Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 86

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 86

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).

Among the important industrial enterprises located at Starkville are a large cotton-seed oil mill and ginnery, a textile manufacturing plant, a fine brick manufacturing plant, creameries, saw and planing mills, and machine shops. The city owns and operates first-class electric lighting and water works systems. Two banks, the Peoples Savings Bank, and the Security State Bank minister to the city's financial needs.

State Flower. See Magnolia.

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Statehood. The Georgia settlement, or articles of cession and agreement, provided "that the territory thus ceded shall form a State, and be admitted as such into the Union, as soon as it shall contain sixty thousand free inhabitants, or at an earlier period if congress shall think it expedient." The census of 1810 showed a population of only 40,000 both free and slave. Nevertheless, the inhabitants were restive under the Territorial status. Mingled with this discontent and ambition were the remoteness as well as the rivalries of the three separated regions, the Natchez, Mobile and Huntsville districts, which bred desire for a division of the territory. The people of the Mobile region had petitioned con- gress for a division of the Territory in 1803 and 1809, without reference to statehood.

In 1810 the Baton Rouge revolution gave an opportunity for the annexation of West Florida to the United States, and as it was claimed as a part of the ancient province of Louisiana it was ex- pedient that Governor Claiborne of New Orleans should first annex it, as far as Mobile bay, to his Territory. It was realized, however, that the coast at least belonged of right to Mississippi Territory, and Delegate Poindexter took this position in congress. After this, late in the year 1811, a formidable opposition to Poindexter arose east of Pearl river, led by Col. Carson, Col. Caller and Maj. Kennedy, and Cowles Mead wrote to Poindexter that Carson's ground of opposition was that he believed the delegate to be covertly in favor of dividing the Territory. It is stated by J. F. H. Claiborne that Poindexter contemplated a division of the Territory by an east and west line, and admitting the southern part imme- diately as a State. But this was made difficult of achievement by the annexation of the Florida region west of Pearl river to Louis- iana. But Poindexter's propositions in congress were for the extension of statehood to the entire Territory. As chairman of the committee on the subject, January 31, 1811 , he reported an enabling bill for the Territory as then constituted, from the Mississippi to the Chattahoochee, as one State, and this passed the house.

In the general assembly of November, 1811, Kennedy, of Wash- ington county, introduced a memorial to congress, which set out : "That according to the tenor and practice of the American govern- ment, every citizen within the scope of its operation, is entitled to all the rights and privileges of freedom. Taking this principle as the basis of this Memorial, we shall attempt to show that this peo- ple ought to be admitted to all the rights which are enjoyed by the citizens of the States constituting the federal compact. We do not expect anyone to deny to your honorable bodies the right to remove our political shackles, and raising us up from menial vas- salage to the splendid rights of national independence. But we expect to find those who will resist by force, an attempt to defeat the purpose of this Memorial. Believing that the people of this Territory are purely Americans, and of course competent to self- government, we respectfully solicit, that the Mississippi Territory, with its present limits, may be admitted into the federal union

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at the present session of congress, invested with all the rights, priv- ileges and immunities used and enjoyed by the States of the Union." It was claimed that the emigration was such that the population would be over 60,000 before the organization could be effected; at any rate, "We are Americans; we are the legitimate offspring of Seventy-six," and forty thousand were as capable of self-government as sixty thousand. It was also said: "The sales of land have been long withheld and greatly retarded by the forms of Territorial gov- ernment. Visitors, traversing our lands . seeing the evil effects of Territorial government, and the arbitrary and unconsti- tutional acts of men in power, would turn with loathing, the honest man from our country, and only invite the sycophant and bending tool. Your memorialists verily believe, that a change of political state would operate as a strong inducement to emigration, and not only add to the prospects of discharging the debt due to the State of Georgia, but thereby bracing the frontier of the United States," the latter being important, in view of the prospect of war. The memorial was adopted; but Samuel Postlethwait and Philan- der Smith voted against it, and entered their protest on the jour- nals, because there had been no decided expression of the whole people on the subject; because the population was too thinly dis- persed over an immense area, and a large part were slaves ; because there were only 1,719 freeholders bearing the public expenses of the whole Territory; and because an overbearing majority had most ungraciously urged the action taken.

At the next session of congress, in December, 1811, the memorial of the general assembly and the petition of citizens for the same object, were referred to a committee, of which Poindex- ter was chairman, also a counter petition asking postponement of the matter, because such additional expense was not desired when war was in prospect, nor was it desired to make it easier with a Federal district court for the prosecution of land claims under British grants and the Yazoo frauds. Poindexter re- ported December 17, 1811, an enabling bill for a State to include West Florida in addition to the Mississippi territory. April 17, 1812, the senate committee on the subject advised that consideration of the Mississippi enabling bill be postponed until December. The committee "could not avoid being struck with the size of the Ter- ritory proposed to be erected into a State, a size disproportionate to the size of any of the largest States which now compose our confederation. It embraces, in its present form, and without any extension, to the gulf of Mexico an area of twice the surface of the State of Pennsylvania." The committee recom- mended division on this line: "Up the Mobile river to the point nearest its source which falls on the 11th degree of west latitude from the city of Washington; thence a course due north until the line intersects the waters of Bear creek; thence down the said creek to the confluence with the Tennessee river; thence down the said river to the northern boundary line of the said territory." The postponement was made in order to give time to obtain the consent

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of Georgia to a division, which was granted; but the war came on meanwhile, and stopped further consideration until early in 1815, when William Lattimore was delegate.

The petition of the general assembly of Mississippi Territory for admission as a State, was presented to the third session of the 13th congress January 21, 1815, and referred to a committee of which Delegate Lattimore was chairman. He suggested in his report of February 23 that since the census of 1810 Mobile and the coast had been annexed, and there had been considerable immigra- tion. The opinion of the committee was "that there would be no impropriety in principle, and no injury in effect, to the interests of the nation, in providing, without further delay, for the admission of the Territory in question into the Union of the States. This Territory has been, as your committee believe, a longer time under the restraints of political minority than any other Territory of the United States; and they can perceive no good reason why its en- largement should still be deferred, merely on account of its present deficiency of numbers, since a like deficiency did not prevent others, or one other at least, from the enjoyment of a similar boon. Hith- erto your committee have considered this subject as though the ad- mission solicited were desired by all the inhabitants of the Terri- tory without delay, but they cannot undertake to state that such is the fact. While it is true that it has been prayed for and urged with much interest and zeal at several successive sessions, it is also true that at last one at which the subject was brought before con- gress there were counter-petitions praying that it might be post- poned." The committee did not venture to say there would not be counter petitions in the case of the petition before them, but, "the extinguishment of the Yazoo claims having removed what was perhaps the most general objection to admission, it is probable that many who were opposed to it are now in favor of it, and since peace is restored, it is probable also that many others will desire to exchange the restrictions of a Territory for the rights of a State." Consequently the committee reported a bill authorizing a convention of delegates of the people of Mississippi territory, with powers to form a constitution and State government prepara- tory to admission to the Union, if they so desired.

At the session of the 14th congress in December, 1815, the peti- tion of the legislature was again referred to a committee headed by Lattimore, and another petition from the legislature was received, also a petition of inhabitants east of Pearl for a census, and the erection of the whole Territory into a State. Another petition, arriving in February, asked that representation in the proposed convention be apportioned among the counties on the basis of white population.

On March 31, 1816, a bill for "an act to enable the Mississippi Territory to form a constitution and State government and for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States," was read and debated. Stanford of North Caro- lina objected that the bill contained no provision for future divi-

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sion, and he considered the Territory entirely too large in relation to other States. Lattimore and Hardin (Ky.) replied that if the Ter- ritory were now divided, it would be twenty years before the half of it would be sufficiently populous to ask a State government ; that it was an older Territory than Indiana, in whose favor a bill had just passed. The bill was passed by the house, 70 to 53. In the senate both the Indiana and Mississippi bills were referred to the committee on the Mississippi memorial, April 2, 1816, and after that it was resolved to obtain a census of both Territories, and con- sideration of the Mississippi bill was postponed until July. But congress was not in session in July.

In the second session of the 14th congress, December 9, 1816, the petition of the general assembly presented in December, 1815, praying for admission as one State, was referred to a committee of which Lattimore was chairman. He reported December 22, that "the Mississippi Territory contains, according to a census lately taken under an act of the legislature, 75,512 souls, of whom 45,085 are free white persons, 356 free people of color, and 30.061 slaves. It would seem to be superfluous to your commit- tee to recommend that considerations of a deficiency of numbers be waived in this case, seeing that the house of representatives have passed three bills, at different periods, for the admission of this Territory, when its population was much smaller than it is at this time. But it becomes a question whether the object of the memorialists can be ultimately attained, or ought to be attained, in the way in which it is asked. Your committee beg leave barely to remark, that they cannot believe a State of such unprecedented magnitude as the one contemplated by the memorialists. can be desirable to any section of the United States." The committee also pointed out that the three principal settlements, the Natchez district, the Mobile region and the Huntsville region, were separated by distances of 300 and 400 miles. "Between the Tennessee and the Mississippi settlements and between the Mis- sissippi and the Mobile settlements there is not and probably never will be any commercial intercourse whatever; but between the Mobile and the Tennessee settlements, such an intercourse cannot fail to take place when the intervening country shall be settled, and its fine navigable streams explored and improved. The whole Mississippi Territory formed into a single State would not only be very inconvenient to a vast majority of those of its inhabitants whose duty or interest might call them to the seat of government, but would also prove, in the opinion of your committee, too exten- sive for its executive to suppress internal disorders in all its parts and repel external invasions at all points with necessary prompt- ness, energy and effect. Another objection to an entire admission of the Territory arises from the want of a continuity of settlement and a reciprocity of interest between its distant parts." For these reasons Mr. Lattimore's committee recommended a divi- . sion of the Territory by a north and south line, the admission of the western part as a State, and the continuance of a Territorial

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government for the eastern portion. They reported two bills for these purposes.

The committee was disposed to take the Tombigbee river for a boundary line, or the Pascagoula in part, and according to Lat- timore, Judge Harry Toulmin, who appeared as the representative of the Pearl River convention, demanded if division were made, a line between the Pascagoula and Pearl rivers. Lattimore's proposition was that the line should run "from the gulf of Mexico to the northwest corner of Washington county [northeast corner of Wayne] in such a way as to throw all these counties [west of Mobile] into the proposed western State." (The east boundary of Jackson was then the high pine ridge west of Mobile bay.) North of the Choctaw line he would conform somewhat to the nat- ural boundaries by making a jog east on the Choctaw line to the Tombigbee, which he would follow to Cottongin Port; then a direct line to the mouth of Bear creek. But, there was danger of the Pascagoula river being adopted in the south, and the com- promise was made of a line due south from the northwest corner of Washington, and northerly from the same point straight to Bear creek. (F. H. Riley, Publs. M. H. S., III, 175.) Lattimore com- plained that Toulmin's advocacy of the Pascagoula or a more western line as the boundary endangered the passage of the bill; which is undoubtedly what Toulmin desired, as his platform was "Mississippi, one and indivisible." After the Lattimore bill was reported, another petition of the general assembly for admission as one State was presented, also a petition from a large number of the members in support of division. January 9, 1817, Mr. Pickens (N. C.) presented a petition from a convention of delegates of fifteen counties, against division and asking admission entire. This, undoubtedly the petition of the Pearl River convention, brought by Judge Toulmin, was referred to a committee of which Mr. Pickens was chairman, which reported, January 17, a bill to admit without division.

The report of Mr. Pickens gives the arguments for admission without division. It was much more important to the people of the Territory and to the nation, he said, to decide whether the Mississippi Territory should form one State or two, than to decide regarding immediate admission. He declared that the fear of its future great strength if admitted as a unit was exaggerated, because it was probable that much of the land was unfit for cultivation. "Your committee cannot apprehend that the whole Territory is capable of such a strong population as ever to render it a formid- able State compared with the largest sized of the northern, middle and western States." He referred to the land office sales in south- ern Mississippi to prove the undesirability of the lands. Central and Northern Mississippi was, of course, not yet opened to settlers. "It appears, from the concurrent testimony of persons acquainted with the territory in question, that an uncommon proportion of its land is unfit for cultivation; much thereof consisting of poor pine barrens; while, on the other hand, it is certain that there is much

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fertile soil on the margin of the rivers, and interspersed over dif- ferent parts, capable to sustain a sufficient population for a respec- table State. Its political strength will also be held in check by the great proportion of slaves it is destined to contain. This circum- stance, added to the climate and soil, will render its numbers (en- titled to political calculation) relatively small compared with its extent. As to the wishes of the people themselves, various repre- sentations have been made showing a difference of sentiment to exist among them in regard to a division. It is, however, worthy of notice that for several successive years the legislature of the Territory have petitioned congress for admission as a State; in none of which have they intimated a wish to be divided." The form of the proposed State would be nearly square, the center as easy of access from one extreme as another. The different parts would have different avenues to market, by the navigation of the Mississippi, Mobile and Chattahoochee rivers. "It is not seen that this will create any material diversity of interests, or interfere with the internal policy and harmony of the State, all parts of which will be agricultural and capable of similar products." The large State would be more likely to cherish its institutions with a liberal policy ; its military defence would be more effective. According to the house bill, "the western division will contain 25,037 free white inhabitants, and 22,834 slaves, by the census lately taken. By the census taken in 1810, there were west of the line of division 16,602 white inhabitants and 14,523 slaves, including in the last census the county of Jackson, formerly a part of Florida, making an increase of 8,435 white and 8,311 slave inhabitants, in the last period of six years, including a new county from Florida."

But the enabling bill for Indiana had been passed, and the con- stitution of that new State, which had three or four times the white population of all the Mississippi territory, was approved December 16, 1816. This act increased the number of States north of the Mason and Dixon line and the Ohio river to ten. The ad- mission of Louisiana in 1812 had served to balance the strength of the two sections in the senate. The sense of sectional divergence was felt at that time. It had been realized from the earliest days of colonial history, and was at this time becoming more intense. The time was near at hand for the beginning of the memorable and lamentable political struggles over "the balance of power." But now, apparently without contest, two points were conceded to the Southern political leaders, the immediate admission of half of Mississippi Territory to make the columns stand ten to ten, and the promise of another State in the eastern half, which was now given the name of Alabama. So Mississippi escaped that focal place in the history of sectional warfare that Missouri assumed a year or two later.

Senator Charles Tait, of Georgia, chairman of the senate commit- tee on the petition of the legislature, reported two bills, as Latti- more had done, for a western State and an eastern Territory, and they were passed January 31; the house adopted the senate bills

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with amendments, February 26; the senate concurred in the amend- ments February 28, and the enabling act was signed by President Madison, March 1, 1817.

In pursuance of this enabling act the constitutional convention (q. v.) assembled at Washington, and adopted a constitution and form of government. When congress met in December, a resolu- tion admitting the State thus organized was passed by the house December 8. The senate, December 1, referred the inquiry if any legislative measures were necessary for admission of the State of Mississippi to a committee composed of James Barbour, of Vir- ginia; Rufus King, of Massachusetts, and John Williams, of Ten- nessee, (brother of Gov. Williams). The question was somewhat interesting, because the electoral vote of Indiana had been offered · for Monroe, on the basis of an election taken before the State had been admitted by resolution of Congress. Objection was made, but the vote was counted. Barbour presented a resolution for ad- mission, had read a copy of the constitution, and the resolution was passed December 3, the day before the arrival of an official copy of the constitution accompanied by a letter from Governor Holmes.

The Barbour resolution passed the house December 8 and was signed by President Monroe December 10, 1817. The resolution in its "whereas" recited the passage of an enabling act and the forming of a state constitution and form of government, which was declared to be republican and in conformity with the Ordinance of 1787, and it was "Resolved, by the Senate and House of Rep- resentatives of the United States of American in Congress as- sembled, That the State of Mississippi shall be one, and is hereby declared to be one, of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever."

The new senators, Walter Leake and Thomas H. Williams, and the representative, George Poindexter, were sworn in Decem- ber 11th.

An act extending the laws of the United States to the new State, originated in the house, and was adopted by the senate, March 30, 1818, and approved April 3, 1818.

The reflection cannot be avoided, in view of the modern develop- ment of the territory, that they were wise who planned one great State. Such a State now would combine such a variety of resour- ces as would contribute to high social development under one gov- ernment. It would have been in the South such a commonwealth as Ohio or Pennsylvania is in the north. But these considerations did not outweigh the political anxiety for more votes in the United States senate. It is interesting to observe also, if the wisdom of division be conceded, that if President Madison and his Congress had not let "I dare not wait upon I would, like the cat in the adage," the port of Pensacola would have been secured for Alabama, and the dividing line of the two States would have been the Tombigbee river and Mobile river and bay. One may imagine that if the

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matter had been left to Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, both Mobile and Pensacola would have been annexed to the Mississippi Territory, for the only real, honest reason for taking either of them, -that they naturally belonged to us, and were essential to our territorial integrity.

Statehouse. See Capitol.

State Institutions. See Insane hospital, East Mississippi In- sane hospital, Deaf and Dumb institution, Blind institute, Vicks- burg Hospital, Natchez Hospital.

Statelevee, a post-hamlet of Tunica county, on the Mississippi river, opposite Helena, Ark. Population in 1900, 25.

State Line, an incorporated post-town in the southeastern part of Wayne county, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R., near the boundary line between Mississippi and Alabama. It is 63 miles northwest of Mobile, and about 20 miles southeast of Waynesboro, the county seat and nearest banking town. It is located in a pine timber region, and manufactures yellow pine lumber, resin and turpentine. Population in 1900, 379. The population in 1906 was estimated at 500. It has several stores, a turpentine distillery, a saw mill, a public cotton gin, two churches, and is the seat of the State Line Academy.

St. Denis, Juchereau de. This distinguished officer was a native of Canada, was the uncle of Madame d'Iberville, and came to Lou- isiana in December, 1699, in the frigate Renommeé, commanded by d'Iberville. He spent several years in making expeditions up and down the Mississippi, and soon acquired a general knowledge of several Indian languages, so as to be acknowledged the Indian grand chief. He was a gentleman of education, courage and pru- dence, and in 1714, was dispatched up Red river to explore the country and observe the movements of the Spaniards. In the fol- lowing year he was sent as an envoy to negotiate a commercial treaty with Mexico; and again in 1718, as the agent of M. Crozat, with articles of merchandise to exchange with the Mexicans for such articles as would be useful in Louisiana. He was also em- ployed in conducting several expeditions against the Indians. In 1719 he returned to Biloxi and in command of the Indian allies of the French, assisted in repulsing the Spaniards, who had invested Dauphin Island, and were making repeated attempts to effect a landing in Mobile Bay. In September, 1719, he commanded the In- dian allies of the French at the siege and capture of Pensacola, and was knighted for his services. On the retirement of M. de Bien- ville to France, in 1726, M. de St. Denis returned to Montreal, Canada, where he died.

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Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 86

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