USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II > Part 75
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The following statistics were taken from the twelfth United States census and relate to farms, manufactures and population : Number of farms 2,083, acreage in farms 236,061, acres improved 70,943, value of the land exclusive of buildings $599,310, value of
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buildings $330,910, value of live stock $376,662, total value of products not fed to stock $687,820. Number of manufactures 28, capital invested $85,570, wages paid $12,695, cost of materials used $44,461, total value of products $86,047. The population in 1900 consisted of whites 8,107, colored 6,209, total 14,316, increase of 2,576 over the year 1890. The population in 1906 was estimated at 16,000 which shows a prosperous growth. The total assessed val- uation of real and personal property in Scott county in 1905 was $1,681,235 and in 1906 it was $2,828,525 showing an increase of $1,147,290 during the year.
Scranton, the old county seat of Jackson county, which was recently incorporated with Pascagoula under the name of Pas- cagoula, was named for the important city of Scranton in Penn- sylvania. It was known far and wide for many years as Mis- sissippi's only seaport, and does an enormous lumber manufac- turing and shipping business. The city is a thriving station on the Louisville & Nashville R. R., located immediately on the Gulf, and the Federal Government has expended over a half million dollars making a ship canal from Horn Island Harbor into the Pas- cagoula river, at whose mouth it is situated. The Pascagoula river and its tributaries drain some thirteen counties of the State and af- ford the means of outlet and transportation for the logs and timber of all these counties. The port here is the distributing point for this immense output of timber, and the annual product of the mills in this neighborhood approximates 100,000,000 feet of lumber, which is shipped from here to all parts of the world. The city, in- cluding old Pascagoula, contains about 4,000 inhabitants, while in its immediate vicinity some 12,000 more people are congregated. It is a modern city in every sense of the word, equipped with tele- graph, telephone, express, electric lighting, waterworks and ample banking facilities. An electric road connects the city with Moss Point on the north, and beautiful shell drives extend from Scranton to the neighboring towns. The Federal census of 1900 credits the city with a number of large manufacturing establishments, whose output in the previous year was nearly a third of a million dollars. Its importance as a seaport will continue to grow with the development of the State. See Pascagoula.
Scutch, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Claiborne county, about 16 miles from Port Gibson, the county seat. The station of Utica is the nearest railroad and banking town.
Sears, Claudius W., was commissioned colonel of the 46th Mis- sissippi regiment, December 11, 1862, which became a part of Bald- win's brigade, of the army for the defense of Vicksburg. He and his men took part in the famous defeat of Sherman at Chickasaw Bayou, soon after the organization of the regiment, and repelled the Federal attacks at Fort Pemberton early in 1863. After fight- ing at Port Gibson May 1, they served in the trenches at Vicks- burg, through the siege. For several months following they were under parole, but on being exchanged the regiment was again on duty, and, upon the death of General Baldwin, early in 1864, Col-
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onel Sears was in command of the brigade. He was commissioned brigadier-general March 1, 1864. His brigade was the only part of the army under General Polk that reached Georgia, in the spring of 1864, in time to take part in the battle of Resaca. During the remainder of that campaign he was on active duty until the siege of Atlanta, when he was disabled by illness. He was distinguished at the battles of Allatoona and Franklin, under General Hood; commanded his brigade, under Forrest, in the siege of Murfrees- boro, and finally was with his men on the lines about Nashville, where, December 15, 1864, he was severely wounded, causing the loss of a leg, and was made a prisoner of war. On the close of hos- tilities Gen. Sears returned to his home in Mississippi.
Sebastopol, a post-hamlet in the extreme northeastern corner of Scott county, about 18 miles from Forest, the county seat. It has two churches and two stores. Population in 1900, 43.
Secession, 1860-61. For preliminary events, see the following administration articles : Matthews, Quitman, Guion-Whitfield, Foote, McRae, McWillie, and Pettus; also Constitutional Conven- tion of 1851, and Nashville Convention. See also Runnels Adm., and Bingaman, A. L.
The general causes which led up to the Secession movement and to the bold and decisive steps taken by the Southern States in 1860- 61, it is now possible to discuss without passion or prejudice. It is certainly true that for many years after the formation of the Repub- lic few would have questioned the legal theory upon which the Southern Commonwealths based their right to withdraw from the Union, whatever resistance might have been offered to actual with- drawal. The wise men of 1787 were forced to appease many jeal- ousies and to adjust many delicate situations before the constitu- tion could win the necessary support to insure its adoption by the States. This brought about the many well known compromises of the constitution, together with some significant omissions in the in- strument. If the right of secession was nowhere mentioned, neither was it negatived ; nor was there anywhere a grant of power to the National government to coerce a recalcitrant State. The prevail- ing early view of the constitution and the nature of the Union is well illustrated in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798; in the attitude of those New England States which condemned the embargo laid upon shipping by the National government in 1808, declared it unconstitutional and refused to enforce it; in 1812, when Massachusetts and Connecticut refused to honor the requi- sition of the President for the use of the militia of those States without their borders, on the ground that the act of Congress au- thorizing the requisition was unconstitutional; in 1828-30, when Georgia refused to obey an act of Congress regarding the Chero- kee Indians, and defied the Federal authority; and finally in 1832, when South Carolina through State convention and by legislative enactment declared null and void the tariff imposed by Congress, and was prepared to secede if necessary. All these incidents serve to show that the secession idea was no new one. Those States
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which finally seceded in 1861 justified their course by the claim that the National Union was formed by a compact between inde- pendent States, each of which could judge for itself, whether the compact had been violated, and secede for such violation. A State, by virtue of its individual, sovereign right, could repeal or withdraw its act of acceptance of the constitution, as the basis or bond of union, and resume the powers which had been delegated and enumerated in that instrument. This action was that of the people of the State, in the assertion of a power above that of Federal or State governments.
Apart from the legal grounds upon which the right of secession was based, the interests of the North and the South had grown widely apart. In the progress of the years the social and economic development of the two sections had diverged more and more. The South believed that its enormous agricultural interests, and its peculiar institution of African slavery, were in grave peril, and that Seward's "irrepressible conflict" could not be long deferred. It felt that slavery was an indispensible economic necessity in the produc- tion of its great staples, cotton and tobacco-products which had made her rich and prosperous. Its future depended on the perpet- uity of its industrial system, now gravely threatened by the results of the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency-a man who had declared that he looked forward to seeing slavery "put where the people would be satisfied that it was in course of ultimate ex- tinction."
Many events had tended to intensify the feeling between the sections. The South resented the charge of moral guilt for the original introduction of slavery. There was certainly no basis for this charge, as the South was no more responsible than the North. The selfish commercial policy of England denied the colonies any choice in the matter; they were obliged to permit the slave-trade and to receive the slaves. Before the year 1808 when the Federal constitution authorized Congress to act in the matter, all the lead- ing Southern States had voluntarily abolished the foreign slave- trade. It is a fact, familiar to all southerners that the South only tolerated the domestic slave-trade, as the best means for the proper economic distribution of the slave population. General hatred, and social ostracism were the lot of the slave-trader. Again, the South believed that the people of the North condoned, if they had not actually abetted the mad act of the fanatic John Brown. Every southerner realized what a hideous danger a slave insurrection meant to southern homes. The South felt and demanded that slav- ery was entitled to statutory protection wherever it existed in the Territories in obedience to the law as enunciated in the Dred Scott decision. The failure of many of the northern States to enforce the provisions of the fugitive slave law was especially exasper- ating.
The great political struggle of 1860 was ushered in by the battle in Congress, begun in December, 1859, over the election of a speaker of the house. The Democrats nominated Bocock, of Virginia ; the
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Douglas Democrats, John Davis; the Republicans, John Sherman. The Republicans were in a minority of one, if the opposition could combine, but it could not. Voting being useless the house fell to discussion which was little removed from fighting. Some personal encounters occurred. "It was whispered about that a majority of members on both sides went constantly armed in expectation for general affray, and such a calamity was no doubt apprehended." (Reuben Davis, Recollections.) After nine weeks a Democrat of New York made his choice of a Republican for speaker and he was elected. Before the adjournment of Congress the nominations for president were made.
When the Democratic national convention met at Charleston, April 23d, Mississippi was represented by a brilliant delegation, including Jefferson Davis, W. S. Barry, L. Q. C. Lamar, Charles Clark, Jacob Thompson, J. W. Matthews and S. J. Gholson. The delegation reported the demand of Yancey, that the platform must declare for protection by Congress of slave property, the attitude to which the Southern Democrats had advanced from non-interven- tion. This was simply a demand for strict compliance with the doctrine of the recent Dred Scott decision. The policy was stated by Albert G. Brown, in a letter published in the Aberdeen Sunny South: "The whole power of the government, in all its depart- ments, is to be used, as soon as we get hold of it, to protect our slave property in the territories and on the high seas, in the same way and to the same extent that other kinds of property are protected."
The Northwestern Democrats, mainly, rejected this principle and a platform was adopted which left slavery to the voice of the inhabitants of the territories, which was the Douglas policy. There- upon the delegations of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas, and scattering members of other delegations, seceded from the con- vention. The convention ballotted 57 times, but Douglas failed to receive a two-thirds vote, and it then adjourned to meet at Balti- more June 18. Mr. Davis opposed this rupture, "because he knew we could achieve a more solid and enduring triumph by remaining in and defeating Douglas. . But there was no holding back such men as Gen. Clark, Thompson, Matthews and Judge Gholson. They forced Alabama to stand to their instructions and then stood by her." (Letter of Lamar to Mott, May 29th). Afterward Mr. Davis sent out an address advising the return of the delegates to Baltimore, and Lamar signed it with him.
At Baltimore, Mississippi and South Carolina refused to partici- pate unless all the delegates from the seceding States were ad- mitted. There were contests, decided against the anti-Douglas men, and the Southern party again seceded. The remainder of the convention nominated Douglas for president. The Southern party met at Richmond, adjourned back to Baltimore, and there, in June, nominated Breckinridge. Meanwhile, in May, the Constitu- tional Union party, identical with the Foote party in Mississippi, had held a convention at Baltimore and nominated John Bell, of Tennessee. It was mainly a Southern party, in fact, but had hopes
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of national support. The Republican party had a convention at Chicago in May also, and nominated Abraham Lincoln. Thus there were two Northern and two Southern parties. Both sets were di- vided on the old Whig and Democrat issues, but in the South the actual issue between the Breckinridge and Bell parties was seces- sion, as the election of Lincoln was considered certain.
In Mississippi the Bell men denounced the Democrats as having always bred dissension and never having done anything to heal it. If Breckinridge and Douglas were the only candidates the issue would be the same, they said. The Natchez Courier (Whig) de- clared the Breckinridge ticket was supported by Southern section- alism and Buchanan corruption. It asked, "Will you follow Yancey and his clique in their mad scheme of precipitating the cotton States into a revolution and bring upon yourselves the horrors and deso- lation of civil war?"
When Congress adjourned, "Members from the South purchased long-range guns to take home with them," says Reuben Davis. "The unthinking among them rejoiced that the end was in sight, but those who considered more deeply were dismayed by the pros- pect. It was regarded as almost certain that Lincoln would be elected, unless Breckinridge or Douglas could be withdrawn from the field, and it was idle to hope that this could be done." Gillings of Ohio, a famous Abolitionist, demanded a candidate in opposition to Lincoln, but that movement had little strength in the North. "The presidential campaign was, as was inevitable, one of extraor- dinary violence."
The Breckinridge electoral ticket was headed by Henry T. Ellett and A. K. Blythe. The Bell ticket was, John W. C. Watson, Amos R. Johnston, T. B. Mosely, William A. Shaw, W. B. Helm, Sylva- nus Evans, Gustavus H. Wilcox. The Douglas ticket was, Samuel Smith, Franklin Smith, B. N. Kinyon, R. W. Flournoy, E. Dis- mukes, Henry Calhoun, Edmund McAllister. The campaign was characterized, as it was in the North, by considerable military parade. The Union party had its big rallies, at Natchez, Jackson, Vicksburg, and elsewhere, as well as the Democrats, and there were many torch light processions. There was a Union meeting at Jack- son, early in October, under the management of Fulton Anderson, Judge Sharkey, the Yergers, R. L. Buck and many other prominent men. But there was not much doubt as to what the result would be. In October the Union men, knowing the settled program, were calling attention to the resolutions of the Convention of 1851, that a convention was illegal without first letting the people vote on the calling of it.
Mississippi gave an overwhelming majority to Breckinridge. (See Presidential elections). But Breckinridge was in a vast minority in the Union. According to the constitutional method of election, provided to protect the States from consolidation, Mr. Lincoln was assured of 180 electoral votes, a half more than all his opponents together. Bell carried 39 votes, Breckinridge 72, Doug- las 12. The popular vote of the United States was by no means so
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decisive. Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes; Douglas, 1,375,157; Breckinridge, 847,953; Bell, 590,631. The great vote for Douglas was in the north and carried very few States. The total opposition vote to the Republicans was 2,823,741,-a majority of almost a mil- lion, in a total vote of about four millions and a half. The oppo- sition to Lincoln had polled 1,288,611 in the North and West alone. In Lincoln's own State, Illinois, the opposition vote only lacked three thousand of that polled by the Republicans. It was really a narrow victory, and it was the part of wisdom for the Republican leaders to move cautiously.
In 1858, in the famous debate with Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln had said : "I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say, in addition to this," that there is a physical difference between the white and black races, which I believe will forever forbid the two races living to- gether on terms of social and political equality." At the same time he felt and said that the Union could not permanently endure, half slave and half free labor; but he was disposed to be very patient with the South, as he confessed he could not see the solution of the problem. One of the clearest minded men of his age, he saw the equal truth of the two great facts involved, one social and the other industrial, and both hopelessly mixed up in the most rampant sec- tional politics. Because of this "irrepressible conflict" of two truths he was absolutely uncompromising regarding the extension of slav- ery, and so was his party. As indicating a hostile attitude, there was quoted in the South his generalization of 1859: "This is a world of compensation, and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and under a just God cannot long retain it." Also, "No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent. I say this is the leading principle-the sheet an- chor of American Republicanism." (Quoted in T. J. Wharton's secession address to Tennessee.)
November 13th Governor Pettus issued a proclamation, that, "Whereas, the recent election of Messrs. Lincoln and Hamlin dem- onstrates that those who neither reverence the Constitution, obey the laws, nor reverence their oaths, have now the power to elect to the highest offices in this Confederacy men who sympathize with them in all their mad zeal to destroy the peace, prosperity and property of the Southern section, and will use the power of the Federal government to defeat all the purposes for which it was formed ; and whereas, the dearest rights of the people depend for protection under our constitution on the fidelity to their oaths of those who administer the government," he called the legislature to provide "surer and better safeguards for the lives, liberties and property of her citizens than have been found, or are to be hoped for in Black Republican oaths." Gov. Pettus also invited the Con- gressional delegation to meet him in conference at Jackson. All attended but McRae. Diverse opinions were maintained. Some
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opposed separate State action in secession. Some were opposed to secession, unless eight other States would consent to go out at the same time. Finally Reuben Davis proposed that the governor should recommend a convention to adopt an ordinance of secession to take effect immediately. This was carried by the votes of Gov- ernor Pettus, O. R. Singleton, William Barksdale and Reuben Davis. The governor then showed the conference a telegram from the governor of South Carolina asking advice as to whether the South Carolina ordinance should take effect immediately or on the 4th of March, and the same four votes were cast to give the advice, "immediately." (R. Davis, Recollections, 390. Also, see Mayes' Lamar, p. 87.)
When the legislature convened at Jackson, November 26, the message of the governor was immediately delivered. He declared they had before them "the greatest and most solemn question that ever engaged the attention of any legislative body on this conti- nent," one that involved "the destiny, for weal or for woe, of this age, and all generations that come after us, for an indefinite num- ber of generations, the end of which no prophet can foretell." He said the Northern States had decided "that slavery is sinful and must be destroyed," and that it only remained for the Southern States "to choose whether it shall be a peaceable and gradual aboli- tion or speedy and violent." These were hard terms, and he argued that from the resistance to the fugitive slave law and the popular sympathy with John Brown that "the lives, liberty and property of the people of Mississippi" would not be safe under Republican rule. He saw but one path of honor and safety for Mississippi, to separate as Abraham parted from Lot. "That Mississippi may be enabled to speak on this grave subject in her sovereign capacity I recommend that a convention be called, to meet at an early date." He argued at length the doctrine of a reserved right of secession by the States of the Union, and declared that this was the great saving principle to which alone the Southern States could look and live. "This saving principle must perish under Black Republican rule. Then go down into Egypt while Herod reigns in Judea-it is the only means of saving the life of this Emanuel of American politics." In after years he hoped, when "Black Republicans" had passed away, to come back "under the benign influences of a re- united government." "If we falter now," he said in conclusion, "we or our sons must pay the penalty in future years, of bloody, if not fruitless, efforts to retrieve the fallen fortunes of the State, which if finally unsuccessful must leave our fair land blighted- cursed with Black Republican politics and free negro morals, to become a cesspool of vice, crime and infamy. Can we hesitate! when one bold resolve, bravely executed, makes powerless the aggressor, and one united effort makes safe our homes? May the God of our fathers put it into the hearts of our people to make it." Among the members a written plan of a Confederacy was freely circulated. (Published in the Mississippian of December 4th). "The States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida are
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believed to be ready to go out of the Union," this began. "To these States, let commissioners be appointed now by the State," etc.
Thus exhorted the legislature passed, November 28th, the Con- vention bill, reported by Charles Clark in the house. It provided that an election of delegates to a convention should be held in each county, Thursday, December 20th, each county to have as many delegates as it had representatives in the legislature. Originally the bill would have allowed any "citizen" to be a delegate, but the senate inserted an amendment requiring one year's residence in the State. The delegates elected were to meet at the Capitol, Mon- day, January 7, 1861, and "proceed to consider the then existing relations between the government of the United States and the gov- ernment and people of the State of Mississippi, and to adopt such measures of vindicating the sovereignty of the State, and the pro- tection of its institutions as shall appear to them to be demanded."
On the following day resolutions were adopted requesting the governor to appoint Commissioners "to visit each of the slave-hold- ing States," to inform them of the action of the Mississippi legisla- ture, "express the earnest hope of Mississippi that those States will cooperate with her in the adoption of efficient measures for their common defence and safety," and appeal to the governors to call the legislatures into extra session where that had not been done. Another resolution requested the State officers to prepare a device for a coat of arms for the State of Mississippi, to be ready by the 7th of January. Delay was not to the taste of the legisla- ture. Senator Buck's resolve that it would not be proper to take final action without consultation with the sister slave-holding States, was lost, 27 to 3. The resolutions adopted by a large ma- jority, after reciting the grounds for complaint, said, "That in the opinion of those who now constitute the State legislature, the seces- sion of each aggrieved State is the proper remedy for these in- juries." The legislature adjourned November 30.
The governor appointed the following commissioners, who vis- ited the other States, and addressed the legislatures and people : Henry Dickinson, to Delaware; A. H. Handy, to Maryland; Wal- ker Brooke and Fulton Anderson, to Virginia; Jacob Thompson, to North Carolina; G. S. Gaines, to Florida; W. L. Harris and Thomas W. White to Georgia; W. S. Featherston, to Kentucky ; Thomas J. Wharton, to Tennessee; Joseph W. Matthews, to Ala- bama ; Daniel R. Russell, to Missouri ; George R. Fall, to Arkansas ; Wirt Adams, to Louisiana ; H. H. Miller, to Texas; C. E. Hooker, to South Carolina. Mississippi was herself visited by like commis- sioners. Colonel Armistead, from South Carolina, and E. W. Pettus, brother of the governor, from Alabama, attended the Jan- uary convention.
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