Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I, Part 56

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1030

USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I > Part 56

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Features of the articles on the legislative department were that "the political year shall begin on the first Monday of January, and the legislature shall meet annually, on the first Tuesday." Elec- tions were to be every two years, on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November. But the legislature had power to change these dates. The legislature was empowered to pass a bill by two-thirds vote over the governor's objections. Impeachment and trial of the governor and other executive officers were provided for.

The term of office of the governor was extended to four years. A lieutenant-governor was provided for, as had been the case in the constitution of 1817. Otherwise the succession to the executive office, in case of the inability of the governor, remained as before.

For judicial system see Judiciary. The people had elected all judges since 1832. Hereafter they were to be appointed by the governor. The franchise article was so framed as not to exclude any person on account of color, from the ballot, and the residence re- quired was only six months in the State and one month in the coun- ty. There were added requirements and disqualifications that were very objectionable to the majority of the white population, and which were stricken out before adoption of the constitution.

Article 8 required the establishment of a uniform system of free

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public schools, and a new State office, the superintendent of public education, to hold office for a term of four years. (See Education).

Other new features were the board of public works, and the com- missioner of immigration and agriculture, both to be chosen by the legislature.

A very valuable section was ratified by special vote in 1869 : "The credit of the State shall not be pledged or loaned in aid of any person, association or corporation, nor shall the State hereafter become a stockholder in any corporation." It was forbidden to create or extend any corporate body with the privilege of issuing paper to circulate as money. Counties, cities and towns were for- bidden to take stock in any corporation except by a two-thirds vote of the electors ; lotteries were forbidden ; taxation was required to be equal and uniform and property of corporations "shall be subject to taxation the same as that of individuals."

Regarding county organization the county board of police was succeeded by the "board of supervisors." The terms of office of all county, township and precinct officers were made to expire within thirty days after the constitution was adopted, the governor to appoint to fill their places.

Three amendments to the constitution were proposed by the leg- islature and adopted at the general election in 1875; (1) to prohibit the payment of the Union and Planters' bank bonds; (2) to require the payment for forfeited lands, fines and liquor licenses in United States money, to be applied to the support of schools; (3) to permit a reduction of the number of chancery judges. These were inserted in the constitution by resolution of January 18, 1876.

Two amendments were proposed by the legislature of 1876. One, to abolish the office of lieutenant-governor, failed to carry when submitted to popular vote in 1877, and the other, to make the sessions of the legislature biennial, was adopted. It was in- serted January 22, 1878.

Another amendment was submitted in 1879, for biennial elections, and was overwhelmingly defeated. Only 13,000 votes, out of 122,- 000, were cast for it.

Constitution of 1890. Article 1 more carefully differentiates leg- islative, judicial and executive functions. Article 2 defines boun- daries (q. v.) Article 3 is the Bill of Rights. Article 4 covers the legislative department (see Legislature), and is particularly impor- tant in the restrictions placed upon a body that in early days of re- publican government in America assumed vast powers. The nature of the series of sections under this head, (33-115) may be inferred

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from the subheads, Injunctions, Local Legislation, Prohibitions. The legislature is permitted to elect none but its own officers, State librarian and United States senators, and since 1902 the lat- ter office has practically been withdrawn by the Primary election law. Article 5, Executive, fixes the term of governor at four years, with denial of immediate reelection. His power of reprieve and pardon is limited, pardon before conviction is prohibited, and it is made his duty to suspend defaulting State and county treasurers and tax collectors. The office of lieutenant-governor and presi- dent of the senate is continued, and provision is made for succes- sion. Other officers provided for are State treasurer and auditor, with four-year terms, and disqualification for second terms, and sheriff, coroner, treasurer, assessor and surveyor in each county, with like terms. (See Finances). The governor is elected on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November in 1895 and every fourth year thereafter, by the electoral votes of the counties, the electoral vote of each county to be its representation in the house of representatives, to be cast for such candidate as receives the highest popular vote in the county. (See Suffrage). All other State officers are elected at the same time and in the same manner as the governor. Article 6, Judiciary, (q. v.) provides for the appointment of supreme court judges for nine years, and circuit and chancery judges for four years, by the gover- nor with the advice and consent of the senate; election by the State of an attorney-general and clerk of the supreme court for terms of four years; election by the districts of district attorneys and clerks of court for terms of four years, also election by the counties of boards of five supervisors and justices of the peace and . constables. Article 7, Corporations, is very important and compre- hensive. (See Const. Conv. article). A popular feature is the prohibition of passes to members of the legislature or any public officers except the railroad commissioners. The voting of aid by counties or municipalities to railroads or other corporations is forbidden. And in other respects the article is in advance of the position of many other States, in guarding the rights of the in- dividual. Article 7 is upon Education (See School System, Chick- asaw fund, Sixteenth sections). Article 9, Militia, provides briefly for the maintenance of a militia organization, and the Mississippi National Guard. (See Militia). Article 10 relates to the Peni- tentiary (q. v.), and Penitentiary Farm. Article 11 is devoted to Levees (q. v.) Article 12, Franchises, was the subject of greatest contemporary interest (See Suffrage and Const. Conv. of 1890).

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Article 14 provides a plan of apportionment for the legislature. (see Const. Conv. 1890, and Legislature 1869-1906). Article 14, General Provisions, renews the repudiation of the old bank "in- debtedness or pretended indebtedness;" regulates the creation of counties and removal of county seats; requires expenses of crimi- nal prosecutions to be borne by the counties; authorizes county farms, homes or asylums for the poor ; prohibits marriage of whites with persons of one-eighth or more negro blood ; prescribes an oath of office ; annuls all bequests to religious orders, societies or de- nominations; requires pensions for indigent Confederate soldiers and sailors, and indigent widows of the same, etc. Article 15, Amendments, requires a two-thirds vote of each house to propose an amendment. ratification at a popular election by a majority of the qualified electors voting, and insertion in the constitution by the next legislature. The Schedule, finally, provides for the transi- tion from the old to the new constitution, and the appointment of a commission to codify the statutes. The constitution went into effect, by its own provision, Nov. 1, 1890. (See discussion by R. H. Thompson, State Bar Association, 1891).

Convention of 1849. Senator Foote gave a succinct retrospective view of the conditions that led to these proceedings in his inaugu- ral address of January, 1852. He said that when a valuable and extensive territorial domain had been wrested from the Republic of Mexico, the enemies of Southern institutions, distributed some- what unequally among the non-slaveholding States, had conspired together to bring about the exclusion of Southern slaveholders and their slaves from every foot of the territory, by means of the Wil- mot proviso. The abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, which had been constantly threatened for a series of years, was renewed. The prohibition by congress of the trade in slaves be- tween State and State had for a long time been audaciously pro- claimed as a settled policy of the higher law faction in the North. It was openly avowed that these measures were only preliminary to a direct assault on the system of slavery wherever found. Mean- while, and indeed almost ever since the foundation of the govern- ment, the fugitive slave clause in the constitution had been set at naught. The admission of California as a free State without com- pensations was imperiously demanded. "The boundary question between Texas and New Mexico, or rather, between the United States and Texas, had become a subject of fearful controversy, and no discerning man in the Republic in the least degree doubted that if this question should remain unadjusted, only for a few

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months longer, unprincipled factionists, in the opposite sections of the Union, would seize upon it for the purpose of bringing upon the country all the incalculable horrors of a bloody and exterminating civil war."

"Such were the circumstances existing when, in the month of October, 1849, the people of the State of Mississippi held their celebrated convention, and adopted a series of resolutions declar- ative of their constitutional rights and of their determination to maintain them inviolate at all hazards."

"The Address of Southern delegates in Congress, to their Con- stituents," adopted in January, 1849, was drawn up by John C. Calhoun and signed, among others, by Senators Jefferson Davis and Henry S. Foote, and the four representatives, Patrick W. Tompkins, A. G. Brown, W. S. Featherston, and Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi. The address is printed as a public document in the legislative journals of the State, 1850. The opening sentences were: "We, whose names are hereunto annexed, address you in discharge of what we believe to be a solemn duty, on the most important subject ever presented for your consideration. We al- lude to the conflict between the two great sections of the Union, growing out of the difference of feeling and opinion in reference to the relation existing between the two races, European and African, which inhabit the Southern section, and the acts of en- croachment and aggression to which it has led." The address dis- cussed the compromises of the constitution and the political history pertaining to slavery and its extension or restriction. It denied that the issue was the extension or restriction of slavery. "What we do insist on, is, not to extend slavery, but that we shall not be prohibited from immigrating with our property, into the terri- tories of the United States, because we are slaveholders." The proposed admission of California as a free State, and the proposi- tion to allow the inhabitants of the district of Columbia to vote on the question whether slavery should be abolished in that district, were named as dangerous aggressions against the South. If such "aggressions" continued, the address went on to say, "the probabil- ity is that emancipation would soon follow, without any final act to abolish slavery. The depressing effects of such measures on the white race at the South, and the hope they would create in the black of a speedy emancipation, would produce a state of feeling inconsistent with the much longer continuance of the existing re- lations between the two. But be that as it may, it is certain, if emancipation did not follow, as a matter of course, the final act in

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the States would not long be delayed. The want of constitutional power would oppose a feeble resistance. The great body of the North is united against our peculiar institution. Many believe it to be sinful, and the residue, with inconsiderable exceptions, believe it to be wrong." It was further pointed out that the North would in time gain three-fourths of the States, "when, under the color of an amendment of the constitution, she would emancipate our slaves, however opposed it might be to its true intent." Hence the aggresion must be promptly met. "It would be to insult you to suppose you could hesitate. To destroy the existing relation be- tween the free and servile races at the South would lead to con- sequences unparalleled in history. They cannot be separated and cannot live together in peace and harmony, or to their mutual ad- vantage, except in their present relation. Under any other, wretch- edness, and misery, and desolation would overspread the whole South." The change would not take place as in the West Indies, but "if it should be effected, it will be through the agency of the Fed- eral government, controlled by the dominant power of the Northern States of the confederacy, against the resistance and struggle of the Southern. It can then only be effected by the prostration of the white race; and that would necessarily engender the bitterest feelings of hostility between them and the North. But the re- verse would be the case between the blacks of the South and the people of the North. Owing their emancipation to them, they would regard them as their friends, guardians and patrons, and center accordingly all their sympathy in them. The people of the North would not fail to reciprocate and to favor them instead of the whites. Another step would be taken-to raise them to a political and social equality with their former owners, by giving them the right of voting and holding public offices under the Fed- eral government. . They would become the fast political associates of the North, acting and voting with them on all ques- tions, and by this political union holding the white race of the South in complete subjection. We would, in a word, change conditions with them-a degradation greater than has ever fallen to the lot of a free and enlightened people, and one from which we could not escape, should emancipation take place (which it certainly will if not prevented), but by fleeing the homes of ourselves and ancestors, and by abandoning our country to our former slaves, to become the permanent abode of disorder, anarchy, poverty, misery and wretchedness."

It was not for the North, "nor for the Federal government to

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determine whether our domestic institution is good or bad, or whether it should be repressed or preserved. It belongs to us, and to us only, to decide such questions." Hence the address called on the people of the South to do away with political parties and merge solidly for one object peculiar to the South. "The first and indispensable step, without which nothing can be done, and with which everything may be, is to be united among yourselves on this great and most vital question." If a South united for the de- fence of slavery did not make an end of the objections to that sys- tem, then, "As the assailed, you would stand justified by all laws, human and divine, in repelling a blow so dangerous, without look- ing to consequences, and to resort to all means necessary for that purpose."

It is well to remember in this connection that all the ills of emancipation of the negro, as given in this great State paper, were actually visited upon the South during reconstruction.

In response to this address a meeting of citizens of central Mis- sissippi was called, without respect to party, and really to form a new organization, as recommended by Calhoun. It convened at Jackson, May 7, 1849, and Gov. Matthews was made president. Upon the suggestion of Judge William L. Sharkey a committee on resolutions was ordered. The president appointed William L. Sharkey, chairman, John I. Guion, A. Hutchinson, George S. Yer- ger, John D. Freeman, William R. Miles, D. C. Glenn, G. W. L. Smith, A. B. Wooldridge, William R. Hill, Jefferson Davis, Cas- well R. Clifton, C. S. Tarpley, H. T. Ellett, and Charles Scott. Their report was a defense of slavery. Of the negro inhabitants it was said: "All experience has shown that their best, their hap- piest and most elevated condition is in servitude. Out of it they degenerate into vice and ignomy which degrade the form they wear. It is the place assigned them by the God of nature in the great scheme of creation." Of the congressional address, they said : "As faithful sentinels, they have warned us of approaching danger, and are entitled to our approbation. As citizens of a southern State, it become us to vindicate the sovereignty of that State, and it is proper that the whole South should act with unanimity." The authority of congress to legislate regarding slavery in the terri- tories was absolutely denied, and the legal validity of the Missouri compromise was denied, "most positively," but "it will be with our people to say whether they will meet our brethren of the North in good faith, should it be tendered, in carrying out the Mis- souri compromise," i. e., extending it to new territory. It was

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finally resolved that to obtain a general expression of public senti- ment, "upon the issue presented, in relation to the territories of the United States, and the question of domestic slavery," each county of the State be recommended to select delegates to a con- vention at the capital, on the first Monday of October. After speeches by Senator Davis, George S. Yerger, John I. Guion, John Marshall and John M. Chilton, the meeting adjourned. These proceedings were reported to Senator Calhoun with a request for his advice, to which he responded July 9, addressing Judge Tarp- ley, and advising the course afterward pursued.

The "Southern State Convention" met accordingly, at the old capitol, Oct. 1, 1849. George Winchester was president pro tem- pore, and the permanent officers were William L. Sharkey, presi- dent; Gov. J. W. Matthews, vice president ; J. A. Orr and W. A. Purdom, secretaries.

Judge Sharkey addressed the convention on taking the chair. Some of his sentences were: "The right to hold slaves as property became a fixed principle, inseparable from the other provisions of the constitution. Indeed, that description of property seems to have been thought worthy of specific and special protection. The con- stitution must exist and harmonize in all its parts. Every principle it contains is inseparably connected together. It is an in- fraction to violate any of them; the symetry is broken. . . The attempt by congress to prohibit slavery in the territory of Cal- ifornia has caused this meeting. That territory is common prop- erty. There every citizen of the United States has equal rights.

The property of the South consists mostly in slaves, and to interdict its use on our own soil would not only be unjust, but an arbitrary violation of the constitution. . Why is it that we must be deprived of this privilege? Because, say our Northern brethren, slavery is a moral and political evil. Who has the right to determine that it is? Let them eradicate moral evils from their own land; we can take care of our own morals. .

. Who has a right to say it is a political evil? We do not find such a doctrine inculcated by the constitution. . When we acquired Cali- fornia, it became subject to our constitution-our whole constitu- tion-our constitution as an entire thing. The conse- quence is, that we have a right to take our slaves there, because they are our property, secured to us by the principles of our para- mount political law." Declaring that he yielded to none in love for the Union, he said, "We must take our stand. Let us survey the ground well, and occupy that position, on which we can stand

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within the pale of the constitution ; and when taken, let us maintain it like men who know their rights, and are determined to protect them. We are not the aggressors, and if the result should prove disastrous, let the blame rest on those who have provoked the quarrel." Chief Justice Sharkey had long been the head of the Whig party. This address, and a like one on the second day, "de- livered with an official pomp and stateliness of manner that gave them the force of an oracle, at once convinced and captivated the convention." (Claiborne's Quitman.)

A committee was appointed to present a plan of action-Gov. Matthews, John I. Guion, Thomas H. Williams, W. H. Smith, T. N. Waul, G. N. Gordon, E. R. Burt, A. C. Baine, E. C. Wilkinson. J. M. Chilton, A. Hutchinson, T. A. Dabney, George Winchester, R. T. Archer, S. H. Johnson, D. H. Cooper, John J. Smith, J. C. McAlpin, M. Blalack, H. C. Chambers. A majority report was pre- sented by E. C. Wilkinson, chairman, and a minority report by John I. Guion. After amendments the majority report was adopted. It announced the principles of the congressional address, and declared ten resolutions, of which the gist was, "That Congress has no power to pass any law abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, or to prohibit the slave trade between the several States, or to prohibit the introduction of slavery into the territories of the United States," and that such action by Congress would indicate "a deliberate design to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States;" that the passage of the Wilmot proviso would be "an unjust and insulting discrimination, to which these States can- not without political degradation submit; and to which this con- vention, representing the feelings and opinions of the people of Mississippi, solemnly declare they will not submit;" such action by Congress also would be such a breach of the Federal compact as would make it the duty of the slave holding States "to take care of their own safety," and treat the non-slaveholding States as ene- mies. "That the legislature is hereby requested to pass such laws as may, in their opinion, be best calculated to encourage the emigra- tion of citizens of the slaveholding States, with slaves, to the new territories of the United States." It was recommended that a convention of the slaveholding States should be held at Nashville, on the first Monday of June, 1850.

The climax of the resolutions was a declaration, quoting the words of "a Northern writer," "that the rights of the South in African service exist not only under but over the constitution ;" if the constitution had not sanctioned slavery it would never have

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been adopted. "It bowed in deference to rights older in their date, stronger in their claims, and holier in their nature, than any other which the constitution can boast. Those rights may not be changed -even by a change of the constitution. They are out of reach of the nation as a nation. The confederacy may dissolve and the constitution pass away, but those rights will remain unshaken- will exist while the South exists-and when they fall, the South will perish with them."

Finally, the legislature was requested to provide that the gov- ernor should, in case of the adoption of the Wilmot proviso or the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, or the prohibition of the slave trade between the States, call a regular general conven- tion of the State, "to take into consideration the act of aggression and the mode and measure of redress. (See Quitman's Adm.) Gen. John A. Quitman and Senator Jefferson Davis were not members of the convention, but were present as honored guests.

Following this convention of October, a committee composed of Messrs. Sharkey, Hutchinson, Winchester, Hill, Clifton, Guion and Wilkinson, addressed a call to the Southern States to send delegates to the proposed convention at Nashville. (q. v.) This call was a lengthy address asserting that slavery was justified by the Bible and the Constitution, and suggesting that if the Nash- ville convention did not serve to stop the hostile tide, the legisla- tures should convene "still more solemn conventions," and, "pro- vide, in the last resort, for their separate welfare by the formation of a compact and an Union that will afford protection to their liberty and rights."

The authors of this address were "a brilliant galaxy of lawyers, five of whom had been upon the bench, and the majority of them were what were then called States Rights or Calhoun Whigs. The address is one of the strongest papers that the unhappy controver- sy of the times gave birth to." (Claiborne, Life of Quitman).

In support of this movement the legislature reserved $22,000 to carry out such plan of action as the Nashville convention should adopt.

The compromise legislation by congress followed. Calhoun, Quitman and Davis proposed to reject it, and proceed to the final issue. Foote and Sharkey opposed them. The general State con- vention demanded by the Resisters, and elected by the people in 1851, supported Foote, accepted the compromise and denied the al- leged constitutional right of secession. (See Const. Conv. of 1851).

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Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I, Part 56

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association Number of Pages: 1030

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1030