USA > Mississippi > Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II > Part 59
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In his inaugural address, he took occasion to assert his opposi- tion to the "American system" and "internal improvements" of Henry Clay. He denied the right of the Federal government "to supervise the manufactures or the agriculture of the country, or to take under its charge and control the highways and the harbors of our broad land." He was "opposed to the establishment of a United States bank," or any similar use of the national treasury. He regarded slavery as responsible for the rapid progress of the country in prosperity, greatness and wealth. Far from being an evil, it was essential to happiness and political existence. "We have a right to it above and under the constitution of the United States. We will not yield it. . The South has long sub- mitted to grievous wrongs. Dishonor, degradation and ruin await her, if she submits further. The people of Mississippi have taken their stand, and I doubt not their representatives will maintain it, by providing means to meet every probable contingency. I here pledge myself to execute their will to the full extent of my con- stitutional powers."
In February he received and transmitted to the legislature a let- ter from Senators Davis and Foote and the representatives in. con- gress, announcing that they believed California would be admitted as a free State. "We regard the proposition to admit California as a State under the circumstances of her application, as an at- tempt to adopt the Wilmot proviso in another form." They desired to know the opinion of the people and the legislature regarding the admission of California. The situation, under the resolutions of the Convention of 1849 (q. v.), was, that a constitutional conven- tion was to be called if the Wilmot proviso were adopted. By a popular vote of 12,000 to 800, California had adopted a constitution excluding slavery. The governor recommended the legislature to make "a firm remonstrance against the present admission of Cali- fornia with the restriction against slavery," and, otherwise, recom- mended waiting for the action of the Nashville convention. He was adjured to action by enthusiasts of other States besides his own. "Hundreds of influential citizens, whose letters now lie under inspection (some of the most distinguished of whom in Mississippi afterward made open war upon him, or timidly recoiled from their positions), reminded Governor Quitman that palliatives and remon- strances would no longer answer and called for the adoption of decisive measures." (Claiborne's Life of Q.)
What caused the letter from Davis and Foote was the introduc- tion into congress, in January, 1850, of the famous compromise resolutions by Henry Clay, for the admission of California, the es- tablishment of territorial governments in New Mexico with silence regarding slavery, rejection as inexpedient of the proposition to abolish slavery in the District, a more stringent fugitive slave law, and a declaration that congress had no right to obstruct interstate commerce in slaves. In the debate that followed, Calhoun heard read his last great speech, a voice of hopeless remonstrance; Dan- iel Webster came to the support of Clay, reproving abolition agi-
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tation, and, "with distress and anguish" rebuking the talk of seces- sion. "Secession ! Peaceable secession! Sir, your eyes or mine are never destined to see that miracle. It must produce war, and such a war as I will not describe." Webster, Calhoun and Clay were soon to pass away. New Champions in the arena- Toombs and Davis; Seward and Chase.
Mississippi was not a unit, by any means. There was not unan- imity in the election of Jefferson Davis for a full term, by the leg- islature in February, 1850. He lacked one vote on the first ballot, but gained a small margin on the second. Roger Barton (q. v.) was his principal opponent, but the opposition could not unite.
Calhoun died in March. The Nashville convention (q. v.) called by the Mississippi Resisters, at Calhoun's suggestion, met in June, while the congressional battle was at its height. A few weeks later President Zachary Taylor died from exposure to the sun while hearing the Fourth of July oration by Senator Foote, of Missis- sippi. He had been unrelenting in opposing the Southern policy of Calhoun and Davis, even the Clay compromise, and proposed to meet the claims of Texas in New Mexico with the United States army, which Texan policy his successor, Fillmore, adhered to, but otherwise was more compromising. Congress began the adoption of a series of acts which yielded one more point to the anti-slavery party, the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia. California was admitted as a free State in September. On the other hand, those who had instigated the Jackson and Nashville conven- tions felt that the compromise conceded the points essential to their honor. They felt that there was disdain in Webster's lordly dictum regarding yielding them the deserts of New Mexico; "I would not take pains uselessly to reaffirm an ordinance of Nature, nor to re-enact the will of God." Meanwhile, many newspapers in the State declared for secession.
"Upon the adjournment of congress the delegation from Missis- sippi returned to the State to give an account of their cause, and. with the exception of Foote, to urge resistance to the action of congress. Albert Gallatin Brown said, in a speech at Jackson, 'So help me God, I am for resistance ; and my advice to you is that of Cromwell to his colleagues, "pray to God and keep your powder dry."' Davis, McWillie, Featherston and Thompson spoke in a similar strain, while Foote bestirred himself to vindicate his course before the people. The legislature had already passed resolutions of censure against him, declaring that the interests of the State were not safe in his hands. He then stumped the State, making in all forty or fifty speeches, and urged the people to send delegates to a convention he had presumed to call." (Garner, Reconstruc- tion, p. 2).
The movement had its main leadership in South Carolina, but as Gov. Seabrook, of that State, wrote to Gov. Quitman in September, 1850. "there are satisfactory reasons why South Carolina should move cautiously in the matter." Seabrook reminded Quitman that Georgia had promised to call a State convention, urged him to act
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in Mississippi, and promised that as soon as the governors of two more States called their legislatures in special session, he would do the same, in order to "arrest the career of an interested and despotic majority." Alabama and Florida were counted on.
Quitman responded by calling the legislature to convene No- vember 18, and wrote Seabrook that he would recommend a con- vention with "full powers to annul the federal compact and estab- lish new relations with other States." Having no hope in separa- tion, "my views of State action will look to secession." Seabrook replied that South Carolina was "ready and anxious for an im- mediate separation," and hoped that Mississippi would "begin the patriotic work." (Claiborne's Life of Quitman.)
Pickens, of South Carolina, wrote, discussing a Confederacy, and proposing Quitman or Davis as suitable for the presidency.
Quitman's call for a special session was expressedly for the pur- pose "that the State may be placed in an attitude to assert her sovereignty." He wrote J. J. McRae that he desired a convention fully empowered to secede and asked his advice. "I shall ask, in like manner the free opinion of Col. Davis, Thompson, Brown, Barton, Stewart and other friends." He wished to be in harmony with the Nashville convention, but did not believe Judge Sharkey would give notice of its reassembling; "he is opposed to it."
Gov. Foote said (in his message of 1854) that when the legisla- ture assembled in November, "All my colleagues, save one (Mr. Thompson), were in attendance. A vast multitude of our citizens rushed to the theatre of action to find out what was likely to be the result of the extraordinary movements rumored to be in progress. The governor's special message was sent in to the two houses of the legislature; not though before it had been shown to many of his prominent political friends and their approval of its contents obtained." After the delivery of the message popular meetings were held at the capitol and addressed by Gen. Felix Huston, Sen- ator Davis, Representative Featherston and others, in support of Quitman's policy. In his message Gov. Quitman declared that the anti-slavery party "now controls the entire government." The ties of party and of church had yielded before it. If the great and vital interest of slavery longer remained subject to the United States government, "it must perish." He asked for a convention to take into consideration federal relations, and suggested that such a convention would have absolute power, regardless of instruc- tions. He was willing to compromise on an extension of the line of 36° 30' to the Pacific coast, and constitutional amendments to protect the rights of the slaveholding States; otherwise did not hesitate to express his decided opinion that the only effectual rem- edy was "in the prompt and peaceable secession of the aggrieved States." In another message he recommended the organization of volunteer companies for a State army, officers and men to be sworn for a service of five years.
On the day that the legislature met Foote convened his conven- tion of 1,500 members, which he addressed from a window of the
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city hall in Jackson. The meeting organized the Union party and adopted resolutions sustaining Foote, and censuring the Quitman- Davis party. When they had been printed, Foote demanded a hearing from the house of representatives. The body adjourned and yielded him the hall, and he spoke two hours "explaining to those assembled the dangers of the hour."
The legislature reaffirmed the resolutions of the Jackson conven- tion, elected twelve delegates to the Nashville convention, censured President Taylor and Senator Foote, approved Senator Davis, ordered the election of delegates to a Constitutional convention, (q. v.) ; but left the mode of action to the decision of the Nashville convention.
Mississippi having thus declined to take the lead, alone, the South Carolina legislature, in December, recommended a convention of Southern States at Montgomery in February, 1852, and appropri- ated $350,000 for military expenses.
Meanwhile Quitman was in the focus of another exciting affair of national notoriety. He was an enthusiast in the revival of the old dream of annexation of the domain of Spain. This had just had a great realization through the Mexican war, in which he was the one conspicuous general who was inspired by more than pro- fessional duty. He fought for the realization of the old ambition of expansion-the creation of a great empire in which slave labor should be the basis of wealth-not necessarily separate from the United States, but really making the United States a federation of two empires, one with expansion northwestward, the other south- ward. He looked towards Cuba, now that Mexico had been shorn, with the same impulse that Jefferson had felt. It was manifest destiny that it should be a part of the United States. It could at once be made a State, under the Southern system. The movement for conquest of Cuba began (after the rejection of a purchase price) with the Round Island affair (q. v.) in Mississippi, in 1849.
In the spring of 1850 Lopez made a private visit to Gov. Quitman at Jackson, eloquently presented Cuba's yearnings for liberation from Spain, and offered the governor the leadership of the revolu- tion and supreme command if it should succeed. "Quitman long and anxiously reflected. No one disturbed the silence. Lopez slowly paced the apartment, like a sentinel on guard. The few confidential friends who had been specially invited to the inter- view felt the sorcery of his presence. All hoped that the gover- nor would accept the offer and embark in a career so just and so prodigal of glory." (Claiborne.) He declined, in view of the political crisis. "It is possible, however, [he wrote,] that after a short period these obligations, which my sense of duty now im- poses on me, will cease to exist. In that event, should circumstan- ces be favorable, I should be disposed to accept your proposals." (Quitman to Lopez and Gonzales. Jackson, March 18, 1850.) Soon afterward Lopez sailed from New Orleans with a party of volunteers "led by O'Hara. Hawkins. Pickett, Bell, Wheat, and other chivalric spirits, chiefly from Kentucky." They landed at
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Cardenas, found no revolution there, and seeking another port, were chased by a Spanish man-of-war under the American guns at Key West, where Lopez was put under arrest, but presently re- leased. He returned to New Orleans, and set about raising another expedition, and was received in Mississippi with enthusiasm. The handful of revolutionists in the Cuban mountains were expecting Quitman to head the expedition, and the same impression prevailed in the United States. President Fillmore issued two proclamations forbidding the breach of neutrality. In June, 1850, the grand jury of the United States court at New Orleans found a bill of indict- ment against John A. Quitman, John Henderson and others, for violating the neutrality law.
Quitman construed this as an attempt on the part of the United States government to try its strength upon him, an open advocate of secession. He asked the advice of Jacob Thompson, who replied that the governor was the sole representative of the sovereignty of Mississippi, and the very idea of sovereignty carried with it the sequence of impunity in action and conduct. The power to arrest him would annihilate State sovereignty. He could not believe that a warrant would be issued for his arrest ; but if it were, "you owe it to yourself to refuse submission to the mandate. The times are out of joint. . . The first effort to degrade the State will be made in your person, and, by all the powers above, I would resist it."
No action was immediately taken on the indictment, except that the attorney-general asked Gov. Quitman to decide what course he preferred. The governor asked delay until his term expired, in January, 1852. This was refused. But action was not hurried upon him. After six months he decided that between war with the United States and arrest of the governor of Mississippi, "there remained a somewhat middle course for me to pursue consistently with my sense of propriety; that was, to lay down my official character before submitting to arrest." (Letter to Barnwell Rhett.) He issued a proclamation February 3, 1851, saying, "In the middle of my term of office, and in the active discharge of its duties, I am today arrested by the United States marshal of the Southern district of Mississippi for an alleged violation of the neutrality law of 1818, by beginning, setting on foot and furnishing the means for a military expedition against the island of Cuba. Under these charges, the marshal is directed to arrest me and remove my person to the city of New Orleans, there to be tried for these alleged offenses. Unconscious of having, in any re- spect, violated the laws of the country, ready at all times to meet any charge that might be exhibited against me. I have only been anxious. in this extraordinary emergency, to follow the path of duty. As a citizen, it was plain and clear that I must yield to the law, however oppressive and unjust in my case ; but as chief magis- trate of a sovereign State, I had also in charge her dignity, her honor and her sovereignty, which I could not permit to be violated in my person. Resistance by the organized force of the State, 32-11
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while the Federal administration is in the hands of men who ap- pear to seek some occasion to test the strength of that government, would result in violent contests, much to be dreaded in the present critical condition of the country. The whole South, patient as she is under encroachment, might look with some jealousy upon the employment of military force to remove a Southern governor from the jurisdiction of his State, when it had been withheld from her citizens seeking to reclaim a fugitive slave in Massachusetts."
On the other hand, the detention of the governor without the State would cause, Governor Quitman declared, the entire suspen- sion of her executive functions of government. [The constitution then in force provided that "Whenever the office of governor shall become vacant by death, resignation, removal from office, or other- wise, the president of the Senate shall exercise the office of gover- nor until another governor shall be duly qualified," also, "The gov- ernor shall reside at the seat of government."] "The Constitution has not contemplated such an event as the forcible abduction of the governor. It has not provided for the performance of his duties by another officer except in the case of a vacancy. Such vacancy cannot happen while there is a governor, though he be a prisoner to a foreign power. Although he may be absent, and incapable of performing his duties, he is still governor, and no other person can execute his office." Hence, (on this construction of the consti- tution) "there is but one remedy. That remedy is my resignation. I therefore, fellow citizens, now resign the high trust confided to my hands, with no feeling of personal regret except that I could not serve you better ; with no feeling of shame, for I am innocent of the causes which have induced the necessity of this step. I have but to add that, during my short but exciting period of ser- vice, I have in all things striven to be faithful and true to the rights, the interests and the honor of the State." (Claiborne's Life of Quitman, Vol. II.)
The receipts of the State treasury in 1850 were $424.034, in 1851 were $221,200; disbursements in the two years, $594,570, leaving in the treasury a balance of $525,940. Under the act of 1850 $200,- 000 was distributed among the different counties for education. The Lunatic asylum was not yet ready to be occupied. An asylum for the deaf and dumb was earnestly recommended. The insti- tute for the blind was in successful operation.
A very important event of this period was the act of congress, September 28, 1850, granting the State all the swamp and over- flowed lands, for the purpose of defraying the expense of draining and protecting the same by levees. It was believed that it would require but a limited sale of these lands to provide enough money to reclaim large tracts of great value. The great importance of this enactment induced Gov. Quitman to appoint John Rayburn to locate the lands, and await the approval of the legislature. Two weeks later Gov. Guion appointed P. Bryan on the same conditions, and these two made the first locations of lands coming under the operation of the congressional act. (See Foote's Adm.)
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Internal improvements by the State were earnestly recom- mended. The Mobile & Ohio and New Orleans & Nashville rail- roads were then in the stage of survey and promotion.
Raburnville, a hamlet in the central part of Itawamba county, 4 miles north of Fulton, the county seat. The postoffice was re- cently discontinued at this place, and it now has rural free delivery from Fulton. Population in 1900, 20.
Railroad Commission. Agitation for legislative supervision of the railroads resulted in the passage of the Barry railroad bill in the latter part of the session of 1878, which declared all railroads to be public highways and the companies common carriers, pro- hibited the consolidating of parallel lines and discriminations, and fixed maximum rates for the transportation of cotton. Governor Stone did not return the bill, which act was called a "pocket veto," and at the next session he sent in a veto, on the ground that the act was in violation of that clause of the United States con- stitution forbidding laws to impair the obligation of contracts. In this legislature, (1880), a bill was introduced in the senate by W. W. Humphreys, known as the "Humphreys bill," which pro- vided for a railroad commissioner to be elected by the legislature, to see to the enforcement of the requirements of the bill against discrimination and extortion in rates. The bill was debated at great length in both houses, passed the senate, but failed on the last day of the session to reach final vote in the house. The legis- lature adopted a memorial to congress appealing to that body to regulate freight rates on interstate railroads.
In his message of 1884 Governor Lowry said: "The right of the State to supervise railroads within constitutional limits, so as to restrain them from unjust discriminations and exorbitant charges for the transportation of persons and property, has been asserted at various times by the people of Mississippi. Other States of the American Union have exercised, and are now exer- cising this attribute of sovereignty with results somewhat varied, but in the main satisfactory. I do not doubt the jurisdic- tion of the State to protect her citizens from abuses committed by railroads, with reference to domestic or internal commerce, but whether it is competent for the State to regulate interstate com- merce or such parts thereof as may directly affect her people, to the extent of fixing or limiting the amount of charges for fare and freight thereon, even when congress has failed to assert its ac- knowledged jurisdiction over the subject, I regard as unsettled and doubtful. I apprehend that evils might be so great as to justify the enactment of laws of doubtful constitutionality, in order to have them tested by the proper tribunals, for the pur- pose of obtaining relief by this means, if possible, where there is no other remedy, but when this course is adopted, there should be no doubt of or uncertainty as to the existence or gravity of the evils." He suggested "a just and liberal policy," and called attention to reductions in charges made by some of the roads.
A bill for railroad supervision passed both houses early in the
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session thus addressed by the governor, and he returned the same with a veto. The bill was then modified according to the gover- nor's objections, and became a law March 11, 1884, under the title, "An act to provide for the regulation of freight and passen- ger rates on railroads in this State, and to create a commission to supervise the same, and for other purposes." It provided for a railroad commission of three, representing the three supreme court districts. Roads that discriminate in freight or passenger rates shall be guilty of extortion, and liable, either for damages to the injured party, or a fine of not less than ten or more than five hun- dred dollars. It requires the railroads to submit their tariff charges for transportation to the commissioners, whose duty it is to revise said tariff charges. It requires the railroads to post their freight rates at their depot doors and makes the giving of rebates a mis- demeanor, punishable by a fine. It is also the duty of the com- mission to inspect depots and see that suitable ones are provided. The Governor appointed as the first commission : John M. Stone, W. B. Augustus and William McWillie. The legislature elected William McWillie, J. F. Sessions and John C. Kyle in 1886; Wal- ter McLaurin, Sessions and Kyle in 1888, and McLaurin, Sessions and J. H. Askew in 1890.
The constitution of 1890 provided for election by the people of the three districts, the first election being fixed by ordinance of the convention in November, 1891, the board elect to serve until January, 1896, thereafter the board, chosen at general elections, to serve four years. McLaurin, Sessions and Askew were reelected for 1891-96; John D. McInnis, M. M. Evans and J. J. Evans for 1896-1900. In 1896 the salary was reduced to $2,000 a year.
J. J. Evans, president of the board, died November 19, 1899. He had had a distinguished official career in the Confederate military service, as chancery clerk of Monroe county and eight years treas- urer of State. J. C. Kincannon, who had been elected in Novem- ber, was appointed by the governor. The board in 1900-04, was John D. McInnis, Albert Q. May and J. C. Kincannon ; in 1904 to the present. S. D. McNair, president, J. C. Kincannon, and R. L. Bradley, and T. R. Maxwell, secretary.
Soon after the adjournment of the legislature, the Illinois Cen- tral railroad brought suit to test the constitutionality of the law, asking an injunction against the commissioners "commanding that they absolutely abstain from all acts of interference," etc., and a preliminary injunction was granted by Judge Hill of the United States court on the grounds of violation of contract with the corporation and regulation of interstate commerce. The com- mission appealed to the United States supreme court. Suits in the State courts were decided against the commission, which appealed to the State supreme court, where it was held that the State had power originally to prescribe for a railroad company, created by it, the rates of compensation, and that any exercise of this power, which does not hinder or burden interstate commerce, is not an infringement of the constitutional duty of congress to regulate
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