Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1914-07-24
Hon. Frank S. White.

In another column The BEACON today repro,
duces from the Congressional Record, July 9th, the
maiden speech, in the United States Senate, Of
Hon. Frank S. White. junior senator of Alabama.
Mr.. White is native of Noxubee county, and
for a number of years, before poing to make his
home in our adjoining sister State. was a promi'
nent citizen of West Point, being a distinguished
member of the Clay county bar, and having a state.
wide reputation as a wise and efficient legislator.
He is a lifelong Democrat.
For his party, it's principles and its policies he
always stands, in season and out of season, and has
struck a thousand blows in its defense and never
one against it.
In the gallant fight made during the Recon-
~struction Era and which ended in the Revolution of
1875, by routing the Republicans horse, foot and
dragoons-scalawags, arp et-baggers and black
tans Mr.. White bore a conspicuous part.
Although then young in years he was old in ex-
p~erience and seasoned in courage, and, by reason
of pluck and dash. wit and humor, and a tongue
p~racticed to tell the truth in defense of the right
and denunciation of the wrong. and other oratori-
cal gifts with which nature generously endowed
him, was not long in forging to the front in the
great political redemption Of that year.
1t was a memorable occasion. The Republican
party not only in Mississippi but in every Southern
State, was in the zenith of its power and infamy,
In Mississippi the blacks overwhelmingly out
numbered the whites.
The Southern Renegade the scalawag and
the carpetbagger and their negro henchmen were
firmly entrenched in Office.
The election machinery was all in their hands
with, the exception of a few counties in which the
white predominated in numbers and controlled at
the polls.
Never anywhere, in a land where civilization
found a foothold, did crime hold such a carnival.
The South had just come out of a devastating
war in which she lost everything save honor and
the self-respecting pride born of ~virtuous deeds
which won glory and renown for her sons both in
war and peace.
There was mourning in every family, and the
flag of distress waved from every home.
There was then no talk of social and political
equality. The bottom rail was on top.
The negro was in the saddle and he proved to be
q rough-rider.
He made good the saying:
'Givea negro an inch
And he'll take an ell
Give him a horse
And he ride to hell
The indignities he heaped upon his former mas
ters it would be hard, so multitudinous were thew.
to recall, and sad to tell.
Virtue sat at home by her desolated hearthstone
tearing her own rags-robbing her own wardrobe
to patch those of valor.
Misery was supreme wherever culture and re-
finement found an abode, for they had few COM
forts and no ~luXuries.
In the meantime, vice arrayed in purple and
fine linen-in silks and ~Satins-stalked abroad in
the noon days glare and strntted in the vanity of
conceit and the l~ascivious ostentation of the wan
ton,
The State?
1t was nothing.
The law-making power of Mississippi was in the
hands OF the %illiterate. the vicious, the criminal.
The taxing power was in the hands of ignorance
and greed and %avarice, hate and envy.
In 1869, under white rule, the expenditures of
q the State government were 1853 219.71
In 1871, under negro rule, the amount climbed
to 81, 729, DAG. 1-nearly 400 per cent in two years
time.
Taxation was beginning to mean confscation,
and the conditions were becoming unbearable.
They grew worse until they became intolerable
to- proud, spirited, liberty-loving people.
In this concatenation of circumstances there was
need for the South to utilize all her resources tc
save her civilization.
Poor in riches as Lazarus at Dives gate, she
yet was great souled, and had one asset more valu.
able than gold and silver or precious stones.
1t was the ex-Confederate soldier who, if moi
peerless among the heroes of the earth, is entitled
to rank with those that died with Leonidas at Their
mopylas or the brave men slaughtered with Travis
Bowie. Bonham. and Crockett at the Alamo in the
struggle for Texas Observation-Disclosures
veterans like Sharp and Richards, and Sims anc
Field and others of Lowndes and Cavett, and Dill
lard and Stokes and Morgan of Noxubee.
To those heroes in gray with hearts Of gold ant
others of their ilk, to lead, and the noble youn,
men who wore red shirts and rode all night whe1
necessary and by their deeds and daring bravet
Mississippi dungeons and Federal prisons by day
the conditions became so uncomfortable they resolved
to put an end to them, and this they did by a polit
ical upheaval IN 1875, which will be remembered a