Mississippi

was admitted as a State December 10, 1817. It was explored by De Soto, a Spaniard, in 1539, and by the French men, Joliet and Marquette, who came down the Mi i ippi in 1673. In 1682 La Salle took formal po e ion of the territory for the King of France. Biloxi was settled by the French under Iberville in 1699. After the Louisiana bubble the colonies in Mi i ippi grew slowly. The French ceded the territory to England in 1763, and it was included within the State of Georgia until 1798, when it was organized as a territory by the U. S. Government under provisions like those of the Ordinance of 1787, with the exception of the article relative to slavery. The State has cast its electoral votes for Democratic candidates except in the years 1840, 1848 and 1872. In 1842 the State repudiated its bonds to the amount of $5,000,000, In 1850 Jefferson Davis and Henry S. Foote were candidates for U.S. Senator, and canva ed the State on the i ue of the advisability of sece ion. Davis, the leader of the pronounced Sece ionists, was beaten by a small majority. An ordinance of sece ion was pa ed by a State Convention January 7, 1861, but was not submitted to a popular vote. The State furnished the President, Jefferson Davis, of the Confederacy. Mi i ippi was readmitted February 23, 1870. In 1875 the white Democracy resorted to intimidation to keep the blacks from the polls, and succeeded in securing po e ion of the State, which has been Democratic since that date. The population of the State in 1817 was 75,512; in 1900 it had increased to 1,551,270. ‘The present Constitution was made in 1891. History by Riley.