The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1876-08-25
1f4,JORITY IND MINORITY REPORTS
IN THE MISSISSIPPI ELECTION.

NJ 5JORITY IND MINORITY REP0hIS |
IN THE MISSISSIPPI ELECTION.
The report presented by senator Bout
well. on behalf of the majority of the
Mississippi investigating committee,
reaches conclusions that the present leg
islature was elected by fraud and intimi
dation, and therefore not legal body
that the resignation of governor Ames
was illegally effected by the legislature;
that Mississippi is under the control of
political organization, composed largely
of armed men, whose purpose to deprive
the negroes of the free exercise Of their
rights of suffrage; that the organizers
will if left to themselves, retain
control by force and fraud that the
power of the government viii be revoked.
The report concludes The measures
necessary and possible in the exigency
are three: First, laws may be passed by
congress for the protection of citizens in
the respective states. Second, the states
in anarchy or wherein affairs are con-
trolled by bodies of armed men should
be denied representation in congress.
Third, the constitutional guarantee of
republican form of government to every
state will require us, if these disorders
increase, or even continue, and all milder
measures shall prove Intellectual, to re-
mand the state to territorial condition,
and through the system of public educa-
ton and kindred means of improvement,
change the ideas of the inhabitants and
reconstruct the government on republi-
can basis.
Minority of the committee, senators
Bayard and Mcdonald, present their
views at length. They say that, while
writing them, they read, with surprise
and regret, the message of the president,
/ July 3lst, transmitting to congress GER
tain correspondence relating to the muir
ders lately committed at Hamburg, In
his letter of July Goth, to Gov. Cham
/ erblain, he had stated that Mississippi is
governed to-day by officials chosen
through fraud and violence, such as
would scarcely be accredited to sayages
much less to a civilized and christian
people. This last statement, come
from whom it may, we pronounce
in the face of the testimony taken
/ by this committee, and not
yet printed, TO be untrue and unwar-
ranted by the facts disclosed. We hold
and believe it will be so held by right
thinking men everywhere, discreditable
for the chief magistrate thus to have
exhibited such evidence of prejudice
against any portion of his fellow-citizens.
1t adds however, but another proof TO
many given heretofore, that the heart
and mind of president Grant are closed
to all sense of justice where his political
opponents, especially in the southern
states, are concerned. The minority
show that other attempts to forestaIl
! public opinion IN relation to affairs in
Mississippi have been made, calculated
to grossly misledd.
The minority assert that governor
Ames prostituted his office, and bargained
with appointees, and speaks of the state
militia being organized preparatory to
the campaign, the officials being among
the most notorious and unscrupulous
partisans, black and white, of the state
administration-many of them being un-
able to read. This created great alarm
among the white population, and vio-
lence, bloodshed and force, as the only
arbiter of the election, were first sug-
gested in a time of profound peace in
the state of Mississippi by governor Anes
and his political associates There is not
from beginning to end of this testimony
a single case of obstruction of the voter
because he was a colored man. Inter
ference by federal authority in state
elections and internal affairs has, since
the close of the war, frequently taken
place, and never without deplorable and
disastrous results, ard on the other hand
the applications of minoritios defeated
! by popular vote to be nevertheless in
stalled in Office has never been denied
| by the federal authorities without such
/ uehldl oelHS IoiIOWeu Dy DeneHcent re
suits. Sdch interference has always
been followed, and very naturally, by
local discomfort and disorder, as in the
case of Louisiana and Alabama, while
Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina,
| Georgia, Texas and Arkansas are living
proofs in their increased prosperity and
tranquility of the wisdom of non-inter-
| ference.