The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1876-06-28

minded III their actor. Ia the city II
which live they encamped upon my Ole
homestead, ami have been ever since tn,
war closed. The gentleman who is nov
eommandant of the post there, Maioi
Allyn, in the progress of the last cam
paign, having application made to him
to loan n cannon to the rival politica
parties, did 50 to the Republican party
and he did the same thing. i'll the spirit o.
eyen-handed justice and generosity, to the
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS party. For
that act he was court. martialed and tried
but | am happy to say that the spirit OF
even handed justice and fair mindednes.
which he had displayed toward the
people in the midst of whom he held
military position was displayed by the
commission which triel him, and he was
acquitted Who was the chief accuser? 4
man by the name Of q. X. Chase, Of New
York, who was sent down by the Depart
ment of Justice, as he testified ON the trial
for the purpose Of acting rs secret agent
in the supervision Of the elections in ;he
State of Mississippi. You had provided
| by an act of Congress for supervisors in
! the various Congressional Districts, and
| under that authority the district Judge
| had appointed a general supervisor for
the State and the supervisor for the
State had appointed supervisor for
every Congressional District Yet his
report t. the Department of Justice has
never been made public.
Not one single complaint has been
made by any supervisor of any Congress
al elections throughout the length and
breadth of Mississippi that there was
untalrness in the election. Az, and
more than that, though we had a
statute, simple and plain in its pro
visions, giving the remedy to any man
who thinks he has been uniustly de-
frauded of his position to test that ques-
ton primarily before a justice Of the
peace, and by appeal to the superior
courts, there was not contest there;
from the highest general officer who was
elected down to the constable, there was
not single contest throughout the
length and breadth of the entire State,
not one. Can it be said therefore, there
is any truth in the assertion that fraud,
or force, or intimidation was exercised
anywhere? On the contrary, Mr. Chair
man, in the counties east of Pearl River
there is not Republican, white or black,
who will attempt to say there was any
thing like intimidation or fraud, not one.
And, more than that, if you take
every one of the counties in which there
is the slightest allegation of any irregu-
larities on the day of election, and you
throw them out of the count or give
them the majority the Republican party
obtained at the previous election, it
would not change the result.
L say, therefore, you have this specta-
Gle presented in the face of the proof Of
fered by Governor Ames and his coad-
jutors-you have the significant fact that
there is not single supervisor, though
appointed by your district Judge in
every Congressional district, who has re-
ported any untairness III a single contest
anywhere. And yet you have the gen
eral assertion that fraud and force aud
violence were resorted to for the purpose
of affecting the result l think, sir, this
is Il sufficient answer to whatever evidence |
may be attempted TO be given on this sub |
ject.
If let alone, sir, the relations, the nat |
ural relations between the colored man |
ana the white man of the South will add !
just themselves. | have said it is not |
political question, ! have said that you |
could not make it a political question
that you could not put upon the statute
book any law viii ch would affect those
on the contrary, the two races
must work out the relations which will
exist between them for themselves
They are ranidly doing so. And it is
just and due to the colored race to say
that, taking them in the mass, uninfu-
enced by bad advisers, uncontrolled bv
men who think that the blood of twenty
five or thirty Qf tbem, in the language of
Governor Ames, would be service to
the Republican party-leaving them
free from the influence of such men
and such control, they are peace
able, quiet, Woodworking, induatri-
ous community. And so Tar from its
being true that the old white people Of
the country are disposed to be oppressive
to them in any particular, | can only
say that in my own Congressional dis
trict, aud on my own farm whore have
some that were formerly nay slaves and
some who were not, | never even men
toned to one Of them privately that |
was candidate for Congress And
such l believe was the temper and dispo-
sition of other candidates everywhere. /
And never at any tiy4e did make any
speech IL that or in any other canvass
since they have been invested with the
ballot by the Constitution of the United
States never have | said that they did /
not have as full, as free, As perfect, as
right to vote against me
as to vote for me. Aud so with all the
other candidates.
When you take into consideration the
fact that ,here never was a representa-
tive of that race in this body until after
the war closed and these 500, 900 freed
men had been made voters, you have
presented a significant fact. If the Re-
publican party of the North, or any of
the people of the North, whether Repub-
leans or Democrats, had had .his extra
ordinary regard for the interests and the
welfare and the Intelligence Of the col
ored race, why was it never manifested
long before the results ef the war;
In Maszaa kusetEs she colored man has
been freedman for nearly a hundred
years. State by State all the States of
the North manumitted their slaves at
successive periods, down to New Jersey, |.
whose last act of manumisslon was in 4
1916, and that under the apprentice sys
tenn which gave to the old owner the right
to the possession of the services of the
male under twenty-eight years and of the
female until she was twenty-one years of
age. In New Jersey, where ! CHANGED ]
at one time fer some years to be myself, |
and in Massachusetts, where | CHANGED |
to be at one time for two years. I saw
a great many intelligent eolored men.
In Massachusetts the white man stands
to the oolored mon as a hundred to one.
according to the census of 1870. II New /
L. h. lnn l.