STATE CIVIL RIGHTS LEGISLATION. 523 tion required) he had had to yield to Lieutenant-Governor Day, on being impeached. But Day showed no disposition to surrender them. Reed, taking advantage of Day's temporary absence from the capital, stepped into the executive office at Tallahassee, got possession of the great seal of the state, and issued a proclamation announcing his resumption of the executive office. He did this on the ground that the abandonment of the impeachment proceedings was equivalent to his discharge from constructive arrest. This was on the 8th of April, 1872. On the fifteenth, Lieutenant-Governor Day issued a counter-proclamation. It asserted his right to the office of governor. It denounced Reed as a usurper, and his proceedings as rebellious. Reed submitted the question to the supreme court of the state. The majority of the judges decided adversely to his claim. They held that his impeachment was still pending before the senate; and that, until final action by that tribunal, he was, within the meaning of the constitution, suspended. Day was equally unfortunate in his movement. When Reed appealed to the court, Day, as acting governor, summoned the legislature in extraordinary session. The impeachment proceedings were thus resumed before the managers were ready. The consequence was an immediate acquittal of Reed, and his restoration to office, so that each in turn was "hoist by his own petard." Each was indebted to the other for the degree of success achieved. The lieutenant-governor might have held the office of governor for months longer-possibly through the term—if he had not precipitated the impeachment trial by calling the legislature together in extraordinary session. This was the presidential year. General Grant was the Republican candidate. The Republicans carried the state by larger majorities than they had two years before. The Grant electors received 17,763 votes; the Greeley electors only 15,427. The Republican candidate for governor, Mr. Hart, received 17,603 votes, and the Democratic candidate, Mr. Bloxham, 16,004. The Republican candidates for Congress were elected by about the same majorities. The state senate consisted of thirteen Republicans and eleven Democrats, and the assembly of twenty-eight Republicans and twenty-four Democrats-the Republicans thus having a majority of six on joint ballot. The new legislature met on the 17th of January, 1873. It proceeded to the election of a United States Senator in place of Mr. Osborn. The choice fell on Simon B. Conover. He was speaker of the assembly, and late state treasurer. He was a native of New Jersey, of a most approved family from Monmouth County. The measure of this session bearing on the question of reconstruction was an act "to protect the citizens of Florida in their civil rights." It provided that no person should be excluded, by reason of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, from hotels, theatres, or other places of amusement, from traveling in public conveyances, from cemeteries, or from public schools. All such attempts to enforce social intercourse between classes that have no affinities have been a failure, although backed by laws of Congress and of "reconstructed" states. They are now practically abandoned because of the righteous adverse decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Republicans elected the two congressmen in 1874. The legislative election was in favor of the Democrats. They had a majority of four on joint ballot. The Democratic party was thus enabled to take control of public affairs. They elected a Democrat, Charles W. Jones, to the United States Senate, in place of Gilbert, Republican. Senator Jones is of Irish descent, of stalwart form, gentle manners, accomplished talent, rare genius for law and comprehension of fact and philosophy. He was one of the first to aid in lifting the South out of its quagmire. Governor Hart died in March, 1874, and was succeeded by the lieutenant-governor, M. L. Stearns. The financial condition of Florida, in 1872, is thus stated in a congressional report of that period: The four-million-dollar item represents state bonds bearing interest at eight per centum. They were issued to the Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad Company in exchange for first mortgage bonds of the company to the same amount. Their issue furnished one of those splendid opportunities for robbing the state and for enriching their manipulators that were so much in vogue about the same period in nearly all the " reconstructed" states. It was in connection with them that some of the charges of fraud were made against Governor Reed in the impeachment proceedings. In his message of Jan. 4, 1872, Governor Reed referred to these same bonds as having been entrusted by the company "to one of the firms of swindlers who abound in New-York, who by fraud and villainy have diverted much of the proceeds." He had, however, placed the whole four thousand bonds, which nominally represented $1,000 each, or $4,000,000 in the aggregate, in the hands of his particeps, M. S. Littlefield. This notorious sharper had sold them to a London broker at the rate of £100, or $500 each; - so that, as they bore eight per cent. interest, the people of Florida were thus bound to pay for the money which was received on these bonds, and which was largely diverted from its legitimate purpose, interest at the rate of sixteen per centum. The experience of Florida in this respect was not different from that of Arkansas, Louisiana, and other "reconstructed" states. } CHAPTER XXX. RECONSTRUCTION IN THE FOURTH MILITARY DISTRICT. MISSISSIPPI REGISTRATION THE DEMOCRATS - - ALLOW THE ELECTION FOR G ENERAL E. O. C. Ord was appointed commander of the Fourth military district. It consisted of the states of Mississippi and Arkansas. His headquarters were at Vicksburg. He entered on his duties on the twenty-sixth of March, 1867. In a general order, dated April 15, he stated that elections to fill vacancies in state offices would not take place until a registration of voters had been made, and that in the meantime he would fill such vacancies by appointment. He advised the freedmen that their most important duty was to labor for the support of themselves and their families, and not to neglect that duty for politics. The result of the registration in Mississippi showed that there were 46,636 white registered voters, and 60,167 colored ones. An election was then held, for and against a state convention, and for delegates thereto. The whites complained that the selection of delegates was unfairly made, so as to give a large preponderance to the negroes. They were for a time divided in opinion as to the utility of making any opposition to the Republicans. They therefore allowed the election to go practically by default. There were only 6,277 votes, out of a total of 76,076, cast against a convention. In December, 1867, the provisional governor, Benjamin G. Humphreys, found it necessary to call upon General Ord for assistance in preventing a violent outbreak of the blacks. The blacks had been led by demagogues to expect that lands would be confiscated and distributed among them. He also issued a proclamation against threatened combinations and conspiracies among the blacks to seize lands and establish farms. General Ord gave orders for the arrest of all persons engaged in such unlawful enterprises, and of all white men who should advise negroes to unlawful acts. These vigorous measures had the desired effect. The reckless schemes were abandoned. A disturber of the peace among the whites was W. H. McCardle. He was the editor of a Vicksburg newspaper. He was arrested and court-martialed on charges of publishing articles intended to incite the people to a breach of the peace, and to impede reconstruction. Judge Hill, of the United States District Court, issued a writ of habeas corpus in behalf of McCardle. To this General Ord made return, setting forth the facts; and that the prisoner was held by the authority of the acts of Congress known as the Reconstruction acts. Judge Hill ruled that those acts were valid and constitutional. An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States. That court dismissed the appeal for want of jurisdiction. man. The constitutional convention met in Jackson on the 7th of July, 1868. It continued in session until the 18th of May. It contained a large Republican majority. B. B. Eggleston was elected president. He was an Ohio The delegates showed a liberal appreciation of their services by voting themselves a compensation of $10 a day; $20 a day to the president; $15 each to the secretary and reporter; $10 to the sergeant-at-arms, and $2.50 to the pages. There was considerable opposition to this scale of compensation, but the dissatisfied were regarded as almost guilty of treason, and as deserving of expulsion. A committee was appointed to prepare a memorial to Congress, asking for power to remove the state officials appointed or elected under the provisional government and to appoint others in their stead. A protest against this memorial, repelling the charge that the provisional government was in the hands of the rebels, and that the lives and property of loyal men were insecure, was signed by fifteen members, but it was not allowed to be entered on the journal. The convention, by a vote of fifty to nineteen, ordered the protest to be "wrapped in brown paper and returned to its author." MISSISSIPPI UNDER MILITARY RULE. 527 General Ord was, on June 4, 1868, succeeded in the command of the Fourth military district by Gen. Irwin McDowell. This officer, on the fifteenth of the same month, issued a general order removing Governor Humphreys, and appointing Maj.-Gen. Adelbert Ames provisional governor in his place. At the same time, Capt. Jasper Myers was appointed attorney-general of the state, instead of Charles E. Hooker, removed. General Ames notified Governor Humphreys of the change ordered, and requested to be informed when it would be convenient to make the necessary arrangements. Governor Humphreys replied that he regarded the general order as a "usurpation of the civil government of Mississippi, unwarranted by, and in violation of the Constitution of the United States." He stated that he had telegraphed to the President, and was authorized to say that the President disapproved the order. He, therefore, refused to vacate the office. In this case, however, the power of the President, though "Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy," was subordinate to that of his inferior officer. The commander of the Fourth military district was backed by Congress. Governor Humphreys was ousted from his office at the point of the bayonet. General Ames, of Maine, took possession of the governor's house, and of all the public buildings and archives. The white population of Mississippi was, almost universally, opposed to the reconstruction measures. Although in a voting minority, the whites were able to defeat the ratification of the constitution which was the work of the convention. The obnoxious clauses of that instrument were those relating to suffrage and eligibility to office. In general terms suffrage was declared to be universal; but persons offering to register were required to swear that they were not disfranchised by any of the Reconstruction acts. No one who was not a qualified elector was eligible to any public office. The same disqualifications were extended to such members of the legislature as had voted for the call of the convention that passed the ordinance of secession; to all who had voted for, or signed, such ordinance; and to all who had aided or countenanced the rebellion unless they had afterwards aided reconstruction by voting for the constitutional convention, and had, in good faith, advocated its acts. Private soldiers of the Confederate army were, however, exempted from this exclusion from office. This clumsy and contradictory proscription went even beyond the restrictions of the Reconstruction acts. A quiet citizen who had managed to keep out of the fight, but had given aid, comfort, countenance, or counsel to the rebellion, was placed in a worse situation than the man who had fought in the ranks. And even the worst cases of treason and rebellion were condoned by voting for the convention and continuously supporting the reconstruction measures. It is not at all surprising that the white people in Mississippi united in an effort to defeat such a constitution. The intelligent and respectable colored men sympathized with them. |