Year: 1873

W neil aSkeu DN lue COUllu


whether If he had not been elected to tn


senate it was his intention to remain il


Mississippi, his reply was: Doubtful


I should have become q citizen if / bai
not been elected; but / felt certain O


being elected The debate was a Ion!


one, and it was not until the first O


April that Ames, against the vote of tn
com mittee, was finally admitted to hi


seat. a year after this, to-wit, on tn


eleventh Of April, 1871, General Anne


made q speech in the senate in answe


to Senator Frank Blair, in which b
7 used this language, viz: 81 stated be


fore the Judiciary committee that had


not been elected to this body / woul


have continued an officer in the army


Before the committee he expressed


doubt, the doubt in the senate was Civ


en- in his favor. Had he then eXpresse


himself as a year after be states he di


express himself, l undertake to say b


would not have been admitted to hi


seat. His statement in 1871 showed tn


tie that binds him to Mississippi-it


the tie of Office, of office only. An


what, ask, has he done since his ad


mission to the senate to strengthen hi


claim to citizenship in Mississippi


Nothing, absolutely nothing. He place


his name on the congressional director.


as a resident Of Natchez, and there


stands to-day on the registry, but he ha


never up to this good hour spent alto


gether as many as thirty days in th


city of NatcheZ. 1t is true that he thi


summer went through the forms Of til


purchase of a house in NatcheZ, but tn


deception is too shallow to deceive an


one. He does not live there to-day, no


does he ever intend to reside in th


State. Thus the people of the State ar


insulted by a packed convention in pre-
senting the name OF this man for gOveI


nor who does not reside in the State


but whose residence is abroad; VIII


comes here to be our governor as b


would go to a foreign land in search c


diamonds-that he might grasp tn


jewel and bear it back to his home


His election would be fatal stab to al


State pride; it will ignore residence


citizenship, identity Of interest. Tn


State in his election will become the pc


litical prostitute Of adventurers-O
strangers!


But want of citizenship is the leas
objection to General Ames. If be sOugh


his election with no ill-feeling TO th


people, merely to crafty his ambition
we could bear this without complaint
but it is more than this: General Anne
is an enemy TO the white people of tn
State; he cares nothing for the cOlore'
] people except tOuse them as instrument
in working the degradation Of the south
ern white. His purpose is, l repeat, t.
antagOnize the races; TO exclude tn,
/ southern whites from all share in th'
! administration of the State government
/ He seeks to urge the cOlOred people {,
/ violence and aggression in the hope tina
/ the white people may be driven to des
/ peratiOn whereby, il need be, the strong
arm of the national government may b,
/ again invoked for our chastisement anC
/ final ruin. What cares he if blood may
| flow? What cares he if race-wars
| ensue? By this his purpose will be but
! the bitter sword.


When governor / sought to bring the
white people and the colored people to-
/ gether in a brotherhood of citizenship
| but Ames was intent in his plrpOse tC
| ferment strife. While in his seat in the
Senate, he wrote to a cOlOred member o.
| the legislature that ] was baTtering the
| blood of the colOred people for populari-
! " with the Democrats; that colored
people were being murdered in this
/ State by tens and hundreds, and that
was deaf to their cry of distress. He
wrote this falsehOod with regard to my.
self, and this libel upon the people Oi
| the State in order to kindle passion oi
hatred toward the southern whites in the
I cOlored mans heart. He denounced the
/ southern whites in congress as a crue
and savage race, as representatives OF 8
/ barbarism shocking to the civilization
Of the age. He declared falsely that be
/ had heard, when in Mississippi, the
! shrieks of the colOred people in the
/ agony of their cruel and heart-rending
| torture! Calumnies upon the people Of
/ the State like these to be uttered by one
commissioned to represent the State in
I the senate of the United States, is
| shameful even TO a military satrap; but
| for the libeller to seek the votes Of the
| people, either cOlOred or white, after
such utterances is an insult intolerable
in itself.


But Ames, l have said, is no friend
Of the cOlored race; he cares not foI
them. heard him with my own ears
declare that the southern whites, no
matter what their professions of loyalty,
that the whites who had sympatbized
with the rebellion, were unsafe as Gus
tOdlans Of the State government; that
the only men who could be safely in
trusted with the government were
those who stood firmly by the Union
when the war went on; that these, as
class, were the men from the
north f; that the eolored people
were without the intelligence ne
eessary TO the administration OF
the State government, hence the
northern men must be maintained in
office to the exclusion of both southern
whites and colOred men. Elect this
man governor of your State; let this
man, who has little experience in civil
life. who has been educated in the law
q force; let him, with his hatred to the
people, appoint your judges; let him di-
rect the legislation of the country, and
the wall of Mississippi, from the ashes
of her desolation, will be heard, and all
the land will be filled with misery


To-day your taxes have been increased
almost to the demand Of cOntiscatiOn.
Each year they become more and more


ppressive. This year they are largely
in excess Of the past year, and yet they
are greatly below the sum necessary to
iiquidate the outstanding warrants.
Year by year the bonded Indebtedness
Of the State has been increased; year by
year the people become less able TO pay.
Within the past three years the organ
Of the plunderers, the Pilot, has received
for public printing from the treasury
two hundred and eigbty-eight thou
sand dollars. Each year we are
called upon TO pay a half million
dollars for the expenses Of the legisla-
ture; each year we must pay over sixty
thousand dollars for county superin-
tendents of public education, when a
board of trustees in each county, with
out compensation, would discharge the
duty much more satisfactorily. The
office Of superintendent, in nine cases
out Of ten, Is conferred on men who are
strangers TO the peOple-men who are
unknown TO the people; the schools are
kept up but four months Of the year,
and these idlers are paid flr the whole
years service, a service in the majority
Of cases rendered for defrauding the
people. The franchises OF the people
bave been and are continually voted
away in the interest Of rings and monOp-
olists. In speaking with gentleman
but a short time since on the subject of a
Aut VI lfu " AtlC buNu III
live, l found that a charter had been
granted by the legislature 10 a company
foreign TO Mississippi, with an exclusive
privilege for forty or fifty years. i was
Informed, and believe il TO be true, that
this company are without the purpose of
erecting the line; that their purpose is
to sell the charter, for which they
demand the sum of ten thousand dOl-
lars.


We had a law Of the State by which
we of the "levee dishict" were paying
off our ante-war levee debt in levee
bonds, which we were purchasing at
reduced rates. An honest man held the
Office Of commissioner, and for one
thousand five hundred dollars a gear
was satisfactorily discharging the duties
Of the office; but these cormOrants
saw an opportunity of iiescing the tax
payers and enriching thei- gang. The
law by the last legislature was changed,
large perquisites were added to the sal
airy Of the commissioner. Forfeited
lands must be redeemed by paving a
heavy per cent. to the officeholder-
fifteen per cent. Of the whole tax must
be paid in cash; one of this gang of ad-
venturers was placed in Che office, and
now the people Of the district are to be
plundered OF thirty Thousand dollars a
year for his benefit.


But il may be said that General Ames
4 not responsible for such villainous leg
flaffap a. hava inGfaneod 1 b,lI