Series 2378: Memorials from State Legislature. 1817-1882.
Legislature (RG 47).

Series 2378: Memorials from State Legislature. 1817-1882.
Legislature (RG 47).

      Memorials (or petitions) from the state legislature primarily to the U.S. President or Congress relating to matters or problems within the state that were determined or affected by U.S. federal government policy or decision. A large number of these memorials were sent to Congress in the early years of statehood. As the state’s infrastructure was completed (roads and bridges built, county boundaries established, etc.), fewer memorials were needed. Predominant among these memorials are requests for settling land disputes or needs (British claims, surrounding territory, land grants to Ship Island, Ripley, and the Kentucky Railroad, land sales proceeds used for youth education, agricultural land scrip fund, etc.) and requests for authority to establish mail routes (particularly Yazoo and Sunflower Rivers). There is also a memorial to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America in 1861 regarding the determination of the people of Mississippi to uphold the Confederacy.

      Notable requests for consideration of individuals include a plea on behalf on Jefferson Davis in 1865, and a plea on behalf of a British prisoner, Edward Condon, an Irish-American, in 1876.