USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I > Part 53
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A. R. Johnston replied that desolation, like a funeral pall, over- spread the State; the arm of industry was paralyzed ; poverty and privation met the observer everywhere, lawlessness stalked abroad unpunished and almost unrebuked. The State stood vanquished, without power, without will, absolutely without any choice as to her course. "It is, in my humble opinion, the part of true dignity and true manhood, and elevated moral courage, to have a concep- tion of our inevitable destiny, and at once to realize this ideal, dis- tasteful as it may be, and act in accordance with the soundest and best policy that can be devised." The terms were dictated from Washington. "If we refuse to submit to that dictation, the neces- sary result then is, that we stand out for long and lingering years of misery and suffering as a conquered province, under the stern, inexorable control of military rule, with one oppression today, and another oppression tomorrow, until there will be no life left in the prostrated State of Mississippi at all." To the plea that the State was not out of the Union he retorted that he had always contended that the right of secession never did exist under the constitution and ought never to have been exercised; he stood with Andrew Jackson, but he disdained to discuss such a subject in the present emergency. Neither would he argue about what had killed slav- ery, the emancipation proclamation or what not. "It is gone, and however much we were attached to it, or however much it bene- fited us-being dead, let us indulge in no useless regrets over its
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demise, but bury the carcass, that it may no longer offend our nostrils." It was his opinion, supported by that of other eminent Mississippian lawyers, including one of almost world-wide repu- tation, that a plain constitutional amendment abolishing slavery thereafter would not in the slightest degree impair the claim to compensation for the loss of what was property under the former constitution. But this "right of compensation" was "vague, shadowy, unsubstantial," without any real foundation. It was al- together unlikely that such a proposition would ever be seriously considered by the dominant party. But, "If we now proceed and make a free constitution, and unite with the Conservatives of the North and West, we can elect a Conservative President and a Con- servative Congress, who will unitedly give the question of com- pensation a fair consideration. Thus, widows and orphans may procure indemnity for the destruction of their slave property."
J. W. C. Watson said, in the course of a powerful speech, that Mr. Potter's assumptions were self-contradictory. "Now, sir, the ordinance of secession was either constitutional, operative and obligatory upon the citizens of the State, or unconstitutional, null and void. If the former, the State of Mississippi ceased to be an integral part of the United States; and as this ordinance still re- mains unrepealed, the State continues to sustain to the United States the relation of a power foreign thereto. On this hypothesis we are now endeavoring to effect the re-admission of Mississippi into the Federal Union, and this being the case, does it belong to us to dictate the terms of our re-admission, or is it not the right of the government of the United States, within certain limitations, to prescribe those terms? These limitations, however, in the case supposed, do not grow so much out of the constitution of the United States, as out of the great and immutable principles of right and justice. . Now, on the other hand, let it be conceded that our ordinance of secession was unconsttiutional, null and void ; that in unfurling the flag of the Confederate States of Amer- ica we violated the constitution of the United States, and waged a war against that government, whilst we owed allegiance thereto. On this hypothesis, is it so very clear that we have not forfeited our right as citizens of the United States, and incurred the pains and penalties of the laws in such cases made and provided? As a condition precedent to a pardon, by the president of the United States, we have all taken the amnesty oath prescribed by his proclamation of the 29th of May last. . . . By its very terms we have certainly affirmatively and directly sworn to support the
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proclamations of the president and the laws of congress with ref- erence to emancipation."
Mr. Watson alluded to the great loss consequent upon the abolition of slavery ; but declared it was dead beyond any hope of resurrection. There was no party nor any fraction of a party in the North that did not demand the unconditional abolition of slav- ery in the South. "On this subject we have all employed language not entirely correct-we have spoken of the abolition of slavery by the State, when only its prohibition for the future was intended. We should remember that the continued agitation of the subject of slavery promises no relief to us. Let the existing state of things in our midst be kept up for a very few years, and we shall all witness, I fear, the enfranchisement of the negro. The very power which convened this convention can disperse it, and issue another proclamation calling another convention without regard to race or color."
Mr. Brown of Yalobusha contended for some form of amendment reserving the right to demand compensation; Messrs. Cooper and Jarnagin argued, likewise, that slavery was dead and no action on the part of the convention was necessary except to recognize the fact; they desired to put in the record that the United States government abolished slavery, not the State of Mississippi.
E. J. Goode said, "I take it that almost all lawyers will agree about this, that slavery has not been legally abolished in the State of Mississippi. . I am willing to admit that slavery is im- practicable here, and has ceased to exist as a live and vital insti- tution ; but there may be a legal slavery still. I am free to admit that President Lincoln had the right to issue the procla- mation but is it contended that the mere war measure of Mr. Lincoln remains operative after the war has closed? I have the best evidence that the United States govern- ment did not so regard it. I feel myself bound, and have, ever since I was announced as a candidate for this convention, to vote for a free constitution. .
. If we have a right to affix conditions, as insisted by the gentleman from Yazoo (Mr. Hud- son), and supported by able members, we have a right to refuse to adopt any clause of the constitution abolishing slavery, or such as will render it utterly impossible for the government of the United States ever to receive us."
Col. Simonton called attention to the fact that they claimed seats in the convention, not because they were citizens of Mississippi, but because they had taken the oath of allegiance to the United States.
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"We have taken that oath and I, as a member of the convention, expect to carry it out in good faith, as I am conscientiously bound to do."
Mr. Marshall of Warren made an animated speech saying he was treating his negroes as freemen and paying them wages, but he was against an amendment of the constitution abolishing slav- ery, and did not consider it necessary. "The United States can- not, will not, dare not now assert that Mississippi is not a State of the Union." The great question, in his mind, was, "not whether the negro shall be free-but whether we shall be slaves."
In rejoinder Mr. Potter sought support in the "sovereignty" dogma, saying that Mr. Watson had overlooked entirely "the fun- damental distinction that exists between communities and indi- viduals-between States in their organized capacity, and the in- dividual citizens of the State," and cited in support of his position a theory hailing from Boston that the "States" had been guilty of treason, though he did not accept the theory. He desired to stand on all constitutional rights, and cited the reply of President John- son to the South Carolinian envoys: "It seems, gentlemen, that I am a better State rights man than you are." He urged that Mis- sissippi should insist upon the admission of her Congressmen without condition, as a condition of amending the constitution. General Martin supported the proviso of representation, saying he had been looking carefully for promise of the restoration of self- government, and had "seen very much that has led me to distrust the future." The thirteenth amendment proposed in congress in- creased his fear. He distrusted legislation by those who had been taught by writers who "painted the good qualities of the negro as our novelists have painted those of the Indians" and depicted the slaveholders as monsters. He wished to say to congress, "we are willing, having fought for this great institution, and been con- quered, to amend the constitution in such a way as shall be of most service to the country. We are perfectly willing to give up the institution of slavery. We ask to be heard-to have a day in court, that our representatives shall be there when you undertake to legislate on the subject of the freedmen in the State of Mississippi, if you undertake to do it at all."
A great speech by William Yerger closed the debate. In open- ing he gave a brief and masterly history of slavery as a cause of political warfare continuing from a date soon after the formation of the government until, upon the election of Mr. Lincoln, "the people of the Southern States, with a great degree of unanimity,
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came to the conclusion that his election imperiled, if it was not ac- tually subversive of the institution of slavery ;" from which seces- sion resulted. He recited the passage by the lower house of con- gress in December, 1860, of a resolution pledging no interference with slavery in the States, which was defeated by the action of the Southern senators; the pledge of President Lincoln that he had no intention of interfering with the institution of slavery in the States; the continuance, nevertheless, of warlike measures in the South; the warning proclamation of September, 1862, after many months of war; the making good of that warning by the emancipation proclamation of January, 1863. He recounted the tremendous events that followed, ending in entire conquest of the South. "Does any sane man suppose that after such a war; after an expenditure of three thousand millions of dollars, and a sacri- fice of nearly 500,000 men, the United States will recede from a position, deliberately taken before the world, and again put in is- sue the very question which produced the war?"
He recounted his visit to President Johnson (See Sharkey Adm.), the president's assurances to him and others, that "Slavery is gone as an institution ;" the Southern States could not be admitted into congress "until they have afforded evidence by their conduct of this truth." They must have conventions, and amend their con- stitutions "by abolishing slavery, and this must be done in good faith." The president could do no less. Everywhere he had vis- ited in the North and West, said Judge Yerger, there was a fixed, universal determination-there were no parties on that subject, there was not a single utterance adverse to that view-that the abolition of slavery had been settled by the war. The only dis- pute was about the place the negro should have under the laws, and on that two parties were preparing to struggle-one, led by Chief Justice Chase, insisting that the Southern States remain un- der martial law until the system of universal suffrage had been sub- mitted to; until there should be a congress of white and black rep- resentatives ; with equal suffrage, equal civil rights, equal political rights, equal social standing. The other party, headed by the president, and supported by many famous Union generals-Sher- man, Blair, Logan and Cox-asked only that the States forever abolish slavery, leaving to each State the regulation of citizen- ship. Unless Mississippi should frankly accord with the president it could expect no friends in the North. He had listened with amazement to the remarks of Mr. Potter-if he had listened merely he might have forgotten altogether the truth of their situation,
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"under the absolute military control of the government of the United States." The convention itself met under the guard of Un- ion soldiers; the members entered the gates by permission of armed sentinels. Martial law and the existence of an insurrection, had been proclaimed by the president of the United States in Sep- tember, 1862; this proclamation had never been revoked, "and so far as the political power of the government of the United States is concerned, they hold that the States are still in insurrection. They are so treated and held; not only in theory, but held practi- cally as States in insurrection." Slavery had been destroyed, as the gentlemen said, but "The gentlemen say that the slaves which are in the State of Mississippi have been set free-that as to them, slavery has been abolished-but that we have a right to go to Ken- tucky and buy and bring slaves into the State of Mississippi, and hold them here as slaves. It is precisely because the president of the United States believed those opinions were entertained by many of the Southern people, perhaps by a majority of the South- ern people-because he feared there was no cordial acquiescence in the result which had been produced by arms-because he appre- hended there would be a demand further to discuss and agitate the question of slavery-because he believed the national councils would be hereafter vexed on this question, notwithstanding the result of the war," that he insisted on a constitution amended in good faith. The propositions presented by Potter and others were exactly what would paralyze the friendly arm of the president. It was evident that while the gentleman did not deny that the slaves were free, "there still lingers in his mind, and in the minds of those who coincide with him, the idea that . . . there may
be found some scheme or mode or chance by which the dead in- stitution may be galvanized into a few years of feeble, flickering existence ; and this idea which still haunts their minds has induced them to put forth schemes impracticable in their nature, and cal- culated only to do mischief .
to keep the State, as it now
is, in insurrection against the government of the United States
under the dominion and control of the Federal bayonet in the hands of the negro." 'He exhorted his colleagues to find a true pattern of manliness in Gen. Robert E. Lee; he reminded them that in order to gain the protection of the bayonets they had taken the amnesty oath, and were estopped by manliness from calling it unconstitutional. More powerfully than any other speaker he showed how absolutely all the slaves were free. The slaveholder had no recourse whatever except by force of arms,
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and those who advised higgling on the subject should be ready to take the field again. He discussed with great clearness the rela- tion of slavery to the wealth of the country, demonstrating that no economic loss resulted from its abolition. "The negro is here, with his capacity for labor unimpaired." It was useless, he said, to attach conditions, because there was a large party in the North who were quite indifferent, and rather preferred that the South should remain in the territorial condition for years to come. As to compensation, Mr. Lincoln had in 1863 promised to advocate it if the South would lay down its arms. "It is also said that when the commissioners from the Confederate government met him and Mr. Seward at Hampton Roads he was then willing that compensa- tion should be 'made. But these offers were rejected, and the war was carried on, at a cost of two thousand million dollars and the lives of 250,000 or 300,000 soldiers. Does any man suppose that those who thus carried on this war, regardless of the offer of am- nesty, who refused to accept payment when it was tendered, will meet with any favor in preferring a claim to compensation?" He hoped that, in time, widows, orphans, or the insane, might be com- pensated, but it would not be soon. In conclusion he urged his colleagues "to adopt a course which wisdom, patriotism and manly dignity require at our hands; to turn our back without repining upon the inevitable past, and looking towards the future, deter- mine if possible to rescue the State from the destitution into which it has been dragged."
On motion of James T. Harrison the proposed amendment was amended to read: "Section 8. The institution of slavery having been destroyed in the State of Mississippi, neither slavery nor in- voluntary servitude," etc., the remainder of the section remaining as reported. This concession proved effectual and the section was adopted by a vote of 87 to 11, at the close of Judge Yerger's speech, Aug. 21, 1865. As amended the expression was that slavery had been destroyed against the will of the State but should not be re- vived. The language left open the door of suspicion that Missis- sippi did not accept the verdict of war in "good faith." Governor Humphreys stated the situation in his message to the legislature, Nov. 20: "Under the pressure of Federal bayonets-urged on by the misdirected sympathy of the North in behalf of the enslaved African-the people of Mississippi have abolished the institution of slavery ;" yet Governor Humphreys stood for honest acceptance of the situation.
Mr. Harrison, on the same day proposed a substitute for the
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third amendment (to the bill of rights), and the same was adopted on motion of Mr. Yerger. It specified the cases-petit larceny, vagrancy, etc .- "and other misdemeanors of like character," in which a grand jury might be dispensed with and trial had on in- formation before justices of the peace or such courts as the legis- lature might provide.
The fourth proposed amendment, relating to county control of "apprenticeship" and "vagrancy," was stricken out without debate. A committee of the convention-originally A. H. Handy, E. J. Goode, and W. Hemingway, but of which R. S. Hudson was after- ward chairman, went to work on the preparation of general laws on these subjects. Perhaps there was a compromise in this ar- rangement. The relegation of the subject to the counties might have been much more politic. (See Black Code of 1865.)
An ordinance was taken up providing for an election of all officers, county, district, State, congressional, and Mr. Hud- son proposed an amendment immediately reviving the offices, courts, and officials as in May, 1865; to which Judge Yerger ob- jected that the theory on which the convention was proceeding implied that those officers were de facto, elected by a people in in- surrection, and their official status no longer existed. On motion of Mr. Harrison the Hudson amendment was laid on the table. Mr. Potter renewed the effort to obtain recognition of these of- ficers, and met the same fate. The election ordinance was then adopted, providing for a general election on the first Monday of October ; congressmen to be elected as provided in the law of 1857, and the legislature to meet on the third Monday of October.
The convention then took up the ordinance reported by the ma- jority of the ordinance committee in reference to the secession and other ordinances of 1861. The majority report was, that the seces- sion ordinance "is hereby declared null and void." Judge Trotter made a minority report, which "repealed and abrogated" the ordi- nance of secession, and supported this in a speech, saying that they all regretted the step, and desired to retrace the path, and yield a ready and cheerful acquiescence to the laws of the United States, but to do this it was not necessary to cast any odium upon the convention of 1861. Harrison and Martin proposed other forms of statement. William Yerger offered a substitute, which was rejected 50 to 45, and then the Trotter minority report was rejected, 48 to 46. Another minority report, presented by E. J. Goode, asserted that the convention of 1861 had "declared that the State resumed her sovereignty, and in a war resulting there-
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from with the United States government, which refused to recog- nize the legality or validity of that ordinance, the State failed to maintain her asserted sovereignty, and is now willing and ready to resume her status in the Union, as before the passage of that ordinance; Therefore, Be it ordained by this convention, That said ordinance of secession be, and the same is, declared to be hence- forward null and of no binding force."
Mr. Barr protested against the words "null and void" and James T. Harrison explained that they were intended to deny "the right, on the part of a sovereign State, to secede from the Union." Such he said was the view of the majority of the committee, "that the right of secession nowhere existed under the constitution of the United States." He said this with sincere respect for those who held the opposite view. He did not wish to deny the right of revo- lution, "which exists here and everywhere." Johnson of Marshall pleaded for mutual concession, and recommended the words "re- pealed and abrogated." Brown, of Yalobusha, suggested that secession was as dead as slavery and should be allowed to rest in peace. The discussion on this subject grew very animated. Fin- ally, the majority report was adopted by a vote of 81 to 14. A proposition to submit Article 8 to the vote of the people was lost, on a subsequent day, 50 to 44.
After the consideration of various needs of the people, and the passage of various ordinances and resolutions, the convention ad- journed Aug. 24, with the understanding that it might within six months be called together again by the president.
Before adjournment a telegram from President Johnson was read, congratulating the convention upon its progress toward "paving the way for the restoration of the State to the Union," and promising withdrawal of troops and restoration of the writ of habeas corpus as soon as the State had resumed its "proper po- sition in the Union."
The proceedings of the convention do not indicate that Presi- dent Johnson's recommendation of qualified negro suffrage, in line with the previously expressed policy of President Lincoln, was ever brought up for consideration. "It is highly probable," says Mr. Garner, "that the unanimous sentiment of the conven- tion was against the idea of political rights for the negro in any form."
Constitutional Convention of 1868. This convention was called under the Military Reconstruction Act of congress, adopted in 1867, which provided that the delegates should be elected by the
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male citizens of the State, 21 years old and upwards, "of what- ever race, color or previous condition of servitude," residents for one year, and not disfranchised. No person could be elected as a delegate who was excluded from office by the Fourteenth amend- ment. (See Reconstruction.) A supplemental act of congress provided for registration of voters and the conduct of the election of delegates.
The delegates elected to the convention were proclaimed in Gen- eral Orders No. 42, by Major-General Ord, Dec. 16, 1867, as fol- lows :
Adams-Edward J. Castello, Henry P. Jacobs, Frederick Par- sons. Amite-Charles P. Neilson. Attala-Jason Niles, S. C. Con- ley. Bolivar-Jehiel Railsback. Calhoun-J. H. Kerr. Carroll- George Stovall, Stephen Johnson, Wm. L. Hemingway. Chicka- saw-A. J. Jamison, E. R. Smith. Coahoma-A. S. Dowd. Choc- taw and Oktibbeha-Nicholas B. Bridges, James Weir, George H. Holland. Claiborne-Matthew T. Newsom, Edward H. Stiles. Clark-Henry Musgrove. Covington and Simpson-Carlos Chap- man. Copiah-E. G. Peyton, Emanuel Handy. Davis and Smith -V. A. Collins. DeSoto-Horatio N. Ballard, Wm. B. Gray, Wm. D. Nesbit. Franklin-C. W. Beam. Green, Perry and Jack- son-John Moody. Hancock and Marion-Alanson Goss. Harri- son-New election ordered. Hinds-Henry Mayson, E. A. Pey- ton, Charles Caldwell, John R. Parsons. Holmes-H. W. Barry, D. McA. Williams. Holmes and Madison-R. H. Montgomery. Issaquena-Henry P. Toy. Itawamba-John Elliott. Jasper- William McKnight. Jefferson-A. Alderson, O. S. Miles. Kem- per-Jere Hauser. Lafayette-W. G. Vaughn, P. H. McCutcheon. Lee-W. W. Gaither, D. T. Walker. Lauderdale-R. C. Merry- man, J. Aaron Moore. Lawrence-Wesley Lawson. Leake- Henry W. Warren. Lowndes-B. B. Eggleston, Joseph W. Field, Isham G. Rainey, George Van Hook. Madison-W. Ben Cun- ningham, Amos Drane. Marshall-John W. C. Watson, William M. Compton, Charles H. Townsend. Monroe-J. B. Woodmansee, James L. Herbert, James Elliott. Neshoba-William A. Hutto. Newton-J. E. Longmire. Noxubee-S. H. Powell, Isham Stew- art, N. J. Chappell. Panola-A. R. Howe, U. Ozanne. Pike- Peres Bonney. Pontotoc-Thomas W. Jones. Rankin-Cyrus Myers, John C. Brinson. Scott-Moses H. Lack. Sunflower- David N. Quinn. Tallahatchie-S. C. Barnes. Tunica-John M. Phillips. Tippah-William Nelms, W. T. Stricklin. Tishomingo -H. Mask, Terry Dalton. Warren-A. Mygatt, G. C. McGee, B.
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