The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1884-05-15
The Mississippi Murders.

port says:
The committee entered upon its task with al
most lneXpreSslble repugnance. Nothing could
be more justly odious than to use such investi-
cations and disclosures as partisan instruments,
unless it be to commit, profit by or screen the
crimes which are investigated. But the rights
invaded were rights declared by the national
constitution, and which the national Congress
was bound to secure by appropriate legislation
against lnfringements or violat on by any State
If the powers already conferred upon Congress
by the constitution were not ample for their
protection it would become a duty to propose
the granting of further powers, that the bless
ings of liberty and the equal protection of the
laws and the right to vote without distinction
of race or color might not fail through the
neglect of any State in lis duty. The PROPOSE
ton that the protection of the right to vote
secured by the fourteenth aud fifteenth amend
ments to the constitution is the concern of the
whole people needed no argument. The CEN
sus of 1880 showed 6,632 900 cOlored people in
the former slave States. These were counted
on to give these States their representation in
Congress and the Electoral College. Forty
four members of the House of Representatives
and forty-four electors were given 10 these
States by this population weight of repre-
sentaton in the House and in the Electoral
College sufficient to have changed the whole
course of our history in the past and not I'M
likely to determine it hereafter. Mississippi
herself owed four of her seven representatives
to her coored population. The States of Ala
bama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi.
South Carolina and Virginia have fifty repre-
sentatives, tWenty-siX of whom they claim
only by reason of the 1881 $40 colored persons
upon whom the electoral franchise has been
conferred
The committee quotes the provision of the
constitution relating to reduction of tie basis
of representation when the rights CT suffrage
nhrJ nd Inn1 tn ht ba ,Iuty of
Congress and not matter of discretion to take
action in the premises whenever the conditions
warrant it. The report continues:
We would deal with this question with the
caution due to its gravity. The American
people mean to assure to every section and
State and individual their fullest constitutional
rights. They will bear much, AS they have al
ready borne much, rather than resort to ques
tionable or even TO unusual remedies But
they cannot permit a minority IN the States
above mentioned or in any of them to double its
political power by fraud or force, and thereby
to impose upon the country legislation or adj
minstration to which the majority had never
given IFS consent. 1t is to be hoped that the
returning conscience of Mississippi or such
laws as Congress may enact may prevent such
Il condition OF things from becoming perma-
nent in that State as shall compel Congress to
enter upon the discussion whether her repre-
sentation i'll Congress must be diminished.
No election for national officers was pending
in Mississippi in 1888. No national issues were
| involved unless the Legislature then chosen
should be called upon to fill vacancy in the
Senate. But the contest was between great
| national organization and its opponents. TO
overcome these opponents by terror and crime
in one year will surely prevent them from as
serting their freedom the next. We cannot
doubt that the methods which determined the
election of county officers in Copiah in 1888
Will be IN full operation so far as they may be
needed in determining the vote of Mississippi
for Presidential electors and members of Con
gress in 1854.
| The committee have investigated the occur
rences alleged 10 have taken place in Copiah
county. They have been unable in the time
they could properly devote TO this object TO gain
any further evidence As to the condition of the
constitutional rights of the people of Mississippi
p, not dwelling in Copiah, than is afforded by
what was proved before them of the similarity
of character and opinions of the people of that
/ county and of the rest of the State, from num-
| erouS extracts from the press which We're laid
before them, from evidence taken by the Sell
ate or House in former years and from Il mar
/ ratiye of events in the neighborng county of
Madison. sent us by Judge Ware, Assistant
/ United States District Attorney, in answer to
an attack upon him contained in a newspaper
! and received by the committee in Difference to
| the desire of two of their associates.
| The committee then review the testimony of
alleged ourages in Copiah county. From the
facts presented to them they conclude that
conspiracy, organized by representative young
| Democrats with the countenance of that party
i'll Co9iah, was entered into to drive their OPP
ponents from the polls. To that end the mob
was gathered and systematic ot;tIa3es we're per
petrated, ending in murder. one of the victims
being wealthy and generally respected white
man. During the whole time that these Of
fences were going on the Democratic State and
county officers remained passive, and thus al
lowed the election to be turned into mockery.
In conclusion the report says:
| The committee had no time to 90 into an in
| veStigation of the security of constitutional
| rights i'll Mississippi. 1t can only refer TO the
| evidence Of witnesses who think Copiah IA
! favorable specimen of the counties of that
State; to the documentary matter brought to
| our attention; to the evidence taken by the
Senate committee in 1876; to the testimony in
! the election in the House of Representa-
| tlYes; to the numerous declarations of the
| democratic press, and to the crimes well known
and UNPUBLISHED, such as the murder of CHS
| holm. of Dixon, of Foote, the United States
collector of internal revenue, and three others
in Yazoo, whose blood stained hand Copiah is
so eager to grasp. No legislation dealing with
| Mississippi alone should be enacted without an
investigation which should cover all parts of
the State. Before such investigation, nation
al election will have taken place, at which the
temper and respect for law of the people of
Mississippi will undoubtedly be made fully
manifest. II is asked sometimes, with a tone
of eNutation and defiance, what remedy we
| can propose for these things. Jnquestonaby,
so long as any considerable political party shall
deem it for its interest to countenance such
| crimes the remedy will be attended with diff
| Guilty. But they little understand the spirit of
| of he 4 or.
| the power of education and freedom who be-
| llere that these things can long endure when
held up to the daylight. The communities that
| perpetrate them cannot long Withstand the abb
| horrence and Indignation of the country. The
power Of the moral sense of mankind the sting
| which belongs to the consciousness of having
violated it, which Mr.. Webster, sixty years
ago, deemed strong enough to turn the sceptre
| which Turkish oppression held over PROSTATE
Greece to ashes in the grasp of the tyrant, will
not long fail of full effect upon the people of an
| American State.
1t is noticeable with what care the events of
the election of 1888 have been kept from the
newspapers. The sensitiveness of most of the
Democratic witnesses who We're above the level
of mere rutianism to their condition showed it
| self through their tone Of bravado and defiance.
| If the constitution has not powers enough in its
arsenal for the protection of all the rights it
| confers or recognizes, the people on being sat
istied of the fact will confer Others. The great
prizes for which these crimes We're committed
can be kept from the grasp of those who com
mitted them by the eXertion of unquestioned
constitutional authority. Each house of Con-
gress is imperativey required by its duty to re-
fuse seats to persons whose election is directly
or indirectly due to crime, either of violence or
of fraud.
The committee recommend the publication.
for the use of American people, of the testi-
mony they have taken. They further recon-
mend the passage of Senate bill No. Is, which
is designed to furnish remedy for some of the
evils which are disclosed. They further re-
commend that after the next election in Mis-
sissippi, unless the same shall be unquestona.
bly, fair and free, there shall be full nvestiga-
ton of the condition of things in that State
with view to determining the question wheth-
er Republican government exists there, and
whether it is entitled to its existing representa-
ton or has forfeited it In whole or part by rea-
son of the denial or infringement of the right to
vote of any portion of its people. The question
of submitting to the Senate further legislation
and of the necessity of comforting new powers
in Congress by an amendment to the constitu-
ton to afford further protection to the rights
of the majority of the voters of Mississippi, the
committee reserves for further consideration