decisive. Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes; Douglas, 1,375,157; Breckinridge, 847,953; Bell, 590,631. The great vote for Douglas was in the north and carried very few States. The total opposition vote to the Republicans was 2,823,741,—a majority of almost a million, in a total vote of about four millions and a half. The opposition to Lincoln had polled 1,288,611 in the North and West alone. In Lincoln's own State, Illinois, the opposition vote only lacked three thousand of that polled by the Republicans. It was really a narrow victory, and it was the part of wisdom for the Republican leaders to move cautiously.

In 1858, in the famous debate with Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln had said: "I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say, in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races, which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality." At the same time he felt and said that the Union could not permanently endure, half slave and half free labor; but he was disposed to be very patient with the South, as he confessed he could not see the solution of the problem. One of the clearest minded men of his age, he saw the equal truth of the two great facts involved, one social and the other industrial, and both hopelessly mixed up in the most rampant sectional politics. Because of this "irrepressible conflict" of two truths he was absolutely uncompromising regarding the extension of slavery, and so was his party. As indicating a hostile attitude, there was quoted in the South his generalization of 1859: "This is a world of compensation, and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and under a just God cannot long retain it." Also, "No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent. I say this is the leading principle-the sheet anchor of American Republicanism." (Quoted in T. J. Wharton's secession address to Tennessee.)

November 13th Governor Pettus issued a proclamation, that, "Whereas, the recent election of Messrs. Lincoln and Hamlin demonstrates that those who neither reverence the Constitution, obey the laws, nor reverence their oaths, have now the power to elect to the highest offices in this Confederacy men who sympathize with them in all their mad zeal to destroy the peace, prosperity and property of the Southern section, and will use the power of the Federal government to defeat all the purposes for which it was formed; and whereas, the dearest rights of the people depend for protection under our constitution on the fidelity to their oaths of those who administer the government," he called the legislature to provide "surer and better safeguards for the lives, liberties and property of her citizens than have been found, or are to be hoped for in Black Republican oaths." Gov. Pettus also invited the Congressional delegation to meet him in conference at Jackson. All attended but McRae. Diverse opinions were maintained. Some

opposed separate State action in secession. Some were opposed to secession, unless eight other States would consent to go out at the same time. Finally Reuben Davis proposed that the governor should recommend a convention to adopt an ordinance of secession to take effect immediately. This was carried by the votes of Governor Pettus, O. R. Singleton, William Barksdale and Reuben Davis. The governor then showed the conference a telegram from the governor of South Carolina asking advice as to whether the South Carolina ordinance should take effect immediately or on the 4th of March, and the same four votes were cast to give the advice, "immediately." (R. Davis, Recollections, 390. Also, see Mayes' Lamar, p. 87.)

When the legislature convened at Jackson, November 26, the message of the governor was immediately delivered. He declared they had before them "the greatest and most solemn question that ever engaged the attention of any legislative body on this continent," one that involved "the destiny, for weal or for woe, of this age, and all generations that come after us, for an indefinite number of generations, the end of which no prophet can foretell." He said the Northern States had decided "that slavery is sinful and must be destroyed," and that it only remained for the Southern States "to choose whether it shall be a peaceable and gradual abolition or speedy and violent." These were hard terms, and he argued that from the resistance to the fugitive slave law and the popular sympathy with John Brown that "the lives, liberty and property of the people of Mississippi" would not be safe under Republican rule. He saw but one path of honor and safety for Mississippi, to separate as Abraham parted from Lot. "That Mississippi may be enabled to speak on this grave subject in her sovereign capacity I recommend that a convention be called, to meet at an early date.' He argued at length the doctrine of a reserved right of secession by the States of the Union, and declared that this was the great saving principle to which alone the Southern States could look and live. "This saving principle must perish under Black Republican rule. Then go down into Egypt while Herod reigns in Judea-it is the only means of saving the life of this Emanuel of American politics." In after years he hoped, when "Black Republicans" had passed away, to come back "under the benign influences of a reunited government." "If we falter now," he said in conclusion, "we or our sons must pay the penalty in future years, of bloody, if not fruitless, efforts to retrieve the fallen fortunes of the State, which if finally unsuccessful must leave our fair land blightedcursed with Black Republican politics and free negro morals, to become a cesspool of vice, crime and infamy. Can we hesitate! when one bold resolve, bravely executed, makes powerless the aggressor, and one united effort makes safe our homes? May the God of our fathers put it into the hearts of our people to make it." Among the members a written plan of a Confederacy was freely circulated. (Published in the Mississippian of December 4th). "The States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida are

believed to be ready to go out of the Union," this began. "To these States, let commissioners be appointed now by the State," etc.

Thus exhorted the legislature passed, November 28th, the Convention bill, reported by Charles Clark in the house. It provided that an election of delegates to a convention should be held in each county, Thursday, December 20th, each county to have as many delegates as it had representatives in the legislature. Originally the bill would have allowed any "citizen" to be a delegate, but the senate inserted an amendment requiring one year's residence in the State. The delegates elected were to meet at the Capitol, Monday, January 7, 1861, and "proceed to consider the then existing relations between the government of the United States and the government and people of the State of Mississippi, and to adopt such measures of vindicating the sovereignty of the State, and the protection of its institutions as shall appear to them to be demanded." On the following day resolutions were adopted requesting the governor to appoint Commissioners "to visit each of the slave-holding States," to inform them of the action of the Mississippi legislature, "express the earnest hope of Mississippi that those States. will coöperate with her in the adoption of efficient measures for their common defence and safety," and appeal to the governors. to call the legislatures into extra session where that had not been done. Another resolution requested the State officers to prepare a device for a coat of arms for the State of Mississippi, to be ready by the 7th of January. Delay was not to the taste of the legislature. Senator Buck's resolve that it would not be proper to take final action without consultation with the sister slave-holding States, was lost, 27 to 3. The resolutions adopted by a large majority, after reciting the grounds for complaint, said, "That in the opinion of those who now constitute the State legislature, the secession of each aggrieved State is the proper remedy for these injuries." The legislature adjourned November 30.

The governor appointed the following commissioners, who visited the other States, and addressed the legislatures and people: Henry Dickinson, to Delaware; A. H. Handy, to Maryland; Walker Brooke and Fulton Anderson, to Virginia; Jacob Thompson, to North Carolina; G. S. Gaines, to Florida; W. L. Harris and Thomas W. White to Georgia; W. S. Featherston, to Kentucky; Thomas J. Wharton, to Tennessee; Joseph W. Matthews, to Alabama; Daniel R. Russell, to Missouri; George R. Fall, to Arkansas; Wirt Adams, to Louisiana; H. H. Miller, to Texas; C. E. Hooker, to South Carolina. Mississippi was herself visited by like commissioners. Colonel Armistead, from South Carolina, and E. W. Pettus, brother of the governor, from Alabama, attended the January convention.

While preparations were going on for confederation and war, Congress was talking compromise, and the famous Crittenden resolutions were proposed. Said the Natchez Free Trader: "They come too late. They never will be agreed to by the South." They

were not in fact given serious consideration anywhere. (See Convention of 1861.)

Seigers, a postoffice of Hinds county, on the Illinois Central R., R., 6 miles south of Jackson.

Selden, a postoffice in the extreme northeastern part of Tippah county, 2 miles east of Brownfield station on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R., and 20 miles from Ripley, the county seat. Selfcreek, a hamlet of Oktibbeha county, 12 miles due west of Starkville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 75.

Selma, a postoffice of Adams county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., about 9 miles from Natchez.

Selsertown, an extinct settlement in Jefferson county, which was situated on the extreme southern limits of the county, about six miles from the old town of Washington in Adams county. The old Natchez trace ran through this place, and early in the last century, George Selser kept an inn here and gave the settlement its name. We are told that the last owner of the old inn was one John McCollum, who proclaimed his nationality by the sign in front of the stables, "Intertainment for Man and Baste." Not long after the War between the States, the old house and stables were burned. In the vicinity of the old settlement was a large Indian mound, which was investigated in 1838 by a party of scholars from Natchez.

Seminary, a village of Covington county, about 8 miles southeast of Williamsburg, the county seat. It is a thriving station on the Gulf & Ship Island Railroad, 21 miles by rail from Hattiesburg. It has a money order postoffice and an express office. The Bank of Seminary was established here in 1905 with a capital of $30,000. There is a large saw mill and a turpentine plant located here and the town is prospering. It has three churches and a good school. Population in 1900, 500.

Seminary Fund. By the public land act of 1803 congress reserved from sale thirty-six sections, or 23,040 acres, for the use of a seminary of learning in the Mississippi Territory, incidental to the survey of the Creek boundary line. After the division of the Territory and the admission of the State of Mississippi, a substitute act was approved February 20, 1819, granting the State, in addition to the grant for Jefferson college, "another township, or a quantity of land equal thereto, to be located in tracts of not less than four entire sections each, which shall be vested in the legislature of the said State, in trust, for the support of a seminary of learning therein," the lands to be located by the secretary of the treasury when the Indian title had been extinguished in suitable lands. The location was made by 1823. In 1825 the legislature authorized the State auditor to lease the seminary lands for four years, bonds being required for improvements and proper care. "The plantation at the old Choctaw agency" was to be leased for three years to the highest bidder. An act of 1827 required notice of leasing to be given, and offer to the highest bidder. Further provision for leasing was made in 1830, proceeds to be paid into the State treasury. An act of March 2, 1833, required the governor to appoint three

commissioners to estimate the value of the thirty-six sections, whereupon the State auditor should advertise them for sale in tracts of not less than a quarter section, to the highest bidder, at not less than three-fourths the appraisement, three years credit to be given, the proceeds of the notes given by the purchasers to be invested in stock of the Planters' bank. The land was sold in 1833, all, with the exception of half a section, in exchange for notes with approved security, for the aggregate amount of $277,322. Gov. Lynch reported in 1835 that the notes were all due, with interest, making the amount $310,00. Gov. McNutt, in 1839, said the notes were generally well secured, "but many of them are under protest. The late auditor, John H. Mallory, has embezzled a portion of the fund. . . . Many of the drawers of the notes are dead, and others have moved out of the State." A committee of the House in 1841 was of the opinion that if due diligence had been used, more than threefourths of the large outstanding debt (about $168,000) could have been collected. Auditor Saunders declared that in some instances the land was occupied by persons not bound for the payment of the same. In 1841 $163,513 was uncollected, $16,439 was in the State treasury, and $137,189 had been invested in the Planters' bank.

An act of 1840 directed the selection of a site for a State university, and "all sums of money belonging or hereafter accruing to the seminary fund, are hereby appropriated for the use and benefit of the University of the State of Mississippi." The Seminary fund was created by act of July 26, 1843, to include "all moneys which have accrued or may hereafter accrue from the sale of the thirty-six sections, etc., and all bank stock, in which any such moneys shall have been vested," to be under the control of a commissioner appointed for four years, with authority to bring suits to recover the assets, assisted by the attorney-general. The treasurer of the State was required to keep an account of money paid on account of the fund, credited it with interest at five per cent. on previous receipts, and thereafter eight per cent. interest.

At the beginning of his administration Gov. A. G. Brown said: "Where is the seminary fund, is a question often asked but never yet satisfactorily answered. . . Our constituents will expect of us some account of this munificent fund, and a speedy application of it to the great purpose for which it has been set apart.' In 1846 he said: "This fund was formerly collected through the agency of the Planters' bank and by law it was invested in the stock of that institution. It was a trust fund, so declared by the act of congress making the donation of lands, out of which it sprung. The State, as trustee, had no authority for investing it in the stock of any bank; she did so, however, and $84,900, with several years' interest on that amount, has been lost. The State is, in my opinion, under the most solemn obligation to pay it back." At this time there was in the State treasury of this fund, $103,000, and if all collections. were made, and the lost principal and interest refunded, the total fund would be $250,000.

An act of 1848 fixed the rate of interest at six per cent., to be