"_Resolved_, That we sever the union heretofore existing between Jones County and the State of Mississippi, and proclaim our independence of the said State and of the Confederate States of America; and we solemnly call upon Almighty God to witness and bless the act." Such being the case, it has seemed to me in order to advert to a discussion in the Nation on this subject beginning March 24, 1892, which throws considerable light on the question. In the paper of this date Samuel Willard, of Chicago, writes that he had been a soldier in the army which invaded Mississippi, and that he had never during the war heard of such an occurrence. When, therefore, he saw the statement made in the New England Magazine, for November, 1891, the author being Professor Hart, he doubted its accuracy. It may be stated just here that Professor Hart, in a subsequent issue of the Nation gives as his authority Mr. Galloway, historian of the Sixth army corps, who published in the Magazine of American History for October, 1886, an article entitled "A Confederacy Within a Confederacy;" but upon what authority Mr. Galloway based his statements does not appear. He therefore wrote to the Governor of the State of Mississippi and to the clerk of Jones County, and elicited replies from both of these gentlemen, and Governor Stone inclosed a letter from his predecessor, Hon. Robert Lowry, who was sent to Jones County during the war in command of troops for the purpose of arresting deserters. The texts of the letters are too long to quote in full, so a few passages will have to suffice. Governor Stone writes: "It gives me pleasure to inform you that the whole story is a fabrication, and there is scarcely any foundation for any part of it. To begin with Jones County furnished perhaps as many soldiers to the army of the Confederacy as any other county of like population. * * * Many of them declined to go into the army in the beginning, but so far as formal withdrawal or resolution to that effect is concerned, no such thing ever occurred in Jones County. Hon. Robert Lowry was sent to Jones County during the war for the purpose of arresting and returning deserters to their commands, and there was some little fighting with these bands of deserters, or rather bush-whacking of his men by the deserters; and some of the deserters were arrested and executed, but only a few. The whole story is the veriest fabrication, and I presume few persons of intelligence will believe any of it." Ex-Governor Lowry writes: "The county furnished nearly and probably its entire quota of soldiers, many of whom did splendid service. No such effort as establishing a separate government was ever attempted. The story of withdrawal and establishing of a separate government is a pure fabrication--not a shadow of foundation for it."