ion
of the anti-slavery spirit in its heroic phase. On the wrongs of the
slave he is silent, while upon the sins of the carpet-bagger he is
eloquent. This one-sidedness robs of its significance what should be the
American epic of the nineteenth century.

Of the misgovernment of Mississippi, Dr. Wilson instances that "before
the work of the carpet-baggers was done, 640,000 acres of land had been
forfeited for taxes, twenty per cent. of the total acreage of the
State." The nearest atlas or gazetteer is enough to check this
statement. The total acreage of the State is 29,640,000,--of which
640,000 is not twenty per cent., but a trifle over two per cent. Dr.
Wilson goes on to say that the State tax levy in 1874 was fourteen times
as great as in 1869. This is apparently taken from the "Taxpayers'
petition" of 1875, but from whatever source, it gives an utterly
exaggerated impression. Before the Congressional committee Judge H. R.
Ware, chairman of the State Republican committee,--a Kentuckian by
birth, and a life-long resident of Mississippi,--gave his testimony; and
it included documents showing that the total State expense during the
last two years of Democratic rule, 1864 and '65, was $1,410,250 and
$1,860,809; for twenty years of Democratic administration, throwing out
the extra expenses of the war period, the average cost was $699,200;
under military government (always the cheapest) in 1869 it was $563,219;
while under the Republicans in 1875 it was $618,259; and the average for
six Republican years had been $992,920. When the Republicans came in,
they had to make payments in warrants worth only sixty-five cents on the
dollar, with proportionate increase of expense; they had to provide for
a free population doubled by the emancipation of the slaves, and for the
last four years they had made an annual reduction.

Yet the "Taxpayers' petition"--addressed to the Legislature early in
1875, and without effect,--must be taken as evidence of at least a
considerable extravagance and waste. A reading of it gives the
impression of a needless multiplication of offices and excessive
salaries. The public printing seems clearly a scandal, running above
$73,000 a year, as against a cost in the sister State of Georgia of only
$10,000. The general charge seems to be of laxness and needlessly high
salaries rather than any wholesale corruption. Some question as to the
justice of the general charge occurs when a point is encountered as to