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its streets.* As the shipping point for a rich and rapidly growing cotton region, its business was very large. Cap ital and population flowed in from every quarter. Magnificent steamers, freighted with the products of our own and distant climes, were perpetually stopping on their way to and from New Orleans, Nashville, St. Louis, Cincinnati, or Louisville; and rarely did an up-river boat arrive without landing one or more passengers in pursuit of fortune. Vicksburg was, in fact, a sort of rendezvous for planters, lawyers, physicians, schoolmasters, mechanics, clerks, and merchants, who, in search of business, were emigrating to the Southwest from New England, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and other parts of the Union. In this respect it was a miniature picture of what San Francisco now is in relation to California. The character and manners of these strange men, as they congregated in the hall and dining-room of the principal hotel, furnished study for a philosopher. One skilled in the art of American physiognomy, could detect, at a glance, representatives of every race and tribe, whether foreign or domestic, of our great Republican Family.

At an earlier period of its history, Vicksburg was inhabited chiefly by this class of persons; interspersed with not a few specimens of the genus blackleg. But the latter

* Vicksburg is visible nearly ten miles before reaching it, on going up the river. Its situation is highly romantic; it is built on a congregation of hills, which slope abruptly to the water. From the foot of this irregular side to the summit, the dwellings are scattered in the most picturesque manner. The streets parallel with the river rise one above the other, so that the galleries of the houses on one often project over the roofs of those on the other. Cottages in every shape and form, perched on every accessible point on the cliffs, add much to the beauty of the place. The population has doubled within four years. The act which cleared the place of a moral pestilence is, doubtless, a bad precedent-but it was the death-blow to a system of iniquity, which had got to be stronger than the laws. The commercial growth of Vicksburg in the last three years is ur precedented in this region.-Cor. respondence of the Natchez Courier, April, 1837

bad been driven off-and the advent of woman had called into being many pleasant and cultivated homes. Churches and schools were not wanting. The place had outgrowi the somewhat wild, boisterous temper of its youth, and was settling down into an orderly, social and domestic life.

The years 1835 and 1836 will ever be memorable in the annals of this country, for the spirit of reckless speculation which seized upon all classes in the community, and made them frantic in the pursuit of gain. To how many hundreds of families throughout New England is the phrase Eastern Land Speculation still the symbol of pecuniary ruin! The mania spread through the nation; but there were particular points, where it raged with especial violence. One of these was Vicksburg. In the autumn of 1836, strangers, who had scarcely registered their names at the hotel, were eagerly buying city lots; and perhaps the next week, selling them again at an advance of ten, twenty, or thirty per cent. In this way, by mere attendance upon auctions, every man was expecting soon to be master of a fortune It was a singular infatuation; but the spring nipped it in the bud. Gen. Jackson had laid his song hand upon the currency, and before the ides of March, the whole monetary system of the country was gasping beneath the pressure of that iron will. There was not a sequestered village or hamlet in the land, which did not feel its touch-while the great commercial centres were convulsed with terror, distress and bankruptcy. In April, 1837, cotton was selling in New York at nine and a half cents per pound, which in December of the previous year, had been sold for nineteen cents per pound. No State in the Union was a greater sufferer than Mississippi, and perhaps no town in the State was so sorely smitten as Vicksburg. The sudden and extraordinary fall of cotton deprived the State of nearly twothirds of its expected income; while lands and lots about

Vicksburg, which, in October, were bought with avidity at the most extravagant rates, found, in April following, no bidder, at a reduction of two and even three hundred per cent. The stranger who came in the autumn and departed in the spring, could, with difficulty, believe that he had visited, and was leaving, one and the same place.

CHAPTER VIII.

Adjourned Session of the Legislature-Mr. Prentiss' Speech on the Question of admitting the Delegates from the New Counties-Protest against their Admis. sion Resigns his seat.

ET. 28. 1837.

EARLY in January 1837, the Legislature met pursuant to adjournment. One of the first acts of the House of Representatives was to admit as a component part of the body, ten persons claiming to represent certain new counties, which had been created at the previous session of the same Legislature. It is a curious instance of the facilty with which a Constitution may be set at naught, when the majority choose to do it. The act, however, was not accomplished without vigorous opposition, and a clear prediction of the consequences which were likely to ensue. Mr. Prentiss's speeches on the question, is fortunately preserved, and a better tribute could not be desired to the high-toned principle, the reverence for Law and Constitution, which actuated his public life. We give the larger portion of this speech. Some passages are strikingly prophetic of coming events in the political history of Mississippi :

One of

I had hoped, Mr. Speaker, when the gentleman from Adams introduced the resolution which has just been read, that the task of opposing it would have been assumed by some one more able than myself. Had this been the case, I might have been

contented with a mere vote. But, viewing this resolution in the fight I do, I should violate every sense of duty, where I to remain silent because others will not speak. Sir, the gentleman from Adams seems to think that the resolution is a matter of course, and ought to pass sub silentio. I differ from the gentleman. He cannot so easily introduce his Trojan horse within these walls. I, for one, will hurl a spear against its hollow sides.

Sir, I look upon this resolution as a bomb-shell thrown into this house. The gentleman from Adams has lighted the match, and if this house do not extinguish it-if the heel of the majority be not placed upon it-there will be left by its explosion no vestige of constitution or law. It may appear to the common eye as a little cloud, no larger than a man's hand, but the political prophet will behold in it the ingredients of a tempest.

I know I labor under many difficulties in opposing it. Popular opinion is in favor of it-the gentleman has the wind full in his sails-while I must row against an adverse current. I trust, however, the very fact that the course I am taking is one upon which the public eye will scowl, may afford a guarantee for the honesty of my motives. I know well it will be said that I am the enemy of the new counties-that I am hostile to the rights of the people—that I am opposed to democratic principles, and other similar assertions, by which demagogues answer arguments.-Sir, I throw down, in advance, my denial to such charges. No man in this State feels a livelier interest in the prosperity of the new counties than I do. No man has watched with greater pleasure their rapid increase in wealth, population and power; and did not my oath to support the constitution stand in my way, no man would welcome their delegation upon this floor with a warmer greeting.

But, sir, I have high constitutional duty before me, from the performance of which I will not be deterred by either fear or favor-by what has been said of others, or what may be said of myself.

I am opposed to the resolution introduced by the gentleman from Adams, on two grounds.

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