USA > Mississippi > Hinds County > History of Hinds County, Mississippi, 1821-1922 > Part 2
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of the old county records are still kept in her repositories. At this place the Hinds County Gazette had its birth. The county being divided into two districts, courts are today held at both Raymond and Jackson, the latter place having been selected as the capital of the state by the legislature, November 28, 1821.
Among the United States senators of Mississippi from Hinds County before the Civil War were Walter Leake and Henry S. Foote. The governors of Mississippi from Hinds County before the war were Walter Leake, John I. Guion and Henry S. Foote, and of these more will be said later.
Hinds County, along with the other counties of the State, shared the prosperity that marked the State's financial history during these years. Cotton, the great staple industry, held first place in agricultural products, and about this time Mississippi was largely furnishing the country with cotton for clothing and numerous other pur- poses. No county in the State was making greater pro- gress in the growth of cotton and other products such as corn, peas, syrup, and great varietis of fruits than Hinds. Though Hinds at that time had no factories to speak of, a coarse cloth, woven on hand looms, shoes, and many other necessaries were manufactured on the large plantations for home consumption, such place taking on the air of small industrial colonies. The county began early to pro- duce all the food stuffs used by the people and it has been handed down as a fact that elegant dinners were given on plantations in the county which were prepared en- tirely of its products. It was as early as 1823 that Gov- ernor Leake built at Clinton, then called Mount Salus, a handsome brick house. The brick, or else the frame house with its large Grecian columns, was the accustomed style of house erected on the large plantations, this style of architecture having become popular throughout the South.
It was during these early years that railroads became a subject of the liveliest interest in the history of Hinds County, but few having been built, the stage with its relay of fresh horses was maintained on many routes. One of
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the earliest railroads built in the county was what is now the Alabama & Vicksburg. Its coming was an event celebrated everywhere in the county. This road, before the Civil War, owned and operated a branch line from Bol- ton to Raymond, wholly in Hinds County, but it was torn up and abandoned at the close of the war in order to obtain rails sufficient to rehabilitate the main line.
The religious life of the county was, if anything, more marked and characteristic than any other feature of its social progress. Though nearly all of the Virginia set- tlers were communicants of the Church of England, the difficult service of the Episcopal Church prevented that church from spreading and the simpler rituals of the Methodist and Baptist churches were best suited for the use of a pioneer people of varied religious creeds. However, both the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches entered the county early and established themselves, though in a small way, securely, wherever they appeared.
While the better class of people, especially the slave- holders, exhibited a manner and spirit touched with aristo- cratic hauteur, they possessed a deep inward piety which, was generally expressed with much emotionalism, especial- ly on the part of the uneducated; shouting caused by re- ligious fervor and ecstasy was common to both white and black, and among the poorer whites the "holy dance" was often indulged. Every neighborhood had its frame church -in some instances classical in design-where not only the monthly Sunday service was held, but where protracted meetings were carried on for a week or more, all day ser- vices, with dinner at the church, being frequently held. During these revivals, generally held in midsummer after the crops were "laid by,"1 attended by both white and black, the latter occupying a gallery built in the back part of the church for their especial use, the people often gave way to religious emotions of the most remarkable nature. At the close of the revival each candidate for baptism was
1. A colloquial expression still used today, meaning that the crops had been cultivated, awaiting fruition.
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expected to give a faithful account of his or her experience which often consisted of psychic discoveries, such as few spiritualists of today have experienced. The women of the South, even where they themselves maintained serenity and poise in their spiritual experiences, regarded these revela- tions with a reverent spirit. The men sometimes took them with a grain of salt, but as a whole were deeply im- pressed with religious manifestations, and the people of no section of the Union more earnestly exhibited depend- ence on divine Providence than the people of whom we write, nor expressed in their daily lives more reverence for the Bible.
ยท The men of Hinds County, in common with those of the entire State, early developed a genius for politics and public speaking, and rallies, with barbecues and open-air dances, were features of the social life of the county. While its women as a whole were given to the study of so- cial and domestic questions these were not lacking in keen interest in public affairs and many were brilliant in conver- sation.
Such was the growth of this transplanted Anglo-Saxon stock, and one versed in ethnology could easily trace its kinship to the inhabitants of the British Isles.
The history of the county during the period preced- ing the Civil War is one of constant growth and expansion along all lines. While its people, as representatives of the county, took no part in the War of 1812 for American In- dependence, many of the sturdy pioneer soldiers who served under Generals Andrew Jackson and Ferdinand L. Claiborne, and Colonel Thomas Hinds, had moved into the new terri- tory, purchased from the Indians, and their sons, inherit- ing the cavalier's courage and chivalrous spirit, were keen and eager to respond when in 1846 a call came for volunteers to hasten to the Rio Grande to strength- en General Zachary Taylor's army during the War with Mexico. Companies E and G were immediate- ly organized in Hinds County. From her large brown loam plantations, from her small hillside farms, from her white, many-columned houses, and
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from her little houses where the lilac and syringa bloomed by the low window-sill, her young sons, forgetting caste, rank and profession, answered the call of country, just as their fathers had done when the British attempted to invade the South in 1814-15, during the War of 1812. Company G was commanded by Captain Reuben N. Downing, with Wil- liam H. Hampton and S. A. D. Graves, lieutenants. Com- pany E was commanded by Captain John L. McManus, with James H. Hughes and Crawford Fletcher, lieutenants. Worthy and honored descendants of these brave soldiers may still be found in the county's population.
Companies E and G formed a part of the famous First Mississippi Regiment for the Mexican War, commanded by Colonel Jefferson Davis, with Alexander K. McClung, Lieu- tenant-Colonel and A. B. Bradford, Major. The courage and valor of this regiment at Buena Vista and Monterey have placed its deeds in the class with the most renowned military feats of history. After a year's absence the regi- ment returned home, to receive the plaudits of an admiring people. Its welcome home was a statewide event and will be referred to again in this sketch.
But military honors, political preferment and social di- version were not all that the happy, prosperous people of this fast-developing region sought. The county has always led in educational aspiration and advancement. As early as 1826 the Hemstead Academy, afterwards by an act ap- proved February 5, 1827, called Mississippi Academy, was incorporated and located at Clinton, then Mount Salus. In 1827 under the guidance of F. G. Hopkins it began a use- ful, though changeful, career. A lottery, an institution not then viewed with the disapproval it is today, was authorized by the trustees for its support. The Hinds county college, at Clinton, after having failed by one vote to become the property of the Methodists of Mississippi, passed to the control of the Mississippi Presbytery, to be finally transferred to the Baptists, becoming the sole property of the Baptist Church in Mississippi and known throughout the United States as Mississippi College. Its
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history has been one of marvelous growth and influence in the State. Many other strong educational institutions have been established in the county to which reference will be made.
It was about 1840 that the county began to enjoy its first railroad facilities, the predecessors of the present Alabama & Vicksburg railroad giving much-needed trans- portation and connecting it with the Mississippi River at the city of Vicksburg. The first census report made by John A. Grimball, secretary of state, gives the county a popula- tion of 5,340 in 1832. In 1900 it had increased to 52,577.
A favored region from the standpoint of climate and fertile acreage, settled under the most favorable conditions by a better class than usually seeks the frontiers, with a well-established state government upon which to lean and possessing the means with which to begin the foundations of a well-ordered society, Hinds County did not meet with the misfortunes, hazards and catastrophes that mark earlier southern and western settlements; still, obstacles await any conquerors of the wilderness. It was true that lurking foes plotting the sudden massacre had disappeared, but it is a far cry from dense forests through which no road runs to the apple orchard, the church and the school-house. How- ever, history attests that the county grew by leaps and bounds.
The general development and progress of Hinds County, which were so marked during the period preceding the Civil War, were due to a large extent to the fact that the capital of the State was located within its borders. Activities of a varied nature found an outlet here. Many large institutions, both industrial and educational, sought the capital city, and the whole political history of the State colored its history. Since the day of the location of the capital, it began to be recognized as the center of state affairs, and indeed the rich section throughout this region before the Civil War was a fitting support for any state capital. Here the slave-holder had amassed large fortunes ; villages, towns, and cities sprang up, and churches, schools
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and play-houses were erected, if not plentifully in growing numbers, for the use of as prosperous and happy people as existed anywhere in the United States. Politics, both State and national, engaged the thoughts of the people to a large extent in this county and it was during these years that the gifted and erudite Henry S. Foote met such past masters as Jefferson Davis and S. S. Prentiss in ora- torical contests.
Among the leaders of public affairs in Hinds County at this period were Henry S. Foote,1 William and George Yer- ger, William L. Sharkey, Amos R. Johnston, Albert G. Brown, T. J. Walton, Fulton Anderson, Wiley P. Harris, David C. Glenn and John I. Guion.
CHAPTER II
Questions in national government were now clamoring for settlement which remaining unsettled too long by gov- ernmental procedure, culminated in the secession of the Southern States, followed by as fierce civil war between the sections of the cleft Union as history has ever record- ed. For the preliminary events of secession in Mississippi, a close study is recommended of the administrations of Matthews, Guion, Whitfield, Foote, McRae, McWillie and Pettus. See Encyclopedia of Mississippi History, Volumes I and II.
As a reflex of the situation, in Hinds County, which was the compendium of that throughout the State, a brief summary with some slight editing will be inserted here from the Encyclopedia of Mississippi History since the act of secession was enacted within the confines of the county and is a part of its history.
"For many years after the formation of the Republic few would have questioned the legal theory upon which the Southern Commonwealths based their right to with- draw from the Union, whatever resistance might have been
1. Foote resigned when governor of the State in 1851 and went to California and from there to Tennessee.
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offered to actual withdrawal. The wise men of 1787 were forced to appease many jealousies and to adjust many delicate situations before the con- stitution could win the necessary support to insure about its adoption by the States. This brought
the many well known compromises of the constitu- tion, together with some significant omissions in the in- strument. If the right of secession was nowhere mention- ed, neither was it negatived; nor was there anywhere a grant of power to the National government to coerce a re- calcitrant State. The prevailing early view of the consti- tution and the nature of the Union is well illustrated in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798; in the attitude of those New England States which condemned the embargo laid upon shipping by the National government in 1808, de- clared it unconstitutional and refused to enforce it; in 1812, when Massachusetts and Connecticut refused to honor the requisition of the President for the use of the militia of those States without their borders, on the ground that the act of Congress authorizing the requisition was un- constitutional; in 1828-30, when Georgia refused to obey an act of Congress regarding the Cherokee Indians, and de- fied the Federal authority ; and finally in 1832, when South Carolina through State convention and by legislative en- actment declared null and void the tariff imposed by Con- gress, and was prepared to secede if necessary. All these incidents serve to show that the secession idea was no new one. Those States which finally seceded in 1861 justified their course by the claim that the National Union was formed by a compact between independent States, each of which could judge for itself, whether the compact had been violated, and secede for such violation. A State, by vir- tue of its individual, sovereign right, could repeal or with- draw its act of acceptance of the constitution, as the basis or bond of union, and resume the powers which had been delegated and enumerated in that instrument. This action was that of the people of the State, in the assertion of a power above that of Federal or State government.
"Apart from the legal grounds upon which the right
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of secession was based, the interests of the North and the South had grown widely apart. In the progress of the years the social and economic development of the two sec- tions had diverged more and more." Though there were a number of abolitionists in the South,1 after the fashion of Henry Clay's class, the South as a whole, for the pres- ent at least, felt that slavery was not only in keeping with Biblical institutions but an indispensible economic necessity in the production of its great staples, cotton and tobacco- products which were the mainstay of her prosperity; that since the constitution provided for its existence, only con- stitutional measures could or should prevent it; that it was pernicious intermeddling for the New England reformers to condemn its practice when New England had recognized it herself but a few years before, and in finding such labor more of a burden than otherwise to a largely sterile sec- tion, had sold her slaves to the southern planters.
"Many events had tended to intensify the feeling be- tween 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 commercial policy of Eng- land 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 constitu- tion 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 means for the proper economic distribution of the slave pop- ulation. General hatred, and social ostracism were the lot of the slave-trader, who was more often of New England birth than Southern born. Again, the South believed that the people of the North condoned, if they had not actually abetted the diabolical acts of the fanatical and blood-thirsty John Brown. Every southerner realized what a hideous
1. There was in active operation in Mississippi before the Civil War a strong society for the emancipation and colonization of the Negro in Liberia. The colony planted there boret the name of Mississippiana. Captain Isaac Ross in his will gave all his slaves their freedom.
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danger a slave insurrection meant to southern homes. The South too felt and demanded that slavery 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 en- force the provisions of the fugitive slave law was espe- cially exasperating.
"Mississippi was represented by a brilliant delegation when the Democratic national convention met at Charles- ton, April 23rd, including Jefferson Davis, W. S. Barry, L. Q. C. Lamar, Charles Clark, Jacob Thompson, J. W. Mat- thews and S. J. Gholson. The delegation reported the de- mand of Yancey, that the platform must declare for pro- tection 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 Dred Scott decision.
"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.1 Thereupon the delegations of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas, and scattering members of other delegations, seceded from the conven- tion. The convention ballotted 57 times, but Douglas failed to receive a two-thirds vote, and it then adjourned to meet at Baltimore June 18. Jefferson Davis opposed this rup- ture, '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 General 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 participate unless all the delegates from the seceding
1. Under the laws of the United States the territories had no author- ity to enact laws of this nature; every issue opposed by the South in- volved an infringement of the national constitution.
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states were admitted. 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 Breckenridge. Meanwhile, in May, the Constitutional 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 of national support. The Republican party had a con- vention at Chicago in May also, and nominated Abraham Lincoln. Thus there were two Northern and two Southern parties. Both sets were divided on the old Whig and Democrat issues, but in the South the actual issue between the Beckenridge and Bell parties, was secession, as the elec- tion 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 Breckenridge and Douglas were the only candidates the issue would be the same, they said. The Natchez Courier (Whig) declared the Breckenridge ticket was supported by Southern sectionalism 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 desolation 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 prospect. It was regarded as almost certain that Lincoln would be elected, unless Breckenridge or Douglas could be withdrawn from the field, and it was idle to hope that this could be done.' Giddings, 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 extraordinary violence.'
"The Breckenridge electoral ticket was headed by
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Henry T. Ellett. The Bell ticket was, John C. Watson, Amos R. Johnston, the last of Hinds County, T. B. Mosely, William A. Shaw, W. B. Helm, Sylvanus Evans, Gustavus H. Wilcox. The Douglas ticket was, Samuel Smith, Frank- lin Smith, B. N. Kinyon, R. W. Flournoy, E. Dismukes, Henry Calhoun, Edmund McAllister. The campaign was characterized, as it was in the North, by considerable mili- tary 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 in Jackson, early in October, under the management of Fulton Anderson, Chief Justice 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 Breckenridge. According to the constitutional method of election, provided to protect the States from consolidation, Mr. Lincoln was assured of 180 electoral votes, far more than all his opponents together. Bell carried 39 votes, Breckenridge 72, Douglas 12. The popular vote of the United States was by no means so decisive. Lincoln re- ceived 1,866,452 votes; Douglas 1,375,157; Breckenridge, 847,953; Bell, 590,631. The great vote for Douglas was in the North. The opposition vote to the Republicans was 2,823,741-a majority of almost a million, in a total vote of about four million and a half. The op- position to Lincoln had polled 1,288,611 in the North and West alone. In Lincoln's own state, Illinois, the opposi- tion 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 cau- tiously.
"Lincoln had said positively in 1858 in the fa- mous debate with Stephen A. Douglas: 'I am not nor
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ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of ne- groes, nor to qualify them to hold office, nor to inter- marry 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 together on terms of social and political equal- ity.' This did not suit the abolitionists of the North who believed in the social and political equality of the races; hence, the light vote Lincoln received. After his election, however, it was generally accepted and largely true that he would be dominated by the radical element of the Re- publican party.
"November 13th, 1860, Governor Pettus issued a proclamation that, 'Whereas, the recent election of Messrs. Lincoln and Hamlin demonstrates that those who neither reverence the Constitution, obey the laws, nor reverence their oaths, have now the power to elect to the highest of- fices in this Confederacy men who sympathize with them in all their mad zeal to destroy the peace, prosperity and prop- erty 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 hoped for in Black Republican oaths.' Gov. Pettus also invited the Congressional delegation to meet him in conference at Jackson. All attended but Mc- Rae. Diverse opinions were maintained. Some 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 General 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 Governor 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 Caro-
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