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ADMINISTRATION
The civil government of the state is structurally similar to that of the other states.
There are three departments---executive, legislative, and judicial. The state
officers and members of the legislature are elected by the people every four
years. There are three supreme court judges, thirteen circuit court judges and
eight chancellors, all appointed by the governor with the approval of the senate.
The elective franchise contains the following conditions, viz: a voter must be
twenty-one years old, he must be able to read or to understand the state
Constitution when read to him (that is, a layman's and not an academician's
understanding of the Constitution); he must have resided in the state two years
and in the precinct one year, and have paid all taxes, including an annual poll tax
of $2 for two years preceding the election. Conviction of certain crimes against
honesty entails the disfranchisement of a voter. This qualified suffrage has given
the state a large white majority in its electoral body. The validity of these suffrage
qualifications has been sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States in
the case of Williams vs. The State of Mississippi, decided by a unanimous court
in 1896. The state maintains institutions for the insane, the blind, and the deaf
and dumb, affording ample facilities for both races. There is also a state hospital
at Natchez and one at Vicksburg.
PENITENTIARY SYSTEM
During the period of military government in the South, a prison system known as
convict leasing was established in this and other southern states, and was
continued in Mississippi until 1890, when it was abolished and the present
system was adopted of working the prisoners on state lands at agricultural
pursuits for the exclusive benefit of the state, and under exclusive official control.
The state owns 20,900 acres of cotton and farm lands upon which the entire
prison population of about 1200 prisoners are worked. The penitentiary lands cost
originally $145,600 and are now worth at least $600,000. The annual cash
income to the state from the labour of the prisoners is not less than $150,000. In
addition to this, valuable improvements are constantly being made on the
property by the prisoners. The present system is a satisfactory solution of the
convict problem, in which all conditions, moral and sanitary, are obtained.
Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana have adopted this system.
LAWS OF THE STATE AFFECTING RELIGION
The State Constitution of 1890 provides that no testamentary bequests of any
property, real or personal, can be made to any religious or charitable uses. The
statutes regulate by limitations the character of property that religious societies
or associations, or ecclesiastical bodies, may own and hold, viz.: a church, a
residence for a priests or minister, and a school or seminary each for male and
female scholars, and also a cemetery; and a religious denomination may, in
addition, own such colleges or seminaries of learning as it may deem proper, and
also a place of residence for its superior clergymen. These limitations apply to all
religious denominations, societies and ecclesiastical bodies, without
discrimination. All divorce and marriage laws, and cognate laws, apply without
discrimination to all citizens of the state irrespective of their religious beliefs and
affiliations. All qualifications of the elective franchise and for office are of uniform
character. So also are all laws regulating grand and petit jury duty, and road and
street duty, and military service, and exempting all ministers of the Gospel from
these duties. The State Constitution of 1890 provides that no religious tests as a
qualification for office shall be required, and that no preference shall be given by
law to any religious denominations or mode of worship. Absolute freedom in all
matters of religion, or modes of worship, it is declared by the Constitution, "shall
be held sacred". The Bible is not to be excluded from the public schools,
meaning the schools maintained by the state. Secular and business pursuits,
not of a necessary character, are prohibited on Sunday. Blasphemy and profanity
in any public place is prohibited. The Senate and the House, as a matter of
custom, are opened with prayer by some minister of the Gospel, on the invitation
of the presiding officer of the body. The following legal holidays are designated by
the statutes of the state, viz.: 1 January, 22 February (Washington's Birthday),
26 April, Memorial Day, 3 June, Jefferson Davis Day, 4 July, and Christmas Day.
The laws of the state do not preserve the inviolability of the confessional as
matter of evidence. The only privileged communications are those between a
client and his lawyer. There is a general law by which the governor may grant
charters of incorporation to religious congregations or societies. All property
owned by religious denominations is exempt from taxation. The only Catholic
who has held a state office in Mississippi is the Hon. Frank Johnston, who was
attorney-general in the years 1893, 1894, 1895 under appointment by the
governor to fill an unexpired term. (See DIOCESE OF NATCHEZ.)
CLAIBORNE, Mississippi as a Province, Territory and State (1880); ROWLAND, Official and
Statistical Register (1904); GOODSPEED, Memoirs of Mississippi (1891); RILEY, Publications of
Mississippi Historical Society (1898-1909); JOHNSTON, Suffrage and Reconstruction in Mississippi,
Vol. VI. in Miss. His. Soc. Pub. (1902); LYNCH, Bench and Bar of Mississippi (1881); GARNER,
Reconstruction in Mississippi (1901); GAZARRE, History of Louisiana; LOWRY AND MCCARDLE,
Mississippi; ROWLAND, Mississippi Territory Archives, 1798-1803 (1905); MONETTE, Valley of the
Mississippi; JENKINS, Mississippi River, Vol. VI, in Miss. Hist. Soc. Pub. (1902).
For an elaborate citation of various printed works on Mississippi as a province and territory, see
ROWLAND, Mississippi, I (1907); STONE, Studies on the American Race Problem (1908).
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