ort gained currency that
in a few days there was to be a "shooting up" in Bolivar. Guns and
ammunition were being stored, and the outlook became menacing. The
riot, however, was averted because Senator Bruce went personally to
the controlling citizens and succeeded in arousing a strong sentiment
against the threatening disorder. Bolivar County was thus enabled to
boast that it had never been stained with bloodshed, and even today
the memory of Senator Bruce is held in highest respect in Bolivar
County.

In other sections of the State, rioting became so prevalent,
especially on election days, that the returns of the elections were
open to serious doubt. The United States Senate was forced to take
cognizance of this condition. On Friday, March 31, 1876, a Resolution
was introduced appointing a Committee "to investigate the late
election in Mississippi." Senator Bruce embraced this opportunity to
give a clear exposition of the condition of affairs in his State. His
speech on this occasion reveals him as a broad-minded and courageous
statesman free from the curse of narrow dogma and paltry aim. He began
by announcing the basic principles of a democracy that will survive:

The conduct of the late election in Mississippi affected not
merely the fortunes of the partisans--as the same were
necessarily involved in the defeat or success of the respective
parties to the contest--but put in question and jeopardy the
sacred rights of the citizens; and the investigation contemplated
in the pending resolution has for its object not the
determination of the question whether the offices shall be held
and the public affairs of the State be administered by Democrats
or Republicans, but the higher and more important end, the
protection in all their purity and significance of the political
rights of the people and the free institutions of the country.[6]

He continued by referring to the evidence which proved that the voters
of Mississippi in the "late election" had not had an actual
opportunity to cast their votes:

The evidence in hand and accessible will show beyond peradventure
that in many parts of the State corrupt and violent influences
were brought to bear upon the registrars of voters, thus
materially affecting the character of the voting or poll lists;
upon the inspectors of election, prejudicially and unfairly,
thereby changing the number of