Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-12-23
GRANTS MISSISSIPPI PROCLAmA.
TFnE

GkANI'B MISSISSIPPI PROCLAMA.
TEON.
Let us have peace" were the tails
manic words which won for Grant his
first lease Of civic power. Over six
years have since elapsed, and the her.
alder of peace" still occupies the seat
of Chief Magistrate. During those
years We have seen State after State
overthrOwn by bayonets. We have
seen Gatlin guns trained on the popu.
lace in the most approved Partisan
style. We have seen the United States
uniform prostituted for the promotion
of political mountebanks.
We had hoped that the severe rebuke
of November last would stop all this,
and that we of the South might have
at last the peace which Grant prom
ised, but did not keep. Yet the mock
cry goes on. Grants soldiers areready
to-day, at a moments notice, to protect
Kellogg. and his minions in wrong-do-
ing. And now we have proclamation
direct from the President, ordering the
Yicksburg insurgents" to disperse.
The tenor of the proclan aliOn shows
that the whites are meant, not the
blacks. Yet the whites cannot "dis-
perse" much, as they are at their
abodes, and all they have done was to
defend those ab0des against a negro
invasion from the country round. 1t
was the negroes who were out of place,
not the whites. The terrible dispro-
portion in numbers between the two
races in this and the adjoining counties
Is indicated elsewhere by correspond
ent of the Cincinnati Commercial.
And what is the ostensible object of
this proclamation, issuedth thus late from
the distant White House, after all the
insurgents" have dispersed, and both
black and white have resumed their
usual avocations? We will not accuse
the President of seeking to en- courage
the negroes In another attack on Vicks-
burg, though, under the advice of mis-
cradle white adventures, they may be
melted by it to such an attempt. But,
to oonfne ourselves to its ostensibleob
jects, this proclamation is designed
to replace In Office three negro officers,
two of whom are under indict-
ment for criminal offenses and
now fugitives from justice, while
the third voluntarily resigned
his Office because his bond was found
to be fraudulent and he could not re-
place it with a good one. What
spectacle this is of the whole power of
the "nation" being threatened to re-
place three such officials. 1t is GER
tainly the most startling act of central
ling despotism upon which Grant has
yet ventured. Where are the States
powers? Mississippi has been under
Republican rule for continuous years.
Does such rule 50 enfeeble the State
that it cannot control town of 1900
population without invoking Federal
aid? Where is feather-bed Ames, with
his State mihtia-mostly negroes?
But there is an Interior object in
this proclamation, affecting the whole
State, as we gather by letter from
correspondent at Natchez, written on
the l4th. There is TO be State Con-
vention of taxpayers at jackson on
the 4th of January, to devise means for
relief. Delegates have already been
appointed from most of the counties
men of intelligence and worth-many
of them merchants, whose names have
figured honorably on Northern ledgers
before and since the war. They hope
to influence the Legislature, and they
will certainly influence Northern senti-
ment by the story they must lay bare
of frightful taxation. Our correspond
ent states that in Natchez the taxes to-
day are six per cent. In some
of the counties, the correspondent of
the Cincinnati Commercial says they are
over eleven per cent. The negroes are
necessarily becoming poorer with the
whites, and they are showing restless
ness for some change or improvement
In affairs. The late elections showed
heavy and unexpected changes in their
vote. The Democrats are sanguine of
securing the next Legislature. There
fore, for the double purpose Of throw
ing odium on the coming Taxpayers
Convention and of trying to wean the
negroes back to the Radical fold, it is
the desire of Grant and Ames to rep.
resent the whole State as being in
revolutionary condition, and to make
parade of Federal soldiers on the pre-
text of protecting the darkies, but real
ly to revive their dropping faith in the
Government" Here we have the
whole secret of this latest Presidential
proclamation.
THE GOLD SUPPLY.
An ounce of fact is worth a ton of