508 



MISSISSIPPI. 



have been elected, be appointed to any civil office of 

 profit which shall have been created, or the emolu- 

 ments of which shall have been increased, during 

 such term. 



The convention refused to enter this protest 

 on the records, but decided, by a vote of 50 to 

 19, that it be " wrapped in brown paper and 

 returned to the gentleman from Marshall." 



As soon as the memorial to Congress had 

 been dispatched, the convention turned its 

 attention to the proclamation of Governor Hum- 

 phreys of the 9th of December, 1867, which rep- 

 resented that conspiracies had been formed for 

 the purpose of seizing upon lands in the State, 

 and dividing them into farms to distribute 

 among the negroes. This was characterized as 

 a libel on the people of Mississippi, and a com- 

 mittee was appointed to investigate the truth 

 of the rumors of combinations of evil-disposed 

 persons in the State to seize lands, etc., coming 

 from persons of high social and official posi- 

 tion, upon which the Governor's proclamation of 

 December 9, 1867, was founded. This committee 

 spent some days in obtaining information, and 

 reported that there appeared to be no just cause 

 for issuing the proclamation, but they believed 

 that Governor Humphreys had been misled by 

 the information he had received. The committee 

 had written to the Governor requesting him to 

 furnish what information he had touching the 

 subject of the proclamation, and the names of 

 the persons who had supplied the same. To 

 this he made a reply, in which he used the 

 following language : : iae 



I presume you do not expect me to admit that the 

 convention now in session in this city, by virtue of 

 the " military bills" passed by Congress, has any 

 constitutional right to require me to account to it for 

 my administration of the civil government of the 

 State of Misissippi. I acknowledge, however, the 

 constitutional right of all or any portion of the citi- 

 zens of the State, " in a peaceable manner, to assem- 

 ble together for their common good, and to apply to 

 those vested with the powers of government for re- 

 dress of grievances, or other proper purposes, by pe- 

 tition, address, or remonstrance " and the correlative 

 duty of all civil offcers to furnish them all the infor- 

 mation in their possession, that pertains to their wel- 

 fare and happiness, when respectfully requested so to 

 do. I have no secrets I desire to withhold from any 

 class of our people, white or black. My proclamation 

 of the 9th of December, 1867, was issued at the urgent 

 request of General Ord, commander of the Fourth Mil- 

 itary District, and all the information I have, on the 

 subject you desire to investigate, was received from 

 and through him, except a few letters received from 

 prominent citizens, which I referred to him as soon 

 as received, and which I presume are now in his 

 possession. For obvious reasonSj then, I must refer 

 the committee to him, and, if, in his judgment, % 

 revelation of the sources of information will not be 

 an act of bad faith to the informers, white or black, 

 or prejudicial to the public service, and will authorize 

 a publication of all the communications, public and 

 private, I will cheerfully comply with his instructions 

 on that subject. 



About the same time a resolution was 

 passed in the convention, empowering a com- 

 mittee " to inquire into the disposition of all 

 funds received by the State Treasurer or other 

 State officers, as donations from various cities, 



towns, and private individuals, in the Northern 

 States, for the relief of the destitute in this 

 State," and calling on the Governor for a de- 

 tailed account of the receipts and disburse- 

 ments of such fund during his term of office. 

 On receiving this resolution, and the accom- 

 panying request for his official statement on 

 the subject alluded to, Governor Humphreys re- 

 plied : 



No funds have been received by me from cities, 

 towns, or individuals, in the Northern States. Those 

 who have intrusted me, as their private agent, with 

 the distribution of their charities, have neglected to 

 instruct me to account to your body, and your com- 

 mittee have failed to furnish me with any evidence 

 that the donors have delegated to that body any au- 

 thority to make the inquiry proposed. As those 

 donors may regard their charities as their own pri- 

 vate matters, disconnected with the aifairs of gov- 

 ernment, civil or military, Federal or State, and 

 may be unwilling to subject the beneficiaries to the 

 mortification of a public exhibition of their want and 

 destitution, they may regard any effort^ however 

 laudable, to give publicity to their charities, as su- 

 perserviceable. I must, then, refer you to them. 

 Their wishes and instructions on this subject will be 

 cheerfully complied with, and proper vouchers will 

 be exhibited. 



Another subject occupying considerable time, 

 before the convention saw fit to give its undi- 

 vided attention to the "specific duty of fram- 

 ing a constitution and civil government for the 

 State," was the relief of the citizens from pay- 

 ing debts contracted prior to 1865. Eesolu- 

 tions were passed requesting the military com- 

 mander to issue an order affording relief to 

 this class of debtors, and appointing a commit- 

 tee to confer with General Gillem on the sub- 

 ject. That officer referred them to the home- 

 stead and bankrupt laws, and suggested that, 

 with the allowances and exemptions provided 

 by these, " no family is threatened with star- 

 vation, present or prospective, by non-interven- 

 tion, or allowing the law to take its course ; " 

 he therefore deemed it " inexpedient to issue 

 the order asked for in the resolution, trans- 

 mitted by your committee." A resolution 

 was afterward adopted to appoint a committee 

 to frame an ordinance for the " relief of the 

 people of Mississippi from their pecuniary em- 

 barrassment," which should be " consistent with 

 the rights and obligations of all parties, and 

 with the Constitution of the United States." 

 But no such ordinance ever passed into law, 

 though power was given by the constitution 

 to the first Legislature to pass enactments af- 

 fording the relief demanded. 



Besides the ordinance providing for the ex- 

 penses of the convention, a general law was 

 made by the convention for levying and col- 

 lecting taxes, to maintain the civil ' govern- 

 ment of the State. This was carried into ef- 

 fect under the authority of the military com- 

 mander. The question of removing political 

 disabilities occupied considerable attention, 

 but no practical measure on the subject was 

 adopted. 



The various reports on different portions of 

 the proposed constitution were made from 



