MISSISSIPPI. 



513 



gued before tho Supreme Court of the State, 

 in the October term, the same year, when the 

 court decided the act to be constitutional, and 

 reversed the judgment of the court below. 

 Its decision was filed in May, 1873. The rail- 

 road company appealed from it, and the case 

 is now pending before the Supreme Court of 

 the United States at Washington. 



MISSISSIPPI. After a session of seventy- 

 five days, during which few matters of gen- 

 eral public interest were acted upon, the 

 Legislature adjourned on the 19th of April. 



Much time was consumed by the " subsidy 

 investigation " of the charges against Attorney- 

 General Morris, who was alleged to have re- 

 ceived from the vice-president of the Mobile 

 & Northwestern Railroad $500 for his official 

 influence to defeat a proposition pending be- 

 fore the Legislature to repeal the " subsidy 

 net," passed in 1871. It was also charged 

 against the same official that $6,000 had been 

 paid to remove the objections of the Attorney- 

 General to the issuance of $81,000 of warrants 

 claimed by the Ripley Railroad Company. Af- 

 ter reviewing the evidence taken during the 

 investigation, the committee unanimously re- 

 ported : 



That the action of the Attorney-General, in regard 

 to the subsidy, has been vacillating and unsatisfac- 

 tory, his opinions numerous and contradictory, and 

 the circumstances attending his different changes of 

 such a character as to render his opinions on this 

 subject valiuUu. Your committee, from all the facts 

 and circumstances surrounding the matter which has 

 been submitted to them, are impelled to the conclu- 

 sion that the action of the Attorney-General in the 

 premises suggest an unpleasant suspicion, the taint 

 of which they regret to sec fastened, as it it, upon 

 the robes of a State official occupying such a position 

 of trust and honor, but, in view or the facts devel- 

 oped, they cannot say less. 



To facilitate the collection of debts due from 

 railroad companies to the State, an act was 

 passed, permitting the Mississippi Central, the 

 Mobile & Ohio, and the Mississippi & Tennes- 

 see Railroad Companies to pay their indebt- 

 edness in five equal annual installments, with 

 eight per cent, interest, payable semi-annnally. 

 TliH indebtedness had been created by a loan 

 from the State of a trust-fund. During the 

 war, the railroads procured the passage of a 

 bill by the Legislature, authorizing the pay- 

 ment of this lonn in depreciated paper. The 

 courts, however, have decided that these pay- 

 ments are not valid, and that the companies 

 are still liable. For their accommodation, 

 therefore, the above-mentioned bill lias been 

 passed. A law was passed, making any rate 

 of interest agreed upon in writing by the par- 

 ties legal, and fixing six per cent, as the legal 

 rate in absence of any agreement. The Board 

 of School Directors was abolished, and their 

 power and authority vested in the Board of 

 Supervisors of the counties respectively, and 

 the board of mayor and aldermen, or select- 

 men of each incorporated city or town of more 

 than two thousand inhabitants. The duties 

 of county superintendents were defined, and 

 VOL. xm. 33 A 



provision was made for the classification of 

 the public schools of each county. It was 

 also provided : 



That for the purpose of affording the advantage 

 of free education to all the educable youth of tbi- 

 State there shall hereafter be, and there is hereby 

 levied on the assessed valuation of the taxable prop-1 

 erty of the State, a tax of four mills on the dollar 

 and the same shall be placed on the assessment-rolls 

 annually, m the same manner as the assessment for 

 general purposes, provided for in section 1663 Ee- 

 vised Code, to be paid and collected only in leeal 

 currency of the United States, and set apart exclu- 

 sively to the payment of teachers in the public 

 schools, to be designated on the assessment-rolls as 

 the Teachers' Fund. 



The Pascagonla & Jackson Rralroad Compa- 

 ny was incorporated, and $25,000 were appro- 

 priated for the purpose of deepening the chan- 

 nel at the mouth of East Pascagoula River. 

 Through this port there is a prosperous and 

 growing trade, to the estimated amount of 

 $1,000,000 annually, between Mississippi and 

 Northern, South American, Mexican, and West 

 Indian ports, which has been somewhat ob- 

 structed by the bar at its mouth. An act was 

 also passed incorporating the Mississippi & 

 New Orleans Railroad Company, for the pur- 

 pose of constructing a road from Shubuta, on 

 the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, to Shieldsboro, 

 on the New Orleans, Mobile & Texas Rail- 

 road ; and another, extending aid to the Vicks- 

 burg & Nashville Railroad Company. 



The political canvass of the year was one 

 of unusual excitement, not only on account of 

 the somewhat peculiar attitude of the oppos- 

 ing parties, but also of the important constitu- 

 tional questions growing out of the election. 



The campaign was opened on the 27th of 

 August, when the Republican State Conven- 

 tion was held at Jackson. Every county in 

 the State was represented in the convention, 

 which comprised a large number of colored 

 delegates. General Adelbert Ames was nomi- 

 nated for Governor, having received 187 votes, 

 while 40 were cast for Governor Powers. The 

 other nominations included Alexander R. Davis 

 (colored), for Lieutenant-Govern or; Jamesllill, 

 (colored), for Secretary of ftate ; George H. 

 Holland, for Treasurer ; W. H. Gibbs, for Au- 

 ditor; George E. Harris, for Attorney-General ; 

 and J. W. Cordozo (colored), for Superintend- 

 ent of Education. The platform adopted was 

 as follows : 



Reeohed, That the Hepublican party of the State of 

 Mississippi, in convention assembled, recognizes as 

 the strongest evidence of the perfection of political 

 creed the fact that we do' not find it necessary to 

 make any new departure, nor announce any new 

 dogmas, but simply renew our steadfast faith in the 

 old Republican landmarks, to wit : The preserva- 

 tion of the Union of the States ; strict enforcement 

 of the laws ; equal rights and privileges to all ; 

 universal education ; retrenchment in expenditures ; 

 rigid economy, and equal and uniform taxation ; op- 

 position to the fostering of monopolies at the ex- 

 pense of the masses, and honesty, capacity, and fidel- 

 ity, as the best test of political preferment. 



Resolved, That we are opposed to burdening the 

 reconstructed State of Mississippi with the old re- 



