The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-05-19


Our able contemporary of THE CLARION
has clear head on the solid South ne
has on almost every other subject with
reference to national affairs.-Winona Ad-
vance.
No doubt this is an honest expression
of the Advance, but there are others,
who, when it suits them, repeat and
repeat again, that the Advances econ
temporary Of The CLARION" is an
extremist. The statement Is a lie de-
liberately spoken for malicious and
selfish purposes. The one thing which
we have labored day in and day out to
do, from the beginning Of the recon
struction era, is to persuade our people
without abandoning their convictions of
the past and voluntarily consigning
themselves to history as rebels who
sought to tear down instead Of to erect
as they meant to do, on a frmer basis
the fabric of constitutional liberty-to
be reconciled to the inevitable and to
make the best of the circumstances in
which the memorable fortunes of war
had left them. When such conserva-
tives as the late distinguished Judge
Sharkey and the learned and able ex-
Chief Justice SimraIl were urging the
Southern people to make fight against
the constitutional amendments, we
encountered a storm of censure for
advising them differently, and to send
delegates to the State Convention which
had been called to frame new Consti-
tuition with the understanding that the
amendments should be accepted and the
conditions of the federal government
complied with in order to re-establish
our Statehood under the control of our
home people. Bitter were the fruits
which the rejection of our counsels
produced. In 1868 when the writer of
this article was proposed as a ember
Of the Committee on Platform in the
National Convention, prominent
Mississippian openly objected to his
serving on the committee upon the
ground that he would not advocate II
clause in the platform denouncing negro
suffrage. The objector has long since
developed into tirst-class Republican,
and has reaped high honors at the hands
of that party, and now helps to swell
the chorus that we are IAN extremist. 4"
In what have we been Fan extremist ?"
Was it in helping to overthrow the rule
Of the Radical party in this State !?
Was it in joining the taxpayers move
ment in whose original proceedings,
and in the preparation of whose address
to their Legislature, we bore our hum
bic part? Was it in urging the i'm
parchment Of Ames and supplying the
facts and the legal grounds establishing
the justice and propriety of such pro-
ceeding? We were censured at first,
but time has come to our aid and vindi-
Gated US. Ames himself became
our witness by signing letter partly at
our dictation, to the Legislature, re
signing his office and beating a hasty
retreat. Was it in the arguments which
we addressed through these columns and
as eleetor on the Democratic ticket in
and Hendricks Or was it in our OPP
position to the Electoral Commission
device by which the first Presidential
victory which had been won over Radi-
calism for twenty years was traded away
and the will of the people trampled
under foot? Again has time vindicated
the maxim that honesty is the best
policy. The installation of Hayes in
1877, secured the election of Garfield
in 1880; and threatens the indefinite
continuance of Republican rule in ma
tional affairs Was it in our support of
the silver bill? We were in accord with
ninety-nine hundredths of the Democra-
racy, North and South. Or our oppo-
sition to the Grant life salary bill? We
are in accord with every Democrat save
one in both houses Of Congress and
those members represent the pervading
Democratic sentiment of the country.
Or in our protest against the contirma-
ton of Stanley Matthews to the United
States Supreme Court bench? If so,
Thurman and Bayard, and the great
lights of our party, as well as the re-
cord of Matthews, showing him to be an
INSCRIPTIONS and thoroughly corrupt
partisan and sectional agitator and
demagogue, have mislead US. Perhaps
we are ian extremist" in striving to
divorce the thoughts of our people from
and dead issues and
joining them to the things of the present
and the future Or IAN extremist" in
claiming for the South that she is the
equal not the vassal of other sections.
Or in advocating such measures Of home
policy and of educational and industrial
development as will lift our State out of
the slough of despond and put her on
the high road to prosperity. If this
record, to which might be added many
facts of the same sort, do not prove US
IAN extremist" we do not know what
will, but the lie will be repeated all the
same.
IF the Bourbons will let up on Mr.. Lamar,
the first step towards harmony will be taken.
Mr. Lamar is not fighting Mr. Barksdale,
but The CLARION lets no opportunity es-