462 



MISSISSIPPI. 



Henry Musgrove, Auditor of Public Accounts, vice 

 Thomas T. Swann, whose resignation is hereby ac- 

 cepted. 



Joshua S. Morris, Attorney- General. 



* * * * * * 



Appointees must file with the proper officer such 

 bonds and other recognizances as may be required by 

 the statute-laws of the State of Mississippi, and take 

 and subscribe to the oath of office prescribed by the 

 act of Congress of July 2, 1862. 



Official notification from the officer who approves 

 the bonds-, that the law imposing has been faithfully 

 complied with, and that the bondsmen are known to 

 him as reliable and responsible men, together with 

 the oath of office, will be forwarded to the Acting 

 Assistant Adjutant-General at these headquarters. 

 Upon their receipt, if satisfactory, they will be fur- 

 nished with written authority from these head- 

 quarters to enter upon the discharge of ^the duties of 

 the office to Avhich^they have been appointed. 



By command of Brevet Major-General AMES. 

 WILLIAM ATWOOD, Aide-de-Camp, 



Acting Assistant Adjutant-General. 



General Alcorn declined the position of pro- 

 visional Governor, "coming from the military 

 authority," he said, "and subject for its sup- 

 port to the military power ; the fitness of things 

 appears to me to forbid my acceptance of it 

 while I hold in immediate prospect the posi- 

 tion of civil Governor by that sanction most 

 acceptable to my instincts as an American 

 citizen that of popular choice." 



The Legislature assembled on the llth of 

 January, in pursuance of the order of the mili- 

 tary commander, and proceeded to conform to 

 the conditions precedent to the readmission of 

 the State into the Union. Soon after the or- 

 ganization of the two Houses had been com- 

 pleted, on the fifth day of the session, a mes- 

 sage was received from General Ames in his 

 character of provisional Governor of the State, 

 submitting the fourteenth and fifteenth amend- 

 ments to the Federal Constitution for ratifica- 

 tion. A vote was immediately taken, result- 

 ing in the adoption of the fourteenth amend- 

 ment, by a vote of 23 to 2 in the Senate, and 

 87 to 6 in the House of Representatives. The 

 fifteenth amendment passed the Senate unani- 

 mously, and received 93 votes in its favor to 

 one against it in the House. The next im- 

 portant duty of the Assembly was the choice 

 of United States Senators. It was determined 

 to elect three, one for the term beginning March 

 4, 1871, one for the unexpired term beginning 

 March 4, 1869, and finally, one to serve for the 

 residue of the term beginning March 4, 1865, 

 and ending in 1871. The election occupied 

 two days, the 18th and 19th of the month, the 

 contest being altogether on the candidate for 

 the short unexpired term. For the full term, 

 beginning in 1871, General J. L. Alcorn was 

 elected by a unanimous vote in the Senate, 

 and a vote of 91 to 2 in the House. For the 

 unexpired term, beginning March 4, 1869, 

 General Adelbert Ames received 22 votes in 

 the Senate and 72 in the House, and was duly 

 elected. After several ballots for a Senator 

 for the short term, the choice fell upon H. R. 

 Revels, a colored member of the State Senate, 



who received 81 votes on a joint ballot out of 

 a total of 119. On the 20th of January the 

 Legislature adjourned to the "second Tues- 

 day after the admission of the State into the 

 Union." 



A bill to readmit the State of Mississippi 

 into the Union was introduced into Congress 

 on the 12th of February, 1870, and, after con- 

 siderable debate, in which the question of im- 

 posing new conditions was discussed at length, 

 passed into a law on the 17th, and the first 

 colored member of the Senate of the United 

 States was soon after sworn in and permitted 

 to take his seat. 



An important incident of the exercise of 

 military authority in the State, during the year, 

 occurred on the trial of Edward M. Yerger, 

 before a military commission, for the murder 

 of Joseph G. Crane, in the streets of Jackson, 

 on the 8th of June. Mr. Yerger was a promi- 

 nent citizen of Jackson, and had served as a 

 colonel in the Confederate army, acting as a 

 member of the staff" of General Breckinridge 

 during the war. Mr. Crane, on the other 

 hand, was a lieutenant-colonel in the United 

 States Army, and a member of General Ames's 

 staff, and had recently been appointed by that 

 officer as acting mayor of the city. It appears 

 that Yerger had refused to pay certain taxes 

 which had been levied on his property for 

 street improvements, on the ground that his 

 property had been injured by the elevation of 

 the street in front of his residence. There- 

 upon Colonel Crane, as mayor of the city, is- 

 sued a warrant of distress and levied upon a 

 piano found in the house of Colonel Yerger, 

 and caused it to be removed and advertised for 

 sale. Yerger was absent from home at the 

 time, but on hearing of this occurrence re- 

 turned to the city, and meeting Colonel Crane 

 on the street began an altercation which re- 

 sulted in his stabbing that officer several times 

 with a bowie-knife. Colonel Crane died al- 

 most immediately, and Yerger was arrested by 

 the military authorities two days after the 

 crime was committed, viz., on the 10th of 

 June; a military commission was organized, 

 with Brigadier-General R. S. Granger as presi- 

 dent, and the trial of Yerger began. His coun- 

 sel protested against the authority of a mili- 

 tary tribunal to try him, as he was a citizen 

 of Mississippi, not in the service of the army 

 or navy of the United States, and, therefore, 

 the courts of that State alone were competent 

 to deal with his case on a regular indictment 

 by a grand jury. As all their arguments and 

 objections were overruled, they next applied 

 to the Circuit Court of the United States for 

 the Southern District of Mississippi, for a writ 

 of habeas corpus, which was granted, and the 

 prisoner brought before that tribunal by Gen- 

 eral Granger in obedience thereto. After hear- 

 ing argument on the question of the jurisdic- 

 tion of the military commission to try the case, 

 the court decided that the imprisonment was 

 lawful, and dismissed the writ of habeas corpus, 



