Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1864-06-28

nET- The facts presented in the aab-
Joined article from the Knoxville Whig,
Of May 7th, will be new, and - interest
ing rs new, TO many of our readers;
SToRo sUrFRLoE IN TExNksAKR
The great outcry against negro suf
frage in Tennessee, aud the constantly
expressed dread Of negro equality By
those who are ''sorter for and sorssr not
for the Union cause, make il proper 10
state few facts in the history Of our
State that viii do for candid men to re-
fleet upon when otherwise unemployed
They viii learn some facts from our
article that rebels and rebel sympathiz.
ers would never communicate, and facts
stubborn and notorious, that many Of
those in sympathy with the rebellion
viii resoluteiy deny.
In the Convention that formed The
frat Constitution of Tennessee. the
question arose as to who should exercise
| the right Of suffrage in the State. Slaves
we're held in Tennessee while she was
yet Territory And fact not now
generally known is this--a majority OF
the delegates who framed the Conslitu-
| ton we're slaveholders In fixing the
| qualifications Of voters, all ''free eigi-
zeEs' were designated as proper persons
TO vote An amendment was offered TO
insert the word "iohiie" after the word
FIRE" This brought up the question Of
the right Of free negroes 10 vote The
vote was taken upon the amendment
which contemplated the exclusion Of
I -. II. IL 4
ment was Loaf by decided majority.
/ The FIRST Constitution OF the State,
therefore, declared free negroes TO be
citizens, and gave them the right Of
voting, which they exercised for many
years, and were electioueered with by
our politicians and dsmagoguss for their
votes John Bsll, in closely contested
race for Congress in the Nashville Dis
trict, when he defeated Felix Grundy,
owed bis election 10 the votes Of free
negroes, there being several hundred in
bis district
Andrew jackson was popular with the
negroes on account Of bis bravery and
his eulogy upon negro soldiers at New
Orleans; and when be defeated Col.
John Williams before the Legislature at
Murfreesboro, Il was BY only seveH votes,
and those seven votes were gained for
Jackson before the people BY the negro
voters OF the counties sending them.
Governor Carroll was a very popular
maG With the negroes, and could come
more closely to the thing Of uniting their
votes than any man 10 the State. Al
one Of bis closely contested elections a
friend Of bis led procession of sixty OF
seventy negroes to the polls at one time
who al voted for the old war-horse.
. Honorable Cave johnson, Postmaster
General under former Democratic Ad
ministration, has been seen, in his esrlJ
political contests in Tennessee, when be
used to serve in Congress, during III,
Administration Of John Quincy Adams
10 lead negroes TO the polls, arm in arm
The young seions Of Tennessee aristoc
raey and Of Southern chivalry, now il
the rebel army, must permit Us to tel
, them, in frankness, that their father
used to 60 to the polls in this State, an
even before they were born, side by sd
: with the black negroes, and vote 70
Governors, Congressman, and other civ
officers
r But We give another very remarkabl
case, aud We are indebted to the Nash
vile Times for the facts. 1t is cas-
that occurred in the election of DELE
gates to the Second Constitutional Cor
a vention of Tennessee, in the year {
1884 1t also happened in the count
N of Wilson, in Middle Tennessee. tn
notorious Robert II. Burton, lawyer
prominence, q proud STAKEHOLDER, and a
aristocrat related to the slaveccracy
that country. The negroes becsr
alarmed st the proposition made by son
ar Of the candidates to disfranchise the
: in the then approaching convention
revise the Constitution. Burton ran 1
= the friend of the negroes, and pledg'
himself to stand by them and sdvoea
their rights BE received somethiI
less than four hundred negro votes. VIII
II, his majority over his competitor "
about half that showing that he was !
a, turned to the convention BY negro voti
) To his disgrace, Burton betrayed the I