The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1875-06-02

Democrats Not Responsible for the OBJ
noXiouS Legislation Of 1885.

III. II. :. declares that there are
large numbers in Mississippi to whom
''the name Democrat is not only obiec-
tionable, but truly repugnant, and that
this hostility is not greatly to be won
dered at, as the unfortunate black code
of 1865, the result of Democratic ma
jority in the legislature, ETC., etc. Now
We undertake to say that there was no
Democratic majority in the legislature
Of 1865, nor in that of 1866 or 1867
We affirm that the government of the
state at Mississippi has not been con-
4 trolled by Democrats for single hour
I since General Charles Clark was drag
I ged from the executive Office to militia
/ ~ prison in the summer of 1865, In
/ October of that year General Ben. Hum
phreys was elected Governor, and at the
same election new legislature was cho-
sen. Governor Humphreys was life
long Wing, Union Wing, a friend and
| a follower of Henry Clay, and in his ad-
mIratlon of the great cOmmoner he swat
lowed, without question, all the political
absurditles put forth by that wonderful
man.
A majority of the members of the leg
lslature, elected in 1865, were also oId-time
Union Wings, and they signalized their
accession to power by electing two Wings
to the senate of the United States. One
was Hon. William l.. Sharkey, all
his life Union Wing, and the other was
James l.. Alcorn, Wing up to tile hour
he degraded himself by leaping into the
arms of Radicalism. The 'back code"
referred to by III. H. S." with all the
rhn
1867, and of which the Radical press
has howled so persistently ever since,
was the result of Wing "majority in
the legislature, and was not the fruit of
Democratic ascendency. When the war
closed, the Democrats of Mississippi
they had all favored secession-ve
modestly stepped to the rear. They felt +
that their predictions had all come to
naught, that their judgments were at
fault, and that it would be decent and
modest to let some other people run the
machine awhile. The Wings, on the F
other hand-a large majority of the par
ty was opposed to secession-had long
been out of power, were very hungry,
and just little disposed to indulge in /
the 81 told you SO" sort of remark that
always falls so pleasantly on the ears of +
a fellow who has just had IA drubbing.
They were not burdened with any excess
of modesty, and felt entirely competent .
to evoke order out Of chaos, and happiness
and prosperity from the misery, the des-
olation and the poverty caused by four
years of war and exhaustion. With a
Wing governor and a Wing legisla-
ture, they elected four Wings to the /
house of representatives in congress. /
Judge E. S. Fisher, Union Wing, was
the competitor of Gen. Humphreys for
governor. The "black code" and the I
kindred legislation of the period, then, is
to the Union Wings and not I
to the Democrats, and when the sensitive
Wings, to whom the name Democrat is
so ''truly repugnant," next essay to dilate
upon the deformities of Democracy and
the obnoxious "black code of 1865" we
hope they will have the fairness to charge
that code to the immaculate Union Wings
of the State, and not to the muchAre-
viled secession Democrats. -Vicksburg
Herald.