to the first two of the four classes above mentioned. There were several
Union men in it of the inoffensive, compromising kind--men who had been
opposed to secession in the beginning, and had abstained from taking a
prominent part in the rebellion unless obliged to do so, but who had, at
least, readily acquiesced in what was going on. But there was, as far as I
have been able to ascertain, only one man there who, like the Unionists of
East Tennessee, had offered active resistance to the rebel authorities.
This was Mr. Crawford, of Jones county; he was elected by the poor people
of that region, his old followers, as their acknowledged leader, and his
may justly be looked upon as an exceptional case. How he looked upon his
situation appears from a speech he delivered in that convention, and
especially from the amended version of it placed into my hands by a
trustworthy gentleman of my acquaintance who had listened to its delivery.
(Accompanying document No. 13.) But several instances have come to my
knowledge, in which Union men of a sterner cast than those described as
acquiescing compromisers were defeated in the election, and, aside from
Mr. Crawford's case, none in which they succeeded.

The impulses by which voters were actuated in making their choice appeared
more clearly in the canvass for State officers, Congressmen, and members
of the legislature, when the antecedents and political views of candidates
were more closely scrutinized and a warmer contest took place. The
population of those places in the south which have been longest in the
possession of our armies is generally the most accommodating as to the
new order of things; at least the better elements are there in greater
relative strength. A Union meeting at Vicksburg may, therefore, be
produced as a not unfavorable exponent of Mississippi Unionism. Among the
documents attached to this report you will find three speeches delivered
before such a meeting--one by Mr. Richard Cooper, candidate for the
attorney generalship of the State; one by Hon. Sylvanus Evans, candidate