He approved a new constitution in 1890 passed by the Democratic-dominated state legislature that disfranchised most African Americans, excluding them from the political system[1] for more than 75 years.

He did not attend college since his family was fairly poor, but he studied a great deal and eventually taught school.

With the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Stone enlisted in the Confederate States Army that April.

In January 1865, he recruited in Mississippi and commanded local troops countering Stoneman's 1865 Raid.

State elections were marked by fraud and violence; the Red Shirts, a paramilitary group, worked to disrupt and suppress black voting and turned Republicans out of office.