USA > Mississippi > Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II > Part 87
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At the session of the 14th congress in December, 1815, the peti- tion of the legislature was again referred to a committee headed by Lattimore, and another petition from the legislature was received, also a petition of inhabitants east of Pearl for a census, and the erection of the whole Territory into a State. Another petition, arriving in February, asked that representation in the proposed convention be apportioned among the counties on the basis of white population.
On March 31, 1816, a bill for "an act to enable the Mississippi Territory to form a constitution and State government and for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States," was read and debated. Stanford of North Caro- lina objected that the bill contained no provision for future divi-
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sion, and he considered the Territory entirely too large in relation to other States. Lattimore and Hardin (Ky.) replied that if the Ter- ritory were now divided, it would be twenty years before the half of it would be sufficiently populous to ask a State government ; that it was an older Territory than Indiana, in whose favor a bill had just passed. The bill was passed by the house, 70 to 53. In the senate both the Indiana and Mississippi bills were referred to the committee on the Mississippi memorial, April 2, 1816, and after that it was resolved to obtain a census of both Territories, and con- sideration of the Mississippi bill was postponed until July. But congress was not in session in July.
In the second session of the 14th congress, December 9, 1816, the petition of the general assembly presented in December, 1815, praying for admission as one State, was referred to a committee of which Lattimore was chairman. He reported December 22, that "the Mississippi Territory contains, according to a census lately taken under an act of the legislature, 75,512 souls, of whom 45,085 are free white persons, 356 free people of color, and 30.061 slaves. It would seem to be superfluous to your commit- tee to recommend that considerations of a deficiency of numbers be waived in this case, seeing that the house of representatives have passed three bills, at different periods, for the admission of this Territory, when its population was much smaller than it is at this time. But it becomes a question whether the object of the memorialists can be ultimately attained, or ought to be attained, in the way in which it is asked. . beg leave barely to remark, that they cannot believe a State of Your committee such unprecedented magnitude as the one contemplated by the memorialists can be desirable to any section of the United States." The committee also pointed out that the three principal settlements, the Natchez district, the Mobile region and the Huntsville region, were separated by distances of 300 and 400 miles. "Between the Tennessee and the Mississippi settlements and between the Mis- sissippi and the Mobile settlements there is not and probably never will be any commercial intercourse whatever; but between the Mobile and the Tennessee settlements, such an intercourse cannot fail to take place when the intervening country shall be settled, and its fine navigable streams explored and improved. The whole Mississippi Territory formed into a single State would not only be very inconvenient to a vast majority of those of its inhabitants whose duty or interest might call them to the seat of government, but would also prove, in the opinion of your committee, too exten- sive for its executive to suppress internal disorders in all its parts and repel external invasions at all points with necessary prompt- ness, energy and effect. Another objection to an entire admission of the Territory arises from the want of a continuity of settlement and a reciprocity of interest between its distant parts." For these reasons Mr. Lattimore's committee recommended a divi- sion of the Territory by a north and south line, the admission of the western part as a State, and the continuance of a Territorial
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government for the eastern portion. They reported two bills for these purposes.
The committee was disposed to take the Tombigbee river for a boundary line, or the Pascagoula in part, and according to Lat- timore, Judge Harry Toulmin, who appeared as the representative of the Pearl River convention, demanded if division were made, a line between the Pascagoula and Pearl rivers. Lattimore's proposition was that the line should run "from the gulf of Mexico to the northwest corner of Washington county [northeast corner of Wayne] in such a way as to throw all these counties [west of Mobile] into the proposed western State." (The east boundary of Jackson was then the high pine ridge west of Mobile bay.) North of the Choctaw line he would conform somewhat to the nat- ural boundaries by making a jog east on the Choctaw line to the Tombigbee, which he would follow to Cottongin Port; then a direct line to the mouth of Bear creek. But, there was danger of the Pascagoula river being adopted in the south, and the com- promise was made of a line due south from the northwest corner of Washington, and northerly from the same point straight to Bear creek. (F. H. Riley, Publs. M. H. S., III, 175.) Lattimore com- plained that Toulmin's advocacy of the Pascagoula or a more western line as the boundary endangered the passage of the bill; which is undoubtedly what Toulmin desired, as his platform was "Mississippi, one and indivisible." After the Lattimore bill was reported, another petition of the general assembly for admission as one State was presented, also a petition from a large number of the members in support of division. January 9, 1817, Mr. Pickens (N. C.) presented a petition from a convention of delegates of fifteen counties, against division and asking admission entire. This, undoubtedly the petition of the Pearl River convention, brought by Judge Toulmin, was referred to a committee of which Mr. Pickens was chairman, which reported, January 17, a bill to admit without division.
The report of Mr. Pickens gives the arguments for admission without division. It was much more important to the people of the Territory and to the nation, he said, to decide whether the Mississippi Territory should form one State or two, than to decide regarding immediate admission. He declared that the fear of its future great strength if admitted as a unit was exaggerated, because it was probable that much of the land was unfit for cultivation. "Your committee cannot. apprehend that the whole Territory is capable of such a strong population as ever to render it a formid- able State compared with the largest sized of the northern, middle and western States." He referred to the land office sales in south- ern Mississippi to prove the undesirability of the lands. Central and Northern Mississippi was, of course, not yet opened to settlers. "It appears, from the concurrent testimony of persons acquainted with the territory in question, that an uncommon proportion of its land is unfit for cultivation ; much thereof consisting of poor pine barrens; while, on the other hand, it is certain that there is much
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fertile soil on the margin of the rivers, and interspersed over dif- ferent parts, capable to sustain a sufficient population for a respec- table State. Its political strength will also be held in check by the great proportion of slaves it is destined to contain. This circum- stance, added to the climate and soil, will render its numbers (en- titled to political calculation) relatively small compared with its extent. As to the wishes of the people themselves, various repre- sentations have been made showing a difference of sentiment to exist among them in regard to a division. It is, however, worthy of notice that for several successive years the legislature of the Territory have petitioned congress for admission as a State; in none of which have they intimated a wish to be divided." The form of the proposed State would be nearly square, the center as easy of access from one extreme as another. The different parts would have different avenues to market, by the navigation of the Mississippi, Mobile and Chattahoochee rivers. "It is not seen that this will create any material diversity of interests, or interfere with the internal policy and harmony of the State, all parts of which will be agricultural and capable of similar products." The large State would be more likely to cherish its institutions with a liberal policy; its military defence would be more effective. According to the house bill, "the western division will contain 25,037 free white inhabitants, and 22,834 slaves, by the census lately taken. By the census taken in 1810, there were west of the line of division 16,602 white inhabitants and 14,523 slaves, including in the last census the county of Jackson, formerly a part of Florida, making an increase of 8,435 white and 8,311 slave inhabitants, in the last period of six years, including a new county from Florida."
But the enabling bill for Indiana had been passed, and the con- stitution of that new State, which had three or four times the white population of all the Mississippi territory, was approved December 16, 1816. This act increased the number of States north of the Mason and Dixon line and the Ohio river to ten. The ad- mission of Louisiana in 1812 had served to balance the strength of the two sections in the senate. The sense of sectional divergence was felt at that time. It had been realized from the earliest days of colonial history, and was at this time becoming more intense. The time was near at hand for the beginning of the memorable and lamentable political struggles over "the balance of power." But now, apparently without contest, two points were conceded to the Southern political leaders, the immediate admission of half of Mississippi Territory to make the columns stand ten to ten, and the promise of another State in the eastern half, which was now given the name of Alabama. So Mississippi escaped that focal place in the history of sectional warfare that Missouri assumed a year or two later.
Senator Charles Tait, of Georgia, chairman of the senate commit- tee on the petition of the legislature, reported two bills, as Latti- more had done, for a western State and an eastern Territory, and they were passed January 31; the house adopted the senate bills
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with amendments, February 26; the senate concurred in the amend- ments February 28, and the enabling act was signed by President Madison, March 1, 1817.
In pursuance of this enabling act the constitutional convention (q. v.) assembled at Washington, and adopted a constitution and form of government. When congress met in December, a resolu- tion admitting the State thus organized was passed by the house December 8. The senate, December 1, referred the inquiry if any legislative measures were necessary for admission of the State of Mississippi to a committee composed of James Barbour, of Vir- ginia; Rufus King, of Massachusetts, and John Williams, of Ten- nessee, (brother of Gov. Williams). The question was somewhat interesting, because the electoral vote of Indiana had been offered for Monroe, on the basis of an election taken before the State had been admitted by resolution of Congress. Objection was made, but the vote was counted. Barbour presented a resolution for ad- mission, had read a copy of the constitution, and the resolution was passed December 3, the day before the arrival of an official copy of the constitution accompanied by a letter from Governor Holmes:
The Barbour resolution passed the house December 8 and was signed by President Monroe December 10, 1817. The resolution in its "whereas" recited the passage of an enabling act and the forming of a state constitution and form of government, which was declared to be republican and in conformity with the Ordinance of 1787, and it was "Resolved, by the Senate and House of Rep- resentatives of the United States of American in Congress as- sembled, That the State of Mississippi shall be one, and is hereby declared to be one, of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever."
The new senators, Walter Leake and Thomas H. Williams, and the representative, George Poindexter, were sworn in Decem- ber 11th.
An act extending the laws of the United States to the new State, originated in the house, and was adopted by the senate, March 30, 1818, and approved April 3, 1818.
The reflection cannot be avoided, in view of the modern develop- ment of the territory, that they were wise who planned one great State. Such a State now would combine such a variety of resour- ces as would contribute to high social development under one gov- ernment. It would have been in the South such a commonwealth as Ohio or Pennsylvania is in the north. But these considerations did not outweigh the political anxiety for more votes in the United States senate. It is interesting to observe also, if the wisdom of division be conceded, that if President Madison and his Congress had not let "I dare not wait upon I would, like the cat in the adage," the port of Pensacola would have been secured for Alabama, and the dividing line of the two States would have been the Tombigbee river and Mobile river and bay. One may imagine that if the
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matter had been left to Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, both Mobile and Pensacola would have been annexed to the Mississippi Territory, for the only real, honest reason for taking either of them, -that they naturally belonged to us, and were essential to our territorial integrity.
Statehouse. See Capitol.
State Institutions. See Insane hospital, East Mississippi In- sane hospital, Deaf and Dumb institution, Blind institute, Vicks- burg Hospital, Natchez Hospital.
Statelevee, a post-hamlet of Tunica county, on the Mississippi river, opposite Helena, Ark. Population in 1900, 25.
State Line, an incorporated post-town in the southeastern part of Wayne county, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R., near the boundary line between Mississippi and Alabama. It is 63 miles northwest of Mobile, and about 20 miles southeast of Waynesboro, the county seat and nearest banking town. It is located in a pine timber region, and manufactures yellow pine lumber, resin and turpentine. Population in 1900, 3:9. The population in 1906 was estimated at 500. It has several stores, a turpentine distillery, a saw mill, a public cotton gin, two churches, and is the seat of the State Line Academy.
St. Denis, Juchereau de. This distinguished officer was a native of Canada, was the uncle of Madame d'Iberville, and came to Lou- isiana in December, 1699, in the frigate Renommeé, commanded by d'Iberville. He spent several years in making expeditions up and down the Mississippi, and soon acquired a general knowledge of several Indian languages, so as to be acknowledged the Indian grand chief. He was a gentleman of education, courage and pru- dence, and in 1714, was dispatched up Red river to explore the country and observe the movements of the Spaniards. In the fol- lowing year he was sent as an envoy to negotiate a commercial treaty with Mexico; and again in 1718, as the agent of M. Crozat, with articles of merchandise to exchange with the Mexicans for such articles as would be useful in Louisiana. He was also em- ployed in conducting several expeditions against the Indians. In 1719 he returned to Biloxi and in command of the Indian allies of the French, assisted in repulsing the Spaniards, who had invested Dauphin Island, and were making repeated attempts to effect a landing in Mobile Bay. In September, 1719, he commanded the In- dian allies of the French at the siege and capture of Pensacola, and was knighted for his services. On the retirement of M. de Bien- ville to France, in 1726, M. de St. Denis returned to Montreal, Canada, where he died.
Steamboats. Under the title "River Transportation" it has been shown that prior to the introduction of steamboats on western waters, the means of transportation thereon consisted of keel-boats, barges and flat-boats. The two former laboriously ascended as well as descended the stream ; while the flat-boat, or "broadhorn," was a downstream craft, exclusively, and was sold for its lumber on arrival at its destination. As late as the year 1817, 20 barges and keels sufficed for the upward and downward commerce between
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the lower Mississippi and the Ohio region, while the commerce from New Orleans to St. Louis on the upper Mississippi was con- veyed in two or three barges. The same barge with an efficient crew could make the round trip in six months, and made one and sometimes two trips in a year. As the largest barges were of only 100 tons burden, the total tonnage of all the boats engaged in this upward trade could not have exceeded seven thousand tons. Whether steam could be employed on western rivers was a ques- tion. Its success between New York and Albany was not consid- ered as having been solved satisfactorily, and when it was sug- gested that a boat be built at Pittsburg, to ply between Natchez and New Orleans, an investigation of the waters to be navigated was first determined upon. Nicholas J. Roosevelt, of New York, undertook this work, with the understanding that if the report was favorable, Chancellor Livingston, Robert Fulton, and himself were to be equally interested in the undertaking. Livingston and Fulton were to supply the capital, and Roosevelt was to superintend the building of the boat and engine. The report was highly favorable, and Roosevelt was sent to Pittsburg in 1810 to superintend the building of the first steamboat to be launched on western waters. Its size and plan were furnished by Robert Fulton. It was to be 116 feet in length and 20 feet beam. The engine was to have a 34 inch cylinder and the boiler, etc., was to be in proportion. Men were sent into the forest to obtain its timbers.
The Pittsburg "Navigator" of 1811 makes this unique comment on the intention and purpose of Fulton and Livingston: "There is now on foot a new method of navigating our western waters, par- ticularly the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. This is with boats pro- pelled by the power of steam. This plan has been carried into suc- cessful operation on the Hudson river at New York, and on the Delaware between New Castle and Burlington. It has been stated that the one on the Hudson goes at the rate of four miles an hour against wind and tide on her route between New York and Albany, and frequently with 500 passengers on board. From these success- ful experiments there can be but little doubt of the plan succeeding on our western waters, and proving of immense advantage to the commerce of our country. A Mr. Rosewalt, a gentleman of enter- prise, and who is acting it is said in conjunction with Messrs. Fulton and Livingston of New York, has a boat of this kind now (1810) on the stocks at Pittsburgh, of 138 feet keel, calculated for 300 or 400 tons burden. And there is one building at Frankfort, Kentucky, by citizens who will no doubt push the enterprise. It will be a novel sight, and as pleasing as novel to see a huge boat working her way up the windings of the Ohio, without the appear- ance of sail, oar, pole, or any manual labour about her-moving within the secrets of her own wonderful mechanism, and propelled by power undiscoverable." The boat was called the New Orleans, and descended the Ohio and Mississippi and landed at Natchez in December, 1811, where she took on lading and passengers for the first time, and passed on to New Orleans. The New Orleans was
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the first steamer that attempted to, ascend the river, leaving New Orleans for Natchez on January 23, 1812. A week afterward the Louisiana Advertiser said, "We are enabled to state that she can stem the current at the rate of three miles an hour ; she went from the city of Houma, 75 miles, in 23 hours." She ran as a packet from New Orleans to Natchez for more than a year, when she was wrecked upon a snag near Baton Rouge. The "Navigator" tells us "her accommodations are good, and her passengers gener- ally numerous; seldom less than 10 to 20 from Natchez, at 18 dol- lars a head, and when she starts from New Orleans, generally from 30 to 50, and sometimes as many as 80 passengers, at 25 dollars each to Natchez. The boat's receipts for freight upwards, has averaged the last year 700 dollars, passage money $900-down- wards $300 freight, $500 for passengers-She performs 13 trips in the year, which at 2,400 per trip, amounts to $31,200."
Sharfs' History of St. Louis gives a long list of sixty pioneer steamboats, built for the trade on the western waters, prior to the year 1820. The great majority of these were built for the New Orleans and Louisville trade, and a noticeable feature is the num- erous points that were selected to build them, ranging from Pitts- burg to New Orleans, and the great number of persons that were ready to embark in the new enterprise. Few owners appear as such in any two boats. Fulton and Livingston who built the first boat, did not long continue in the business after the courts re- fused to legalize the authority they claimed, for the exclusive right to navigate the Mississippi for the term of twenty-five years.
The second steamboat was the "Comet" of 25 tons, owned by Samuel Smith, built at Pittsburg by Daniel French. She made a voyage to Louisville in 1813, and to New Orleans in the spring of 1814. She made two trips to Natchez and was then sold and her engine put into a plantation and used to drive a cotton gin.
The third steamboat, also built at Pittsburg, was the "Vesuvius," of 340 tons. She was built by Robert Fulton and owned by a com- pany belonging to New York and New Orleans. She was the first boat to attempt the ascent of the Mississippi above Natchez. She started from New Orleans, bound for Louisville, June 1, 1814, and grounded on a bar 700 miles up the Mississippi, where she lay until December, when the river rose and floated her off. She then returned to New Orleans and was for a time pressed into service by Gen. Jackson, in resisting British invasion. Later she ran as a packet between New Orleans and Natchez, and afterwards went into the Louisville trade, and was finally libeled by her commander and sold at public auction in 1819.
The fourth steamboat was the "Enterprise," forty-five tons, built at Brownsville, Penn., by Daniel French, under his patent granted in 1809. She went to New Orleans in December, 1814, and was employed by Gen. Jackson in transporting troops and mil- itary stores for the defence of New Orleans. She was the first steamboat ever used on western waters to expedite the military movements, for national defence. In May, 1817, she left New Or-
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leans for Pittsburg, and arrived at Shippingport on the 30th, twen- ty-five days out, being the first steamboat that ever arrived at that port from New Orleans. New Orleans was now brought two months nearer Pittsburg, and Capt. Shreve of the Enterprise was acknowledged the father of steam navigation on the Mississippi.
The fifth boat was the "Aetna," 340 tons, built at Pittsburg and owned by the same company as the "Vesuvius." She made her first voyage to New Orleans in 1815 and also entered the Natchez trade. She afterwards made six trips to Louisville, under the command of Captain Robinson De Hart.
The sixth steamboat was the "Zebulon M. Pike," built by Mr. Prentice, of Henderson, Ky., in 1815. She deserves mention as the first boat to ascend the Mississippi above the mouth of the Ohio, and the first to touch at St. Louis. The seventh boat was the "Dispatch," 25 tons, built at Brownsville, Pa., by the owners of the "Enterprise." The eighth boat was the "Buffalo," 300 tons, built at Pittsburg by Benjamin H. Latrobe, Sr., the distinguished architect of the Capitol at Washington. In 1816 the "Washington," 400 tons, a two decker, built at Wheeling, made the round trip from Louisville to New Orleans twice in 1816-17 and first convinced the despairing public that steamboat navigation would succeed on western waters. The time consumed in her last voyage down and back was only 45 days, which opened a new era to western com- merce.
Prior to 1818, the boats had been chiefly designed for the recep- tion of freight, and with few conveniences for passengers. These first boats were built after the models of ships, with deep holds; had low pressure engines and heavy machinery, and were useless in low water, and very hard to propel against the current. "In order to attain greater speed, the builders soon made the boats long and narrow, but it was not until they came to the decision that boats would run faster on the water than in it, and began making them flat and broad, that they finally got a boat capable of carrying a thousand tons, when drawing only four feet, and when empty two and one-half feet. Then with a high pressure engine at each wheel they could make unprecedented speed; and these boats afforded travelling and freight accommodations equal to any. Although the price of passage did not exceed hotel rates, yet more bountifully filled tables were not to be found on land and the boats were marvels of splendor in their appointments. The chief im- provement made in the river steamboats was in placing one large wheel at the stern of the boat entirely behind the hulk and with long paddles the full length of the beam, operated by double engines and quartering cranks." (Historic Highways, Hulbert.) The "Gen- eral Pike," built at Cincinnati in 1818, was the first steamboat built on western waters for the exclusive convenience of passengers. Her accommodations were ample; her apartments spacious and convenient. She measured 100 feet keel, 25 feet beam, and drew only 39 inches of water. Her cabin was 40 feet in length, and 25 feet wide. At one end were six state rooms, at the other end
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