The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1873-04-17
LETTE4s FItOM WILLIAM.
EAST MISSISSIPPI, March "a, 1873.
EDIToRs CLARION

EDIToRs CLARION:
wrote to you in the month of January.
and requested you to invite Mr.. Tarbell to
visit our singing school, and deliver con-
versatiOnal lecture" about things he saw at
the North last summer, in reference to the
South, to set off the one he worked OF at
tile North last summer in reference to the
South, but he has not come, and We have
| given him over.
Last Saturday l went over TO see Mr..
Jones, and told him that must write to
you from these ends of the earth, and de-
sired TO know what must write. He init
| mated that my writing amounted to moth
ing. but said if l uld send a letter. had
better inform you of the real condition OF
things ia this section. | will attempt to
| give you the substance OF his conversation.
William, the year 1873 is an important
year to the people of this State. The war
and the train of subsequent events have
well nigh Enade our people Respondent.
| Our system of Government has been
! changed. and the people consider them
selves powerless. set of people are in
high places in the State wholly unfit to
rule. Your account Of what you saw in
Jackson few weeks ago. CORES ponds with
what | saw last winter. The whole thing
| is a mockery.
! "When this party of progress took pos
session of the State it was almost entirely
| ont of debt; taxes were low, and every
thing very much better off than it is to-
day. The State is now heavily in debt, the
! people are taxed beyond their ability to
paw. and are getting poorer and poorer ev-
cry year. This il the real situation here.
Much is said of the thousands of chill
dren who have attended free schools under
the auspices of this progressive party. The
| truth is. that education is almost rnined in
Mississippi. The free schools, taken as a
whole, are wore than a nuisance. Seven
| righths Of the teachers are ignorant of the
elements of learning and decency. The
TOor colored people, whom the good God
| permits to be used as tool by the adven-
turers and half-breeds in authority, are
taught to- shout for education, while they
are sinking in the scale of humanity. / as
sert, without fear of contradiction that the
| negroes of East Mississippi to-day are in
ferior In mind and morals to the negroes
that were here in the year 1860. Nearly
eight years of freedom, under wise govern
ment, would have discovered different re-
suit. The negro has has thrust upon him
the responsibility of citizenship. and unless
| he is intellectually equal to the obligation
imposed he will sink himself and the coun-
try. He should be elevated. This can only
be done when the ir telligence and virtue of
our State recover the reins of government |
Then he will be cared for. and every incen- |
tive to improvement will be held out to the |
colored man; and teachers of good sense !
and good morals will take charge OF his |
schools. and soon. what a change will be |
wrought in his civilization"
Iventured here to inquire,
WHAT ISSUES WOULD BE MADE AND JOINED
IN THE APPRoACHING CANVASS FOR
STATE OFFICERS.
am glad you asked me that question,
William. There should be only one issue
This party of progress should be shown to
be party of plumber and corruption. made
up of adventures from the North. mulattoes
and white men raised here, who are bank
rupt in every moral and social virtue These
constitute the party. The laboring negroes
from the field make up the voting material,
and are kept poisoned in order that the
characters named above may enrich them
selves out of money, forced from the people,
under the color oflaw.
Some of our people desire to discuss issues
of a material character. That is wrong Put
good men on the ticket, and arraIgn the
present misrule, and call upon the people to
rise and assert their power, in rescuing the
interests of the State, present and future,
from hopeless shipwreck.
So far as national politics are concerned.
have no hesitation in saying that the con- L
stitution Of 1888 as interpreted by Jefferson
and Madison, makes up the only chart Of
self government ever devised by man. 1t
would afford to our cOlOred citizens the
greatest security and prosperity, as it would
guarantee the full realization of all hopes
cherished by the fathers of our system, for
the prosperity of self-government on this
continet. Plunderers and deluded zealots
and wicked place-holders can cry out pro-
gress. but every step taken from the land
marks our fathers did set. Is directly anti
podal to the best interests of humanity.
Such progress as has been made by this
party in power, in the State of South Caro-
lima and Louisiana. to say nothing of other
States. where they have held sway. is like :
the progress made by the thousands" your
society sung of in the first hymn last sun
day morning:
Broad is the road til at leads TO death,
And thousands walk together there.''
i began by saying this year is one Of i'm
portance to Mississippi. Next fall we will '
be called upon TO elect q Governor and
members of the lower House in the Legisla-
ture, and to choose all State and county Off
GERS. II we do not rescue our affairs from :
The hands that now hold them. all our peo-
pie that can leave the State. will swell the t
tide now drifting many of our best citizens {
from the graves of their fathers.
A Radical press can mock us and laugh at n
Us, and prop up the adventures, who now
despoil the country and plant seeds of strife
and unhappiness in the minds of an unedu- !,
Gated negro population, and daunt the evil
1ences of ill-gotten gain in the presence of
Dur young men. and tell them that the g
Is progress, but Mississippi will \
De classed with poor South Carolina unless 4
his party of progress is defeated. If 1t Is
defeated next fall the blessings OF a good =
will become one Of the reali-
les. 4
Mr.. Jones said many moro things,N but Il
rave extended too much already. II will
'e my pleasure 70 write you again. :
WILLIAM.
P. ST. intended to say something of
David Johnson's flsh-trap, but have no
Ivai.able space to command. The hsh-trap A
O In Keawamha- anI A w. III