The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1876-03-01
Senator AIcorn'- SfatemeuI-The
TruIH Of History.


In another column we have printed
from the Congressional Record sent us
by Senator Alcorn, an authorized YER
sion of his reply to the statement that he
had belonged to L conspracy-of which
Spencer, carpet-bagger of Alabama, was
the reputed head-to influence the Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court to decide
the enforcement act from a political
standpoint to accomplish partisan ends.
The statement is denied by Sena-
tor Alcorn, and no one will question but
it has been truthfully denied.
There are other noteworthy features of
the Senator'S explanation. He repels
what he calls the ''imputation" of being
"carpet-bagger, which, after all, was but
an inference from the charge that he was
associated with that disreputable class
who have been expelled from Of
fee by the indignant voice of the
Southern people whom they had so
long insulted aud robbed But the Sem
ator might have said, and ought to have
said, in order that the truth of his
tory might be indicated, that he was not
little responsible for the installment of
that very class into power in Mississippi.
8 nd who but he, after a brief term of
| service, abandoned the office of Govern
or, with all of its enormous patronage,
to " carpet Dagger ?" 1t is creditable
to him that he was not a member of the
" carpet-baggers' conspiracy" to de-
grade the Supreme Court into an agent
of vengeance against the Southern
people, who have revolted against
the very rule which he admits was
monster of oppression and plum
der; but it would have been bet
ter for his fame if he mad not been a
member of another conspiracy" in which
the 'carpet-bagger' was the central
| figure in the dark and bitter period from
1869 to 1872
1t is all true of the Senator that while
in the office of Governor, he refused to
ask for the active agency of Federal
troops in Mississippi affairs, and that re-
spending to the calumnious charges of
Ames and others, he bore testimony to
| the good order and obedience to law
observed by the people of Mississippi;
''but It's pity It's true, and pity It's, It's
true" that by Federal bayonets welded
by hands as INSCRIPTIONS as those of Gen.
Ames, the party of which he was the lead
er, he was installed into power in 1869.
He might not have had a body-guard
of Federal soldiers attending him in his
canvass over the State, while candidate
for Governor, but let it be remembered
because it is memorable chapter in the
history of those horrible times, that fed
eral bayonets glittered in every nook
and corner of the State-that to carry it
for the Radical party, under the combined
rule of carpet-baggery and scallawagery,
to install the reign of alienage and plum
der under which the taXpaying and intel
ligent classes possessed no rights that
knavery in office was bound to re-
spect-civil law was subordinated to
military despotism, with a tyrant as
wooden headed as Gen. Ames, to
administer it, and that the white
men of the State, who would not
become part of the g conspiracy were
thrown into prison and hunted down
like wild beasts If Senator Alcorn raised
his voice against this cruel and foul
conspiracy" we never knew it; but we
do know that it made him Governor,
and Senator in Congress, and also elect
ed to the Senate the District Comman-
der, who welded with memorable cruelty
the bayonets at his beck.
The Senator stopped at the point
where we wish he had begun, viz:
an explanation of the present con-
dition of affairs in Mississippi. He
might have said that Radical defeat
was brought about by the resolute
determination of the people who as
serted themselves in a lawful and |
peaceable manner to get rid of Radical
misrule; and that as consequence of this
the law-making depart
ment of the government is under the
control of representative body of as
intelligent, capable and patriotic men,
firm as the everlasting hills to do the
right, as has ever assembled in any ma
ton or age to take counsel together for
the public good.