Research Results For 'Mississippi'

BAYOU

A bayou is a section of still or slow-moving marshy water cut off from a main river channel, often in the form of an oxbow lake. Bayous are typical of the Mississippi River delta in Louisiana.
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COMPAGNIE DES INDES

The Compagnie des Indes, or Company of the Indies, was a corporation organized in Paris by John Law in 1719, by combination of the Guinea)Company, the Company of the West, the East India Company and the China Company. It was the basis of his great credit operations, in connection with his bank, and of the Mississippi Bubble, but is of importance in American history because it for several years owned the state of Louisiana.
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COMPAGNIE DE 1'OCCIDENT

The Compagnie de 1'Occident, or Mississippi Company was a company chartered on September the 6th, 1717, which succeeded to the rights granted by Louis XIV in 1712, to Anthony Crozat, to trade in all French possessions in America which were bounded by New Mexico and by the lands of the English in Carolina. In 1719 it was absorbed by the Compagnie des Indes.
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CONFEDERATE STATES

The Confederate States was a government formed in 1861, in North America, by seceding States. The second State to secede, Mississippi, at the time of secession, January 9, 1861, proposed a convention to form a Southern Confederacy. This provisional Congress met at Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4, with delegates present from six of the seven States - which had then seceded. It voted by States. On February 8, it adopted a provisional Constitution, and the next day chose Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, provisional President and Alexander H Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-President.

The permanent Constitution was adopted on March 11. It set forth the doctrines of State sovereignty and recognized slavery, though it forbade the slave trade. It forbade protective tariffs and Federal expenditures for internal improvements. Congress was forbidden to emit bills of credit. It could permit members of the Cabinet to speak before it. The President was empowered to veto single items in appropriation bills. His term was to be six years, and he was not to be re-elected. All the seceding States ratified the Constitution through conventions. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas seceded, and were admitted into the Confederacy. The seat of government was removed to Richmond, and Davis and Stephens were chosen again under the permanent Constitution. They were inaugurated as such on February 22, 1862.

During most of the existence of the Confederate Government, Judah P Benjamin was Secretary of State, Charles G Memminger Secretary of the Treasury, James A Seddon Secretary of War, Stephen R Mallory of the Navy and John H Reagan Postmaster-General. In this government Congress was of little account. Everything was subordinated to the energetic prosecution of the war, for which the President assumed almost dictatorial powers. Extraordinary efforts were made.

Money was obtained by means of the issue of Treasury notes, by cotton loans and by requisitions. Supplies were obtained by any means possible. Troops were obtained, finally, by conscription. The Government, though given belligerent rights by most maritime nations, could not secure any recognition of its independence. As the armies began to be more and more completely destroyed, dissensions broke out. Violent criticism of Davis prevailed. Finally, the surrender of Lee brought the Confederate Government to an end. The Federal Government of the USA never recognized its existence.
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LAKES

Lakes are accumulations of water in hollows on the earth's surface. When they are drained by rivers their waters are fresh, but when they have no outlet they are salty, e.g. the Dead Sea, Sea of Aral, etc.
Lakes may owe their origin to:

1. The formation of a barrier across a river.


2. Earth movements.


3. Ice erosion.


4. Volcanic action.

The nehrungs of East Prussia are sand-spits which enclose the shallow salt-water lagoons or halls, such as Kurische Haff. Earth movements cause lake formation when subsidence occurs. This is most easily seen in rift valleys. Examples of rift valley lakes are the Dead Sea, Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika in Africa, and Lake Torrens in Australia. These are all long, narrow, and very deep lakes.
In Cheshire, the removal of underground beds of salt has caused subsidence resulting in the 'meres' of the Weaver Valley. The 'folding' of the earth across the line of a river valley may partially block a river and help to form a lake. The study of a good physical map will reveal the connection between mountain building and the formation of Lake Geneva and Lake Constance in Switzerland. Where there are large areas of depressed lowland wide and shallow lakes are formed in the lowest part of the depression, for example the Sea of Aral in Asiatic Russia, Lake Balaton in Hungary, and Lake Eyre in Australia. Ice sheets and valley glaciers may scoop out hollows to form 'rock basins'. Mountain tarns and corrie lakes in North Wales and Scotland have been formed in this way. Water also accumulates in the hollows of unevenly- distributed glacial drift. Such are the lakes of East Prussia, and also those of the Cheshire-Shropshire borders near Ellesmere. Subsidence of the land surface and consequent lake formation may be directly related to volcanic action. Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland is a shallow lake formed by subsidence of this type. Lakes are often formed by the accumulation of water in the craters of extinct volcanoes, for example the Laachersee in the Eifel region of Germany.
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LEVEE

A levee is an embankment along the course of a river. Natural levees are low banks that are produced by the river during floods, when the overflowing of the river decreases the speed of the water and permits the deposit of silt. Artificial levees are considerably higher than natural ones and are built in order to protect the surrounding countryside from floods, and as such levees are similar to the protective dikes in the Netherlands that prevent flooding by the sea. On a large river such as the Thames in England or the Mississippi in the USA, floods cannot be controlled by levees alone because the waters rise to heights that would overwhelm any embankment.
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MIRANDA'S PLOT

Miranda's Plot was a scheme devised by some of the American Federalist leaders of 1798, notably King and Hamilton, to join Great Britain in obtaining possession of the French and Spanish lands in America. One Miranda, of Caracas, undertook to secure the disaffection of the Spanish provinces. By this joint enterprise Great Britain was to obtain the West Indies, and the United States Florida and Louisiana east of the Mississippi. The plot fell through because President Adams refused to favour it.
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MISSOURI COMPROMISE

The Missouri Compromise was a compromise in America effected by the Act of Congress of March the 3rd, 1830, between those who desired the extension of slavery into the regions beyond the Mississippi and those who desired its restriction. Missouri having applied for admission as a State, Tallmadge, of New York, in February, 1819, proposed an amendment which would ultimately destroy slavery in the new State. The House passed the bill with this amendment; the Senate refused to concur. Next year the bill, in the same form, passed the House again. The Senate voted to admit Maine, provided Missouri was admitted as a slave State. The House rejected the proposal. Thomas, of Illinois, proposed as a compromise that Missouri be admitted as a slave State, but that in future slavery should be prohibited in all territory forming part of the Louisiana cession north of 36 degrees 30 minutes. When Missouri's Constitution was laid before Congress, however, it appeared that she had introduced clauses excluding free negroes from the State. The House then refused to admit Missouri. Clay effected a further compromise, whereby Missouri agreed not to deprive of his rights any citizen of another State.
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NASHVILLE CONVENTION

The Nashville Convention was a convention of delegates from the Southern States of America at Nashville, Tennessee in June, 1850, suggested by the Mississippi State Convention of the previous year. The convention was called to consider the slavery question and the encroachments of Northern abolitionists. It did not meet with universal approval. The Wilmot proviso and the Missouri Compromise were disapproved of, but resolutions of open resistance advanced by Texas, South Carolina and Mississippi were voted down. The convention met again in November, and again moderate resolutions were adopted.
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NORTHWEST TERRITORY, AND THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 FOR ITS GOVERNMENT.

The Northwest Territory, consisting of the area west of Pennsylvania, north of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi, came under the control of the Continental Congress by reason of the cessions made by Virginia in 1784, New York in 1782, Massachusetts in 1785 and Connecticut in 1786. In 1784 Jefferson brought forward an ordinance for the government of this territory. Its leading features were that it provided for its erection into States, and their entrance into the Union on equal terms with the rest. A clause which would have prohibited slavery after 1800 was voted down.

In 1787 a new ordinance was framed upon this and passed on September the 13th. The credit of its final form, including the forbidding of slavery, has been attributed to Nathan Dane member of the Continental Congress from Massachusetts, and, to Dr. Manasseh Cutler, of the same State, agent of the Ohio Company. The ordinance provided that no land was to be taken up until it had been purchased from the Indians and offered for sale by the United States; no property qualification was required of electors or elected; a temporary government, consisting of an appointed governor and law-making judges might be established until the adult male population of the territory increased to 5000; then a permanent and representative government would be permitted, with the right of sending a representative to Congress, who should debate, but not vote. When the number of inhabitants in any of the five divisions of the territory equalled 60,000, it should be admitted as a new State; the new States should remain forever a part of the United States; should bear the same relation to the Government as the original States; should pay their apportionment of the Federal debts; should in their governments uphold republican forms, and slavery should exist in none of them. It also provided for equal division of the property of intestates, and for the surrender of fugitive slaves from the States.

Under this government Arthur St Clair was Governor of the territory from 1788 to 1802, when Ohio became a State. The western portions were then organized as the Territory of Indiana, the northern as the Territory of Michigan, in 1805.
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