The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-09-04
An ADDRESS
To The People of Mississippi

signed members OF me state ENccH-
tive Committee, and thereby de
yolved upon us the general manage
ment of the pending political cam
paign.
Our own feelings and sense OF
duty, not less than custom, prompt
the issuance of an address calling
your attention to the impo rtancc of
the approaching election, and urg
ing YOU to the most active exertions
to ensure success.
Whether we survey tho field of
State or national politics there is
much to cheer our hopes, and to
give promise of the dawn of moro
suspicious days.
We hail the advent to power of a
Democratic Congress, for the first
time in fifteen years, as pledge to
the nation that the shameless disre-
gard of the right Of local self-gov-
eminent, and the bold usurpatIons
of power which have marked the
recent history of public affairs, shall
have an end. We feel assured the
promotion of party schemes will no
longer be regarded as affording suf-
ficient warrant for the enactment OF
any measure however arbitrary, or
however violative of the lotter or
spirit of the Constitution. With
profound thankfulncss VIC recog
nize the fact that tho day has gone
by for the passage of Enforcement
Acts, and for suspensions of the
Writ of Hd6eds Corpus in time of
peace and we believe that hcreaf-
ter the building mp and tearing
down of State governments BY
Presidential or Congressional ac-
ton will be universally regarded as
destructive of that right of local
self-government, which is the foun-
dation of American liberty. The
dispensing of State Legislatures by
federal bayonets, the wicked and
calumnious branding of the people
of three States as outlaws and ban
ditti by a military officer, in an of
fetal communication, tho sugges-
ton that these people be dealt with
by courts martial in time of pro
| found peace, will, we are persuad-
ed, arouse the app elension and
call forth the indignant protest of
the representatives of a people de-
voted to constitutional liberty.
From the passion Of the war pur-
posely played upon and kept alive
bp the party in power, it is pleas
ing to turn to the indications of re-
turning good will between the sec
tons everywhere so abundant and
so cordial. The people of Missis-
sippi gladly welcome and heartily
reciprocato these manifestations of
of patriotism and fraternal love,
and they view with pleasure the
prospect that the Presidential con-
test of the Centennial year will be
crowned with triumph or candi-
date whose election shall put an
end to sectional ill-will and distru>t
at the North, and to the domina-
ton of ignorance and race-hatred at
the South.
Preparatory to that great strug
gle, 1t becomes us to address our
selves to the task of shaking off in
Mississippi local government
whose history has brought the blush
of shame to the cheeks of Northern
republicans, and which in connec-
ton with its kindred governments
at the South, has done much to
overthrow the republican party of
the nation. Indeed nothing but
the passions and prejudices grow
ing out of q civil war could so long
have blinded the American people
to the true character of the gro ties
que caricatures on government
which have afflicted these Southern
States.
A glance at the condition of at
| fairs in our own State will servo as
sample of the whole.
In the Chief Executive chair we
have an alien and adventurer, whose
only interest in the state is in the
Office which he now holds, and 9TH
ers which he is scheming to obtain,
and whose habitual and contemptu.
Gus disregard of our constitution
and laws is only equalled by his ig-
norance of the elementary princi-
| Piles Of civil government. ACCUSE
| tons of much darker nature are
brought against him by members
of his own party. A prominent
and influential republican, high in
the counseIs and confidence of his
party, has not hesitated to charge
him with completely in the sangui-
nary riot which few months ago
startled the nation, and drenched
the streets of Vicksburg with blood.
This gentleman has declared in
public speech upon republican au
thority deemed reliable by him,
that the Governor of the State in
defiance of the earnest protests of
his Attorney General, issued the
reckless and wicked orders which
precipitated that unhappy conflict,
and that he justified his action by
the remark made at the time, that
"the blood of twenty-five or thir-
ty negroes slain at Vicksburg would
benefit the republican party in the
State" To add a darker shade to
his guilt (if guilty he beg he subse-
quently attempted in his testimony
before Congressional Committee
to cast upon the white men of War
rem county the responsibility Cor
the blood that was shed on that I'M
happy occasion. No blackor or
moro damning crime than this has
been laid at the door of Chief
Magistrate since Moro fred Impe-
rial Rome, and charged the act up
on the carly Christians.
The office of observation-disclosures
or of the State is occupied by one
| against whom in addition to an IN
competence patent to all men, there
are grave suspicious of bribery in
tho discharge of official duties. The
instruction of our youth is intrust-
ed to Superintendent of Public
Education, who to-day stands in
dictcd by q Grand Jury, Of numcr-
Gus felonies, and whom his own
party neither have the courage to
ro,. hn do -, Il