The rare Marschalk printing of Mississippi’s second constitution, the document which established the first elected judiciary in the United States.
Mississippi first adopted a constitution in 1817 (Marschalk was also the printer) and there were subsequent printings in 1821 and 1822. However, as a result of the removal of both the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations (i.e. two-thirds of the whole state), and the subsequent demographic changes, a new constitution was required.
This new Constitution is important in many respects. Significantly, it abolished land ownership as a prerequisite to hold public office, but of greater importance is the clause that allowed for the popular election of judges and public officials. They were previously appointed and the method of their selection had been the biggest issue at the Mississippi Constitutional convention held in that year. “[T]he method of selection for judges, splintered the assembly into three distinct camps. The more conservative element, labeled ‘aristocrats’ by delegate Stephen Duncan, preferred to continue having judges appointed. The ‘half-hogs’ promoted a mixed system, with appointment of appellate judges and election of the trial bench. The ‘whole-hogs’ endorsed the changeover to a fully elected judiciary. The convention eventually settled on the third option, making Mississippi the first state to elect its judges” (Winkle).
In fact, a new provision was added affecting Native Americans, including the offer of American citizenship for those who remained in Mississippi. However, this seemingly inclusive gesture demanded the forfeiture of their tribal sovereignty and thus encouraged migration so that these lands could be opened for cotton cultivation and staffed by enslaved workers. As such, it’s with some surprise that on page 24 we read that slave traders were prohibited from operating in Mississippi. That provision was largely ignored and, furthermore, plantation owners were allowed to continue to import enslaved workers into the state.
Washington was a small town near Natchez (see the advertisement for the The Natchez Gazette on the verso of the upper wrapper) and an early seat of Mississippi’s government. Marschalk was active there between 1813 and 1830. The Marschalk printing is only listed twice in auction records: Eberstadt in 1964 and Parke Bernet in 1967. Peter Isler in Jackson also printed a rather drab edition of the Constitution the same year. No priority has been established between the two, but the Marschalk is much rarer and more handsome.
Not in Owen; not in Sabin (but cf. 49494 for the Jackson imprint); Winkle, J.W. “Constitution of 1832” in The Mississippi Encyclopedia (Centre for Study of Southern Culture) 2018, accessed online - https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/constitution-of-1832/ - 9 May 2024.
