Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1890-09-11
Mississippi Convention.
lMP0NrANT LETTER FRUM Xxx.
SENATOR ALcoRN.

.s"r.EE Or @T.-EAH lS---~-- W&ENttESEESEfsEsE
The meeting of the constitutional
convention in Mississippi has been
the occasion Of bringing out the fol-
lowing very valuable letter from the
best known Republican in the state,
ex-senator Alcorn, addressed to a
Boston newspaper:
Io'Me Editor Of the Adverviser:
Your letter Of the 51st uitimo was
delayed in its coming. Ireceiyed It,
nevertheless, before. left my home,
and should have replied to it then,
but was busy preparing for my pro-
tracted visit to the capital.
! observe what you say in regard
to the confidence in which you pros
pose to recciye any reply, should I
desire TO have my name withheld.
While | do not seek any publicity, I
am always willing that my name
shall be made to appear in conntec-
ton with anything l may write.
.r-."fg 81 oHr4Ag.S EIE-E. HNftI
The desire for tho chill of the con-
vention arose from a spirit of unrest
among tho people of this State.
The fact that the negro population
was increasing SO rapidly in the
State of Mississippi, and that we
had already a majority Of 10000
negro voters in the State, necessarily
forced upon the thinking men the
question, what was to be the end of
this9 The rapid increase of the ne
gro population arose from causes
over which the Legislature could ex-
erclse no control.
The river counties, or what is
known with us MS the Delta counties
Of the Mississippi, increased in its
population from thousands Of negroes
imported each year. 1t is estimated
that there were imported last winter
and spring into the Delta full 3d.
600 negroes. These were brought
at the expense of planters from popu-
lous negro districts of the Carolinas
and Georgia. The lands of the
Delta will produce, under the most
careless cultivation, rs much as a
bale of cotton to tho acre, whereas
on the lands of the Carolinas and
Georgia it requires with the best
cultivation that could be given rs
many rs five or nix acres Of land to
produce rs much. The large land
holders in the Delta found it profita-
bic to import negroes from the States
named or elsewhere, to cultivate
their Itch soil. The negroes brought
to the Delta were generally. of the
most ignorant class. The planter
was not in search of intelligence,
but of strength, muscle and endu-
rance under the burning sun of the
Mississippi swamps, and capacity to
resist the influence of malaria. These
were the prerequisites for the labor
in the cotton fields.
Inasmuch MS this Delta, much of
which has been recently reclaimed
from the flood of the Mississippi by
reason Of iovees, embrace several
million acres of land susceptible of a
population dense as that of Belgium,
and on account of its miasma, held
to be fatal to the health of the la
boring white mali, the question, as I
have before stated, presented itself
to the thoughtful as to what was to
be the future of this population upon
the destinics of Mississippi. Every
one knows, who knows anything
about the negro, that he is incapa-
Bile of self-government; that in the
field Of politics he becomes a COM
modify of barter and sole among
white men, who use him as a means
of tlcvating undeseryjng men to
places of public trust, and hence for
bidding all idea of a healthy body
polite. The negro has none of the
instincts of the Anglo-Saxon race
with regard to self-government, but
when possessed of United education
becomes the more efficient tool under
the manipulation of evil white men
for wrong to the State, as witness,
tho history Of the lottery enterprise
in Louisiana.
The convention was called in view
of deyising some means of putting a
check in tho text Of the constitution
upon ignorance and corruption.
The people felt tho uting Of the
North in the continued charge of
forcible domination in the South Of
the ballot box.
Tho desire to free themselves from
this charge, which they folt in some
degree to ho true, and tho wish to
devise some means more in accord
with civilization and craftsmanship,