hen the Legislature was organized it was largely through the
influence of Governor Alcorn that he was elected Sergeant-at-arms of the
State Senate. When the Legislature adjourned Governor Alcorn sent Bruce
to Bolivar county as County Assessor. Bruce discharged the duties of
that office in such a creditable and satisfactory manner that he was
elected in 1871 Sheriff and Tax Collector of that important and wealthy
county, the most responsible and lucrative office in the gift of the
people of the county. He was holding that office when elected to the
United States Senate. Senator Alcorn felt, therefore, that in taking
sides against him and in favor of Ames in 1873 Mr. Bruce was guilty of
gross ingratitude. This accounted for his action in refusing to escort
Mr. Bruce to the President's desk to be sworn in as Senator. In this
belief, however, he did Mr. Bruce a grave injustice, for I know that
gratitude was one of Mr. Brace's principal characteristics. If Senator
Alcorn had been a candidate from the start for the Republican nomination
for Governor, Mr. Bruce, I am sure, would have supported him even as
against Senator Ames. But it was known that the Senator had no ambition
to be Governor. His sole purpose was to defeat Senator Ames at any cost,
and that, too, on account of matters that were purely personal and that
had no connection with party or political affairs. Mr. Bruce, like very
many other friends and admirers of the Senator, simply refused to follow
him in open rebellion against his own party. I am satisfied, however,
that Mr. Bruce's race identity did not influence the action of Senator
Alcorn in the slightest degree. As further evidence of that fact, his
position and action in the Pinchback case may be mentioned. He spoke and
voted for the admission of Mr. Pinchback to a seat in the Senate when
such a staunch Republican as Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, opposed and
voted against admission. In spite of Senator Alcorn's political defeat
and humiliation in his own State, he remained true and loyal to the
National Republican party to the end of his Senatorial term, which
terminated with the beginning of the Hayes Administration. Up to that
time he had strong hopes of the future of the Republican party at the
South.

CHAPTER VIII

IMPROVED FINANCIAL CONDITION OF MISSISSIPPI UNDER THE AMES
ADMINISTRATION

The administrations of Governor Alcorn and of Governor Ames, the two
Republican Governors, who were product