. They may be found amply stated in the his- tory of Mississippi, by J. F. H. Claiborne. Poindexter believed that the New Orleans story was revived at the instigation of the president himself. Subsequently, when the president sent to the senate a protest against its assumption of right to declare.his acts unconstitutional, Poindexter sprang to his feet and moved that the paper be not received. Near the close of this session (1834) Poin- dexter was honored with election as president pro tem. of the sen- ate. In 1832, when Calhoun retired from the chair, he had received 22 votes for the same honor, when it was considered probable that the casualty expected would cause the person chosen to become vice president of the United States.

Poindexter now stood for the great "vested rights," a reversal of his position when he had bitterly assailed the Bank of Missis- sippi as a monopoly. He now defended the United States bank, and its "besom of destruction."

The political issue of 1832 in Mississippi was mainly Poindexter and anti-Poindexter. Meetings were held under those titles. An anti-Poindexter meeting in Jefferson county, in March, presided over by Gen. Hinds, appointed delegates to a Jackson convention to be held at Monticello, and named J. C. Wilkins, Powhatan Ellis, D. W. Wright and Joshua Child as anti-Poindexter delegates to the Baltimore national convention.

Poindexter's view of the situation was given in his letter to Felix Huston, March 9, 1834:

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"The prospect before us is in the highest degree appalling and portentous. To sum up in a few words, all that I can tell you of this subject, you may set down the following postulata as certain. 1st. The deposits will not be restored to the Bank of the U. S. 2d. The bank will not be rechartered, or substituted by another chartered bank, during the existence of this adminis- tration. 3d. The State banks will receive a distributive share of the public revenue, in such proportions, and under such selections as may best contribute to the election of Martin VanBuren as the successor to the presidential chair. 4th. If the plan is successful the same policy will in future be preserved; combining the purse and the sword in the same hand, with the patronage of office and the veto power ; the whole government will at once be concentrated and wielded by the executive will, which, if submitted to by the people, must result in the overthrow of the checks and balances provided for in the constitution ; and thus the office of president will, from time to time, descend on any favorite who may be designated by the incumbent. The question now fairly submitted to the American people is an issue between Power and Liberty. The people must decide it for themselves, and if they do not in- terpose to save themselves, usurpation will move on with giant strides to the climax of Ambition, Avarice and Despotism. At a very early period, after I took my seat in the senate, I saw indications which were satisfactory to my mind of the advances to arbitrary power; I resisted them, at the hazard of incurring the displeasure of my constituents, who were blinded by their en- thusiastic devotion to General Jackson. I have faithfully warned them. I have been led to believe that these warnings have had but little effect upon the public mind in Mississippi. Now that ruin must be the inevitable result of the recent measures of the executive on the great planting and commercial interests of Mississippi, I indulge the hope that their eyes will at length be opened, and that my course will be properly appreciated. I seek no popular favor, having nearly already exhausted myself in the public service, but I think it is due to candor and justice that my conduct here should be understood by the people whom I represent. I am decidedly in favor of Mr. Clay as the next president, altho' I may differ with him on some points of National policy."

The Washington Globe, in the fall of 1832, made a publication on which Niles' Register commented: "Two senators, Mr. John- ston, of Louisiana, and Mr. Poindexter, of Mississippi, have the offense of corruption imputed, because that, at one time or an- other, the sum of $46,000 had been borrowed by them [of the United States bank, by Mr. P., $10,000] a small comparative amount, being less than the annual product of the crops raised by these gentlemen and perfectly within their means of repay- ment."

After the attempt of Lawrence to assassinate President Jack- son, in 1835, a plot was laid to involve Senator Poindexter. Affi-

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davits were made by Foy and Stewart charging him with guilty knowledge or encouragement of the deed. Gen. Jackson was convinced that there was some truth in the charge. It is beyond belief that Poindexter was guilty of any direct implication; but he had said and written some imprudently bitter things that might have suggested the deed to a man of unbalanced mind. In so far as he stooped to malevolence in his public utterances, he was continually sowing the seeds of tragedy. When Senator Poindexter was reported dead in 1837, the Washington corre- spondent of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: "As a man of talent, he had but few equals in the United States. His education was finished and classical; his reading was extensive and varied; there was not a subject in the sciences, literature, history or politics, with which he was not familiar. In his private intercourse with his friends he was distinguished for the kindness and blandness of his deportment; toward those whom he esteemed his enemies he was implacable and unappeasable. He pursued his foes to the margin of their graves; was ever ready in seeking re- venge, and whilst in pursuit of it scorned all compromises and set concessions at defiance. As a statesman he would have held a place in the affairs of the country second to that enjoyed by no man, but for the irascibility and impetuosity of his temperament. As a public speaker he was not distinguished for the elegance of his elocution; but his sarcasm and invective were never sur- passed. His forte lay in these qualities, and in that wild and de- liberate torrent of denunciation which withers and blasts all before it." At public dinners given him, he was hailed as "Old Ironsides of Mississippi." Some of his constituents greeted him as having "A fame not inferior to that of Calhoun and Leigh, and a name equalled only by those of Webster and Preston, of Clay and Tyler, your great compeers in the senate." He desired re- election to the senate, and the issue was between him and Robert J. Walker in 1835, for the election of a legislature. After a mem- orable campaign he was defeated. In November, 1836, he was severely injured by falling from the second floor of the Mansion house, at Natchez, to the pavement outside.

In April, 1838, Mr. Poindexter left Mississippi. He was ten- dered a public dinner at Natchez by a number of prominent citi- zens, headed by George Winchester, and in accepting he said he had no regrets for the battle he had fought. He had appealed to the people, and found that "the overwhelming influence of the popular idol of the day could not be overcome by the stone and the sling, the simple weapons of patriotism and of truth." Hence he felt himself blameless for "withdrawing to a higher latitude" and taking up his residence "among a people who have not forgotten that the price of liberty is eternal vigil- ance over the acts of their public servants." He removed to Louisville ; but he was too advanced in years for a successful change of surroundings, with that commanding position that he had grown to expect. After an appointment by President Tyler

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to investigate the frauds in the New York custom house, he re- turned to Mississippi, and participated in the political campaign of 1841, in support of the Whig ticket on the issue of maintaining the financial faith of the State. In this he was again defeated.

In February, 1847, Mr. Poindexter tendered Gov. Brown for the State a portrait of himself, painted some years earlier, which now hangs in the Mississippi Hall of Fame. In this he was "actu- ated by no sentiment of personal vanity, nor by any feeling of ambition or political aspiration, all of which I have outlived, and merged in the single desire for the prosperity and glory of my country." In accepting the gift Gov. Brown wrote: "If it be a source of pleasure to a retired statesman to know that his past services are not forgotten, no man has more cause to be pleased than yourself. Mississippi will long cherish your memory. Your genius gave stability to her laws, and your eloquence commanded the respect and admiration of her sister States; and in accepting the portrait you have been pleased to offer, I should withhold the expression of an honest opinion, and do injustice, I think, to a grateful people, if I did not say, that the real man will continue to live in the hearts of his countrymen long after this canvass rep- resentation shall have passed away."

His latter years were spent in the practice of law at Jackson. He died there, September 5, 1855, and his grave is there, marked by a modest but peculiarly beautiful monument. When governor his home was the plantation, "Ashwood," near Woodville.

Poindexter was a man of about six feet in height, of slender frame and strongly marked features, his eyes keen and penetrat- ing. "He was with the people in a log cabin, with nothing but whisky-grog to drink, and cornbread and bacon to eat, the same as he was in a decorated parlor, with Madeira wine and plum pud- ding," said Cook, editor of "The Natchez." His temper was thought by many to be severe and intolerant; others regarded him as mild and courteous; he was, in fact, moody and variable, a characteristic greatly intensified by domestic trouble and illness. In 1804 he married Lydia, daughter of Maj. Jesse Carter, of Adams county, but they parted after a son was born, for whom he provided an education, but apparently without affection. In 1816 he married Agathea B. Chinn, whose death has been men- tioned. Early in his career he fought a duel which became widely notorious, that in which he killed Abijah Hunt. Once he refused to accept a challenge, on the ground that he was governor of the State. Life during his time was impulsive, touch and go. We dare not say it was bad. But it was different from the present. His early life in the Territory was wild, his quarrels many, but his disputes were generally settled peaceably. Like many others of his time he enjoyed intoxication, the race track and gaming table, and the facilities at Natchez for this sort of entertainment were unsurpassed. Such were his frailties. They were promi- nent enough to suggest a comparison with Mirabeau, and in all respects the simile is not strained.

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J. F. H. Claiborne, a bitter critic, called him "the ablest man who ever lived in the State." James D. Lynch wrote of him: "Above all, was his lofty spirit of patriotism. He was proud of his country, and loved his adopted State with an ardor that aroused his genius and kindled the fires of his soul." (Biographical Sketch, Washington, D. C., 1835; a campaign document. Clai- borne's Mississippi, 361-414, a very remarkable invective. Lynch's Bench and Bar, valuable mainly because it contains his great speech of 1819. Public Documents and newspaper files. Rowland in Political and Parliamentary Orators and Oratory in Vol. V, Pub. M. H. S.)

Poindexter's Administration. In his inaugural address before the general assembly, January 5, 1820, Governor Poindexter spoke with eloquence and impressiveness upon the usual topics of judi- cial system, education and militia. His sympathy with Henry Clay was manifested by a recommendation of "internal improve- ments," advising the legislature to petition congress for the im- provement of the navigable streams, in the hope that some of the public lands might be granted for that purpose. He expressed hope that the Chocktaws might soon be persuaded to move west of the river. In closing, he urged toleration and forbearance. "Let us act for the whole people whose best interests are con- fided to us, as one family, having equal claims to a participation in the benefits, and bound to bear an equal portion of the burden, resulting from the administration of the government."

Later in the month the governor sent in a special message, rec- ommending "a general revision and consolidation of the statutes," by a commission of three of the most learned and distinguished citizens, also the establishment of a high court of chancery, as the judges of the supreme court at this time requested.

The legislature unanimously reelected Daniel Williams secre- tary of state, and Peter P. Schuyler treasurer. For auditor, Rob- ert L. Throckmorton received 16 votes and John Richards 21.

The great events of 1820 were the Choctaw treaty at Doak's stand (q. v.), the survey of the Alabama line and the United States census, which showed that the population had increased in ten years, in round numbers, from 30,000 to 75.000.

In his message of January, 1821, the governor said, "The finger of want points not to the door of the humblest cottage in our country. The miserable mendicant who implores a scanty sub- sistance from the hand of charity is seldom seen among us, and if at all he is the itinerant stranger who seeks the aid of our mu- nificance and hospitality." He made a vigorous appeal for some provision for public education, declaring that the almost total absence of schools and colleges was calculated to mortify the pride of Mississippi. The exciting political theme of the day was shown by his reference to the struggle over the admission of Mis- souri, in which it was proposed to forbid the admission of slavery. He said. "The advocates of this novel and dangerous interpola- tion on the constitution want but the aid of precedent to proceed

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on their march to more alarming extremities." The sensational part of his message, however, was the attack on the Bank of Missis- sippi (see Banking). Noting the completion of the survey of the Ala- bama line, he said: "It appears that a considerable population on the waters of the Tombigby, formerly attached to Alabama, fall within the limits of this State. They are at present unrepre- sented in our legislature, and have no officers, civil or military, appointed among them. Their remote situation from the settled parts of the State, renders it necessary that, after forming of them a new county, a special judge of the superior court should be appointed, to reside in the county." Accordingly the legisla- ture created the county of Monroe. (q. v.)

The governor renewed his recommendation for a codification of the laws, and the legislature responded by an act authorizing him to do the work. This blending of the duties of executive and law- maker did not pass without objection. A "solemn protest" was spread on the records of the senate, signed by Charles B. Green, Cowles Mead, David Dickson and Thomas Torrence.

The legislature of January, 1821, took up the question of loca- tion of the seat of government away from Natchez. In the sen- ate, Charles B. Green proposed that the people be permitted to vote on three places, Natchez, Columbia and Monticello, but it was not agreed to. Holmesville was also proposed. Green, Cowles Mead and Joseph Sessions stood for Natchez, and the vote of Lieut .- Gov. Patton was required to make the selection of Co- lumbia as the capital. (Act of February 7, 1821.) In the same session an act was passed appointing a commission to select a site for the seat of government, near the center of the State, within the recent Choctaw purchase. (See Jackson.)

At the election in August, 1821, Walter Leake received 4,730 votes, Charles B. Green 1,269, for governor; for lieutenant-gover- nor, the vote was, David Dickson 2,984, Daniel Burnet 1,559, H. W. Runnels 794, Joseph Johnson 476, Gerard Brandon 483, Ben- jamin Lee 5.

The governor's message to the next session of the legislature, which met at Columbia in November, 1821, was largely on the subject of the code he was preparing. He said, "the work has occupied my undivided attention since it was commenced; it has progressed to a considerable extent, but it is not yet fully com- pleted. The numerous statutes, enacted at different periods, hav- ing relation to the same subject and detached in single sections, throughout several volumes, often mingled with provisions totally discordant in their nature and object; the entire absence of ar- rangement in existing laws and their imperfect phraseology, have all contributed to increase the difficulties which I had to encoun- ter in the execution of the revision, with the accuracy necessary to render it of permanent utility." He added that it would be waste of time to go further until the legislature acted on his rec- ommendation of a court of chancery and a "literary" or school fund. "The unavailing efforts which I have made, since I was 29-1I

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called to the executive chair, to impress on successive legislatures the high obligation of affording to literary institutions within the State the means by which they may be cherished and become the depositories of literature and science, impel me again to invite your particular attention to this important duty." The legislature responded by enacting laws evidently written by the governor. (See Education and Judiciary.) He particularly urged the adop- tion of a better road law, and a new militia law on the only basis that has been found of practical value, the organization of volun- teer companies. The financial condition of the State was as fol- lows: On hand January 1, 1821, $14,241; receipts since that time, $35,491; total credits, $49,733, of which there had been expended $38,010. Of the loan from the bank only $5,000 had been repaid, leaving $15,000 at six per cent. interest.

He had taken no action to organize a new county in the recent Choctaw session, because the white population was inconsider- able, but the survey of the region by the United States authority was rapidly progressing, and it was expected that the sales of land would be begun in a few months.

The general assembly, at the close of the session, expressed their "lively sense of the dignity, impartiality and great ability" with which Mr. Poindexter filled the office of chief magistrate, and his response may be taken to indicate the subjects he es- teemed as most important: "With you, I have been associated in the arduous task of providing for the people whose interests we represent, a code of statute law, comprehending all that is es- sential to the protection and preservation of civil, political and religious liberty ; with you, I have acted in giving the first impulse to the spirit of our republican constitution, and in affording the means by which the offspring of the poor may learn to estimate the blessings of freedom and the sacred duties and obligations of the Christian religion."

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Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 53

Author: Dunbar Rowland Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Dunbar Rowland
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant
Number of Pages: 1020