The Tupelo journal., 1903-02-27
Selected.

"[ have seen the soil Of Mis-
sissippi drenched with the blood
Of her sons that laid the dust like
rain. | have seen the careworn
women and hungry children of
our state cry for bread while the
contents OF their cribs and smoke
houses went up in flames, kindled
by the hands of invaders in resist
less numbers. [ have seer the
elements black with the smoke of
our cities and towns and villages
and country homes, and our school
houses and churches and eleemosy-
nary institutions erected for the
care Of the halt and lame and
blind and deaf and dumb and those
bereft # mind, when the torch
was applied by hostile armies.
| have seen the time come when,
| arrived at the age of 16. under a
sense Of duty | still approve, |
took IA rifle us a private, and join
ed the ranks to fight against that
government for til. establishment
of which my ancestors only three
generations removed fought in the
incipiency Of the rcyolution. l
have seen the time come when,
our treasury emptied, our ranks
depleted, the sources from which
they were recruited exhausted, We
were compelled to lay down our
arms, aud $500, 900, 900 of proper
ty in which the constitution of the
United States invited US to invest.
the fruits OF Our toll was swept
away without i'll aemnity. 1 have
seen the time come when it was
declared that we were not part of
the Union. | have seer the time
come when there was put in charge
of the government Of Mississippi a
race of people who knew no letter
or book, who knew nothing of gov
eminent except the absolute gov
eminent Of the slave Dy the mas
ter, and whose only training for
self government, to say nothing of
the training for government of the
white superior race, and whose
only elevation from barbarism and
cannibalism was found in the
school of slavery.
II have seen the lie 3islative
halls Of II STATE filled with men,
berS OF that race, no. o e OF tn M
could write his name or tell a let
ter Ill the alphabet or paid a dollar
OF taxes to support the govern
ment. | have seen the peaceable
assemblies Of her citizens ordered
by Federal military to dispense
when they were in social converse
on the Sabbath evening, and be-
cause they refused to do so old
men 80 years of age, marched off
through the mud to jail, from
which one man died. | have seen
a man who was military governor
OF the state of Mississippi, who
was not II citizen Of the state,
elected to this body.
81 have seen another day come,
after this mad carnival, when the
state government of Mississippi
Was turned over iD its own people.
| have seen the state Of Mississippi
literally rise from ashes, rebuild
its waste places, build its factories,
it's mills, 1t, ports. it's cities, its
its villages.
at may be that it will come to
this it may be that this is a step
in the fastening of the CHAIN upon
us ; but / assure you that, while
We may be compelled to submit to
It, willingly or unwiilingly, under
the ADMINISTRATION as it now stands,
we never will do it without our
protest. In the language of Me-
Gregor:
Ger the peak of Rem Lomond the
galley shall steer
Through the depths Of Loeb Katrine
the steed shall career,
And the rocks oil Crag Royston like
icicles melt
Fer our wrongs be forgotten or our
vengeance unfelt."