USA > Mississippi > Pike County > Pike county. Mississippi, 1789-1876: pioneer families and Confederate soldiers, reconstruction and redemption > Part 12
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"PRESENTED TO THE QUITMAN GUARDS BY THE LADIES OF PIKE COUNTY"
On the everse side:
"OUR COUNTRY AND OUR HOMES"
The price paid for it was $250, which amount was contributed in small sums ranging from 50 cents to $5.
It was received at Holmesville by Samuel A. Matthews, a resident of the town who had been selected as its custodian.
A public meeting was held in the Baptist Church by the ladies for the purpose of selecting one of their number, with two assistants, to present the banner to the Quitman Guards on the 4th of July, 1860, the day of the celebration of American Independence. Two names were presented for the honor: Miss Rachel E. Coney and Miss Mary Ann Conerly, but the latter, on account of the recent death of her father, Owen Conerly, declined; and Miss Coney was selected, and she appointed as maids of honor Misses Emma Ellzey and Fanny Wicker.
All the necessary preparations having been made, when the day arrived this event and the great barbecue, and an oration to be deliv-
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ered by Hugh Eugene Weathersby, a brilliant young lawyer and Representative of the State Legislature, brought to the town of Holmesville one of the largest gatherings of people that ever assem- bled there.
A platform was erected on the public square in front of the resi- dence of Dr. George Nicholson, near the courthouse, by Samuel A. Matthews and Chauncey P. Conerly, as committee appointed by the Quitman Guards.
Benton Bickham, one of the handsomest young men of the town and of the Quitman Guards, was selected as the standard bearer of the company.
Thomas R. Stockdale was selected as attendant to the young ladies in the ceremony of introduction. When the time arrived Benton Bickham, meeting the girls at the residence of Mr. Matthews, and bearing the banner, escorted them to the platform.
The Quitman Guards, clothed in their full uniform, with their burnished muskets, were drawn up in line in front and facing the plat- form when the ceremonies of the presentation were commenced, by the following address, delivered by Miss Fanny Wicker, who was introduced by Thomas R. Stockdale:
"Ladies and Gentlemen: We have assembled here to-day to evince in some degree the high esteem in which we hold and the great admiration with which we regard those who are willing to undergo the severe labor of military discipline for their country's good-those who, in the hour of peril, are the maintainers of her rights, the protectors of our firesides and our homes.
"To you, gentlemen of the Quitman Guards, the ladies of Pike County this day address themselves, with a token of their appreciation of your gener- ous chivalry, in thus taking upon yourselves the armor of your country; for it is a badge of honor which they are proud to recognize. They have selected this, the most glorious day in all the calendar of time, that its sacred memories may throw around the scene a deeper and more. lively interest. For, upon this day, every patriot's heart must swell with emotions of thanksgiving for the inestimable blessings which American independence has showered upon this, the happiest of all lands. The ladies of Pike County have deemed this national emblem, around which clusters the memory of so many glorious deeds, the most appropriate expression of their confidence in the valor of our citizen sol- diery
"Permit me now to introduce Miss Coney, who in their behalf, bears this flag."
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MISS RACHEL E. CONEY'S ADDRESS.
"Soldiers of the Quitman Guards: In behalf of the ladies of Pike County, we are happy to greet you in the noblest attitude that freemen can occupy- soldiers of their native land. For love of country, that of great instinct of the soul, that pervades every clime and nation, and which prompts alike 'the shud- dering tenant of the frozen zone' and the swarthy inhabitant of the tropics, to deem his own the pride of every land, is a principle which, indeed, ennobles humanity. But without that noble spirit which prompts him to step between danger and his country-a patriotism of an ignoble cast-and the difference between him and a soldier is the difference between a slave and a freeman. There is no nobler principle of the soul than patriotism, so full and free that it embraces one's whole country-but when we search for its origin, one finds that its .vitality emanates from a single spot, the dearest in his native land-the spot to which the warrior's heart ever turns, whether marching on the plains of the far off land or riding upon the ocean's wave,
"In every clime the magnet of the soul, "Touched by remembrance, trembles to the pole.
"Speaking for our sex, it is the nucleus around which clusters all our hopes, and the fount from which emanate all our joys-the place whose atmosphere floats so brightly around us that even life's sorrows fail to darken its halo- the halo of our homes.
"He was a patriot who wrote, and surely there is music in the soul of him who sung :
' 'Mid pleasures and palaces tho' we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.'
"And you will allow us to add, there is no place like America for a home and our country is dear because it protects our home. Thus it is not strange that we should regard with jealous eye what is light or darkness, and more than. life or death to us; and that we should greet, with grateful hearts, those who would intervene a shield between our country and danger, however remote. For well do we know, and it would be ungrateful not to acknowledge it, that on all the green earth, there is no country in which woman occupies so truly an exalted position as in the land of the gallant and brave. With great deference to the opinions of those who deem all military displays useless demonstrations in times of peace, we would say there is no ray of light shines into the future except as it is reflected by the past; and we see all along the world's history startling examples which press upon every great and prosperous nation the necessity of well armed soldiery.
"When the proud Anglo-Saxon stepped, as from the ocean, upon the shores of this untamed land, and the wilderness had fled from before his face, and the mountains looked proudly down upon the valleys where civilization loomed up in peaceful glory, then did Oriental misrule reach forth to. enslave his fair
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daughter of the Land of 'the Setting Sun.' But in that hour of peril, she called to her citizen soldiery, and brave hearts responded from hills and valleys, who stayed the giant arm and loosened the iron grasp of the oppressor. Once, since then, has her liberty been maintained, and once her honor defended by the same mighty power.
"And now, although peace has long spread her white wings over the land, and the clouds have continued to drop their bounty down into the lap of the earth, and prosperity has taken her abode here, there may be a cloud in the horizon 'of the size of a man's hand' which may yet gather and darken the whole heavens, and, looking down with wrathful brow, threaten terrible de- struction. And as the miser looks kindly upon the strong bars that secure his cherished treasures, we rejoice to see between our homes and the storm a bat- tlement which no flood has ever borne down.
"We present you this flag as a memento of our appreciation of your gal- lantry in enlisting in the service of the greatest country the earth has ever turned to the sun. We have inscribed among the stars the motto nearest our hearts, in token of our confidence in the brave spirits who shall unfurl it to the breeze.
"In memory of the land we love above all others, we have placed upon it the insignia of our native State, whose colors have been borne always in tri- umph on many a fearful field, through many a fierce struggle, by the gallant old man whose honored name you bear.
"We present you this flag upon its own birthday, with no desire to encour- age a spirit of aggressive warfare, or to kindle within your breasts the fires of ambition, for every true woman's heart revolts at the thought of a catalogue of the slain, which might bear the name of her dearest friend; but if such a dire calamity should come, which may the God of nations avert, that the land of our birth should be disgraced, our country dishonored or our homes invaded, whether it be threatened by an alien enemy or a fratricidal hand, we ask you to take this flag and beat back the foe.
"The history of the past warrants the assertion that no true American, and we are sure that no brave son of the gallant State of Mississippi, where we are proud to claim our homes, would purchase ease or escape danger at the cost of independence; and every woman of noble soul, though sad the thought, would deem it a dearer joy, whether he be father, brother or lover, to spend a life of solitude in strewing flowers upon a hero's grave than in peace to share a vassal's home.
"To you we commit our country and our homes, with the confident hope that upon each Independence Day, for generations to come, brave soldiers will tread the soil of America to the sound of martial music."
At the conclusion of Miss Coney's address she presented the banner, which was received by H. E. Weathersby, on the part of the Quitman Guards in a few well-chosen remarks, in which he stated that "where
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duty calls the Quitman Guards will go;" and thus the young ladies were considered as adopted members of that company ..
At the conclusion of these ceremonies the people repaired to the beech grove at the foot of the bridge over the Bogue Chitto River, where the barbecue was held and where Eugene Weathersby delivered the oration of the occasion; Colonel Eshelman and others of the Washington Artillery being present, specially invited guests of the occasion.
Political excitement and sectional feeling between the Northern and Southern States had become greatly intensified by questions per- taining to the new territory acquired from France by purchase from Napoleon Bonaparte, the admission of Texas and other new States, the right of property in slaves, the extension of slavery in the new terri- tory and the sovereignty of States. The Constitution of the United States recognized the right of property in slaves and threw around it its protecting arm and upheld it by decisions of its highest tribunals, and the owners claimed the right to remove to any of the public domain with this species of property. This privilege was contested by those at the North who were opposed to allowing any owner of slaves to enter the new territory. A noted suit was instituted in Mis- souri as a test case, known as the Dred Scott case, to determine the question whether a negro slave taken into territory claimed by aboli- tionists to be non-slavery territory, by his owner, should remain a slave or be liberated. Dred Scott was taken into this disputed terri- tory by his owner, an army officer, who died leaving him in the terri- tory, and the question was sprung as to what disposition should be made of him. None of his owner's heirs wanted him, yet he was property, and the courts were resorted to. It was greedily seized upon by abolition political agitators at the North and a great effort made to secure a verdict against the slave owners of the South, but the Supreme Court of the United States held that the removal of the slave with his owner into non-slave holding territory did not change the status of the slave as property and decreed that he be delivered to the nearest heir at law of the deceased owner. This was done, and the negro was liberated or emancipated by the owner. This judgment
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of the highest tribunal of the United States Government created an intense furore throughout the North among the abolitionists. There had been many years of wrangling over this question which brought about the extension of Mason's and Dixon's line, and for forty years the country was more or less agitated over matters pertaining to the rights of the States. The Southern States as such were not respon- sible for the institution of slavery nor its establishment within their borders When Virginia was a colony under Great Britain, in 1620, the first load of negro slaves were landed at Jamestown from a Dutch vessel. It was fostered and nursed by the English crown up to 1807 and by people in the Eastern States. New England men, New England money, New England vessels, New England inhumanity, in coalition with the English crown and Dutch navigators, are the parents of the trade in slavery and its establishment in this country, and Massachu- setts the first slave State. It proved unprofitable to the North on account of the long winters, but profitable to the South under good management, and after the slave trade was forbidden by act of Par- liament in 1807, and the Southern States passed laws forbidding any further importation of slaves from foreign countries, and it ceased to be a source of wealth to the avaricious Yankee, then schemes were concocted to bring about its abolition in the South by those who were jealous of Southern prosperity.
Long before the admission of Mississippi as a Territory the South was so apprehensive of future troubles growing out of the accumula- tion of negroes that they passed laws prohibiting the landing of Afri- can negroes on their shores and the organic act creating the Territory of Mississippi forbade it; but the slave speculators and kidnappers of New England with hundreds of vessels continued to ply their avoca- tion and smuggled them through from the North and unfrequented lakes and rivers unguarded by government and where communication to legal authority was difficult. Virginia put a stop to it as soon as it was in her power to do so, and it was one of the express stipulations constituting Oglethorpe's charter for the establishment of his Mo- ravian Colony in Georgia. Any attempts of Northern haters of the South to fix the blame of the institution on the people of the South,
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or their secession from the Union for the purpose of perpetuating it, is disproved by all the facts connected with its history.
General William Cain had been appointed general of the militia organizations of South Mississippi counties, and in 1860 he ordered a review to take place in the town of Magnolia. The Quitman Guards were ordered out and responded, the whole company going to Mag- nolia, clothed in their military uniforms, to participate in the grand review. General Cain was handsomely uniformed and mounted on a splendid iron-gray charger, accompanied by a numerous staff of ele- gantly uniformed officers. It was a gala day in Magnolia, but the Quitman Guards had possession, from a military point of view, of the entire field, under direction of the commanding general. No other troops presented themselves for review, and the history of the occasion becomes deficient by the absence of the mass of South Missis- sippi forces. Nevertheless this was a historical occasion. It was a niche in events to follow. It was duty performed.
The year 1860 was a stormy period in the political history of the country. The Southern States clung tenaciously to the constitution and combatted every infringement of its provisions assailed by its enemies. So many things had been done and threatened that endan- gered their peace and happiness that they were seriously considering the question of a dissolution of the Union, by passing ordinances of secession, and forming a separate government, with which there could be some unity of feeling, friendship and mutual benefits. The stu- dent of political history must turn to other works to learn all the causes which plunged the country into a great fratricidal conflict after this time. Pike County is only a drop in the bucket that overflowed, a grain of sand on the shore lashed by the sea of human blood.
On May 16, 1860, a Republican convention, a purely sectional body of men, was held in the city of Chicago, Ill., for the purpose of nominating candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States. This party at the time was commonly known as the "Black Abolition Party," and was composed of delegates of the abolition faith. Not a single Southern State was represented in it. At this convention
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Abraham Lincoln, a lawyer and politician, was nominated for Presi- dent, and Mr. Hamlin of Maine was nominated for Vice-President.
Abraham Lincoln had proclaimed that the Union "could not permanently endure half slave and half free." This of itself was a declaration on his part, endorsed by this purely sectional convention, that the institution of slavery was to be attacked and should be abolished if possible. A society of abolitionists had been formed in England long before the abolition of slavery and the slave trade by the English Parliament, and another one in the city of Philadelphia in the early thirties.
At the convention of Democrats, which met in Charleston, S. C., there was a division which resulted in the nomination of two sets of candidates. Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, being selected for Presi- dent, and Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, for Vice-President, by one faction, and John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, for President, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon, for Vive-President, by the other faction.
Another convention assembled in the city of Baltimore, Md., and nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, for President, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President.
Thus there were four tickets in the field. At the election in Novem- ber following, there were 4,676,853 votes polled. Of this number Lincoln and Hamlin received 1,866,352, and of the 303 votes cast in the electoral college they received 180 and were declared elected. It was clearly sectional in its results. Lincoln and Hamlin received a little over one-third of the popular votes and over one-half of the electoral vote. Their party leaders had declared against the institu- tion of slavery and that it could not exist "only by virtue of munici- pal law," "no law for it in the territories." This was an open declara- tion of lynching the Constitution of the United States and setting aside the decision of its Supreme Court. The South saw its perils. Her institutions had been assailed and her constitutional rights tramped upon for forty years, and her people thought it was time to seek relief by separation.
After the announcement of the election of Lincoln and Hamlin, South Carolina, acting in her sovereign capacity as a State, in Decem-
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THE "BONNIE BLUE FLAG," Adopted by the Convention of Mississippi which passed the Ordinance of Secession, January 9. 1861.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
ber, 1860, passed the ordinance of secession, severing her relations with the general government. Mississippi followed on the 9th of January, 1861, Dr. James M. Nelson, of Holmesville, being the delegate from Pike County.
The convention which passed the ordinance of secession adopted the Bonnie Blue Flag as the State flag. The main field of which was white with a red fringe around its borders and a square blue field occupying about one-fourth of the flag in the upper corner attached to the staff. In this blue field a single white star. In the white field of the flag was the imprint of a green tree. The adoption of this flag inspired the writing of the song of the "Bonnie Blue Flag" by Harry McCarthy.
SONG OF THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG.
BY HARRY M'CARTHY.
We are a band of brothers, and native to the soil,
Fighting for our liberty, with treasure blood and toil;
And when our rights were threatened, the cry rose near and far,
Hurrah for the Bonny Blue Flag that bears a single star!
CHORUS.
Hurrah! Hurrah! for Southern rights, Hurrah! Hurrah for the Bonny Blue Flag that bears a single star.
First, gallant South Carolina nobly made the stand;
Then came Alabama, who took her by the hand;
Next, quickly, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida,
All raised on high the Bonny Blue Flag that bears the single star.
Ye men of valor, gather round the banner of the Right,
Texas and fair Louisiana, join us in the fight!
Davis, our loved President, and Stephens, statesman rare,
Now rally round the Bonny Blue Flag that bears the single star!
And here's to brave Virginia, the Old Dominion State, With the young Confederacy at length has linked her fate, Impelled by her example, now other States prepare To hoist on high the Bonny Blue Flag that bears a single star!
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THE SECESSION CONVENTION.
In the Mississippi Official and Statistical Register of 1904, compiled and edited by Dunbar Rowland, Director Department of Archives and History, the following account of the Secession Convention is given:
"It was a notable assemblage that met in the Hall of Representatives on the morning of January 7, 1861, and one girt for action. The time for argu- ment, concession, compromise had passed. The supreme act remained to be done. The convention set about its business in a spirit of seriousness, as aware of the tremendous responsibility pressing upon it, but with an unfaltering look toward the one fixed goal. The one hundred delegates, representing the flower of the State, soon organized themselves in a business-like manner by the selection of W. S. Barry of Lowndes to preside. A committee of fifteen was speedily appointed to draft an ordinance of secession. Mr. Lamar was chair- man. The overwhelming sentiment of the convention in favor of immediate secession, as opposed to any form of 'co-operation with other States,' had already declared itself unmistakably.
"On the third day of the committee's deliberations the ordinance was reported by Mr. Lamar as chairman. The man who, later in life, was to reach out across the chasm between the North and South was the central figure in the drama of secession. Efforts to retard its passage or change its complexion were in vain. The roll call on the main question began amid a breathless silence. The name of J. L. Alcorn, an ardent co-operationist, was first called. 'The Rubicon is crossed,' he said, 'I follow the army that leads to Rome.' Oth- ers yielded to the dominant sentiment, and the ordinance passed by a vote of 84 to 15.
"The President announced the vote amid a solemnity that had something religious in it. Moved by the impulse of the moment, he asked a minister to invoke God's blessing on what had been done. The immense audience stood while he complied. Nor Cromwell's pikemen on the eve of battle felt their dependence on the will of Providence more than they. The prayer concluded, a dramatic incident came to relieve the tension. A gentleman entered the hall bearing a blue silk flag, in the center of which glittered a single white star. It had been made overnight by a Jackson lady, in anticipation of the action of the convention. He handed it to the President, who paused a moment and then waved it aloft with the exclamation that it was the first flag of the young republic. The audience broke into applause, rising to salute the emblem. Without were heard the salvos of artillery that greeted the new republic. The next night, it may be worth remarking, 'The Bonny Blue Flag' was sung in a local theater. It had been composed by Harry McCarthy, a comedian, imme- diately after witnessing the scene in the capitol.
"The convention knew its act meant war. Preparations were made for the conflict. Jefferson Davis was elected Major General of the State troops,
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and four Brigadier-Generals were chosen. Delegates to the Convention of the Southern States at Montgomery were also elected. The 'swelling prologue' to the theme of the Civil War was over as far as Mississippi was concerned.
The decision of the United Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, fixing the status of the negro race, giving the owners of slaves the right to settle with them in the territories, was disregarded by abolition agitators. The substance of this decision was that the African slaves were not and could not be acknowledged as "part of the people," or citizens under the Constitution of the United States, and that Con- gress had no right to exclude citizens of the South from taking their negro servants as any other property into any part of the country.
Continued interference, the instigation of negro insurrection, the invasion of John Brown in Virginia to free the negroes, and the scat- tering of emissaries over sections of the South, coupled with past aggressions on Southern rights and efforts to deprive her of equality in the Union by discrimination in legislation, and denying them the right to settle with their slaves in the common territory in face of this decision of the highest tribunal of the land, created a deep feeling of insecurity and further inflamed the passions of the people. It was evident to the minds of Southern people that it was the policy of the abolitionists to irritate the South to the commission of an act to get an excuse to invade the country with the ultimate object of the abolition of slavery and the Africanization of the Southern States.
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