Autograph letter signed concerning the ratification vote for the Mississippi Constitution of 1868, describing the suppression of African American voters, written by a white Democrat and using racist language

Beschreibung

2pp. With the original mailing envelope. 4to. In May 1868, the Mississippi constitutional convention, sometimes referred to as the "black and tan" convention as it included for the first time both white and black delegates, adopted the state's third constitution and referred it to the people for ratification. The radical Republican document not only outlawed slavery, but extended citizenship to former slaves and suffrage to African American men. Among its more controversial provisions, however, was the stipulation that barred from public office any citizen, military officer, legislator, or convention delegate who had served or sympathized with the Confederate cause. The ratification vote was held the following month and Mississippi became the only former Confederate state to reject its reconstruction constitution by nearly eight thousand votes. Historians have long been interested in the vote tally of this election, as African American voters far outnumbered white voters, and have pointed to both widespread intimidation and manipulation to explain the failure of passage. The present letter, by a white Democrat, was written in the midst of the ratification vote to an attorney in Huntsville Alabama describing the polling and the intimidation tactics in detail: "As you are devoted to 'saving the country' I write to inform you that these people are now in the midst of their Constitutional Nigger elections. They are confident that they will defeat the Constitution, and say, that if Congress puts them in the Union any way, as they did [in] Ala, that they can carry the state at the Presidential election for the democratic nominee. They say they will defeat the Constitution by from 8 to 12,000 but expect to be swindled in the count. The Whites are unanimous and they have thus far voted a surprising number of the Negroes. For instance at West Point there were 800 votes poled, 150 of which were white, but Nigger the radicals carried it by 100 majority, showing 200 Negro votes for the Democracy and against the Constitution. Now if the Negroes throughout the state vote as they do here there can be no doubt of the result . These folks vote and work with the wildest enthusiasm and say that it is a matter of life and death. Every man is at his post, armed to the teeth, with shotgun and revolver and his ballot. Many of the Negroes are bitter and hostile towards Negroes who vote the democratic ticket, and threaten them. The democratic darkey turns to the white man for protection, who in return boldly notify radical darkey if he touches democratic nig they will kill burn and slay . whatever may be the result of this election, Mississippi will vote for the nominee of the democratic party next November." As the Constitution failed to pass, Congress refused to seat the white Democrats of Mississippi elected to the House in July 1868. In December of that year, however, the Constitution was ratified after a second vote considered each provision separately. The author of the letter, William W. Garth (1828-1912), served as a Lt. Col. under Longstreet in the Confederate army and from 1877-79 served as a Democrat member of Congress from Alabama. The recipient of the letter Septimus Cabaniss (1815-1889) served the Confederacy as an Alabama state legislator from 1861-1863, and also as a Colonel in the Intelligence Division. 2pp. With the original mailing envelope. 4to.

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Bibliografische Details

Titel

Autograph letter signed concerning the ratification vote for the Mississippi Constitution of 1868, describing the suppression of African American voters, written by a white Democrat and using racist language

Verlag

Tibbee Station, Mississippi

Erscheinungsjahr

1868

Zustand

Usual folds

Verkäuferkataloge

• Americana