Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 76

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

USA > Mississippi > Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II > Part 76

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Many events had tended to intensify the feeling between the sections. The South resented the charge of moral guilt for the original introduction of slavery. There was certainly no basis for this charge, as the South was no more responsible than the North. The selfish commercial policy of England denied the colonies any choice in the matter; they were obliged to permit the slave-trade and to receive the slaves. Before the year 1808 when the Federal constitution authorized Congress to act in the matter, all the lead- ing Southern States had voluntarily abolished the foreign slave- trade. It is a fact, familiar to all southerners that the South only tolerated the domestic slave-trade, as the best means for the proper economic distribution of the slave population. General hatred, and social ostracism were the lot of the slave-trader. Again, the South believed that the people of the North condoned, if they had not actually abetted the mad act of the fanatic John Brown. Every southerner realized what a hideous danger a slave insurrection meant to southern homes. The South felt and demanded that slav- ery was entitled to statutory protection wherever it existed in the Territories in obedience to the law as enunciated in the Dred Scott decision. The failure of many of the northern States to enforce the provisions of the fugitive slave law was especially exasper- ating.

The great political struggle of 1860 was ushered in by the battle in Congress, begun in December, 1859, over the election of a speaker of the house. The Democrats nominated Bocock, of Virginia ; the

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Douglas Democrats, John Davis; the Republicans, John Sherman. The Republicans were in a minority of one, if the opposition could combine, but it could not. Voting being useless the house fell to discussion which was little removed from fighting. Some personal encounters occurred. "It was whispered about that a majority of members on both sides went constantly armed in expectation for general affray, and such a calamity was no doubt apprehended." (Reuben Davis, Recollections.) After nine weeks a Democrat of New York made his choice of a Republican for speaker and he was elected. Before the adjournment of Congress the nominations for president were made.

When the Democratic national convention met at Charleston, April 23d, Mississippi was represented by a brilliant delegation, including Jefferson Davis, W. S. Barry, L. Q. C. Lamar, Charles Clark, Jacob Thompson, J. W. Matthews and S. J. Gholson. The delegation reported the demand of Yancey, that the platform must declare for protection by Congress of slave property, the attitude to which the Southern Democrats had advanced from non-interven- tion. This was simply a demand for strict compliance with the doctrine of the recent Dred Scott decision. The policy was stated by Albert G. Brown, in a letter published in the Aberdeen Sunny South: "The whole power of the government, in all its depart- ments, is to be used, as soon as we get hold of it, to protect our slave property in the territories and on the high seas, in the same way and to the same extent that other kinds of property are protected."

The Northwestern Democrats, mainly, rejected this principle and a platform was adopted which left slavery to the voice of the inhabitants of the territories, which was the Douglas policy. There- upon the delegations of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas, and scattering members of other delegations, seceded from the con- vention. The convention ballotted 57 times, but Douglas failed to receive a two-thirds vote, and it then adjourned to meet at Balti- more June 18. Mr. Davis opposed this rupture, "because he knew we could achieve a more solid and enduring triumph by remaining in and defeating Douglas. . But there was no holding back such men as Gen. Clark, Thompson, Matthews and Judge Gholson. They forced Alabama to stand to their instructions and then stood by her." (Letter of Lamar to Mott, May 29th). Afterward Mr. Davis sent out an address advising the return of the delegates to Baltimore, and Lamar signed it with him.

At Baltimore, Mississippi and South Carolina refused to partici- pate unless all the delegates from the seceding States were ad- mitted. There were contests, decided against the anti-Douglas men, and the Southern party again seceded. The remainder of the convention nominated Douglas for president. The Southern party met at Richmond, adjourned back to Baltimore, and there, in June, nominated Breckinridge. Meanwhile, in May, the Constitu- tional Union party, identical with the Foote party in Mississippi, had held a convention at Baltimore and nominated John Bell, of Tennessee. It was mainly a Southern party, in fact, but had hopes

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of national support. The Republican party had a convention at Chicago in May also, and nominated Abraham Lincoln. Thus there were two Northern and two Southern parties. Both sets were di- vided on the old Whig and Democrat issues, but in the South the actual issue between the Breckinridge and Bell parties was seces- sion, as the election of Lincoln was considered certain.

In Mississippi the Bell men denounced the Democrats as having always bred dissension and never having done anything to heal it. If Breckinridge and Douglas were the only candidates the issue would be the same, they said. The Natchez Courier (Whig) de- clared the Breckinridge ticket was supported by Southern section- alism and Buchanan corruption. It asked, "Will you follow Yancey and his clique in their mad scheme of precipitating the cotton States into a revolution and bring upon yourselves the horrors and deso- lation of civil war?"

When Congress adjourned, "Members from the South purchased long-range guns to take home with them," says Reuben Davis. "The unthinking among them rejoiced that the end was in sight, but those who considered more deeply were dismayed by the pros- pect. It was regarded as almost certain that Lincoln would be elected, unless Breckinridge or Douglas could be withdrawn from the field, and it was idle to hope that this could be done." Gillings of Ohio, a famous Abolitionist, demanded a candidate in opposition to Lincoln, but that movement had little strength in the North. "The presidential campaign was, as was inevitable, one of extraor- dinary violence."

The Breckinridge electoral ticket was headed by Henry T. Ellett and A. K. Blythe. The Bell ticket was, John W. C. Watson, Amos R. Johnston, T. B. Mosely, William A. Shaw, W. B. Helm, Sylva- nus Evans, Gustavus H. Wilcox. The Douglas ticket was, Samuel Smith, Franklin Smith, B. N. Kinyon, R. W. Flournoy, E. Dis- mukes, Henry Calhoun, Edmund McAllister. The campaign was characterized, as it was in the North, by considerable military parade. The Union party had its big rallies, at Natchez, Jackson, Vicksburg, and elsewhere, as well as the Democrats, and there were many torch light processions. There was a Union meeting at Jack- son, early in October, under the management of Fulton Anderson, Judge Sharkey, the Yergers, R. L. Buck and many other prominent men. But there was not much doubt as to what the result would be. In October the Union men, knowing the settled program, were calling attention to the resolutions of the Convention of 1851, that a convention was illegal without first letting the people vote on the calling of it.

Mississippi gave an overwhelming majority to Breckinridge. (See Presidential elections). But Breckinridge was in a vast minority in the Union. According to the constitutional method of election, provided to protect the States from consolidation, Mr. Lincoln was assured of 180 electoral votes, a half more than all his opponents together. Bell carried 39 votes, Breckinridge ^2. Doug- las 12. The popular vote of the United States was by no means so

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decisive. Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes; Douglas, 1,375,157; Breckinridge, 847,953; Bell, 590,631. The great vote for Douglas was in the north and carried very few States. The total opposition vote to the Republicans was 2,823,741,-a majority of almost a mil- lion, in a total vote of about four millions and a half. The oppo- sition to Lincoln had polled 1,288,611 in the North and West alone. In Lincoln's own State, Illinois, the opposition vote only lacked three thousand of that polled by the Republicans. It was really a narrow victory, and it was the part of wisdom for the Republican leaders to move cautiously.

In 1858, in the famous debate with Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln had said : "I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say, in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races, which I believe will forever forbid the two races living to- gether on terms of social and political equality." At the same time he felt and said that the Union could not permanently endure, half slave and half free labor ; but he was disposed to be very patient with the South, as he confessed he could not see the solution of the problem. One of the clearest minded men of his age, he saw the equal truth of the two great facts involved, one social and the other industrial, and both hopelessly mixed up in the most rampant sec- tional politics. Because of this "irrepressible conflict" of two truths he was absolutely uncompromising regarding the extension of slav- ery, and so was his party. As indicating a hostile attitude, there was quoted in the South his generalization of 1859: "This is a world of compensation, and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and under a just God cannot long retain it." Also, "No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent. I say this is the leading principle-the sheet an- chor of American Republicanism." (Quoted in T. J. Wharton's secession address to Tennessee.)

November 13th Governor Pettus issued a proclamation, that, "Whereas, the recent election of Messrs. Lincoln and Hamlin dem- onstrates that those who neither reverence the Constitution, obey the laws, nor reverence their oaths, have now the power to elect to the highest offices in this Confederacy men who sympathize with them in all their mad zeal to destroy the peace, prosperity and property of the Southern section, and will use the power of the Federal government to defeat all the purposes for which it was formed : and whereas, the dearest rights of the people depend for protection under our constitution on the fidelity to their oaths of those who administer the government," he called the legislature to provide "surer and better safeguards for the lives, liberties and property of her citizens than have been found, or are to be hoped for in Black Republican oaths." Gov. Pettus also invited the Con- gressional delegation to meet him in conference at Jackson. All attended but McRae. Diverse opinions were maintained. Some

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opposed separate State action in secession. Some were opposed to secession, unless eight other States would consent to go out at the same time. Finally Reuben Davis proposed that the governor should recommend a convention to adopt an ordinance of secession to take effect immediately. This was carried by the votes of Gov- ernor Pettus, O. R. Singleton, William Barksdale and Reuben Davis. The governor then showed the conference a telegram from the governor of South Carolina asking advice as to whether the South Carolina ordinance should take effect immediately or on the . 4th of March, and the same four votes were cast to give the advice. "immediately." (R. Davis, Recollections, 390. Also, see Mayes' Lamar, p. 87.)

When the legislature convened at Jackson, November 26, the message of the governor was immediately delivered. He declared they had before them "the greatest and most solemn question that ever engaged the attention of any legislative body on this conti- nent," one that involved "the destiny, for weal or for woe, of this age, and all generations that come after us, for an indefinite num- ber of generations, the end of which no prophet can foretell." He said the Northern States had decided "that slavery is sinful and must be destroyed," and that it only remained for the Southern States "to choose whether it shall be a peaceable and gradual aboli- tion or speedy and violent." These were hard terms, and he argued that from the resistance to the fugitive slave law and the popular sympathy with John Brown that "the lives, liberty and property of the people of Mississippi" would not be safe under Republican rule. He saw but one path of honor and safety for Mississippi, to separate as Abraham parted from Lot. "That Mississippi may be enabled to speak on this grave subject in her sovereign capacity I recommend that a convention be called, to meet at an early date." He argued at length the doctrine of a reserved right of secession by the States of the Union, and declared that this was the great saving principle to which alone the Southern States could look and live. "This saving principle must perish under Black Republican rule. Then go down into Egypt while Herod reigns in Judea-it is the only means of saving the life of this Emanuel of American politics." In after years he hoped, when "Black Republicans" had passed away, to come back "under the benign influences of a re- united government." "If we falter now," he said in conclusion, "we or our sons must pay the penalty in future years, of bloody, if not fruitless, efforts to retrieve the fallen fortunes of the State, which if finally unsuccessful must leave our fair land blighted- cursed with Black Republican politics and free negro morals, to become a cesspool of vice, crime and infamy. Can we hesitate! when one bold resolve, bravely executed, makes powerless the aggressor, and one united effort makes safe our homes? May the God of our fathers put it into the hearts of our people to make it." Among the members a written plan of a Confederacy was freely circulated. (Published in the Mississippian of December 4th). "The States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida are

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believed to be ready to go out of the Union," this began. "To these States, let commissioners be appointed now by the State," etc.

Thus exhorted the legislature passed, November 28th, the Con- vention bill, reported by Charles Clark in the house. It provided that an election of delegates to a convention should be held in each county, Thursday, December 20th, each county to have as many delegates as it had representatives in the legislature. Originally the bill would have allowed any "citizen" to be a delegate, but the senate inserted an amendment requiring one year's residence in the State. The delegates elected were to meet at the Capitol, Mon- day, January 7, 1861, and "proceed to consider the then existing relations between the government of the United States and the gov- ernment and people of the State of Mississippi, and to adopt such measures of vindicating the sovereignty of the State, and the pro- tection of its institutions as shall appear to them to be demanded."

On the following day resolutions were adopted requesting the governor to appoint Commissioners "to visit each of the slave-hold- ing States," to inform them of the action of the Mississippi legisla- ture, "express the earnest hope of Mississippi that those States will cooperate with her in the adoption of efficient measures for their common defence and safety," and appeal to the governors to call the legislatures into extra session where that had not been done. Another resolution requested the State officers to, prepare a device for a coat of arms for the State of Mississippi, to be ready by the 7th of January. Delay was not to the taste of the legisla- ture. Senator Buck's resolve that it would not be proper to take final action without consultation with the sister slave-holding States, was lost, 27 to 3. The resolutions adopted by a large ma- jority, after reciting the grounds for complaint, said, "That in the opinion of those who now constitute the State legislature, the seces- sion of each aggrieved State is the proper remedy for these in- juries." The legislature adjourned November 30.

The governor appointed the following commissioners, who vis- ited the other States, and addressed the legislatures and people : Henry Dickinson, to Delaware; A. H. Handy, to Maryland; Wal- ker Brooke and Fulton Anderson, to Virginia; Jacob Thompson, to North Carolina; G. S. Gaines, to Florida; W. L. Harris and Thomas W. White to Georgia; W. S. Featherston, to Kentucky ; Thomas J. Wharton, to Tennessee; Joseph W. Matthews, to Ala- bama; Daniel R. Russell, to Missouri ; George R. Fall, to Arkansas ; Wirt Adams, to Louisiana ; H. H. Miller, to Texas ; C. E. Hooker, to South Carolina. Mississippi was herself visited by like commis- sioners. Colonel Armistead, from South Carolina, and E. W. Pettus, brother of the governor, from Alabama, attended the Jan- uary convention.

While preparations were going on for confederation and war, Congress was talking compromise, and the famous Crittenden res- olutions were proposed. Said the Natchez Free Trader: "They come too late. They never will be agreed to by the South." They

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were not in fact given serious consideration anywhere. (See Con- vention of 1861.)

Seigers, a postoffice of Hinds county, on the Illinois Central R. R., 6 miles south of Jackson.

Selden, a postoffice in the extreme northeastern part of Tippah county, 2 miles east of Brownfield station on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R., and 20 miles from Ripley, the county seat.

Selfcreek, a hamlet of Oktibbeha county, 12 miles due west of Starkville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 75.

Selma, a postoffice of Adams county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., about 9 miles from Natchez.

Selsertown, an extinct settlement in Jefferson county, which was situated on the extreme southern limits of the county, about six miles from the old town of Washington in Adams county. The old Natchez trace ran through this place, and early in the last century, George Selser kept an inn here and gave the settlement its name. We are told that the last owner of the old inn was one John Mc- Collum, who proclaimed his nationality by the sign in front of the stables, "Intertainment for Man and Baste." Not long after the War between the States, the old house and stables were burned. In the vicinity of the old settlement was a large Indian mound, which was investigated in 1838 by a party of scholars from Natchez.

Seminary, a village of Covington county, about 8 miles south- east of Williamsburg, the county seat. It is a thriving station on the Gulf & Ship Island Railroad, 21 miles by rail from Hattiesburg. It has a money order postoffice and an express office. The Bank of Seminary was established here in 1905 with a capital of $30,000. There is a large saw mill and a turpentine plant located here and the town is prospering. It has three churches and a good school. Population in 1900, 500.

Seminary Fund. By the public land act of 1803 congress reserved from sale thirty-six sections, or 23,040 acres, for the use of a semi- nary of learning in the Mississippi Territory, incidental to the sur- vey of the Creek boundary line. After the division of the Terri- tory and the admission of the State of Mississippi, a substitute act was approved February 20, 1819, granting the State, in addition to the grant for Jefferson college, "another township, or a quantity of land equal thereto, to be located in tracts of not less than four entire sections each, which shall be vested in the legislature of the said State, in trust, for the support of a seminary of learning there- in," the lands to be located by the secretary of the treasury when the Indian title had been extinguished in suitable lands. The lo- cation was made by 1823. In 1825 the legislature authorized the State auditor to lease the seminary lands for four years, bonds being required for improvements and proper care. "The plantation at the old Choctaw agency" was to be leased for three years to the highest bidder. An act of 1827 required notice of leasing to be given, and offer to the highest bidder. Further provision for leas- ing was made in 1830, proceeds to be paid into the State treasury. An act of March 2, 1833, required the governor to appoint three

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commissioners to estimate the value of the thirty-six sections, whereupon the State auditor should advertise them for sale in tracts of not less than a quarter section, to the highest bidder, at not less than three-fourths the appraisement, three years credit to be given, the proceeds of the notes given by the purchasers to be invested in stock of the Planters' bank. The land was sold in 1833, all, with the exception of half a section, in exchange for notes with approved security, for the aggregate amount of $277,322. Gov. Lynch re- ported in 1835 that the notes were all due, with interest, making the amount $310,00. Gov. McNutt, in 1839, said the notes were generally well secured, "but many of them are under protest. The late auditor, John H. Mallory, has embezzled a portion of the fund. . Many of the drawers of the notes are dead, and others have moved out of the State." A committee of the House in 1841 was of the opinion that if due diligence had been used, more than three- fourths of the large outstanding debt (about $168,000) could have been collected. Auditor Saunders declared that in some instances the land was occupied by persons not bound for the payment of the same. In 1841 $163,513 was uncollected, $16,439 was in the State treasury, and $137,189 had been invested in the Planters' bank.

An act of 1840 directed the selection of a site for a State univer- sity, and "all sums of money belonging or hereafter accruing to the seminary fund, are hereby appropriated for the use and benefit of the University of the State of Mississippi." The Semi- nary fund was created by act of July 26, 1843, to include "all moneys which have accrued or may hereafter accrue from the sale of the thirty-six sections, etc., and all bank stock, in which any such mon- eys shall have been vested," to be under the control of a commis- sioner appointed for four years, with authority to bring suits to re- cover the assets, assisted by the attorney-general. The treasurer of the State was required to keep an account of money paid on account of the fund, credited it with interest at five per cent. on previous receipts, and thereafter eight per cent. interest.

At the beginning of his administration Gov. A. G. Brown said: "Where is the seminary fund, is a question often asked but never yet satisfactorily answered. Our constituents will expect of us some account of this munificent fund, and a speedy application of it to the great purpose for which it has been set apart." In 1846 he said: "This fund was formerly collected through the agency of the Planters' bank and by law it was invested in the stock of that institution. It was a trust fund, so declared by the act of congress making the donation of lands, out of which it sprung. The State. as trustee, had no authority for investing it in the stock of any bank : she did so, however, and $84.900, with several years' interest on that amount, has been lost. The State is, in my opinion, under the most solemn obligation to pay it back." At this time there was in the State treasury of this fund, $103.000. and if all collections were made, and the lost principal and interest refunded, the total fund would be $250.000.

An act of 1848 fixed the rate of interest at six per cent., to be

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paid on the amount then standing on the books and afterward to be received. Gov. McRae urged the obligation of the State in 1856. A calculation was then made, showing the gross liability of the State on account of this fund to have been, January 1, 1857, $1,- 077,790, considering the State accountable for what had been lost as well as the part collected. In 1869 the State treasurer's books showed a total credit in favor of the fund of $89,000. Gov. Alcorn in 1871 urged that the fund be restored as a debt of the State, and calculated that on the basis of Auditor Saunder's statement for 1841, "the amount which the State now owes the University is about $650,000."

The action taken prior to 1876 was the payment to the University of an annual allowance of $50,000, to cover what interest might be due from the State upon the fund. Subsequently the allowance was reduced, but in 1880 a settlement was made, so that the fund was accounted for by including an estimate of the amount due in the debt of the State. It appeared in the debt statement after 1880 as $544,061, on which interest is paid at 6 per cent. annually by the State.

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Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 76

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