The Facts of Reconstruction | Page 7

of the favorable impression I had made
upon him when I presented the slate. For this, of course, I was in no
way responsible. In fact the impression of my fitness for the office that
my brief talk had made upon the Governor was just what the club had
hoped I would be able to accomplish in the interest of the whole slate.
That it so happened that I was the beneficiary of the favorable
impression that my brief talk had made upon the Governor may have
been unfortunate in one respect, but it was an unconscious act for
which I could not be censured. After consulting, therefore, with a few
personal friends and local party leaders, I decided to accept the
appointment although, in consequence of my youth and inexperience, I
had serious doubts as to my ability to discharge the duties of the office
which at that time was one of considerable importance.
Then the bond question loomed up, which was one of the greatest
obstacles in my way, although the amount was only two thousand
dollars. How to give that bond was the important problem I had to
solve, for, of course, no one was eligible as a bondsman who did not
own real estate. There were very few colored men who were thus
eligible, and it was out of the question at that time to expect any white
property owner to sign the bond of a colored man. But there were two
colored men willing to sign the bond for one thousand dollars each who
were considered eligible by the authorities. These men were William
McCary and David Singleton. The law, having been duly satisfied in
the matter of my bond, I was permitted to take the oath of office in
April, 1869, and to enter upon the discharge of my duties as a Justice of
the Peace, which office I held until the 31st of December of the same
year when I resigned to accept a seat in the lower branch of the State
Legislature to which I had been elected the preceding November.
When I entered upon the discharge of my duties as a Justice of the

Peace the only comment that was made by the local Democratic paper
of the town was in these words: "We are now beginning to reap the
ravishing fruits of Reconstruction."
CHAPTER II
REORGANIZATION OF THE STATE DEPARTMENTS DURING
GOVERNOR ALCORN'S ADMINISTRATION
The new Constitution of Mississippi, which had been rejected in 1868,
was to be submitted to a popular vote once more in November, 1869.
At the same time State officers, members of the Legislature,
Congressmen, and district and county officers were to be elected. Since
the objectionable clauses in the Constitution were to be put to a
separate vote, and since it was understood that both parties would favor
the rejection of these clauses, there was no serious opposition to the
ratification of the Constitution thus amended. A hard and stubborn fight
was, however, to be made for control of the State Government.
General James L. Alcorn, who had been a general in the Confederate
Army and who had recently openly identified himself with the
Republican party, was nominated by the Republicans for the office of
Governor of the State. Of the other six men who were associated with
him on the state ticket, only the candidate for Secretary of the State, the
Reverend James Lynch,--an able and eloquent minister of the
Methodist Church,--was a colored man. Lynch was a man of fine
ability, of splendid education, and one of the most powerful and
convincing orators that the Republicans had upon the stump in that
campaign. He was known and recognized as such an able and brilliant
speaker that his services were in great demand from the beginning to
the end of the campaign. No Democratic orator, however able, was
anxious to meet him in joint debate. He died suddenly the latter part of
1872. His death was a great loss to the State and to the Republican
party and especially to the colored race.
Of the other five candidates on the ticket two,--the candidates for State
Treasurer and Attorney General,--were, like General Alcorn, Southern

white men. The candidate for State Treasurer, Hon. W.H. Vasser, was a
successful business man who lived in the northern part of the State,
while the candidate for Attorney General, Hon. Joshua S. Morris, was a
brilliant member of the bar who lived in the southern part of the State.
The other three, the candidates for Lieutenant-Governor, State Auditor
and Superintendent of Education, were Northern men who had settled
in the State after the War, called by the Democrats, "Carpet Baggers,"
but they were admitted to be clean and good men who had lived in the
State long enough to become fully identified