government.  One of the reasons, no doubt, why it is supported by a Democratic administration, is that the State might otherwise forfeit and lose the aid it now receives from the National Government for the support of agricultural institutions.  But, aside from this, there are very many liberal, fair-minded and influential Democrats in the State who are strongly in favor of having the State provide for the liberal education of both races.

The knowledge I had acquired of parliamentary law not only enabled me to take a leading part in the deliberations of the Legislature, but it resulted in my being made Speaker of the House of Representatives that was elected in 1871.  Shortly after the adjournment of the first session of the Legislature, the Speaker of the House, Hon. F.E.  Franklin, of Yazoo County, died.  When the Legislature reassembled the first Monday in January, 1871, Hon. H.W.  Warren, of Leake County, was made Speaker of the House.  In addition to the vacancy from Yazoo, created by the death of Speaker Franklin, one had also occurred from Lowndes County, which was one of the safe and sure Republican counties.  Through apathy, indifference and overconfidence, the Democratic candidate, Dr. Landrum, was elected to fill this vacancy.  It was a strange and novel sight to see a Democratic member of the Legislature from the rock-ribbed Republican county of Lowndes.  It was no doubt a source of considerable embarrassment even to Dr. Landrum himself, for he was looked upon by all as a marvel and a curiosity.  When he got up to deliver his maiden speech a few days after he was sworn in, he was visibly and perceptibly affected, for every eye was firmly and intently fixed upon him.  Every one seemed to think that the man that could be elected to a seat in the Legislature from Lowndes County as a Democrat, must be endowed with some strange and hidden power through the exercise of which he could direct the movements and control the actions of those who might be brought in contact with him or subjected to his hypnotic influence; hence the anxiety and curiosity to hear the maiden speech of this strange and remarkable man.  The voice in the House of a Democrat from the county of Lowndes was of so strange, so sudden, so unexpected and so remarkable that it was difficult for many to bring themselves to a realization of the fact that such a thing had actually happened and that it was a living reality.  To the curious, the speech was a disappointment, although it was a plain, calm, conservative and convincing statement of the new member’s position upon public questions.  To the great amusement of those who heard him he related some of his experiences while he was engaged in canvassing the county.  But the speech revealed the fact that, after all, he was nothing more than an ordinary man.  No one was impressed by any word or sentence that had fallen from his lips that there was anything about him that was strange, impressive or unusual, and all decided that his election was purely accidental; for it was no more surprising than was the election of a colored Republican, Hon. J.M.  Wilson, to the same Legislature the year before, from the reliable Democratic county of Marion.