CHAPTER XXX.

RECONSTRUCTION IN THE FOURTH MILITARY DISTRICT.

MISSISSIPPI - REGISTRATION

THE DEMOCRATS ALLOW THE ELECTION FOR CONVENTION TO GO BY DEFAULT- APPREHENSIONS OF A NEGRO OUTBREAK COURT-MARTIALING OF A NEWSPAPER EDITOR THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION LIBERAL COMPENSATION TO DELEGATES AND OFFICERS GENERAL AMES APPOINTED PROVISIONAL GOVERNOR, AND GOVERNOR HUMPHREYS OUSTED AT THE POINT OF THE BAYONET - THE CONSTITUTION DEFEATED EX-SENATOR BROWN'S EXPLANATION OF THE VOTE-MODERATION IN POLITICS- OBNOXIOUS FEATURES OF THE CONSTITUTION ELIMINATED-THE CONSTITUTION RATIFIED-CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN PRESIDENT GRANT AND JUDGE DENT THE FALL ELECTION OF 1869-JAMES L. ALCORN CHOSEN GOVERNOR-HE DECLINES THE "PROVISIONAL" APPOINTMENT-ELECTIONS TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE- A COLORED SENATOR ADMISSION OF MISSISSIPPI TO THE UNION MEETING OF THE LEGISLATURE - GOVERNOR ALCORN'S INAUGURAL - A MURDER CASE. -THE NEW CONSTITUTION THE ELECTORS OF 1871 - CENSUS AND TAXATION · DEMOCRATIC VICTORY IN 1875 -ARKANSAS - HIGH-HANDED MILITARY INTERFERENCE WITH STATE OFFICIALS -THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION - ELECTION FRAUDS - CHARGES OF FRAUD ON ONE SIDE, AND OF INTIMIDATION ON THE OTHER-MILITARY RULE TERMINATED, AND THE STATE RESTORED TO THE UNION-FUNDING THE PUBLIC DEBT-THE HOLFORD BONDS-HOSTILITY BETWEEN GOVERNOR CLAYTON AND LIEUT.-GOV. JOHNSON THE FALL ELECTION OF 1872— MORE WHOLESALE FRAUDS—THE BAXTER-BROOKS CONFLICT-ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF 1874-THE PARTIES AND THEIR LEADERS EXCHANGING POSITIONS-PRESIDENT GRANT CHANGES WITH THEM- REPORT OF THE POLAND INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE — STATE FINANCES.

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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.

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 man. 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 Private soldiers of the Confederate army were, however, exempted from this exclusion from office.

acts.

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.

The total vote on ratification was 120,091, of which 56,231 were for the constitution, and 63,860 against it. This showed an opposition majority of 7,629. Benjamin G. Humphreys, the Democratic candidate for governor, was elected. He received 63,321 votes, against 55,250 for the Republican candidate, B. B. Eggleston. Four of the five congressmen elected at the same time were Democrats. The Democrats had a small majority in the legislature.

Ex-United States Senator Albert G. Brown appeared before the congressional reconstruction committee as a representative of the Democratic party. He is the statesman referred to in our early chapters. He testified that profound quiet prevailed in all parts of Mississippi; that there was not a state in the Union where the law was administered more impartially, or where the civil courts had a higher regard for the rights of men of all parties and of all colors. He stated that the people were willing to submit to the Reconstruction acts of Congress, if those acts were fairly carried out. The proposed constitution had been defeated, he said, not by fraud and intimidation, as had been alleged, but distinctly because it was more vindictive in its spirit than the people, white or black, would tolerate. It was more proscriptive than the acts of Congress required. He said that the Republican candidates were defeated because they stood as the representatives of the tone of the constitution, and not because they were trying to reflect the will of Congress. He declared that if Congress would take up the rejected constitution of 1868, and so amend it as to make it conform to the requirements of the fourteenth article of the Reconstruction acts, the people would accept it with unparalleled unanimity. They would not, however, he said, willingly accept as officers the men who had been rejected with the constitution, because those men stood as the exponents of that constitution and were pledged to carry out all its vindictive and proscriptive features.

A joint resolution was passed by Congress early in March, 1869. It declared that the offices held in Virginia, Texas, and Mississippi by persons who could not take the test oath prescribed by the act of July 2, 1862, should be vacated. It declared also that the commanders of the military districts embracing those states should fill such offices by the appointment of persons who could take the test oath. An exception was made in favor of those whose disabilities had been removed. This joint resolution was carried into effect in Mississippi by a general order of General Ames. It was dated March 23d. Another general order was issued requiring that men of color should be received by the courts as competent jurors.

Considering the ardent temperament of the Mississippi character and the profoundly important questions at issue, the politics of the state took a singular turn. Moderation became the order of the day. Eggleston and his associates, who had framed the constitution of May, 1868, and who had made it so proscriptive that it was disapproved by General Grant and a majority of

RIVAL REPUBLICAN PARTIES.

529

Congress, were thrown overboard by the Republican party; while the Democratic party, which had urged affairs to the opposite extreme, had the good sense to stand aside in favor of the "National Union Republican Party." President Grant, under the authority of Congress, issued a proclamation ordering a new election on the question of ratification of the constitution, in which the sections containing the obnoxious features that had been pointed out were submitted for a separate vote. The result was that all these were rejected by large majorities. The constitution itself, thus amended by executive pruning, was ratified. It was ratified by an almost unanimous vote. There were only 954 votes against ratification, to 105,223 in its favor.

The radical Republicans, probably under inspiration from Washington, put in nomination a relatively conservative ticket for state officers. James L. Alcorn, a studious economist and cotton raiser of fair and conservative views, was at its head for governor. Their platform also was denuded of all its most offensive features. It differed very little in tone from that of the National Union Republicans. It pledged fidelity to the Union and to the Republican party. It favored a just and economical administration of the state and national governments, freedom of speech and of elections, free schools, and reformation of the system of taxation. It declared that all men, without regard to race, stood as equals before the law. The platform declared in favor of a removal of political disabilities as soon as the dawning spirit of toleration should warrant Congress in declaring them at an end. It recommended the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment.

The National Union Republican party adopted a platform quite as liberal as that of the radical Republicans. It expressed the thanks of the party to the President and Congress for rejecting the scheme of Eggleston and others to secure the acceptance of the constitution after it had been rejected by the people. It declared in favor of universal suffrage and of free schools for all. This party nominated as its candidate for governor, Judge Lewis Dent. He was a brother-in-law of President Grant. He doubtless expected to receive the support of General Grant and his administration. In this, however, he was mistaken. General Grant declared in an emphatic letter his purpose to sustain the candidates of the other party. This letter, which was addressed to his brother-in-law, was as follows:

"LONG BRANCH, August 1st, 1869.

DEAR JUDGE: I am so thoroughly satisfied in my own mind that the success of the so-called conservative party in Mississippi would result in the defeat of what I believe to be for the best interest of the state and country, that I have determined to say so to you (in writing of course). I know, or believe that your intentions are good in accepting the nomination from the conservative party. I would regret to see you run for an office and be defeated by my act; but, as matters now look, I must throw the weight of