The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-06-23
LETTER FROM GOVERNOR
STONE
Jackson. Miss, June 10, 1881.

, State policy, and especially with reIerent
4 to the subjects of railroads and lmm1grs
' ton, indicating that In view OF my probael
candidacy before the State Convention {
the Democratic party for a denomination /
the Office Of Governor, some expression c
: NV opinion is desired by many citizens.
had supposed that my views on these sui
ects were we'll understood, but if Their
exists any desire for further expression,
have no objection 10 utterlng them 5
frankly and so fully that there can be n
mistake as TO my meaning.
Four years ago | accepted a nomination
and was elected Chief Magistrate of tn
State upon a platform which declares
= Corporations OF every description super
) visable within constitutional limits BY
State authority, and subordinate to Stat
legislation. in the interest and for the pro
lection of the people" With that plat
form | was then, and am now entirely sat
isfed, and | stand now, always, prepared
in good faith, to carry IL out. Every en-
terprise whether it be a railroad, canal
factory or college which has sought and
obtained, in its construction, an exercise Of
the States right of eminent domain by
transfer to itself Of the power to take private
property against the consent of the owner
upon the payment of what Iury OF revle y
NAV say il is worth is thereby estopped tC
say that it is a private business over which
the State has no control. BY accepting
from the sovereign, and exercising power
which can be only granted TO, and used on
behalf of public enterprise, it has ineradi-
cably stamped that character upon itself
Such is the settled doctrine of the Courts
supported by principle, and sanctioned by
precedents
Any legislation, carefully guarding and
protecting the chartered rights of railroad
corporations, which undertakes, through
Railroad Commissioners, or by carefully
| considered, wise and impartial provisions to
supervise and control the management of
| our railroads. and To regulate, upon just
and proper principles, their rates OF charges,
shall receive my prompt and hearty appro-
val. That gross wrongs have IN many
| instances been perpetrated by these corpo-
rations is undoubted Let wisely framed
! laws be passed to put an end to such things,
| but let US not, in our anxiety to correct
one evil, run into another, and while striv-
! ing to protect one class of our citizens, do
wrong to Others.
| Railroads should neither be the favored
nor the disfavored objects of legislative ac-
ton, but should stand like all other species
! of property, subject To the same laws, and
entitled to the same protection.
The resolution of our party platform
quoted above wisely declares that the su-
pervision of railroads which it asserts shall
be within constitutional limits, the mean
ing is that all legislation on this subject
must conform to the State and Federal Con-
stitutions and that we must look, [
derstand il, to the Supreme Courts of the
State, aud Of the United States, To ascertain
the proper construction OF those instruments.
Now, the Supreme Courts, both of this
State and of the United States, have de-
clared over aud over again that laws which
undertake to deprive corporations of their
u. II
faith of which the corporations have been
organized, are unconstitutional, null and
void. This has been said by those tribu-
mails not once bat hundred times. There
is scarcely volume of the reports of the
Supreme Court of the United States issued
within the last quarter of a century that
does not contain one or more distinct an
nouncements of this doctrine. There is not
single solitary case decided by our own
or the Federal Supreme Court to the con
trary. 1t would he a worse than useless
performance, therefore, for our Legislature
To adopt, or for Governor TO approve, any
act which does carefully guard the chartered
rights of the railroads. A cheap and tenn
porary popularity might thereby be gained,
but it would only be the raising of false
hopes to be overthrown as soon as a case
could be brought before the courts.
| do not seek 10 disguise the fact that
am warmly in favor of railroad enterprises,
and | cannot appreciate the feeling that
seems to animate 50 many men of being
enthusiastically in favor Of the railroads
that have not beer built, and so bitterly
hostile to all those that have. [ believe
that railroads are the great clvillzers, edu-
Gators and wealth-producers of the age in
which we live, and ! see, with envy and re-
greet, that while millions of dollars are flow
ing into our sister States of Alabama Louis
lana, Arkansas and Texas for the purpose of
building railroads, the golden stream sweeps
by US leaving our shores untouched.
| would like to see every county in our
State traversed by a railroad, and to know
that every cottage within its borders was
within the sound of locomotives whistle
| would, at the same time, jealously protect
the people against any attempt at oppression
or extortion by those who control then, so
far as it is to be done without violation of
the Constitution that We are all sworn to
protect. Upon the subject of immigration
| hope we are all unit. No stone should
be left unturned, no step untried, to bring
to our State some portion of that enormous
stream of immigration which now, as never
before, is pouring into the country. New
Importance and dignity and appliances
should be given to our commissionership of
immigration. Ample means should be
placed at his command, publications should
be made and distributed, permanent agen-
cies should be established in New York,
with branch offices in Europe, and in every
way possible eMigrants should be encouraged
to come among, and be of us. In this way
only can we hope to build up our waste
places and cease to exhibit the painful spec
tacle of a soil which will yield an annual
product of from twenty-five to fifty dollars
per acre, selling at from five to ten.
| Our public school system should be steadi-
| ly aud vigorously pressed to a higher plane
of usefulness, until to every child of this
| State, black and white, the means ola plain,
| practical education is offered. During the
| fragment of the Gubernatorial term to which
accident called me, and during the full term
to which my fellow-citizens elected me, my
administration has been occupied in bring
| ing the State out of the pitiable condition
! to which Republican rule had reduced it.
| While hope and believe that that party
| that elected me has no occasion TO be asham-
ed of the results, | am deeply impressed
with the conviction that our party cannot
live by abuse of past Radical excuses, or by
chanting hosannahs to our own projections.
The present and the future summon us to
renewed efforts, and if we not equal to
their demands we are unworthy of power.
We must let the past, with its passions and
its pref udices, its brightness and its bitter
ness, its joys and its sorrows, take care of
itself; and we must bend all our energies
| towards making our State so rich, so pros
porous and so happy, that the glories which
have been shall be surpassed by those which
are to come. While the realization of these
hopes depends far more upon individual
efforts than upon legislative action, much
may be done to further them by a wise adj
ministration of the affairs of State. En-
enlargement must be given to public works,
individual enterprise must be fostered, the
criminal laws of the State must be rigidly
enforced, violence and mob law must be
| sternly suppressed, and those who engage in
it eftectually punished the hunhlest citi-
zen, white or black, must be made to feel as
safe in his life, liberty and estate, rs the
wealthiest and most powerful. To effect
this in the past has been my constant effort I;
to press it more vigorously and with yet
greater effect. would be my earnest purpose
in the future.