The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1875-06-23
Mr.. NordhoR's Letters ON SEIssIs-
sipPH. ]


"While I was in Jackson both the
| State and Federal courts were in session,
and had thus an excellent opportunity
to see prominent persons from different
parts Of the State, and took the Oppor-
tunity to inquire as to its general condl-
/ ton. The substance of what | heard
/ from both republicans and democrats is
( that peace andf order prevail IN all the
/ counties Of Mississippi; that there IS
better feeling than formerly between
the whites and blacks that the colored
people who labor on the plantations, and
who here as elsewhere in the cotton coun-
try usually work on shares or rent the
land, have made their contracts and gone
to work earlier this year than heretofore,
and are laboring more steadily than in
any year since the war; that but few
cases occur where they are wronged in
their settlements, and these only among
small farmers, who sometimes take adj
vantage Of the negro's ignorance to make
hard bargain with him; that there is
strong disposition among planters to get
the colOred man to buy land, in order
that he may become taxpayer and thus
feel the burden which ignorant black SUI
pervisoFs lay upon property; that con-
siderable number, though small in pro-
portion to the aggregate negro popula-
ton, have actually bought farms that
numbers of colored men are continually
moving into the State from Alabama and
Georgia, and mostly settle on the bottom
lands, where they raise cotton; that they
are brought IN at cheap price-S1O or
81 a head-by agents who fill the orders
of planters; that real estate is almost
unstable, and industry has been much
disturbed, partly by high taxes and iinan-
cial mismanagement and partly by ''poli-
tics" and that the great fault Of the
State is that the State courts do not pun
ish murder, either Of white or black
Life is not held sacred, as it is in the
North Everybody goes armed, and
every trifing dispute is ended with the
pistol.
The latter statement, as to the fire.
queney of murders as compared with the
North, is an exaggeration. The Stats
tics will show that crimes Of that kind
are more frequent. in the North than in
the South Nor do murderers always 90
UNPUBLISHED unless through the corrupt
use of the pardoning power which is
lodged in the hands of Radical officials
| Even while Mr.. Nordhoff was writing his
letter, the late Mayor Of Magnolia, one
Of our most important county seats, Mr..
Traube, a lawyer, was being tried before
jury of white citizens in Lawrence
county for murder, found guilty and SEN
| fenced to be hung.
But if Mr.. Nordhoff had said that the
crime Of larceny was more frequent here
than in the North, probably he would
not have missed the truth. Gov Power
in one of his messages, referring to the
proneness of the negroes to commit that
crime, deprecated its frequency. Five
out of every six of the convicts in the
Penitentiary are of that race, and they
have been put there for that crime
though in consequence Of the corruption
of trial by juicy, and the lax administra-
ton of justice by the Radical judiciary,
more escape punishment than receive it.
1OAAOhlLS VI Lie un-
scrupulous class of adventures who haye
administered the government of the State
ruled and ruined-since the beginning
of the carpet-bag..regime, is true to thelet-
ter. The pOrtralture of Ames is life
like. He acquits him of peculation for
private gain but Ames has notoriousIy |
done what is no less infamous-he has |
created offices and used the public money
to further his own schemes of personal |
ambition. Provided with an enormous |
salary, a luxurious abode and costly outfit |
at public expense, he has nevertheless,
as shown by his own reports to the Legis-
lature, used the Executive contingent
fund for his own household expenditures.
Mr.. Nordhof, speaking of the class of
whom Ames is the central figure, says:
alt is the most serious crime which
any one can charge upon the politicians
who have ruled Mississippi since 1868,
that they have been engaged in plumber
ing the State and demoralizing the col
Ored people encouraging them in de-
and taking places of response
blllty and trust, for which their absolute
ignorance untitled them, and using the ,
eolored vote to further the personal ambi-
ion of leading men and the greed of !
heir hangers on. Governor Ames is /,
me of the most guilty in this respect {
He is not accused of peculation, but it is |
notorious that his personal adherents t
Ire among the worst public thieves in the c
State. He has corrupted the courts, has !
protected criminals, and has played eren
nth the iUes Of the blacks IN a manner that,
t this fall good Legislature should be cleo
ed, 'cW procure has impeachment and re-
Moral" /
Mr.. Nordhof embellishes the same {
etter with story of extreme cruelty to .
mulatto girl at Verona. We know h
othing of the facts us he relates them o
econd hand from Radical official. But =
it not very unfair to publish that isola- e
ID case to enable the public abroad to O
,rm a conclusion in reference to the
of the negroes by the whites, f
hich seems to have been his purpose !? al
or example, the otherday little white Fl,
ri was entieed away and inhumanly
ltraged and murdered by the sexton in &C
e largest and most popular church in th
oston. And in another Northern State ii;
e papers were filled with report of hi
e cruel treatment of an orphan girl {"
teen years of age by sixteen women of :"
e first responsibility of the town in q
nich they lived. Not remembering the to
son of the Saviour when he admonished OF