Clarksville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1865-1867, 1865-10-27
Radioalism in the Legislature.

hadlcahsm IN the. Legislature.
We continue on the hrst page, the debate in the
Senate, onlthe everlasting subject of the "nggep"
II is matter Of deep interest to the people, and we
are net willing that any Of eur readers shall be de.
Prived Of an opportunity what is said on the
sngrOssFng topic 81 Niger equality. Madness
rules the hour" asd il behooses every man of
COOL practical sense aud earnest patriotism TO watch
ttssymptomS and guard against lis dangerous effects
There never was q period in the history Of our
government when the guiding hand of enlightened
experience was so much needed, as now, to carry
rs safely through the perils of mighty social and
political revolution; nor was there ever a time
when radical empiricism threatened 30 much mis-
chief to the future well-beng Of the entire country
The shattered elements of the social system and
the violated principles Of republican government
need for their restoration, the saving efficacy of
calm scrutuizing wisdom, vorsed in the lessons Of
experience, familiar with the workings Of the
human heart, and competent to the adaptation of
the elementary principles Of political system to
the moral and intellectual condition of the masses
The machinery Of our government is peculiar, COM
depends maiEly upon it's motive power-the ballot
box-it Is passing strange that any man of COM
mon sense, common honesty, and moderate share
of patriotism, can believe it safe and prudent to
call in the aid Of emancipated slaves to perfect
system which freeman have failed--through igno-
and corruption-to make efficient for all the
ends of good government. This boosted Republic
haas h. Of
for more than three quarters Of century and,
to-day, it stands dismembered; its soil dyed with
fraternal blood, its homes and fields desolated by
savage warfare, and its Constitution trampled un-
der foot by military necessity. The war is at an
end, and whilst good men and true patriots are ac-
tive in the work of restoration and resuscitation-
whilst experienced statesmen are trying to remedy
the defects in our political machinery, the civil
authorities, of this State, with characteristic
quackery, would remedy every evil by disfranchis-
ing the white man and making the niger the saS-
ing element in our system of government.
The State Senate has by vote of ten to nine
given TO the descen lants of African and Indians
the right to testify in courts of justice. against
white men, and another bill proposes to give them
the FlBnJ OF Suffrage at tue emu OF ten years. III
the negro just emerged from a state of slavery
evinces so high capacity for sef-government, we
invite the attention of every abolitionst in Ten
nessee, and elsewhere, to the following extract
from the London Saturday Repiep:
"The numerous statements which purport to
prove the moral and intellectual aptitude of the
emancipated slaves may be dismissed as simply in
credible. Phanthropists ought to understand that,
if liberated Southern slave really fit to share
in the government of the Republic, he would fur
nish unanswerable apology, not only for The
system in which he trained but fof the slave
trade on which the institution was originally
founded. Mr. Wendell Phillips himself would
scarcely propose to admit heather African savage
TO the electoral booth and experience has shown
that neither missionaries nor traders can make q
percsptiable impression on indigenous barbarism
The distance by which the freedman is separated
from the Ashantee measures the benefits of Ameri-
can slavery; and il the coored population is now
worthy of sovereignty the cotton plantations must
have been the most efficient schools of religion and
morality which have hitherto been established on
EARTH scrupulous conscience would feel the
urgent duty of kidnapping the remaining popuIa-
ton of Central Africa, TO pass them through the
process which has refined and sublimated their
happier kinsmen beyond tie Atlantic. 1t is not
necessary to answer more seriously foolish women
and effeminate rhetoricians who effect to vindicate
the equality or superiority of degraded race"