Year: 1868

nave been committed and when vou will
nave no relief from punishment


/ Inc Southern Conventions have all been
olected IN the same manner and by the same
| system OF fraudulent voting. Gen. Nc
Doweil could not perform a greater service
| 70 the country, than by summonsing Lynch,
Eggleston, Mckee, Railsbaek and in factall
tne members of the late Convention before
hlm, and requiring them to divulpe the
whole truth about the mode of eIeeti8g the
mississippi Convention, and the prepara-
tlons now made to ratify the proposed Con-
stltutlon and elect the Republican ticket.
crime OF this magnitude committed un-
qer 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 vain-glorlous
braggarts here, to be lost sight of when
their glorious deeds are recounted and DO
litical prizes awarded We shall keen if
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 in
any manner infringe your lawful rights of
person, property, education, or enfranchise-
ment, is utterly false. By our present Con
anu laws, gOu dIC pIObtCbbQ III 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 we 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, and 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 us? Have they any
homes, or lands, or stock, or provisions, or
ralment 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? .-5


When the election is over-the MissisSip-
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 2 Will you not be beggars at the
mercy of the very men you will have be-
trayed2 Will you then ask the people of
Mississippi to treat you as prodigal sous
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 yeur 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
plumber and robbery they have inaugurated
by their Convention proceedings can never
be endorsed by any people. The entire pro-
ducts of the earth and the industry of the
people cannot support the burthens they
impose. The State and all it's 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.