PUBLICATIONS
OF
THE
Mississippi Historical Society
EDITED BY
FRANKLIN L. RILEY
SECRETARY
(_REPRINTED 1919_)
By
DUNBAR ROWLAND, LL. D.
Secretary
VOLUME I.
OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY
1898
OFFICERS FOR 1898.
PRESIDENT,
Gen. S. D. LEE.
VICE-PRESIDENT,
Dr. R. W. JONES.
SECRETARY AND TREASURER,
FRANKLIN L. RILEY, _University P. O., Miss._
ARCHIVIST,
Chancellor R. B. FULTON.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE,
Dr. R. W. JONES,
Prof. J. W. WHITE,
Supt. S. F. BOYD,
Supt. A. A. KINCANNON,
PROF. FRANKLIN L. RILEY.
All persons interested in advancing the cause of Mississippi history
are eligible for membership in the Society. There is no initiation fee.
The only cost to members is annual dues, $2.00, or life dues $30.00.
Members receive all publications of the Society free of charge. Single
members, $2.00 a year.
All communications should be addressed to
FRANKLIN L. RILEY,
_Secretary and Treasurer_.
CONTENTS
PAGE.
1. MISSISSIPPI'S "BACKWOODS POET."
Dabney Lipscomb, A. M. 1
2. MISSISSIPPI AS A FIELD FOR THE STUDENT OF
LITERATURE. W. L. Weber. 16
3. SUFFRAGE IN MISSISSIPPI. R. H. Thompson, LL. D. 25
4. SPANISH POLICY IN MISSISSIPPI AFTER THE TREATY
OF SAN LORENZO. F. L. Riley, Ph. D. 50
5. TIME AND PLACE RELATIONS IN HISTORY WITH
SOME MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA APPLICATIONS.
Prof. H. E. Chambers. 67
6. THE STUDY AND TEACHING OF HISTORY.
Herbert B. Adams, Ph. D., LL. D. 73
7. SOME FACTS IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI.
R. W. Jones, A. M., LL. D. 85
8. PRE-HISTORIC JASPER ORNAMENTS IN MISSISSIPPI.
R. B. Fulton, A.M. LL. D. 91
9. SUGGESTIONS TO LOCAL HISTORIANS.
Franklin L. Riley, Ph. D. 96
10. SOME INACCURACIES IN CLAIBORNE'S HISTORY IN
REGARD TO TECUMSEH. H. S. Halbert. 101
11. DID JONES COUNTY SECEDE? A. L. Bondurant. 104
12. INDEX 107
PUBLICATIONS
OF THE
MISSISSIPPI HISTORICAL SOCIETY
VOL. I. JUNE, 1898. NO. 1.
MISSISSIPPI'S "BACKWOODS POET."
BY DABNEY LIPSCOMB, A. M.
To awaken greater interest in what, however estimated, Mississippians
have accomplished in the field of literature, to provoke research into
even its remote and unfrequented corners; and, chiefly, to place more
prominently before the people of his much-loved State a poet too little
known, is the double purpose of this essay.
The poet needs no introduction and offers no apology on his entrance
into the domain of history; for he is no intruder there, entitled
indeed to a place of honor in the proudest capitol of that noble
realm. Homer precedes Herodotus and makes his record doubly valuable.
The poet is in fact the maker in large measure of the history of the
world. Through his entrancing and inspiring voice the aspirations of
humanity have been elevated, ideals lofty in thought and deed have been
constantly upheld, and will to dare and do the utmost in the cause of
liberty and righteousness has been imparted in the hour of need. In the
poet's verse we read, as nowhere else, the inner throbbing life of man.
High or low his ascent of Parnassus, his words have a charm for us, if
the Muse has bidden him welcome; and the nearer he is to us the more
apt he will be to express our peculiar griefs and joys in his melodious
strains.
Hence, it is with pleasure, that the claims of Mississippi's
"Backwoods Poet" to our affection and appreciation are now presented.
Perhaps he is not the greatest of the thirty or forty that might be
named who in our State have as poets achieved more or less local
distinction. He modestly disclaimed such honor, and assumed himself
the title of "Backwoods Poet" which has been given him. S. Newton
Berryhill, of Choctaw (now Webster) county, Mississippi, is his proper
name. He was born October 22, 1832, and died Dec. 8, 1887.
In the preface of his poems these significant facts are stated:
"While I was yet an infant, my father with his family settled
down in a wilderness, where I grew up with the population,
rarely ever going out of the neighborhood for forty years. The
old log school house, with a single window and a single door,
was my _alma mater_, the green woods was my campus."
Yet what he learned in the log school house and the woods and by
subsequent private study would put to shame very many who have enjoyed
far better educational advantages; especially, when the further
disadvantage under which he labored is considered. Early in life he
became the victim of a serious spinal affection, which rendered him a
confirmed invalid, unable the remainder of his days to stand upon his
feet. Despite all these, to an ordinary man, crushing limitations,
he became fairly proficient in Latin, French, German, and music, in
addition to a thorough knowledge of the usual high school course in
English, science, and mathematics.
To teaching, journalism, and literature he devoted his life. After a
long and creditable career as teacher near his country home, during
which time most of his poetry was written, he moved, about 1875,
to Columbus, Mississippi. In the dingy office of the old _Columbus
Democrat_, the writer first saw this unquestionably remarkable man.
Cushioned in his wheel chair, before a desk, busy with his pen, Mr.
Berryhill, the editor, saw not how closely he was observed, nor the
look of pity he might have read in his beholder's face for one so
handicapped in the race of life. But as the massive, thinly covered
head was raised, and the dauntless, lofty spirit of the man shone
from the dark and deep-set eyes; as the almost cheerful expression
of his pallid countenance was revealed,--pity gave way to wonder and
admiration, which grew yet more with further knowledge of the man
and his achievements against odds apparently so overwhelming. How
respectfully on bright Sundays when he could venture out, he was lifted
in his chair by friends up the double flight of steps to the audience
room of the church and rolled down the aisle to the place near the
pulpit, sympathetic glances following him the while, is a picture, too,
not soon to be forgotten.
During his stay in Columbus he was elected County Treasurer, which
office he filled acceptably two years. In 1880 he returned to Webster
county, where, as has been stated, he died, Jan. 8, 1887. Little else,
for the lack of information, except that he was a Methodist and a
Mason, can be said of the life and character of Mr. Berryhill. What
more is given must be gathered from his writings in an inferential way,
which for this purpose and for their literary merit, will repay the
examination now proposed.
The editorials, sound, progressive, and patriotic, must be laid aside.
The rather crude but racy character sketches, Indian legends, and
miscellaneous short stories, written in part during his quiet closing
years, must, also, more regretfully be left unnoticed for lack of time.
His poetry is the work he prized most highly, and by it his place in
literature should be determined.
From boyhood, he was irrepressibly poetic. The spirit of the woods
and hills early descended on him, giving his eye unwonted keenness
in discerning the beauty that surrounded him, and his ear unwonted
delicacy in detecting the melody that floated in every breeze. Romantic
stories of their better days told him by neighboring friendly Choctaws
took deep root in his youthful fancy and bore fruit in his prose and
verse.
In 1878 his poems written during the forty years previous were
published at Columbus in a volume entitled "Backwoods Poems." Political
issues of very serious nature, not altogether settled, were then too
absorbing a theme to Mississippians to permit them to pay much heed to
poetry, however excellent. Hence, the work received less notice than
otherwise it would. But one edition was ever published, and few copies
of it can now be found.
What first strikes the reader as he turns the pages of this
unpretentious little volume is the variety and uniform excellence of
the versification. Under the circumstances, it was natural to suppose
that this poet would attempt little else than the rhyming couplet and
the ballad form of verse. Instead, stanzas varying greatly in length
and rhyme order, with lines from two to six stresses, iambic and often
trochaic in movement, usually well sustained, soon make a strong
impression that no common poetaster has set the music to these verses.
As to length, not more than half a dozen of the two hundred twenty-six
poems in the collection contain more than one hundred lines. The
longest and leading poem, called Palila, is a metrical version of a
favorite Choctaw legend, numbering one thousand tetrameter lines. This
pathetic story of an Indian maiden and her ill-starred gallant lover
and the upshooting by the medicine spring of the little flower the
pale-face calls the lady's slipper, but known to red men as Palila's
Moccasin, is told with dramatic effect, and has the atmosphere of
freedom and wildness befitting a tale so weird and sad. Bare mention of
two or three other rather lengthy poems, such as "A Heart's History,"
and "The Vision of Blood," will be made, principally to call attention
to the excellence of the blank verse in which they are written; its
ease, accuracy, and vigor are readily perceived.
The shorter poems may be conveniently classed as anacreontic, humorous,
patriotic, descriptive, and personal. Many of them, as the author
admits, especially those of his youth, are crude and imperfect, but
he explains in a personally suggestive way that he could not cast out
these poor children of his brain on account of their deformity, and
craves indulgence where approval or applause must be withheld.
The poems of love and humor have little value except for the light they
throw on the poet, who, though deprived of nearly all the heart holds
dear in life, could yet fully sympathize with youth in its joys and
smile genially even on its follies. A few stanzas from two or three
poems in his lighter vein, of which there are quite a number, will be
sufficient to indicate the sunny side of the poet's nature. First, a
little rustic picture:
BETTIE BELL.
How sweet she looked in home spun frock,
With arms and shoulders bare,
And yellow flowers and scarlet leaves
Twined in her auburn hair;
With saucy lips and fingers plump
Stained by the berries wild;
And hazel eyes whose drooping lids
Half hid them when she smiled.
I could have kissed the little tracks
Her bare brown feet had made;
There was no huckleberry pond
Too deep for me to wade--
There was no rough persimmon tree
Too tall for me to scale--
If Bettie Bell was standing by
With the little wooden pail.
Another with a touch of humor will next be given:
MR. BROWN;
OR CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER CASES.
"O tell me Mary have you seen
That ugly Mr. Brown
With pumpkin head and brimstone hair,
And manners like a clown!
What could have made young Charley Smith
Bring such a gawk to town?
He has no breeding, I am sure--
He stares at ladies so
With those great dumpling eyes of his---
And I would like to know
How Bettie Jones can condescend
To take him for a beau!"
Quoth Mary, "What you say is true;
He's awkward and he's plain;
But then, you know, he's rich;
And wealth with some will gain."--
"Indeed, I never heard of that,"
Said pretty Martha Jane.
"I only got a glance at him
At Mrs. Jenkins' ball;
And on acquaintance he may not look
So ugly after all.
I wonder if young Charley Smith
Will ask his friend to call!"
Even in parody the isolated sufferer would at times seek
self-forgetfulness or diversion. A short one is here inserted from the
author's scrap-book. To a Southerner, the faithfulness and humor of the
selection will be manifest:
SKETCH.
The darkey sat on his stubborn mule,
Day through the west had fled,
And the silver light of the rising moon
Shone on his bare bald head.
Firm as an Alp the old mule stood--
An Alp with its crest of snow--
The darkey thumped, the darkey kicked,
And swore he'd make it go.
The night wore on, it would not budge
Till it had changed its mind;
And the darkey cursed, the darkey swore
Till he was hoarse and blind.
At last he saw its big ears twitch,
Its eyes cast back the while;
And felt the skin beneath him writhe
Like a serpent in its coil.
Then came a yell of wild despair;
The man--oh! where was he?--
When the clouds unveil the hidden moon
I think perhaps we'll see.
In the patriotic poems, chiefly war lyrics, notes louder, harsher, and
even bitter in their tone as the cause seems lost, strike clear and
full upon the ear, disclosing their author as one of the "fire eaters"
of the South, loth to accept the verdict of the sword and submit to
reconstruction. In this gathering, apart from their connection with the
author, two or three of these poems no doubt will be interesting for
their historical value alone. "_The Storm_," written April 15, 1861,
expresses in borrowed form but with graphic power the terrible suspense
that then prevailed:
THE STORM.
OLD DOMINION.
Watchman, tell us of the night,
For our hearts with grief are bowed;
Breaks no gleam of silver light
Through the dark and angry cloud?
WATCHMAN.
Blacker grows the midnight sky;
Lightnings leap and thunders roll;
Hist! the tempest draweth nigh,--
Christ, have mercy on our souls!
OLD DOMINION.
Search the northern sky with care,
Whence the tempest issued forth,
Are the clouds not breaking there?
Watchman, tell us of the North.
WATCHMAN.
I have searched the Northern skies,
Where the wicked storm-fiends dwell;
From their seething caldrons rise
Clouds as black as smoke from hell.
OLD DOMINION.
Turn you to the East, my friend;
Can you see no rosy streak?
Will the long night never end?
Day--oh will it never break?
WATCHMAN.
I have looked; no ray of light
Streaks the black horizon there:
But the angry face of night
Doth its fiercest aspect wear.
OLD DOMINION.
Raven, cease your dismal croak,
Cease to tear my bleeding breast;
Turn you where the clouds are broke;
Watchman, tell us of the West.
WATCHMAN.
Black and full of evils dire,
Stands the cloud which hides the West;
Storm-lights tinge its base with fire,
Lightnings play upon its crest.
OLD DOMINION.
Watchman, scan the Southern sky:
Is there not one star in sight?
Search with anxious, careful eye--
Watchman, tell us of the night.
WATCHMAN.
Praise the Lord! there yet is hope!
Cease your groans and dry your tears:
Lo! the sable cloud doth ope
And the clear gray sky appears.
Wider grows the field of light
As the rent clouds backward fly,
And a starry circle bright
Silvers all the Southern sky.
"The Vision of Blood" written in 1864 is too long, and even if not, too
lurid in its imagery to justify reproduction now. Instead let us take
this glimpse into those days of death and disaster to the South:
TIDINGS FROM THE BATTLE FIELD.
"Fresh tidings from the battle field!"
A widowed mother stands,
And lifts the glasses from her eyes
With trembling withered hands.
"Fresh tidings from the battle field!"
"Your only son is slain;
He fell with victory on his lips,
And a bullet in his brain."
The stricken mother staggers back,
And falls upon the floor:
And the wailing shriek of a broken heart
Comes from the cottage door.
"Fresh tidings from the battle field!"
The wife her needle plies,
While in the cradle at her feet
Her sleeping infant lies.
"Fresh tidings from the battle field!"
"Your husband is no more,
But he died as soldiers love to die,
His wounds were all before."
Her work was dropped--"O God" she moans,
And lifts her aching eyes;
The orphaned babe in the cradle wakes,
And joins its mother's cries.
"Fresh tidings from the battle field!"
A maid with pensive eye
Sits musing near the sacred spot
Where she heard his last good-bye.
"Fresh tidings from the battle-field!"
"Your lover's cold in death;
But he breathed the name of her he loved
With his expiring breath."
With hands pressed to her snowy brow,
She strives her grief to hide;
She shrinks from friendly sympathy--
A widow ere a bride.
"Fresh tidings from the battle field!"
O, what a weight of woe
Is borne upon their blood-stained wings
As onward still they go!
War! eldest child of Death and Hell!
When shall thy horrors cease?
When shall the Gospel usher in
The reign of love and peace?
Speed, speed, the blissful time, O Lord!--
The blessed, happy years--
When plough-shares shall be made of swords,
And pruning hooks of spears!
The lines on Sheridan and Butler express something more than the poet's
righteous indignation at deeds by them in which he can somehow see
neither virtue nor valor. As indicative of the feelings of the South in
the hour of final defeat and subjugation read "Daughters of Southland"
and "My Motherland." One stanza of the first must suffice:
Daughters of Southland, weep no more;
Their glory's priceless gem
Nor peace, nor war can ever mar;
There is no change for them.
Rejoice! for tho the conqueror's hate
Still beats upon our head,
Despite our chains there yet remains
The memory of our dead.
How tender and ardent is the patriotism in these lines:
My motherland! My motherland!
Though dust is on thy brow,
And sack-cloth wraps thy beauteous form,
I love thee better now
Than when, arrayed in robes of power,
Thou send'st thy legions forth
To battle with the hosts that poured.
From out the mighty North.
* * * * *
My motherland! my motherland!
Thy bravest and thy best,
Beneath the sod their life-blood stained,
In dreamless slumber rest;
Thrice happy dead! They cannot hear
Thy low, sad wail of woe;
The taunts thy living sons must bear
They are not doomed to know.
My motherland! my motherland!
Their spirits whisper me,
And bid me in thy days of grief
Still closer cling to thee,
And though the hopes we cherished once
With them have found a grave,
I love thee yet, my motherland--
The land they died to save.
Whether he spoke for his section in these disdainful and defiant lines,
descriptive of times just after the war, each may decide for himself:
RE-RECONSTRUCTION.
Aye, heat the iron seven times hot
In the furnace red of hell;
Call to your aid the venomed skill
Of "all the fiends that fell,"
And forge new links for the galling chain
To bind the prostrate South again.
Stir up again your snarling pack
Your jackals black and white,
That tear her lovely form by day,
And gnaw her bones by night--
Your sniveling thieves with carpet bags--
Your sneaking, whining scalawags!
* * * * *
Villains, go on; each blow you strike
To glut your hellish hate,
But welds in one all Southern hearts,
And state unites to state;
And lo, compact our Southland stands--
A nation fashioned by your hands.
But it is in the poems personal and descriptive that we get close to
this poet's heart. There will be found what gave most solace to his
circumscribed and lonely life. In nature as she was most attractive
to him, and in lines to loved ones young and old, plaintive often but
never rebellious or morose, the placid, self-restrained, yet inspiring
nature of the man is brought to clearest view. Fervid in his love for
beauty, he bowed none the less devoutly at the shrine of duty.
"The Old School House," "The Deserted Home," "Autumn," "The Frost and
the Forest," "My Castle," "Lines on the Death of My Father," "My Old
Home," and the last poem "Unfinished," are representative of the class
that best reflects the poet and the man; and by their pensive beauty
perhaps take firmest hold upon the reader. It is difficult to offer
satisfactory illustrations without being too lengthy; but these will
prove at least suggestive:
AUTUMN.
Let nobler poets tune their lyres to sing
The budding glories of the early spring,--
Its gay sweet-scented flowers and verdant trees
That graceful bend before the western breeze.
Be mine the task to chant in humble rhyme
The lovely autumn of our own bright Southern clime.
No more the sun from the zenith high,
With fiery tongue licks brook and riv'let dry;
But from beyond the equinoctial line--
Where crystal waters lave the golden mine--
Aslant on earth he pours his mellow beams,
Soft as the memories which light old age's dreams.
The following poem can be given entire, as it is short:
THE FROST AND THE FOREST.
The Frost King came in the dead of night--
Came with jewels of silver sheen--
To woo by the spinster Dian's light,
The pride of the South--the Forest Queen.
He wooed till morn, and he went away;
Then I heard the Forest faintly sigh,
And she blushed like a girl on her wedding day,
And her blush grew deeper as time went by.
Alas, for the Forest! the cunning Frost
Her ruin sought, when he came to woo;
She moans all day her glory lost,
And her blush has changed to a death-like hue.
Perhaps Mr. Berryhill's best known poem is one that is personal and yet
quite fanciful. It can be found in Miss Clarke's "Songs of the South."
Two or three stanzas will be sufficient:
MY CASTLE.
They do not know who sneer at me because I'm poor and lame,
And round my brow has never twined the laurel wreath of fame--
They do not know that I possess a castle old and grand,
With many an acre broad attached of fair and fertile land;
With hills and dales, and lakes and streams, and fields of waving grain,
And snowy flocks, and lowing herds, that browse upon the plain.
In sooth, it is a good demesne--how would my scorners stare,
Could they behold the splendors of my castle in the air!
The room in which I am sitting now is smoky, bare and cold,
But I have gorgeous, stately chambers in my palace old.
Rich paintings by the grand old masters hang upon the wall
And marble busts and statues stand around the spacious hall.
A chandelier of silver pure, and golden lamps illume,
With rosy light, on festal nights the great reception room.
When wisdom, genius, beauty, wit, are all assembled there,
And strains of sweetest music fill my castle in the air.
* * * * *
The banks may break, and stocks may fall, the Croesus of to-day
May see, to-morrow, all his wealth, like snow, dissolve away.
And the auctioneer, at panic price, to the highest bidder sell
His marble home in which a king might well be proud to dwell.
But in my castle in the air, I have a sure estate
No panic with its hydra head can e'er depreciate.
No hard-faced sheriff dares to levy execution there,
For universal law exempts a castle in the air.
Little remains to be said. This singular life, with an estimate of the
quality and quantity of its work has been unfolded as faithfully as
possible.
With greater interest, the dominant motive of the author, so frankly
stated, may now be joined, without comment, to his mournful retrospect
of his life work. The first is found in the lines from Mrs. Hemans
inscribed on the title page of "Backwoods Poems."
----"I'd leave behind
Something immortal of my heart and mind."
This is his salutatory. In the closing stanza of the last poem
"Unfinished," the retrospect is made, and his valedictory delivered
thus:
"My canvas is not full; a vacant space
Remains untouched. To fill it were not meet--
I'll leave it so--like all that bears a trace
Of me on earth--Unfinished--incomplete."
To Hayne, Lanier, and Maurice Thompson, S. Newton Berryhill must yield
in subtlety of melody and penetrative insight into nature's deeper
meanings. Timrod and Ticknor in their war lyrics may, at times, have
struck the martial chord with stronger and more dextrous hand; but it
may still be justly claimed that the best of the "Backwoods Poems"
compare favorably with much or even most of the work of these more
famous Southern poets.
If in this paper this claim has been established, its purpose is
abundantly fulfilled, and the "Backwoods Poet" in environment and
achievement stands out a unique figure in the literature of the State.
MISSISSIPPI AS A FIELD FOR THE STUDENT OF LITERATURE.
BY W. L. WEBER.
Dr. Sam Johnson is sponsor for the stock illustration of history
reduced to its lowest terms. His story is with reference to the Natural
History of Iceland by the Danish Historian Horrebow. The learned Dane
undertook to write an exhaustive account of the wintry island. Chapter
Seventy-two of this history, so the story goes, had as its title
the attractive phrase, Concerning Snakes. The Chapter itself, long
famous for telling the whole truth in the fewest words, consists of
one sentence: There are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole
island.
With similar parsimony of words, if we are willing to adopt one of the
almost universally accepted definitions in which beauty and permanence
and universality are made the final tests of literature--if we are
willing to accept so narrow a definition we may find ourselves able to
write the history of Mississippi literature in one sentence. Such a
history would be--in the brutal directness of Horrebow's phrase: There
is no literature to be met with throughout the whole State.
But as for me, this humiliating conclusion is not to be agreed to,
for I decline to be shackled by so narrow limitations. Literature
has a wider meaning than is given to it in this esthetic definition,
a definition which must exclude everything written by Mississippi
authors. There ought to be general agreement to the commonplace that
literature is life embodied in the pages of books. "Good literature
is" therefore "an open door into the life and mode of thought of the
time and place where it originated." On this side of our work the
departments of literature and of history are one and inseparable.
There can be no genuine history of a people which fails to take into
account the distinctly intellectual life of that people. The student
of policies and of institutions must needs seek the help of him whose
care is to trace literary currents and together they must labor by
painstaking study of the writings of Mississippians to conjure up
by some verbal necromancy, the literary genius and spirit of the
people of the State. We are not going too far, then, in asserting
that all written monuments that in any way reflect and set forth the
intellectual life of the people are rightly to be enumerated in the
lists of Mississippi literature.
But even after we have insisted on this wider definition of literature,
Mississippi has few grounds for boasting. The list of Mississippi books
is not long; the average quality is not high. Of pure literature, of
the real literature of power, we have contributed scarcely fifty pages
to the world's store. We may deceive ourselves and gratify our state
pride by wild claims, but after the joy of self-glorification is over
we shall be forced to the conclusion that our place in literary history
is an humble one. Some part of this result is doubtless due to sham
admiration of our literature. We have delighted to praise our books
without stint; we have preferred to buy the books of others. To praise
is easy; to read is weariness to the flesh. We have, therefore, praised
extravagantly; we have read vicariously. It does not come within the
range of this paper to suggest why Mississippi has contributed so much
more to politics than to literature. Preference for the hustlings and
the madding crowds rather than for the desk and its quiet enthusiasms
must be accepted as a fact, let him who will account for it. Nor is
this the place to argue that a local literature is a contradiction in
terms. Our desire is to see the day when Mississippi shall have writers
whom succeeding generations will delight to number among those who have
contributed to the world's best thoughts, adequately expressed.
My purpose is not to tickle your ears with a panegyric on what
Mississippi has done in the field of literature, not to apologize for
her confessed shortcomings, not to prophesy excellence as the certain
outcome of the future. My purpose is a humbler one. I take for granted
that there are in the state young men with literary aspirations. I
wish to suggest to such, some lines of work that need to be done, and
to be done at once. It is my hope that such work will be valuable in
furnishing a store house of literary material and that the labor of
accumulation will be admirable discipline preparing the students for
creative effort--if haply they be so endowed as to be able to do work
for all time.
To make my suggestions altogether practical, I shall draw up a list of
channels in which the student of Mississippi literature may profitably
direct his activity. (It may not be amiss just here to call your
attention to the fact that by my subject-title I am restricted to
that aspect of our subject which has to do with the interests of the
students and have, therefore, no direct connection with the immediate
interests of the author.) Turning our attention to student-work, I may
as well express my opinion that we have no noble specimens of literary
art to which the student may turn to make critical examination of the
method and purposes of literary interpretation. We have little that may
claim place even in the ranks of third and fourth rate productions.
With the single exception of the poems of Irvin Russell, Mississippi
has produced nothing which literary men have been willing to accord a
place in the literature of America.
It is perhaps too soon to prophesy whether his place is a permanent
one or not. It is, however, evident that the Mississippi student must
look for a humbler class of work than that of constructive criticism.
Having little material to which the rules of esthetic criticism may be
profitably applied, and having no desire to be enrolled in the large
and ignoble army of criticasters, our student must look for a less
inviting field of activity. Yet he has the consolation of knowing that
even journeyman work if it be well done is altogether worth doing. And
even if we are not yet at a stage in our literary history when we can
afford to claim the right to subject our material to the tests reserved
for noble literary models, we may wisely believe that ours is the work
which will prepare the ground from which will spring up a harvest every
way worthy of our beautiful fields of our eventful history, of our
noble people.
Having agreed as to what class of work may come under a professedly
literary review of Mississippi writings, we are minded to take stock
of our property. Being under the conviction that everything which sets
forth Mississippi life is worthy of consideration, we may conclude that
every Mississippi book has a right to be included in the subject matter
worthy of the attention of a Mississippi student. Justin Winsor learned
by experience that every printed document was worthy of preservation
in the great library of Harvard University and we shall find that no
contribution of a Mississippi pen is unworthy of our care. I may call
your attention to the fact that much writing of real merit is of a
fugitive character and appears only to sink back into the oblivion of
musty files of country newspapers.
The first work, then, to which I should assign my student is the
compilation of a bibliography of Mississippi literature. So far as I
know there is no man who knows how many books have been written by
our own authors. A confessedly incomplete list of my own compilation
reveals the name of many a work the Mississippian of average
intelligence has never so much as heard of. As has already been
suggested, I should not confine the list to an enumeration of bound
volumes. Every pamphlet a copy of which may be had, or the actual
appearing of which is assured, ought to be listed in the Bibliography
of Mississippi Literature. At the very outset of our labors, we are
met with a problem that meets the student of the literature of every
section of the United States. What constitutes a Mississippi book?
Are we to proceed on the doctrine that once a Mississippian, always
a Mississippian and include in our enumeration the books of every
writer that has been in the State? If so, Jas. A. Harrison, a native
born Mississippian, a Virginian by adoption, is to adorn our lists.
Must we add all books written on Mississippi soil? If so, we are to
include many volumes of Maurice Thompson, who spends his winters on
the Gulf Coast, and dates his prefaces from Bay St. Louis. Are we to
include works written by authors then legally residents of the state,
afterwards citizens of other states? If so, Professors Bledsoe and
Hutson are Mississippi authors. These questions must be settled before
we can have an authoritative bibliography. It has been my custom
to enumerate as ours, all books written by an author resident in
Mississippi at the time of the writing of the volume.
After having completed the bibliography, the student would naturally
turn his attention to the gathering of biographical facts connected
with our own writers. Most of those who have made books have
acquaintances still living. From them we must get the facts that will
enable us to understand what has been written. The man wrote himself
into his book, to be sure, and the facts of his life are the very best
commentary on the book itself. It is a shame that we have neglected our
own writers and that it was left to Professor Baskervill, a Tennessean,
to give us the only adequate appreciation of Irwin Russell. But much
is left to be done. The student who accumulates the recollections of
Russell's friends and preserves them in the archives of the Historical
Society will be doing a work worth while doing, a work which will
grow in value as the years go by. This field of biographical study is
practically untilled, tho we may cite as examples of how the work is to
be done--Professor Baskervill's paper just mentioned, Bishop Galloway's
study of Henry T. Lewis and Professor Lipscomb's account of Berryhill,
the Poet.
After my student had acquired a surer touch in his progress from
compiler of book-lists to painter of life-picture, he would already be
prepared in literary appreciativeness to see and point out the fine
poetry fossilized in the Indian names remaining in our state. It is
worth while to make lists of all our Indian geographical names, to
discover the meaning of the names so collected and if possible to find
out the circumstances that led to these names being given to creek,
to river, to hamlet, county, as may be. In some names there is, to be
sure, little poetry. The fact that Shubuta means "sour meal" does not
serve as a trumpet call to the writing of a sonnet; but where there
is a lack of poetry the historical fact of name-origin still remains.
Why may not some Mississippi Lanier sing into fame our rivers, as the
Georgia Chattahoochee has been immortalized by its own poet?
Connected with Indian names the investigator will find Indian legends.
A rich mine is sure to open before a diligent worker. The fact that
there are different versions of the same legend makes the material
all the more valuable as a field of study. The student of ethnography
as well as the student of literature finds the history of the Biloxi
Indians full of interest. There is poetry even in the naming of the
legend of the singing waves of the Pascagoula. There are many and
complicated stories connected with the driving of the Natchez Indians
from their ancestral seats. Every year makes the collecting of these
legends more and more difficult. The patriotic Mississippi student will
see to it that they are not lost, but are gathered into the store house
for use in days to come.
Joel Chandler Harris has done a wonderful work for Georgia and the
Atlantic Coast in the collection of Lore. It cannot be that Uncle Remus
had no kinsmen in Mississippi. Yet no one has sought to preserve these
Mississippi versions of negro folk tales. It will be remarkable if
these tales have not been influenced by Indian admixtures. No student
has investigated the subject to find out whether Mississippi has its
distinct group of Brer Rabbit stories and whether the distinctive
quality of our group is due to contact with Indian legends. Surely
nobody will suggest that the work is not worth while doing. With the
disappearance of the Indian and the complete conventionalizing of the
negro, the opportunity will have passed away.
Not less valuable to the collector of material for the use of the
future maker of Mississippi literature is the full account of the
doings of famous Mississippi outlaws. It may not be too soon to
investigate the deeds of Murrell and his gang. If the story of his
exploits is to become literary property it must be learned before all
his contemporaries have passed off the stage of life. It is not too
much to expect that the William Gilmore Simms which Mississippi will
some day produce may find in the doings of Murrell material for a story
that may compare with some of the wildest exploits described by the
South Carolina writer. May he who is to portray the early life of our
State be not too slow in the coming.
Who knows but that the Mississippi literary man whom we confidently
expect and to whom we await to do honor--who knows but that he may
belong to the school of Cable and of Murfree and may therefore wish
to write in dialect. If the student have some philological training
he may wisely prepare for the writer's coming by collection of word
lists--of words heard in Mississippi but words that have no literary
standing--words which are for the most part confined to the use of the
illiterate. Dr. Shands has already collected a list along this line in
his dissertation entitled Some Peculiarities of Speech in Mississippi.
I am sure he is mistaken in thinking that any of his words are peculiar
to Mississippi, but nevertheless his list is valuable as enumerating
expressions that are to be heard in our state--words which he who tries
to reproduce the speech of Mississippi illiterates may not be afraid to
use.
The student of our literature may wisely include in the range of his
studies all references to Mississippi to be found in the literature of
other sections. Not only such references as those but all accounts of
Mississippi in books of travel have a rightful place in the collections
of him who would gather together the raw material from which literature
may some day be woven.
To the writer of reminiscences the literary student looks with hopeful
eye. From such an one may be had biographical data, personal traits,
literary anecdotes--in fact all the ana which the literary student of
this day delights in. The humble collector of this material may not
win much of fame for self--except so far as that the humbler work well
done does not need to be done again and therefore wins the reward due
to honest endeavor--But if he gains no reward he may rejoice in the
consciousness that he is making possible the day when Mississippi may
stand as a peer with other Southern States, delight to honor her own
Lanier, her own Harris, her own Cable, her own Murfree, and her own
Allen.
Some one is already asking what's the good of all this? Such matters
may perhaps be wisely assigned as school boy tasks but there certainly
can be but little value in the material after it has been laboriously
collected. The study of literary history supports the contention that
the accumulation of the subject matter of literature is in necessary
precedence to the creative work of the producer of literature. It
will but be in accord with what has taken place in the past, if a
student who sets to work along lines I have suggested, who accumulates
material, who immerses himself in the history and traditions of his
state--it will be but natural, I say, if such an one have his heart set
on fire by the enthusiasm engendered by his work and be transformed
from a journeyman toiling over his tasks of accumulator into literary
wizard who by the incantations of his genius may call forth the spirit
of his time. Such work made Walter Scott.
May Mississippi see not another Scott but a literary man who under
new conditions and with new material may create for Mississippi a new
literature which may have like place in the world's literature with the
immortal contributions of the great Scotchman. When that day comes the
Mississippian will not have on his shoulders the burden of being an
apologist and will not have to compound with his conscience in order to
win the name of being patriotic in matters literary.
I have not hesitated thus to rehearse in your hearing matters already
well-known to you. If I have but retold an old, old story, I have not
deceived myself into thinking that I was telling you new or startling
truths. The old story--the well known fact sometimes needs to be
reviewed. The fact that it is so well-known, is so self-evident--causes
it to be overlooked. I am quite willing to be found fault with for
rehearsing at needless length what everybody knows--provided only my
rehearsing will lead to these matters being attended to.
SUFFRAGE IN MISSISSIPPI
BY HON. R. H. THOMPSON.
That portion of the present State of Mississippi and that part of
Alabama lying between the Mississippi and Chattahoochee rivers, and
bounded on the south by the thirty-first parallel of latitude and
on the north by a line drawn due east from the mouth of the Yazoo
river, was organized into the Mississippi Territory in pursuance of
an act of Congress, approved April 7, 1798. Afterwards, in 1804,
the country lying south of the State of Tennessee and north of the
original Mississippi Territory was added; and in 1812 that portion
of the present States of Alabama and Mississippi lying south of the
thirty-first degree of latitude was annexed. Mississippi became a state
in 1817 and Alabama was then separated from it. This historic statement
at the outset will explain why several matters pertaining to suffrage
in municipalities not now in the state, are hereafter mentioned.
The organic law of the Territory enacted that the people thereof should
"be entitled to and enjoy all and singular the rights, privileges and
advantages granted to the people of the territory of the United States,
northwest of the river Ohio in and by the ordinance of the thirteenth
day of July in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven,
in as full and ample a manner as the same are possessed and enjoyed
by the people of the said last mentioned Territory," and thus in our
investigation of the subject we are led to examine the ordinance
referred to, and which we find in the statutes entitled, "An ordinance
for the Territory of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio,"
to see if it contains any provision relative to suffrage. We find it,
and the words of this celebrated ordinance are as follows. "So soon as
there shall be five thousand free male inhabitants, of full age, in the
district, upon giving proof thereof to the governor, they shall receive
authority, with time and place, to elect representatives from their
counties or townships, to represent them in the general assembly;
provided that for every five hundred free male inhabitants, there shall
be one representative, and so on progressively with the number of free
male inhabitants, shall the right of representation increase, until the
number of representatives shall amount to twenty-five; after which the
number, and proportion of representatives shall be regulated by the
legislature; Provided that no person be eligible or qualified to act
as a representative, unless he shall have been a citizen of the United
States three years, and be a resident in the district, or unless he
shall have resided in the district three years, and in either case,
shall likewise hold in his own right, in fee simple, two hundred acres
of land within the same; Provided also, that a freehold of fifty acres
of land in the district, having been a citizen of one of the states,
and being resident in the district, or the like freehold, and two years
residence in the district shall be necessary to qualify a man as an
elector of a representative."
With all due respect to the fathers, nothing in statutory language
could be more awkward; the reading of it, however, will serve to remind
us that the modern legislator cannot claim originality for his habitual
use of the word "provided" as introductory to amendments, and with
which to string his ideas together.
The last of the three provisos is necessarily a limitation on the "free
male inhabitants, of full age," mentioned at the beginning of the
section, since there is no provision in the ordinance for the election
of any officers save representatives to the general assembly; all other
officers in the scheme of government here provided were appointive. An
analysis of the laws of 1787, which evidently must be basis of suffrage
in a number of states as well as Mississippi, shows that to entitle
a person to vote under our first suffrage law he must have been (1)
Free, (2) Male, (3) of full age, presumably 21 years, (4) citizen of
the United States and resident of the Territory or a resident for two
years in the Territory and (5) Freeholder of fifty acres of land in the
district.
While this organic law was in force, of course the territorial
legislation was confined, so far as concerns our subject, to municipal
suffrage, but I have thought reference thereto not without the scope
of this paper, since such legislation, perhaps more than any other,
being untrammeled as a general rule by unyielding constitutional
restrictions, throws light upon the spirit, temper and thoughts of the
people on the subject at the time of the enactment.
Before the amendment of the organic law herein next mentioned I find
but one piece of such legislation; by an act approved in 1803 the
"freeholders, landholders and householders" of the city of Natchez were
authorized by a majority vote to elect municipal officers, and the
act further reads that "for the better understanding of the meaning
of the term householder, it is hereby declared that any person who
shall be in the occupancy of a room, or rooms, separate and apart
to himself, shall be deemed a householder, and entitled to vote at
the annual and other meetings of the said city: Provided that such
occupancy shall have existed six months next preceding such election."
Were this explanatory enactment omitted it would seem that to entitle
a person to vote he should have been a freeholder and a landholder
and a householder, all three conjointly, but it is apparent that the
legislature did not so intend, since it provided by the explanation
that if he were a householder alone, he would have been entitled to
vote. The explanation, while directed at a definition of a householder,
settles by indirection the only doubt arising from the text sought
to be explained, but unfortunately the proviso brought with it a
greater difficulty than the explanation had removed, and that was
whether other householders than those directed to be so deemed, were
required to have been such for six months before offering to vote. The
phraseology suggests legislative amendments and indicates a difference
of opinion as to who should be intrusted to vote; but all seem to have
agreed upon permanent residence anchorage to the soil as an essential
qualification, the difference being as to rigidity and extent to which
it should be carried. The most notable thing about this, the first
legislative act of Mississippi conferring the right of suffrage, is
that no distinction is made because of age, color, or sex. Whether this
were by accident or design, and whether other persons than adult white
males really voted thereunder, does not appear.
By an Act of Congress, approved Jan. 9th, 1808, the organic law so far
as it related to Mississippi Territory, was amended so as to provide
that every free white male person in the Mississippi Territory, above
the age of 21 years, having been a citizen of the United States, and
resident in the said territory one year next preceding an election of
representatives, and who has a legal or equitable title to a tract of
land by virtue of any act of Congress, or who may become the purchaser
of any tract of land from the United States of the quantity of fifty
acres, or who may hold in his own right a town lot of the value of one
hundred dollars within the said territory, shall be entitled to vote
for representatives to the general assembly of said territory.
The change just made in the suffrage laws of the territory can best be
appreciated by the use of parallel columns.
Act of July 13th, 1787. Act of Jan. 9, 1808.
A person to vote hereunder must be A person to vote hereunder must be
(1) Free, (1) Free,
(2) Male, (2) Male,
(3) Of the age of twenty-one years. (3) Of the age of twenty-one years.
(4) A citizen of the United States (4) A citizen of the United
and a resident of the Territory, States and resident of the
territory or a resident for
two years in one year next
preceding an the Territory,
and election at which he
offers to vote,
(5) A freeholder of fifty acres of (5) The holder of a legal or
land in the district. equitable title to a tract of
land, by virtue of any act of
Congress, or who may become
the purchaser of any tract of
land from the United States of
the quantity of fifty acres, or
who may own a town lot of the
value of one hundred dollars
within the territory and
(6) White.
This act of Congress, passed in 1808, first introduced the color line.
In 1811 four municipalities were organized by acts of the territorial
legislature, Woodville, Port Gibson, Huntsville and St. Stevens; the
latter two are now in Alabama. In the first one named the right to vote
was conferred on the freeholders and householders within the town, and
in the second the right was conferred on the landowners, freeholders
and householders within said town, but in each case the grant was
followed by a separate section of the act in these words: "All free
male inhabitants, subject to taxation, who shall be in the occupancy
of a room or rooms separate and apart to himself, shall be deemed a
householder, within the meaning of this act, and shall be entitled
to vote at the town elections." Clearly this section was intended to
enlarge the scope of those who were authorized to vote and it could not
rightfully be construed as narrowing it.
This being true, the freeholder and householders, other than those
mentioned in the quoted section, were empowered to vote without
reference to sex and all without regard to age or color. In the charter
of Huntsville the suffrage was conferred on "all free white male
inhabitants of said town above the age of twenty one years," and in the
case of St. Stevens the right to vote was given to "the citizens of
said town," but this was amended in 1815 so as to limit the right to
"landholders, freeholders and householders."
In January, 1814, the territorial legislature treated the town of
Mobile as an existing municipality, the section of the country
surrounding it, acquired from West Florida, was added to the territory
in 1812, and restricted suffrage to the "landholders, freeholders and
householders within the town," and followed this with a section in the
very language of the one quoted above from the charters of Woodville
and Port Gibson, but this was amended in 1816 so as to limit suffrage
as written in the following section, viz: "No person shall vote at any
election for president and commissioners, assessor and collector for
the said town, unless he be twenty-one years of age, and shall have
been a freeholder in said town, or the tenant of a house or separate
roof at least six months previous to any election and shall have paid
a county, territorial or corporation tax, nor unless he be a citizen
of the United States, or shall have resided within that part of West
Florida now in the possession of the United States, at the time of
the change of government in that province." The next legislation
pertinent was the act of Congress, approved April 25th, 1814, amending
the organic law of the territory. This provided "Each and every free
white male person, being a citizen of the United States, who shall have
attained the age of twenty-one years, and who shall also have resided
one year in said territory previous to any general election, and be at
the time of any such election a resident thereof, shall be entitled
to vote for members of the house of representatives, and a delegate
to Congress for the territory aforesaid." The only effect of this act
was to dispense with the property qualification previously prescribed
and to substitute in its place the payment of a county or territorial
tax. In 1815 an election was authorized for the purpose of locating the
county seat of Jackson County by act providing simply that such persons
as were authorized to vote for representatives might cast their ballots
thereat, but in 1816 a like act for Adams County was passed providing
"every free male white person, being a citizen of the county of Adams
who shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one years and resided in
the said county twelve months previous to the said election, shall be
admitted to vote thereat and none other." This brings us to the end
of territorial legislation and from it we learn that ownership of or
anchorage to the soil was a prominent conception of the times; all
else as a necessary qualification for voting, even age, color and sex,
seems to have been subordinate, or accidental or exceptional. There was
certainly no prejudice then in the good old days because of color; the
color idea came from without, from Congress.
UNDER THE FIRST CONSTITUTION.
The constitution under which Mississippi came into the Union as a
state was adopted on the 15th August, 1817, and by the first section
of Article three thereof, the following provision is made: "Every
free white male person of the age of twenty-one years or upwards, who
shall be a citizen of the United States and shall have resided in this
state one year, next preceding an election, and the last six months
within the county, city or town in which he offers to vote and shall be
enrolled in the militia thereof except exempted by law from military
service; or having the aforesaid qualifications of citizenship and
residence, shall have paid a state or county tax, shall be deemed a
qualified elector; but no elector shall be entitled to vote, except in
the county, city or town (entitled to separate representation) in which
he may reside at the time of election."
An analysis of this section shows that in order for a person to be a
qualified state and county voter thereunder he must have been,
(1) Free,
(2) White,
(3) Male,
(4) Twenty-one years of age or upward,
(5) A citizen of the United States,
(6) A resident of the state for at least one year,
(7) A resident of the county, city or town at least six months,
(8) Enrolled in the militia unless exempt therefrom, or he
must have had the "aforesaid qualifications of citizenship and
residence" and have paid a state or county tax.
What our forefathers meant by alternate qualifications is hard at
this day to find out. A literal construction would have authorized a
free white male person having the qualifications of citizenship and
residence to have voted irrespective of age, but there is no record
of infants having exercised the right, nor is there in our books a
judicial interpretation of the constitutional provision. It is notable,
too, in respect to this section of the fundamental law that crimes
did not disfranchise under the terms of the constitution itself and
that the murderer, the thief _et id omne genus_ are relegated to the
legislature so far as voting was concerned by the 5th section of the
sixth article which provides, "laws shall be made to exclude from
office, and from suffrage, those who shall hereafter be convicted of
bribery, perjury, forgery or other high crimes or misdemeanors." We
find, however, that the legislature in 1822 undertook to perform its
duty in this regard by providing that "no person shall vote at any
election whatever in this state who shall have been convicted by the
verdict of a jury, and the final judgment or sentence of a court of
competent jurisdiction, of bribery, perjury, forgery, or other high
crime or misdemeanor, unless the person so convicted shall receive a
full pardon for such offense."
On the subject of pardons and its effect on the right of suffrage it
may be stated here that the doctrine in this state until the adoption
of the constitution of 1890 was in favor of the restoration of the
right to vote; the constitution just named having made provision for a
legislative restoration of the right to vote leaves the matter now an
open question as concerns executive pardons.
It is worthy of note that by legislative act, approved February 10th,
1821, elections in this state were held _viva voce_, but this act
remained in force only until June 13th, 1822, the date of the act
repealing it, since which time they have been by ballot; since 1869
the constitutions have required them to be so. In truth there is no
record of an election held _viva voce_ under the law of 1821, though
the election held on the 1st Monday of August, 1821, under Sec. 6,
Art. 3 of the first constitution must have been so held. Of course the
laws passed under the constitution of 1817 on the subject of state and
county elections conformed their provisions, defining who should have
the right of franchise to the terms fundamental law on the subject and,
as we have seen, the legislature excluded criminals from the right to
vote, but the lawmakers of that day by no means confined themselves
to the constitutional qualifications when they came to prescribe who
should be entitled to vote in municipal elections; for instance, we
see that "citizens of the town" were made voters in Shieldsborough (Now
Bay St. Louis) in 1818, in Greenville (Jefferson county) in 1819, and
in Holmesville in 1820; and "citizens of one month's residence" were
allowed to vote on the subject of the location of the Madison County
court house by act approved 1829, and "free white male citizens of
the town above the age of twenty-one years" were made voters by act
incorporating Pearlington, passed in 1822, and in the same year "free
citizens resident in the town" were made voters in Columbus. In 1821
"free white male inhabitants, resident of the town, twenty-one years of
age and upwards" were authorized to vote in Monticello, and in 1831 in
Warrenton; and in 1824 such residents of the county were authorized to
vote on the location of the county seat of Warren County.
By act of 1821 "every free white male person, twenty-one years old or
upwards, an inhabitant of the town for six months and who had been
assessed and paid a town tax within a year," were allowed to vote in
municipal election at Port Gibson, and so too were the owners of land
in that town, if the land had been assessed and taxes paid on it,
whether the owner resided in the corporate limits or elsewhere; and I
am advised the law of that town so remained until after the war; the
idea has been adopted by several municipalities of the state in later
days. By the early charters of Vicksburg, approved 1825, and Rodney,
approved 1828, suffrage was conferred on "landholders, householders,
freeholders and such as shall have paid a town tax, being inhabitants
and residents for three months in the town."
In 1830 "freeholders and householders" were made voters in
Shieldsborough (now Bay St. Louis) and Raymond, and in 1825
"freeholders and householders," whether resident or not, were given the
right to vote in the town of Washington, and in 1831 the right to elect
a constable was given "actual citizens of Vicksburg, over twenty-one
years of age," and in 1830 the "freeholders and householders" of the
town of Washington were required to be males in order to vote after
that date, and the only qualification of voters in the town of Liberty,
according to the act of 1819, were that they should be "free white
males, resident citizens of the town," and this is true under the
first charter of Warrenton, approved in 1820. In all these instances
the constitution of 1817 was not regarded as establishing a rule to
be applied to municipal suffrage. By several acts passed while this
constitution was operative the constitutional rule was, however,
adopted in defining who should vote in municipal elections. Thus in
1821, in respect to the town of Washington the language is "persons
entitled to vote for members of the general assembly," and the same
language is used in the charter of Clinton, passed in 1830, and to the
same language is added the words, "and who shall have resided in the
town three months" in the charters of Meadville and Brandon passed in
1830 and 1831 respectively. In the amendment to the charter of Liberty,
passed in 1828, suffrage is limited to "inhabitants of the town under
the restrictions prescribed by the constitution of the state," and the
same language substantially is to be found in the act incorporating
Gallatin approved in 1829.
"The qualified electors" of Jackson county voted on the subject of the
location of their court house under the provisions of an act passed in
December, 1830. The "free white male inhabitants, residing within the
town entitled to vote for members of the general assembly" were made
the electors of the city of Jackson by the first act of incorporation
passed in 1823, and by legislative grant approved in 1830 incorporating
Manchester (now Yazoo City) the "inhabitants entitled to vote according
to the constitution and laws of the state" were given the right to
participate in municipal elections, and the same language is used in
the charter of Athens, approved in the same year.
An analysis of all this will show that under the constitution of 1817
"color" was not a qualification or a disqualification in eight of
the towns of the state legislated upon, viz: Shieldsborough (now Bay
St. Louis), Greenville (Jefferson County), Holmesville, Columbus,
Vicksburg, Rodney, Raymond and Washington. Of course slaves were
not freeholders or citizens, but free men of color were frequently
freeholders and before the Dred Scott decision were regarded by many as
citizens. It will be noted, too, that sex was not made a qualification
or a disqualification for voting in seven of the towns whose charters
were passed or amended during the period in which the first state
constitution was operative, viz: those, except Washington, just
enumerated. There is no evidence, however, that women ever voted in
any of these towns, and all that can be learned on the subject leads
to the belief that they not only never did but the right seems never
to have been claimed for or by them. Free persons of color, however,
as I learn, did claim the right in some of these towns and it was
generally conceded by those of the white men whose interest was on the
side of the claimant's political preference, but was generally denied
by the opposition, and it is doubtful if a negro ever voted in any of
them until after the war. On the whole it is not so clear but that
the failure to exclude women and free persons of color in the early
legislation on the subject of voting in municipalities was but the
result of legislative awkwardness and a want of exactness in statutory
exclusion and inclusion.
UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1832.
The exact period in Mississippi legal history extends from 1832 to
1869, and embraces the period during which the constitution adopted
in 1832 remained in force. This, the second state constitution, was
adopted October 26, 1832; its provisions on the subject of suffrage
are as follows: "Every free white male person of the age of twenty-one
years or upwards, who shall be a citizen of the United States, and
shall have resided in this state one year next preceding an election,
and the last four months within the county, city or town in which he
offers to vote, shall be deemed a qualified elector." * * * * * "Every
person shall be disqualified from holding an office or place of honor
or profit under the authority of this state, who shall be convicted
of having given or offered any bribe to procure his election. Laws
shall be made to exclude from office and from suffrage those who shall
hereafter be convicted of bribery, perjury, forgery, or other high
crimes or misdemeanors." * * The second of the sections above quoted
was acted upon by the law-making power March 2, 1833, and the following
piece of legislation then became operative:
"No person shall vote at any election whatever in this state, who shall
have been convicted by the verdict of a jury and the final judgment of
a court of competent jurisdiction, of bribery, perjury, forgery, or
other high crimes or misdemeanors, unless the person so convicted shall
have received a full pardon for such offense."
It will be noted that the conviction must have been by the verdict
of a jury and the judgment of the court both conjunctively. What was
the effect if the criminal plead guilty does not seem to have been
considered. Of course the general legislation of the state on the
subject of state and county elections, conformed to the constitution,
and we are again led to examine the acts incorporating municipalities
within the period, and providing who should be voters therein, in order
to obtain light on the thought of the times relative to our subject.
A great many cities and towns were incorporated during this period; in
a large majority of charters it was simply provided that the "qualified
voters" should exercise the right of suffrage, thus recognizing the
constitutional rule. In many instances additional qualifications to
those named in the constitution were imposed, thus, residence for a
specified time within the corporate limits was required in 1833 for
Columbus, Amsterdam, Manchester (now Yazoo City), Jackson, Sartartia,
Liberty, Woodville, and in 1836 for Plymouth. But by no means did the
legislatures of the period conceive that they were bound to require all
the constitutional qualifications as essential for municipal suffrage.
A favorite idea was to authorize "every free white male inhabitant of
the town" who had resided therein for a specified time, to vote in
municipal elections. This was the case in Raymond, by act passed in
1833; Salem, Starkville and Sharon, 1837; Cotton Gin Port, Farmington
and Philadelphia, 1838; Cooksville and Emory in 1839; Hernando, 1840;
Gainesville, 1846; Shongole and Camargo, 1850; Sarepta, Hermans,
Eastport and Benela, 1852; Columbus and Aberdeen, 1854 (in the latter,
however, non-resident freeholders were allowed to vote by the act);
Bonner, 1860; Wesson, Beauregard, Hickory and Hazlehurst, 1865; Lodi,
Batesville and Sardis, 1866; Crystal Springs and Winona, 1867. In
addition to the ordinary qualifications the payment of a town tax
was required for Grand Gulf, 1833; Vicksburg, 1833 and 1839; Rodney,
1844; Yazoo City, 1846; Natchez, 1865. During this period, too, a
few municipal charters pursued the language which was so frequently
used at an earlier day--"freeholders, landowners and householders."
This was the case in the acts for Shieldsborough (now Bay St. Louis),
1838 and 1850; Pass Christian and Biloxi, 1838, and Rodney, 1844.
In a few instances every adult resident person was allowed to vote,
without reference to race, color, sex or anything else if the laws
were administered as they are written. This was the case in Macon,
1836; Paulding, 1837, and Raleigh, 1838, and in Brandon, by act of
1833, resident persons were not excluded by law because of infancy. For
liberality of sentiment on the subject of universal suffrage, Brandon's
charter of 1833 is without an equal, but whether this liberality of
expression proceeded from a liberality of feeling or from ignorance in
the forms of expression doth not appear. Registration of voters was
first required in this state by act passed in 1839, and it applied to
municipal elections at Vicksburg only; in 1861 a similar provision was
enacted for Canton, and in 1865 for Natchez. Of late years a municipal
registration is quite common, as we shall see hereafter.
UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1869
By the second section of article seventh, constitution of 1869, the
following qualifications of voters were prescribed; in order to be a
voter a person must have been,
1. Male,
2. Inhabitant of the state; idiots, insane persons and Indians
not taxed excepted,
3. Citizen of the United States, or naturalized,
4. Twenty-one years old or upwards,
5. Resident of the state six months and in county one month,
6. Duly registered.
And by section two, article twelfth thereof, the legislature was
required to pass laws to exclude from suffrage "those who shall
hereafter be convicted of bribery, perjury, forgery or other high crime
or misdemeanor."
The public laws of the state, on the subject of state and county
elections, of course conformed to the constitutional provisions; the
section thereof found in the code of 1871 on the subject of criminals
excluded from the right to register and vote "persons convicted of
bribery, perjury, forgery or infamous crime;" that of 1880 denied
suffrage to persons convicted of bribery, perjury, forgery, grand
larceny or any felony.
Under this constitution (1869) of course the negroes were voters. Much
has been said of late years to the effect that the grant of the right
to vote on the negroes by the fifteenth amendment to the constitution
of the United States was a mistake; perhaps the adoption of that
amendment was an error in statecraft; certainly it proved a party
mistake to the Republican party. But every thoughtful and candid man
will doubt the proposition that the grant of suffrage to the negro was
a mistake when viewed from the standpoint of the negro's welfare. Would
his rights as a citizen have been as soon respected had he remained
deprived of political power? Of course this is a question that can
never be settled. We can only speculate upon it.
The provisions of this constitution, like that of the preceding ones,
were construed by the legislature as applying only to state and county
elections; hence we find that in municipal matters the provisions of
the acts of the legislature passed under it defining who should vote
in city, town and village elections are variant. It is sufficient to
extract from the numerous municipal charters any governing principle.
It is apparent, however, that the tendency was, perhaps from
convenience of expression, to adopt the constitutional rule, simply
adding that the voter should be a resident of the municipality. In a
few instances persons having "permanent business" in the town were
permitted to vote at municipal elections even though their citizenship
and residence were elsewhere.
This was the case in Bolton, 1871; Quitman, 1880; Laurel, 1886; Scooba,
1886; and non-resident freeholders of the town were permitted to vote
in Senatobia in 1882 and Tunica, 1888.
In a majority of cases the provision was that the voter should be
a qualified elector of the state, or state and county, and that he
should have resided within the municipal limits a specified time.
This time varied greatly, from ten days, the shortest, to two years.
Of the various acts of legislation on this subject I find thirteen
in which the length of residence was required to be only ten days;
one in which the time is fifteen days; eight fixing twenty days;
forty-five prescribing one month; nine fixing two months; fifteen
naming three months; nine prescribing four months; one fixing five
months; twenty-one naming six months; three fixing one year, and four
prescribing two years. The municipalities in which one year's residence
was required are Pass Christian (a seashore resort), the purpose
evidently being to exclude summer visitors, 1882; Rosedale, 1890; and
Durant, 1890. Those in which two years' residence was prescribed are
Eureka Springs, 1880; Seven Pines, 1882; Pass Christian, 1890; and
Jackson, 1890. The principal purpose in each, except the summer resort,
was to exclude the transient negro voter.
During this period it was not unusual for the legislature to provide
that there should be a separate registration of municipal voters. This
was the case with Natchez, 1870; Columbus, 1884; Senatobia, 1884;
Macon, 1884; Yazoo City, 1884; Ellisville, 1884; Bolton, 1886; Bay St.
Louis, 1886; Brooksville, 1886; Fulton, 1886; Pass Christian, 1886;
Scooba, 1886; Biloxi, 1888; Terry, 1888; Potts Camp, 1888; Tunica,
1888; Water Valley, 1888; Rosedale, 1890; Clarksdale, 1890; Jackson,
1890; Durant, 1890 Indianola, 1890.
The prepayment of a municipal tax was in several instances made a
requisite qualification: This was the case as to a street tax in
Brookhaven, 1884; Greenville, 1884 and 1886; Vicksburg, 1886; Vaiden,
1886; and as to street tax and poll tax, Jackson, 1890; Durant, 1890.
In but one instance during the period, 1869 to 1890, do we find the
"householders and freeholders" made voters, the case of Greenwood
Springs, 1871, though, as we have seen, this was a favorite idea in the
early days of the state. In 1882 the spirit of liberality was given
full scope by the act providing that "all persons residing within the
town limits" should have the right to vote in Columbia; again we will
make the suggestion of a skeptic and express doubt whether the girl
babies exercised the right.
UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1890.
The provisions of the new constitution of Mississippi on the subject of
suffrage are as follows:
ARTICLE 12.
FRANCHISE.
Section 240. All elections by the people shall be by ballot.
Section 241. Every male inhabitant of this state, except idiots, insane
persons, and Indians not taxed, who is a citizen of the United States,
twenty-one years old and upwards, who has resided in this state two
years, and one year in the election district, or in the incorporated
city or town in which he offers to vote, and who is duly registered
as provided in this article, and who has never been convicted of
bribery, burglary, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false
pretenses, perjury, forgery, embezzlement, or bigamy, and who has paid,
on or before the first of February of the year in which he shall offer
to vote, all taxes which may have been legally required of him, and
which he has had an opportunity of paying according to law for the two
preceding years, and who shall produce to the officers holding the
election satisfactory evidence that he has paid said taxes, is declared
to be a qualified elector; but any minister of the gospel in charge
of an organized church shall be entitled to vote after six months'
residence in the election district, if otherwise qualified.
Section 244. On and after the first day of January, A. D. 1892, every
elector shall, in addition to the foregoing qualifications, be able
to read any section of the constitution of this state; or he shall be
able to understand the same when read to him, or give a reasonable
interpretation thereof. A new registration shall be made before the
next ensuing election after January the first, A. D. 1892.
The qualifications at the present time, therefore, of an elector are:
1. Male,
2. Inhabitant of the state, excluding idiots, insane persons and
Indians not taxed,
3. Citizen of the United States,
4. Twenty-one years old or upwards,
5. Resident of the state for two years,
6. Resident for one year in the election district, or city or town,
except ministers of the gospel who may vote on six months' residence,
7. Duly registered,
8. Never convicted of bribery and other enumerated crimes,
9. Has paid two years' taxes,
10. Able to read any section of the constitution of the state; or
able to understand the same when read to him, or give a reasonable
interpretation thereof.
It will be noted that these constitutional qualifications, unlike the
provisions of former fundamental laws, are by the section above quoted
made to apply to electors in municipal elections; the legislature,
however, is authorized to prescribe additional qualifications. And it
has prescribed as such additional qualifications, by the section on
that subject in the chapter of the new Code on Municipalities, that the
voter must have resided within the corporate limits for one year next
before he offers to register and he must not be in default for taxes
due the municipality for the two preceding years.
Much has been said about this constitution, both for and against it;
especially has the "understanding clause," the tenth qualification
as enumerated above, been severely criticised. Thus we find in the
American Law Review of January-February, 1892, the following: "It is
quite apparent that this clause was never intended to be carried out
faithfully. It will be so administered as to exclude the negro voters,
hardly one of whom will be eligible under it, and so as not to exclude
the ignorant white voter. The last qualification, the ability to give
a reasonable interpretation of any clause of the constitution of the
state, would exclude nearly all the lawyers and judges in the state. In
this manner the people of Mississippi endeavor to solve the appalling
problem of carrying on civil government with a mass of voters easily
corrupted and so stolid and ignorant as not to be able to understand
the first principles of their political institutions."
And we find in the Atlantic Monthly, December, 1892, the following
statement in reference to it:
"That it may, and probably will, be put into operation so as
to preclude the negro from voting, while his equally ignorant
white neighbor is allowed the privilege, appears from the fact
that the inability to read does not constitute an absolute
basis of exclusion; for the inspectors may allow a person to
vote who can understand or give a reasonable interpretation of
a section of the constitution when read to him. It is apparent
that an inspector may very easily reject as unreasonable an
interpretation from a colored man, and accept one no whit
better from a white man. Such discrimination in practice would
be very hard to discover."
And Mr. John F. Dillon, one of the most distinguished of American
lawyers, in his address as President of the American Bar Association,
at Saratoga, August, 1892, speaking of this section of the Mississippi
Constitution of 1890, says:
"It has been supposed that this clause was a concession made
in the interest of illiterate whites; but whether this be so
or not, a general and indiscriminate requirement that all
voters shall be able to read and write is, in my judgment, not
contrary to the fundamental principles of American government,
but in accordance with the principles on which such government
must securely rest, namely, the intelligence and virtue of the
people."
I have heard attributed to a distinguished United States Senator, who
would have been glad to have come to a different conclusion, that this
constitution demonstrated that Anglo-Saxon ingenuity could accomplish
anything; that the provisions of it on the subject of the suffrage was
a practical repeal of the fifteenth amendment of the constitution of
the United States, and yet the result was effected in such a way that
its legality could not be successfully denied.
The truth is, without reference to the designs of its authors, that we
have under it in the state, to all intents and purposes, an educational
qualification pure and simple. More negroes, the American Law Review
and the Atlantic Monthly to the contrary notwithstanding, have
registered under the alternate or understanding clause than white men.
Only 2,672 illiterate, both white and black, had up to 1893 registered
under it. I have not seen the figures since. The negroes who have taken
advantage of it exceed the white men who have done so in a majority of
the counties of the state.
It seems that the illiterate white man shrinks from an application to
be registered under the "understanding clause;" a refusal to advertise
his incapacity, while the negroes as a rule have but little to lose;
but another truth is that with scarcely an exception the negroes are
thoroughly content with the constitution, and are satisfied to be
measured for registration and voting by its standards. The writer, as a
member of the convention which adopted the constitution, voted against
the "understanding clause," but now that he has seen its practical
workings he is prepared to say that the convention did the very best
thing that it could have done under the circumstances surrounding it.
This "understanding clause" is not without a parallel in the
constitutions of other states; as was pointed out by Senator George
of this state in the United States Senate, it is no more difficult of
honest administration than are the provisions of the constitutions of
other states: for example, the constitution of Vermont of 1777 provided
that an elector "should be of quiet, peaceable behavior," and the
constitution of Connecticut requires at this day that the voter shall
sustain "a good moral character," and numerous other like instances
that might be mentioned.
The constitutional provision that a person shall not register as a
voter within four months of an election is believed to be a wise
measure; the ignorant, the indifferent and the sordid voter fails to
register; political excitement never exists to any considerable extent
so long before the election; there is no such thing as hiring men to
register, for those who can be hired, cannot be trusted for so long a
time to vote in the promised or expected way. It is believed that the
provision is worthy of adoption everywhere.
The legislation of Mississippi under the constitution of 1890 conforms
to that instrument.
By sections 3624 to 3640 of the code (1892) ample provision is made for
appeals from adverse rulings of registration officers, and the humblest
citizen of the land, the humblest negro, if you please, can invoke the
courts of the country, even the Supreme Court, for protection in case
he be improperly denied the right to register and vote, and he is
also provided with ample remedy before the courts in every case where
the right is improperly granted to others. These Code sections are as
follows:
3624. _Appeal by person denied registration._--Any person
denied the right to register as a voter may appeal from
the decision of the registrar to the Board of election
commissioners by filing with the registrar, on the same day
of such denial or within five days thereafter, a written
application for appeal.
3625. _Appeal by other than person denied._--Any elector of the
county may likewise appeal from the decision of the registrar
allowing any other person to be registered as a voter; but
before the same can be heard the party appealing shall give
notice to the person whose registration is appealed from, in
writing, stating the grounds of the appeal; which notice shall
be served by the sheriff or constable, as process in other
courts is required to be served; and the officer may demand and
receive for such service, from the person requesting the same
the sum of one dollar.
3626. _Appeal heard de novo._--All cases on appeals shall be
heard by the boards of election commissioners de novo, and
oral evidence may be heard by them; and they are authorized to
administer oaths to witnesses before them; and they have the
power to subpoena witnesses, and to compel their attendance;
to send for persons and papers; to require the sheriff and
constables to attend them and execute their process. The
decisions of the commissioners in all cases shall be final as
to questions of fact, but as to matters of law they may be
revised by the circuit and supreme courts. The registrar shall
obey the orders of the commissioners in directing a person to
be registered, or a name to be stricken from the registration
books.
3637. _Appeal from the decision of the Commissioners._--Any
elector aggrieved by the decision of the commissioners, shall
have the right to file a bill of exceptions thereto, to be
approved and signed by the commissioners, embodying the
evidence in the case and the findings of the commissioners,
within two days after the rendition of the decision, and may
thereupon appeal to the circuit court upon the execution of a
bond, with two or more sufficient sureties, to be approved by
the commissioners, in the sum of one hundred dollars, payable
to the state, and conditioned to pay all costs in case the
appeal shall not be successfully prosecuted; and in case the
decision of the commissioners be affirmed, judgment shall be
entered on the bond for all costs.
3638. _Duty of Commissioners in case of appeal to Circuit
Court._--It shall be the duty of the commissioners, in case of
appeal from their decision, to return the bill of exceptions
and the appeal bond into the circuit court of the county
within five days after the filing of the same with them;
and the circuit courts shall have jurisdiction to hear and
determine such appeals.
3629. _Proceedings in the Circuit Court._--Should the judgment
of the circuit court be in favor of the right of an elector
to be registered, the court shall so order, and shall, by its
judgment, direct the registrar of the county forthwith to
register him. Costs shall not, in any case, be adjudged the
commissioners or the registrar.
3630. _Costs; compensation, etc._--The election commissioners
shall not award costs in proceedings before them; but the
circuit and supreme courts shall allow costs, as in other
cases. The sheriffs, when required to attend before the
commissioners at their meetings, shall be paid two dollars a
day, to be allowed by the board of supervisors.
Having now considered and presented the evolution of suffrage in
this state and given by way of recital and incidentally at least,
its present status, we come to consider the objects upon which the
suffrage may be exercised, and this can be easily stated by the general
averment that all legislative and executive officers are elected by
the suffragists; the executive officers of the state are not elected
necessarily by a plurality or a majority vote. We have a sort of an
electoral scheme, which is created by the constitution in the following
words:
SECTION 140.--The governor of the state shall be
chosen in the following manner: On the first Tuesday after
the first Monday of November of A. D. 1895, and on
the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November in every
fourth year thereafter, until the day shall be changed by
law, an election shall be held in the several counties and
districts created for the election of members of the house of
representatives in this state, for governor, and the person
receiving in any county or such legislative district the
highest number of votes cast therein, for said office, shall
be holden to have received as many votes as such county or
district is entitled to members in the house of representatives
which last named votes are hereby designated "electoral votes."
In all cases where a representative is apportioned to two or
more counties or districts, the electoral vote, based on such
representative, shall be equally divided among such counties
or districts. The returns of said election shall be certified
by the election commissioners, or a majority of them, of the
several counties, and transmitted, sealed, to the seat of
government, directed to the secretary of state, and shall be by
him safely kept and delivered to the speaker of the house of
representatives at the next ensuing session of the legislature
within one day after he shall have been elected. The speaker,
shall on the next Tuesday after he shall have received said
returns, open and publish them in the presence of the house of
representatives, and said house shall ascertain and count the
vote of each county and legislative district and decide any
contest that may be made concerning the same, and said decision
shall be made by a majority of the whole number of members of
the house of representatives concurring therein, by a viva voce
vote, which shall be recorded in its journal; _Provided_, In
case the two highest candidates have an equal number of votes
in any county or legislative district, the electoral vote of
such county or legislative district shall be considered as
equally divided between them. The person found to have received
a majority of all the elective votes, and also a majority of
the popular vote, shall be declared elected.