New-York tribune., 1871-05-04
GOV. dLCORE AGAIN.

When Gov. Alc0rn of Mississippi tcegraphed
TO Washington that he was able to arrest and
punish the murderers in the massacre at
Meridian provided he could discover them,
we reminded him of the case of Ierger who
is to-day at large in Jackson. Gov. AlcOrn
wrote us a long letter IN reply to show that
"ciyil power has been fully aS effective ~
military power in the suppression of vio-
"lence;" and in support of his assertion he
gave u summary of what he represented to be
a list, furnished him by the State Auditor, of
all the claims allowed and paid for cOr0ners'
inqucsts. This summary was ~ follows, VIZ:
April TO September Onclusiye). 1869. 81 murders.
October, 1862 to March, 1870 Gnclasiye, Al murders
April to September iinclnsiye,, 1870, As murders
October 1870 TO March, 1871 Gnclusiye), 10 murders
The first year of this period, being the term
of Gen. Amess military administration, was
made to appear in most unfavOrablc light
i'm comparison with the second year, being the
term of Gov. AlcOrn's civil administration.
Especially, he argued, is the second half of
each year the best means of comparing the
working results of tie two administrations,
and he pointed to his own statement of 4l
murders in the second half of Gen. Ames'5
administration and only 10 murders in the
second half of his own. We called attention
at the time to remarkable Inconsistencies III
his statement, which we compared with list
furnished us by one of our correspondents.
We now have before us the official return
made by the State Auditor il compliance with Il
resolution of the Mississippi House of Repre-
sentatives, which is even more complete than
the list we furnished, and speaks more strongly
than ours against Gov. Alcorn's administra-
ton. We make the ir,,,",3Sw"ing summary Of in
quests according to this official list, which, it
must be remembered. is the standard that
Gov. AIcorn has himself adopted:
AMEs ADMINISTRATION. ALCORH ADMINISTRATION,
April TO June, 1869 iT April TO June, 1870. 10
July to September, 1921 July to september, 1S1O3i
Total irot six months % Total first six InontlIs ~
October to Dec, 1869. IL October to Dec 1870. 6
January to March, 1902 January to March, 1871 i6
Total second SIX months 80 Total second SIX months 62
Aggregate 63 Aggre gate. Ill
From this statement it will be seen that, in
the second half of Gov. AlcOrn's term, the
number of murders precisely as large as
he asserted it To be during his entire year !;
there were 43 more murders in those Six
months than he represented the increase over
the corresponding six months of military rule
was 81; the increase during the year. over the
preceding year, was 4S; there was only one
more murder recorded during the whole year
of the administration of Gen. Ames than
during the last six months of AlcOrn's term
the monthly average during Acorn's year was
9i, while that of the previous year was only
st; at no other time during the entire two
years given was the proportion of crimes so
great as during the last three months of
AlcOrns administration. How totally unwar
ranted was the statement of Gov. AlcOrn, that
in tho last six months of his administration
there were only 10 murders, is shown by the
fact that the list mentions II during March
alone. However, IA glance mt these figures
will show That there has been rapid increase
Of crime during Gov. AlcOrn's term, and no
more words are necessary on the subject.
Let us return, however to Gov Alcorn's
original assertion that he il able to bring the
perpetrators of the crimes at Meridian TO jus
tice. If his intentions correspond with his
powers, why have we not now some intelli-
gcnoe on that subject Nearly two months ago
there was n pretended investigation of the
massacre, and Judge Leachman, who presided
as a committing magistrate, bound over g.
w. Brantley, Hugh w. Wilson, and Robert
l.. Coleman, sr., three of The principal persons
implicated in the outragcs, To answer before
the Grand Jury a charge of unlawful assem-
bly,, or any other charge the Grand Jury
" iney prefer AGAINST them. IN bond OF 500