The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1872-05-30

appeal made to me editorially in your jour
nal OF the ID inst, on the subject of the al
iesed arrest of juroS in the court house OF
| winston county, by Deputy Marshal sup
ported by United States soldiers.
The temper in which the press of the South
deals with questions of the hour leads me
10 nope that the representations made OF
| the proceedings to which you refer have
been overdrawn- l am all the more in
| cllned to take this view of the case because
any other would involve a conclusion which
am not ready to accept without proof-a
failure of duty on the part of a magis-
trate so able and firm as my friend Judge
| Orr.
/ If any exigency ha justified so extra
ordinary course the arrest by Federal
agents of juror sitting in the court of the
State, that arrest could have been made
properly but by due process OF law. II
made without acquiescence previously
given by the judge in answer to a formal
| application, it was an act of simple violence
and, involving as it did the greatest possible
contempt of the court, ought to have been
met at all hazards by the arrest and impris-
onment of the offenders.
! A'ht suppose UT has. Ia All over
sight, failed to assert the dignity of his
court, the means of furnishing the parties
who have violated it remains still in the
/ hands of the State. The writ of the Fede-
raj Government does not cover flagrant
outrages. | suggest. therefore, that if the
/ facts in this case in Winston county be such
"a they are said to be, the offenders be in
dicted by the grand jury of that county at
| It's next sitting, and that the offenders be
/ arrested and placed on trial before the Cir
| cult Court whose dignity has teen offended.
! Ii they be officers or soldiers of the United
States. let the proper application for their
surrender to the State authorities be sent
| here to me. In that case l can have but
/ httle hesitation in asserting my belief that
! the law will be allowed to take its course
without any improper Intervention of the
Federal Government. And if any failure
of that belief shall have been put in proof,
trust | need not assure any one who knows
me that the failure shall not have followed
because of any neglect on my part to urge,
to the fullest extent of my influence, respect
for the peace and dignity of Mississippi.
Now that you appeal to me to do my
| duty TO the rights of our State and her citi-
Zens, let me ask you. in all kindness, to
consider, in the interests of our people, the
wisdom of policy which tends to break
| down my power for their good. While we
battle with each other in honest differences
as to the means best adapted to the interests
of Mississippi, are we not bound by SOL
emn duty to recollect that there is a line
beyond which the warfare cannot be carried
without damage to those interests Brought
! together in a temporary concurrence of
thought and feeling, as we will probably be
found to be if the representations OF this
case in Winston prove correct, may l not
employ the opportunity of accord to ask
you, for the good OF the State-what
should never deign to ask you for any good
to myselt-whether it is not the true policy
of every good citizen of Mississippi to
strengthen, rather than weaken, my hands
while | occupy position here at the ear of
the authorities who alone can shield the
people of the State from such outrages as
this indignity which is alleged to have been
put upon her judiciary?
Ny dissatisfaction with certain Federal
appointments in Mississippi is weIl-known.
No intention to do wrong having, in my
opinion, entered into the mind of the Pres
ident IN dropping into the evil policy of
representing the national authority i'm the
State Ey strangers having no sympathies in
common with her people, 1 am not alto
gether without hope of bringing about in
time a correction of that greviOus mistake.
Under the peculiar circumstances of the
times, may | not ask you to forget for the
moment that | taHe on the other subj ects,
views of the interests of Mississippi widely
different from yours; and while you allow
paytg to take care of itself, so tar as | am
concerned for the time, to lend a helping
hand to take care of the State by counselling
the people to a moderation which will con-
stitute a moral support of my appeal for
stoppage OF that vicious system of Federal
appointments which constitutes so painful
source of danger and irritation?
Since the war. Southern statesmanship-
the craftsmanship that has illuminated the
national glory-has degenerated into pas
sion. The passion of our people inscribed
in the Constitution the Fourteenth Amend
ment. Ii incorporated in Congressional
legislation, the Reconstruction Acts. |
drove from us our lifelong friends-the
negroes who should have been held endeared
to us beyond all provocatiOn by their devo-
tlon to our wives and children in the days
of our afllction-and produced, thus the
very condition of things OF which an illus
t-ation is presented by the story of this 81.
lodged outrage in Winston!
The Constitutional Convention gave evil
dence of two conflicting elements in the
Republican party of the State-one address
ing itself to the races with view to con-
Citation the other addressing itself to them
with a view to irritation. When the latter
had lead the party to disaster in 1S6S,
seized the opportunity of CO. operating with
the moderate wing. in order, at once, to
settle the question of reconstruction and to
pluck the political power of the State from
the domination of INSCRIPTIONS and ignO-
rant men, Good and true men from the
North rallied around me with purposes
single as my own: but it was, L should
suppose, seen generally that l held at arms
length those political adventures who may
be considered without injustice, subject to
whatever approbium you choose to attach
to the term ''carpet- bagger%
The righteousness ofmy intentions having
been brought as far as was free to bring it,
within the perceptions Of political intelli-
gence, hoped that its acceptance generally
would have substituted before the close of
nv administration enlightened policy
for the ruinous mode of dealing with our
public interests in blind passion. In pa
triotic anxiety for the good of the State
an anxiety which is | trust supeEior with
me to considerations of mere party, had
hoped that the honest and moderate of the
Republican party of the State would have
RECEIVED inyariablY-as | am proud to say