jections to it and abhorrence of it by pursuing a
course of masterly inactivity. The liberal and conservative element in
the party was so bitterly opposed to this course that in spite of the
action of the State Convention several counties, as has been already
stated, bolted the action of the convention and took part in the
election.

Of the Republican membership of the Constitutional Convention a large
majority were white men,--many of them natives of the State and a number
of others, though born elsewhere, residents in the State for many years
preceding the war of the Rebellion. My own county, Adams (Natchez), in
which the colored voters were largely in the majority, and which was
entitled to three delegates in the convention, elected two white
men,--E.J. Castello, and Fred Parsons,--and one colored man, H.P.
Jacobs, a Baptist preacher. Throughout the State the proportion was
about the same. This was a great disappointment to the dominating
element in the Democratic party, who had hoped and expected, through
their policy of "Masterly Inactivity" and intimidation of white men,
that the convention would be composed almost exclusively of illiterate
and inexperienced colored men. Although a minor at that time, I took an
active part in the local politics of my county, and, being a member of a
Republican club that had been organized at Natchez, I was frequently
called upon to address the members at its weekly meetings.

When the State Constitution was submitted to a popular vote for
ratification or rejection I took an active part in the county campaign
in advocacy of its ratification. In this election the Democrats pursued
a course that was just the opposite of that pursued by them in the
election of delegates to the Constitutional Convention. They decided
that it was no longer unwise and dangerous for white men to take part in
an election in which colored men were allowed to participate. This was
due largely to the fact that the work of the convention had been far
different from what they had anticipated. The newly framed Constitution
was, taken as a whole, such an excellent document that in all
probability it would have been ratified without serious opposition but
for the fact that there was an unfortunate, unwise and unnecessary
clause in it which practically disfranchised those who had held an
office under the Constitution of the United States and who, having taken
an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the U