The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-07-20
The Mississippi Republican.

The Mississippi Republican State Ex-
ecutive Committee assembled In the
senate chamber, Jackson, Saturday,
July z, at IL o'clock. Prof. l.. w. Min
or submitted for the consideration of the
committee the following address, which
was adopted after some opposition:
To Tie Republicans Of Mississippi:
With all acknowledged majority of
more than thirty thousand voters, under
ordinary circumstances, the approach of
a political event so important as the
election of state and county officers
would bring together the representa-
tives of the Republican party from the
several counties in the state convention
to nominate candidates; while our OPP
ponents, the Democracy, If they relied
for success upon numbers alone would
doubtless repeat their stratagem of 1873
at Meridian, and disband their hopeless
minority.
But this reasonable and logical order
of things has been reversed In Mississ-
ippi. 1t is the majority party that now
abandons the field and surrenders the
control of the state government to the
minority While the Republican party,
with its conceded majority, cannot find
men in its ranks sufficiently desperate to
aspire to and contend for state offices,
the spectacle is presented to the Ameri-
can people, boastful of their liberties,
of not less than five Democrats eagerly
and ungraciously scrambling for the
nomination for the Office of governor,
in confessed minority, in which, how
ever, the nomination Is confidently re-
gardcd as the assurance of election.
This political paradox may appear
strange to the people of a state in which
the ballot il free. With us it is stub
born necessity.
Your committee after carefully con-
sidering the situation and prospect, and
after very general consultation with
leading members of the party through
out the state, have deliberately conclud-
ed to recommend that no state conven-
ton of the Republican party shall be
held in Mississippi this year, and that
no candidate be nominated. In proffer-
ing this advice 1t is not our purpose to
indulge in sullen complaints and spiteful
ordinations.
The facts of history speak for them
selves. Fraud, intimidation and vio-
lenco have practically 6isfranchised the
Republican party in this state, and until
the time shall come when we can stand
erect in any presence as freemen and
assert and enforce our rights at the bal
lot-box, we believe 1t to be the part of
wisdom to refrain from the unequal and
hopeless contest. With the recollection
of the campaigns of 1875 and 1876 fresh
in our memory, we decline to engage
in conflict which promises an increase
of bitterness, with equally disastrous
results.
In his endeavOr TO elevate the politics
of the country to plane of true patri-
otism and craftsmanship, we tender to
President Hayes-all we have to give
our -prayerful sympathy and earnest
good will. We would respectfully en-
treat those of our northern as well as
southern men, who, under the influence
of personal grievance and other causes
inconsiderately complain of his "sout l.
ern policy" to remember that the polit-
ical condition which we now deplore
existed long anterior TO his accession to
the presidency, and the course which
we now adopt has become necessity
before he was ever nominated for the
high Office which he now holds. To
this fact we would direct the special
lo'ttAtiOh VI tUOSC W llO are llOW IIlOSt
active in sowing the seeds of strife
against the president, but who, we will
remember, neglected at the proper time
TO adopt the means for preventing the
calamity which the present Administra-
ton, with limited means, seeks to cure.
We have confidence in the wisdom and
patriotism of President Hayes, and,
paralyzed and powcrless as we are, we
profoundly regret any effort coming
from any quarter TO weaken his arm, or
which might tend in the slightest de-
gree TO render unsuccessful tho high cx-
pertinent in craftsmanship which he is
now making. To obliterate the color
line in politics, to enforce the laws by
the civil power, to reconcile hostile sec
tons, and to bring into one harmonious
national brotherhood all the conflicting
elements Of our common country, is an
enterprise 80 grand in it's conception and
80 holy in its purpose that 1t should, and
we trust will, command the admiration
and united support of all good men
without regard to personal or partisan
considerations.
In conclusion, we desire to add that
our action is not influenced by any
want of faithful adhesion to the princi-
plies Of the Republican party. We con.
fdently believe that upon the success OF
these principles depends the perpetulty
Of the government itself; but we also
believe that 1t is expedient for the Re-
publican party to retire from the politi-
cal arena in this state.
The address was then adopted, and
the committee adjourned sine die.