SUFFRAGE IN MISSISSIPPI

BY HON. R. H. THOMPSON.

That portion of the present State of Mississippi and that part of Alabama lying between the Mississippi and Chattahoochee rivers, and bounded on the south by the thirty-first parallel of latitude and on the north by a line drawn due east from the mouth of the Yazoo river, was organized into the Mississippi Territory in pursuance of an act of Congress, approved April 7, 1798. Afterwards, in 1804, the country lying south of the State of Tennessee and north of the original Mississippi Territory was added; and in 1812 that portion of the present States of Alabama and Mississippi lying south of the thirty-first degree of latitude was annexed. Mississippi became a state in 1817 and Alabama was then separated from it. This historic statement at the outset will explain why several matters pertaining to suffrage in municipalities not now in the state, are hereafter mentioned.

The organic law of the Territory enacted that the people thereof should "be entitled to and enjoy all and singular the rights, privileges and advantages granted to the people of the territory of the United States, northwest of the river Ohio in and by the ordinance of the thirteenth day of July in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, in as full and ample a manner as the same are possessed and enjoyed by the people of the said last mentioned Territory," and thus in our investigation of the subject we are led to examine the ordinance referred to, and which we find in the statutes entitled, "An ordinance for the Territory of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio," to see if it contains any provision relative to suffrage. We find it, and the words of this celebrated ordinance are as follows. "So soon as there shall be five thousand free male inhabitants, of full age, in the district, upon giving proof thereof to the governor, they shall receive authority, with time and place, to elect representatives from their counties or townships, to represent them in the general assembly; provided that for every five hundred free male inhabitants, there shall be one representative, and so on progressively with the number of free male inhabitants, shall the right of representation increase, until the number of representatives shall amount to twenty-five; after which the number, and proportion of representatives shall be regulated by the legislature; Provided that no person be eligible or qualified to act as a representative, unless he shall have been a citizen of the United States three years, and be a resident in the district, or unless he shall have resided in the district three years, and in either case, shall likewise hold in his own right, in fee simple, two hundred acres of land within the same; Provided also, that a freehold of fifty acres of land in the district, having been a citizen of one of the states, and being resident in the district, or the like freehold, and two years residence in the district shall be necessary to qualify a man as an elector of a representative."

With all due respect to the fathers, nothing in statutory language could be more awkward; the reading of it, however, will serve to remind us that the modern legislator cannot claim originality for his habitual use of the word "provided" as introductory to amendments, and with which to string his ideas together.

The last of the three provisos is necessarily a limitation on the "free male inhabitants, of full age," mentioned at the beginning of the section, since there is no provision in the ordinance for the election of any officers save representatives to the general assembly; all other officers in the scheme of government here provided were appointive. An analysis of the laws of 1787, which evidently must be basis of suffrage in a number of states as well as Mississippi, shows that to entitle a person to vote under our first suffrage law he must have been (1) Free, (2) Male, (3) of full age, presumably 21 years, (4) citizen of the United States and resident of the Territory or a resident for two years in the Territory and (5) Freeholder of fifty acres of land in the district.

While this organic law was in force, of course the territorial legislation was confined, so far as concerns our subject, to municipal suffrage, but I have thought reference thereto not without the scope of this paper, since such legislation, perhaps more than any other, being untrammeled as a general rule by unyielding constitutional restrictions, throws light upon the spirit, temper and thoughts of the people on the subject at the time of the enactment.

Before the amendment of the organic law herein next mentioned I find but one piece of such legislation; by an act approved in 1803 the "freeholders, landholders and householders" of the city of Natchez were authorized by a majority vote to elect municipal officers, and the act further reads that "for the better understanding of the meaning of the term householder, it is hereby declared that any person who shall be in the occupancy of a room, or rooms, separate and apart to himself, shall be deemed a householder, and entitled to vote at the annual and other meetings of the said city: Provided that such occupancy shall have existed six months next preceding such election." Were this explanatory enactment omitted it would seem that to entitle a person to vote he should have been a freeholder and a landholder and a householder, all three conjointly, but it is apparent that the legislature did not so intend, since it provided by the explanation that if he were a householder alone, he would have been entitled to vote. The explanation, while directed at a definition of a householder, settles by indirection the only doubt arising from the text sought to be explained, but unfortunately the proviso brought with it a greater difficulty than the explanation had removed, and that was whether other householders than those directed to be so deemed, were required to have been such for six months before offering to vote. The phraseology suggests legislative amendments and indicates a difference of opinion as to who should be intrusted to vote; but all seem to have agreed upon permanent residence anchorage to the soil as an essential qualification, the difference being as to rigidity and extent to which it should be carried. The most notable thing about this, the first legislative act of Mississippi conferring the right of suffrage, is that no distinction is made because of age, color, or sex. Whether this were by accident or design, and whether other persons than adult white males really voted thereunder, does not appear.

By an Act of Congress, approved Jan. 9th, 1808, the organic law so far as it related to Mississippi Territory, was amended so as to provide that every free white male person in the Mississippi Territory, above the age of 21 years, having been a citizen of the United States, and resident in the said territory one year next preceding an election of representatives, and who has a legal or equitable title to a tract of land by virtue of any act of Congress, or who may become the purchaser of any tract of land from the United States of the quantity of fifty acres, or who may hold in his own right a town lot of the value of one hundred dollars within the said territory, shall be entitled to vote for representatives to the general assembly of said territory.

The change just made in the suffrage laws of the territory can best be appreciated by the use of parallel columns.

Act of July 13th, 1787.Act of Jan. 9, 1808.
A person to vote hereunder must be A person to vote hereunder must be
(1) Free,(1) Free,
(2) Male,(2) Male,
(3) Of the age of twenty-one years.(3) Of the age of twenty-one years.
(4) A citizen of the United States(4) A citizen of the United
and a resident of the Territory,States and resident of the territory
or a resident for two years inone year next preceding an
the Territory, andelection at which he offers to vote,
(5) A freeholder of fifty acres of(5) The holder of a legal or
land in the district.equitable title to a tract of
land, by virtue of any act of
Congress, or who may become
the purchaser of any tract of
land from the United States of
the quantity of fifty acres, or
who may own a town lot of
the value of one hundred dollars
within the territory and
(6) White.

This act of Congress, passed in 1808, first introduced the color line.

In 1811 four municipalities were organized by acts of the territorial legislature, Woodville, Port Gibson, Huntsville and St. Stevens; the latter two are now in Alabama. In the first one named the right to vote was conferred on the freeholders and householders within the town, and in the second the right was conferred on the landowners, freeholders and householders within said town, but in each case the grant was followed by a separate section of the act in these words: "All free male inhabitants, subject to taxation, who shall be in the occupancy of a room or rooms separate and apart to himself, shall be deemed a householder, within the meaning of this act, and shall be entitled to vote at the town elections." Clearly this section was intended to enlarge the scope of those who were authorized to vote and it could not rightfully be construed as narrowing it.

This being true, the freeholder and householders, other than those mentioned in the quoted section, were empowered to vote without reference to sex and all without regard to age or color. In the charter of Huntsville the suffrage was conferred on "all free white male inhabitants of said town above the age of twenty one years," and in the case of St. Stevens the right to vote was given to "the citizens of said town," but this was amended in 1815 so as to limit the right to "landholders, freeholders and householders."

In January, 1814, the territorial legislature treated the town of Mobile as an existing municipality, the section of the country surrounding it, acquired from West Florida, was added to the territory in 1812, and restricted suffrage to the "landholders, freeholders and householders within the town," and followed this with a section in the very language of the one quoted above from the charters of Woodville and Port Gibson, but this was amended in 1816 so as to limit suffrage as written in the following section, viz: "No person shall vote at any election for president and commissioners, assessor and collector for the said town, unless he be twenty-one years of age, and shall have been a freeholder in said town, or the tenant of a house or separate roof at least six months previous to any election and shall have paid a county, territorial or corporation tax, nor unless he be a citizen of the United States, or shall have resided within that part of West Florida now in the possession of the United States, at the time of the change of government in that province." The next legislation pertinent was the act of Congress, approved April 25th, 1814, amending the organic law of the territory. This provided "Each and every free white male person, being a citizen of the United States, who shall have attained the age of twenty-one years, and who shall also have resided one year in said territory previous to any general election, and be at the time of any such election a resident thereof, shall be entitled to vote for members of the house of representatives, and a delegate to Congress for the territory aforesaid." The only effect of this act was to dispense with the property qualification previously prescribed and to substitute in its place the payment of a county or territorial tax. In 1815 an election was authorized for the purpose of locating the county seat of Jackson County by act providing simply that such persons as were authorized to vote for representatives might cast their ballots thereat, but in 1816 a like act for Adams County was passed providing "every free male white person, being a citizen of the county of Adams who shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one years and resided in the said county twelve months previous to the said election, shall be admitted to vote thereat and none other." This brings us to the end of territorial legislation and from it we learn that ownership of or anchorage to the soil was a prominent conception of the times; all else as a necessary qualification for voting, even age, color and sex, seems to have been subordinate, or accidental or exceptional. There was certainly no prejudice then in the good old days because of color; the color idea came from without, from Congress.