The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1872-08-29
Liberal Republican Address.
Liberal REPUBLICAN HEADQUARTERS. J
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI,
August 22th 1872. \
TO the People of Mississippi

To the People of Mississippi
/ have been requested by the Executive
Committee of the Liberal Republican Party
of this State to publish an address to you
upon the political issues of the day. / enter
upon the task in the character OF one who
has shared the good and ill fortunes of the
Republican Party from the first day of its
organization in Mississippi and offer the
record ofmy services in the dark as we'll as
bright days of its history as an earnest OF
my good faith now.
1 shall be pardoned for not undertaking
to review at length the platforms upon
which the two Republican candidates
Greeley and Grant-haye been presented to
the people of the United States as candidates
for the Presidency. With us in Mississippi
questions of finance. protection. free trade,
foreign policy. and all that sink out of con-
sideration in presence of the paramount
desire to secure for the State a relationship
with the general government firmly and
| Rnalterably fixed upon a full and substan-
tial reconciliation. 1t is no compliment to
| the craftsmanship of the times to be COM
4 PEELED TO confess that after the lapse of more
than seven years since the laying down of
Confederate arms "the bloody chasm'' is
not filled up, and that our federal relations
| still demand our whole attention. To the
exclusion of matters legitimately connec-
ted with the business of conducting a civil
government,the exigencies of our situation
still confine US to a contemplation of how
we as Mississippians can best work and best
agree with the National Government. In
every emotion and instinct of my nature, a
l s kl,,. IL a.
surrender of the Confederate forces-view-
ing the settlement of the issues created by
the war from Southern stand-point-my
| judgment directed me to full and earnest
acceptance of the Reconstruction measures
as the proper course to hasten the return of
a cordial and genuine peace to the country.
My persistence in these views made me a
Republican, and as the several amendments
to the Constitution of the United States
were presented to our people for ratification,
/ advocated and voted tor their adoption.
All along the history of the party have
been an earnest, consistent member-I am
no less to-day.
In 1865 was in favor of the election of
Gen1 Grant to the Presidency.
Standing triumphantly at the head of the
| having already exhibited a soldierly bear
ing towards the conquered chieftains of the
South, sounding the keynote of his cam
paign and administration, "Let us have
Peace;" and knowing that his immense
popularity would enable him to take lar
ger liberty with delicate questions between
the two sections, to the satisfaction of all,
l advocated his election with all the zeal of
devotee.
He has not given peace. Knowing as he
should have known, the sensitive nature of
men CALLED by defeat, wise craftsmanship
would have dictated the appointment to
federal offices ia our midst, of men who, while
they would unswerviDgly perform their
duty, would not have aggravated the feel
ings of hostility among the Southern peo-
pie, towards the government of the United
Statesmen of known character and integ-
rity in the community in which they were
appointed to serve.
When the State was restored to its place
in the Union, and when the military COM
mander had ceased to rule in our midst, it
does seem that discreet policy, formed out
of common sense and a knowledge of hui
man nature, looking to pacification, would
have dictated the selection of officers who
would not have suggested by their very
presence, the idea of bayonets. Instead of
this, what are the facts In the whole list
of Federal office-holders in the State of
Mississippi, only one Office of importance is
to-day held by man who ever trod the
soil of Mississippi before the war, and that
man Judge Hill, OF the United States Dis
trict Court,) was appointed by Andrew
johnson.
Be it distinctly understood Inat l make
no complaint against men of Northern
birth who have came here since the war.
Many of them l have tried and found them
as patriotic and true as ever espoused an
unpopular cause. Many of them have been
forced to become active partisans by the
ostracism OF those inconsiderate Southern
men who made such free use of the stereo-
typed derision expressed in the term car
pet-bagger. But many of them are bad
men-men whose very walk in life mark
them as corrupt adventurers. President
Grant has been unfortunate in selecting a
goodly number of this class to represent
his administration in Mississippi, and he
persistently keeps them in Office, renon-
strances of Republicans to the contrary
notwithstanding. When we ask for bread
he gives US a stone, and if we desire fish
he gives us a serpent.
When he entered upon his duties as Pres
ident he found this State in disorder. Here
and there were organizations known as Ku
Klux. a great evil was this Ku Klux Or
ganization. But the men whom President
Grant sent to correct it, by their wholesale
lewIessness aggravated it. The physician
not only made the patient worse, but extern
ded the infection into an epidemic. After
provoking certain sections OF the State by
illegal arrests and most insulting espionage
20 point but little short of desperation,
they press the disturbances which their
conduct created into service as evidence of
the disloyalty of Mississippians. w illness
the hundreds of arrests and the hundreds of
dismissals from court without conviction
and without proof. 1t seems that these OFF,
ciaIs thought to commend their activity to
the President by the number landed in jail.
Thus vexed and harrassed by men I'M
known to us except as the evidence of their
corruption is gradually brought TO the light,
we can but grow weary under that "cry of
peace when there is no peace In this mat
ter would prefer to see enforced the sug-
gestion of Horace Greeley, s'GO back
thieves"
Recurring to the thought intimated at the
outset of this address, in my judgment the
al Government, or in the conduct of its af-
feet reconciliation. Other questions may
become important when this one is settled.
We have tried Gen. Grant and he has fail
ed care nothing for his gfft-takiT1U L