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UNIVERSITY. Miss. — Perhaps the most significant historical document recounting Mississippi's path to statehood has been acquired by the University of Missis-slppi Archives during this Bicentennial year.
One of only two known copies of the original Congressional bill, dated Feb. 4, 1811, seeking admission of the Mississippi Territory to the Union has been purchased by the University Foundation from an independent dealer in Texas. Records of the U.S. House of Representatives in the National Archives include a copy of H.R. 195 of the 11th Congress and the only other one now belongs to Mississippi.
"We have contacted all the major archival depositories, including the Library of Congress, and all have said they do not have a copy of the bill, which means we hold a rare and vital piece of Missis-
sippi history," said Dr. Edward M. Walters. University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian responsible for the acquisition.
“Our bill is particularly significant because it’s the first Congressional Reading Bill printed and laid before Congress seeking admission of the territory into the Union, and therefore it has symbolic significance to the state," Walters said. "But more than just being the first bill introduced on admission, it sheds light upon one important historical issue that is not completely understood even today and that is the issue of division of territory.
"There were several different configurations of the Territory that were printed for Congress' consideration; some included even much of what is now Louisiana. Our bill now makes it possible to reconstruct this path to statehood with more certainty, and we can do this right here in the University of Mis-
sissippi Archives."
In December 1810, George Poindexter, territorial delegate to Congress from 1807 to 1813, introduced a motion in the House of Representatives to appoint a committee to "inquire into the expediency of admitting the Mississippi Territory into the Union as a free and independent state."
Two months later he was standing before the same congressional body reading the enabling act, which, if passed, would “enable the people of the Mississippi Territory to form a constitution and state government" and allow “for the admission of such State into the Union, on an equal footing with the original States."
No action was taken during this early 1811 session, and Poindexter was to make two more unsuccessful* attempts before he refused to run for re-election. Dr. William Lattimore, a former delegate during an earlier period, replaced Poindexter in 1813 and became the next champion for territorial admission.
After continued boundary disa; greements between Mississippi's two principal areas of settlement: ' The Natchez region and the Washington County settlement along the lower Tombigbee River in what is now South Alabama, and delays in congressional action caused by the War of 1812, Lattimore ushered a re vised^ version of Poindexter’s bill through both housejrof Congress: The bill waa’approved and signed by President James Monroe in 1817.
Opposition facing Poindexter and other proponents of the admissions bill in 1811 and 1812 was fierce and came not only from eastern congressmen who feared their states would lose power, but also from home where inhabitants of the territory feared added federal taxation. A minority also worried that land titles and claims would be challenged by the federal courts.
Chief and most convincing among the arguments of opponents to the bill was that the territory of . Mississippi did not have the 60,000 free inhabitants required by the j Northwest Ordinance for admission. Even if the 1810 census had been available for consideration by the 11th Congress, it would have been no help to Poindexter. When released, the count showed that there were only 40,352 people in the territory of which over 17,000 were slaves.