Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 4 (of 16)

by United States. Congress

Tuesday, December 17.

Mississippi Territory—Ordinance of 1787.

Mr. Poindexter, from the committee to whom the said report was committed, reported the same with an amendment; which was read, and referred to the Committee of the Whole on Monday next. The report is as follows:

The committee, to whom was referred the memorial of the Legislative Council and House of Representatives of the Mississippi Territory, and the petition of sundry citizens thereof, praying to be admitted into the Union of the United States on an equal footing with the original States; and also the petition of the inhabitants of West Florida, setting forth their desire to be annexed to said Territory, for reasons therein contained, have had these subjects under consideration, and beg leave to submit the following report:

That there has existed in the Mississippi Territory a temporary government, founded on the ordinance for the government of the Territory Northwest of the river Ohio, since the eleventh day of April, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight. That, although this ordinance has undergone some modifications, extending, in a limited degree, the rights and privileges of the citizens, it still contains provisions incompatible with political liberty, and unfavorable to a due and impartial administration of justice, in the redress of private wrongs and injuries. The Chief Executive Magistrate is charged with the execution of the laws; is commander-in-chief of the militia; has the sole power of appointment to offices, civil and military, within the Territory, and the removal of these officers at pleasure; is vested with an unqualified veto on all bills passed by the other co-ordinate branches of the Legislature; and is, moreover, clothed with the odious and arbitrary authority to prorogue and dissolve the General Assembly whenever, in his opinion, it shall be expedient. These high and regal prerogatives, constituting some of the most obvious characteristics which distinguish an absolute monarchy from the constitution of a free State, are confided to the discretionary exercise of a Governor, who is neither chosen by, nor responsible to, the people. He is often a total stranger to the local interests and circumstances of the country over which he possesses such unlimited control, and is accountable only for malconduct or corruption in office to the President of the United States. The only security which exists against the frequent and wanton abuse of these powers is to be found in the mild and conciliatory disposition uniformly manifested by the General Government towards its territories. But experience has shown that, in all colonial governments, officers situated at a remote distance from the tribunal to which they are responsible, too frequently "feel power and forget right;" and, by eluding the vigilance of rigid investigation, are enabled to practise acts of oppression with impunity.

The above summary of Executive powers, so opposite in their nature to those principles which form the basis of the Federal Constitution, and which are transfused through the constitution of the several States, is sufficient to show that the people are deprived of all participation in the choice of those who administer the laws, and that public functionaries are rendered independent of the community whose interests are confided to their management and discretion. These restrictions on the rights of the people can be justified only by the most evident necessity, resulting from peculiar and unavoidable circumstances. Your committee, therefore, consider it an act both of strict justice and sound policy to advance the respective territories of the United States to the grade of a separate commonwealth, whenever they shall contain the number of inhabitants necessary to entitle them, under the ratio established by law, to a Representative in the Congress of the United States. On the subject of population, there exists no difficulty, whether the territory be taken in connection with West Florida or with its present limits. From the official returns of the census, taken during the summer of the past year, it appears that there were, in the Mississippi Territory, the number of forty thousand three hundred and fifty-two souls. This enumeration, it is alleged, fell considerably short of the actual population of the Territory at that time; and, without casting the most remote censure on the officers who were employed in that service, such a suggestion is strongly supported by the vast extent of country over which the settlements are dispersed. It also appears to your committee that the progressive emigration from the old States to this section of the Union, added to the length of time which it will require to form a constitution, and put the same in operation, afford satisfactory pledges that, anterior to the final admission of the Territory to the rights of State sovereignty, the number of its inhabitants will amount to at least sixty thousand, whereby they will possess the unqualified right, in conformity with articles of cession and agreement between the United States and Georgia, to be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States.

Your committee cannot forbear to express their decided opinion, that, where no constitutional difficulty occurs, the formation of new States on the southern extremity of the United States ought not to be delayed.

Under these impressions, your committee submit the following resolution:

Resolved, That it is expedient to admit all that tract of country, bounded north by a line drawn due east from the river Yazoo, where it unites with the Mississippi, to the river Chatahouchy, and down said river to the thirty-first degree of latitude; thence, along said degree of latitude, to a point opposite the river Perdido; thence to the confluence of said last mentioned river, with the Gulf of Mexico; and thence, in a direct line through the middle of the Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the junction of the Iberville with the river Mississippi, and up said river to the above-mentioned river Yazoo, into the Union of the United States, on an equal footing with the original States.