1873 Mississippi gubernatorial election explained

Election Name:1873 Mississippi gubernatorial election
Type:presidential
Previous Election:1869 Mississippi gubernatorial election
Previous Year:1869
Next Election:1877 Mississippi gubernatorial election
Next Year:1877
Ongoing:no
Election Date:November 4, 1873
Nominee1:Adelbert Ames
Party1:Republican Party (United States)
Popular Vote1:73,324
Percentage1:58.11%
Nominee2:James L. Alcorn
Party2:Liberal Republican Party (United States)
Popular Vote2:52,857
Percentage2:41.89%
Map Size:150px
Governor
Before Election:Ridgley C. Powers
Before Party:Republican Party (United States)
After Election:Adelbert Ames
After Party:Republican Party (United States)

The 1873 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 4, 1873, in order to elect the Governor of Mississippi. This election marked the last time a Republican was elected Governor of Mississippi until 1991, 118 years later.

General election

In the general election, Republican Adelbert Ames, a U.S. Senator who previously served as governor from 1868 until 1870, defeated James L. Alcorn, also a U.S. Senator and former governor. Alcorn's estrangement from Ames, his northern-born colleague, deepened in 1871, as African-Americans became convinced that Alcorn was not taking the problem of white terrorism seriously enough; and, in fact, Alcorn resisted Federal action to suppress the Ku Klux Klan, contending that state authorities were sufficient to handle the task. By 1873 the quarrel had deepened into an intense animosity. Both men ran for governor. Ames was supported by the Radicals and most African Americans, while Alcorn won the votes of conservative whites and most of the scalawags. Ames won by a vote of 73,324 to 52,857. Alcorn withdrew from active politics in the state, emerging to assail the new governor as incapable and an enemy of the people of Mississippi.