An amusing anecdote is related of him in connection with the discharge of these duties.  When holding court at one time in Natchez, he had sent to jail a turbulent and riotous individual, who could in no other way be restrained.  This fellow, once incarcerated, professed great contrition, and humbly petitioned for release, but Poindexter had ordered the sheriff to keep him for a week, and could not be moved from his position.  At the expiration of the week he was released, and though he was quiet and orderly, he remained lurking about town and the court-room until the adjournment of court.  He watched his opportunity, and meeting the judge upon the street, commenced abusing him roundly; finally telling him he had waited purposely for the opportunity of whipping him, and that he intended then and there to do so.  Poindexter, perceiving the sheriff on the opposite side of the street, called to him, and ordered him to open court then and there, which in all due form the sheriff proceeded to do.  The bully was startled, and the judge, perceiving this, remarked to him authoritatively, “Now, you scoundrel, be off with yourself, or I will put you in jail for one year!”—­when the blackguard speedily decamped, to the infinite amusement of the crowd upon the street.

Governor Poindexter found at Natchez, and a few other localities, strong opposition from the Federal party, then constituted almost entirely of emigrants from Western Pennsylvania, with a sprinkling from the more Eastern States.  The party was small, but made up for this deficiency in numbers with zeal and violence.  As with all heated and hating partisans, their malevolence was principally directed toward the leaders of the opposing party.

Poindexter was the acknowledged leader of the Republican or Jeffersonian party, and concentrated on himself the hatred of one and the adoration of the other party.  His triumphs were complete and overwhelming in every election.  He was not scrupulous in the use of terms when speaking of his enemies.  These anathemas, darting in the caustic wit and voluble sarcasm so peculiarly his, went to the mark, and kindled hatred into fury.  It was determined to get rid of him.  His denunciations of Abijah Hunt, a prominent merchant and leading Federalist, being more pointed and personal than toward any other, it seemed incumbent on him to challenge Poindexter to mortal combat—­an arbitrament for the settlement of personal difficulties more frequently resorted to at that period than at the present time.  They met, and Hunt was killed.  But such was the violence of feeling with his party friends, that they were determined Poindexter should not escape unscathed, and he was denounced as having fired before the word agreed upon in the terms of the conflict were fully enunciated.  This, however, effected but little, and he continued the idol of his party.