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

JACKSON, Miss, Dec. 20, 1880.
The capital city of Mississippi is goo
sized village of 5000 or 5000 people, wit
few rusted and ancient looking street
| which bear evidences of old time wealth
and present comfort. On the gentle undu
lations which surround the now muddy
center thai clusters about the railroad Their
are many fine southern homes, most of then
only single story in height, but with tn
stately piIisrs, broad halls and veranda
| and shades and shrubbery, which declar,
the existence of hospitality and luxury
| The venerable capitol in which the suprem,
/ power of Jefferson Davis was felt for man,
| years graces the center of the city, but it:
| faded elegance adds little to the architectu
raj beauty of the public and private
edifees.
Here, as elsewhere in the southwest the
winter has been almost a continuous rain
for two months, making the roads aud even
the streets of the cities nearly impossible
and reducing the value of the cotton crop
that had matured from 20 TO % per cent
The constant rains have reduced the crop
alike in quantity and quality, besides great.
ly retarding its delivery in market, and the
effect is felt in all business circles. Cotton
is the chief staple of the State. There is a
little wheat and corn growing in some sec
tions q little turpentine tapping and lum-
and mant featuring, but cotton is the product
that is relied upon. There should be a
rapid increase of stock growing, as the
climate and natural grasses are specially
favorable tor the cheap and good care of
cattle, and there are the same conclusive
reasons, which are found in every cotton
State, in favor of manufacturing the cotton
direct from the impressed lint as it comes
from the gin; but it will require time for
81, tf,h o
MISSISSIPPI REPUBLICAN RULE.
Mississippi, like the other States south of
Virginia, was under the reckless rule that
afflicted all and desolated many of the re-
bellious commonwealth, but the Republi-
can reign in this State was the best that
has been known. Three Republicans filed
the gubefnatorial chair, and it is very
generally admitted, even by their bitterest
political foes, that none of them were per-
sonally corrupt. Governor Alcorn, the first
Republican Executive, is an old resident
of the State, supported the Confederate
cause after war had come, and is now
highly respected planter. He served only
a short time as Governor, when he was
elected to the Senate, from which body he
retired to make contest as a conservative
Republican against Gen. Ames, who was
then a Senator also. Alcorn was defeated
his record as either Governor or Senator.
Powers, the Lieutenant-Goyer nor, succeeded
Alcorn for two years. He gave free rein
to the prohigacy that was necessary to keep
the coIored voters and their adventurous
leaders together, but he is not accused of
veAality. He carpet bagged from Ohio, but
he continues to reside in the State, and is
well respected. Gen. Ames, son-in-law of
Gen. Butler, had an exceptional Opportuni
himself ia Mississippi; but he failed dlsas
trously. He was sent here as Military
Governor, perfected reconstruction, was
elected Senator for full term when barely |
eligible in years, and few years thereafter |
he left the Senate to become Governor by |
election over Senator Alcorn. He was not |
a politician, and he lacked the sagacity and |
tact necessary to the successful exercise of !
power. He ruIed-'Ei.y5- military orders, and |
would not understand wht-ae could not |
depose judge or make a law for himself-1n
civil administration under a government of
law, as he could under the military order
of despotic commander. He was i'm
peached, and justly impeached, for gross
disregard of law, but he realized the peril
of his position before trial, and re-
signed to escape dishonorabIe dismissal.
1t is due to him, to say, however, that no
charge0T vcnaiIty WIS prefer against him. |
and that his personal integrity stands prac
tically unchallenged. 1t is remarkable to |
find three reconstruction Republican Gov |
ernors in a negro State, thus free from the |
stain of corruption, but Governors Alcorn, |
Powers and Ames assent to oppressive eX-
as the newly enfranchised negro |
was first led out of the wilderness by leaders |
who appealed to his cupidity, passions and |
love of Incidence and luxury, but they were
from the destruction of State |
credit. They increased taxes for State pur-
poses from three mills to fourteen mills; |
created some two millions of debt, and at
one time had State and local taxes up to
four per cent. in many localities, but the |
State took the easiest and cheapest way out
from under the load by paying it dollar for
dollar. Thus Mississippi, the only South |
ern State that had the imputation of repu
diation against her before the war, is the |
only one that has emerged from reconstruc-
ton and carpet-bag rule without repudi- |
ating or adjusting dollar of her carpet,bag
debt The State is now practically free
from debt, excepting for Chickasaw school
fund that cannot be paid, and her few bonds
rate above par.
Here follows fattering sketch of
the three colored leaders, Revels, Lynch
and Bruce, which we omit for want of
room.)
VIOLENT AND FRAUDULENT ELECTIONS.
As Mississippi presents the most conspic>
uous cases of violent or fraudulent elections
in the South, the subject may here be APP
discussed. It is not pretended
that there was any violent suppression or
control of the negro vote in the late election |
in the South. The age of violence, as Truth |
fully pictured in Judge Tourgee's Fools |
Errand," has passed away, and that book, |
while a faithful representation of the South |
in the violent throes for the mastery of the |
destructive reign of the thief and adven- |
turer, is now no more true picture of the |
South than is "Uncle Toms Cabin" in |
which the yoke of the bondman was so elo- |
quently portrayed. The South had borne |
the merciless waste of the spoiler until the |
poverty of both races and the humiliation |
of whites had made violence a comparative |
virtue The kuklux and the shotgun did /
their work through the ignorant and brutal |
whites, who knew that their betters would |
dep1ore their acts but would not stay their
hands. The law that is memorable as the |
law of gfayitation asserted itself in the in /
evitable domination of superior intelligence
and will. The hand of the thief was upon
the throat of every property owner, and |
public and private safety and social order
imperatively demanded relief The feder-
" through the jobbers who made peace and
the supremacy, of law impossible, and in
siderable wrongs righted themselves often
by the worst of means. The question of the
domination of race is now settled in the
South, and it is settled beyond the power of
national statutes or of official oppression or
sven ofthe cleaning bayonet to unsettle it.
Both races understa nd it, and both are more
content, more harmonious and more pros
porous to-day than at any time since the
var closed. But fraud, under color of law,
has asserted itself here. at the expense of the
black man, an it often asserts in the North
It the expense of the white man. No hon.
st man can dispute the election of Lynch,
he colored Republican. candidate to Con-
yress In the ssShoe-string" or Vieksburg
district, over Gen. Chalmers, and the rejec-
ion of thousands of honestly cast votes for
Lynch, by the county returning officers, is
simply an unmitigated fraud without even
plausible color Of law Fraud in the
votes is not alleged, but merely because