Of the other five candidates on the ticket two,--the candidates for
State Treasurer and Attorney General,--were, like General Alcorn,
Southern white men. The candidate for State Treasurer, Hon. W.H. Vasser,
was a successful business man who lived in the northern part of the
State, while the candidate for Attorney General, Hon. Joshua S. Morris,
was a brilliant member of the bar who lived in the southern part of the
State. The other three, the candidates for Lieutenant-Governor, State
Auditor and Superintendent of Education, were Northern men who had
settled in the State after the War, called by the Democrats, "Carpet
Baggers," but they were admitted to be clean and good men who had
lived in the State long enough to become fully identified with its
industrial and business interests. H.C. Powers, the candidate for
Lieutenant-Governor, and H. Musgrove, the candidate for Auditor of
Public Accounts, were successful cotton planters from Noxubee and Clarke
counties respectively; while H.R. Pease, the candidate for State
Superintendent of Education, had been identified with educational work
ever since he came to the State. It could not be denied that it was a
strong and able ticket,--one that the Democrats would find it very
difficult to defeat. In desperation the Democratic party had nominated
as their candidate for Governor a brother-in-law of President Grant's,
Judge Lewis Dent, in the hope that the President would throw the weight
of his influence and the active support of his administration on the
side of his relative, as against the candidate of his own party,
especially in view of the fact that Dent had been nominated not as a
Democrat but as an Independent Republican,--his candidacy simply having
been indorsed by the Democratic organization. But in this they were
disappointed, for if the President gave any indication of preference it
was in favor of the Republican ticket. General Ames, for instance, was
the Military Governor of the State, holding that position at the
pleasure of the President; and Ames was so outspoken in his support of