MISSISSIPPI. 



529 



Resolved, That we still adhere with unflinching de- 

 votion to the principles of the Republican party as set 

 forth in its national platform, and that we recognize in 

 Grant the statesman best of all able to enforce these 

 principles as the Executive of the United States. 



At this time Mr. J. M. Bynum, of the com- 

 mittee on resolutions, produced the following, 

 which had been framed by his committee. 

 They were adopted: 



The Republican party of Mississippi, in convention 

 assembled, reassert and adopt as the cardinal princi- 

 ples of the party : 



A stable currency for the people. The equal po- 



litical and civil rights of every American citizen. 



schools, free speech, and free elections ; the 



Free 



right of every man to vote once, and have his vote 

 counted. 



We pledge a hearty support to the nominee of the 

 Chicago Convention. 



The Democrats held their convention at Jack- 

 son on the 27th of May. Delegates to the Cin- 

 cinnati Convention were chosen and candidates 

 for Presidential electors were nominated. The 

 following resolutions were unanimously adopt- 

 ed by the Convention, but the Committee on 

 Resolutions reported that as the contest was a 

 a national one, and the National Convention 

 would soon "declare the platform of princi- 

 ples of the Democratic party," it was " unne- 

 cessary to declare any platform of the party 

 in this State " : 



Resolved, That this Convention recognizes the ne- 

 cessity of the harmony and the hearty cooperation of 

 the friends of good government throughout the Union 

 in the approaching Presidential election. That it 

 deems the election of the nominee of the Cincinnati 

 Convention of supreme moment to the whole country ; 

 and that this success should not be jeopardized by the 

 indulgence of personal aspirations, nor by the gratifi- 

 cation of personal preferences ; and while individual 

 members of our party in this State may have their 

 preferences as to who should recaive the nomination, 

 this Convention deems it unwise to make any other 

 declaration on that subject than to say that the choice 

 of the Democratic party of this State is he who shall 

 be nominated by the National Convention ; and that 

 we will give him our hearty support, and with it the 

 electoral vote of this State. 



^ Resolved, That our delegates to the Democratic Na- 

 tional Convention be instructed to act in the spirit of 

 the foregoing resolution, and to cast their votes for 

 that man whom they shall find, after full consultation 

 with the delegates from the other States, will best har- 

 monize the opposition to the longer continuance of the 

 unconstitutional and unwise methods of the Republi- 

 can party. 



A Greenback mass-meeting, at Jackson, near 

 the end of May, appointed delegates to the Na- 

 tional Convention of the party, and left it to 

 the Executive Committee to make nominations 

 for electors. 



The result of the Presidential election in the 

 State was 75,750 votes for the Democratic 

 ticket, 34,854 for that of the Republicans, 5,797 

 for that of the Greenbackers, and 677 " scatter- 

 ing/' The total was 117,078, and the Demo- 

 cratic majority 34,422. Democratic Represent- 

 atives were elected in all of the six Congres- 

 sional districts. The vote, as officially returned, 

 was as follows : First district, Muldrow, Demo- 

 cratic, 14,456; Morphis, Republican, 3,828; Da- 

 VOL. xx. 34 A 



vidson, Greenbacker, 1,058 ; scattering, 3: total, 

 19,345 Muldrow 's majority, 9,567. Second 

 district, Manning, Democrat, 15,250; Buchan- 

 an, Republican, 9,996 ; Harris, Greenbacker, 3,- 

 585 ; total, 28,856 Manning's plurality, 5,257. 

 Third district, Morey, Democrat, 11,722 ; Gunn, 

 Greenbacker, 2,790; scattering, 22: total, 14,- 

 534 Morey's majority, 8,910. Fourth district, 

 Singleton, Democrat, 13,745; Drennan, Re- 

 publican, 4,177 ; scattering, one : total, 17,927 

 Singleton's majority, 9,561. Fifth district, 

 Hooker, Democrat, 11,771 ; Deason, Independ- 

 ent Republican, 6,193 ; Osborn, regular Repub- 

 lican, 125 ; Patterson, Greenbacker, 222 ; scat- 

 tering, 10: total, 19,121 Hooker's plurality, 

 5,578. Sixth district, Chalmers, Democrat, 

 9,172 ; Lynch, Republican (colored), 5,393 ; 

 scattering 2 : total, 14,565 Chalmers's major- 

 ity, 3,777. 



Among the provisions of the new election 

 laws was the following : 



All ballots shall be written or printed with black 

 ink, with a space of not less than one fifth of an inch 

 between each name, on plain white news printing-pa- 

 per, not more than two and one half or less than two 

 and one fourth inches wide, without any device or 

 mark by which one ticket may be known or distin- 

 guished from another, except the words at the head of 

 the ticket ; but this shall not prohibit the erasure, cor- 

 rection, or insertion of any name by pencil-mark or 

 ink upon the face of the ballot ; and a ticket different 

 from that herein described shall not be received or 

 counted. 



In the sixth district it was alleged that no 

 fewer than 5,358 Republican ballots were 

 thrown out by the election commissioners be- 

 cause they contained distinguishing marks in 

 the form of dashes separating the different 

 parts of the ticket. Mr. Lynch gave notice 

 of his purpose of contesting the election of 

 General Chalmers, enumerating cases of al- 

 leged fraud and illegal exclusion of votes from 

 the count in several counties. General Chal- 

 mers made a reply, which was mainly devoted 

 to a legal argument in support of the rejection 

 of the ballots containing the so-called " distin- 

 guishing marks." 



The State census which was taken under the 

 direction of the Secretary of State, to serve as 

 a basis of apportioning representation in the 

 Legislature, places the total population at 1,- 

 145,480. It gives the number of legal voters 

 as 240,478, of whom 109,995 are white, and 

 130,483 colored. It also reports the number 

 of bales of cotton raised in 1879 by white la- 

 bor at 290,9571; by colored labor, 549,990$. 

 There are in the State 4,995 public and 964 

 private schools, the number of children of 

 school age being 178,218 whites, and 251,438 

 colored. 



The returns of the tenth census of the Unit- 

 ed States for the State of Mississippi, as official- 

 ly announced on January 15, 1881, shows the 

 total population to be 1,131,592. Of this num- 

 ber 567,137 are males, and 564,455 females; 

 1.122,424 are natives of the United States, and 

 9,168 of foreign birth; 479,319 are white, and 



