Gallaway, Lewis G.; et al. Mississippi Legislature - Duties and Powers of Government (Doc. No. 214) Resolutions of the Legislature of the State of Mississippi, In relation to the acts of the Extra Session of Congress of 1841. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1842. First Edition. [11665]
Removed, 8 3/4 x 5 5/8 inches, 5 separate documents, for a total of 10 clean pp. Good. Pamphlet.
27th Congress, Second Session, House of Representatives, Doc. Nos. 214, 215, 216, 217, 218.
Five US House of Representatives Reports of Resolutions of the Legislature of the State of Mississippi, responding to the Extra Session of Congress, 1841. These reveal the positions of the Mississippi State Legislature on several issues, the most striking being the one mentioned in the title above, on the Duties and Powers of Government.
"New and exciting questions have arisen, and important measures, deeply involving the welfare of the people and the rights of the States, and calculated to excite the alarm of all who cherish with proper regard our present happy form of government, having been proposed or adopted at the late extraordinary session of Congress, it becomes necessary, in the opinion of this Legislature, to revert to its first principles, as expounded by our republican fathers, and hallowed by the recollection of their patriotic support..."
It goes on to say that Mississippi will "maintain the Constitution of the United States against every aggression, either foreign or domestic; and that they will support the Government of the United States in all measure warranted by the former."
An assertion of States Rights follows, stating that Mississippi will oppose and not follow any laws not warranted by the US Constitution. "...in case of deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by said compact, the States, who are parties thereto, have the right, and are duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for ascertaining, within their respective limits, the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them."
It argues that the Federal government is changing the meaning of certain phrases in the US Constitution with the aim of transforming "the present republican system of the United States into an absolute, or, at best, a mixed monarchy."
The Mississippi Congressmen are given seven resolves, intended to encourage them to block such changes, the first being that that the Mississippi State Legislature holds to, and expects them to hold to, "at all times, the resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky adopted at their General Assemblies of 1798 and 1799." This first document is only four pages long, yet pregnant with meaning in the developing doctrine of States Rights in the American South.
The other documents included are Mississippi Legislature on the Right of Search, and the Brig Creole, 2pp.; Mississippi Legislature on postage in national currency, 2 pp.; Mississippi Legislature on Annexation of Texas to the United States, 1 p.; and Mississippi Legislature regarding the Light-House of St. Joseph's.
