Year: 1868

nave Deen committed, and when you will
nave no relief from punishment.


Inc southern Conventions have all been
oteeeed IN the same manner aud by the same
system of fraudulent voting. Gen. Nc
DoWen could not perform greater service
20 the country, than by summonsing Lynch.
Eggleston, Mckee, Railsback, and in fact ali
the members of the late Convention before
MN, and requiring them to divulge the
wnole truth about the mode of electing the
mississippi Convention, and the prepara-
tlons now made to ratify the proposed Con-
stltution and elect the Republican ticket.
a crime OF this magnitude, committed un-
uef the pretended patronage of the Method
lst Church North. and of the virtuous and
plous Ben Butler, Ben Wade, and all the
Radical benjamites in Congress, will not be
permitted to sleep-it will be too brilliant a
jewel IN the crown of impeachment, at
Washington, and of their yain-glor1ous
braggarts here, to be lost sight of when
their gloriousdeeds are recounted and po-
iltical prizes awarded. We shall keep it
alive if they do not.


Freedmen of Mississippi, your former
owners and masters have no quarrel with
you. The charge of Lynch and the Leagues
that we wish to reduce you to slavery, or Ill
any manner infringe your lawful rights of
person, property, education, or eafranehise-
ment. is utterly false. BY our present Con-
oesee&Sfoh anu laws. you are pTOLecI6u IN all
THESE; and by the acts of Congress in the
elective franchise. We have lands and
homes for you; we have timber and stock
and implements of all kinds; you have labor
IN abundance-yOu need employment and
home-we can g i've you these and make
you comfortable at once, if you accept our
proposed hand of friendship. United, and
as friends, we can hold and enjoy the garden
spot of the earth, aud make it Paradise for
us all.


Why then take counsel of the strangers
and oath-bound cOnspirators and paupers
who abuse alike your confidence and our
hospitality, and who seek your friendship
only to elevate themselves and to defraud
and ruin both you and u.s. Have they any
homes or lands, or stock, or provisions, or
raiment to offer to you or your families?
Can you live on the Impoverished idea that
they are Union men and that we are rebels
is that patent medicine for all the ills
that flesh is heir to?


When the election is Over-the NJ ssisSip-
plans beaten by your fraudulent vOtes-your
imported friends installed in office, and the
Loyal Leagues disbanded until the next
election, what will become of the poor freed
men whose votes have accomplished this
result Will you not be beggars at the
mercy of the very men you will have be-
trayed? Will you then ask the people of
Mississippi to treat you as prodigal sons
kill for you the fatted calf, and restore you
to the protection and comforts of their fam
lilies as in days of yore


Freedmen of Mississippi look before you
leap There is an awful gulf now yawning
before you. The vote you may cast in this
election may be decisive of your fate. If
you abandon the people with whom You
have ever lived and who now invite you to
their protection for the future, you cast
your destiny with an enemy between whom
and us there is eternal war. The system of
plunder and robbery they have inaugurated
by their Convention proceedings can never
be endorsed by any people. The entire pro-
ducts of the Garth and the industry of the
people cannot support the burthens they
impose. The State and all its interests will
wither in their hands and become as sterile
and denuded as the sands of Sahara.


We herewith append the legal opinion of
Judge Yerger, formerly Judge of the Su-
preme Court of this State and which carries
with it the authority of law.


By order of the Committee.


JOHN d. FREEMAN,


Gilman.