MISSISSIPPI. 



459 



signed by a hundred and thirty-five prominent 

 citizens of the State who had been previously 

 identified with the Democracy, urging a hearty 

 cooperation with the National Republican 

 party. The adoption of the constitution was 

 admitted " as a fixed fact." There would be 

 no contest of parties on that question, but, 

 said the signers of the address, there is to be 

 " an issue as to the men who shall be elected 

 to administer the reconstructed State govern- 

 ment and represent us in Congress; and on 

 that question we desire to give expression to 

 our views, and to submit our conclusions to 

 the consideration of the people. After stating 

 briefly the character of the two Republican 

 organizations according to their views, they 

 announce it as their " deliberate and matured 

 opinion" that "we should support the Na- 

 tional Union Republican party and vote for 

 the ticket which they present." The general 

 views of these gentlemen may be gathered 

 from the following paragraphs, with which 

 their address closes : 



All Mississippians agree that reconstruction, on the 

 best attainable basis, and at the earliest possible 

 moment, is essential to the great interests of the 

 State. ^Reconstruction will bring peace, real peace 

 to the country, and will restore to us pure civil rule, 

 and a destruction of that gigantic military despotism 

 under which we have so long suffered and lan- 

 guished, with all its terrible humiliations and oppres- 

 sions. The present basis for reconstruction, although 

 no mode of our selection (for we had no power to 

 choose), is certainly as fair and just as we nave any 

 reason to hope for hereafter. 



^Reconstruction once effected, and the blessings of 

 peace and civil rule secured, we shall speedily wit- 

 ness a marked change for the better in all our material 

 interests. Capital, labor, and population, will flow 

 into the State. Our natural advantages, the wonder- 

 ful productiveness of our rich soil and genial climate, 

 will command prosperity. Our paralyzed industrial 

 pursuits will all revive, whenever we obtain certainty 

 for the future, by the establishment of a fixed, endur- 

 ing civil government. Our political history here- 

 after will, of course, be governed by the degree of 

 prudence and wisdom our people may observe in 

 meeting and directing unforeseen future develop- 

 ments. 



We take it for granted that no true Mississippian, 

 worthy of that honored name, can think for a mo- 

 ment of adhering to the radical Bepublican party 

 as it exists in the State of Mississippi. From them 

 we have _ received nothing but cruel tyranny, unjust 

 persecution, and a degree of oppression and humilia- 

 tion unequalled, as we conceive, in the sad history of 

 conquered nations. Their odious principles, as ignobly 

 illustrated by their past party history, and not success- 

 fully disguised even in their cunningly-devised and 

 insincere platform of July last, are condemned by 

 all intelligent and just men, North and South. The 

 conservative sentiments expressed in their late plat- 

 form cannot be confided in, having been forced from 

 them, as a last desperate effort to seize the State 

 government, with its offices and emoluments, after 

 the party had been rebuked at the ballot-box, by the 

 people of the State of both races ; after they had been 

 signally repudiated and rebuked by President Grant, 

 and by a Congress composed of a large majority of 

 Eepublicans. 



The question of calling a Democratic Con- 

 vention was considered by the Executive Com- 

 mittee of that party, and their conclusion was 

 published on the 9th of September in the fol- 



lowing resolutions, which had been unani- 

 mously agreed to : 



1. That it is not expedient to hold a Democratic 

 State Convention or to place a Democratic ticket in 

 nomination. 



2. That, in the opinion of this committee, the true 

 interests of the people of the State will be consulted 

 by supportingand electing the candidates of the Na- 

 tional Union ^Republican party, this day put in nom- 

 ination. 



3. That the people of every county in the State 

 who support the State and congressional candidates 

 of this party should immediately meet in county 

 conventions, .organize the party by the appointment 

 of all appropriate officers and committees, put Legis- 

 lative candidates in the field, and enter upon the cam- 

 paign at once. 



Still there were members of the Democratic 

 party bitterly opposed to the adoption of the 

 constitution in any shape, and determined to 

 resist the ratification of the fifteenth amend- 

 to the end. One or two newspapers which 

 represented this element of the party insisted 

 that a convention should be held at Canton, on 

 the 20th of October. A few delegates, who 

 had been elected in response to this call, as- 

 sembled at the appointed time and place, and, 

 after full consultation, unanimously adopted 

 the following resolutions, and then adjourned, 

 subject to the call of the chairman : 



Resolved, That the Democratic party of the State 

 of Mississippi will retain its organization intact, and 

 that the party ^cannot be ; nor has it been, by any com- 

 petent authority, committed to the support of either 

 wing of the Eepublican party of this State. 



Resolved, That we can offer to the people of Mis- 

 sissippi no suggestion or advice as to the course 

 proper for them to pursue in the present contest ; but, 

 remaining firm in our devotion to the great doctrines 

 of State rights, we agree to adjourn this conven- 

 tion, leaving the responsibility for the establishment 

 of a Eepublican party in Mississippi to rest where 

 it properly belongs. 



Resolved, That, in view of the divisions and dis- 

 sensions now existing among the people of Missis- 

 sippi the result, we cannot doubt, of the manoeuvres 

 of politicians we deem it inexpedient for the Demo- 

 cratic party of the State to put a State ticket in the 

 field during the present campaign. 



All through the excited canvass, public meet- 

 ings were held in various parts of the State, 

 and leading men of all parties, including the 

 prominent candidates for office, were engaged 

 in heated discussions, which turned chiefly on 

 the merits of the different men in nomination, 

 and the general character of the two branches 

 of the Republican party. On the 10th of July 

 the President issued his proclamation, fixing 

 the day of election, and specifying the sections 

 of the constitution which were to be sub- 

 mitted to a separate vote. The following is the 

 proclamation : 



In pursuance of the provisions of the act of Con- 

 gress, approved April 10, 1869, I hereby designate 

 Tuesday, the 30th day of November, as the time for 

 submitting the constitution adopted on the 15th 

 day of May. 1868, by the convention, which met in 

 Jackson, Miss., to the voters of said State registered 

 at the date of such submission, viz., November 30, 

 1869, and I submit to a separate vote that part of 

 section three of article seven, of said constitution, 

 which is in the following words : " That I am not dis- 

 franchised in any of the provisions of the acts known 



