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."