MISSISSIPPI. 



579 



The Legislature met at the time and place 

 appointed. Gov. Clarke, in his message, after 

 adverting to the responsibility he had assumed 

 in calling the Assembly together, and the trying 

 circumstances under, which they met, admitted 

 that the war had ended, and with it the power 

 of the Confederacy. He expressed satisfaction 

 that his own part had been performed with 

 fidelity to his State and in obedience to her 

 Jaws. He admitted that the Southern States 

 would return to the Union, but feared that the 

 presence of a military power would render re- 

 organization a delicate and difficult task, and to 

 aid in its accomplishment advised the adoption 

 of the speediest measures possible consistent 

 with the rights of the States and the liberties 

 of the people. He alluded to the unanimity 

 with which the people, through their delegates 

 in convention, had severed their connection 

 with the Union, but said their action on that 

 occasion was not hasty, and that the subject 

 had occupied their minds for many years. 

 There were causes, he said, which justified revo- 

 lution and impelled to secession, and that with 

 no purpose of aggression, but for defence alone, 

 had the people taken up arms. The people of 

 the Northern. States, who had demonstrated the 

 earnestness of their determination to preserve 

 the Union as essential to free government and 

 liberty, and had by the exhibition of their 

 power astonished the world, could not now, 

 he said, desire the abasement of a people whom 

 they had found equal to themselves in all except 

 numbers and resources. He recommended the 

 calling of a convention to repeal the ordinance 

 of secession, to remodel the State Constitution, 

 and to enlarge the power of the Legislature. 



The Legislature continued in session three 

 days. The most important business transacted 

 was the passage of a bill for the election of 

 members of a State Convention on the 19th of 

 June, to assemble at Jackson, ov. the 3d of 

 July, to repeal the ordinance of secession and 

 perform such other acts as the situation seemed 

 to demand for the return of the State to the 

 Union. At a public meeting held at Holly 

 Springs on the 29th of May, a series of resolu- 

 tions was adopted, approving the course of Gov. 

 Clarke in calling the extra session of the Legisla- 

 ture, and of the action of that body in providing 

 for a State Convention ; favoring a speedy return 

 of the State to the Union ; expressing horror 

 and detestation of those bad men, who, " over- 

 leaping all the restraints of law and civilized 

 society, have intensified the trials and sufferings 

 inseparable from a state of war, by the com- 

 mission of the crimes of assassination, rapine, 

 and theft; " asserting it to be the duty of all 

 good citizens " unitedly and persistently to use 

 every effort to suppress lawlessness, wrong, and 

 violence ; " and " to revitalize, as far as in them 

 lie?, the energy and authority of the civil 

 power ; " and counselling the " cultivation of 

 sentiments of loyalty toward the Constitution 

 and laws of the United States no less than of 

 their own State government." 



The action of Gov. Clarke and of the Legis- 

 lature was, however, not recognized by the 

 Federal Government. On the 13th of June the 

 President issued a proclamation, appointing 

 William L. Sharkey Provisional Governor of 

 the State of Mississippi, and recognizing a por- 

 tion of the previous institutions of the State. 

 This was the same, except as to date, the name 

 of the State and Governor, as that appointing 

 Lewis C. Parsons Provisional Governor of Ala- 

 bama. (See ALABAMA.) Gov. Sharkey imme- 

 diately entered upon the duties of his office, and 

 on the 1st of July issued the following procla- 

 mation : 



Fellow-Citizens of the State of Mississippi : 



The President of the United States, by virtue of the 

 power vested in him by the Constitution of the United 

 States, has been pleased to appoint the undersigned 

 Provisional Governor of the State of Mississippi, 

 " for the purpose of enabling the loyal people of said 

 State to organize a State government, whereby jus- 

 tice may be established, domestic tranquillity in- 

 sured, and loyal citizens protected in all their rights 

 of life, liberty, and property ; " and, to accomplish 

 this object, has directed me, " at the earliest practica- 

 ble period, to prescribe such rules and regulations as 

 may 'be necessary and proper for convening a con- 

 vention of delegates, to be chosen by that portion of 

 the people of said State who are loyal to the United 

 States, and no others, for the purpose of altering or 

 amending the Constitution thereof," so that the 

 State maybe able to resume its place in the Union. 

 And being anxious to carry out the wishes of the 

 President, and to restore the dominion of civil gov- 

 ernment as speedily as possible, I do hereby ordain 

 and declare as follows, to wit : 



First. To avoid the delay which would necessarily 

 occur from the separate organization of each county 

 by special appointments of the several county offi- 

 cers, the persons who exercised tbe functions per- 

 taining to the following named officers, on the day 

 when the archives and other public propertv were 

 taken possession of by the forces of the United 

 States, to wit, the 22d day of May, 1865, are hereby 

 appointed to fill those offices in each county, to wit : 

 the office of judge of probate and clerk of the probate 

 court, the office of sheriff and coroner, the office of 

 justice of the peace and constable, the office of board 

 of county police, the office of county treasurer and 

 collector, and assessor and county surveyor, and the 

 several municipal offices of every incorporated city 

 or town whose organizations have been regularly 

 kept up. This general appointment of officers is no't 

 intended to revoke any special appointment made by 

 me prior to the date of this proclamation. And in- 

 asmuch as it is necessary that these several offices 

 should be filled by incumbents who are loyal to the 

 United States Government, I reserve the power to 

 remove any one who may be exceptionable in this 

 respect ; and I earnestly invoke the loyal citizens of 

 each county to give me timely and the most authentic 

 information that can be procured in regard to any 

 officer who is obnoxious to this serious objection. 



Second. These several officers, before they enter 

 upon the discharge of the duties of their respective 

 offices, shall take and subscribe the amnesty oath 

 prescribed in the President's proclamation of the 

 29th May, 1865, and must immediately transmit the 

 oath so taken to this office. At the end of the am- 

 nesty oath, after the word "slaves," must be added 

 the words " and will faithfully discharge the duties 

 of my office to the best of my ability." And any one 

 who may undertake to act in his official capacity 

 without compliance with this requisition, will subject 

 himself to punishment. This oath may be talten 

 before any commissioned officer, civil, military, or 

 naval, in the service of the United States, or before 



