Hinds County Gazette clipping

Lynch, James, 1839-1872; Caldwell, Charles, -1875; Shorter, James A., Jr.; Johnson, William, active 1872-1877; Hinds County (Miss.)

THE REPUBLICAN MEETING ON SATURDAY.

The Republicans met in county convention in Raymond on Saturday last for the purpose of speechifying and appointing delegates to represent Hinds county in their approaching State convention, which is to appoint delegates to the National Convention for the nomination of Grant for the Presidency. Hon. J. S. Morris, Hon. Jas. Lynch, Hon. Sim. Jones, J. L. Lake, Esq., J. M. Coats, Esq., A. N. Kimball, Esq., and many other distinguished men of the party from Jackson, white and colored, were present on the occasion. Hon. C. Caldwell was president, and J. M. Chilton, Esq., acted as secretary. Several speeches were made, all of them laudatory of Grant, and of the Radical party and particularly of the colored wing of that party. The appointment of delegates was the hardest nut to crack that was presented on the occasion, and the Convention was engaged at least five mortal hours in that operation. There were evidently several "axes to grind," each having some favor on the floor, but we could make no satisfactory discoveries beyond this that the Hon. James Lynch would not reject a nomination for Congress in this district. Every man in the meeting wishing to be a delegate to the State Convention, and each of the half dozen little rings represented wishing to get the advantage, combined to make it the most inharmonious, turbulent, and riprorious deliberative assembly that we ever witnessed, not even excepting the riotous meetings of the Raymond Republican club last summer and fall. Hon. C. Caldwell, Hon. Sim Jones, Hon. J. S. Morris, and others equally skilled in commanding men, occupied the chair at different times, but all were equally insufficient for this occasion. One hundred lunatics let loose, and then stirred up with a long pole with branches of the nettle-weed attached, could not have been more unmanageable and boisterous than was this meeting. One thing we can say to its credit, however, which is that on two or three occasions, Judge Morris succeeded in calming the storm by assuring the convention that the police were at the door with the riot act in their hands, and would, if order was not instantly restored, arrest every man in the meeting, and carry them all to the calaboose. This announcement would bring instant quiet; but in five minutes the same old scene would burst forth in all its magnificent splendor.

The following, we believe, is a correct list of the delegates appointed to represent the county in the State Convention: J. S. Morris, James Lynch, J. L. Lake, J. A. Shorter, W. H. Harvey, Wm. Johnston, G. W. Fisher, Charles Caldwell. Four from the city of Jackson, and four from the remainder of the county.