The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1896-03-27
Written for the Democrat-star.
AN ACCOUNT OF MY STEWARDSHIP.
To My Constit

AN AGCUUNT VI NIL DIhWhhUnnlI
To My Constituents:
AS the day Of adjournment is near
after which follows ''the day Of Judge
ment" in your minds as to my steward
ship, l feel II some measure like thu
humble Christian toward his God, ant
cry out, Guilty, Lord" and admit
that l am an 'unprotitable servant
But il at my official funeral you will
write on the stone that marks my
grave as follows: "HE DID HIS Level
BEST" l will be satisfied, and agree
never to return and haunt you in any
Of your future efforts to send a better
man to represent you here.
In all matters except local bills,
have voted as seemed best, without
ever asking or caring what any select
number of my constituents would say,
and recognizing that legislation OF
passing Of bills are simply matters OF
compromise, l have %endeayOred to
make friends toward our coast.
And knowing that in legislation as
well as the sciences and professions,
a nan must be a specialist" IL he
accomplishes anything, l have given
my whole time to efforts to amend our
public road law /; TO amend paragraph
(a) Of tenth clause Of section 1869 OF
our code, but especially to work up an
inf nr root in diam Unfnp hur hnrc nm mn
coast. And while l have for twenty
years known, and while every well
posted man on M coast has known
that the ONLY practicable and availa.
BILE point on our coast to build out tn
deep water WAS and is at Horn Island,
still, l have in every act and word
dealt fairly with all other points. This
my preamble and resolution" and bill
clearly shows, and while with the leg
islative committee On the coast, !
abstained from eve being present
when soundings were being made.
Had my advice been followed out the
committee would never have known
that there were competing interests
on the coast.
Un1er any fair rule the House
should have had at least fifty per cent.
more members than the Senate, yet If
you will examine the official report you
will see that the Senate had ten men
and the House only eight. You can
draw your own inference.
When l got up the preamble and
resolution" and got my young friend
Collier to introduce it | provided for
seven members of the House and -
of the Senate. l did not introduce
the resolution myself, because of a
rule in Il House that the mover Of a
resolution cannot be appointed on a
committee hereunder. also expect
ed to be allowed to name the members
who were to go on committee, expect
ing to select good working men, and
most Of them from along the line
of the proposed railroad through the
center Of the State. The speaker,
however, did not extend to me this
courtesy.
1t is a noteworthy fact that all
praise, honor and respect were heaped
upon the committee, and they were
admitted to be all right, all over the
coast, until some of them expressed
surprise and admitted the near
ness and great advantage of Horn
Island harbor over all others. BY my
invitation Bishop Z. b. Galloway ac-
cOmpanicd us to the coast, but owing
to press Of business left us at Biloxi
and did not see or know anything of
Horn Island harbOr or its advantages.
The official report of the committee,
while it is in general terms and rec
ommends no particular point, clearly
and by unmiStakable SOundings and
figures of same, shows Horn Island
larbOr to be the most available and
practicable place. In order TO
now silence all dispute as to what
our people think, l here assert, with
out any intimatiOn from any part of
the coast, that the friends Of Horn
Island harb0r will industriOusly cir
culate the report Of the committee.
and the friends OF Gulfport will NOT
circulate it.
IN the return OF the committee to
Jackson a few of the members signed
Il paper asking Bishop Galloway to
write out his observations, etc, while
on the trip. This he did in beautiful
and captivating terms, leaving Horn
Island out, as he had not gone that
far. An effort was made to make the
Bishops letter a part Of the report.
or course, this caused me to "kick.n
A motion was then made to have it
printed at expense of committee fund.
this caused another kick. Driven
from the committee room, this letter
was taken into the Senate. offered |
and officially spread upon the minutes.
In all this, you can draw your own
inference. These acts and the pressure
brought, caused the COMMITTEE to re-
fuse to offer any measure or bill by
which their strong recommendations
In their report could be taken hold of
by the State.
About this time Capt. Hardy intro
duced a bill providing that the State
OF Mississippi appropriate $780, 600 in
bonds now in the State treasury for
the purpose of improving "GULFPORT
Notice that this is an I'M
appropriation, to a specific
place, and beneficial to certain par.
ties. This bill was nearly unani-
mOusly passed by the Senate, and
great interest and close attention was
given 1t by the GulfpOrt folks, Capt.
Hardy coming in our House and
our members to pass it,, Being
a friend to ALL points, l supported
and voted for the bill.
After the committee refused to get
up a bill for the improvement OF our
|larbors, l went to work and finally
got up a bill asking the U. S. for $780,
700 and II granted, then our State to
issue S25O,O00 bonds to add to same,
and a deep water harbOr to be i'm
on our coast AT A POINT TO BE
SELECTED by ENGINEERS OF THE
UNITED STATES as the most available