The historian Claiborne ascribes the mistakes of Governor Sargent largely to the influence of Andrew Ellicott. The latter, sent to the territory in 1795 to lay out the boundary line under the Spanish treaty, applied himself after he arrived there to everything but his business. He claimed authority as a representative of the government which his commission in no way warranted, established himself as a sort of adviser-in-chief of all newcomers, and by ingratiating himself with the Indian tribes of the territory, he made no end of trouble for the government by lavish promises of gifts and privileges. It may well be that this man Ellicott was by no means as black as he has been painted, but there is sufficient contemporary evidence that he acted the part of a mischief-maker in Mississippi. From the journals, however, no evidence can be obtained that he had any particular influence with the governor. And before the close of his first year in office, Sargent fully recognized the mischief that the surveyor’s meddling in Indian affairs had caused. [Illustration: WINTHROP SARGENT Photographic facsimile of portrait by Gilbert Stuart, in the Mississippi Hall of Fame] It should be remembered that Sargent, having had a military training, was disposed to expect more deference to law and order than could fairly be looked for in a frontier community. The population of Mississippi at that time was of a very mixed sort, being made up of Spaniards, Frenchmen, Indians, negroes, half-breeds of all grades of parentage, renegade Americans and British, and at the same time a ruling class of exceptional uprightness and intelligence. The fact that the better element was outnumbered by the heterogeneous class beneath them, fully justified the governor’s apprehension of lawless outbreaks, which he sought to forestall by urging the organization and arming of a strong militia force. The opposition which he met with in this eminently wise measure, is in itself proof that prejudice largely inspired the movement against him. Political feeling had a share therein, beyond a doubt, for Sargent was a Federalist, the appointee of a Federalist President, whereas Mississippians were, almost to a man, Jefferson Republicans. Affiliation between them was impossible, even had it not been true that on one side was the frank, easy-going, ardent temperament of those resident in a land of torrid summers, and, on the other, the unbending austere, cold nature that has its home in the land of ice and snow.