USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II > Part 47
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quire) such matters and things as from time to time he shall be advised & instructed by a Committee to be elected and chosen on the same prefixed day which agent and committee we wish to con- tinue during the will and pleasure of their constituents & no longer." The petition went on to specify the particulars of the proposed election, leaving names and dates blank. (Pub. Miss. Hist. Soc., III, 283.)
The narration on pages 140-41 of Ellicott's Journal is appar- ently his description of the proceedings before the permanent committee in regard to this petition. "A few days after the gov- ernor's departure for New Orleans, Mr. Hutchins came to the house I occupied, and requested my aid in dissolving the perma- nent committee, which was then in session, and to let the principal power be lodged in his hands and that of another committee, which he would have elected." Ellicott declined to do this and at a later date went to considerable pains to justify this action by finding proof that Hutchins was in receipt of a British pension. Hutchins then went into the hall of the house where the committee was in session, and according to Ellicott there was a stormy interview. "After a few preliminary observations," the Colonel told the mem- bers "they were no committee, that they were dissolved and he would direct the election of another," etc., and Judge Bruin made a spirited response, in which he brought up the Colonel's war rec- ord. Daniel Clark's description is that Hutchins took the posi- tion that the committee "were irregularly called together, that their proceedings were vicious, and that he alone was possessed of the power of the people; and, as their organ, came into the room where the committee was in session, stamped on the floor, Cromwell like, and pronounced ‘that they were dis- solved, and they were accordingly dissolved.'" All this followed, two committees, and their rivalries, Clark wrote in 1800, "as it only sprung from an ebullition of ill humor on both sides, I thought its effects were long since laughed away." (Letter to W. C. C. Claiborne.)
"Immediately after this," says Ellicott, "Mr. Hutchins applied to Captain Minor, and obtained permission to have another com- mittee elected." As completed, the petition asked for an election September 2, and a list of election officers was given, for each of ten beats or districts, as follows: Andrew Beall, St. Catherines ; Thomas Burling, Second Creek lower; Joseph Howard, Second Creek upper and Sandy Creek; Landon Davis, Homochitto; John Collins, Buffalo; Elisha Hunter, Bayou Sara; Charles Boardman, Pine ridge and Fairchild's; Parker Carradine, Villa Gayoso; John Burnet, Bayou Pierre and Big Black, David Ferguson, Natchez. The returns were to be counted by A. Ellicott, Adam Bingaman and John Girault, "or an two of them."
Captain Minor ordered the election accordingly, after a week's consideration.
Yellow fever was prevalent in July, and Ellicott, after losing one of his assistants and several of his men, moved with his sick
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to a famous spring on St. Catherine's, where he made the survey and plat of the town of Washington. There he remained until the latter part of September.
Col. Hutchins sent out an address to the "Planters, Mechanics and Laborers," August 18, urging the election of a new commit- tee, and professing it was not intended to interfere with the per- manent committee, which he claimed "was intended only to pro- mote the peace of the country." The permanent committee passed some resolutions in regard to the election August 28, which Hutchins answered in a circular letter next day, saying the com- mittee was playing the tyrant. He characterized the permanent committee as implicated in some sort of "infernal plans" against the "common privileges"; that the inhabitants were in danger of being enslaved. "They will soon protest away your property, your privileges and your lives also." Contractor Cochran appears to have written a letter to Col. Bruin, for use in the campaign, that particularly enraged Hutchins.
Six of the districts protested against the election, because it "in- volved the seeds of anarchy," and contempt of the regular perma- nent committee; because by the terms of the election many citizens were made ineligible to election; because persons of eighteen years of age were permitted to vote, etc. From four dis- tricts Hutchins received returns, which he and the four members- elect opened as a returning board. Mr. Claiborne says "there was a very general turnout in the various beats, notwithstanding the active opposition of Ellicott, who declared he would consider all persons who took part in it as enemies of the United States." Lieutenant Pope, it appears, sent a circular by an orderly to the Homochitto district deprecating an opposition to the permanent committee, and saying "This can't be permitted." Ellicott says that by subsequent informal election and petition three more mem- bers were added. Claiborne, who names neither of the previous committees in full, gives the following membership: Thomas Green, James Stuart, Chester Ashley, Anthony Hoggatt (the four first elected), Landon Davis, Justice King, Abner Green (mak- ing the seven), John Shaw and Daniel Burnet.
This matter of the election, etc., is discussed in Claiborne's his- tory, pp. 173-77, and in Ellicott's Journal, pp. 141-48, wherein is presented Ellicott's theory that Hutchins was acting in associa- tion with the "Blount conspiracy," of which Ellicott and the per- manent committee were not advised by the government until September.
This was the origin of the "Committee of Safety and Corre- spondence." No agent was elected by the people, and this com- mittee selected Col. Hutchins.
The committee of safety prepared a "petition and memorial" to congress in duplicate, written by Hutchins, to which 425 signa- tures were obtained. In the same period, Chairman Bernard appealed to Ellicott for protection against a body of forty armed men, said to be approaching from Bayou Pierre, at the same time
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stating that the inhabitants of Cole's creek were in ill humor and threatening to arm.
A copy of the memorial which had been forwarded to the Span- ish minister at Philadelphia by way of New Orleans, Ellicott says, was intercepted and brought to Ellicott and Benoist, who made a copy and sent it by special messenger to the secretary of state also forwarding the intercepted packet to its destination. The other copy was entrusted to Daniel Burnet, who was paid $300 by Hutchins to carry the document to congress. November 20, according to his affidavit before Alcalde Vousdan, when he was on the road near the house of Thomas Calvit, James Truly and Silas S. Payne compelled him to give up the papers. Com- plaints were formally made to the governor by Burnet, Hutchins and Ebenezer Dayton, but Minor refused to interfere. Ellicott protests that this proceeding was against his orders, and as he had already seen the document he returned the package unopened to Mr. Hutchins and his committee, "who, to the best of my knowledge never met afterward." Burnet carried the memorial to Philadelphia.
Colonel Hutchins, in his communications to the secretary of state, refers to documents being sent by James Stuart and Dr. Thomas Hutchins. The colonel's health would not permit his making the journey. When it was thought he would go, his horses were taken at Cole's creek.
Accompanying the memorial was a letter from Colonel Hutchins expressing dire apprehensions, making various accusations against Ellicott, Daniel Clark, William Dunbar, and Benoist, and giving a report that Governor Matthews and Judge Miller, agents of the Yazoo company, lately arrived, were to be made governor and judge of the territory. He called the permanent committee, "the Committee for Peace and Cooperation with the Spanish govern- ment.
The secretary of state actually did receive the memorial from Ellicot's messenger, and reported the fact to the president, before the messenger of the Hutchins committee arrived. "One object of the memorial," he said, "seems to be to criminate the conduct of the American commissioner, Mr. Ellicott, and the commander of the troops, Captain Pope. But proofs accompany Mr. Ellicott's communications that this part of the long memorial was concealed from many who subscribed it, and other testimonies in vindica- tion of these officers. The exhibition of these documents, I have thought, might also be suspended until the ‘petition and me- morial' were presented to congress. It may, however, be proper to remark that the memorial, as well as the proceedings of the regularly appointed permanent committee, view the actual estab- lishment of a government at the Natchez, under the authority of the United States, as to take place only when its present neutral- ity shall cease; that is, when the Spanish jurisdiction shall be withdrawn." Therefore the secretary urged that congress should, before adjournment, provide a form of government.
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Thus this political skirmish aided in calling the attention of the government to the urgent necessities of the situation, as well as laid the foundations of the politics of the Territory soon to be. Those who -supported Hutchins found favor with the party in opposition to the Adams administration, and came into full power in the great political revolution of 1801, when Thomas Jefferson became president.
Meanwhile, to return to Natchez, the permanent committee took some action, apparently, about communicating with congress Au- gust 29, which they rescinded September 13, and requested Elli- cott "to present our present situation" to the president, and "like- wise all measures which he shall deem conducive to the future welfare of this country." He prepared a memorial asking for an extension to the country by congress, when the United States should take possession, of a government similar to that provided for the Northwest territory, with evidently, in his own mind at least, such considerations as influenced the eminent Virginians who were mainly responsible for that territorial charter. One ex- ception he recommended, that slavery should not be prohibited. Congress was also asked to protect settlers on the old British grants against loss of their homes and lands. It was recommended that vacant lands be sold in tracts to accommodate actual settlers. This document, with the approval of the permanent committee, was transmitted to the general government.
Extracts from the two memorials, by Ellicott and Hutchins, approved by the two committees, are presented in parallel in the monograph, "Transition from Spanish to American Rule," (Miss. Hist. Soc., III) and the conclusion is correct that the two docu- ments "differ very slightly in their recommendations upon the four questions which were of vital importance to the people. The fact is, Ellicott had greatly the advantage of Colonel Hutchins, his antagonist, in literary ability and in official prestige. as well as having an intimate personal acquaintance with many of the officials at the seat of government." The comment by Mr. Claiborne (Mississippi, p. 176), says Mr. Riley, would apply with equal if not greater force to the report of the permanent commit- tee.
Col. Hutchins made a political issue of opposition to a govern- ment like that of the Northwest territory, which he represented to his friends as a condition of slavery. Both recommended that slavery be not prohibited, as in the Northwest territory; both urged that the lands be disposed of in small tracts to actual set- tlers, but Ellicott recommended that it be "freely given" and Hutchins that it be sold at a "moderate price;" both agreed re- garding the land titles.
Commandant Minor, on September 16, recognized the Perma- nent committee as "the true and sole representatives of the inhabi- tants of this government," but both committees seem to have met from time to time, until the Spanish evacuation, the perma- nent committee in town and the Committee of Safety at Bealk's.
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Hutchins continued to ask his fellow citizens, "For Heaven's sake will you tell me who made that gentleman a ruler or a judge amongst you ; how came he to be your oracle?" and to urge the great danger in which the community was found. The exchange of diplomacy between the Spanish minister and secretary of state went on without interruption, and the Ellicott survey party waited, the astronomer being confined to his home with fever from September until January, 1798.
The policy of the United States government, menaced by a sit- uation which culminated next year in the proclamation of a day of national fasting and prayer and the calling of George Wash- ington to take command of the armies of the United States in a threatened war with Napoleon and the nations he controlled, including Spain, was revealed in the expressions of the message of President Adams, November, 1797: "Indulging the hope that the answers which have been given will remove the objections offered by the Spanish officers to the immediate execution of the treaty, I have judged it proper we should continue in readiness to receive the posts and to run the line of limits."
In November formal notice was received that his Catholic Ma- jesty had appointed Col. Charles de Grand Pré, well remembered as the commandant after the revolt of 1781, as governor of the Natchez district. This was utterly beyond the patience of the inhabitants, and the permanent committee justified its being by adopting resolutions declaring that Grand Pré would not be re- ceived in such a capacity. Captain Pope prepared to maintain this declaration of independence. Gayoso was admonished that to carry the order into effect would be a breach of neutrality. Ac- cordingly Grand Pré remained at New Orleans, and Capt. Minor continued to discharge the duties of commandant. "One of the letters from Col. Grandprie (Grand Pré) to Mr. Hutchins passed through my hands," says Ellicott. A letter of Colonel Hutchins to Governor Gayoso (July 21, 1798) describes the protest against Grand Pré as the work of "vagabonds, swaggering about with guns, threatening death and destruction to Governor Grand Pré should he presume to land here to take charge of the post, bel- lowing at large that the voice of the inhabitants were against him, when to the contrary all except Minor & Ellicott's horrid party rejoiced to hear that he was on his way to supersede the grand impostor [Minor] you left here on your departure."
It was about this time (Ellicott says in the beginning of De- cember) that Capt. Isaac Guion arrived from Fort Massac and Chickasaw Bluffs, with a detachment of troops, after the same sort of delays that had met Ellicott and Pope. It is proper to note that the comments by Mr. Claiborne upon his instructions are erroneous so far as they are construed as reflecting upon the commissioner of limits. The documents quoted by Mr. Claiborne were based upon Ellicott's despatches of the early part of April, which reached the seat of government in June, and the informa- tion contained in those despatches were confirmed from all parts
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of the west. The department did not need what Mr. Claiborne calls "Ellicott's false and mischievous statements," to "apprehend a rupture with Spain." But the instructions of the secretary of war to Gen. Wilkinson were of course (July 25, 1797, Claiborne, p. 188) to go ahead as if no reason were known for checking the survey, and throw the onus of hostility on the Spanish." In the meantime it is our duty to guard against surprise and intrigues, and do nothing that would justify any nation in bringing war on this country." The secretary of war knew nothing about the rev- olution in Natchez when he wrote this. Nobody knew better how to guard against intrigues than Wilkinson, and he understood perfectly what intrigues were meant, those of the Spanish, Brit- ish and French.
Captain Guion's instructions from Wilkinson, dated May 20, when the events following Ellicott's arrival were unknown to the general, were that Guion would find at Natchez "an extensive, opulent and polished community, agitated by a variety of politi- cal interests and opinions. It will be your duty to conciliate all parties to the government of our country by every means in your power, avoiding at the same time any just cause of offense to the Spaniards. The occasion will call for the exertion of all your fac- ulties, for this unfortunate people, who have no option in choos- ing or changing masters. The moment the Spanish dominion terminates they will find themselves without laws or magistrates, and the bonds of society being dissolved, more or less irregular- ities may ensue. The doubtful tenure by which they hold their lands may become a dangersous element of agitation in the hands of the enemies of our country, and may be possibly employed to persuade them to a usurpation of the right of self-government. You may safely promise fair and profess much, to gain time and avert excess. It will be your duty to abstract yourself from all personal feuds and animosities, but you are to give unequivocal protection to the friends of our government and as unequivocally to discountenance those who oppose its interest." The general's reference to self-government, it may be imagined, means such self-government, in independence of the United States, that he had, a few years before, been intriguing for in Kentucky, under the direction of the Spanish governor.
As Guion found the district, though there were personal fueds and animosities, its loyalty to the United States was assured and anarchy was prevented by the wise organization of the perma- nent committee, supported by Capt. Pope. The important work covered by his instructions had been well done, and even the hos- tile elements had worked to the common end of self-government under the American flag and congress.
Benoist congratulated Guion on his arrival, and asked of him the same cooperation as Pope had given, saying "that the Perma- nent Committee may be considered the guardians whose duty it is to watch over and preserve the advantages gained by the convention." But Guion took an attitude of hostility to what
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had been accomplished. Writing from Chickasaw Bluffs, August 24, before his arrival at Natchez, he censured Captain Pope for giving "displeasure to the Spanish authorities," and advised Gay- oso that he had done so. After his arrival he ignored Ellicott and treated the permanent committee with contempt. Visiting their place of meeting, he demanded of Gaillard by what authority they met, declared that their meetings were improper and seditious, that they should consider themselves dissolved, that he was not to be made a cipher of, and he would rule the district with a rod of iron. He and Gaillard seem to have had a warm moment to- gether (Ellicott's Journal, 162-63). Ellicott says that Narsworthy Hunter, and Col. George Matthews, of Georgia, were prominent supporters of a movement to introduce a military government, under Captain Guion. Matthews had in 1795 been governor of Georgia and signed the legislative bills of sale of all this region, known as the "Yazoo Fraud." He came down to the Natchez by the Tennessee river in September, and introduced a new element of uncertainty by claiming the country for one of the organizations based on the fraudulent transaction that his State had repudiated. But he kindly proposed to leave those inhabitants undisturbed who could show good title from the Spanish government.
Mr. Claiborne's comment regarding the close of this period, is: "As soon as Gayoso ascertained that the United States had sent an officer of rank and character to Natchez, with a sufficient force to repress any invasion of Louisiana, or any outbreak of or inter- ference with the Indians, he gave notice that immediate measures would be taken for the evacuation, and that he would do all in his power to facilitate the operations on the line of demarkation." Gayarre, on the other hand, says: "Guion's liberality and the amiableness of his deportment towards the Spaniards did not seem to accelerate their movements and to procure their desired removal from the forts Panmure and Nogales, so that Guion him- self, becoming impatient, declared that he would not wait further than the 1st of April, 1799 [undoubtedly 1798 is meant] and would then attack the forts." (History of La., III, 391.)
It is possible that Gayoso may have made the same explanation of the evacuation as appears in Mr. Claiborne's history. The real reason, of course, is to be found in the European situation. While Yrujo and Pickering were still exchanging notes in January, 1798, the Spaniard complaining bitterly against the bad faith of the United States in regard to British navigation of the Mississippi, and the "scandalous" and "insulting" conduct of Ellicott and Pope, and the secretary of state defending the honor of his country and its representatives, Governor Gayoso, at New Orleans, received orders from court, January 10, to evacuate the forts at Natchez and Nogales, and permit the survey of the line. This information reached Natchez January 18, when, for the first time, the inhabi- tants were absolutely assured that without a war their homes fell within the territory of the United States. But the forts were not
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evacuated until the latter part of March, and the Spanish were not ready for the survey until April.
In the latter part of January, 1798, Thomas M. Green, chair- man of the Committee of Safety, on the ground of general cor- roboration of "his own serious apprehensions respecting the pros- pect of sedition, insurrections and robberies after the fort shall be evacuated," called a meeting of his committee February 5, at Belk's.
February 1, the Permanent Committee addressed Guion, saying that "as the purposes for which this Committee was chosen will, we trust, be soon accomplished, by the removal of the Spanish jurisdiction, we have nothing now to hope, but that our executive will make an early provision for our future government, yet, as it is possible, some interval may happen, between the recess of the former and the establishment of the latter, we wish to know from you, sir, if in that case you are authorized to exercise civil authority among us. Such a power must reside somewhere, and should you not be invested with it by your instructions, we shall feel it a duty attached to our situation, to recommend some meas- ures to our constituents (by our final dissolution) which we think calculated to preserve the peace and happiness of the inhabitants." They requested and hoped that he would support whatever form of temporary government should be adopted.
The Committee of Safety (Thomas M. Green, Abner Green, Hugh Davis, James Stuart and Anthony Hoggat) met on the date above assigned. Their resolutions, drawn by Col. Hutchins, were that the state of neutrality continued until Natchez was evacuated; that the inhabitants had maintained neutrality notwithstanding the provocations by "the coalition and conspiracy between the titular governor [Minor], the committee formed to cooperate with the Spanish officer [ Permanent committee], Mr. Ellicott the com- missioner, and a few other designing persons." They protested against the establishment of a government under the ordinance of 1787 as against the will of the inhabitants, accused Capt. Minor of unwarrantable conduct, repudiated any agreement that Elli- cott might have made with the Georgia agents, and recommended the inhabitants, to prevent feuds and felonies and anarchy, to meet at Belk's February 26, to elect another committee. The people were particularly exhorted regarding "the absurdity of the claims of Georgia to the lands of this government," and the dan- ger of their assertion as opening the way to British claims.
But, during these interesting periods of transition, the powers of civil government were exercised neither by the Permanent com- mittee, the Committee of Safety, nor by Capt. Isaac Guion; but "El Capitan Don Estevan Minor, exerciendo funcciones de Gober- nador y subdelegado de real Hacienda en la Plaza de Natchez," continued, up to the evacuation, to hear lawsuits, render judg- ments, and administer the civil jurisdiction, under the direction of Don Juan Ventura Morales, intendant of Louisiana and West Florida. The Spanish records of the Natchez District show the
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apparently uncontested exercise of Minor's authority in many cases as late as March, 198, also a vigorous protest made in February, by Ebenezer Dayton, the tanner, against the lawful jurisdiction of the Spanish commandant, on the ground that Spanish authority had ceased upon ratification of the treaty of 1795. For this rea- son, said Dayton, he had for a long time been unable to sue his debtors and he conceived it would be a hardship to be oppressed by his creditors by authority of this "usurped jurisdiction." But it does not appear that this protest interfered with the operations of the trustees appointed to adjust Mr. Dayton's affairs.
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