MISSISSIPPI. 



571 



lawlessness and inhumanity. It was the out- 

 cropping of the same spirit of communism born 

 of desperation, which plunged tens of thou- 

 sands of starving operatives into acts of violence 

 in the Northern and Middle States in 1877, 

 which nothing but the strong arm of the na- 

 tional authority could suppress. 1 ' The distress 

 of the inhabitants was also attributed to an 

 improvident system of agriculture, by which 

 cotton alone was cultivated, to the neglect of 

 those products which sustain life. 



The following concurrent resolution was 

 adopted by the Legislature : 



Whereas, The Government of the United States 

 has granted millions of acres of public lands and 

 hundreds of millions of dollars to the construction 

 and completion of a line of railway for the benefit of 

 the northern portion of the country from the valley 

 of 'the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean, along or 

 near the 43d parallel of north latitude, known as the 

 "Union" and "Central" Pacific Railroads which 

 said railway line is owned by two corporations 

 \vhich are gigantic monopolies, having control of all 

 the railway freight and passenger transportation at 

 their own prices from the Mississippi Valley to the 

 Pacific coast ; and 



Whereas, The southern portion of the United 

 States has no direct railway communication between 

 the Pacific and the Atlantic coasts, which is so es- 

 sential to the purposes of travel and commerce, and 

 the development of the vast resources of this region 

 of country: therefore, 



SECTION 1. Be it resolved by the House of Representa- 

 tives of the State of Mississippi (the Senate concurring), 

 That the Congress of the United States, under proper 

 legal restrictions, should adopt some measures which 

 will secure the speedy construction and completion 

 of a southern line of railway, from the east bank of 

 the Mississippi River, as near as practicable along 

 the 32d parallel of nortli latitude, to ship channel in 

 the bay of San Diego on the Pacific coast. 



SEC. 2. Be it further resolved, That the entire line 

 of said railway should be under the control and man- 

 agement of one company, so as to form a competing 

 line of railway to the other lines which now existj 

 or may hereafter be completed, from the Mississippi 

 Vallefy to the Pacific coast, independent of and with- 

 out combination with such other railroad companies. 



Also the following : 



Whereas, It is the sense of this Legislature that it 

 is due alike to the dead, to the living, and to pos- 

 terity, that the State of Mississippi ahould collect 

 and preserve among its archives, in some permanent 

 and enduring form, a record of the part taken by 

 her sons in the late memorable and unhappy struggle 

 between the States, as far as the evidence of the same, 

 now rapidly perishing, may be attainable ; desiring 

 only to secure and preserve a memorial of the ability, 

 courage, and constancy of the soldiers of Mississippi, 

 which have become a part of the priceless heritage 

 of the American people : therefore, 



Be it resolved ly the Senate of the State of Mississippi 

 (the House concurring), That our Senators and Rep- 

 resentatives in Congress be, and they are hereby, 

 requested to make application to the proper au- 

 thorities for permission for some suitable person, 

 hereafter to be appointed by this State for the pur- 

 pose, if permission should be granted, to make copies 

 of such portions of the archives of the late Confeder- 

 ate States, in possession of the Government, as may 

 relate to the State of Mississippi, or any of its offi- 

 cers and soldiers engaged in the war between the 

 States. 



Also another, instructing and requesting the 

 Senators and Representatives of the State in 



Congress to vote for the remonetization of sil- 

 ver. 



The folio wing memorial to Congress was also 

 adopted : 



Whereas, Certain measures are now pending before 

 the Congress of the United States, which propose to 

 raise, from the sale of public lands or other sources, 

 a fund to be distributed among the several States in 

 aid of popular education ; and 



Whereas, These measures provide that this distri- 

 bution shall be made for a term of years upon the 

 basis of illiteracy, and afterward upon the basis of 

 school population : therefore, 



Resolved, That the Legislature of the State of Mis- 

 sissippi does most heartily approve the adoption of 

 some measure of national legislation which shall em- 

 body the principles set forth in the foregoing pre- 

 amble. 



As the city of Yicksburg is the geographical 

 and commercial center of the largest and most 

 fruitful cotton-growing region in the Southern 

 States, comprising all North Louisiana, all the 

 alluvial lands of the Mississippi River in the 

 western portion of this State, all the valleys of 

 the Yazoo, Tallahatchie, and Sunflower Rivers, 

 Deer Creek and Big Black, as well as all the 

 fertile lands of the interior of Mississippi, the 

 Legislature adopted resolutions asking for aid 

 from Congress to preserve its landing or port. 

 The recent changes in the Mississippi River 

 and the rapid formation of sand-bars threaten 

 to destroy the water-front and thus injure the 

 commerce of the State. 



An act was passed abolishing Pearl County, 

 and restoring its parts to Hancock and Marion 

 Counties. The county had been organized six 

 years, and during that period it had neither 

 built a court-house, a jail, nor a clerk's or 

 sheriff's office, nor a bridge. Its records were 

 burned twelve months previous, and it had 

 not been able to purchase books to supply the 

 loss. 



The following constitutional amendment, 

 having been adopted by the people, was ordered 

 to be inserted in the State Constitution : 



The Legislature shall meet at the seat of govern- 

 ment on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in 

 January, in the year A. D. 1878, and biennially there- 

 after, unless sooner convened by the Governor. The 

 time and place of meeting may be altered by law. 



A bill dividing the Eighteenth Senatorial Dis- 

 trict, and giving a separate Senator to Lowndes 

 County, passed both Houses without opposition. 



In the House the following concurrent reso- 

 lution was presented : 



Resolved, That the Hon.B. K. Bruce [colored], Sen- 

 ator of the United States from this State, in his re- 

 cent vote for the resolution offered by the Hon. Stan- 

 ley Matthews in the Senate favoring the remonetiza- 

 tion of silver, has reflected the sentiment and will 

 of his constituents, and said vote is "hereby endorsed 

 and approved. 



This resolution failed in the Senate, as that 

 body had previously adopted a resolution in 

 favor of the measure. 



In the House previous to adjournment the 

 following resolutions of thanks were adopted : 



Resolved, That we extend ourhearty thanks to the 

 Hon. W. A. Percy, Speaker of this House, for the 



