Mississippi Congressional Delegation, major issues addressed in Congress
(Sources: Congressional Bioguide, LOC Congressional Globe)

And other issues: Penitentiary and Asylum reform


32d Congress
Stephen Adams (Dem, Sen.)
Diplomacy, fisheries, Indian Affairs

Walker Brooke (Whig, Sen.)
Steamboat safety regulation, transcontinental railroad, river and harbor legislation

Albert Gallatin Brown (Dem, HR)
(p. 733-734, speaks on the southern rights movement and Unionism, denying that this was a Dem. only movement. "a fusion of parties." The southern rights movement is "now very dead." Responding to the claim that Unionists abandoned the Dems and now beg to be back in, denies it, saying that all the Unionist papers were former Whig papers, and all the Southern Rights papers were Dem. ) by p. 736 Brown smacks Rep. John Wilcox (Union-MS) for claiming a falsehood, and a brawl erupted. Brown apologizes, 737.

Indian claims, homestead bill


Jefferson Davis (D. Sen)
(Did not speak in 1851)

Henry Foote (D/Unionist, resigned to become governor)
remarks on Kossuth, Compromise of 1850

John D. Freeman (Unionist, Dem, HR)
made no remarks

John J. McRae (D. appointed to replace Davis, Sen)
(Spoke once, on the finality of compromise; opposed acquiescence, but obeyed dictates of the people in the 1851 election to yield.)
Appendix, 1st session, 167-8, responds to Foote's use of bridal metaphor for California:

"If California presented herself before the Senate
of the United States for admission into the Union
as a bride at the altar to which she was not bidden,
of course she had no right, on principle, to come
in. And even if she presented herself as a bride,
who had been invited to the nuptials, it would
certainly be under most extraordinary circumstances
that she should come without her wedding garments
upon her. Even our fair countrywomen
outside of the Senate would decide that if a bride
presented herself at the altar, under such
circumstances, without being bidden to the nuptials, and
without having on her wedding garments, she
ought not be admitted."

(p. 169) "Our purpose was not the dissolution of the
Union; it was to preserve the Union by the preservation,
in its purity, of the Constitution."


(p. 171) Continues a defense of the Democrats as not secessionists. Quotes Jefferson Davis from a Nov. 19, 1850 letter:

"If any have falsely and against the evidence before them,
attempted to fix on me the charge of wishing to dissolve the
Union, under existing circumstances[emph. TLB] I am sure your information
and intelligence have enabled you to detect the
shallow fraud. If any have represented me as seeking to
establish a Southern Confederacy, on the ruins of that which
our revolutionary fathers bequeathed to us, my whole life
and every sentiment I have ever uttered, in public or
private, give them the lie."

Benjamin Duke Nabers (Unionist Dem, cum Constitutional Unionist., HR)
Gives one speech on Mississippi politics, Appendix, 32d Cong. 1st session, p. 339+
(related to Kossuth support debate)

(341) "...most of the leading and distinguished
Whigs of my district were against me. The
circuit judge was against me, the district attorney
was against me, and many others were against me.
But to close this matter, and give you the whole
thing at one glance, the politicians of both parties
of Mississippi were on the side of resistance, and
the people were for the Union as it is. That is the
truth of the matter."

John A. Wilco (Unionist "Jackson Dem", HR)
(struck on the face by Brown, apologizes)
Homestead bill
Speech on Union and state rights parties, Appendix, 32d, first sess, 282+

(p. 283) [after having distinguished the "old line" Calhounists as pro-secession and individual state action immediatists,] he says:
"But I promised to return to my own State, the
home of my adoption, in whose bosom lies
imbedded all that was ever dear to me on earth.
Bold, fearless, and patriotic in her counsels of
State, and intrepid upon the field of battle. And
should the time ever come, which God forbid, that
her rights should be outraged, and she, from
oppression, forced to dissolve the political bonds
that unite her with the grand sisterhood of States,
I shall nail my colors to her mast, and if she goes
down it shall be my pride and pleasure to sink
with her."

Claims that the secessionists were always a separate
body, at odds with the Jacksonians, and still
try to make a "stealth entrance" into the Dem.
party of the present.

33d Congress
Stephen Adams (Dem, Senate)
Post Office appropriations bill, immigration and naturalization, Papal Nuncio, Indian appropriations, swamp lands

William Barksdale (Dem, HR)
Spoke once on the K-N bill, and on the "President's veto of the French spoilation bill"
Spoke on the president's veto of the River and Harbor bill.

William S. Barry (Dem, HR, president of MS. secession convention)
remarks on civil and religious toleration, and Know-Nothingism.
(p. 54, attacks Secret societies of the Know-Nothing variety, (56) attacks notion of disqualification from office or citizenship on short residency, (though he repudiates "foreign settlements in this country," calling for complete assimilation) and rejects the banning of Catholics from office-holding as contrary to the genius of religious toleration.

(p. 59)
"Now, sir, what is this movement at the North,
and who are engaged in it? It is a combination
of all the 'isms' of that section. Abolitionism,
Free-Soilism, Whigism, Woman-Rightism, Socialism,
Anti-Rentism, gathered together from a
thousand fretful rills, and mingling their currents in
one common channel. Abolitionism and Know-Nothingism
are akin; the first is a denial of the
rights of a section of the Union, and an attempt
to destroy them, because, in its wisdom, it has
determined that those rights have not the proper
moral sanction; the other is a denial of the rights
of a class of citizens, regardless of section. One
is a crusade against the rights of States; the other
against the rights of individuals."


Albert Gallatin Brown (Dem, HR)
Remarks on K-N bill, post office bill, homestead bill, river and harbors bill, tariff reductions,

Wiley P. Harris (Dem. HR)
Remarks on the Nebraska Bill are main item

Otho R. Singleton (Dem., HR)
One speech was on the Know-Nothings. (Very critical of organization's secrecy and its driving from power experienced political leaders; (267) "religio-fanatical Abolitionists seem to be its controlling spirits." )

Daniel Boone Wright (Dem. HR)
french spoilation bill;


34th Congress
Stephen Adams (Dem, Sen.)
Kansas admission, various rivers harbors, sloops of war legislation, post office bill, mail steamer bill, etc; Tariff bill

William Barksdale (Dem, HR)
Sumner, Kansas, deficiency bill, Speaker's election

Hendley Bennett (Dem, HR)
Speaker, Kansas

Albert Gallatin Brown (Dem, HR)
Relations with Great Britain, Pacific R.R. bill, 3 million bill, Graduation act, MN admission, Tariff bill

William A. Lake (American, HR)
incidental comments, and Kansas contested election

John Quitman (Dem. HR)
Speakership; Oregon indian wars and federal roads, army-related issues, Support for Walker's Nicaraguan filibusterers;

Daniel Boone Wright (Dem. HR)
largely quiet; gives a defense of Mississippi's bond repudiation (1st session, 2047-48)


35th Congress
William Barksdale (Dem, HR)
Kansas, mail steamer bill, diplomatic bill, post office bill.


Albert Gallatin Brown (Dem. Sen)
Comments on arrest of William Walker, Minnesota admission, Washington police bill, Oregon, Agricultural Colleges bill (opposed to it), Pacific RR bill, Tariffs, Washington public schools

Jefferson Davis (Dem. Sen)
Walker arrest, naval courts of inquiry, Kansas, Fishing bounties, military appropriations, Indians, Postal steamers, Pacific RR bill, River and Harbor bills,

Davis Reuben (Dem, HR)
Former Whig, later Greenbacker.

Indian appropriation bill, Cuba, Oregon, army, Post Office, and Navy appropriations
*****DAVIS PROVIDES A SUMMARY OF REGIONAL DIFFERENCES, EMPHASIZING NO INEVITABLE CLASH*** (Appendix, session 2, p.67+)
(68) Comparative advantage. Destroy slavery and N. factory operatives unemployed.
(68) "The fraternal feeling of this numerous and mighty people ought not to be
causelessly riven and rent." [by baseless northern fanaticism]
(68) Some motivated by abolition, others by desire to inflict tariffs (then launches into long attack on the tariff)

(69) "There was no conflict between the two
systems of labor. They are dependent upon each
other, and mutually contribute to produce the
greatest national prosperity.... The highest prosperity of
the one has its dependence upon the other. Slave
labor, everywhere, is confined to the cultivation
of the soil, and limited to the production of
cotton, rice, sugar, tobacco, hemp, and breadstuffs;
and these are the very articles upon which free
labor depends for success. What would your
cotton factories do without slave labor...?
A commerce is carried on
between them by an exchange of commodities, thus
enabling the votaries of each to obtain the
necessaries as well as the luxuries of life. Thus it will
be seen that the two systems are dependent, and
not antagonistical."

L.Q.C. Lamar (Dem, HR)
Few comments; does remark on Nicaragua. Tariffs.

John J. McRae (D. HR)
Rarely spoke.

John Quitman (Dem. HR)
Nicaragua and Central America, Kansas/Lecompton, Clayton-Bulwer, Army appropriations bill, civil appropriations.

Otho R. Singleton (Dem, HR)
Deficiency bill, Kansas, Washington Police Bill, diplomatic and consular bill (no funding for education of ex-slaves colonized to Africa)

36th Congress (first session only)
William Barksdale (Dem, HR)
Speakership, Post office, Army appropriations, Polygamy bill, Kansas, Tariff,

Albert Gallatin Brown (Dem. Sen)
Harper's Ferry, president's message, Post Office, Kansas, appropriations, Homestead bill, various D.C. gov't acts (on committee for D.C.), slave trade bill (send illegally traded slaves back, don't fund them here.)


L.Q.C. Lamar (Dem, HR)
*** Gives a long speech in speakership debate on Helper's book and what its implications were, and on the history of the establishment of slavery in Mississippi.
(Appendix, 36th cong. 1st session, p. 114 -- the LOC site has a hard time getting to this page. I had to go to p. 99 and step forward.)

Jefferson Davis (Dem. Sen)
(comments on a wide array of legislation, including: sectional issues, Kansas, military and diplomatic affairs, navy, slave trade, Indian affairs, river and harbor improvements, tariffs, homestead act.

Davis Reuben (Dem, HR)
Duty of Parties. Appendix, session 1, pp 33+ (Democratic party the only obstacle to the domination of the abolitionists; Democrats must remain steadfastly unified, and the Americans and others must join with them.)

(p. 34) "You see us struggle for existence --
an existence necessary to avert the destiny which
hangs over us. We ask you, to-day, to rally with
us and aid us in putting this rebellious organization,
whose advance columns have already polluted
our soil with their tread of treason and shed
southern blood upon southern soil; we only
ask you to aid us in our efforts to avert from
the country the calamity of a Black Republican
Speaker of this House; retain your party names
if you will -- your distinctive organization. This
is a fight involving the destiny of the world and the
future of mankind. When we have settled this
contest we can again divide and carry on our
contest as to what is best to be done to promote the
general welfare and individual happiness of our
people. This will be the highest evidence of
patriotism and devotion to your country's good,
which you can give, and for it your constituents at
home will thank you, and the Democracy throughout
the Union will thank you, and your wives
and children will thank you, and God will bless
you, and from millions of voices you will hear the
songs of rejoicing and praise."

(p. 35) "We see and feel that unless
we now arrest this conflict, and extinguish the
fires of this relentless war declared against us, even
in blood if necessary, ere long we will be
compelled to stand by, powerless to avenge, and look
upon the flame as it arises from our burning
homes, and witness the gleaming blade as it strikes
to the hearts, our wives and our children and
ourselves. We are excited upon this subject, and
justly so, and we are arming for the worst.

But we are to have no more compromises; you
will grant us none. Thank God, there is nothing
left us which can be surrendered even to
compromise. We have already yielded you everything
which compromise can reach, and that you know....
There are two things which have never been yielded --
our homes and our honor; and these things we
will never yield. You may, by the brute force
of numbers, rob us of our homes, but our honor
will be vindicated by the title we give you written
in our blood."

(There is a copy of his Helper denunciation in a .gif file on the Macbook.)


L.Q.C. Lamar (Dem, HR)
Speakership, polygamy, Covode report,


John J. McRae (D. HR)
Speakership election, army appropriations

Otho R. Singleton (Dem, HR)
Speakership, polygamy, deficiency, Pacific RR, Post Office
[The polygamy debate is a proxy for federal regulation of any "domestic institution."]
Resistance to black republicanism
(gives a firebrand speech of no resistance and the right of peaceable secession)
posted by Lloyd at 7:07 AM