USA > Mississippi > A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river > Part 33
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This motley assemblage, known to this day as the "Black and Tan Convention," was called to order January 7th, 1868, by Alston Mygatt, who appeared there as the called" representative of the people of Warren county, He we'vered an address overflowing with venom against
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the people of his own race, filled with false and silly crit- icisms of the previous history of the State and its people, and suggesting the disfranchisement of the most, intelli- gent, educated and virtuous men in Mississippi.
There were a number of able, patriotic and true men in the Convention, but they were as powerless to accomplish good-confronted as they were by an overwhelming ma- jority of characterless adventurers and ignorant negroes- as they would have been to turn aside the mighty Missis- sippi river with a single straw. One B. B. Eggleston, bet- ter known by his soubriquet of "Buzzard" Eggleston, a coarse, illiterate and vulgar fellow, one of the class hap- pily characterized by Horace Greely as of the "Driftwood Brigade," and claiming to represent the great and enlight- ened county of Lowndes, was made president of the Con- vention over the Hon. John W. C. Watson, an old and hon- ored citizen of the State, a distinguished lawyer, and a cultivated christian gentleman. One of the first things in order was to appoint a committee to report upon and fix the daily compensation of the members. No time was lost in reporting and adopting a resolution fixing the com- pensation of the president at $20.00 per diem ; the pay of the members was rated at $10.00 a day, and that of the employes and hangers-on was fixed in proportion to that of the members.
A great many of the delegates hailed from counties where they had no identity with the people, where they were unknown to the taxpayers whom they impudently claimed to represent, whose substance they desired to waste, but were most anxious to participate in the work of plundering and oppressing a brave but helpless people, who were struggling manfully to restore their ruined for- tunes and provide for their wives and children.
As an evidence of the profligacy of these characterless vagabonds, of these bold brigands, thus suddenly raised from their native insignificance to a position of promi- nence, masquerading as statesmen and constitution- makers, it is only necessary to state the fact that they paid four newspapers, the Mississippi State Journal, the Vicksburg Republican, the Meridian Chronicle and the
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Mississippi Pilot, each established to stir up strife be- tween the races and share the plunder wrung from an op- pressed and down-trodden people, the sum of twenty-eight thousand, five hundred and eighteen dollars and seventy- five cents for publishing the proceedings and debates of the Convention, to say nothing of what was paid for the printing of the ponderous journal in book form.
It affords food for reflection at this day to look over the names of those engaged in the business of constitution making, and the counties they claimed to represent twen- ty-two years ago. Happily for the State and its people, nine-tenths of the vultures are gone, never again to return to the people they plundered and oppressed in the hour of their direst misery. Many have gone down to dishonored graves, others have sought new fields of plunder, and it is safe to say not half a dozen of the gang of white free- booters who were engaged in the business of statesman- ship in 1868, are to be found within the borders of Missis- sippi to-day. The few negro members of the "Black and Tan Convention," who still survive, have returned to their original vocations, and are to-day competing with the bar- bers, boot-blacks, hack-drivers, blacksmiths, waiters and fiddlers, who never abandoned their business to play the role of statesmen. Such an upheaval of society, such a disturbance of governmental affairs, as could again bring back to power such a brood of ignorance and villiany would bankrupt the most fertile imagination ever vouch- safed to man to conceive.
These servile tools and trucklers to military power basely surrendered the right of all deliberative assemblies in America to judge of the election and qualifications to membership of their own body. The convention declared that it was not within its province to determine, in cases of contest, who were delegates to the convention, and that such contests could only be rightfully decided by the major-general commanding the fourth military district. In the case of Benjamin H. Orr, who claimed to be elected from Harrison county, a committee reported that "Orr be- came a candidate for delegate to the convention with the express consent of the military commander of this district,
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contained in special orders No. 196," and the convention awarded the seat to Orr. So shameless an abandonment of all right and power, so disgraceful a travesty of deliber- ative proceedings was never before or since exhibited to the admiring gaze of the world.
The corrupt carpet-baggers, the ignorant negroes and the baser renegades, who had tried their "prentice hands" on the work of constitution making, for the few citizens of intelligence and decency had but little part in the construc- tion of that instrument, completed their labors on May 15, 1868, after having been in session four months and nine days. Each member of this multi-colored aggregation of ignorance, insolence and imbecility, including negroes, ren- egades and carpet baggers from every quarter of the coun- try, drew ($1,290) twelve hundred and ninety dollars pay for his invaluable services, to which may be added the pay of "Buzzard Eggleston," the President of the Convention of $2,580) twenty-five hundred and eighty dollars. The entire pay of the members alone, aggregated the immense sum of ($128,710) one hundred and twenty-eight thousand seven hundred and ten dollars.
This vast amount was greatly augmented by the pay of reporters, secretaries, sergeant-at-arms, chaplain, post- master, door-keeper, pages, and all other places that the ingenuity of these reckless brigands could devise, to say nothing of the enormous amount expended for public printing. The aggregate cost of this convention may be safely estimated at a no less sum than a quarter of a mil- lion of dollars. After these corrupt, unprincipled and vindictive buccaneers had expended their venom and ad- journed, their handiwork of malice was submitted to the people for ratification or rejection. The white people of the State, incensed as they were beyond expression, avowed their determination to reject the mis-begotten and scoundrelly constitution, maintain their free-born man- hood, and let consequences take care of themselves, and nobly did they accomplish their purpose.
It will be remembered that the election at which the constitution was rejected, was held under the direction and supervision of the military commander of the district, who,
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according to his own report, took precaution to station troops at as many as sixty places in different quarters of the State. And yet, notwithstanding the presence of the soldiers in nearly every county in the State; in spite of the fact that the entire election machinery was in the hands of, and controlled by the military, in spite of the fact that the gleam of the bayonet could be seen at many polling places; yet, notwithstanding the other odious and undeniable fact that a large number of the most intelligent and capable white citizens of the State were denied the right to vote, and were interfered with when they attempted to engage in the discussion of the wrongs and outrages sought to be perpetrated, the knavish instrument was voted down by an overwhelming majority. In this good work, the white people of the State owe a large debt of gratitude to the negro voters for their voluntary and en- thusiastic support in that great contest.
In submitting the constitution for ratification or rejec- tion, there was a "committee of five" appointed by the convention, charged with the duty of making proclama- tion of the result of the election. In the hour of defeat, this committee, in its desperation, issued and caused to be published a statement that the counties of DeSoto, Ran- kin, Lafayette, Yalobusha, Carroll, Copiah and Chicka- saw, had been carried against the adoption of the consti- tution by fraud, intimidation and violence, and recom- mended that the people of those counties should be denied representation in the Legislature. and that their people should be deprived of the right to vote for represen- tatives in Congress, or for State officers. The sugges- tions of the committee of five were, however, not adopted. The members of the convention and the committee of five, continued to discuss the constitution they had made, until the election and inauguration of President Grant, whom they fondly hoped would assist them in fastening manacles upon the people of Mississippi. In this. however, they were doomed to a sad disappointment. That great soldier had as much contempt for them and their miserable work as the people of Mississippi had recently manifested. With the manly frankness of the true soldier, he recom-
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mended to Congress to provide for the holding of another election, and allow the people the privilege of voting for or against the disfranchising clauses separately, as well as for State officers, Representatives in Congress and in the Legislature. This provision, so submitted, embraced the XIV and XV amendments to the constitution of the United States, which provided for the right of suffrage, without regard to race, color or previous condition of ser- vitude. The election was held in November, 1869, when the white people of the State accepted the constitution as modified and recommended by the president. At the first election thereafter, by an odious and discriminating ap- portionment, the carpet-baggers, negroes and renegades, were enabled to secure a large majority in the Legislature and elected all the State officers and representatives in Congress. The Legislature when assembled elected two United States Senators.
The constitution was framed by the carpet-baggers, negroes and renegades, for the sole purpose of taking charge of the State government, creating as many offices as possible, and coercing the impoverished tax-payers to pay large salaries to a class of men notoriously unfitted for the duties they assumed to perform. At this late day it may be safely affirmed that with the exception of a score of gentlemen, out of the entire membership of ninety-eight in the body, who, by training and education, were fit rep- resentatives of an intelligent and high-spirited people, no such assemblage had ever before convened within the broad limits of the commonwealth.
In reference to the personnel of the Convention, a score or more were ignorant and unlettered negroes, fresh from the corn-field, the kitchen and the stable, puffed up with the importance of their official positions, and drawing ten dol- lars a day for their services from the impoverished tax- payers. Nearly two score of the carpet-bag adventurers, nine-tenths of whom were corrupt, unprincipled and igno- rant, had drifted into the State after the close of the war, seeking "assignment" to duty, as one of the gang phrased it.
The next in order came nearly a score of renegades who
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found lodgment in the Convention, and subsequently into other lucrative positions.
"Buzzard" Eggleston, the President of the Convention, in his closing address, made an amusing and unique exhi- bition of himself: "Gentlemen," he said, "I believe the har- vest is already ripe." Doubtless he saw "five years of good stealing," as another carpet-bagger in South Carolina once said. He admonished his co-workers in iniquity to "invite all those who wished to see the great State of Mis- sissippi restored to her proper relations with the Federal Government, who wished to aid in the restoration of peace, prosperity and happiness to our impoverished country. "to come with us, for we will do them good."
No more shameless record in the annals of crime was ever made than by the Constitutional Convention presided over by "Buzzard" Eggleston. We have made mention of only two names of this disreputable and malodorous gang, and we do not propose to stain the pages of this volume with the names of the other cormorants, though by doing so we should embalm them in an immortality of infamy and shame.
It only remains to be added that the election for delegates to the Constitutional Convention was ordered by the mili- tary commander of the fourth district. That wretched Pro Consul of a conquered province made the apportion- ment of delegates among the several counties, awarding at his own sweet will the number of representatives each county shall have in this most delectable assemblage ; and finally "General Orders No. 42," emanating from head- quarters, at Holly Springs, Mississippi, and bearing date December 16, 1867, announced the election of the members of the Convention from the several counties in the State. This same order contained a most original and unique para- graph in the following words :
"Each delegate-elect will be furnished from these head- quarters with an official copy of this order, which will con- stitute his certificate of election."
Thus the ragamuffins who claimed to represent the peo- ple of Mississippi in their sovereign capacity, were proved to be the mere creatures, the passive instruments, and the
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ignoble product of brute force, the direct emanation of the bayonet. It is not wonderful, then, that even the negroes were disgusted with a Constitution made by such men and such methods, and heartily co-operated with their white neighbors in trampling the noxious thing into the mire.
After the adoption of the Constitution of 1868, a Repub- lican Convention met and nominated B. B. Eggleston for Governor, and a full Republican ticket.
The Democrats held a State Convention and nominated B. G. Humphreys, for Governor; Kinloch Falconer, for Lieutenant-Governor; J. L. McCaskill, for Secretary of State ; Thos. T, Swann, for Auditor of Public Accounts ; A. P. Slover, for State Treasurer ; Charles E. Hooker, for Attorney-General, and D. P. Bestor for Superintendent of Education.
Humphreys and Hooker entered upon a canvass of the State, while their associates were active in localities where they were called.
The canvass was prosecuted with great vigor, the Demo- crats contesting every inch of ground, knowing they had a majority of probably twenty thousand to overcome. This estimate includes the whites then disfranchised.
Pending the canvass Ord was superseded by General McDowell, who, on assuming command, issued an order removing Governor Humphreys and Colonel Hooker, who was at the time Attorney-General of the State, from their offices as impediments to reconstruction, and appointed Adelbert Ames Governor of the State.
ADELBERT AMES AS MILITARY GOVERNOR.
The Democratic canvass was made under the direction of Gen. John D. Freeman, Chairman of the Democratic State Executive Committee.
Governor Humphreys refused to obey the military order of McDowell, but continued to discharge the duties of his office.
Col. Biddle, armed with an order from General Ames, called at the Executive office and demanded of the Gov-
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ernor a surrender of it and the archives of the State ; and if refused, notified him of the hour at which he would seize them. Before the hour of seizure arrived the Governor invited Dr. M. S. Craft, Marion Smith, Oliver Clifton and Wm. F. Fitzgerald to be present and witness what occurred. At the appointed hour the military officer with a file of soldiers appeared at the Executive office to carry into exe- cution the order mentioned. On renewing his demand he was informed by the Governor that his force was insuffi- cient to take possession of his office ; the officer's deport- ment was that of a gentleman, and he inquired what force would be necessary, and was informed that the Governor would be the judge of that ; immediately thereafter the officer returned with a military company, marched them into the Executive office, and instructed their commander to permit any one who desired to pass out, but allow no one to come in. Soon after this order and demonstration, the Governor, accompanied by his private secretary, went to the Attorney-General's office, and on his return at the door of his own office he was ordered to " halt" at the point of two bayonets. Upon inquiry of the sergeant what that meant, he was kindly informed by the sentinel that his orders were to allow no one to enter the office, and that it was a military order from his superior officer that he was compelled to obey. The Governor was thus ejected from the Executive mansion.
Referring to this proceeding Governor Humphreys said :
"I knew it was futile to disobey these orders, and that I must succumb, but I had the honor, the dignity, property rights, and the sovereignty of the State to guard, and I was determined to maintain those rights and yield noth- ing except at the point of overpowering bayonets, and that the world should know that I yielded not to civil process, but to stern, unrelenting military tyranny."
The ejection of Governor Humphreys from the Executive office and the Governor's mansion was followed by the military administration of Adelbert Ames, whose career constitutes a dark and disgraceful page in the State's his- tory. Adelbert Ames was born in the State of Maine in 1835, and at the age of thirty-four years the fortunes of
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war found him in this State, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the regular army, and a Brevet Major-General of volunteers, appointed military Governor of Mississippi. A young man without experience in civil polity, he was utterly unfitted for the discharge of the duties assigned him. The gigantic task of putting in operation the machinery of a State government was beyond his capabilities, and to make it more embarrassing, he was unable to divest himself of the passions and prejudices engendered during the war against Southern white people, and the further fact that he was surrounded and controlled by corrupt influences rendered him obnoxious to those who bore the burdens of govern- ment. The charge was openly made by the press and speakers of the Democratic party during the canvass con- ducted under the auspices and direction of Ames, as mili- tary Governor, that his object was to have his tools and minions returned to the Legislature that he might be re- warded, not only for his fealty to them, but as well, for his slanderous official report touching the condition of Mis- sissippi affairs. Leading Republicans, and Ames himself, denied the accusation, but its truth was established by his election to the Senate of the United States in 1870. His administration as Military Governor was characterized by an utter disregard of law, stupidity and oppression, and when superseded by civil government the people felt that they were rid of a withering, blighting curse.
On the 15th of January, 1870, he transmitted to the Leg- islature copies of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution of the United States, which the two houses on that day ratified according to the prescribed terms of a resolution of Congress.
His reign as Military Governor was drawing to a close, to the gratification of the intelligent people of the State. Ex- amples of his bad conduct were many and disgraceful. He appointed, in 1869, one of his minions probate judge, and president of the board of supervisors in Rankin county, who during his official term as such appointee, was, on a preliminary examination, found guilty of ob- taining money under false pretenses, and also of embezzle- ment. For the latter offense he was held to bail in the
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sum of two thousand dollars, and failing to give the required bond he was lodged in jail. His appointee for sheriff, one Corliss, was also in the custody of a special officer for obtaining a county warrant fraudulently, and for subor- nation of perjury. Pending the trial of these two officials, Governor Ames sent a company of United States troops, under command of one Major Rosencranz, and stationed them at Brandon. Major Rosencrantz demanded and obtained possession of the jail key, and with a squad of soldiers took the probate judge out of jail and escorted him to the courthouse, when a soldier with a musket in hand opened court (it being Monday of the regular term), and in a short time the same soldier adjourned court until the next regular term.
The imprisoned judge and sheriff were carried away by military force without consultation with the civil authori- ties, and given their freedom, both of whom went beyond the confines of the State and never returned. Kindred audacious insults and lawless conduct were inflicted upon the people of a number of counties in the State, notably, Choctaw, Yalobusha and Monroe. His high-handed tyranny was remembered in Copiah county, where twenty- five or more substantial and respectable citizens, without authority of law, but to gratify his caprice, and to meet the wishes and complaints of treacherous renegades and negro politicians, were arrested and imprisoned.
For the purpose of giving a further exhibition of his power, and to increase his methods of oppression, he dared, in violation of the Federal Constitution, and every State Constitution in America, to arbitrarily suspend the writ of right, the writ of habeas corpus, when there was neither a rebellion or invasion, nor the public safety threatened.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR ALCORN.
JAMES L. ALCORN, a native of the State of Illinois, but educated in Kentucky, and for fifty years a resident of Mississippi, was elected Governor of Mississippi in Novem- ber, 1869, as the candidate of the Republican party, and
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thus became the nineteenth chief magistrate of the com- monwealth, and the first chosen under the constitution formulated in 1868.
On the 10th day of March, 1870, he was inaugurated, and in his address of that date, he said :
"The military government, which I have the happiness to bow this day out of the State, was no more a subject of pleasure to me than it was to any other Mississippian whose blood glows as mine does, with the instinct of self- government."
Governor Alcorn was elected as a Republican. He had been a life-long Whig, a trusted leader of his party, and assumed that he could serve the State in his chosen new role. Possessed of strong will-power, bold, able and adroit in debate, he conceived the idea of dividing the white peo- ple, and especially entertained the hope that many of his old Whig followers would join him. His scheme seemed to be for the white people to join the National Republican party, get control of the negroes, and administer the State . government in the interest of the people. White Demo- cratic voters were not in temper to embrace such a radical change, nor did they believe that the negro could at that time be won from his tyrant master, the carpet-bagger.
In acknowledgment of his elevation he announced "that the ballot box, the jury box and the offices of the State should be thrown open to the competent and honest, with- out distinction of color."
Two months previous to his induction into office he wrote to Hon. Geo. W. Harper, a prominent citizen of Raymond, in which among other things he stated, "I am a man of the day. In the last contest I inquired not where the man battling at my side was born. I asked him not when he came into the State. *
* I did not pause to look into the face of the man who fought under the banner I bore, and still bear, to ascertain the color of his skin.
* * By my honesty in dealing here with them, I challenge their honesty in dealing with me, and expect if they come over to me, they will do so in perfect good faith, as members of the great Republican party of the State and Nation."
He recommended a well equipped military command,
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coupled with a secret service fund, to be placed at his dis- posal, thus establishing a character of espionage which caused to be visited upon him, on the part of the people, a condemnation which required years to eradicate. It will be remembered that previous to his occupancy of the gubernatorial chair he had been elected United States Senator.
Many well informed citizens suggested at the time of the Governor's transfer to a new and different field, that it was a shrewd move on the part of the Radical plunderers to get rid of him. They esteemed him a bold, fearless, talented man, whose education and training were those of a gentie- man, and that service at Washington would separate him from old associates and friends to whose influence he would be subjected. To whatever the motives the Radicals in the Legislature, or the Governor himself may be ascribed, the truth remains, but for the power of the military, neither Gen. Alcorn or himself would have been chosen, for neither would have received the endorsement of the white people-the former, because his scheme sought to destroy the Democratic party, the only political organiza- tion that had capacity or hope to regain and establish a local State government under which intelligence and civili- zation could prosper. Ames was not even a citizen of the State, so declared by Messrs. Conkling, Edmunds and Trumbull, distinguished Republican lawyers, and members of that body into which he was attempting a burglarious entrance.
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