The leader., 1902-02-05
AN ELOQUENT CHARGE.
An Inspiring Appeal to the State
Pride aud Manhood of
Mississippians.

expression to the following bill and
inspiring sentiment:
Gentlemen of the Grand Jury: We
are all loyal Mississippians and natur
ally desire to contribute our mite to-
wards upholding the honor and pro-
noting the interest and glory of our
common mother.
There was time so the fathers tell
us when Mississippi, rich and prosper
Gus, was the peer of any of her sister
states, when her voice was potent in
political council and her influence
strong in the national halls of legisla-
tion, but her riches were dissipated
and the ravages of war and her prestige
went down in the bloody burial of bat
do her reverence. We went through
the sorrows of reconstruction and
learned to our sorrow that so called
peace had it's miseries no less bitter
than those of actual war But we be-
long to a race that has never yielded
to despair and so through many trials
and tribulations we have by slow de-
grees built up the waste places of our
State. Our public institutions, educa-
tional aud eleemosynary have been
placed upon a solid foundation, our
railroads which just after the war
were but part and parcel of the gen
eral desolation which pervaded the
land, have become great arteries of
commerce and are multiplying so that
in few years the whistle of the loco
motive will be heard in the remotest
corner of the State. Oar great timber
interests are being enormously devel
oped and the smoke of many factories
is spreading abroad in the State, until
some of her more sanguine sons have
begun to dream that Mississippi may
again enjoy the pride of her old re-
nown.
But, gentlemen, no great common
wealth was ever yet founded upon an
archy, and unfortunately for us, Mis-
sissippi has tolay record for mob
violence and lawlessness which no true
son of hers desires to see her possess.
Laying aside moral considerations, it
is the unbroken experience of the
ages that immigration will not come
nor capital long abide where security
of life and property are not guaran-
teed by the government.
We are told iu the Bible that the
fool built his house upon the sands and
the winds came and the floods de
scended and his house perished. The
wise man built his house upon the
solid rock and it withstood the power
of the tempest and flood
If we wish to build a great State we
must not lay its foundation in the
shifting sands of anarchy. If we do,
even that which we have will be taken
from us; but we must lay them in the
solid rock of law and order and then
life's choicest blessings shall crown
our efforts.
1t is with you, gentlemen of the jury,
and the other ministers of the law, to
say whether Mississippi shall be by
word and reproach like some of our
South American republics, or shall oc-
cupy an honored place in the great
sisterhood of states. We must do
away with the excuse for mob law by
demonstrating to the world that the
courts are ready, willing and capable
of upholding the majesty of the law.
The wise surgeon when he finds a can
Ger on the physical body does not hest
tate to use the knife. Let US, trusted
agents of the people, when hardened
criminals are brought before us can-
GERS as they are upon the body politic)
not hesitate through any sickly senti-
mentality to give them the cold steel
of the law. Let US proclaim law and
order from our rostrum: let us preach
it from ourpulpits, let us teach it from
our schools and colleges, and let US up
hold it in our courts until it shall be
come the shibboletb of a free and en-
lightened people. Let it become the
settled doctrine in our State that Pub
lie office is a public trust;" that our
jurors, grand and petit, are impartial
and fearless in the discharge of duty;
that all of our officers are true and
faithful to the trust which the people
have imposed in them, and my word
for it Mississippi shall go onward and
upward until she shall become intel
lectually and industraly great
Some of you may think that by our
feeble efforts we can do but little for
the general gool, but we should re-
member that we are touching shoul-
derS with great army of earnest Mis-
sissippians who are striving for the
betterment of her people, and signs are
not wanting that the law is being vim
dicated, for there are to be more legal
executions in this State during the
present month than were ever known
in any corresponding period in the
States history.
| desire you to look into the sale of
intoxicating liquors. There are a great
many good people who believe that
logically the Legislature shoald enact
a general prohibition law for the entire
State and punish its violations as fel-
oay.
| They argue that the State should not
think of granting a license to inoculate
the people with smallpox or yellow fr-
yer and that the same considerations
for the public welfare should forbid the
licensing of the saloon. They urge that
while one Stays its thousands, the other
Stays its tens of thousands
Be this as it may, We all agree that