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"Resignation Letter of George C. Smith",,"Letter from George C. Smith to A. K. Davis, resigning his state Senate seat.",,,,"Smith, George C., active 1874-1878",,1875-06-26,,,,,,,,,"Smith, George C., active 1874-1878",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Document at the Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi Project. Original held at the Mississippi Department of Archives & History.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,"
Jackson, June 26 1875
Lieut Gov. A K. Davis
Acting Gov.
Jackson—
Sir—
I herewith tender my resignation as state Senator for the 28th Senatorial Dist.
I am Sir
Very Respectfully.
Your Obt. Servant.
G. C. Smith
",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"gc smith",https://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/files/original/7/2268/smithletter.png,Text,"Against All Odds: The First Black Legislators in Mississippi ",1,0
"Signature of George C. Smith",,"Signature of George C. Smith from an 1875 letter to A. K. Davis.",,,,"Smith, George C., active 1874-1878",,1875-06-26,,,,,,,,,"Smith, George C., active 1874-1878",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"gc smith,signatures",https://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/files/original/7/2267/georgesmith.png,"Still Image","Against All Odds: The First Black Legislators in Mississippi ",1,0
"Meridian Semi-Weekly Herald clipping",,,,,,"Meridian Semi-Weekly Herald",,1896-07-11,,,,,,,,,"Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)--Mississippi; Moore, James Aaron; Higgins, David, active 1870; Smith, Gilbert C.; McCain, Thomas; Davis, Alexander Kelso; Cardozo, Thomas W. (Thomas Whitmarsh), 1838-1881; Hill, James, 1846-1903; Ames, Adelbert, 1835-1933",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"RECONSTRUCTION,
Scenes of the Carpet Bag Reign in Mississippi
As Portrayed by Hon. H. M. Street in the Picayune.
MERIDIAN, Miss., July 5. - The election in 1869, by which the constitution of that year was adopted, was such in name only. The adoption of the constitution was the only relief from an unfriendly military government. There was but one voting precinct for each supervisor's district - five to the county. United States soldiers were at each precinct. On the second day the boxes were carried to the courthouse with the ballots uncounted, and the election continued for the benefit of all who failed to find the voting place the first day. The apportionment was entirely arbitrary. Tishomingo, then the largest county in the state, was given two representatives, while Warren, with a smaller population, was given five. General Adelbert Ames, who was a candidate for the United States senate, was commander of the military district, and had absolute control of the election machinery. The bottom rail was put on top and remained there, propped up by bayonets until the cyclone of 1875. In the first legislature under the constitution the Democrats had seven senators and twenty-four representatives. The senators were J. M. Stone, of Tishomingo; Stricklin, of Tippah; Duncan, of Yalobusha; Castles, of Choctaw; Johnson, of Carroll; Watts, of Newton, and T. J. Hardy, of Jones. Stone, Castles and Hardy are now living. The representatives were C. B. Mitchell and S. H. Wood, of Pontotoc; A. T. Roane, of Calhoun; Hemingway, McKenzie and Pittman, of Carroll; Hunt and Wells, of Tippah; Eli Phillips, of Itawamba; Graham, of WInston; I. L. Bolton, of Newton; H. C. Greer, of Neshoba; Street and Johns, of Tishomingo; Rowland, Jones and H. K. Mister, of Yalobusha; Conner and Dr. Hart, of Choctaw; Tom Maxey, of Rankin; Currie, of Smith; Collins, of Jones; Dr. Gillis, of Covington; Dr. McLeod, of Green, and George Hartfield, of Perry. Half of those are now living, and if Judge Currie, of Smith, is alive, there are thirteen of us, some of whom still adhere to the Jacksonian doctrine of sound money.
A new apportionment was made in 1871, under which the election of that year was held. While not fair, it was an improvement on the old one. A determined effort was made to capture the lower house. The close counties were Chickasaw, Marshall, Copiah and Lauderdale. The Democrats carried them all, but failing to carry DeSoto, with five representatives, and the only black county for which there was reasonable hope, the Republicans still had a majority and used it to unseat the Democrats from Copiah and Lauderdale, and two of the four from Marshall. Dr. W. F. Hyer and John Calhoun, of Marshall, retained their seats. The Democrats, led by General Robt. Lowry, of Rankin, and Colonel J. R. McIntosh, of Chickasaw, made a gallant fight for all the contestees, but eloquence and arguments counted for nothing.
At the election in 1873 the Republican majority was increased as a result of a want of organization and effort on the part of the Democrats. The complexion of the Republican side changed from a white majority in 1870 to two-thirds colored in 1874, showing the negroes had determined to hold the offices while they were doing the voting for the party.
Nothing approaching a true picture of the legislature from 1870 to 1875 can be drawn at this late day. To those who saw it or took part in it, it seems more a dream than reality. It is difficult to realize that the events of that time were the lawful acts of a regularly organized state government.
The legislature was composed of all sorts, classes and colors from the freckle-faced blond to the coal black son of Ham. An old man named Dansby held a certificate as representative from Jasper. He rented a shanty in which he and his wife lived. He worked on odd jobs of carpentering, except when some one wanted his vote in the house bad enough to compete with the outside man for his time. When there was no such urgent demand he would answer to roll call, draw his $8 and return to his job work. Aaron Moore, a very good blacksmith, now residing in Jackson, hailed from Lauderdale, and drew an $8 warrant each day for holding down a chair in representatives' hall. Late in the summer of 1870 a resolution was introduced to adjourn sine die. Aaron rushed to the author and besought him to withdraw the resolution, saying he had purchased a house and lot in Meridian and wanted another month's per diem to pay it out.
The reconstruction constitution having reduced the requisite number of square miles for a county, there was a general rush for new counties, and many were created. Most of them were made without trouble or expense. Colfax (now Clay), and Union, being the only exceptions. It was reported that a special tax was levied on the property of West Point to pay the expenses incurred in having the county created. The bill was opposed by the Democrats because it was purposely drawn by the Republicans so as to take more whites than blacks from Chickasaw in which the two races were about equal. Marshall, another close county, was mutilated for the same purpose by exchanging a white corner for a black one with DeSoto. The old line has since been restored.
In the apportionment of representatives only one member was allowed in some cases to two counties. These counties were all white, and cutting off representation reduced the chances of Democratic success. An amendment was proposed giving each county a representative. The Clarion next morning contained the following speech in opposition to the amendment:
""Mr. Speaker: I'se 'posed to de 'menment of de gentleman over dar. Dis thing of giving every county a representer is a very 'spensive observation. 'Sides dat, Mr. Speaker, it means mo' Democrats, and dats jes what we don't want. 'Nough of dem here now. Dis 'menment hadn't ought to pass and I moves to lay it on the table and on dat I move the previous question.""
The speech was made by Randle Higgins [note: this seems to be a conflation of David Higgins and Randle Nettles], an Oktibbeha negro. Some member told him the paper had slandered him, and advised him to lay the matter before the house. He sent the paper to the clerk's desk and had it read. The only serious face in the hall was Higgins'. As soon as the speaker could control himself he asked what the gentleman from Oktibbeha desired? ""Mr. Speaker, I want a vote tuck to see who writ dat,"" was Higgins' reply. As the matter was not put in shape for a vote, the reporter was not called to account.
Gilbert Smith answered to the name of Smith, of Tunica. He introduced and advocated the passage of a bill to allow all members of the legislature to practice law. He said: ""One lawyer says the law is this, another lawyer says the law is that and another lawyer says he don't know what the law is. We makes the laws and knows what they is, and the lawyers say they don't know.""
An occurrence that caused some comment was the partnership of the Pilot and Clarion, in the public printing. There were two Republican candidates - Kimball and Raymond, of the Pilot, representing the Ames wing of the party, and Alcorn and Fisher, of the Alcorn wing. Several Democrats were inclined to vote with the weaker or conservative wing, but finally consented to the other combination. It was feared when the joint convention met that an adjournment would follow without a ballot, so that Republican differences could be harmonized in caucus. To prevent this it was arranged that whatever point of order was made against adjournment should be sustained by the presiding officer. This was done. The Republicans divided and the Democrats voted for Power and Barksdale. Before the result was announced the votes were changed to the other candidates. To prevent a stampede of the negroes the first Democratic change was to Alcorn and Fisher. The changes to Kimball and Raymond were made quietly and those to Alcorn and Fisher so as to attract attention, some being reported two or three times. When the result was announced, the Republicans seemed in doubt as to whether they had won or lost. In a few days the Alcorn and Fisher party presented a bill reducing the cost of printing. The Democrats united with them and passed it, greatly reducing the profits of the public printers. This measure could not have passed if the Republicans had been harmonious.
Want of harmony was noted at the called session in 1873, when it was proposed to postpone the State election for one year, as the only way to defeat Ames. The feeling was so intense between the two wings of the Republican party that a Democrat was elected speaker of a body two-thirds Republican. The bill postponing the election passed the house easily, but never came to a vote in the senate. The vote in that body was close and one or two senators were admitted to seats which they had forfeited by accepting other offices. The seat of Morgan, of Yazoo, was declared vacant after several days' filibustering. Senator Mygatt belonged to the Ames wing, but it is said that he placed himself in the hands of the other side and agreed to go wherever they directed. He was put under guard and sent off, but was captured and returned by the regulars.
At the session of 1872 the seats of several Democrats were contested, and two each from Copiah, Lauderdale and Marshall were unseated. In the Lauderdale case it appeared that the day before the election a number of negroes were hired to go up the Alabama Great Southern Railroad to remove a wreck. They did not return in time to vote, but would have voted the Republican ticket. This was charged as a Democratic trick, and was one of the grounds upon which the Democrats were unseated.
There were a few old time negroes that desired to act and vote with the Democrats on nonpolitical questions. I remember Tom McCain, of DeSoto, and Alfred Walker [Jefferson Cobb Walker?], of Monroe, who were conspicuous in that respect, but they could not resist the dictates of a caucus. The contrast between then and now is such that the scenes then enacted are now more like a dream than reality. We were fortunate to come through it all as well as we did.
About the time the Legislature adjourned in the spring of 1875 the writer was told by a prominent, dissatisfied Republican that President Grant would not interfere in the next State election, and that if the Democrats did not win it would be their own fault. There was no interference and the Democrats did win, working the most complete revolution in the history of American politics. The Republicans had all seven State offices and six of them for an unexpired term of two years. They had the three supreme judges, the fifteen circuit judges and twenty chancellors, with two-thirds of the Legislature and the same proportion of county officers. The Democrats elected nearly nine-tenths of the members of the house, but by reason of holdover Senators they secured one less than two-thirds of the Senate. General Chalmers was the only Democratic contestant, and he easily secured the seat to which Sullivan, of Bolivar, had been returned as elected. This strengthened the Senate as a court of impeachment, and the tables were turned on Governor General Ames and his lieutenants. He resigned to avoid impeachment. Davis and Cardoza, lieutenant Governor and superintendent of education, were both convicted and removed from office. On the 1st of May, 1876, the only Republican judicial officer in the State was Judge Simrall, of the Supreme court. Jim Hill, secretary of State, was not disturbed, nor was there any disposition to disturb him. The Democrats were glad of an opportunity to show that it was crime and not color they were after. It must not be assumed that all Republicans were bad. There were many honorable exceptions, who suffered from the same misfortunes that befell old dog Tray. Judge Niles, of Atlanta, father of United States Judge Niles, was an able and conscientious man and a Republican from principle. He was a member in 1870. Other names could be given, but I have written enough.
H. M. STREET.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"ak davis,ames,cardozo,gc smith,higgins,hill,ja moore,mccain",https://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/files/original/b0ac0f61cf5912547ecaa299eabf192c.png,Text,"Against All Odds: The First Black Legislators in Mississippi ",1,0
"Clarion-Ledger clipping",,,,,,Clarion-Ledger,,1874-03-19,,,,,,,,,"Smith, Gilbert C.; Mississippi State Penitentiary",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"RESOLUTIONS.
Mr. Smith, of Tunica, by general consent, introduced the following:
Whereas, Some disaffection has grown out of the mode of punishing convicts now in the State Penitentiary; and,
Whereas, It is necessary that this Legislature have full and sufficient information of the same; therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Superintendent of said Penitentiary be requested to communicate to this House the number and nature of offenses punished and the character of punishment in each case.
The resolution was adopted.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"gc smith",https://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/files/original/4dda6ea55c7e005c3077429a7f2b1bd0.PNG,Text,"Against All Odds: The First Black Legislators in Mississippi ",1,0
"Daily Mississippi Pilot clipping",,,,,,"Daily Mississippi Pilot",,1875-10-29,,,,,,,,,"Hill, James, 1846-1903; Welborne, Eugene Bonaparte, -1934; Griggs, Richard, -1883; Foote, William Henderson, 1843-1883; Caldwell, Charles, -1875; Bruce, Blanche Kelso, 1841-1898; Stringer, Thomas W., 1815-1893; Albright, George Washington, 1846-1944; Smith, Gilbert C.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"AN ADDRESS
from
Colored Voters to Colored Voters.
JACKSON, Sept. 30, 1875.
Friends and Fellow-Citizens:
We take the liberty of addressing this letter to you because the occasion which calls it forth is full of momentous interest to all of us. We desire to arouse you, if you are not already aroused, to an acute sense of the importance of the crisis which we, as a race, have reached in this State; and at the same time to take counsel together as to the best and surest means of averting the danger which so seriously threatens our liberties as American citizens.
We know, as we pen these lines, that the shallow thinker, and the willful demagogue, will taunt us with drawing the ""Color Line,"" merely because we address this letter specially to colored men. But you will perceive that this is not a political letter, in the strict party sense, but rather an appeal to that class of the people of Mississippi who have much more at stake than the mere principles or policy of a party organization. The matters involved in the present political canvass, which concern us as a race, extend much deeper, and rise far above, mere party lines. Our civil rights and privileges as freemen are at issue. It is a melancholy fact, but nevertheless a fact, that in every election which has been held at the South since the ballot was placed in our hands, all that we have, all that we are, and all that we hope to be, have been thrown into the scales, to be contended for at the polls. It is in this respect that our case differs so materially from that of our white fellow citizens. A Democrat cannot apply an unfriendly act of legislation to a white Republican without subjecting himself to the same ordeal. Not so with us, as has been proven by every Southern State that has come under the control of the Democracy since the war. It is in this respect, then, that our case is peculiar, and it is for this reason that this letter is addressed especially to you; and not for the purpose of suggesting or encouraging the formation of race lines in a party organization. The Republican party is proud of its white members, and has never yet failed to honor them. We boast of some of the best men that ever trod the soil of Mississippi, and to them we owe a debt of gratitude, never to be forgotten.
We write in the light of experience and actual demonstration, when we say that the success of the Democratic party at the ensuing election, frenzied as it is with hate and rancor, will, to all intents and purposes, sound the death knell of all the hopes that the colored man has indulged of educating, elevating and improving his race in this State. Once under the iron heel of Democracy, the colored man will at once sink back to the status he held in 1865 - free in name, but not in fact - poor, ignorant and helpless, hedged in by unfriendly laws, which he will have no power to circumvent - a ""hewer of wood and a drawer of water"" forever. His children will grow up as they did in the days of chattel slavery, untaught, and uncared for until they become large enough to take the places of their parents, to ""hew more wood and draw more water."" And thus on, from generation to generation, down to the end of time, or until it shall please a merciful Providence to terminate their career on earth in utter extinction. Look, for illustration, at the miserable, down-trodden, wretched colored people of Georgia. Hopelessly in debt to their employers, with no rights respected by the courts, their means of education, the very mockery of a school system, crushed and discouraged, it is said that at the last election in that State at least 30,000 colored men did not have the heart to go to the polls and vote. So, you see that, when the reins of power once pass into Democratic hands, it amounts in the end to practical disfranchisement, as far as you are concerned.
Do you ask if this will be so in Mississippi? Reasoning from analogy, that is, by supposing that the same kind of people will do the same thing under similar circumstances, you may know it will be so. But we are not left to a plausible conjecture on this subject. Read the Acts of the Legislature of 1865, after you were emancipated, but before you were voters. Under the operation of laws provided for you then, your condition would have been far worse than that of slavery. Examine the journals of the Legislature since that time, clear down to the present date, and see for yourselves if the Democratic members ever supported a measure that was intended for the benefit of the colored people. On the contrary, see if they have not, on all occasions, in season and out of season, resorted to every means to thwart and obstruct such measures.
And, indeed, it is sad to think and know that this is so! Nearly every one of us were slaves to these Southern people. Before the war many of us have lived and basked in the sunshine of the affection of the ""old master"" and of the ""young master,"" of the ""old mistress"" and of the pride of the household, the blooming ""young miss,"" with all the fondness of trusting children. With many of us this affection and veneration amounted to little less than idolatry. We know that they cannot find it in their hearts to believe that we hate them now. Are they who went to the war and left their wives and little ones in our care at home - they who confided to our keeping, everything they held dear on earth, at a time when we knew that our freedom was trembling in the balance - they whose scalding tears fell upon our clasped hands as they pressed everything into our charge while they should be gone - are they our enemies? They remember that we were true to them and theirs throughout that bitter trial, and when they came home they found us there, true to our trust, and the first to welcome them at the gate. We are not a bloody-minded people. We were framed for peace, but our blood would have been ready to gush out upon the ground, had it been necessary to shed it in defense of our sacred charge. Were any holy promises made which were to be fulfilled after the war was over? We never speak of them now, but we have not forgotten! Do we hate them? No, a thousand times no!
At the close of the war we were the poorest people that ever had an existence in a civilized community. We not only had no ""local habitation,"" but we had no legitimate ""name.""
The Government of the United States made us free, and, in due course of time, invested us with all the rights and privileges of citizens. This was thought to be necessary in order that we might have the means of self-protection, to some extent at least, in the struggle for existence. Among these rights and privileges was the right of suffrage. Clothed with the right to vote, we went forth, poor in purse, but strong in muscle, and inhaled for the first time the air of heaven as freemen. We demanded no pay for the long years of service as slaves! We made no charge for the weary watching and anxious cares which weighed us down during the four years of war! We begged for no lands, nor mules, nor money! We were content to go forth into the world as freemen, asking for nothing, and expecting nothing, in that unequal start, but a fair and equal chance in the battle of life! With all these tender recollections crowding upon us, it bleeds the very heart of us to think that our ""old masters,"" and the ""young masters"" who have been nursed in our arms, would deprive us of the privilege of casting our votes as we please without the risk of being shot to death like dogs. We still hope that this coldness and ill-feeling toward us is more the result of sectional animosity, and party rancor, than of personal hostility to us as a race, and we confidently look forward to a returning sense of justice, and right reason, when perfect amity and concord will bear sway once more.
But, colored men, that time is not now. Our old friends and former masters are, for the present, under the control of a set of desperate political leaders who have ""fired their hearts"" again, and have ""fired"" them this time against us. They are not in a humor to be talked to now. Passion rules the hour. Under these circumstances, it is of the utmost importance that you should keep cool - very cool - but at no time forget that your rights are endangered, and at all times bear in mind that in this hour of madness they would be crushed out of existence if entrusted to the Democracy. You must not only think for yourselves, but you must act for yourselves. A failure now to come fully up to the duty of the hour, may cost you the loss of that privilege forever hereafter. ""Now is the time, and the accepted time."" ""Work while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work."" The Government has placed it in your power to perpetuate and preserve all your rights and liberties, and is now anxiously watching to see if you are worthy of the blessings of citizenship. You can easily do all that is required of you. If you have not procured your registration papers, you can get them. Being provided with them, it will be an easy matter to vote. If you never vote again on earth, vote now! The Republican party has thirty or forty thousand majority in the State. Shall we be defeated and go down in disgrace and ignominy? Never! Let us, with uplifted hands and with one united voice, swear by Him who led the children of Israel out of the wilderness, that we will save ourselves from the clutches of the Democracy, and that we will cast our votes in spite of threats and intimidation. Be courageous, not over-bold; prove your manhood by your determination to exercise your rights at the ballot-box fearlessly as men and citizens, exercising a courteous and at all times respectful bearing toward your political opponents, who will, in time, have respect for you because you respect yourselves.
We would most earnestly entreat you, for the sake of the common good, to lay upon the altar of a self-sacrificing patriotism, all personal ambition for office. And we implore you not to fritter away your strength upon a divided ticket. If you have local differences, settle them, and settle them now. Have but one ticket in the field, and let that be composed of your best and worthiest men. This is no time to gratify the aspirations of personal friends, nor to seek revenge upon personal enemies. Be united, or all is lost.
Then let it be whispered all along the line that, on the 2d day of November next, there is to be an election in which all our rights and liberties are at stake. Then let each and every one, without a single exception, with a prayer to God on his lips, make a firm resolve that he will prove himself worthy of all his rights by going to the ballot-box and casting his vote. Do this firmly and unitedly, and on your way home from the election you may lift your voice in thanks and praise, for the victory will be ours!
May God make you profoundly sensible of the importance of the great duty which now devolves upon you.
Your friends and fellow-citizens,
JAMES HILL,
E. B. WILBOURN,
RICHARD GRIGGS,
S. J. IRELAND,
N. D. SNEED,
LAWRENCE W. MINOR,
W. H. FOOTE,
CHARLES CALDWELL,
B. K. BRUCE,
T. W. STRINGER,
JOHN BROWN,
H. G. W. ALBRIGHT,
G. C. SMITH,
W. H. HARNEY,
And many others.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"albright,bruce,caldwell,elections,foote,gc smith,griggs,hill,stringer,welborne",https://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/files/original/7/1058/Capture.PNG,Text,"Against All Odds: The First Black Legislators in Mississippi ",1,0