The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1870-01-27
THE 18th AIIENDMENT.
Tie Disqualified Members of the Lesisla-
tltre.
WHO ARE ENTITLED TO SEATS

We have before referred to the clause
in the Constitution recently adopted for
Mississippi which declares that in case
any person elected to any office cannot
take the oath of Office and is therefore
ineligible, the person receiving the next
highest number of votes shall be declared
elected and shall discharge the duties of
the Office upon taking and subscribing to
said oath Of Office, but as it is question of
so muchimportance we have considered it
our duty to give it more attention.
There were a number Of candidates for
the Legislature on the Radical ticket,
who were disqualified by the 14th Amend
ment. They we're INDUCED to accept the
positions on the assurance that before the
commencement of their terms of office,
Congress would upon the recommendation
of the Radical Executive Committee,
remove their disabilities They had faith
that they would be made whole, and they
took up the cross of the Radical party
and followed where its high priests led.
But the conditions on which they acted
have not been complied with. The Leg
'islature met and their sins had not yet
been forgiven them by Beast Butler and
his associate dispensers of the mercy of
"the best government the world ever
saw" Still they entered upon their Off
ces and took an oath to conform to the
Constitution of the United States of
which the 18th Amendment is a part,
but they were brought to a sudden halt
by the reflection that Radical prescription
has disqualified them for the very places
to which they had been elected.
The consequences we have previous
ly stated-that the persons in the several
counties who received the next highest
number of votes are the duly qualified
members of the Legislature. This is the
law as written down in the Constitution
by its trainers, and as ratified at the late
election by the registered voters; and
there is no way by which it can be avoid
ed.
1t will not avail to say that the disabil-
tiles of the persons who are reported to
have been elected, will be removed. They
were not removed, and were operative
when the Legislature convened. 1t is
question of fact, which cannot be affected
by any subsequent action of Congress.
The persons who are disqualified by
the 18th Amendment refused to take and
subscribe to the oath as last adopted by
each branch of the Legislature and there
by acknowledged that they were laboring
under the disabilities so imposed. I'M
mediately thereafter the right to these
places vested in the candidates who re-
ceived the next highest number of votes,
and they cannot lawfully be deprived of
them. This is the law as made by the
Radicals themselves, when confident of
their power to rule the State without the
aid of these Southern men who have sold
their birth-rights for mess of pottage.
1t is proper to add that it viii operate to
the exclusion of but one conservative
member. The anti-Radicals were cho-
sen-with this one exception-with ref
erence to their eligibility under the 14th
Amendment. Let the law take its course.
AsGen. Ames intends going to Wash
ington soon to represent Mississippi in the
councils of the nation, we would advise
him to make some effort to post himself
as to the real condition of affairs in the
State of which he claims now to be citi-
zen, and not rely upon military under
strapers like the one that commanded in
Copiah county, during the late election.
Perhaps he would then be able to get
nearer the truth than he did in the fancy
sketch which was miscalled an official
report.