The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1880-03-03
. LITTER FROM WILLIAM.


uAHDtA aAt AAN A4gaH HVAAsi VI A~sFANs
WhlleI have been writing, the agencies
and energies Of our time and civilization
have beenquietly at work, and i can look
back and see the result OF their operation
for ten years. When wrote the FIRST letter
Gov. Acorn had Just been inaugurated,
and sent in his appointments. Every de-
partment Of the State and general govern.
ment was 10 the hands Of the Republicans,
and Mississippi was held aud governed by
men unknown to her people and unfriendly
to her history and traditions. Her Courts
were conducted by Judges, whose best quail
iticatiOns we're to be INSCRIPTIONS in adj
yancng the growth Of Radical power and
wrong. The delegation in Congress, except
two was made up OF aliens. Only one
member Of the Federal House, at that time
is now a private citizen OF the State. There
were iorty.six of the most Objectionable
colored men in the State in the Legislature.
Their highest qualification was hatred to
WV i"Hiet hi"h' w Hic tOtVOH NdS AZ a
high price, the government consumed it
~
To-day all is different. In the Execu-
tive office sits man, whose proudest record
is that which he carved with his sword
while fighting and suffering under Lee. On
the bench, Circuit and Supreme, are gem
tlemen, lawyers and judges. In the Legis-
lature, the preponderating element is to the
manner born, and taxes no longer consume
the substance Of the people.
In Congress are the choice Of the home
people-men who represent the feeling and
interest Of the State, and who are
unfriendly to no class of her
citizens. How great the changel
Special agencies helped to work this change
special agents, too, were employed /
call to mind now some persons that sacri-.
feed much and risked everything to bring
about the government the people now enjoy.
! Among these is General Robert Low
ry, Of Brandon. He left his home early in
the action, continued to the end, spent his
money freely and risked his life, and has re-
ceived no reward, while others, who stood
aloof and watched the course of events, but
wentinto the fray in time to reap reward
won by others, live and prosper. W. S.
Featherston is another one of the same class
of patriots. Many, very many others could
be named, who are now in comparative re-
tirement, not because they did not serve,
but because they asked to serve, but not to
receive recompense at the hands of their
countrymen. Poor John Gullyl He went
to bloody grave, and left widow and
children without protection, because he de-
nounced the oppressors of his people, and
now it is almost a crime to speak in respect
and tenderness of the one, or to suggest SYM
pathy for the others.
The deep silence of the grave holds cold
still hearts that once gave life's current to
men, that were for their country, in its
darkest hours. This is melancholy; but it
is still more sad to know that at as early a
day as this, we can see the work of retribu-
tive justice, There is hardly man who
went with those who insulted and plundered
their country, but has met some fate that
was compensation for treachery. Many
are dead-died unhonored others are liv-
ing, but without the consideration of their
contemporaries, There are no legitimate
promotions before them, and their sins will
fall upon their children to the third and
fourth generation. "There is a divinity
that shapes our ends, rough hew them
as we may" Ten years have ploughed'
many faces, and sprinkled white over
many heads. Many hopes have been
buried, and let us trust that mary errors
have been corrected, 1t is too often the
case that time only petrifes wrongs; still
with thinking minds, it is the rule to aban-
don evil.
In the ten years past, since | wrote my
first letter. have seen households scattered,
children have assumed the duties and re-
sponsibilities of fathers and mothers, and
the old have planted shrubbery over the
graves of those whom they loved.
Many wandering feet have strayed from
home and country and have left behind the
scenes that make up the landscape of life's
morning and noon. Who can calculate the
changes of the next decade? Before that
time shall have passed, Mr.. Jones with his
varied knowledge, cleaned from books, and
gathered by observation, will have passed
into another existence, and Mrs, Cornelia |
will have withdrawn from life the virtues
that have adorned two generations.
Brother Smith, who has long taught the
simple truths of the Christian religion, will |
have left the place where he has so often
reeited the story of the cross, and modern |
thought may find utterance in discussions
Of illy-conceived skepticism.
Let us hope that in the year 1890 the
world may be wiser and better than it is
Today, and that Mississippi may find her
as much superior to that of the
present as that of the present surpasses the
status of 1870.
In the meantime, with prayer for the
CLARION and its proprietors, with increas-
NC respect and confidence in Barney Trice
md George Welsh, ] am about ready to
tep upon the threshold of a new series of
etters.
I. .AA.-. EttlA ,,,ba, 7 iar Iou-n tla 49,, |