The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-10-13

Gov. BRowNLow, in his recent message
to the Tennessee Legislature INDUCES in
what we consider some very sound talk.
He first advocates full and universal par
don to the masses of the people South who
were deluded into the rebellion by design
ing leaders, but thinks that the leaders
themselves should be punished and placed
beyond all power to nurture the growth
of new rebellion. He argues in favor of
offering all possible inducements to immi-
grafton from the States of the North and
from Europe, and thinks that Tennessee,
with her fertile lands and great mineral re-
sources, presents grand field for enter
prize and wealth. The Governor says
that "for the present we have done
enough for the negro" There are some
negroes to whom, on account of their in
teligence and the amount of property they
possess, he would not object to giving the
right hand of suffrage: the large majority
of them, however, are not to be relied upon
because they are ignorant, docile, and
easily to be led by designing men," He
believes that "loyal negro is better
than disloyal white man. The question
of negro suffrage, he argues, is beyond the
power of Congress and subject exclusively
to the control of the States respectively.
He says:
l think it would be a bad policy, as well as
wrong principle, to open the ballot box to the
uniformed and exceedingly stupid slaves of
the Southern cotton, rice and sugar fields. If
allowed to vote, the great majority of them
could be influenced by leading secessionists
to vote against the Government, as they would
be largely under the influence of this class of
men for years to come, having to reside on
and cultivate their lands. When the people
of Tennessee become satisfied that the negro is
worthy of suffrage they will extend it, and not
before; and / repeat that this question must
be regulated by the State authorities, and by
the loyal voters of the State, not by the Cen
eral Government.
The Governor proceeds to administer
vigorous rap upon the knuckles of those
oficious intermediates north who flatter
themselves that they are more competent
to regulate the domestic and social affairs
of the South than the loyal southerners
themselves:
We cannot hear of any excessive anxiety on
the part of the earnest men of Ohio, Illinois,
Pennsylvania and New York, to change the
constitution of their respective States SO as to
admit colored men to suffrage. They are dis
tressed because the ballot is not at once thrust
into the hands of the ignorant blacks of the
cotton States, but they are proposing nothing
of the sort for the thousands of free blacks
among themselves. A decent respect for con-
sistency and the colored people they have in
their own midst should lead them, first of all,
to confer upon them q right which they insist
the freedmen of the South are entitled to. 1t
being matter over which the States them
selves have paramount control, our friends at
the North should begin by setting good ex-
ample to less enlightened and patriotic States
of the South. As they have beam in their
own eye, they should pluck it out before TAX
ing the mote out of the eye of their southern
neighbors