USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II > Part 117
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but which grants a discretion to certain officers which can be used to the abridgment of the rights of colored persons to vote and serve on juries, when it is not shown that their actual administration is evil, but only that evil is possible under them.
Williams, John Sharp, of Yazoo City, the representative of the Eighth Mississippi district in the Congress of the United States and Democratic floor leader of the House of Representatives, was born July 30, 1854, at Memphis, Tenn. He is a son of Christopher Harris and Ann Louise (Sharp) Williams. A paternal ancestor, John Williams, was a lieutenant-colonel of the Hillsboro Minute Men and afterward colonel of the Ninth North Carolina regiment of the Continental army in the American Revolution, and the grand- father, Christopher Harris Williams, was for ten years a member of the national House of Representatives from Tennessee. On the maternal side John M. Sharp, the grandfather, was captain of Com- pany A, First Mississippi Rifles, under the command of Col. Jeffer- son Davis, in the Mexican War. The father of the subject of this sketch was colonel of the Twenty-seventh Tennessee infantry of the Confederate army and was killed at the battle of Shiloh. When the Federal army was about to occupy the city of Memphis, the Williams family removed to the mother's home in Yazoo county. John Sharp Williams, after due preliminary discipline in the public schools of Memphis and Yazoo City, attended successively the Kentucky Mili- tary Institute near Frankfort, the University of the South at Se- wanee, Tenn., the University of Virginia and the University of Heid- elberg, at Baden, Germany. Subsequently he took a course in law at the University of Virginia under Professors Minor and Southall, and completed his studies in the office of Harris, McKisick & Turley, of Memphis. He was admitted to practice in March, 1877, and in December, 1878, he engaged in his labors in Yazoo City. Since that time he has been following that and the varied pursuits of a cotton planter with great success. He was one of the delegates from Mississippi to the national Democratic convention at Chicago which nominated Grover Cleveland for president, and in 1904 was made chairman of the convention which nominated Judge Alton B. Parker for the presidency. His first election to the national legislature was to the Fifty-third Congress, and he has been successively re-elected to every session since. He is a communicant of the Episcopal church and in a fraternal way is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. On October 2, 1877, Mr. Williams was united in marriage at Livingston, Ala., to Miss Bettie Dial Webb, daughter of Dr. Robert Dickens-and Julia (Fulton) Webb, of Livingston, Ala. The children of Congressman and Mrs. Williams are eight in num- ber-Mary (Williams) Holmes, Robert Webb, John Sharp, Jr., Julia Fulton, Allison Ridley, Sallie Shelby and Christopher Harris.
Williams, Robert, third governor of Mississippi Territory, was born in Surry county, N. C., July 12, 1773. He was the eldest son of Col. Joseph Williams, a patriot partisan who was active in sub- duing the tories. After receiving a liberal education, Robert studied
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law and was admitted to practice. He also embarked in politics, and was elected to Congress three times, serving 1797-1803. He was a member of the Congress that provided the land commission for the Territory, and was appointed a member of that commission by President Jefferson in 1803, and in 1805 was also appointed gov- ernor. He performed the duties of both offices until the work of the commission was closed in 1807. His service as governor began May 10, 1805, and ended March 3, 1809, when he resigned. This period was marked by stirring events, and considerable discontent and opposition, led by the secretaries Cato West and Cowles Mead. The governor twice dissolved the general assembly, and established the precedent, theretofore unknown, that a Territorial governor might revoke a presidential appointment of members of council. In October, 1808, he wrote to Secretary Madison: "I have been disappointed as respects certain characters here whose objects are embarrassment. Precedent has no influence with them. What they tolerate in one they hold criminal in another. Acts they ap- prove today they condemn tomorrow. Their doctrine is that the end justifies the means. Nothing but an incorrect and partial ad- ministration can attack such men, and then no longer than it will be subservient."
His public character is criticised in various histories of the State. His public papers indicate that he was business-like, direct, prompt, fearless, and clear-minded; but he took no pains to con- ciliate, and tested the unknown extent of the absolute powers of a Territorial governor. Monette, the original Mississippi historian, says of him: "He rendered himself odious to his political op- ponents and scarcely respected by his friends. Destitute of refined sensibility and generous feeling, and governed in his official inter- course by a narrow and selfish policy, he knew not how to concil- iate his enemies or to secure the attachment and esteem of his friends." This author also speaks of his "strong prejudices, un- cultivated mind, disregard of the courtesy due from a statesman, and his arbitrary disposition," expressions apparently derived from the partisan publications of his day. He was, says an eminent au- thority (Wheeler's North Carolina) "a man of distinguished at- tainments, great research and acute intellect."
A very unpleasant affair in the fall of 1808 embarrassed the governor, whatever the merit of the attack on him. In the cam- paign for representatives, in the summer previous, there had been handed around copies of letters from J. W. Bramhall, a young law- yer who came on with Judge Leake, addressed to Col. Thomas M. Randolph and John W. Eppes, of Virginia, and containing the charge that Williams sought to appoint the enemies of Jefferson to office. Bramhall accused the governor of giving the letters to the public, and after some negotiation the governor stated that he received copies of the letters from William Turner, whereupon there was published Turner's statement that he gave the gover- nor the copies after the governor had given him the originals. William Thompson, acting as Bramhall's agent, in conferring with
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the governor, was told of the latter's intention to resign, and this was published as if it were a result of this imbroglio. He also lost favor with some by refusing to fight a duel with Poindexter. In December, 1808, he was threatened with personal assault on the street by John F. Bowie and Cowles Mead. (Natchez Chronicle.)
His wife, Elizabeth, died at his residence near Washington, M. T., July 25, 1814. Some time during the War of 1812-15, he was ad- jutant-general of North Carolina, according to Wheeler's history. He died in Ouachita, La., January 25, 1836, and was buried on his plantation near Monroe, La. In Tennessee were his brothers, Col. John Williams, of the Thirty-ninth infantry, in the Creek war, under whom Thomas H. Benton was lieutenant-colonel; Thomas Lanier Williams, chancellor of the State; Dr. Alexander Williams, and a sister, Mrs. John P. Irwin, of Nashville. Another brother, Lewis Williams, served in Congress from North Carolina, 1815- 42, and was known as the Father of the House. A cousin, Marma- duke Williams, succeeded Robert in Congress, serving six years, and then removed to Madison county, M. T., in 1810. He was a member of the first constitutional convention of Alabama, the Madison county candidate for governor, and eleven times elected to the legislature.
Williams' Administration. Robert Williams, of North Carolina, was appointed governor of the Mississippi Territory by President Jefferson, the appointment being confirmed March 1, 1805. Mr. Williams was at the time one of the commissioners for adjusting land titles west of Pearl river. "It was not a position to add to one's popularity, and Mr. Williams was not a man of conciliatory address. He was rather repulsive and peremptory, to please the courtly and refined people among whom he resided. The Republi- cans in the Territory had strongly recommended Col. Cato West, secretary of the Territory, and its most efficient party leader. But Mr. Williams belonged to a very influential family of Jeffersonian Republicans in North Carolina, a State that required some nursing at that juncture, and it was deemed expedient to confer on him the appointment." Such is the comment of the historian J. F. H. Clai- borne, whose observations are from one standpoint.
Williams had been the associate of Judge Rodney on the land title commission, sitting at Washington town since December 1, 1803. The historian, Monette, quotes a Natchez newspaper of June 7th to the effect that the governor arrived at Washington January 26, 1805, and was greeted with a public dinner by the citi- zens, Judge Rodney being president of the gathering, and Thomas H. Williams, the clerk of the commission, now appointed register of the land office, vice-president. It is possible that the new gov- ernor was returning from a trip to North Carolina, upon this ar- rival.
His commission as governor was dated March 1, 1805, and he was sworn in by Judge Rodney May 10, upon the arrival of the docu- ment. The new governor had witnessed a turbulent session of the general assembly, begun in December, 1804, which came to a close
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in March. The Territory was thrown into confusion through one of its enactments. This was a voluminous act regulating judicial practice, one section of which Secretary West construed as vaca- ting the commissions of all the justices.
Colonel West, the unsuccessful candidate for the favor of Mr. Jefferson, had the records and seal of the Territory at his residence, sixteen miles from Washington, and when the governor sent a note, asking the secretary to call at the capital, also to inform him when it would be convenient to have the records and public documents removed to the seat of government, West replied to Parke Walton, who carried the note, that he would not answer Mr. Williams in writing, as it might lead to serious embarrassments, that Mr. Wil- liams had promised to be at his office, and Mr. Williams could do as he pleased and he would do likewise. The governor then re- quested him to attend the seat of government with the seal. But the secretary remained at home and sent the seal.
To meet this emergency, and the action of the secretary regarding. the commissions of officers, the governor issued a proclamation, May 29, calling a special session of the legislature on the first Mon- day of July.
On June 5th Attorney-General George Poindexter advised Gov- ernor Williams that all the commissions should be renewed. He added, "I take the liberty to remark that the construction put upon the statute above cited does not comport with my opinion, nor do I think the legislature intended the section to have that operation." The governor asked the assembly, when it convened, to elect a dele- gate to congress, which the former session had failed to do; also to designate some place at which the public offices of the Territory should be concentrated, instead of being scattered about where the officers might reside. "I can but express my regret at the want of harmony, heretofore, between the different branches of the legis- lature and its members; which tended greatly to protract the de- spatch of publick business, and which has rendered this call indis- pensable. Nothing will afford me more satisfaction than to witness a different temper in future, of which I have the greatest confi- dence. No exertion on my part shall be wanting to heal those poli- tical distractions so inimical to the general good and to promote unanimity and concord in every branch of the government." July 25, 1805, the governor informed the assembly that he could not carry out its regulations regarding the distribution of the laws because they were in the hands of the secretary of the Territory, and it would not be consistent for him to make further attempts to obtain them. "It remains for the wisdom and independence of the general assembly of the Territory to secure obedience and re- spect to its laws and provide that they should not be violated with impunity." The legislature passed an act to cover the case, and upon formal demand under this law, by Governor Williams through his secretary William B. Shields, the records and public documents were delivered, July 30. A few days later, notice of the trouble having been sent to the secretary of state, an appointment arrived
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of Thomas H. Williams as secretary of the Territory, which he ac- cepted conditionally. The governor reported: "Colonel West has had his political frolic and all things are quiet." The political com- motion is probably also evidenced by the governor's action in June, when he relieved Charles B. Howell as auditor of public accounts and appointed Beverly R. Grayson. John Shaw, "justice of the peace and of the quorum and chief justice of the orphans court for the county of Jefferson," was peremptorily removed from office for wilfully refusing to hold court. Jacob Stamply, and Eli K. Ross, judges of the county court, were likewise removed.
One of the first memorable events in the Williams administration was the Kemper affair, an outbreak of hostilities between the white inhabitants of the Spanish territory and the frontier of the Natchez district. Since the cession of Louisiana, Spain had held the Baton Rouge and Manchac districts, between the island of Orleans and the Natchez district, as well as the coast region formerly under the government of Mobile. All this was originally part of French Louisiana, including Mobile, and the American government was making a serious claim to it as a part of the cession of Louisiana. Whatever the merit of the arguments made use of, the Baton Rouge country was mainly American in population and was bound to become a part of the United States, and the Kemper affair was the beginning of the disorder that finally furnished some actual warrant for taking possession. The movements of the Kempers, the revival of Spanish intrigue with the Indians, the plot of Colonel Caller, of the Tombigbee district, to capture Mobile, the Sabine expedition, the operations of General Wilkinson, and the descent of Aaron Burr, were all intimately connected, and served to involve the Mississippi Territory in disturbance and mystery during the years 1805-7.
The governor was anxious to go to North Carolina and bring his family, but the perplexing land commission business kept him busy until November, 1805, when word from Governor Claiborne regarding a prospect of trouble with Spain compelled delay till Congress should meet. At the same time he had the satisfaction to inform the government "that there is at present more unanimity and concord amongst the people of this Territory than at any other period since the American government, and perhaps as much if not more harmony towards the General Government than in any other quarter."
Governors Claiborne and Williams were worried in the fall of 1805, by reports of 4,000 Spanish troops being forwarded to Florida, 500 to be stationed at Baton Rouge, while in the west there was military activity between Natchitoches and the province of Texas. Governor Williams reported in the spring of 1806 that the feeling in the Tombigbee district had greatly intensified since the closing of the port of Mobile and the people were likely to take matters in their own hands, to force their way to New Orleans. The Span- iards were said to be tampering with the Choctaws, especially the
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Six towns, "who are great rascals, and have always been pretty much of Spaniards."
His message to the regular session of the general assembly, December 2, 1805, was a plea for such credential self government as would dispose the general government to more speedily increase the grants of local powers; for the extension of opportunity for higher education by the public to those not enabled by wealth to obtain it; for moderation and justice in the laws, for "sanguinary laws are not congenial to the principles of a free government, nor adapted to the genius of the American people;" for efficient sup- port of the militia; for "as few laws as possible," because many laws indicate the depravity of society ; the preparation of a digest of existing statutes ; the enactment and enforcement of compulsory laws for keeping up the highways, and provision for the payment of the public debt, which was in a fair way to be soon wiped out.
The commission of Cowles Mead as secretary of the Territory was received by Governor Williams, March 25, 1806, at which time Mead had not yet arrived. The governor started for North Caro- lina April 22, 1806, by way of New Orleans, leaving Secretary Wil- liams at the head of government. One of the acts of Secretary Williams after his departure was to acknowledge the exequatur of Citizen Martel, as commercial agent of the French Republic at Natchez. Mead arrived at Natchez May 31st, and soon afterward became acting governor. (See Mead's Administration.) Wil- liams returned, arriving at Natchez January 26, 1807, to be present during the special term of court called to try Aaron Burr for treason against the United States. When Burr took his departure, seeking refuge with Colonel Caller and the other enemies of the Spanish on the Tombigbee, the governor offered a reward that induced his arrest. The legislature in February, 1807, by resolution fixed the time of adjournment at the 7th of that month, and the time of reconvening the first Monday of November. George Poindexter, attorney-general of the Territory, was elected delegate over Cowles Mead and Thomas H. Williams, in January.
In August, 1807, meetings at Natchez and on the Tombigbee adopted resolutions of indignation over the Chesapeake outrage, which threatened war with England.
The Burr episode left a train of bitter dissension. The gov- ernor and Mead accused each other of sympathy with Burr. Ter- rell's newspaper at Natchez, the Mississippi Messenger, supported Mead and openly charged Williams with Burrism and disloyalty to Jefferson. The outbreak began in June, with the Messenger's declar- ation: "Governor Williams has never patronized the Messenger, the Republican paper, even so far as his personal subscription would have gone, but on the contrary has given his subscription and sup- port to the Herald, the warmly Federal press." The Messenger was unrestrained in its lampooning of the governor from this time. Andrew Marschalk's Herald responded on behalf of the governor. Monette and later historians preserve only the intemporate state- ments of one side, against Williams. The Wilkinson question also
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entered into the dispute. Old soldiers, and the officers on duty, took sides, the opponents of Wilkinson reviving the adoration of "Mad Anthony" Wayne, the hero of the Federalists. Several duels were fought, that between Governor Claiborne and Daniel Clark being the most famous.
The governor, perhaps because of Mead's unconcealed hostility to Wilkinson, secured his removal from the secretaryship. Thomas H. Williams was reappointed June 1st. A campaign came on for the election of four representatives to fill vacancies and it was hotly contested between the two parties. Mead was a candidate, and the result was a victory for the opposition to the governor, but the re- turns showed that sentiment was pretty evenly divided, the majori- ties in most cases being slight. The stronghold of the "Meadites" was in Jefferson district. Mead, by communications to Poindexter, involved the governor and delegate in a bitter quarrel. Poindexter took the initial steps for a duel, but the governor replied to Captain Voss that he would not "involve either his public or private char- acter with such a man," and when Voss made public the fact that a challenge was intended, in violation of law, the governor removed him from his office of justice at Natchez. Col. F. L. Claiborne reported that Voss demanded a court of inquiry as a captain of militia ; the governor responded that the civil authority was not subject to supervision by the military. Captain Marschalk furn- ished charges against Claiborne, that he had declared he would make the cavalry of Adams county obey his orders by force of arms, and on October 16, Governor Williams revoked his commissions as justice of the peace and quorum, and lieutenant-colonel com- manding the Fort regiment. The governor directed the new at- torney-general to prefer indictments for libel against Mr. Poin- dexter, Col. Joshua Baker, and John Shaw, one of the editors of the Messenger. Captain Voss began suit against the governor for $10,- 000 damages by defamation. The commission of Abner Green as territorial treasurer was also revoked in October, and Samuel Brooks, mayor of Natchez, appointed in his stead.
Cowles Mead seems to have rallied the forces of discontent with the Territorial form of government, which had embarrassed pre- vious governors of Mississippi Territory, and given Claiborne much trouble at New Orleans. To Robert Tanner, who indignantly re- fused a commission in 1807, as others had refused them from Sar- gent in 1798, because it was a commission at the pleasure of the governor, Williams replied: "You censure the Ordinance; say it verges on despotism, and is derogatory to a free and enlightened people, and invoke my aid and that of the good people of the Ter- ritory to have it altered. Without intending to impeach or admit the correctness of your remarks on this occasion, I will observe that I never have been an admirer of Territorial governments nor have my opinions been secreted. Nevertheless, it is my duty, as well as every other officer, to administer the government as it is, and not as we may wish it, and every good citizen should give his aid in the same way, thereby showing that we are ripe for self gov-
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ernment and one that is better and more free. You will excuse me for observing that I presume your remarks on the present form of government were made without due reflection and that considera- tion which the importance of the occasion required and your own intentions warrant. The sages of Seventy-six, whose wisdom, valor and patriotism broke the iron band of tyranny, emancipated a world, and secured both civil and religious liberty for millions unborn, formed that very instrument, the Ordinance, which you now reproach with the epithet of despotism." Alexander Mont- gomery, in Nov., 1807, declining a justiceship of Gov. Holmes, said there was not a commissioned officer civil or military in the district of Adams.
Governor Williams refused to recognize the assembly as legally in session when it met in November. He addressed the two houses a message setting out that the session was set in disregard of the law of Congress and without the consent or knowledge of the gov- ernor ; that on account of disagreement between the members there was little prospect of any good being done before the time of regu- lar meeting; that the two houses had not been enabled during the nine days session to communicate with each other officially or with the governor, composing also one branch of the legislature; that a number of members had withdrawn, destroying the quorum; that the governor could not recognize the organization of the house and communicate with it regarding three vacancies and what had been done to fill them, nevertheless, the persons elected to fill those vacancies had been admitted to seats; therefore he exercised his authority to prorogue the general assembly.
In his message of December 4, 1807, Governor Williams gave considerable space to a warning against the tumultuous assertion of individual notions of right and justice by people assembled from many different States and communities. He also took "the liberty to remark, that in a republican government, existing by the will of the people, where law is sovereign, nothing can be more incor- rect and impolitic than to advocate the physical powers of the peo- ple and their natural rights in opposition to those which are legal and constitutional. Extreme liberty is anarchy. In socie- ties governed by laws, liberty does not consist in doing whatever we please, but that which is agreeable to law, the rules of morality and our associated rights." While saying this, the governor was wise enough to rebuke the law-smith, as pestiferous then as now: "Permit me, gentlemen, to suggest that the happiness of any com- munity does not depend so much on the number of its laws, or the frequent alteration of them, as on their correctness and certainty of execution. It is generally true that the paucity and simplicity of laws indicate the correctness and simplicity of manners in so- ciety." He rejoiced in the proof given in the past months that the people of the Mississippi country were not wavering in allegiance to the United States or seeking an opportunity for secession. Mis- taken notions of the reverses need no longer deter immigration. He expressed confidence that partisan misrepresentation and licen-
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