564 



MISSISSIPPI. 



the Government as experience may_ from time to time 

 suggest; who are opposed to impairing the credit of 

 the nation by depreciating any of its obligations, and 

 in favor of sustaining in every way the national faith 

 and financial honor; who hold that the common- 

 school system is the nursery of American liberty, and 

 should be maintained absolutely free from sectarian 

 control ; who believe that for the promotion of these 

 ends the direttion of the Government should con- 

 tinue to be confided to those who adhere to the prin- 

 ciples of 1776, and support them as incorporated in 

 the Constitution and laws, and who are in favor of 

 recognizing and strengthening the fundamental prin- 

 ciples of national unity in this centennial anniversary 

 of the birth of the republic, to unite and go with us. 



3. A sound national currency, and a return to specie 

 payment as soon as can be done with safety to the 

 commercial interests of the country. 



4. We adopt the sentiment of General Grant, " Let 

 no guilty man escape ;" and we further say. Let every 

 guilty man be brought to punishment. In view of 

 these sentiments we arraign the Democratic leaders 

 of Mississippi, and charge them with prosecuting 

 impeachments for partisan purposes, and to consoli- 

 date power obtained by violence, intimidation, and 

 fraud. They charged the late Governor and the late 

 Superintendent of Education with " high crimes and 

 misdemeanors." If guilty, they should be punished; 

 if innocent, justice and truth have been wantonly 

 violated whether guilty or innocent could only be 

 known upon a full, fair, and impartial trial. This the 

 accused parties were not only entitled to, but justice 

 demanded it. Instead, assuming their charges to be 

 true, Democrats have compounded felonies, and have 

 thus added another serious crime to the long catalogue 

 of high crimes and misdemeanors on their part. We, 

 the Republicans of Mississippi, therefore, arraign the 

 Democratic party of the State before an enlightened 

 public sentiment, and charge that party with corrup- 

 tion in order to secure public offices for partisan pur- 

 poses. The history of impeachments shows this and 

 nothing less. 



5. We further arraign Democratic leaders, and 

 charge : 



(1.) In seeking to prostitute the highest judicial 

 tribunal of the State to political purposes by a legis- 

 lative resolution requiring the Presiding Justice of 

 the Supreme Court to resign his position as Presiding 

 Judge, and that another of the judges be elected 

 Presiding Judge for the express purpose of sitting in 

 the trial of the Governor in the Court of Impeach- 

 ment. Such change was made, and a Chief-Justice 

 was chosen in response to such request expressly to 

 preside in such trial, and, as the records show, by his 

 own vote. 



(2.) They have usurped power from the people, 

 first, by violence, intimidation, and fraud, and there- 

 by providing that a Senator, elected as such, shall be 

 Governor, thus refusing to let the people say who 

 shall be Governor. 



(3.) Themselves illegally elected, they seek to 

 maintain power by unheard-of legislation 'in the in- 

 terest of the Democratic party, without regard to 

 the rights or will of the people, and in disregard of 

 both. 



(4.) They have gerrymandered the State by a 

 most outrageous, unjust, and partisan alteration of 

 the congressional districts, making one district front 

 on the Mississippi River, along the Louisiana and 

 Arkansas border, 400 miles long and in many places 

 only twenty miles wide ! 



6. As important and vital as are the great princi- 

 ples in the foregoing, we present to the people of the 

 State and of the wliole country, as underlying and 

 overriding all other issues, as containing ail that is 

 dear to us, as one that will invade the North and 

 West if not arrested and crushed out, the question 

 of the freedom of the ballot. Without this all other 

 questions are as nothing to us. Violence at elections 

 is a blow at free institutions, and these with us are 



practically a mockery. This violence will destroy 

 all other interests, social, educational, financial, busi- 

 ness, and religious. Under its blighting curse all 

 other interests and industries are paralyzed. To us 

 this is the great and vital issue, as it will be to the 

 whole country, if it is ignored and discarded by other 

 sections. 



7. In behalf of those we represent we tender our 

 gratitude to Senator Morton for the interest he has 

 manifested in the protection of Southern Republicans 

 in their personal freedom, and in the sacred rights of 

 free speech and a free ballot. He is entitled to our 

 thanks and our gratitude for his devotion to those 

 principles. 



The Democratic State Convention for simi- 

 lar purposes was held at Jackson, on the 14th 

 of June. The following was the platform 

 adopted : 



Be-solved, That the Democrats and Conservatives in 

 convention assembled proclaim their heart-felt grati- 

 tude for the complete victory which was won by the 

 advocates of reform, in the election of 1875, over the 

 incompetent, corrupt, and prescriptive political organ- 

 ization which had held unlimited control of the State 

 government for six years, and that they emphatically 

 repel the imputation that their triumph was won by 

 any other than the legal, honest, and sincere efforts 

 which the justice of their cause and their duty as 

 freemen to maintain unimpaired their inalienable 

 rights demanded them to make. 



Resolved, That in proof of the sincerity of the 

 pledges of the victorious party in that election to re- 

 duce expenditures to an honest and economical stand- 

 ard, and elevate the scale of official qualification, we 

 point with pride and pleasure to the acts of the Leg- 

 islature at its late session, to which body the thanks 

 of the whole people are due for its faithful discharge 

 of duty in correcting the abuses of the public ser- 

 vice 5 in diminishing the burden of taxation ; in dis- 

 missing supernumerary officials from the various 

 branches or the public service, who consumed the 

 earnings of labor without rendering an equivalent ; 

 in dispensing the blessings of just laws without dis- 

 tinction of race, color, or class ; in holding faithless 

 public officials to strict accountability for their mis- 

 conduct; and especially does the popular branch of 

 the Legislature, standing as the grand inquest of 

 the Commonwealth, deserve thanks for investigat- 

 ing the acts of the guilty officials whom it arraigned 

 for malfeasance, corruption, and usurpation of uncon- 

 stitutional powers, and for driving them, by the ter- 

 rors of the offended law, into obscurity, from the pub- 

 lic trusts which they had violated. 



Resolved, That, in addition to the foregoing, we pro- 

 claim the following principles as the rule and guide 

 of our political faith and conduct : 



1. The doctrine of local self-government, the sur- 

 est protection of personal liberty ; fidelity to the Con- 

 stitution of the United States, and all the obligations 

 imposed upon us as citizens of a common country. 



2. Free schools, free suffrage, equal rights. 



3. Equal and exact justice to all citizens, of every 

 race and clime, native and foreign-born ; and no dis- 

 criminating legislation for the benefit of favored 

 classes or corporations. 



4. No proscription for opinion's sake no sectional 

 lines no resurrection of aead issues for partisan suc- 

 cess and as a pretext for vindictive legislation. 



5. The sacred maintenance of the public faith and 

 the strict performance of all obligations, State and 

 national. 



6. Retrenchment and economy in all the depart- 

 ments of public service, and adherence to the time- 

 honored Jeifersonian standard of qualification for 

 office, " Is he honest, is he capable, is he faithful to 

 the Constitution?" 



With these declarations, we cordially invite all men 

 to cooperate with us in establishing the permanent 



