The leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1895-1905, 1904-01-23

cereEonies today:
My Friends and Fellop Citizens:
Called upon by the sovereign suf-
fragists to assume the duties and per-
form the functions of chief executive
Of this commonwealth-abso in its
constituted authority-an indestructi.
BILE integral element of the general gov
ernment-I embrace the opportunity af
forded by this occasion to make my
grateful acknowledgment to the good
people OF my beloved State for the gen.
erous favors which they have been
pleased to show me. to confess sim
cere consciousness of my inability to
meet the demands of the great trusts
committed to my keeping, and to assure
them that so profoundly am impressed
with the magnitude of the task that
l approach it with those anxious and
awful presentiments which the great
ness of the charge and the weakness
of my power so justly inspires
The State has the right to demand
of every citizen the best there is in
him. The great problem which rises
mountain high in the pathway of the
States future, throwing its chilling
shadows over the most glorious posi-
bilities, would alaIm q less heroic and
resourceful people. But the white peo-
pie of Mississippi have always proven
themselves equal to every emergency,
and, believing, as | do, that,
that which they have done is but
an earnest of the things that they shall
do" | am confident that under the di-
rection of al Advise Providence
which by all it's dispensation proves
that everything was created for a def
mite purpose and to perform a GER
tain necessary function in the economy
of the world, that this paramount
prOblem-the race question-will ulti-
mately be settled, and settled justly
protecting alike the interests of the
negro ald the white man. That the
negro was created for some good pur-
pose, time has demonstrated; but that
good purpose is not participation in
the government OF white men. The
crime of all the ages against civiliZa-
ton was committed, when in the
"agonizing spasm of Infatuated men"
just after the civil war, the North eX-
pressed its hatred of the white people
of the South in the anne ldments to
the Federal constitution, which invest
ed the negro with all the rights an$
privileges of citizenship The influ-
ences which dethroned the reason, the
dust and smoke of war-bred prejudices
and animosities have been blown
away by the winds of common sense,
the sections reunited by the spirit of
Anglo-Saxon brotherhood, and that
mistake stands out naked to all the
world in all of it's stupidity and ugli-
ness. 1t is the bastard offspring OF
the exigencies of war and Unsuitable
greed for gain. The nation should
correct this error-this stupenduous
solecism, and now is the time to do it.
l have no patience with the notion
entertained by men who insist that cit
is impolitic to press the question
now" 1t is never too early to correct
a mistake, to expose an error, or to eX-
plode lie. Now is the time to do it,
and | believe the Southern people
should take the initiative. They are
familiar with all the facts; they alone
are capable of informing the world of
the profound, God-stamped, time-f1xed
and unalterable incompetency of the
negro for citizenship in white mans
country This is serious matter, and
the moral obligation resting upon the
white man into whose hands the des-
tiny of the negro race, as we'll as the
future of the State, has been commit
ted, should develop the best there is
in him. He cannot afford to be I'M
just, but it is no time for sickly senti-
ment. l believe in justice, l believe
in the sympathetic and love prompt
ilgs of the human heart, but the sur
geon whose heart, rather than his
head, guides him in the treatment of
a desperate case, is an unsafe doctor.
The nation should act in this matter,
and act now. Procrastination will
only complicate and intensity the diff
ficulties. In the meantime, the South
ern States must protect themselves.
Mississippi must conserve her own civ
ilization, and by law maintain white
supremacy. The welfare of the negro
demands it, as much as the interests
Of the white man. My fellow citizens,
the eyes of the world are upon Mis-
sissippi today. No more important
hour in all her history has been pass
ed than that to which the hand of
Time is now pointing. 1t is time
for unalloyed patriotism to show forth
the integrity of it's metal in the cruel
bic of courage, of craftsmanship and
self-sacrifce-for manhood to flower
in it's glory of divine potency, as it
has Powered in every crucial moment
Of the States history. Be not de-
tered, dissuaded or intimidated, my
countrymen, by the siren song of the
sordid materialist-:that we are doing
we'll enough" Eternal vigilance is the
price of liberty. When the stupid and
constituencies dollar becomes the god,
pecuniary interest the only thing to be
considered, and honesty in and out of
Office but refined eXpediency-when
that becomes the order of the day, the
begi ming of the end of free govern
ment is at hand. Demosthenes, in one
of his superb orations, stated the cause
of Greece's downfall in these indy
ing words: What has ruined Greece?
Envy when man received bribe;
laughter when he confessed it; mercy
to the convicted, and hatred to those
who Denounced the crime"-all the
usual accomplishments of corruption.
Beneath the crushing weight of crime
that sun-crowned civiliZation-the first
born of democracy-whose glorious eff
fulgence Eliminates the dark pages
of the past and still throws mellow
glow over the present, went down
never to rise again; the blight of cor
ruption had destroyed the very germ
of life Would it not, l submit, be
wise for us to pause, survey the field,
and if possible. avoid the snares into
which that glorious democracy of an
cient times fell to it's ruin?
And now, my fellow citizens, as |
am about to enter upon the discharge
of the duties of the chief executive,
which embrace many matters and
things of vital interest to you, it is
proper that you should understand
what / regard essential principles and
policies, and, consequently, those
which ought to shape and characterize
this administration. l shall under
take to put them in as few words as
the Importance of the subject will al
low, stating only general principles
and leaving the details to some other
occasion, should / deem it necessary