The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-12-31
WINTHROP SARGENT,
The First Governor of Mississippi
Territory.

brave and efficient one, in the brigade OF
General 1t. Clair, during the revolutionary
war. and had distinguished himself III the
Jersey campaign. He IL next heard OF ID
1856, when General sam. II. Parsons, Ten
eral Benz. Upper, General Rufus Putnam
md Others. formed the New England Ohio
company The first meeting was held IN
Boston March Ist, 1886, when winthrop
SARGENT appeared a. a delegate from Suffolk,
and was on the committee 20 draft the
articles of association. The object was to
purchase a large body Of land in the north
west, establish colony, and have the
members Of their company appointed 10 the
various Offices in the new Territory about
10 be organized. They arranged a very
comfortable slate among themselves. Par
sons was To be Governor; Putnam, survey
or-General; Upper. Collector of Taxes and
Sargent, Superintendent Of Indians. Rev.
DR. Cutler, a man Of learning, activity and
tact was made general manager, with
authority to make contract with Congress
for the land. He proved himself an expert
lobbyist, the first of that calling, now so
numerous and pernicious, that appeared IN
this country.
The new Governor was man Of strong
convictions aud prejudices, and, unfortu-
nately, these preJudices against us had
taken firm hold before he arrived al
NdLfHtL- III MS 4d0l lELb'i Alp4IA CA''SA1A
natl to the Secretary OF State, June 10th,
he says:
stFrom the best intelligence ! have been
able to procure there prevails in the cOun-
try of our destination, refractory and tur-
bulent spirit, with parties headed by men OF
perverseness and cunning. They have run
wild in the recess Of government, and every
moments delay Ia the adoption OF rules
and regulations after the ordinance shall be
promulgated, must be productive of grow
ing evils and discontents."
Thus he had adopted this bad opinion Of
the people, before he left Ohio, and came
prepared to restrain their refractory and
turbulent spirit and to punish their per
verse and cunning leaders, not by law, but
bv arbitrary "rules and regulations which,
ii will be seen, he soon adopted, and to
which the patriotic, proud and cultured
people whom he came TO rule, refused to
submit
There had been recess or interregnum OF
government from the 10Th Of March, l79S,
when the Spanish commandant and garrison
left Natchez, until August ID, when Gov
ernor Sargent arrived. But Major GuIon
was present during the interval with a
battalion of United States troops, in the
capacity of civil and military commander,
in perfect harmony with the citizens, and
universal tranquility and order had prevail
ed through the entire district.
1898. The Governor arrived at Natchez,
August 9th, in bad health. On the 10th
he addressed the people in hatchez, IN
which among other agreeable things, he
said that personal merit and a firm attach
sment to the United States should be the
qualifications for office under his admins
tration. and that he should defer his appoint
ments until he could become acquainted
with the people" These declarations gave
general satisfaction. But to the surprise of
every one, on the 23d he set out on "A visit
to Ellicott who was then engaged on the
boundary, TO have his opinion of the leading
people of the district, and his advice in re-
gard to appointments. This was a great
mistake and was the source of many of his
future troubles. The Governor was total
stranger To the people. They were mixed
population, of various natiOnalltles, but the
controlling element was Southern, and 1t
gave tone to society and to public sentl-
mcnt. The immigrants from the Southern
States. and a few English and French gen
tIemen settled among them, were opulent,
polished hospitable and convlvial, delighted
to have chief magistrate, and an organ
lied government, but greatly disappointed
by his saturnine temperament and grim
demeanor The Governor bad quite as lit
tie fancy for their cavalier department and
the freedom of their conversation, and with
some show Of reason, he concluded that
position of trust, and who had been twelve
months in the district, was the proper per-
son to consult. He had, no doubt, been the
Governors correspondent, and infused into
him his own bitterness. The Governor GER
EajnIy should have remembered that this
man had fomented and taken part in all the
factions and teuds that distracted the COM
munitv, while he remained in it; that he
cherished violent prejudices and animos-
tiles against many Of the Inhabitants,
and that he was bitterly hated in re-
turn. and regarded their enemy
and the enemy of the district They
had combatted his intrigues and his meas
ures in their public meetings, in commit
tees, and in their memorial to Congress.
They had been greatly encouraged by the
arrival of Major Guion, who discouutenan-
ced Mr. EllicOtt's intrigues, and restricted
him to his professional duties, and they had
fiattered themselves that with the advent
of the chief magistrate has banetul inhu-
enee in the affairs of the distric. would be
extinguished. But when it became patent
that the Governor had called on Mr.. Eli
colt for council, and that in his camp on the
boundary lines, they had jointly ageeed on
the appointments, and policy, large por-
ton of the people felt that he had broken his
voluntary pledge the ISthAugust; that new
troubles were about TO be brought upon
them, and they would have 10 rely upon
their own efforts and on their friends in
Congress SO the Governor commenced his
administration with a strong opposition,
undoubtedly a majority Of the people, led
not by "perverse and cunning" but active
able and resolute men, who knew what con-
stitutional liberty meant and were deter
mined to have it. And they were thorough
ly united.
Governor Sargent returned from this IN
lucky conference with his suspicious con
firmed into thorough distrust of the peO-
pie whom he had been sent to govern and
conciliate. He adopted Che personal and
political hatreds of Ellicott, and in his
communication TO the Secretary of State
supported his misrepresentation, and de-
nounced the inhabitants as composed of
various characters, and among them the
most abandoned Williams"
This tone of abuse pervades his official cor
respondence. Charges made bya high official
going npon the records of the government
rs a perpetual memorial of intamy, kept
secret from the accused, and challenged and
refuted now for the first time after the lapse
of seventy years. He recommended the
expulsion of certain aliens, and the neces- +
sity of transcending the laws, TO maintain
public order, and put down the seditious
u am sometimes constrained TO measures
that iDperious necessity only can justify 4
They will no doubt be noticed BY the mall j
contents, OF whom there are not a few and
among them some most unprincipled scoun-
drels, who manage with great art and adj
dress"
A bad impression to create, at the seal Of
government against an infant territory, !
which he had been sent to nurse and pro-
tect! Remote, unfriended. their land titles
and their future status all unsettled, with I
only the federal authorities to appeal to,
these vindictive and persistent charges, if
credited, would have closed the door, and /
subjected them to capricious and arbitra- |
Ty ruler.
The Governor arrested one citizen for /
'fimpudent observations" and was strongly /
inclined 70 apply the Sedition law and ar
rest Major Freeman, the American Survey I
or, for writing and speaking contemptuously
of fsou,p1iSsio1ar Elliott