The Guard Archive

On the Tennessee border in north-central Mississippi, Marshall County's gently-rolling terrain of well-drained, extremely fertile soil was perfect for growing cotton. In 1850, the area produced more than 30,000 bales of cotton and had the largest population in the state. Known as "the capital of North Mississippi," Holly Springs, the county seat, was a prosperous antebellum town.

In the decades before the Civil War, Holly Springs had several four-page Democratic newspapers; possibly the earliest was the Marshall County Republican and Free Trade Advocate (1838-39), which was continued by the Marshall County Republican (1839-39?). The latter was published twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays for its first two months before returning to a weekly format. The Advocate's prospectus defined the paper's purpose as "a Political Journal, devoted to the cause of Democracy . . . ." Both the newspapers opposed a national bank. An example of the significance of the banking crisis is a letter by former governor and bank president Hiram G. Runnels published in the February 19, 1839 issue of the Republican, explaining the condition of the Mississippi's Union Bank, a failed effort to cope with the panic caused by President Andrew Jackson's attempt to curb runaway inflation. In addition, the February 15 and 19, 1839 issues of the Marshall County Republican carried articles on the newly passed married women's property act, the nation's first statute to give women rights to real and personal property possessed at the time of marriage. The Republic of Texas was a frequent subject, not only in editorials, but also in property advertisements and articles on emigration since many Mississippians moved to Texas. Both the Advocate and the Republican had similar content, with many legal notices and advertisements, including some for locally-raised and raced thorough-bred horses, and editorials and general interest stories.

The prospectus for Holly Spring's other Democratic newspaper, the weekly Guard (1842-46) stated that it would be ". . . a Guard to the Constitution of the State and the United States; a Guard to the Domestic Institutions of the South, which are guaranteed by those sacred instruments; [and] a Guard to the Union, and to the pure fundamental principles of Democracy . . . ." Proceedings of Congress and the state legislature were regular features, as were political editorials, legal notices, and advertisements. Events leading up to and including the Mexican-American War (1846-48) were also covered. A June 12, 1846 article described the departure of the Marshall Guards, one of the companies of the First Mississippi Regiment commanded by Colonel Jefferson Davis and dispatched to Mexico. A column called "Correspondence of the Guard" was a regular, if not weekly, column.