WPA History of Lamar County, Mississippi
INTRODUCTION: FORMATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI
TERRITORY
Mississippi
was under French Dominion from 1730 to 1763 and under English
dominion from 1763 to 1781, but it was a Spanish Province from
1781 until 1798, when it became a part of the United States.
The Spanish authorities were greatly disturbed by the
action of the Georgia Legislature in the year 1785 in
establishing the county of Bourbon in what Georgia claimed to be
her territory. This county of Bourbon was established with the
following well defined boundaries: "Beginning at the mouth of the
Yazoo River, where it empties into the Mississippi River, thence
by a line to be drawn along the middle of the said river until it
shall intersect the northernmost part of the thirty-first degree
of north latitude; South by a line to be drawn due east from the
determination of the line last mentioned in the latitude of
thirty one degrees north of the equator as far as the land reach,
which, in that district have at any time been relinquished by the
Indians; thence along the line of said relinquishment to the said
river Yazoo; thence down the said river to the beginning; and the
said county shall comprehend and include lands and waters within
the said description."
The county of Bourbon comprehended all the territory
embraced in the present counties of Warren, Claiborne, Jefferson,
Adams, Franklin, and Wilkinson. Spain claimed to own the disputed
territory by virtue of her treaties with France and England,
while the native Indians, the Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, and
Chickasaws claimed it by right of inheritance. But the Indians
were powerless and looked upon the struggle for their God-given
heritage with stoical indifference.
The purchasers of these lands, alarmed by the numerous
adverse claims and the opposition of the United States and the
Indian Tribes and the Spanish authorities, refused to meet their
payments and the legislature rescinded the contracts. Georgia was
annoyed, irritated, and disgusted by this constantly recurring
interference with her boundaries, as well as with her title, and
determined to demonstrate not only her confidence in the
assertion of her rights, but to remove the obstacle to the
settlement of her territory. With this purpose in view the
legislature, on the 7th of February, 1795, passed an act by which
for the sum of $5,000,000 she sold twenty one million hundred
thousand acres to four companies composed chiefly of her own
citizens. Anticipating, it would seem, the howl of opposition
this measure would arouse, the act of sale had a preamble which
contained a declaration of the rights of Georgia in the premises.
In this preamble it is declared:
"That by the Articles of Confederation each state was to
retain its own territory. That by the treaty of 1783, commonly
called the Treaty of Paris, the boundaries of Georgia and of the
other states were confirmed. That they were consistent with all
the former legislation of Georgia, and with the action of the
Convention between Georgia and South Carolina in 1787. That the
State had the right of redemption and full territorial
jurisdiction. That the treaty made between the president and
McGilvray was in contravention of the rights of Georgia and that
guarantees made by the president to the Indians were without
authority and invalid, and that Georgia had the fee simple in and
to all her lands and would dispose of them to individuals or
companies at her own pleasure."
Nicholas Long, Thomas Cumming, A. Gordon, Thomas Glascock
and others formed another company and for one hundred and fifty
five thousand dollars these gentlemen bought all the land
comprised within the territorial limits of Greene, Perry, Marion,
Pike, Amite, Wilkinson, Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Copiah,
Simpson, Smith, Jasper, Clarke, Lauderdale, Newton, Scott,
Rankin, Hinds, Warren, and Claiborne counties in Mississippi with
a small slice of three counties in Alabama.
The act was repealed as the "Yazoo Fraud" in 1796.
"All these proceedings," says Claiborne, referring to
them, "directly affected the Spanish authorities of Louisiana.
The state of Georgia had sold the very ground occupied by her
garrisons on the Mississippi. The companies who bought would
bring in thousands of colonists with arms in their hands. The
president had brought the matter before Congress, and plainly
manifested a disposition to occupy the country. An agent of
Georgia, General Mathews, protected by the usages of diplomacy,
had arrived in Natchez to reassert the claim of that state.
Badgered and worried at every point, Spain, proverbially
dilatory, obstinate, and punctilious, at length gave way and on
the 27th day of October, 1795, a treaty was signed at Madrid by
which it was agreed that the southern boundary of the United
States should be the line of the thirty first degree of north
latitude from the Mississippi to the Chattahoochie; thence down
the middle of the river to its junction with the Flint; thence to
the head of St. Mary's river; thence down that river to the
Atlantic; that all Spanish posts north of this line should be
removed within six months; and American posts and inhabitants
living south of it should be removed within the same period; that
the navigation of the Mississippi should through its whole length
be free for the commerce of both nations; that both would
cooperate to cultivate peace with the Indians and that before six
months expired a joint commission should run out the line of the
boundary under the protection of the two powers."
Under the stipulations of the treaty, by which Spain
ceded to the United States a large portion of the territory now
included within the limits of Mississippi and Alabama, it was
provided that the southern boundary between Spain and the United
States should be established by a joint commission composed of
representatives of each government within the period of six
months, Spain in the meantime retaining possession until the
boundary line should be formally established. Under this
provision Andrew Ellicot, a native of Pennsylvania and an
astronomer of some repute, was appointed on the part of the
United States to perform this duty. But it was not until February
24, 1797 that Mr. Ellicot arrived at Natchez with his twenty five
woodsmen.
Captain Guion says in a letter to a personal friend in
North Carolina, "On the 30th of March, 1798, the Spanish garrison
evacuated the fort (Natchez), nothing having occurred since my
arrival to interrupt our friendly relations."
A few days after the Spanish forces evacuated Natchez the
same ceremony was performed at Walnut Hills, (now Vicksburg),
where Fort Nogales was turned over to Major Kersey, who with a
detachment of United States troops took immediate possession.
The work of establishing the boundary line between the
possessions of Spain and the United States, was, after the
retirement of Gayoso, on the part of Spain, conducted by Don
Stephen Minor, as commissioner and Sir William Dunbar as
astronomer, with a surveyor and a military guard. The American
part of the commission consisted of Andrew Ellicot as astronomer,
Major Thomas Freeman as surveyor, the necessary axmen and a
military guard under the command of Lieutenant McCleary of the
United States Army.
On April 7, 1798 the Mississippi Territory was
established by an act of Congress. |