  Mississippi's first printer was Andrew Marschalk of New York, an Army lieutenant stationed at Walnut Hills, close to the eventual site of Vicksburg. The Library of Congress earliest Mississippi imprint was designed to controvert remarks by "The Friend of the People" in Green's Impartial Observer for November 1, 1800. It is a small broadside "From the Office of J. Green" that would seem to corroborate the printer's impartiality, at least in this particular dispute. Captioned "To the Public," dated November 8, 1800, and signed by eight members of the new Territorial House of Representatives, it refers to "an exaggerated estimate of the supposed expence attending the second grade of Government"; and it continues, "We therefore consider it our duty to counteract the nefarious and factious designs of the persons concerned" in the anonymous article. Mississippi's second grade of Territorial government had come about in 1800 with the creation of a legislature to enact the laws, theretofore enacted by the Governor and three judges. The authors of this broadside itemize the maximum annual expenses for operating the legislature, concluding with a comparison of the total estimates: their $2,870 as opposed to the $15,050 of "The Friend of the People." "To the Public," dated November 8, 1800 ("To the Public," dated November 8, 1800) In addition the Library of Congress has a lengthy rebuttal to the November 8 statement on a broadside also captioned "To the Public," dated at Natchez "November 15th, 1809" (a misprint for 1800), and signed "The Friend of the People." The writer begins: Fellow-Citizens, Of all the extraordinary performances I ever beheld, the late hand-bill, signed by eight members of our house of representatives, is the most extraordinary—and I doubt not that it will be considered by the country at large as the legitimate offspring of the subscribers; being replete with that unauthorized assumption of power, and those round assertions so truly characteristic—propagated for the avowed purpose of 'undeceiving the people' in a matter of His argument against his opponents' cost estimates touches upon certain fundamental issues, such as the threat of an aristocratic rule if the stipend for legislators is indeed kept very low. Towards the end he notes an instance of intimidation: One thing more I would observe—a very threatening letter has been written to the printer denouncing vengeance on him, if he does not deliver up the author of "the friend of the people"—this I take to be an attempt to frighten and preclude further investigation, but it will be of little avail when the interests of my fellow citizens are so deeply concerned. That James Green, although not named, is the printer of this second broadside can be demonstrated by typographical comparison with the January 24 and February 21, 1801 issues of Green's Impartial Observer, available at the Library of Congress. The two broadsides cited are the only copies recorded in Douglas C. McMurtrie's A Bibliography of Mississippi Imprints 1798-1830 (Beauvoir Community, Miss., 1945). It is interesting that at the time Governor Sargent expressed himself privately on the earlier broadside as follows: They [the members of the House of Representatives] are undoubtedly the proper Guardians of their own honour and Conduct, but nevertheless, will not take it amiss, in a Communication intended only for themselves, that I should observe it has always been Considered derogatory to the Dignity of Public Bodies, to notice anonymous writings, in the style and Manner of the Hand Bills,—it opens a broad Avenue to Retort and Satire, with many other obvious and unpleasant Consequences. |
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