Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 52

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1032

USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II > Part 52

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Poindexter served in three Congresses as Territorial delegate. In January, 1811, when Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts, debating the bill for the admission of Orleans territory as the State of Lou- isiana, said, "I am compelled to declare it as my deliberate opin- ion that if this bill passes, the bonds of this Union are virtually dissolved; that the States which compose it are free from their moral obligations; and that, as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, to prepare definitely for a separation- amicably if they can, violently if they must," he was called to order by Mr. Poindexter, delegate from Mississippi territory. Mr. Quincy reduced his words to writing, and Poindexter demanded that the speaker decide if such language could be permitted in debate. The speaker sustained the gentleman from Mississippi, but the House, by a vote of 56 to 53 refused to sustain the speaker. When Qunicy concluded, Poindexter replied, and in the course of his remarks said that Aaron Burr did not go the length that the gentleman from Massachusetts had gone. "Had such expressions been established by the evidence on his trial, I hazard an opinion that it would have produced a very different result. Perhaps, sir, instead of exile, he would have been consigned to a gibbet."

"He was the friend of the general course of measures adopted under the administrations of Jefferson and Madison, and frequently took a conspicuous part in debates in defence of their measures. His speech made in defence of President Madison for dismissing Francis James Jackson, minister from Great Britain, who super- seded Mr. Erskine, after Mr. Canning disavowed the act of the minister in suspending the Orders in Council, has been published and it attracted much attention at the time: this speech was con- sidered to be the best defence that was then made of that measure of Mr. Madison." As a delegate in 1812 he could not vote for war,

440

MISSISSIPPI

but moved to insert in the journal of congress the approval of that policy and his constituents. He served one session thereafter, and then was appointed one of the Territorial judges, by President Madison.

After the British fleet arrived in Mississippi sound and troops were landed below New Orleans, Judge Poindexter went to that city, arriving December 29, 1814, and became one of the military family of Gen. Carroll, of Tennessee, performing duty day and night as a volunteer aide-de-camp, and witnessed two attempts by the British to break the American line. The last, the famous battle of January 8, 1815, was an assault delivered against the American earthworks, stretching across a neck of land between river and morass, and covered by the American gunboats. The American troops were in the trenches, and all took to cover when the British artillery fire opened in the morning. Poindexter appears to have been injured by a cannon ball that struck his quarters, and having no duty to perform, he rode out of the line of fire, but later re- turned and was in the works until attack ceased. Soon afterward it was published by Poindexter's political opponents, in Marschalk's paper, that in the moment of danger he rode back to New Or- leans. It was remarked in his defence that there was no collision of troops, no battle except of artillery, and "the poor creatures" who made up this story "might have been fully justified in certi- fying that they saw the regiment of cavalry, commanded by the gallant and intrepid Hinds, repair to the forests to be out of the range of the shot of the enemy." He was followed by the story all through his political career. Another incident of his New Or- leans experience is that he was the authority for the story that the British had a countersign, "Beauty or Booty," which many de- clared at the time, and probably with justice, to be an invention.

He remained upon the bench until October, 1817, and in this as in other positions gained the approval of a majority of the people. "As a judge he was able, prompt, impartial, unrivaled in talent, and, at the same time, unsurpassed by any lawyer in the State in legal learning." (Sparks.) He administered sternly and without favor to malefactors the punishments of the day, hanging, brand- ing, whipping and the pillory, though he considered these punish- ments barbarous and when governor, earnestly advocated the es- tablishment of a penitentiary.

The whole bar, with one exception, signed an address, when he left the bench, in which it was said: "You have introduced a sys- tem of practice into our courts, and preserved an order and decor- um in the despatch of business, the beneficial effects of which have been felt in all classes of society." In 1817 also, he was the lead- ing member of the constitutional convention, chairman of the com- mittee of Twenty-one, and the constitution "may, without injus- tice to others, be said to have been shaped almost entirely by the hand of Mr. Poindexter." The instrument is remarkable for sim- plicity, clearness, brevity, and proper scope, viz: the statement of fundamental principles and institutions, leaving details to leg-

441

MISSISSIPPI

islation. In the same year Mr. Poindexter was elected by the peo- ple without opposition, as their first representative in congress with a vote as well as a voice. At the session of 1818-19 the ex- citing topic of discussion was the proposition to censure Gen. An- drew Jackson for his recent capture of the Spanish forts at St. Marks and Pensacola, and the execution of English traders. Poin- dexter warmly sustained his friend Jackson in a speech of great length, that was warmly applauded, and considered the authorita- tive defense of the general. Declining reelection to congress in 1819, he was elected governor of Mississippi over Gen. Hinds, by a large majority, though Hinds was the Mississippi hero of New Orleans, and his friends made the story of Poindexter's alleged flight from the field an important issue. While he was yet gover- nor, in February, 1821, he was intrusted by the legislature with the revision and amendment of the statutes of the State, which he had strongly urged should be done. His work includes a complete cod- ification of existing laws and the preparation of new ones,, the organization of the judiciary system, etc. He included and put through the legislature by sheer force of intellect, laws that he had determined upon, particularly the one creating a State school fund, called the "literary fund," in which he took more pride ap- parently, than any other. The legislature met in special session in June, 1822, to pass upon the code, and adopted it with some amendments. There was particular discussion of the propositions to make void runaway matches with girls under fourteen; to make the truth no justification of libel unless the publication was with good intent; to punish a white man found in an assemblage of slaves with a fine of $20 or twenty lashes on the bare back, without a right of jury. The printing of the book of 745 pages was not completed by Francis Baker, at Natchez, until 1824. In this work Gov. Poindexter was assisted by his private secretary, William Burns, who was paid by the State after the governor's term expired. The governor himself was allowed $1,200, which was drawn by Burns, and the governor contended that he received no compensation. The legislature presented him with a copy of Rees' Encyclopedia, in recognition of his services. Of this code Gov. A. G. Brown said in 1847 that it was the best the State "has ever had, and equal to that of any State in the Union."

His term as governor had expired in January, 1822, and he sought and obtained election to the house of representatives that passed upon his code, that he might explain and defend it. But then misfortune laid its hand upon him. Before the session was well under way, he had news of the illness of his year-old son, who died before he could reach home. He announced himself for con- gress, but was bitterly opposed by David Dickson and others. The tavern law and libel law were argued against him; Rankin was credited with securing a postponement of payments for public land, and just before election the story was sprung that the new code prohibited slaves from attending divine worship. At the elec- tion in August he received only 2,633 votes to 4,837 for Rankin.

442

MISSISSIPPI

September 10 his young wife, twenty-four years of age, passed away. For a time he gave no more attention to politics, but bus- ied himself with the practice of law. "While thus engaged," says his authorized biography, "he became afflicted with severe indis- position, occasioned by the unskillful administration of medicine by his family physician. He lost the use of his limbs, and for five or six years he was unable to attend to business, public or private." General Jackson recommended his appointment as United States judge to succeed Shields in 1823; he was tendered and declined appointment by the governor to the United States senate; while under medical treatment in Philadelphia was appointed chancellor in 1828, which he declined; in 1829, having returned to the State, he wrote the speaker of the house of representatives of Missis- sippi declining election to the United State senate, but received a large vote. In 1830 he left Mississippi, with little hope of recovery, but found unexpected relief while at Louisville, and the news of this in Mississippi caused the governor to tender him appointment as senator, upon the death of Robert H. Adams. After much hes- itation he accepted, and appeared in the senate chamber at Wash- ington in December, 1830, being carried to his seat in the arms of his servant. The legislature, meeting about this time, confirmed the governor's appointment by an almost unanimous election.

John A. Quitman met him at Charlottesville in 1831, and wrote to J. F. H. Claiborne : "He is a man of extraordinary intellectual powers. You knew him from your childhood, and I do not now wonder at your risking your popularity to support him. He has fascinated me. How is it that his private character is so bad. Why do we hear so much said against him in Adams county? His intemperance, his gambling, his libertinism, and his dishon- esty? He gives no indications of these defects, and he is here, where he once resided, taken by the hand by the first people and followed by the crowd."

His message as governor, in the exciting period of the Missouri discussion, had shown his views on "state rights." In 1821 he said : "A confederacy of States, each independent within its sphere of action, united by the strong cords of interest and safety, and by solemn compact pledged to each other for the common defence and general welfare of the whole; with a constitution deriving its origin from these considerations and limited, by the written will of those from whom it emanated, to purposes in which all are alike interested, and conferring powers sufficiently comprehensive to enforce and maintain domestic order and tranquility and a due respect for our rights among the nations of the earth-a union thus constructed, having for its support the affections and con- fidence of a free people, cannot be severed by the jarrings of dis- cordant factions, or the combined efforts of all tyrants who wield with despotic sway the physical strength of Europe."

In 1819 he had said: "I too, am a conservator of the Constitu- tion ; I venerate that stupendous fabric of human wisdom. I admonish gentlemen, who manifest such ardent zeal to fortify

443

MISSISSIPPI

the powers of this house against military usurpations, that they do not suffer that zeal to precipitate them into an error equally repugnant to a sound construction of the Constitution." He cited the action of Washington in drawing money from the treasury without authority of law to suppress the insurrection of 1794, and denied the power of congress to censure Jackson, who was subject only to the orders of the president, as commander-in-chief of the army. He declared that these gentlemen who assailed the general were the same who had opposed the renewal of the charter of the old Bank of the United States, as unconstitutional, and later aided in establishing "the mammoth bank, which threatens to sweep with the besom of destruction every other moneyed institution in the nation into the gulf of ruin and bankruptcy."

But at the time of Poindexter's coming to the senate, there was a new alignment, created by the subtle genius of John C. Calhoun. Trouble began between Jackson and Calhoun on, account of the revelation that the South Carolinian had been a secret enemy in the day when Poindexter was a friend. But the new alignment made Poindexter desert Jackson for Calhoun at this juncture. Always a fighter, the great Mississippian's nature was intensified by the torture of illness and heart-breaking misfortune. Now he chose no mean antagonist, but entered the list against the foremost man of America.

His trouble with Jackson began over the federal appointment's, There was no such portentous assumption of senatorial "patron- age" as now flourishes. Poindexter simply asked that Mississip- pians be appointed to the offices within the State. In 1831 Major Dowsing and Hanson Alsbury asked appointment to the office of surveyor-general. Jackson appointed his nephew, S. D. Hays, of Tennessee, whereupon Poindexter secured the defeat of the nomination by the senate. The president arranged it by promoting Fitz from the land office and appointing Hays to the latter vacancy. There was great irritation among the politicians over the neglect of Mississippians in the appointments in connection with the In- dian treaties and removals. But the great fight was over the ap- pointment of Samuel Gwin, of Tennessee, to a land office in Mis- sissippi. Poindexter said he tried to conciliate Jackson, at the same time insisting that the office should go to a Mississippian, but the president insisted. Gwin was rejected and then all inter- course between the president and senator ceased, Poindexter com- plaining that Jackson was extremely intemperate in his language and grossly vituperative. The purpose of Jackson to make Van- Buren his successor, closing the door in the faces of some eminent Southern statesman, was the heart of the fight. When the Clem- ents letter was sprung in the senate, to defeat the nomination of VanBuren as minister to England, Poindexter and Gabriel Moore were accused of having bought it of an intriguer.

In 1831 it was talked in the State that he had "deserted the Jackson cause." In a letter to Gen. Dickson he said that he must be loyal to principle and the rights of his constituents. "I cannot

444

MISSISSIPPI

consent to worship men; I bow only at the shrine of principles ; and when these are departed from by any man in power, be he Jackson, Calhoun, Clay, or any one else, I depart from him, so far as his actions conflict with the good of the country and the rights of my constituents.'

He opposed protection of domestic manufactures as being at the expense of the Southern system of industry; supported the bill for the distribution of proceeds of all sales of public lands among all the States ; advocated the extreme doctrine of State sovereignty ; supported John C. Calhoun and nullification against President Jackson, and opposed the power of national coercion, which he had supported in President Madison's case when New England was the seat of proposed nullification. One of his very ablest speeches was in opposition to the bill empowering the execution of the laws of the United States in this emergency, called the Force bill. "It was widely circulated, in connection with the speeches of Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Webster, throughout the Union, and was regarded as a vigorous and powerful defence of the rights reserved to the separ- ate States of the confederacy at the adoption of the federal consti- tution."

He took an important part in the debates on the United States bank, in opposition to President Jackson, and was the first to apply the name of "Kitchen cabinet" to the group of Jackson's friends and intimate advisers. Because of this the personal charges made against the senator in Mississippi were widely spread by his political opponents. They may be found amply stated in the his- tory of Mississippi, by J. F. H. Claiborne. Poindexter believed that the New Orleans story was revived at the instigation of the president himself. Subsequently, when the president sent to the senate a protest against its assumption of right to declare, his acts unconstitutional, Poindexter sprang to his feet and moved that the paper be not received. Near the close of this session (1834) Poin- dexter was honored with election as president pro tem. of the sen- ate. In 1832, when Calhoun retired from the chair, he had received 22 votes for the same honor, when it was considered probable that the casualty expected would cause the person chosen to become vice president of the United States.

Poindexter now stood for the great "vested rights," a reversal of his position when he had bitterly assailed the Bank of Missis- sippi as a monopoly. He now defended the United States bank, and its "besom of destruction."

The political issue of 1832 in Mississippi was mainly Poindexter and anti-Poindexter. Meetings were held under those titles. An anti-Poindexter meeting in Jefferson county, in March, presided over by Gen. Hinds, appointed delegates to a Jackson convention to be held at Monticello, and named J. C. Wilkins, Powhatan Ellis, D. W. Wright and Joshua Child as anti-Poindexter delegates to the Baltimore national convention.

Poindexter's view of the situation was given in his letter to Felix Huston, March 9, 1834 :

445

MISSISSIPPI

"The prospect before us is in the highest degree appalling and portentous. To sum up in a few words, all that I can tell you of this subject, you may set down the following postulata as certain. 1st. The deposits will not be restored to the Bank of the U. S. 2d. The bank will not be rechartered, or substituted by another chartered bank, during the existence of this adminis- tration. 3d. The State banks will receive a distributive share of the public revenue, in such proportions, and under such selections as may best contribute to the election of Martin VanBuren as the successor to the presidential chair. 4th. If the plan is successful the same policy will in future be preserved; combining the purse and the sword in the same hand, with the patronage of office and the veto power ; the whole government will at once be concentrated and wielded by the executive will, which, if submitted to by the people, must result in the overthrow of the checks and balances provided for in the constitution ; and thus the office of president will, from time to time, descend on any favorite who may be designated by the incumbent. The question now fairly submitted to the American people is an issue between Power and Liberty. The people must decide it for themselves, and if they do not in-, terpose to save themselves, usurpation will move on with giant strides to the climax of Ambition, Avarice and Despotism. At a very early period, after I took my seat in the senate, I saw indications which were satisfactory to my mind of the advances to arbitrary power; I resisted them, at the hazard of incurring the displeasure of my constituents, who were blinded by their en- thusiastic devotion to General Jackson. I have faithfully warned

. them. I have been led to believe that these warnings have had but little effect upon the public mind in Mississippi. Now that ruin must be the inevitable result of the recent measures of the executive on the great planting and commercial interests of Mississippi, I indulge the hope that their eyes will at length be opened, and that my course will be properly appreciated. I seek no popular favor, having nearly already exhausted myself in the public service, but I think it is due to candor and justice that my conduct here should be understood by the people whom I represent. I am decidedly in favor of Mr. Clay as the next president, altho' I may differ with him on some points of National policy."

The Washington Globe, in the fall of 1832, made a publication on which Niles' Register commented: "Two senators, Mr. John- ston, of Louisiana, and Mr. Poindexter, of Mississippi, have the offense of corruption imputed, because that, at one time or an- other, the sum of $46,000 had been borrowed by them [of the United States bank, by Mr. P., $10,000] a small comparative amount, being less than the annual product of the crops raised by these gentlemen and perfectly within their means of repay- ment."

After the attempt of Lawrence to assassinate President Jack- son, in 1835, a plot was laid to involve Senator Poindexter. Affi-

446

MISSISSIPPI

davits were made by Foy and Stewart charging him with guilty knowledge or encouragement of the deed. Gen. Jackson was convinced that there was some truth in the charge. It is beyond belief that Poindexter was guilty of any direct implication; but he had said and written some imprudently bitter things that might have suggested the deed to a man of unbalanced mind. In so far as he stooped to malevolence in his public utterances, he was continually sowing the seeds of tragedy. When Senator Poindexter was reported dead in 1837, the Washington corre- spondent of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: "As a man of talent, he had but few equals in the United States. His education was finished and classical; his reading was extensive and varied; there was not a subject in the sciences, literature, history or politics, with which he was not familiar. In his private intercourse with his friends he was distinguished for the kindness and blandness of his deportment; toward those whom he esteemed his enemies he was implacable and unappeasable. He pursued his foes to the margin of their graves; was ever ready in seeking re- venge, and whilst in pursuit of it scorned all compromises and set concessions at defiance. As a statesman he would have held a place in the affairs of the country second to that enjoyed by no man, but for the irascibility and impetuosity of his temperament. As a public speaker he was not distinguished for the elegance of his elocution; but his sarcasm and invective were never sur- passed. His forte lay in these qualities, and in that wild and de- liberate torrent of denunciation which withers and blasts all before it." At public dinners given him, he was hailed as "Old Ironsides of Mississippi." Some of his constituents greeted him as having "A fame not inferior to that of Calhoun and Leigh, and a name equalled only by those of Webster and Preston, of Clay and Tyler, your great compeers in the senate." He desired re- election to the senate, and the issue was between him and Robert J. Walker in 1835, for the election of a legislature. After a mem- orable campaign he was defeated. In November, 1836, he was severely injured by falling from the second floor of the Mansion house, at Natchez, to the pavement outside.

In April, 1838, Mr. Poindexter left Mississippi. He was ten- dered a public dinner at Natchez by a number of prominent citi- zens, headed by George Winchester, and in accepting he said he had no regrets for the battle he had fought. He had appealed to the people, and found that "the overwhelming influence of the popular idol of the day could not be overcome by the stone and the sling, the simple weapons of patriotism and of truth." Hence he felt himself blameless for "withdrawing to a higher latitude" and taking up. his residence "among a people who have not forgotten that the price of liberty is eternal vigil- ance over the acts of their public servants." He removed to Louisville; but he was too advanced in years for a successful change of surroundings, with that commanding position that he had grown to expect. After an appointment by President Tyler

447

MISSISSIPPI

to investigate the frauds in the New York custom house, he re- turned to Mississippi, and participated in the political campaign of 1841, in support of the Whig ticket on the issue of maintaining the financial faith of the State. In this he was again defeated.

In February, 1847, Mr. Poindexter tendered Gov. Brown for the State a portrait of himself, painted some years earlier, which now hangs in the Mississippi Hall of Fame. In this he was "actu- ated by no sentiment of personal vanity, nor by any feeling of ambition or political aspiration, all of which I have outlived, and merged in the single desire for the prosperity and glory of my country." In accepting the gift Gov. Brown wrote: "If it be a source of pleasure to a retired statesman to know that his past services are not forgotten, no man has more cause to be pleased than yourself. Mississippi will long cherish your memory. Your genius gave stability to her laws, and your eloquence commanded the respect and admiration of her sister States; and in accepting the portrait you have been pleased to offer, I should withhold the expression of an honest opinion, and do injustice, I think, to a grateful people, if I did not say, that the real man will continue to live in the hearts of his countrymen long after this canvass rep- resentation shall have passed away."

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 52

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association Number of Pages: 1032

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1032