A meeting of a portion of the citizens of Adams County was
held at the court-house in Natchez on the 19th hist., pursuant to public notice
in a hand-bill signed "Many Citizens,” calling a meeting of citizens
adverse to the election of judges by the people and opposed to nullification,
for the purpose of bringing out, if reconciliation should be found impracticable,
another candidate for the convention in the place of Chancellor Quitman.
Fountain Winston,
Esq., was called to the chair, and R. M. Gaines appointed secretary.
Judge Quitman explained his reason for appearing at the
meeting, after having declined to do so in his handbill of the 17th inst., by
stating that he had been since requested to attend by many of his known
friends. He then addressed the meeting at considerable length on the subject of
the respective rights of the general and state governments, after which Dr.
Duncan, in a spirit of conciliation, submitted a resolution which, being modified
on the motion of John T. McMurran, Esq., was unanimously adopted by the meeting
in the following form, to wit:
Resolved, As the sense of this meeting, that we are
opposed to the doctrine of nullification, and believe that its propagation
would endanger our dearest and best interests; that John A. Quitman having at
this meeting made a distinct exposition of his views upon the subject of the
relation which the state and federal governments bear to each other, said views
do not amount to nullification, according to the usual acceptation of the term,
and that said John A. Quitman ought to be supported for the convention on the
ticket as originally selected at a general meeting of the citizens of this
county, in this place, in May last.
Fountain Winston, Chairman.
R. M. Gaines, Secretary.
SOURCES: John F. H. Quitman, Life and Correspondence
of John A. Quitman, Volume 1, p. 114; “Public Meeting,” The Natchez Weekly
Courier, Natchez Mississippi, Friday, July 20, 1832, p. 2
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