American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-10-12
Carpet-Bag Rule in Mississippi.

Carpet Bag Rule in Mississippi.
fO5. 900 Acres Of Land Lost to the
State The Treasury Piundered
and Innocent Parties the Sufferers.
From shs Clarion-l
| From the suhjoined letter of Gen.
Lowry to acting Gov. Powers, it
will be seen that a large quantity
of the public domain of Missis-
sippi has been appropriated by the
W rockers under cover of a law
which. they passed in 1871. The
law is in pamphlet acts of 1871.
page Sf3, and entitled Z" an act to
incorporate the Pearl River I'm
provement and Navigation COmpa-
ny and for other purposes" The
presumption is that the ''cther pur-
poses embraced the main and chief
| object of the passage of the act, that
! is, to take, sell and dispose of 1885,
600 acres of public lands and apprO-
pirate the proceeds thereof to them
selves.
The act provides that this COM
pany shall ssdeepen and widen the
channel of Pearl river and its trib
utaries," &c. Not one cent has been
spent for any such purpose-nOr is
there any pretence that there ever
will be. Notwithstanding the 3rd
Section of said act requires that
ten per cent. of the value of the
land shall be expended in the i'm
provement of the river the first year,
and the whole valne of said proper
ty within Ave years from the pass
age of the act, not dine has
been expended, but all the pat
ents for 1O5, 600 acres have been
issued, and signed by the Bull
ly Boy" and Secretary of State,
and in the hands of the company,
and for it the State has nothing to
show but a straw bond. The act
ing Governor was advised last WIN
ter of this plundering bill, and eau
toned as to the Insufficies cy of the
bond, and knew that the Secretary
of State was urged not to Issue any
more patents, by a committee of the
House of Representatives. Never
thelesS, with a full knowledge of all
! the facts, he subsequently signed
the remaining patents and thereby
became party to this outrageous
fraud on the State.
The scheme itself as everybody
knew was the boltlest humbug ever
deviSed-viz that of making Pearl
river navfgable stream from its
mouth to the city of jackson. and
was simply an unmitigated swindle;
but what measure of censure do the
State authorities deserve for having
failed to give the people the benefit
of the protection against the impO-
sition which the bill itself provided :?
Gen.Lowry deserves the gratitude
of the public for his action in this
matter:
BRANDON, Sept. IA, 1872.
To His Excellency. Gov. R. C. Powers.
Jackson Mississippi !:
DEAR SIR 81 take the liberty, at
the suggestion of friends living in
the district where the land is situat-
ed, to call your attention to a law
passed in 1871 entitled "an act to
incorporate the Pearl River Navi-
CATION Company, pamphlet acts,
pages 4S2, 3, 4, ., 6 and z. This act
was not approved by the Governor,
but remained in his hands without
being returned, the requisite mum
Der of days, tor the Secretary of
State to make the usual certificate
which You will observe bears date
of Sth OF April, 1871: You will re-
member that l called your attention
to this act during the last session
of the Legislature, and insisted that
it amounted to plundering the State
to the extent of about one hundred
and five thousand acres of land
The land it is true is not valuable
at present, but with the many pro-
Ijected railroads 1t probably will be
lin few years.
Icaused this matter to be brought
before the Legislature last winter,
and a committee consisting of Mr..
French of Adams, Mr.. White of
Wilkinson and myself, were ap-
pointed to investigate the transac-
ton and report to the House.
About the close of the session Mr..
French and my self agreed to intro
duce bill in substance about this:
The patents in the hands of the
company were to Ire placed in the
custody of the State Treasurer to
be by him kept for twelve months,
and if in the meantime the compa-
ny paid into the Treasury twenty
five cents per acre, amounting to
something over $25, 900, the patents
were to be delivered to them and
they discharged from making any
Improvement in the way Of the nav.
igation of Pearl river, as provided
in the act before mentioned. The
bin as drawn by myself was sub
mitted to Senator Warner and Mr..
French, two of the stockholders and
sureties on the bonds, and met their
concurrence, and passed, without
opposition, both houses. A few
days after the adjournment you re-
member that called at your Office
to ascertain if You had approved
the bill. You did not remember
having seen the bill at all and after
diligent search made by your Sc
crctary and myself, it could not be
found.
Subsequently I met with Colonel
Warner who informed me that the
bill after passing the Senate was
stolen. At the instance of friends