USA > Mississippi > A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river > Part 34
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Governor Alcorn's fatal step was accepting the leader- ship of a characterless bard of interlopers and plunderers, supplemented by the great body of negroes.
They were incompatible elements, the one sought plun- der, and when this could not be obtained, he was ready to bow himself out of the country. The other had staying qualities, but was powerless to contribute anything to the intelligent administration of government.
Governor Alcorn remained in the executive office until his departure for Washington to assume the duties of United States Senator. He was succeeded by Lieutenant-Gov- ernor R. C. Powers, who assumed the duties of chief magis- trate of the State.
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THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR R. O. POWERS.
GOVERNOR POWERS was a Northern man, and a volunteer soldier, amiable and courteous. He was a property owner and tax-payer, and seemed satisfied to continue the line of policy inaugurated by his chief. His administration was marked by less lawlessness than that of Ames, and towards its close he manifested a desire to co-operate with the white people, and return to economical government, but his surroundings rendered him powerless to do much in that direction.
Governors Alcorn and Ames were occupying their seats in the United States Senate. The former, a man of high bearing, wealthy, full of courage, proud and imperious, had. a contempt for the pretentions of the latter, and asserted, in substance, on the floor of the Senate, that Ames was a fraud, that his poverty of intellect was only equalled by his arrogant assumption of unauthorized powers; that he was not, and never had been, a citizen of Mississippi. Ames made the best reply he could, but was no match in debate for his opponent. The estrangement and breach between them culminated in both declaring themselves can - didates for Governor of the State. A number of white Republicans advocated the election of Alcorn, while Ames was supported by the extreme Radicals, who controlled in a great measure the negroes.
This was the political situation in the spring of 1873, when the Democratic party were considering and discuss. ing the expediency of pretermitting nominations for State officers in the election to come off in the fall of that year.
In accordance with party custom, and to settle questions of difference, the Democratic party assembled at Bennett's Hall, in the city of Meridian, on the 17th of September, 1873. At 11 o'clock A.M. of that day, Robert Lowry, of Rankin county, chairman of the Democratic State Executive Com- mittee, called the Convention to order, making a brief ad- dress, in which he recommended deliberate action, and generous concessions, the outcome of which he believed would give success to the party. Col. R. O. Reynolds, of Monroe, was made permanent chairman of the Convention.
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After a thorough and exhaustive discussion of the politi- cal situation, in which a number of prominent delegates participated, the following resolution, offered by Hon. Jeff. Wilson, of Pontotoc, was adopted by a vote of one hundred and one to forty-five, to wit :
"Resolved, That it is the sense of the Democratic party of the State of Mississippi, in Convention assembled, that it is inex- pedient in the approaching State election to nominate a State ticket."
The adoption of this resolution left the gubernatorial contest to be determined between the Republican candi- dates. Alcorn was the leader of the conservative wing of his party, and insisted upon the observance of law and order, while General Ames was the recognized leader of brute force, and if clothed with authority, was ready to inaugurate a species of tyranny and oppression that would drive struggling property holders from the State. The gubernatorial contest grew fierce and bitter. The negroes with their few white carpet-bag leaders constituted the fol- lowers and supporters of Ames, whose candidacy created grave fears in the minds of the white people throughout the State. The Democratic party, as a choice between the candidates, gave their support to Governor Alcorn, for the reason that he was an old citizen of the State, largely inter- ested in its material development and welfare, and in every view vastly preferable to his opponent for official station. Ames was elected. In the meantime Governor Powers re- garded the election just held as illegal ; that the election laws on the statute books were conflicting, and that the election for State officers should have been deferred until November, 1874, and as a consequence Ames and his as- sociates should not quality. Governor Powers urged this view in a carefully prepared message to the Legislature, which he had assembled in extra session. All parties de- sired an early settlement of the question, which was very soon determined by the Supreme Court adversely to the views enunciated in the Governor's message. With the announcement of this decision Governor Powers retired, and was succeeded by Adelbert Ames.
CHAPTER. XX.
1
THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR AMES.
A DELBERT AMES was elected Governor by the Repub- lican party, composed chiefly of negroes and carpet- baggers, in November, 1873, was inducted into office in Jan- uary, 1874, and thus became the twentieth chief magistrate of the commonwealth, and the second chosen under the constitution formulated in 1868.
The administration of Adelbert Ames developed but little improvement on his career as Military Governor. Corrupt and ignorant officials were supported in their methods of robbery. The people were threatened with military force, Federal and State. The burden had become so great that there was a general uprising of the people throughout the State. In December, 1874, the Governor convened the Legislature in extra session. The assembling of that body was based upon the alleged disorders and race troubles in Warren county, when in truth the people of that county had repeatedly endeavored, in a lawful way, to suppress the systematic robbery carried on by county officials. But even with the high rate of taxation neither county liabilities were lessened, nor improvements made, but the money extracted from the tax-payers went into the pockets of irresponsible vagabond office-holders, who were foisted upon the people and whose bonds in many instances were utterly worthless.
The tax-payers were called by the Governor "insurgents," because they demanded fair dealing and honesty in the administration of the county government. Their reason- able demands were treated with scorn by the plunderers, who felt not only indignant, but outraged, that citizens who were being fleeced of their substance should offer the
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slightest remonstrance. Repeated complaints made by white Democrats failed to elicit any response, but finally ยท culminated in a number of tax payers repairing to the court-house and demanding of their oppressors to give new and sufficient bonds or a surrender of their trust. The result of this demand was an armed body of negroes marching from every direction upon the city of Vicksburg.
These infuriated negroes, instigated and encouraged by their leaders, expected an easy victory, but instead, met with a decisive and disastrous repulse. The paramount object of the Executive was to organize and discipline militia commands, and to have the vaults of the treasury opened-that peace, as defined by him-might be restored and preserved. The assembling of the Legislature con- temporaneously with an appeal of the Executive to the President of the United States for Federal interference, the continued lawlessness of county officials, the letter of Lieutenant-General Sheridan to the Secretary of War suggesting that persons in the States of Louisiana, Arkan- sas and Mississippi should be tried as banditti, by a military commission, served to make up and present the issues sharply between carpet-bag plunderers and the white tax-payers of this State. Mississippians were not un- mindful of the magnitude of the contest. They marshaled their forces, and presented an unbroken column of deter- mined men. Tax-payers' Conventions had been held in almost every county in the State, with the firm intention of correcting existing, and preventing future abuses. It was, indeed, an uprising of the people, embracing minis- ters of the gospel, lawyers, doctors, farmers, merchants and mechanics, all contributing their full share in the great reform column. The battle cry was "Down with radical- ism, misrule, tyranny and oppression." On the 4th of January, 1875, the Convention of Tax-payers of Mississippi met in the hall of the House of Representatives. The Convention was called to order by Hon. W. L. Nugent, upon whose motion General W S. Featherston, of Mar- shall, was elected chairmen. The Convention presented a petition to the Legislature, showing the true condition of the State. They said that the general poverty of the people
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and depressed value of all property, and the rate of taxa- tion, made it an intolerable burden, and much beyond their ability to pay. They insisted that exorbitant expenditures must cease, or the means of the people would be exhausted. As an evidence of the extraordinary increase in taxation they cited the following :
In 1869, the State levy was 10 cents on the dollar of assessed value of lands. For the year 1871, it was four times as great. For 1872, it was eight and a half times as great. For the year 1874, it was fourteen times as great as it was in 1869. They asserted that the tax levy of 1874 was the largest State tax ever levied in Mississippi, and that the people were poorer than ever before. They stated that in many cases the increase in the county levies, for the same period, was still greater. The petition was lengthy, and gave the true status of affairs in an able and respectful manner, but they were called by Governor Ames "howlers."
The people had borne wrongs so long, and submitted to taxation that would amount, if continued, to confiscation, that they resolved that the robbery should cease. They were more than willing to contribute the required sum for legitimate purposes, to conduct the government econo- mically in the interest of those who owned it, but they solemnly protested against appropriations for keeping up a standing army or loyal newspapers, or paying for monu- ments to negroes of the Jim Lynch cast, or for annual sessions of the Legislature, composed in the main of aliens and negroes. The fixed determination of tax-payers was that profligate expenditures should end, and they refused to pay any tax other than that reasonable amount neces- sary for the support of the government, and fair warning was given the wreckers of their intentions, and if reduc- tions were not made, they would pay no taxes at all. In the language of the ex-Secretary of the Interior, Hon. Jacob Thompson, "Rather than continue to toil from year's end to year's end, and have all the fruits of their labor seized for the enrichment of the spoilsmen, who are roll- ing in wealth on their hard earnings, our people will imi- tate the example of the Blind Giant, and pull down the
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pillars of the edifice, that the torturers, as well as the tor- tured, may be involved in the rnin."
The Tax-Payers' Convention, held at the Capital of the State, resulted in the organization of tax-payers' leagues, which were intended to be consolidated into a State organ- ization, to check the process of confiscation inaugurated by the Radical party.
The Democratic State Convention assembled on the 3d of August, 1875. Nearly every county was represented. It was an assemblage of delegates of more than usual in- telligence. General and ex-Governor Charles Clark was made chairman, and Col. J. L. Power, Hon. J. L. McCas- kill and Paul A. Botto were secretaries. The platform adopted was broad and conservative. All citizens who fa- vored honest, impartial and economical government were invited to participate. Biennial sessions of the Legisla- ture, an able and competent judiciary, a discontinuance of special and local legislation, protests against the arming of militia in times of peace, and the attempted passage of the Metropolitan Police Bill, were among the resolutions adopted. The platform also favored the encouragement of agriculture by securing the farmer and laborer the just re- wards of their toil, the elevation of the standard of official character, etc.
Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar addressed the Convention, and for more than two hours was listened to with the greatest in- terest. Hon. J. Z. George was elected chairman, and Marion Smith secretary of the State Executive Committee.
On numerous test votes in previous Legislatures, Demo- crats voted for economical government, while negroes and their white co-adjutors alligned themselves on the side of robbery and plunder.
Democratic meetings were daily held in almost every part of the State. Ex-Governor and ex.Senator A. G. Brown offered a resolution at a public meeting in Terry that showed the earnestness and determination of property holders to check the wholesale robbery of the party in power. The resolution was in the following words :
Resolved, That without equivocation, and without mental reser-
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vation, we intend to carry out the principles enunciated in the platform of the Democratic party at Jackson on the 3d day of August, 1875, and to this we pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
The Republicans were the authors of the "color line," which was clearly enunciated in the eleventh article of the platform adopted at Jackson on the 29th of August, 1873. The resolution was as follows :
That we recognize no distinctions as now existing by law in the right of all the children of the State to equal privileges and access to all public schools, colleges, or universities, and should any of said institutions deny to any child, on account of race or color, equal rights, we pledge ourselves to enforce such rights by appropriate legislation.
On the 15th of August the Democratic Executive Com- mittee issued an able and spirited address to the people of the State. It referred to the gubernatorial chair being filled by an alien and adventurer, who held the constitu- tion and laws in contempt; and the people of the State be- ing classed as banditti, and threatened with trial before military commissions. The address was concluded by citing the naval battle between the fleets of Great Britain and France, when Lord Nelson said, "England expects every man to do his duty," and "in this contest Mississippi ex- pects each of her sons to do his duty ; brace up old age to one more effort, nerve manhood to put forth all its strength, and incite youth to its noblest enthusiasm."
On the 23d day of August, 1875, the Hon. Wiley P. Harris, confessedly the ablest lawyer in the State, a gentle- man "native here, and to the manner born," addressed a public meeting held in the city of Jackson, in an argu- ment of rare power and eloquence. Judge Harris was lis- tened to with the most wrapt attention and interest, and the more so, that except on occasions of great emergency, it was the modest habit of the speaker to keep well in the back ground, and not to thrust himself constantly and prominently before the public. His calm, philosophic and statesmanlike utterances stirred the hearts of his auditors profoundly. Aside from their wisdom and prudence. the speaker was not only recognized as a great jurist, of a most judicial temper, but a gentleman of unblemished honor, a patriot "without guile," great kindness of heart
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and integrity of purpose in all things. The fact was also recognized that Judge Harris was decidedly averse to the holding of any public office, that he looked with ill con- cealed contempt upon the tawdry gauds of official station, and that unless some great and threatening danger, some serious menace to the prosperity of the State and the hap- piness of her people, were impending, every one knew in- stinctively that Wiley P. Harris would not be present as a member of any convention or public meeting.
As this speech of Judge Harris is the most forcible pre- sentation of the condition of Mississippi under carpet- bag and alien misgovernment, a quarter of a century ago, it is embodied in this volume for the purpose of remind- ing the future generations of Mississippians, that the best and only safeguard of liberty and home rule, is "eternal vigilance." The speech of Judge Harris was in the follow- ing language :
Mr. President and Gentlemen :
I am here to respond to an invitation to address you on politi- cal affairs. It costs me nothing to confess that your invitation found me pre-disposed to accept it. My impressions of the polit- ical situation are such that I have felt an anxious desire for a full and frank interchange of views. At no time since the war have I felt greater need of that sure-footed leadership which takes no false step. At no time since the war has there been greater need in all of us of that profitable wisdom which distinguishes the things which ought to be done, and can be done, from the things which cannot be done, and therefore ought not to be attempted. It is apparent that there now exists, in the minds of a majority of the leaders of opinion among our fellow-citizens of the North, a disposition to rectify the mistakes and abuses in the conduct of public affairs in the South, and to extend to a cruelly misgov- erned people such measures of relief as lies within the limits of the constitution as it now stands. No statesman of any party, North or South, meditates a step beyond this fixed boundary. Within that boundary the nation has resolved that there shall be a hearty, honest and sincere effort to solve the social and politi- cal problems which the results of the war have presented to us.
The relief which we may fairly expect, and which by prudence we can secure, consists in non-intervention by the National Gov- ernment in the domestic affairs of the State, except in the cases falling strictly within the letter and spirit of the constitution ; and in allowing those in whom are found intellect, patriotism, true public spirit and true knowledge of the real aims and pur- poses of government, to take the lead in government here ; not
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for repression or exclusion, but for control and guidance ; so that the government shall exhibit in its action the true spirit and genius of the people, in their morality, in their industries, in their enterprises, and in their hopes and aspirations. This result is to be accomplished here by the same means by which it is ac- complished everywhere in the United States, and wheresoever tolerable and respectable popular government exists ; and that is by allowing the class of citizens I have indicated, to impose the same limitations, by the same means, which they impose every- where on an ignorant majority.
Whether or not we need more than this, and whether we shall need more than an impartial and not unfriendly National adminis- tration may be willing to allow in that direction, is for the nation . to decide. Certain it is that no other relief can be hoped for until we shall, by a perfectly faithful effort, have demonstrated that more is needed. And here let me observe that both classes of our citizens are, in a certain sense, on trial before the Ameri- can people. It is perfectly obvious that while the people of the North are convinced of gross mismanagement under the recon- struction laws, they are far from being convinced that there has been any mistake in requiring the constitutions of the Southern States to rest on the basis of impartial suffrage.
They do complain of unwise conduct on the part of the whites, making, however, due allowance for the circumstances ; but chiefly do they complain of the unwarrantable intermeddling of the National administration, which, instead of aiming to make our newly made fellow-citizens good and useful citizens, sought only to make of them obedient Republican voters. They reason as may be supposed, in this way : The government of the United States withstood the shock of a gigantic civil war, and came out of the struggle, not only without having suffered any displace- ment, and without having been driven to revolutionary action, but with increased strength and power-more power and author- ity than it had ever before possessed-indeed, judging by what it was enabled to do, and did do, with more power than any civilized government of this day would venture to exercise. It was absolute master of the situation, and was more thoroughly obeyed than the best fortified government in christendom.
It proceeded to spunge out the constitutions of eleven great commonwealths, to overturn their governments, to reverse their social systems, and in effect to prescribe new constitutions for them. Unfortunately, the party which controlled it sought to exhibit and did exhibit it, only in its aspect of boundless authori- ty. In their hands it seemed to have unlimited power to tear down and to wound, without the power to build up and to heal. Confronted by the most novel and formidable social and political problem cver presented to the statesmanship of any country, and which, God be praised, can never again be presented in this, they recklessly turned over the Southern States, thus dislocated,
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as so much food to the lowest grade of hungry partisans, leav- ing the adjustment of the grave difficulties involved in these great fundamental changes, to the most ignorant, narrow-minded and selfish class of men that ever bore sway in any country- men afflicted with what appears like moral idiocy, and to whom the sense of public duty is as color to the blind. It is not to be wondered at that these men at once formed a partnership with the newly enfranchised slave, (a most unequal partnership, as it has turned out), to capture and to "run" the State governments of the South. That which has followed might have been fore- seen. The marvelous rapidity with which a people recover from the effects of wars more desolating than ours has excited the surprise of mankind. Look at France, where the energies of a people, their public spirit, their industries and their intelligence, . wielded by high administrative ability, joined to exalted patri- otism, caused a postrate country to rise and stand upon its feet, in the course of three years. Maucaulay tells us that within the space of five years all traces of the great civil war of Crom- well's time, a war which involved every foot of English soil, and every English family, were obliterated. Ten years have passed over us and our fruitful land, yet we are in a dead lock, confined to a " dead eddy," while all the world is passing by us on the great highway of progres. Our ship of state is becalmed by something like that baleful and deadly calm which tell upon the doomed ship of Coleridge's " Ancient Mariner.' She lies mo- tionless on the stagnant sea, unmoved by wave, or wind or tide. Still as death shelies, like "a painted ship upon a painted ocean."
What at the beginning was supposed to be a magnificent ex- ample of the inherent capacity of Republican institutions to work out the most difficult problems of human society and gov- ernment, under this vicious management begins to look very much like a stupendous blunder, or it may be said that it appears like some fantastical and cruel experiment, wantonly to test the amount of strain which human society can bear. Not the Na- tional Democracy only, not the Southern Conservatives only, but a large section of the Republican party, without any excep- tional sympathy for the South, consisting of men of the very best class, feel this condition of things to be a reproach to Amcri- can statesmanship. I speak of the Liberal Republicans, or as they style themselves, independent voters. The position of this section of the Republican party is of the highest importance to the whole country, but especially to us. They oppose the Re- publican party under its present leadership, because it has made government a mere system of rewards and punishments for party service and dis-service, regardless of the public service, because of its gross corruption and because of its gross mismanagement of Southern affairs. I think I state this attitude correctly.
Now we oppose the Republican party here and at Washington for precisely the same reasons, and we have no other issue. This has swallowed up all others. We have the faith that honest and
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capable government will cure our grievances. My conviction is that at this juncture the Southern people who agree with these Republicans on these issues ought to invite a union with them, and united with them co-operate with the national Democratic party henceforth. I have more faith in this combination than in any other. By this union I mean a union for all purposes, responsibilities and honors. A union with the Democratic party only will give rise to a suspicion which, though unfounded, will be cherished. If we would have a liberal and permanent policy as respects ourselves, in a national administration, we must have the assent of a majority of the Northern people. It is needless to give the reason-we all understand it. We can attain that majority through the aid of the liberal Republicans only. All parties trust them, and speaking for myself, and putting the matter forward as a suggestion, I think it would be at once a graceful as well as a wise step. If the Southern representatives in the National Convention would urge the recognition of the Liberal Republicans as an element of the combination for the campaign of 1876-not a recognition at the polls only, but a recognition which will carry with it the acknowledgment of a right to share in the honors as well as the responsibilities of the administration, which by their aid we hope to place in power- I am sure any party or any combination will be strengthened and enriched by their accession. It appears to me to be highly desirable that they should take part in any national administra- tion, so far as we are concerned, and so far as the whole country is concerned. At a time when we were in despair, when Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama, (to say nothing of our own peril), were about to be subjected to military rule, and their governments to be upset or suspended, the active interposition of the Liberal Republicans actually averted the danger. Who is there here that does not feel that he is more secure in his rights because of the firm attitude of these Republicans? This section of the Re- publican party is powerful in influence and numbers. It in- cludes in its ranks the acknowledged head of the most powerful of the lay professions of the United States, William M. Evarts. It includes one of the wisest, purest and most eloquent statesmen of his time-Carl Schurz. It includes that statesman and diplo- matist, the distingished head of the illustrious family of Adams. Its principles and policy are expounded and enforced by that marvelous product of modern free thought, a great newspaper- yes, the greatest newspaper on this continent. There is not a true man in the South who will not gratefully remember the New York Tribune to the end of his life. It is difficult to over- estimate the debt we owe to that powerful journal. In the hour of our sore distress it was as the "shadow of a great rock in a weary land."
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