Hattiesburg daily news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1907-1908, 1907-07-15


ing communication from Judge ]. A. |
P. Campbell, In which is told |
something of the history of the To-
cation of the state capital at jackson
under the constitution of 1892. how un-
der the constitution of 1859 1t was left
subject to change at. the will Of the
Legislature, which conditions prevailed
until the constitution Of 1890 was
framed. and how it came about that
the latter fixed the location at jackson.
This brings to mind another scrap
of unrecorded history belonging to the
SOS. which shows that Judge Campbell
was wise when he\insisted in 1890, as
he says he did. that the constitution,
then being made, hpuld contain pro-
vision fixing the seat of government.
While the actual occurrence of such an
incident was not necessary to suggest
to him the provision which he insisted
upon. yet he may have had this then
recent occurrence in his mind at the
time
There are many who have never
heard, many who have forgotten, yet
many who will remember that the>leg-
islature of 1874 came very near pass
ing measure providing Tor the re-
moval of the seat of government from
jackson to Meridian.
| The movement to this end was start
ed in Meridian, Of course, and when
a big delegation. full of enthusiasm
and determination, appeared one
morning in Jackson during the sitting
of the legislature and made known its
mission-that Is, to present to the leg
islatnre the various and sundry rea-
sons why it was to the interest of the
Estate to remove the capital to Meridian
and to insist upon its removal-the
matter was taken as a joke, the mem
bers of the delegation were laughed at,
and day or two passed before they
could convince the legislators and the
Jackson people that they were really
in earnest about it.
In the meantime each member Of
the delegation was industriously study
ing Meridian's case and endeavoring
to get in his work at every available
point. On leaving home, the watch
word was to take all rebuffs philosoph-
ically, stand firm, meet sarcasm and
ridicule with serious argument-and
get the capital Each was assigned to
such work as he was considered best
adopted to. Some were put to search
ing the old-time records to show that
the legislature had the right to change
the seat of government; some, to work
ing up plausible "spier" as to the
then existing and prospective railroad
facilities and general development Of
the two towns; some, to general, some
tospecial, lobbying; while to one was
assigned the duty of presenting the
case through speech to the entire
body or GA special committee or tc
anybody who could be prevailed upor
to listen to it.
ne uldlu argument, tuc luuudulcuI
al fact of the whole proceeding, was
that the old capitol building was in 1
dangerous condition, about to fal
down, and that it was unsafe for tn,
legislature even at that time to b.
occupying the building-that it wa
better to build new one than to re
\ pair that one.
y There had already been so much ii
the public prints about the unsafe con
| dition of the capitol that all that wa
left for the Meridian delegation to d.
on this point was to get together some
| thing specific and definite, which Gel
tain practical members thereof, +
/ whom this duty had been assigned
H proceeded to do by going abou
II through the building from base t
| dome looking for cracks. They foun
some very serious defects never BIZ
| fore detected by the general public
/ Their verdict, supported by mos
II plausible sounding evidence was, tina
| the entire structure was liable to ia
at any moment
H After vigorous campaign of thre
or four days, the house of represents