The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-01-06

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The publication of the foregoing let
ter refreshes our recollection of some of
the incidents of the reconstruction era
in Mississippi. 1t is remembered that
when the 14th amendment was sub
United to the Legislature for adoption,
it was rejected. This led to other and
more exacting conditions. The 10Th
amendment was submitted in addition
and the then existing State government
was overthrow and military rule es-
tablished The army officers who were
put'at the head Of affairs, were invested
with despotic authority over the lives,
liberty and property of the citizens,
pending the formation of a new Consti-
tuition and the organization of new
State government. The situation was
desperate, with chaos and disorder
Astounding, and the future all dark and
uncertain, when THE CLARION passed
under its present editorial control. We
saw but one way out of the wilderness.
1t was to recognize the situation, make
no resistance to the inevitable, and to
make the best of the circumstances in
which the people of the State had been
placed by the fortunes of war. To
| this end, with all the earnestness of a
thorough conviction of the absolute
necessity of the course recommended,
we pioneered the plan of accepting the
amendments, and of the white people
participating in the election of delegates
| to the Convention that had been ordered
for the purpose of framing a new Con-
stitution. The step involved a recogni-
ton of the political equality of the
emancipated race. An innovation so
startling naturally produced whirlwind
of excitement. From one end of the
State to the other the public mind was
dashed into fury, and the storm beat
furiously against those who advised the
course we have mentioned. 1t took but a
little while for us to determine that in
encountering an opposition whose chief
| leader was the eminent William u
Sharkey, THE CLARION stas4sadly in
need of strong allies, and we made haste
to enlist reintorCIments by eliciting let
tiers from the late Gov. Brown, the late
Judge William Yerger, Judge Wiley P.
Harris, Gen. Thomas j. Wharton and
other citizens of prominence, urging the
people to acquiesce in the plan of re-
construction and to send their best men
to represent them in the State COnven-
ton called by Congressional authority
to form the new Constitution. This
programme accorded entirely with the
opinion expressed in the foregoing letter
of Gen. Robert Z. Lee, "that the peO-
pie were placed in a position where no
choice is left them and that it was the
duty of all who may be entitled to vote,
to attend the polls and endeavOr to
elect the best available men to repre-
sent them and to act for the interest OF
the State" Passion, however, triumphed
over reason. The advice was not fol
lowed. The men who gave it were
stigmatized as assistant Radicals" The
people were advised by other leaders to
do nothing-to refrain from taking any
part in the elections of members to the
Convention. Consequently large ma
jority of the body was composed OF
alien adventures and ignorant negroes
who did their bidding. The Constitu-
ton spawned by such a conclave was a
monster of injustice. 1t went beyond
the conditions prescribed in the recon
struction laws. The white people rallied
to defeat it, and by the aid of colored
voters succeeded. 1t was resubmitted
by order of President Grant with the
privilege of voting separately against
the most obnoxious features, and they
were eliminated in the second trial.
Still it contained the element of impair.
tial suffrage as to the races, in which all
parties in the course of time acquieseed
as one of the inevitable results of the
war. But for the futile resistance to
the amendments, and the refusal of the
former governing class to take part in the
Constitutional Convention, the carpet
Dagger would never have obtained s
foothold in our State. 1t afforded him
the coveted opportunity to win the con
fdenee and obtain control over the &C
lions of the negro voters, and in doing
: so. he instaled the virus of hate ano
suspicion inio their minds which re
NAMED long after the carpet-baggel
} himself had made his exit as pOlitica
: factor. The disastrous consequences o
: the first misstep, and the difficulties
which have bsen encountered in repair
n,gits damages have becomean enduring
part oas the history of the eventfu
times through which We have passed
since the rec obstruction era. In re
viewing our>career, there is no chapte
of it to which we recur with more salts
i faction than tn the eonn sal ~ r,o,,o an,