The sanguinary revolution in the State of Mississippi in 1875 was claimed to be in the interest of good administration and honest government; it was an attempt to wrest the State from the control of dishonest men,—­negroes, carpet baggers, and scalawags,—­and place it in control of intelligent, pure, and honest white men.  With that end in view, Geo. M. Buchanan, a brave and gallant ex-Confederate soldier, was, through questionable and indefensible methods, defeated for the office of State Treasurer, and Wm. L. Hemmingway was declared elected.  Yet when the change took place it was found that every dollar of the public money was accounted for.  During the whole period of Republican administration not a dollar had been misappropriated, nor had there been a single defalcation, although millions of dollars had passed through the hands of the fiscal agents of the State and of the different counties.

How was it with the new reform administration?  Treasurer Hemmingway had been in office only a comparatively short while when the startling information was given out that he was a defaulter to the amount of $315,612.19.  William L. Hemmingway a defaulter!  Could such a thing be possible?  Yes, it was an admitted and undisputed fact.

Mr. Hemmingway had been quite prominent in the politics of the State; but those who knew the man, and I was one of those, had every reason to believe that he was an honest man, and that he was the personification of integrity.  He was neither a speculator nor a gambler.  Even after the defalcation was made known there was nothing to indicate that any part of the money had been appropriated to his own use.  Yet the money had mysteriously disappeared.  Where was it?  Who had it?  These were questions the people of the State desired to have answered, but they have never yet been answered and, it is safe to say, they never will be.  Hemmingway no doubt could and can answer those questions, but he has not done so and the probabilities are that he never will.  He evidently believed that to turn State’s evidence would render him more culpable than to be guilty of the act which he had allowed to be committed.  He might have been forced to make a confession, or at least been compelled to give the prosecution a clue to the real criminal or criminals if the prosecution had been in charge of persons who could not be suspected of being the political beneficiaries of the methods by which it was possible for him to be placed in charge of the office.  It was hardly reasonable to expect such men to make very much of an effort to secure a confession.  In fact, it seems to have been a relief to them to have the accused take the position that he alone was the responsible party and that he was willing to bear all the blame and assume all the consequences that would result from the act.  The names, therefore, of those who were the beneficiaries of this remarkable defalcation will, no doubt, remain a secret in the bosom of William L. Hemmingway, and will be buried with him in his grave.