[Mississippi]:

$6,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

[MANUSCRIPT PETITION FROM RESIDENTS OF ADAMS COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI, SHORTLY AFTER ITS CREATION, PROTESTING NEW LAWS, TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION, AND IMPOLITIC BEHAVIOR ON THE ... A contemporary manuscript copy of a strongly worded petition from citizens of the just-organized Adams County in the newly created Territory of Mississippi. Dated the 6th of June, 1799, the petitioners present both internal and external grievances, invoking the language and spirit of the still-recent American Revolution in decrying the sudden new laws imposed upon the Territory. They protest new tax policies, the power of sheriffs to arrest delinquents without due process, the seizure of the property of non-residents, the location of the new jail, a lack of regulated weights and measures, and more.Many of their arguments are focused on trade and taxation. For example, they "present as a grievance the taxing of batteaux and boats carrying above twenty barrels, as it will thereby prevent the freighting our produce and necessities to and from New Orleans in our own bottoms to the manifest injury of our own people employed in that line." They also complain of the Territory's crumbling infrastructure, presenting "as a very great Grievance the present ruinous state of the Roads and Bridges throughout the whole of this Territory to the great shame and neglect of an industrious and civilized people." Further, they state that they object to the levying of taxes for infrastructure, preferring statute labor

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