have it appear as a matter of history that the abolition of
slavery was an act of the state government. As a promi-
nent candidate of this persuasion put it: "My own opinion
is that if this great act of oppression is to be consummated,
by which the Southern people are to be deprived of $4,000,-
000,000 worth of property without compensation, it should
be left to be recorded in history as the act of that govern-
ment whose first and highest duty is, as far as its power
extends, to protect and guard with equal care the interests
and rights of the people of each and all of the states, and I
should desire that the people of Mississippi should not by their
action give sanction to this enormous public wrong." ¹ The
press of the state was divided as between these two views.
Of the two leading journals, the Jackson News and the Clar-
ion, the latter favored an unequivocal recognition of the
results of the war, while the News did not. The Clarion, in
an editorial, published the day before the meeting of the
convention, declared that however reluctant they might be
to yield their right to slaves as property, however much
they might prefer gradual emancipation, no one could deny
the fact that the freedom of the negro was already beyond
cavil, and that no act of theirs could change his destiny.
"We hear of candidates for the convention," said the edi-
tor, "who talk either of ignoring this question or pro-
testing against emancipation and demanding compensation.
Such a course, however proper it might be under other cir-
cumstances, at the present would inevitably result in the
prolongation of military rule in the South, and would very
probably lead to the reorganization of the states on the basis
of negro suffrage. It appears to us to be the duty of the
convention to recognize the situation and at once change the
Constitution to harmonize with this new order of things;
declare that slavery shall no longer exist in Mississippi,
and let it be done in good faith, without protest or remon-
strance." The Mississippian, another Jackson paper said,
"We think a decided majority of the convention will ignore
quibbling and meet the issue of the hour like men of sense
and candor." ²

The Mississippi convention was the first of the Southern
state conventions to assemble in pursuance of the President's

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