The changes, however, were sufficient to materially increase the Republican majority.
Among the important bills to be passed was one to divide the State into six Congressional Districts.

The apportionment of Representatives in Congress, under the Apportionment Act which had recently passed Congress, increased the number of Representatives from Mississippi, which had formerly been five, to six.

Republican leaders in both branches of the Legislature decided that the duty of drawing up a bill apportioning the State into Congressional Districts should devolve upon the Speaker of the House, with the understanding that the party organization would support the bill drawn by him.
I accepted the responsibility, and immediately proceeded with the work of drafting a bill for that purpose.

Two plans had been discussed, each of which had strong supporters and advocates.

One plan was so to apportion the State as to make all of the districts Republican; but in doing so the majority in at least two of the districts would be quite small.