USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I > Part 81
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Maryland, in 1777, when the Articles of Confederation were about to be submitted to the States for ratification, proposed that "the United States in Congress assembled shall have the sole and exclusive right and power to ascertain and fix the western boun- dary of such States as claim to the Mississippi, and lay out the land beyond the boundary so ascertained into separate and inde- pendent States, from time to time, as the numbers and circum- stances of the people may require." This proposition that Massa- chusetts, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia should resign their ambitions for self-aggrandizement and create a common domain, did not then meet with approval; but Maryland was persistent, and in 1779, the other States having rati- fied the Articles, the plucky little commonwealth refused to join
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until she had definite assurance that her policy should be made the policy of the Union. This caused a great commotion, severe criti- cism, and earnest consideration of the subject in its bearing upon the future. In February, 1780, New York announced that she would relinquish to congress all her claims in the west. Then the congress, Sept. 6, 1780, recommended cession by all the States as- serting title, and in October declared that the lands ceded or re- linquished "shall be disposed of for the common benefit of the United States, and be settled and formed into distinct republican States, which shall become members of the Federal Union, and have the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independence as the other States;" that the military expense of any State in hold- ing any such territory during the war should be reimbursed, and that the lands should be granted and settled at such times and under such regulations as should be agreed on by "the United States in Congress assembled, or any nine of them."
Connecticut immediately responded by offering to cede her western claim, except a portion on the south shore of Lake Erie, a proposition finally accepted, though Gen. Washington was op- posed to any reservations. In January, 1781, Virginia offered to surrender all the territory northwest of the river Ohio, provided congress would guarantee that the region. now known as Kentucky should not be made a separate State. This gave rise to a discus- sion that lasted nearly three years.
During these negotiations, the war went on to a successful fin- ish. Then the Virginia cession was perfected in 1784, that State practically submitting to the future independence of Kentucky, but reserving vast rights for her soldiers to preempt land in Kentucky and Ohio. Massachusetts next surrendered her claims. The Con- necticut proposition was formally accepted in 1786. That com- pleted the relinquishment north of the Carolinas.
Always an advocate of national expansion, Thomas Jefferson was active in urging this policy of planting new and independent States in the west. He "had in 1779 done more than anyone else to support the romantic campaign in which Gen. Clark had taken possession of the country between the Alleghanies and the Mis- sissippi." On the day that the act of Virginia cession was com- pleted he proposed in congress the first ordinance for the govern- ment of the new territory. The original draft, in Jefferson's hand- writing, provided for the formation of new States, each two de- grees in latitude, from south to north, "beginning to count from the completion of thirty-one degrees north of the equator." But the bill was amended before passage, taking the 45th parallel as the beginning for laying off States, counting from north to south. This indicated an unreadiness to adopt this policy southwardly. Another feature of Jefferson's original plan was the prohibition of slavery after the year 1800 in all the western country between Florida and Lake Superior, and it lacked only one vote of adop- tion. The prohibition was unanimously added to the ordinance of 1787, for the territory northwest of the river Ohio, but the per-
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mission of slavery was insisted upon before cession by the Caro- linas and Georgia, and this was one element of discussion in their subsequent negotiations with congress.
An appeal was made by the congress in the resolve of April 29, 1784, recalling the former advice to the several States, that the vacant territory was depended upon for discharge of the national debt, "in aid of other resources, as well as to obviate dis- agreeable controversies and confusions," and bringing the subject again to the attention of the States, that they be urged to consider that the war had been brought to a happy termination by the serv- ices of soldiers and loans of money by citizens and foreigners, all of whom had a right to expect indemnification, "and that, there- fore, the said States be earnestly pressed, by immediate and lib- eral cessions, to forward these necessary ends, and to promote the harmony of the Union."
In June following North Carolina proposed to relinquish her western claims, but the Tennessee valley people promptly seceded and asked admission to the Union as the State of Franklin or Frankland. Hence North Carolina repealed her act of cession be- fore it could be accepted, and set about reducing the State of Franklin to subjection.
The resolve of 1784 particularly appealed to South Carolina and Georgia also, but they were not responsive. In February, 1783, the Georgia legislature, by "An act for opening the land office, and for other purposes," had declared the southern boundary of the State to extend to the Mississippi river on the 31st parallel, as provided in the treaty with Great Britain, then pending. In Feb- ruary, 1785, the legislature manifested no desire to relinquish re- sponsibility in the west, but, as the solicitation of some of the inhabitants in the Natchez district, then held by Spain, enacted that that district should constitute Bourbon county, Georgia. This act, however, was unavailing against the Spanish possession, as the Creek nation was sufficient to hold Georgia in check.
As a beginning toward negotiation with the Creeks for opening up more territory to settlement, United States commissioners were appointed-Hawkins, Pickens, Martin and McIntosh-to treat with the Creeks, who were allies of Great Britain during the Rev- olution, and these commissioners sought to make a treaty of peace and amity with the Creeks at Galphinton in November, 1785; but this was prevented by intrigue of the Georgians, whose commis- sioners made an alleged treaty with the few Indians who attended. The Georgia legislature resolved, regarding the attempt of the United States commission, that "said pretended treaty" was a "manifest and direct attempt to violate the retained sovereignty and legislative right of the State," and should be declared "null and void." This was, in effect, a very emphatic assertion that Georgia was not in harmony with the policy elsewhere prevailing, as the articles of confederation granted congress exclusive right to man- age Indian affairs, "provided that the legislative right of any State, within its own limits, be not infringed or violated."
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Following this the legislature erected the county of Houston, in Northern Alabama. A party of 80 men took possession and elected a member of the legislature. But the settlement was abandoned in two weeks because the Indians would not permit the encroach- ment.
South Carolina and Georgia both asserted title in the South- west, held by the Spanish and Indians, just as Virginia and New England States had asserted claims to the Northwest, actually held by the British and Indians, at this same time. Both South- west and Northwest remained to be conquered for the United States and it was a task that only the United States could accom- plish.
A different manner of consolidating the claims was adopted. South Carolina and Georgia commissioners met in convention at Beaufort, in 1787, and South Carolina relinquished .all claims south and west of what Georgia claimed under the charter and the proclamation of 1763. The Georgia north line had been in dispute with South Carolina until a few weeks previous to the signing of this treaty, when South Carolina, assuming ownership of a strip twelve miles wide, just south of the Tennessee line, ceded that strip to the United States, declaring that she did so in response to the appeal of the congress, and in evidence of her willingness "to adopt every measure which can tend to promote the honor and dignity of the United States, and strengthen the Federal Union."
In February, 1788, following the settlement of the South Caro- lina pretensions, the Georgia legislature repealed the Bourbon county act, and authorized the delegates in congress to cede to the United States a strip of land 140 miles wide, north of the 31st par- allel, between the Chattahoochee and Mississippi rivers, this being the region in dispute between the United States and Spain. The offer was "clogged with conditions impossible to be accepted by Congress," says Chappell, in his "Miscellanies of Georgia." Con- gress rejected it, by resolution of July 15, 1788, and at the same time proposed "that in case the said State shall authorize her dele- gates in Congress to make a cession of all her territorial claims to lands west of the river Apalachicola, or west of a meridian line running through or near the point where that river intersects the 31° of north latitude, and shall omit the last proviso in the said act, and shall so far vary the proviso respecting the sum of $171,428.45, expended in quieting and resisting the Indians, as that the State shall have credit in the specie requisitions of Congress to the amount of her specie quotas in the past requisitions, and for the residue in her account with the United States for moneys loaned, Congress will accept the cession." These modifications were trans- mitted to the next legislature, that of 1789, for its consideration and action, says Chappell. "But no action whatever did it take in regard to them. There can be no doubt that the unworthy course pursued by the legislature of 1788 in making an offer that was obliged to be rejected, and the equally unworthy conduct of the legislature of 1789, in not considering and acceding to the modi-
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fications proposed by congress, were the result of the bad inspira- tion and influence of the Yazoo speculators who, as yet, stood cloaked and in the dark as a secret organization."
These speculators were mainly South Carolinians. They were granted vast tracts in the west by the Georgia legislature in De- cember, 1789, and their subsequent operations served to worry Governor Miro, and furnished a diversion in the diplomatic nego- tiations in Spain and the Wilkinson intrigues in Kentucky. But they failed of effectiveness on account of a proclamation by Presi- dent Washington, who had been inaugurated under the new con- stitution in the previous March. (See Yazoo Land Companies.)
In 1790 North Carolina formally relinquished her claims to whiat is now Tennessee. Congress then extended to this region, called "The Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio," all the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787, except the prohibition of slavery, which exception was a condition specified by North Carò- lina. William Blount was appointed by President Washington governor of this territory.
The population of Georgia was at this time only 50,000, less than that of the new State of Kentucky, and its actual limits of settlement were between the Savannah and Oconee-Altamaha rivers, hardly more than a fringe of the Carolinas, which had a population of over 400,000. On the frontier of this weak common- wealth, harried for many years by Spanish invasion, Indian depre- dations and civil war during the Revolution, lay the powerful Creek nation between whom and the Georgians there was intense bitterness.
The main work of Washington's administration was the con- quest of the Indian country, south as well as north; but unfor- tunately, during this time, Georgia and the United States were at cross purposes. See "American Domain."
A few months after Wayne's decisive battle in Ohio, with Chick- asaws and Choctaws among his soldiers, the Georgia legislature passed an act expressly repudiating the treaty of New York, and purporting to convey all the Indian lands west of the Tombigbee river. to various land companies.
President Washington communicated this legislation to con- gress in February, expressing a fear that "their consequences may deeply affect the peace and welfare of the United States."
It was soon made manifest that the passage of the Yazoo bill was secured by wholesale corruption of the Georgia legislature by Carolina land speculators, and the law was repealed and utterly repudiated. But the courts held that the rights of the purchasers from the companies survived, and the speculators had not been slow in finding "innocent" purchasers.
This unfortunate transaction complicated the further negotia- tions for cession to the United States.
In the treaty of 1795 Spain yielded her occupation of a country partly within the charter claims of North Carolina (Tennessee), the charter claim of Georgia, the charter claim of South Caro-
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lina ceded to Georgia, and the bounds of West Florida as defined by a royal commission and established by colonial administration. It was then contended by the United States as against the preten- sions of Georgia that, some at least of this region, became the common domain when Spain relinquished it.
Attorney General Charles Lee, in April, 1796, pursuant to a res- olution of March 3, 1795, communicated to congress all the char- ters, treaties and other documents he had been able to obtain, bear- ing on the claim of Georgia, including extracts from the records of the English Board of Trade. Thereupon Senator Aaron Burr, of the committee to which this report was referred, reported a res- olution May 20, which recited that questions appeared to arise as to a claim of the United States, as well of property as of juris- diction, to the region between the Chattahoochee and Mississippi river, south of the cession of South Carolina and north of the 21st parallel, the jurisdiction of which was claimed by Georgia, and the property thereof by the State and certain individuals claiming un- der the State, and it was highly expedient that the rights of prop- erty and jurisdiction should be ascertained and determined, and provision made for a temporary form of government. It was therefore resolved that the president be authorized "to treat and conclude (subject to the ratification or dissent of congress) with the State of Georgia, for the cession of the claim of said State to jurisdiction," and adopt such measures as shall seem to him ex- pedient toward an agreement between the United States and Geor- gia regarding their respective claims, and 2nd, that as soon the exchange of ratifications of the recent treaty were made, "the president of the United States be authorized to establish a tempo- rary government in and over the inhabitants of all that tract of country," south of a line due east from the mouth of the Yazoo, conformably with the ordinance of 1787, "such temporary govern- ment to continue until the end of the next session of congress, without prejudice to the right of any State or individual whatso- ever."
On March 2, 1797, Senator Ross reported a resolution rehears- ing the history of the Georgia domain, the creation of the Indian reserve in 1763, out of which new colonies might be formed, the extension of West Florida without protest from Georgia, and the fact that Georgia never claimed or exercised any jurisdiction west of the sources of the Ocmulgee river before the revolution. The king having annexed to West Florida the region south of the Ya- zoo line, "there can be no doubt that this territory did not revert to Georgia by our treaties with Great Britain and Spain, but now belongs to the United States." It was suggested that Georgia had no good title to lands west of the sources of the rivers that fall into the Atlantic. But, "your committee are of opinion that an amicable and conciliatory plan of accommodating these adverse claims should be adopted." The recommendations were, (1) The president to appoint three commissioners to meet with commis- sioners of Georgia, and treat, adjust and determine all interfering
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claims of the United States and Georgia to lands lying west of a line from the source of the St. Mary's river to the source of the Ocmulgee (i. e., a line from Okefinokee swamp to Atlanta). (2) The president to obtain an enumeration of the inhabitants and their land rights, and obtain the consent of Georgia to the estab- lishment of a temporary government, "to continue no longer than the duration of the present dispute," without prejudice to the claims of Georgia. (3) With such consent "the president is hereby authorized to establish a territorial government in the above de- scribed country, similar to that of the western territory," etc.
Nothing was done until after Astronomer Ellicott reached Nat- chez, to survey the line of 31°, and the inhabitants of Natchez made urgent appeals to the United States for government, no at- tention being given by them, it appears, to the claims of Georgia, except that they were vigorously opposed to any recognition of the claims of the Georgia land companies. (See Permanent Com- mittee.)
Under this pressure the act creating Mississippi territory below the Yazoo line and providing for a commission to treat with Geor- gia became a law April 7, 1798.
Before Governor Sargent arrived, Zephaniah Coxe was in the Natchez district with a body of armed men, and it was rumored that he would assume the government in behalf of the State of Georgia. Sargent ordered his arrest by the troops. In his letter notifying the government of this, the governor also wrote: "Poor Williamson is dead ; if he had lived he would have given me some uneasiness by attempting to convey and settle Georgia lands. I very much want information on this subject."
On Dec. 31, 1799, President Adams appointed Timothy Picker- ing, secretary of state; Oliver Wolcott, secretary of the treasury, and Samuel Sitgreaves, of Pennsylvania, as commissioners on the part of the United States.
By the act of 1798 the claim of Georgia as far west as the Chat- tahoochee was tacitly yielded, a boundary far in advance of her settlements, and her charter limits. This amounted to such a reservation as Connecticut made and as Virginia retained in the Kentucky lands; as extensive in proportion to the populated re- gion of Georgia, as were those reservations in proportion to those other colonies; and which were the only compensation asked by those States for their cessions.
May 10, 1800, there was a second congressional enactment, giv- ing Mississippi territory a general assembly, and further authoriz- ing the commissioners "finally to settle, by compromise, with the commissioners which have been or may be appointed by the State of Georgia, any claim mentioned in said act [of 1798] and to re- ceive, in behalf of the United States, a cession of any lands therein mentioned, or of the jurisdiction thereof, on such terms as to them shall seem reasonable." The commissioners were also authorized to inquire into and report regarding the claims made by settlers, or any other persons whatsoever, referring to the Yazoo specu-
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lators. Providing, that the settlement should be made and com- pleted before the 4th day of March, 1803, "and provided also, that the said commissioners shall not contract for the payment of any money from the treasury of the United States to the State of Geor- gia, other than the proceeds of the same lands."
A memorial of the inhabitants of Natchez district, circulated by the Federal party leaders, represented to congress that the people viewed with sensations painful indeed, that their landed properties, acquired by laborious exertions, were to be subjected to an in- vestigation which, they had been taught to believe, was unknown to the constitution of the United States. Commissioners were named to whom it seemed the actual settlers of the country were to make propositions of compromise for the land they had ac- quired under a sovereign power long exercised over their country. "With amazement they learn, that by a projected apportionment of their country, millions of acres are assigned to individuals of the Atlantic states; and, wonderful to tell, it appears that at this moment, justice and avarice hold a doubtful contest in the minds of those gentlemen, whether the farms and plantations of the founders of this colony shall, or shall not be comprehended as a part of their princely domains."
The supplemental act originated in the lower house of congress, which was Republican, and the cession was at last accomplished under the Republican administration of Thomas Jefferson, with which Georgia was in sympathy.
Under the supplemental act, Mr. Jefferson appointed James Madison, secretary of state; Albert Gallatin, secretary of the treasury, and Levi Lincoln, attorney-general, as commissioners, and Georgia selected James Jackson, Abraham Baldwin and John Milledge, three of her most distinguished citizens.
The Georgia legislature also sent to congress an address and remonstrance against these enactments of 1798 and 1800, as un- constitutional, and prayed for their repeal. The committee to which the remonstrance was referred reported Feb. 28, 1801, that the matter was pending before the commissioners, and that further action at that time would be improper.
At the city of Washington, April 24, 1802, the joint commission concluded its negotiations, and the articles of agreement and ces- sion were two days later communicated to congress. The United States agreed to pay Georgia $1,250,000, out of the proceeds of land sales, "as a consideration for the expenses incurred by the said State, in relation to the said territory;" the balance of the proceeds of land sales to "be considered as a common fund for the use and benefit of the United States, Georgia included," provided that within one year after ratification by Georgia the United States might appropriate five million acres to satisfy the Yazoo company claimants. The United States agreed to confirm the title of ac- tual settlers in possession Oct. 27, 1795, under British, Spanish or Bourbon county titles. The United States agreed also to buy for Georgia all the Creek lands in Georgia, "as early as the same can
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be peaceably obtained," and to cede to Georgia "the fifteen mile strip" on her north boundary.
This was the first territorial acquisition of the United States under the administration of Thomas Jefferson. All the circum- stances give it something of the appearance of the first acquisi- tion from a foreign country. At least, it was intermediate in char- acter between the cession by Virginia and the acquisition of Louis- iana. The discussion of the right of the United States to the re- gion yielded by Spain prepared the public mind for the conception of the United States having a domain independent of the domain of one of the original Thirteen. Over and above the great cost of buying out and transferring the Creeks, the expense to the general government, including Yazoo strip, was $6,200,000. A year later the area of fifteen States was bought from Napoleon Bonaparte for $15,000,000.
Mr. Claiborne comments, in his history of Mississippi, that Georgia, "with a sublime patriotism, like Virginia and Carolina, relinquished her immense territory, embracing the richest agri- cultural country on the globe, for the sake of harmony and union." Maj. W. R. Garrett, in Confederate Military History, says: "Her cession, by no means a free gift, proved to be a shrewd bargain."
It was at a later date remarked by Delegate George Poindexter in the United States congress that whenever a measure was pro- posed for extension of political rights of the Territory or the relief of its citizens from oppressive regulations, the voice of Georgia was in opposition. This remonstrance of Poindexter's was par- ticularly addressed to George M. Troup, who was more than once his opponent in debate.
Georgia Domain. As noted in the article on Carolina, there was dispute between Georgia and Carolina, before 1763, whether the colony of Georgia was established between South Carolina and Florida or in the midst of the territorial pretensions of the older English province. The action of the British government in 1763, and later, assumed there were no restraints upon its freedom to assign provincial limits. The charters of both colonies, extend- ing to the "South seas" had been previously surrendered to the crown. The original charter limits of Georgia were "all those lands, countries and territories, situate, lying and being in that part of South Carolina, in America, which lies from the northern streams of a river there, commonly called the Savannah, all along the sea coast to the southward, unto the most southern stream of a certain other great water or river, called the Altamaha, and westward from the heads of the said rivers, respectively, in direct lines to the South seas." Georgia had no charter claims in the western lands except as above defined. The lines westward, ac- cordingly, would run from the site of Atlanta, Ga., westward through Mississippi at approximately the latitude of Grenada. This charter was surrendered in 1752. During the whole period of its existence, and up to 1763, the western lands, to which it purported to give title, up to the sources of all streams emptying
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