The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1873-09-13

.TIIECourer-. Journal thus pertinently
states the ease of Mississippi, Il stun-
tiou entailcd upon the good people of
been selected by ignorant negroes to
preside over its dcstinies. The article
was written before the nomination
of that cosmopoltc Adelbert Ames, for
mcrly of Massachusetts, for Governor.
His illustrations? fathcr-in-law Beast
Butler, who pockcted the spoons of the
citizens of New Orleans and afterwards
got himself bottled mp at bermuda
Hundred, is greatly interested in in
crcasing the debt already fastened upon
the people of that State, and when
Amcs becomes Governor we may safely
say that in addition to the burdens
now being borne by the patient popu-
lace of that oppressed commonwealth,
they will be called upon to liquidate
forty million dollars of the old bonds
repudiated thirty years ago, when the
Government was faithfully admin
istcrcd, and when corrupt legislation
was sumarilly met by those who pay
the expense of running it:
Few States in the South have suf-
fcred as much IA Mississippi. Her
people have been quiet, but they have
had to endure many ills which have
not been known either in Arkansas or
Texas. Their business has not been
paralyzcd 10y the disorders and anarchy
OF the country, MS in the neighboring
State of Louisiana, but they have been
weighed down with taxation, with the
more bitter exhibition before them
that their money has been wasted in
profigate expenditure or gone to min
lister TO individual rapacity.
Besides the money drawn from Il
people impoverished by war and the
loss of their labor, there We're dues ac-
cruing from the railroads for money
borrowed from the school fund created
by donations from the General Gov
ernmcnt and now repaid by the rail-
ways to be sunk in the extravaganza
of the local government, or paid out to
new railroad schemes in defiance of the
prohibition for such outlay in the State
constitution.
One of the most grevious troubles of
the people has been the utter defiance
of constitutional or legal restrictions
wherever the schemes of politicians or
money getting were in the way.
Thus, while the constitution prohib-
tied the appointment of officers from
the Legislature, Governor AlcOrn filled
the offices with those who voted for his
schemes in that body, the freedom of
Legislative action was Frustrated, and
a worse than Napoleon dynasty ruled
over the people of Mississippi. When
the Agricultural College scrip was to be
obtained for the use of the State, AL
corn was the man to receive it, and it
is said proffered to accomplish the
work for $500, but meantime arranged
to sell the scrip without authority of
law, and deposit the proceeds to his
own credit in Memphis, where it could
be- made to bolster up his own fortunes
under some pecuniary disasters.
The profits made OH this deposit,
running through more than II twelve
month, were never accounted for; but
meantime, in like manner, without
authority, State bonds were purchased
from this fund at from five to seven
per cent above the market value for an
Investment of the fund. Some bonds
of favoritcs were purchased at much
higher figures, at whose profit does not
appear Meanwhile Gov. AlcOrn re-
signed the Governorship to go into the
Senate of the United States, and the
singular exhibition appeared of his
successor, formerly in bitter hostility
to him, becoming his friend, and by
some legerdemain the scheme for pur-
chasing bonds and operating on the
Memphis deposits seemed to be shared
in conmon, and the bonds of the State
seemed to pass into the hands of these
officers, without any regard to the
treasury of the State, as the place de-
signed by law for public funds, or any
designation i'm the transfer TO show
that they were public property.
The channel of appropriation laid
out fo9 this flnd seemed to be of little
benefit to the State. A new university
was started to please the coloi ed voters,
and more than half of this donation of
Congress was 10 pass into this scheme
to sustain the officials in power. While
the interests of the colored people were
ONLY i'm the cause of general and pri-
mary education, they were to be PAM
pered to the idea of a university edu-
ton, and the university was named
the Alcorn University to carry forward
his name as their great friend and pa
iron. This scheme must be endowed
with the funds of the State, sustained
by the taxes upon a people Frustrated
by exhausting war, and the donation
Of Congress made tributary to party
aggrandizement.
Asimilar extravaganza increased the
costs of the new code of Mississippi to
some three times Its proper limit to
pass into the hands Of the relatives and
supporters of the Governor the profits
Of the scheme
But the imposition upon the people
did not stop with the extravagance Of
fl,a E~ec,iffve and the LEGISLATURE,