January 12, 1861. |
January, |
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of slaves greater in number than her population of freemen — a distinction then not vouchsafed to any other States in the Union.1
Steps were taken, through committees, to sever effectually every connection with the National Government, excepting the convenient one of the postal system.
They also assumed the right to dictate the terms upon which the Mississippi River should be navigated, in the portion that washed the borders of their commonwealth.
By order of Governor Pettus,
the “Quitman Battery,” as a company of frantic artillerists called themselves, hastened from Jackson to Vicksburg, and planted cannon on the bluff there, with orders to hail and examine every vessel that should attempt to pass.
On Tuesday, the 18th,
the river steamer A. O. Tyler was brought to by a shot athwart her bows, and others were soon served in the same way. This battery was a representative of sovereignty, which the arrogant Oligarchs in power in Mississippi set up, in the very wantonness of pride, to command the obeisance of others.
The act was sanctioned by the confederated conspirators assembled at Montgomery a month later, who followed up this attempt to blockade the great aqueous highway, by establishing a customhouse at Neine's Landing, near the boundary between Mississippi and Tennessee, and the erection of other batteries, whose guns for more than two years obstructed the river-trade.
That first steamer (A. O. Tyler) arrested at Vicksburg, was afterward converted into a national gunboat, and did good service in putting down the rebellion.
The blockade at Vicksburg created intense exasperation among the navigators of the river, and threats of vengeance came down from Cincinnati and St. Louis.2
Measures were taken by the Convention, and by the Legislature, which had reassembled, in order to give force to the Ordinance of Secession, to increase the military power of the State.
The Governor, on hearing that the Chief Magistrate of Louisiana had seized the National Arsenal at Baton Rouge, with its fifty thousand small arms, heavy cannon, and munitions of war, sent Colonel C. G. Armistead, to ask him to share his plunder with his brother of Mississippi, “on such terms as he might deem just.”
Pettus asked for ten thousand stand of arms.
He got eight thousand muskets, one thousand rifles, six 24-pound cannon and equipage, and a considerable amount of ammunition.
Private munificence was exhibited to some degree.
“Patriotic citizens,” said the Governor, “in various portions of the State, have extended to me pecuniary aid in arming the State.
Hon. A. G. Brown sent me a bill on New York for five hundred dollars. Colonel Jeff. Davis and Hon. Jacob Thompson have guaranteed the payment, in May or June, of twenty-five thousand dollars, for the purchase of arms.”
3
1 The population of South Carolina, in 1860, was 708,812, of whom 402,541 were slaves, or 101,270 more slaves than free persons. The population of Mississippi, at the same time, was 791,896, of whom 486,696 were slaves, or 82,000 more slaves than free persons.
2 “Cincinnati steamboat men have been thrown into a fever, from the Governor of Mississippi ordering cannon and a military company to Vicksburg, to hail all steamboats passing. The Abolition journals of Cincinnati howl over it, and are greatly Incensed. We would like to see them help themselves.” --Memphis Evening Argus, January 17, 1861.
3 Message of Governor Pettus to the Legislature of Mississippi, January 15, 1861. Brown and Davis were members of the Senate of the United States, and left their seats because of the alleged secession of their State. Thompson had been a member of Buchanan's Cabinet until the day before the Mississippi Ordinance of Secession was passed.
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