

MISSISSIPPI. 



559 



Appropriating $10,000 to the Ladies' Confederate 

 Monument Association, for the completion of the 

 monument to the Confederate dead in Capitol Square 

 iii the city of Jackson. 



Appointing the Governor, Attorney-General, and 

 State Superintendent of Education a committee to ex- 

 amine text-books upon United States history, and to 

 recommend for the public schools such as appear un- 

 prejudiced against the South. 



.Repealing the act of 1888 apportioning to the sev- 

 eral counties the number of free students allowed at 

 the Agricultural and Mechanical College and at the 

 Industrial Institute and College. 



To prohibit the soliciting of orders for liquors in 

 localities where prohibition is legally adopted. In- 

 creasing the annual available appropriation for Con- 

 federate pensions from $21,000 to $30,000. 



The Hemingway Defalcation. On Feb. 21, 

 in the course of debate in the State Senate, a 

 statement was made that the retiring State 

 Treasurer, Col. Hemingway, had not settled in 

 full with his successor, and that the sum of 

 $250,000 was still due from him. On the same 

 day the Lower House, acting upon this informa- 

 tion, appointed a special committee to investi- 

 gate the Treasurer's office and ascertain the 

 grounds for the charge. This committee, on 

 Feb. 22, reported that a satisfactory investigation 

 could not be made during the limited time at its 

 disposal before the close of the session, and ad- 

 vised that a joint special committee of both 

 branches be created, with power to sit after the 

 adjournment of the Legislature, to make a thor- 

 ough investigation, and to report to the Gover- 

 nor. A committee of five was thereupon ap- 

 pointed, consisting of two members from the Sen- 

 ate and three from the House. Prior to these 

 developments, an act had been passed and ap- 

 proved by the Governor on Feb. 19, authorizing 

 him to appoint, with the advice and consent of 

 the Senate, two commissioners skilled in ac- 

 counts, whose duty it should be to make a thor- 

 ough investigation into every office and depart- 

 ment of the State government with regard to its 

 financial management and system of keeping ac- 

 counts. In case the Governor should see* fit, they 

 were required to extend their investigations into 

 the finances of each educational and charitable 

 institution of the State, and into the accounts of 

 the county financial offices. The commissioners 

 appointed under this act and the joint legisla- 

 tive committee each made a separate examina- 

 tion of the books of the ex-Treasurer, covering 

 his entire term of fourteen years. The legisla- 

 tive committee, in its report published about 

 March 15, found that the ex-Treasurer had not 

 accounted to his successor for $315,612.19 re- 

 ceived by him, and that he was indebted to the 

 State for that amount. It reported that the 

 bookkeeping of the office was clear and satis- 

 factory, and that the ex-Treasurer had been un- 

 able to account for the deficiency. The com- 

 missioners, in their report made a few days later, 

 reached the same conclusion. 



The ex-Treasurer then published an open let- 

 ter, declaring that he had never misapplied a 

 dollar of the public money, that the investiga- 

 tion had not been thorough, that errors must ex- 

 ist in the accounts which he could not yet point 

 out, and that the people should suspend their 

 Judgment until an expert examination of the 

 Toooks had been made by his friends. 



On the basis of the committee report, a com- 

 plaint for embezzlement was made against him, 

 but he was not brought before the grand jury to 

 be indicted until early in June. Mean while." ex- 

 perts of his own selection were at work upon the 

 books of the office. They were unable, during 

 that period, to find any serious errors in the 

 previous examinations, and at the trial of the 

 case the ex-Treasurer was found by the jury to 

 be guilty upon the evidence presented, arid "was 

 sentenced to five years in the Penitentiary. An 

 appeal was taken to the State Supreme 'Court, 

 but on Dec. 1 that body overruled the objections 

 and affirmed the verdict. The State then began 

 proceedings against his bondsmen to recover the 

 sum of $815,612.19 embezzled. 



Constitutional Convention. In compliance 

 with the act of Feb. 5, 1890, Gov. Stone issued 

 his proclamation early in that month, directing 

 a special election to be held on July 29, for 

 .choosing delegates to a constitutional" conven- 

 tion. A list of 14 delegates at large, who, by 

 the terms of the act, were to be elected upon 

 a general ticket, was nominated by a State con- 

 vention held at Jackson on June 18. No other 

 nominations were made, and these candidates 

 were elected on July 29, each receiving from 

 37,531 to 39,318 votes. At the same time, 120 

 delegates, were elected by districts. Of the whole 

 number elected, 131 were Democrats, 2 Republi- 

 cans, and 1 a Greenbacker. The convention as- 

 sembled on Aug. 12 and elected Judge S. S. Cal- 

 houn to be its president. Its sessions continued 

 through seventy-two days, final adjournment be- 

 ing reached on Nov. 1. One of the avowed purposes 

 of calling the convention was to establish such 

 new qualifications for suffrage as should abridge 

 the negro vote and render secure the political 

 supremacy of the white race. Various plans to 

 this end were discussed at length, and the fol- 

 lowing article upon the franchise was finally ac- 

 cepted as a result of the deliberations: 



SECTION. 1. All elections by the people shall be by 

 ballot. 



SEC. 2. Every male inhabitant of this State, except 

 idiots, insane persons, and Indians not taxed, who is 

 a citizen of the United States, twenty-one years old 

 and upward, who has resided in the S'tate two years, 

 and one year in the election district or in the incor- 

 porated city or town in which he offers to vote, and 

 who is duly registered as provided in section 3 of 

 this article, and who has never been convicted of 

 bribery, burglary, theft, arson, _ obtaining money or 

 goods under false pretenses, perjury, forgery, embez- 

 zlement, or bigamy, and who has paid on or before 

 the first day of February, of the year in which he 

 shall offer to vote, all taxes which may have been 

 legally required of him, and which he has had an 

 opportunity of paying according to law for the pre- 

 ceding year, and who is not delinquent for any taxes 

 of the year next preceding, and who shall produce to 

 the officers holding the election satisfactory evidence 

 that he has paid said taxes, is declared to be a quali- 

 fied elector ; provided, any minister of the Gospel in 

 charge of an organized church shall be entitled to vote 

 after six months, residence in the election district, if 

 otherwise qualified. 



SEC. 3. The Legislature shall provide by law for 

 the registration of all persons entitled to vote at any 

 election, and all persons offering to register shall take 

 the following oath or affirmation. . . . 



SEC. 4. A uniform poll tax of two dollars is hereby 

 imposed on every male inhabitant of this State be- 

 tween the ages of twenty -one and sixty years, except 



