USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II > Part 38
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their cruelty and perfidy." On December 11, the Yasous treach- erously murdered the missionary priest, Father Souel; and the following day the Chevalier des Roches, who commanded the post among the Yasous in the absence of M. de Codere, and the seven- teen men of the garrison were all massacred by this tribe, the lives of the few women and children being spared.
On receipt of the news of this great catastrophe to the French, the governor general, Perrier, at New Orleans, sent Chevalier Lubois, with a small army to exterminate the Natchez. Perrier secured the cooperation of the powerful tribe of Choctaws, as well as the Tonikas and some smaller tribes. The Natchez were fiercely attacked and besieged in their two forts. A truce resulted after seven days, and the Natchez surrendered the prisoners in their hands, in consideration of the withdrawal of seven pieces of cannon by the French. The Natchez finally fled across the Mis- sissippi and intrenched themselves near Red river; they were pursued by the French and compelled to surrender in the year 1731. Their children and women were reduced to slavery; some of the warriors took refuge among the Chickasaws, but the Great Sun, St. Cosme, with several hundred prisoners, were taken to New Orleans and, by order of the prime minister, Maurepas, sold as slaves and shipped to St. Domingo, and the proceeds were turned into the Colonial treasury to pay the expenses of the war.
Natchez Tornado of 1840. Henry Tooley made an elaborate report of this disaster, including observations of the barometer and thermometer during the storm. The day, May 7, opened densely cloudy and very warm, increasing in heat until noon. At 12:45 the roar of the approaching storm could be heard in the southwest, with a gale blowing toward it, from the northeast. The thunder and lightning was incessant. An hour later inky clouds were sweeping up both sides of the river, the city was soon enveloped in darkness, terrific thunder shook the earth, the wind whirled to the southeast, and at 2 o'clock the tornado swept through the city, followed by a calm. There was about five min- utes while the storm was felt close at hand, a few seconds in which it accomplished its work. "Every building in the city was more or less injured, many utterly demolished, and very many unroofed, with their walls more or less broken or thrown down; every tree and fence prostrated, and the streets filled with scattered fragments of every kind and nearly impassable." The famous district, "Natchez under the Hill," was swept with "the besom of destruc- tion, overthrowing, crashing and demolishing almost every house, shop and building, and at one fell swoop reduced that part of the city into undistinguished ruin. Three steamers break from their moorings ; their upper works are blown as feathers; two of them capsize and sink and nearly all their crews and passengers perish. More than sixty flatboats laden with up-country produce break from their fastenings and with their crews disappear."
The casualties were given as follows: killed in the city, 48 ; per- ished on the river, 269; wounded in the city, 74, on the river, 35.
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A woman was rescued from the wreck of the Steamboat hotel, alive but mangled, with her two dead children in her arms. The most widespread damage was done in Louisiana, in the earlier path of the tornado, and hundreds were reported killed. The court- house at Vidalia was wrecked, burying Judge Kerton in the ruins. Natchez was visited by a delegation from New Orleans bringing a corps of surgeons and several thousand dollars of money for the relief of the suffering. Mr. Tooley, who was one of the most ac- curate meteorologists of his age, noted those facts regarding the storm that sustain the modern scientific explanation. Many houses, where the rooms were closed, were exploded by the surrounding vacuum created by the funnel of the tornado; the juices of leaves, and herbs and grass were extracted so that they withered.
Natchez Trace. See Roads.
National Cemeteries. There are three national cemeteries in Mississippi. One is located at Vicksburg; one at Natchez, and one at Corinth. The reservation at Vicksburg contains an area of 40 acres and a cemetery roadway which was deeded to the United States by Alvey H. Jaynes and wife of Ohio, August 27, 1866; the reservation at Natchez embraces an area of 11.07 acres, and was conveyed to the United States by Margaret Case et al., January 31, 1867, the city of Natchez afterwards conveying rights of way; the Corinth reservation contains an area of 20 acres which was deeded to the United States by Calvin V. Vance and wife et al., February 1, 1868, a right of way being subsequently obtained from the city and others. Jurisdiction over these several cemeteries was ceded to the United States by an act of the legislature, ap- proved February 12, 1875, which declared: "That exclusive juris- diction be, and hereby is, given to the United States to and over the following tracts of land and appurtenances thereunto belong- ing, to-wit: All of a tract or parcel of land situated near the city of Natchez, in the county of Adams, inclosed by a brick wall, and known as the Natchez National Cemetery; also, all of a tract or parcel of land situated on the banks of the Mississippi river, near the city of Vicksburg, in the county of Warren; said tract em- braces not only all that is enclosed by a brick wall, but also a strip lying between the southwest side of said wall and the Mississippi river, now owned by the United States and occupied for purposes aforesaid, and known as the Vicksburg National Cemetery ; also, another certain tract of land, situated near the city of Corinth, in the county of Alcorn, consisting of 20 acres (more or less), and known as the Corinth National Cemetery; the legal title to said several parcels of land being now in the United States for purposes aforesaid."
In 1901 Governor Longino appointed a committee representing each Mississippi command within the Vicksburg lines during the siege, to ascertain the position of the troops, with a view to having the same marked by monuments. The committee met at Vicks- burg May 15, 1901. In 1904 he made the report of the committee a part of his message, and urged that "the subject should be con-
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sidered broadly and patriotically, and an appropriation made for monument and markers." In 1906 an appropriation was finally made by the legislature in accordance with the above recommen- dation.
National Guard. See Militia, State.
Navigation and Limits. The Mississippi river was wholly with- in the territory of the French province of Louisiana until after the treaty of February, 1763, by which it was "agreed that for the future, the limits between the possessions of his Most Christian Majesty and those of his Brittanic Majestic in that part of the world shall be irrevocably fixed by a line drawn along the middle of the River Mississippi, from its source to the River Iberville, and from thence by a line in the middle of that stream and of the Lakes Maurepas and the Ponchartrain to the sea with the understanding that the navigation of the Mississippi shall be free and open to the subjects of his Brittanic Majesty as well as those of his Most Christian Majesty, in all its length from its source to the sea, and particularly that part of it which is between said Is- land (of New Orleans, retained by France) and New Orleans and the right bank of the river, including egress and ingress at its mouth. It is further stipulated that the ships of both nations shall not be stopped on the river, visited, or subjected to any duty."
Beforehand, France had given, by secret treaty, all her posses- sions on the Mississippi to Spain, which nation a few years later took possession of New Orleans. The English rights of naviga- tion were never denied, except as smuggling was prohibited, until Spain declared war on England as an ally of France, during the American revolution. When peace was made in 1782, England agreed to a declaration of American bounds on the Mississippi identical to those made by the treaty of 1763, as far south as the original line of British West Florida.
It was also provided that "the navigation of the river Mississippi from its source to the ocean, shall forever remain free and open to the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens of the United States." This was more important as a menace to Spain than the assertion of a boundary on the 31° parallel. Thereafter she under- stood that any concession to the United States meant a concession to England, her great commercial rival.
In a conference with Lafayette in February, 1783, the Count of Florida Blanca put in writing "that although it is his majesty's intention to abide for the present by the limits established by the treaty of the 30th November, 1782, between the British and Ameri- cans, the king intends to inform himself particularly whether it can be in any ways inconvenient to settle that affair amicably with the United States." To the remonstrance of Lafayette that it was a fixed principle to abide by the limits fixed by the English and Americans, Blanca said verbally that only "unimportant details" were to be considered unadjusted. He would by no means oppose the general principle. In the presence of Montmorin, the ambas- sador of France, at Lafayette's request, he gave "his word of honor
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for it." So Lafayette told, and Blanca said the story was "the grossest misrepresentation on the part of Lafayette."
The treaty of peace between Spain and England was signed January 20, 1783. In this England ceded to Spain the two Floridas, without describing the limits. This treaty was confirmed by a definitive treaty September 3, 1783, six months after the treaty between the United States and England had been published in America. It follows (as Pinckney told Godoy) that Spain was content with the limit of the 31st parallel, and did not seek to obtain the definition of other limits, from England, or that she did so seek and failed. The latter was probably the case.
As to the equal right of navigation on the Mississippi river, the United States claimed it as the successor of Great Britain, under the treaty between France and England in 1763; also as a natural right.
In December, 1784, congress resolved to send a minister to Spain, to adjust the differences respecting the navigation of the Missis- sippi, and other matters; but this was made unnecessary, much to the advantage of Spain by the action of Florida Blanca, who sent Don Diego de Gardoqui to Philadelphia, as minister, in the spring of 1785. Congress authorized John Jay, secretary of foreign af- fairs, to negotiate with him. But, at the outset, Gardoqui frankly stated that the Spanish made a conquest of the country east of the Mississippi river and proposed to hold it as well as the exclusive control of the river. How far north the Spanish claim extended, Jay had been unable to determine in 1786, but it appeared that the Spanish attached some significance to the capture of the post of St. Joseph, on Lake Michigan, by Don Eugenio Parre, marching from St. Louis in January, 1781.
Great Britain was also maintaining military possession of the northwest, and defending this by charging the United States with breach of the treaty in other respects. The problem was so difficult that Jay submitted to congress, August 3, 1786, a plan for a com- mercial treaty with Spain (which was greatly desired), coupled with the provision that during the life of the treaty, twenty or twenty-five years, the United States, without relinquishing any right, would forbear to navigate the Mississippi river below their territories to the gulf. Seven northern States, mainly interested in Atlantic trade, supported this proposition, on the understanding that the right to the Mississippi should not be waived and Spain should acknowledge the boundary of the 31st parallel. The dis- cussions of congress on this subject leaked out, and as the rumor reached the Ohio and other frontier settlements it was told that Jay had surrendered the river. The proposition was, in fact, dic- tated by the commercial sentiment of the Northeast, which took little account of the importance of the great domain from Biloxi to Duluth. "The extreme representatives of this northeastern sec- tionalism not only objected to the growth of the west at the time now under consideration, but even avowed a desire to work it harm, by shutting the Mississippi, so as to benefit the commerce
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of the Atlantic States. These intolerant extremists not only opposed the admission of the young western states into the Union, but at a later date actually announced that the annexation by the United States of vast territories beyond the Mississippi offered just cause for the secession of the northeastern states. Even those who did not take such an advanced ground felt an un- reasonable dread lest the west might grow to overtop the east in power." (Roosevelt, The Winning of the West.)
The Southern delegates, closer to the pioneer, made it impossi- ble to propose such a treaty, with the result, to be impartially noted, that the limits were not recognized for twelve years; the river was not free until a longer period had elapsed, and the United States missed all the advantages of a commercial treaty with Spain.
The settlement of Kentucky had vastly increased in 1784-86, and the shipment of flour, whiskey and other products to New Orleans from as far up as Pittsburg, on flatboats and barges, was the com- mercial outlet that promised profitable returns to the producer, the cost of transportation by wagons over the mountains being enormous. The settlers on the upper Tennessee and Cumberland also depended on river communication altogether. Hence congress and the eastern people began to hear in 1787 that the inhabitants of the west were highly irritated about the "Jay treaty," that Ken- tucky proposed to secede from Virginia, that the Cumberland peo- ple were talking of an expedition to take possession of Natchez and New Orleans, and John Sullivan was organizing a similar movement in Kentucky. Congress, in September, 1788, absolved the members from secrecy on the subject, and resolved that "the free navigation of the river-Mississippi is a clear and essential right of the United States, and that the same ought to be consid- ered and supported as such."
. Consequently, within the period of the confederation nothing was done. The proposition was one that required a higher degree of mutual interest, a closer bond between the States. Gardoqui, during his stay, busied himself mainly with organizing a secret service throughout the United States and encouraging emigration into the region held by Spain. He was doubtless cognizant also of the Spanish policy to make the navigation of the river as diffi- cult as possible to the Americans without absolute prohibition, so as to encourage the secession of the west from the Union, but he carefully left the secession intrigue to Governor Miro and Col- onel James Wilkinson, who had settled in Kentucky in 1786. Later, when Gardoqui had returned to Spain and was negotiating with Carmichael and Short, he allowed them to perceive that he fully understood the dissensions and jealousies in the United States, and consequently refused to believe that the United States dared enforce its claims by the sword.
The greater powers of the constitution permitted a revival of the negotiations. It was one of the main features of that military and diplomatic conquest of the west that occupied the whole of
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Washington's administration. The events in the Southwest dif- fered from those on the Northwest merely in this, that the Ameri- can policy was to keep the Spanish Indians quiet, until the British Indians could be brought to terms by an army. The United States was not prepared to make war at once on both wings of the situ- ation, partly because State jealousy refused the Federal govern- ment the use of more than 5,000 soldiers, and partly because opin- ion was quite gravely divided as to whether it was worth while to conquer the west. That was a subject on which George Wash- ington never entertained a doubt. His character never was more grandly displayed than in this long and perplexing and at times apparently hopeless struggle to subdue the wilderness to allegiance to the United States.
Washington sent an envoy to Spain to seek a settlement of navigation and limits in 1790, and the aid of France was solicited, but the European situation was not favorable. About the close of 1791 Spain gave notice of readiness for negotiation, and in January, 1792, William Carmichael and William Short, charges des affaires at Madrid and Paris, were commissioned, and given elaborate instructions by Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson's instructions covered the arguments from the Amer- ican point of view. He also asked a commercial treaty. As a last resort of argument he suggested that the turmoil of affairs in Europe must before long present an opportunity for the United States to resume "an occasion for resuming our territory and nav- igation and of carving for ourselves those conveniences on the shores which may facilitate and protect the latter effectually and permanently."
But Spain had lately fortified the Walnut Hills, and showed no signs of yielding. Gardoqui proposed to the commissioners that American vessels unload cargoes on American soil [possibly thinking of Cairo] and Spanish vessels carry the cargoes to New Orleans. He would not dare permit American vessels to enter the mouth of the river, free, for fear England would claim the same privilege. He was afraid of smuggling, and attempts to incite the French to independence. Spain did not need the United States, commercially, he said, but "the United States, having no mines of gold or silver, could not do without Spain."
Before these negotiations, however, could be got into train, the new troubles which had arisen in Europe had produced new com- binations among the powers there. In the meantime the nego- tiations were complicated by the discussion of the restitution of fugitive slave property, the treatment of fugitives from justice, and the Indian relations. Washington declared he had the best reason to believe Spanish agents incited the Indians to hostilities, and the Spaniards coolly retorted with similar charges. As Wash- ington said: "A claim of patronage and protection of these In- dians was asserted; a mediation between them and us by that sovereign assumed; their boundaries with us made a subject of interference ; and at length, at the very moment when these sav-
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ages were committing daily inroads upon our frontier, we were informed by them (the Spanish) that 'the continuation of the peace, good harmony and perfect friendship of the two nations, was very problematical for the future, unless the United States should take more convenient measures and a greater energy than those adopted for a long time past.'" This meant that if the United States did not vigorously protect the Creeks and Cherokees from the Georgians and East Tennesseans, Spain might be com- pelled to. Col. Humphreys was sent to Madrid, then, to ascertain if Spain proposed to maintain such an Indian policy, and to insist on "immediate and full enjoyment" of the river navigation, with a free port to New Orleans or near there, and relinquishment of all pretensions above 31°, with the suggestion to Spain that the western people were impatient, and whatever they might do the United States would never abandon them.
Humphreys discovered that Spain was satisfied to stand by its Indian policy, without any yielding. Godoy, favorite of the queen, duke of Alcudia, later entitled "the prince of the peace," was then in charge of foreign affairs, and in December, 1794, he promised to proceed with a treaty "with the utmost dispatch."
Upon a suggestion from Madrid, Thomas Pinckney, minister at London, was sent to take up the negotiations as envoy extraordi- nary. Reaching Madrid about July 1, 1795, he was met with various pretexts for delay, leading up to a proposition of triple alliance, including France. He replied that a recognition of our rights would be the basis of a friendship as valuable as an alliance. He also refused to promise an alliance for the protection of Louis- iana. Godoy was offended and negotiations stopped. Meanwhile the duke made peace with France, giving up part of San Domingo, but refusing the demand for Louisiana. It was also known that Jay had negotiated a treaty with England, which might be a step toward invasion of the Spanish possessions. It seems that Monroe, doing his best at Paris, managed to make it appear that a treaty between France and the United States was probable. France was strengthened by alliance with Prussia. Pinckney threatened to take his departure; Godoy decided to yield, hoping American friendship would protect Louisiana, and in September submitted a form of treaty. Pinckney proposed many changes and insisted on a depot at New Orleans, and a free hand with the Indians within the limits of the United States.
Finally the treaty was agreed upon and signed at San Lorenzo, October 27, 1795. Next day Pinckney was informed that the king had sent orders to the governor of Natchez, who "had advanced to occupy the post of the Barrancas of Margot (Memphis) compre- hended within our ancient limits," to suspend all hostility with any forces from Kentucky that might advance against him. But it was not until three years later that Wayne's veterans of the Maumee campaign went into camp at Davion's rock.
It will throw some light on the situation to recall that in the year this treaty was made the United States was unable to borrow
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money in Holland to free the American citizens held as slaves in Algiers, and Portugal was protecting American shipping from the Mediterranean pirates.
More than once, during this long negotiation, the government considered the proposition of admitting the English of Canada to a port on the upper Mississippi, in consideration of aid against Spain. But the Washington policy of avoiding entangling alli- ances was held to, despite the periods of doubt. Alexander Ham- liton, in 1792, when the war between the Chickasaws and Creeks promised to involve Spain and the United States, proposed to ask England to become an ally of the United States, and prevent war, on the promise of admitting her to some navigable part of the river in the Northwest and giving her joint freedom in naviga- tion. Washington replied to this that "the remedy would be worse than the disease." England, however, was always guaranteed by the United States the free exercise of her rights of navigation under the treaty of 1763, and this was definitely renewed in Jay's treaty with England, in 1794. In the treaty of 1795 with the United States, Spain asserted the right to exclude any nation but the United States, to which she yielded equal rights of navigation and a depot for transfer of goods at New Orleans. Following this, on demand of England, the United States renewed the guarantee to England of her old right under the treaty of 1763, against which Spain protested, made war on England, and blocked the carrying out of the treaty of 1795. (See Louisiana Relations.)
Navina, a postoffice of Kemper county.
Nearby, a postoffice of Neshoba county, on the Pearl river, 7 miles northwest of Philadelphia, the county seat.
Needmore, a postoffice of Tallahatchie county, 10 miles south- west of Charleston, the county seat.
Neels Ferry, a postoffice of Quitman county, situated on the Cold- water river, 9 miles north of Belen, the county seat.
Nesbitt, an incorporated post-town of about 200 people in De Soto county, situated eighteen miles south of Memphis, on the Illi- nois Central railroad, and six miles north of Hernando, the county seat. By reason of its proximity to Memphis, the country about it is especially favorable for the introduction of Dairy farming and the growing of fruits and vegetables for the Memphis market. The soil, however, needs the application of fertilizers in order to render it highly productive. It has an academy, 2 churches and a saw- mill.
Neshoba County is one of the more' sparsely settled counties, a little east of the central part of the State. The county has a land surface of 543 square miles. It was formed December 23rd, 1833, from the territory ceded by the Choctaw Nation three years earlier, and a desirable class of emigrants from the older States and the other parts of Mississippi came into the region at an early day. The name "Neshoba" is an Indian word meaning "grey wolf." The county is in the form of a square, containing sixteen townships, and is bounded on the north by Winston county, on the east by
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Kemper county, on the south by Newton county and on the west by Leake county. It originally embraced the townships numbered 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, of ranges 10, 11, 12 and 13. February 5, 1836, townships 5, 6, 7 and 8 were taken from it to form the pres- ent county of Newton. (q. v.). Its interests are almost exclusively agricultural. It has one railroad the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City, which has recently been completed, and now traverses the county from north to south. It is a county of farms and small settlements. The county seat is Philadelphia which is located on a picturesque site, near the center of the county. It is an incor- porated town of 700 inhabitants. A few of the other villages are Dixon, Emmet, Centralia, Trussell, Waneta, Northbend, Neshoba, Cushtusa, McDonald, Burnside and Pilgrim. The county is well watered by the Pearl River and the numerous tributary creeks which form its head streams. It is an undulating and hilly region with level reaches along the river and creek bottoms. The soil varies a good deal in composition ; it is fertile on the bottoms, fairly good on the rolling lands and sandy and light in the hills, with a clay subsoil. The timber growth consists of oaks, pine, hickory, black walnut, beech and cypress. The products are those com- mon to the central parts of Mississippi ; corn, cotton, oats, wheat, peas, sweet and Irish potatoes, sorghum, and a large quantity of fruits and vegetables raised for home consumption. Large beds of green sand marls have been found in the county and there are numerous "reed brakes." Considerable attention of late years has been given to raising live stock and the industry has assumed con- siderable proportions. The value of the live stock in 1900 was con- siderably over $400,000. Since the advent of the new railroad the county has developed rapidly.
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