USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I > Part 9
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The Spanish pretensions were settled by the treaty of 1795, along with the limits and river navigation. The differences re- garding Indian jurisdiction between Georgia and Great Britain and the United States continued to make trouble for some years afterward. (See Treaty of Ghent.)
Americus, a post-hamlet in the north-central part of Jackson county, and the county seat before the war. It is on the east bank of Cedar creek, about 25 miles north of Pascagoula, the present county seat. Population in 1900, 25.
Ames, Adelbert, was born at Rockland, Me., October 31, 1835; entered the military academy at West Point in 1856, and upon graduation in 1861 went upon duty as a lieutenant of artillery. At First Manassas, July 21, 1861, in command of a section of Grif- fin's battery, of the regular army, he continued to direct its fire after being severely wounded. For this he was promoted brevet major, at the time, and awarded the medal of honor in 1863. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel for gallantry at Malvern Hill a year later ; soon afterward colonel of the Twentieth Maine volun- teers, and brigadier-general of volunteers in May, 1863; received the brevets in the regular army of colonel for gallantry at Gettys-
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burg, and of brigadier-general for gallantry at Fort Fisher, N. C .; was also promoted to major-general of volunteers and brevetted major-general in the regular army, March 13, 1865. In 1866 after the muster-out of volunteers, he took the active rank of lieutenant- colonel of the 24th infantry, on duty in Mississippi. He resigned from the army February 23, 1870. June 20, 1898, he was commis- sioned brigadier-general of volunteers for the war with Spain, and was honorably discharged January 3, 1899. His wife was a daugh- ter of Gen. Benj. F. Butler. His administrations as military and civil governor are described in following articles.
His life having been entirely military from the age of twenty- one years, he was without familiarity with civil affairs. In 1890 he wrote in reminiscence: "That I should have taken a political office seems almost inexplicable. My explanation may seem ludi- crous now, but then it seemed to me I had a mission, with a big M. Because of my course as military governor, the colored men of the State had confidence in me, and I was convinced that I could help to guide them successfully, keep men of doubtful in- tegrity from control, and the more certainly accomplish what was every patriot's wish-the enfranchisement of the colored men and the pacification of the country." His term in the United States senate, 1870-74, was marred by a disagreement with his colleague, J. L. Alcorn.
It appears to have been his ambition, after receiving the popu- lar approval of election as governor over Alcorn, in 1873, to accept a reëlection to the senate, but a negro was made lieutenant-gover- nor, who would have succeeded him, and according to Ames, it was upon the solicitation of his political opponents, that he re- signed that hope and held a position that was bound to end in humiliation. For the same reason he decided to withhold his res- ignation just before the election of 1875, when the result was ap- parent, also after that event, until the lieutenant-governor had been impeached and removed. He naturally prepared to fight the impeachment of himself, and employed as counsel Gen. Roger A. Pryor, of New York, and Michael Clancy and Thomas Durant, of Washington. After he had filed his answer and pleas, an arrange- ment was made which appears in writing as a letter from his counsel assuring him that his acquittal would be the result of a thorough and impartial trial, but that as he had long desired to resign he might be given an opportunity to do so by the withdrawal of the impeachment. He accepted the suggestion, the legislature did like- wise and the resignation followed. This seems to have been the
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work of General Pryor, who wrote that he negotiated with the governor's opponents, "and after a strenuous struggle it was ar- ranged that they should dismiss the charges and that the governor should resign. Governor Ames was generally regarded as honest in money matters, but his associates were notoriously corrupt. Being surrounded on all sides by dishonest officials, he must have known of their stealings, and his failure to denounce them, as did Chamberlain, a Republican governor of South Carolina, leads to the belief that he was guided by unworthy political motives. In July, 1890, his residence then being at Lowell, Mass., he presented to the Mississippi Historical Society a large collection of manu- scripts covering the period of his association with the State. They are listed in the Society report, V, 179-98.
Ames' Administration, Civil-Failure of Negro Suffrage .- In his inaugural address, January 22, 1874, Governor Ames suggested the introduction of compulsory education. The State debt was less than that of many cities, he said, but its increase should be pre- vented. The party was pledged to "retrenchment in expenditures and to rigid economy ;" hence there should be biennial elections and sessions of the legislature. To the people in general he recom- mended the growing of food stuff, to stop the heavy drain out of a State exclusively given to production of cotton on credit. "A State bears of necessity a marked similitude to the individuals who com- pose it. To be free and independent the citizens must be so." But men could not be free when they were tenants and debtors. "With a population of nearly a million, we have none, compara- tively speaking, engaged in manufactures. The cotton we raise is returned to us as manufactured goods with the cost of transpor- tation and the charges of many agents." Governor Ames was con- fronted by an annual deficit of about $200,000, the State revenues being about $1,000,000. He recommended that all State paper be bonded or registered at a fair rate of interest, and in future all taxes collected in United States currency. The State paper at that time was selling at 20 to 40 per cent below par. He thought expenses could be greatly reduced in the items of pay of jurors, Alcorn university support, county school superintendents' salaries, and the expenses of the legislature. The valuation of land for 1873 was $101,201,347. The State tax (812 mills) levied thereon was $863,367; teachers' fund tax (4 mills), $407,714. On personalty the State tax was $385,561; teachers' tax, $179,000 ; polls, $145,000. Making the total State tax, $1,248,928; teachers' fund, $587,024. Out of the State levy $250,000 would go to the collectors. For
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1874 the State rate was increased two mills, making the total levy 141/2 cents. The receipts of 1874 were $1,368,396; disbursements, $1,319,281. There was a heavy expenditure for the new peniten- tiary, $164,000; the legislature cost $133,000, and the court ex- penses were $300,000. The expenditure for the asylums was $110,000.
The increased participation of the negro politicians in govern- ment during the Ames' administration worked in unison with other tendencies to bring about their retirement from the tem -- porary importance in which a national policy had considered it necessary to elevate them. But they seem to have regarded their situation at this time as one permanently achieved. Alexander K. Davis, lieutenant-governor; James Hill, secretary of state, and T. W. Cordoza, superintendent of education, were negroes. The white officers were George E. Harris, attorney-general; G. H. Hol- land, treasurer; William H. Gibbs, auditor. Richard Griggs had been appointed in 1873 head of the new department of Immigra- tion and Agriculture, which department, the opposition maintained, was "palpably useless and injurious." The head and secretary of the department were in violation of the constitution selected from the legislature which created the office, which fact a certain cir- cuit judge approved and the supreme court dodged. The depart- ment served for the expenditure of "many thousands of dollars every year merely to keep two or three almost entirely unlettered colored men set up in one of the rooms of the capitol, under the false pretense that they are engaged in immigration and agri- cultural enterprise." (Speech of Senator Furlong, of Warren.)
There were nine colored senators, and a negro presided; in the house they were nearly half the membership (55 to 60) and the speaker was a negro. Adams, Hinds, Warren and Lowndes coun- ties were represented almost entirely by negro members, in both houses. "With a few exceptions, the colored members took little part in the work of legislation, although some of the principal chairmanships were held by them." They were inclined to inter- rupt the proceedings with motions and points of order, and were particularly sensitive to questions of civil rights. (Garner's Re- construction, 295) The counties, throughout this period, 1869-76, were administered with extravagance and cupidity. The boards of supervisors, which had the extraordinary duties of repairing the waste of war, replacing in some counties bridges and public buildings, were in many cases incompetent. Issaquena, Madison, Marshall, Wilkinson, Amite, Yazoo, and Washington, were examples
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of the counties in which the supervisors, who should have been men of unusual business ability and intelligence, were all or nearly all illiterate negroes, who acted under the control, usually of the sheriff or the head of the local Republican machine, generally a "carpetbagger." The president of the board of supervisors of Wilkinson county testified before the Boutwell committee, "I do not know my a b c's." Grand Juries were selected by the boards of supervisors. "It is asserted," said Governor Ames in 1875, "that they select their juries to save themselves and their friends from the consequence of corrupt or illegal acts which they may be base enough to commit."
The sheriff's office was the one usually sought by those carpet baggers having the instincts of the harpy. The compensation was not far below $5,000 on the average, and in some counties it was as high as $20,000 a year. One of these carpet bag sheriffs made a fortune by cashing warrants of the legislature at a discount, and turning in the warrants in his tax settlements with the State au- ditor, which illustrates the opportunities for plunder in this pe- riod. Where the negroes were in a large majority they sometimes had a negro sheriff, with white deputies, but more often a North- ern white held the office in Republican counties. The bonds given by such officers were generally worthless. At the beginning of the negro domination the assessor's commissions were very exces- sive, but there was a great reduction made before 1876.
In 1874, 39 of the counties had Democratic administrations, and, of course, no negroes in office. The remainder, 34, had Repub- lican administrations, and in some of them almost all the officials were negroes. Complaints were made in many counties, as Gen- eral Ferguson said of Washington, that the taxes were so high as to amount to about half the value of the land. In the levee dis- tricts the taxes were, of course, most onerous. The most general rate of county tax was 10 or 11 mills on the dollar (or cents on the $100). The highest county levy was 23 mills, in the new county of Colfax (now Clay).
The counter-revolution, which grew in power after the second election of President Grant, found powerful allies in the panic of 1873, the hard times that followed, and the Granger movement. Taxpayers' conventions were held, in which were associated the Democrats and those who yet called themselves Whigs, and some of the Republicans. The State Grange resolved in 1874, that "taxation in Mississippi has become a burden so large and exten- sive that the vital energies and industries of our State are becom-
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ing sapped, paralyzed and destroyed, and ruin inevitable and irre- trievable stares us in the face." In January, 1874, General Feather- ston presided at Jackson, over "the Taxpayers of Mississippi, as- sembled by delegates in convention." and a petition was prepared. They said to the legislature: "That by reason of the general pov- erty of the people, and the greatly depressed values of all property, and especially of our great staple, the present rate of taxation is an intolerable burden, and much beyond their ability to pay.
It was hoped by many that a period of great prosperity would" follow the reorganization of the State, and provision was accord- ingly made for a costly government, but that hope has given place to despair. Every day the people have grown poorer ; lands have diminished in value; wages have grown less, and all industries have become more and more paralyzed. It is daily harder for the people even to live; and many hearts are saddened today ; bur- dened with dread lest the little home, only shelter for wife and children, should be sold by the tax gatherer. These terrible truths show that the present rate of exorbitant expenditures must cease, or the means of the people to pay will soon be utterly exhausted, and their government will be disorganized. , It must be re- membered that the people of Mississippi suffer not only from the enormous burdens of needless State expenditures, but also from gross waste and extravagance of boards of supervisors. Added to these are the heavy local burdens that fall upon the inhabitants of cities and towns and the unhappy people of the levee districts."
The State tax levy for 1874 was 14 times as great as in 1869, and "the largest State tax ever levied in Mississippi," at a time of the greatest poverty. True, the depressed valuations made increased rates necessary, "but what we complain of is that the aggregate amount of taxes levied on us in our poverty greatly exceeds the amount levied in prosperous days." The rapid increase of the public debt was cited as proving either lack of economy in the adminis- tration or sad proof of the exhaustion of the people and their in- ability to pay. "This excessive rate of expenditure would con- strain even a prosperous people to cry aloud for retrenchment and reform. It is corrupting in effect, and altogether evil in results." But aside from such considerations, there was the crop failure; "many of the people are beginning to suffer for want of food, and very many are restricted in their poverty to a very few of the necessaries of life." Hence, said the petition: "Our present ap- peal amounts to this, Shall the few officials, the mere servants of the people, be permitted to fatten and grow richer, while the peo-
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ple grow poorer and starve? Shall these public servants be privi- leged to enjoy an extravagant waste of the money of the people to the destruction of the property of the State, or will the legisla- ture interpose immediately, and by a vigorous system of wise reform enforce rigid economy of expenditure in all departments of the government, legislative, executive and judicial, and in coun- ties, cities, towns and districts? Let every dollar, as far as possible, be saved to the suffering people." It was suggested, as subjects of attention: "The public printing, by the grossness of its excesses, amounts to public robbery." For the five years be- fore 1861, the public printing did not exceed $8,000 a year. For the five years beginning 1870, the average cost had been over $73,000. In Georgia the expenditure for that purpose did not ex- ceed $10,000 a year. The journals were swelled with useless mat- ter, and the department reports were of enormous bulk. The law for district printing had been publicly advocated on the plea that it was just to tax the people to support partisan newspapers. It seemed a mere mockery to make publication of legal advertising in newspapers remote from the property and parties involved. The judicial system was approved so far as it put upon the chancery clerks most of the business formerly done by probate judges, but this made more clear the great extravagance of having 13 circuit judges and 20 chancellors, to do what was formerly handled by ten circuit judges, particularly in view of the reduced importance of litigation and the transfer of a great part of the petty business to the justices. They would not be understood as saying that the services of the members of the legislature were not worth all that was paid, $500 per year, but in view of the conditions they urged a return to the former compensation of $250 for two years, with one session in that period. The expense for employees of the legis- lature was "great and unnecessary." The governor's salary might be reduced to $4,000 a year, of other officers, as fixed in 1857. In general a reduction to the ante-bellum basis was asked. The cost of assessing and collecting the revenues was out of all proportion to the labor, and the gain to the officers enormous. The fees of county officers were too high, and "we are sorry to add, in many instances are increased by exorbitant and illegal charges. Proper salaries were suggested, and it was advised that petty criminals be punished in some less expensive manner than imprisonment in county jails. "The trustees of the asylums should be prohibited from using any of the funds appropriated to those in- stitutions in the pay of salaries or fees to themselves." The sal-
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aries and mileage paid to the trustees of those institutions ought to be prohibited. Regarding educational expenditures the petition advised the reduction of the salary and expenditures of the State superintendent to "a very modest sum," with an office for that official in the capitol. "Poor as the people are and laboring under the most crushing taxation," they should not be asked to bear the expense of scholarships in the two universities. (Regarding the common schools, see Education.) For this purpose, it was said, the taxation and appropriations amounted to $675,000 annually; "greatly more than is necessary for carrying on the State govern- "ment." The commissioner of immigration "is an unnecessary of- ficer. His duties are nothing; his services of no value." The sessions of the legislature should be biennial. "The constitution should be amended so as to prohibit all special legislation. A great portion of the time of the legislature is now spent in making that kind of legislation, when the same end would be attainable by general laws. One of the evils of the time is excessive legislation the statute laws of the State are becoming more and more intricate and confused at every succeeding session of the legis- lature." There are many other abuses in the administration be- sides those we have referred to. . . Probably the most flagrant evil of which the tax payers complain, and the greatest outrages perpetuated on their rights, arise from the action of the board of supervisors." As a general rule the members of this board "are wholly unfit to discharge their duties and are without responsibility or accountability. The county levies, in a large majority of the counties, are extravagant and oppressive be- yond all endurance. The contracts for public work are made with- out economy or care, and with a reckless indifference to the inter- ests of the public. These boards, in some instances, employ their own members to do the work not authorized by law, merely for the purpose of making them extravagant allowances. In many instances these members are wholly ignorant, and are completely under the control of the clerks and sheriffs of these counties, to whom they make extravagant allowances." As a remedy it was proposed to limit the county levies to half of the State levy. Un- der the head of stationery and fuel, for county officers, the boards of supervisors allowed "large and unnecessary sums for ink, paper, envelopes, sealing wax, gold pens, pencils and printed blanks," which were given out by the officers to their friends and favorites. The petition urged a return to the old rule of the officer providing all supplies except bound record books. It was also urged that
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the board of supervisors should have no compensation, and that the work be performed as a public duty. If not so, then a salary of $25 a year, and requirement of bond for $2,000. An extension of time for payment of the taxes of 1874 was requested, and abate- ment of delinquent taxes due on forfeited lands.
This petition was, except the subject covered by the last sen- tence (from W. L. Nugent), the product of George L. Potter and James Z. George, and is to be taken as the official statement of public grievances, presented in the language of courtly statesman- ship. "The members of the convention which present this petition belong to all parties," it was added by General George. "We re- gard the great interests of the State and her people, so much im- poverished by the abuses we complain of, as too high and sacred to be made the subject of party contests. Mississippi has a soil un- equalled in fertility and in the variety of its products. Our climate is genial and healthy. Every element of high prosperity and of material and moral advancement exists. But, notwithstanding all this, every business is depressed, the people discontented and para- lyzed. We have the benumbing influence of despair and threat- ened ruin in lieu of the healthy and vigorous activity and energy of hopeful progress. And there yet remains the saddest truth of all. There is a distrust and a want of mutual confidence between the different classes of our population, and a deep and wide gulf separating the rulers and ruled. The tax payers do not desire this." This historic paper is printed in the Boutwell report, p. 456, also in "Kemper County Vindicated," by James Lynch. George C. McKee, Republican member of congress, said it was the "ablest paper" that had appeared lately in Mississippi, and warned the legislature it "should be heeded."
The principles of the revolution of 1869 involved greater bur- dens of taxation on lands, and the result was a vast increase of land sold for delinquent taxes. The list of lands advertised for sale in Hinds county in 1875 covered two pages of the Jackson Pilot. The State held not less than 4,500,000 acres of land forfeited for taxes (See Alcorn Adm.). In addition to this, the several levee districts held 1,500,000 acres, on which the State tax was sus- pended. The aggregate was six million acres, one-fifth of the en- tire area of the State. The "taxpayers' petition" said of these lands: "Many of them were sold during the last war, and some in 1848. If the titles could be depended upon at all, it would be wise to husband the resources thus provided and await the devel- opments of the future; but the tax titles, we may fairly assume,
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are all worthless." Hence they recommended that redemption be allowed on payment of the taxes for 1874 alone, which was the policy adopted in 1875. Under the act of March 28, 1874, there was a new issue of State bonds in that year to the amount of $189,- 900. The school fund contributed $233,000 to expenses. From taxation and other sources the revenue was swelled to $1,991,229. The disbursements were $1,790,000, of which $387,000 was to can- cel former bonds and certificates, and $37,000 interest on bonds .. The court expenses continued to grow. The penitentiary cost $132,000, public printing $82,000, the Lunatic asylum $153,000. The universities and education took over $300,000. The cost of the legislature was $117,380. Great alarm was caused by the floods of the spring of 1874, and aid was given by Congress to the amount of about $7,000. The sudden subsidence of the waters averted most of the apprehended calamity, but a drought followed, which was more generally disastrous. After the adjournment of the legislature in 1874 Governor Ames went North for a summer vacation, and the negro lieutenant-governor, Davis, becoming act- ing governor, indulged in grotesque extravagances and corrupt practices that fitly preluded the close of this dark chapter of the State's history. He dismissed the governor's private secretary, changed all the capitol employees to accommodate his friends, and appointed chancellors for several districts, in disregard of previous appointments made by Ames before the vacancies occurred. In this period, June 15 to July 25 and, during a month in the autumn when the governor was again out of the State, Davis granted sixty- five pardons, including seventeen before trial. This abandonment of the government, to a vicious and corrupt negro, by Ames was appalling to all good citizens. Such an act cannot be excused, and serves to illustrate the terrible tendency of the party in power. The terms of the chancellors appointed by Governor Alcorn ex- pired in the spring and summer of 1874. Governor Ames was blamed for not making nominations during the session of the legis- lature. After it adjourned, Davis proceeded on the theory that appointments could not be made until the actual date of the va- cancy. Ames revoked this procedure, and appointed those he had selected, and this was one ground of his impeachment in 1876 by the Democratic legislature. The Vicksburg riots (q. v.) caused by armed protest against negro local rule served as an excuse for Ames to call a special session of the legislature for investigation in December, 1874. He declared that the trouble was a culmina- tion in Warren county of continued appeals by "violent white
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