Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-07-17
MISSISSIPPI
Condition Of the PeOple-By Whom they ara
Plundered Reforms Demanded-Al-
corn's Wisdom and FOIly-The
Ku-Ksux War An Army
Of PlaCeh0lders.
Special correspondence Of APPEAL ]

i
of the proposition be also true, this is
surely the worst ever instituted. In
genuity exhausts itself in the multi
plication of Offices and sinecures. And
in Tennessee even the restoration Oi
power to those who maintain govern
ment, has failed to lessen the number
of placemen. There were too many
invested with hOnors by vai0rOus
deeds to admit of those reforms de.
manded by public poverty. Every
general and colonel in Confederate
armies, with rare exceptions, sought
the title with view to civil promo
ton when peace blessed the land and
legislatures and State conventions,
conscious OF this, suffer no changes
made by which the number of sine
cures may be lessened. Courts were
multiplied. In Mississippi as ia Ten
nessee there are judges and chancel-
lOrs and justices enough 10 keep ten
such States In perpetual ferment. JUS
tice Is not the less cheap, but it is eX-
travagantly abundant. The neeessa-
~ result has been the multiplication
OF suits. Constables, sheriffs and
sbysters abound, must live, and ne
cessity appeals TO stimulated ingenui-
ty. The curse of litigation therefore
weighs most heavily upon Southern
communities. It's repression was
once the wise policy of lawgiveFs;
now legislative bodies enact laws
with a view 10 its promotion. The
two classes of society becoming more
and more distinctly defined are the
stupid toilers for bread and the sharp
professional spokesman and office
holder.
A STREAK OF LUCK.
A swarm of these last were expelled
from Tennessee on the election of
Senter. / have encountered in every
town carpet-baggers exiled from
Memphis by the overthrow OF Radi-
calisn. A yellow negro from ColuLn-
bia, who has hardly acquired the
rights OF citizenship in Mississippi, is
a distinguished leader of blacks in
the eastern counties of this State.
| Very many Of BrOWnlOW'S faVOrites
are Oftiee-hOlders under Alcorn, and
Jackson is filed with those people
about whom we were wont to ask in
| Memphis, "WhO are they?n "Whence
did they Gomez" We found them
rulers of the people and could learn
nothing more. The whole mass of
this aggregation of impurity Is slowly
concentrating in Mississippi and
South Carolina. / was told yester-
day at Meridian that Alcorn's predi-
| lection for citizens OF the State was
deemed his most grievous fault. His
party is rent by it, and thus we have
here in Jackson two organs of Al
cOrn's party; the one representing the
negro; the other the carpet-bag fac
ton.
ALCoRN
wisely and properly prefers a native
born negro to any characterless, un-
known white adventurer; and for this
reason, by the distribution of public
printing spoils worth fifty thousand
dollars per annunl, the Radical party
will be rent in twain. ri
ALgORNis SUCCESSOR.
Powers, the Lieutenant Governor,
has become identified in associations
and interest with the native-born pop
ulatiOn. He, like AleOrn, is q prop
erty holder. He is not over well
pleased with excessive taXatiOn. His
sympathies are said to be With the
| industrial rather than the Ofice-hOld-'
| ing class. If Powers adheFes 70 the
course defined by AleOrn, the fifty
/ thousand-dollar printing job will re-
main with those whom 1t enriehes
otherwise, when the Legislature
meets, the happy fellows who now do
the public printing will come to gfiei.
FEARFUL PICTURE.
| stood TO o-day for twenty minutes
upon the street corner with citizen
| of Jackson, and tWenty OF tWenty-six
persons who passed held, each, some
Office, or sinecure, or contract with the
State. Like Washington, Jackson is
a city built upon tax lists; upon tears,
and toll, aud blood. Its ring of party
leaders, in a by-gone age, controlled
| the State and distributed its offices
and hOnOrs at will. 1t was then the
/ seat of a magnificent autOcracy, re-
| lentIess moral despotism. Now there
is low cunning and ignorance and
puffed-up, empty vanity, and now
and then unmistakable knRveTY, writ
| ten In the faces of the swell mob that
shape the terrible fortunes OF this
ruthlessly plundered State.
THE KNIFE.
Reform, rigid, radical, uusparing
reform, is the exacti0n Of the
age. The Legislature of Tennessee
| soon to convene, should lead the way.
The people, for want of economy in
| governmental expenditure and in the
number and value Of Offices and pub
| lie stipends, become corrupt. Each
citizen hopes, sooner or later, to live
at the cost OF the public. Industry is
rObed in rags that idleness may riot
in splendid ease and opulence. He
| who becomes first in making offices
valuable only as they are honorable,
will be the greatest benefactor of the
/ age and country. While offices are
numberless as to-day, their value is
simply money question, and while
money question they are and must
be subjects matter Of bargain and sale.
While these facts subsist the greater
the knave, IL money abound, the surer
his chances of success, now that a
sOOty mob, whose votes are counted
in dollars, Wields the balance of power
in almost every Southern election.
ALCORE's CAPITAL.
Alcorn is not in Jackson. 1t was
my purpose to interview him" and
suggest the revocation of the 5000
anti Ku-Klnx proclamation. But it
may be too late. So powerful is the
combination of knaves wrought by
the expectation OF drawing half a mil
| lion dollars from the State treasury,
/ that a revocation of the Governors
decree would inaugurate revolution.
! If there be murderous Ku-Klux
disturbing the public peace and
| private security that ought to
be hanged, but it is only necessary to
hang forty or fifty at time, and since
| these are before the court, why not
suffer the country to become quiet?
! AlcoTn hardly purposes to breed a FAM
| inc. and yet be is now suffering two
adventures, supported by his own and
| the army of the United States, to des-
/ olate Noxubee and Winston counties.
Worse than this so detestible are the
tools of Powers: Wissler and Reed
Coal Oil Charlie and the express agent,
both indicted by negro and Radical
jUries for heinous crimes, that AleOrn
should suspend this reign Of terror.
Governed by matchless scoundrels,
as those in Office, and worse to be elect
ed to Office by brutal ignorance, the
time may come when long suffering
patience Is exhausted, and bullets will
| be more effective than ballots. l
think this end inevitable. X.
A change of the gauge from six feet
to four feet eight inches on One-half OF
the Louisville branch OF the Ohio and
Mississippi railroad, Will be made on
next Sunday and on the following Sab
bath 1t is the expectation that the
entire road will be changed between