MISSISSIPPI SENDS B.K. BRUCE TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE
As soon as the result of the election was known, the candidacy of B.K.
Bruce, for United States Senator to succeed Senator Ames, was announced.
Ames' term as Governor was to commence the first Monday in January,
1874. His term as Senator would expire March 4, 1875. Upon assuming the
duties of Governor he had been obliged to tender his resignation as
Senator; thus it devolved upon the incoming legislature to elect a
Senator to serve out the unexpired term, as well as for the full term of
six years. Bruce's candidacy was for the full term.
The secret of Mr. Bruce's positive refusal to allow his name to be used
for the Lieutenant-Governorship, which would have resulted in making him
Governor, was now revealed. He had had the Senatorship in mind at the
time, but, of course, no allusion was made to that fact. As between the
Senatorship and the Governorship he chose the former, which proved to be
a wise decision, in view of subsequent events. It was soon developed
that he was the choice of a large majority of the Republican members of
the Legislature, white as well as colored. His nomination by the party
caucus, therefore, was a foregone conclusion. Before the legislature
met, it had been practically settled that Mr. Bruce should be sent to
the Senate for the long term and Ex-Superintendant of Education, H.R.
Pease, should be elected to serve out the unexpired term of
Governor-elect Ames.
This slate was approved by the joint legislative caucus without a hitch
and the candidates thus nominated were duly elected by the
Legislature,--not only by the solid Republican vote of that body, but
the additional vote of State Senator Hiram Cassidy, Jr., who had been
elected as a Democrat.
Senator Alcorn's keen disappointment and chagrin at the outcome of his
fight with Governor Ames was manifested when Senator Bruce made his
appearance to be sworn in as a Senator. It was presumed that Senator
Alcorn, in accordance with the uniform custom on such occasions, would
escort his colleague to the desk of the President of the Senate to be
sworn in. This Senator Alcorn refused to do. When Mr. Bruce's name was
called Senator Alcorn did not move; he remained in his seat, apparently
giving his attention to his private correspondence. Mr. Bruce, somewhat
nervous and slightly excited, started to the President's desk
unattended. Senator Roscoe Conkling, of New York, who was sitting near
by, immediately rose and extended his arm to Mr. Bruce and escorted him
to the President's desk, standing by the new Senator's side until the
oath had been administered, and then tendering him his hearty
congratulations, in which all the other Republican Senators, except
Senator Alcorn, subsequently joined.
This gracious act on the part of the New York Senator made for him a
lifelong friend and admirer in the person of Senator Bruce. This
friendship was so strong that Senator Bruce named his first and only son
Roscoe Conkling, in honor of the able, distinguished, and gallant
Senator from New York.
Senator Alcorn's action in this matter was the occasion of considerable
unfavorable criticism and comment, some of his critics going so far as
to intimate that his action was due to the fact that Mr. Bruce was a
colored man. But, from my knowledge of the man and of the circumstances
connected with the case, I am satisfied this was not true. His antipathy
to Mr. Bruce grew out of the fact that Mr. Bruce had opposed him and had
supported Ames in the fight for Governor in 1873.
So far as I have been able to learn, I am the only one of the Senator's
friends and admirers who opposed his course in that contest that he ever
forgave. He, no doubt, felt that I was under less personal obligations
to him than many others who pursued the same course that I did, since
he had never rendered me any effective personal or political service,
except when he brought the Independent members of the House in line for
me in the contest for Speaker of that body in 1872; and even then his
action was not so much a matter of personal friendship for me as it was
in the interest of securing an endorsement of his own administration as
Governor.
In Mr. Bruce's case he took an entirely different view of the matter. He
believed that he had been the making of Mr. Bruce. Mr. Bruce had come to
the State in 1869 and had taken an active part in the campaign of that
year. When the Legislature was organized it was largely through the
influence of Governor Alcorn that he was elected Sergeant-at-arms of the
State Senate. When the Legislature adjourned Governor Alcorn sent Bruce
to Bolivar county as County Assessor. Bruce discharged the duties of
that office in such a creditable and satisfactory manner that he was
elected in 1871 Sheriff and Tax Collector of that important and wealthy
county, the most responsible and lucrative office in the gift of the
people of the county. He was holding that office when elected to the
United States Senate. Senator Alcorn felt, therefore, that in taking
sides against him and in favor of Ames in 1873 Mr. Bruce was guilty of
gross ingratitude. This accounted for his action in refusing to escort
Mr. Bruce to the President's desk to be sworn in as Senator. In this
belief, however, he did Mr. Bruce a grave injustice, for I know that
gratitude was one of Mr. Brace's principal characteristics. If Senator
Alcorn had been a candidate from the start for the Republican nomination
for Governor, Mr. Bruce, I am sure, would have supported him even as
against Senator Ames. But it was known that the Senator had no ambition
to be Governor. His sole purpose was to defeat Senator Ames at any cost,
and that, too, on account of matters that were purely personal and that
had no connection with party or political affairs. Mr. Bruce, like very
many other friends and admirers of the Senator, simply refused to follow
him in open rebellion against his own party. I am satisfied, however,
that Mr. Bruce's race identity did not influence the action of Senator
Alcorn in the slightest degree. As further evidence of that fact, his
position and action in the Pinchback case may be mentioned. He spoke and
voted for the admission of Mr. Pinchback to a seat in the Senate when
such a staunch Republican as Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, opposed and
voted against admission. In spite of Senator Alcorn's political defeat
and humiliation in his own State, he remained true and loyal to the
National Republican party to the end of his Senatorial term, which
terminated with the beginning of the Hayes Administration. Up to that
time he had strong hopes of the future of the Republican party at the
South.