The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-07-22
Eff RefributiOn.

What is now happening in Tennessee, vii
soon occur throughout the Southern States
In Memphis and other cities, at recent elec
tions, rebels have been elected to Office, ant
are exercising their powers with high hant
in defiance of Governor BRowSLow and hi
loyal Constitution.
Now the matter is just here the contest
between the rebels and the Unionists of Ten
nessee was very bitter, but eventually the
Unionists, by the earnest and effective aid o.
the colored people and the interposition o.
the Federal Government, obtained the as
tendency. Thereupon they called a Consti
tutional Convention, ignored the colored mer
who helped achieve their victory, and al
though slavery was abolished in name, the
Legislature passed laws to make the colored
people bondmen in fact. At the same time
they attempted to exclude the traitors, but
that stock are not to be bound by oaths, and
so the constitutional exclusion proves inefFec-
tive practically, and the traitors are bound to
come into power in spite of Governor BRowS-
Lows proclamations.
men of Tennessee will not fare much better
at the hands of the secesh than the negroes
now do at their hands. If the Union men of
Tennessee had regarded the principles of JUS
tice, and manifested o spirit of fairness, to
say nothing of gratitude, towards the colored
men who fought for the Union, they might
have retained the control of Tennessee. But
now it is rapidly passing from their hands,
and ere long they will be constrained to an
swer before the courts of justice, or before
Judge LYNCH, for their misdeeds in the treat
ment of secesh in the day of their power.
The South can only be controlled by the
Union men, through the aid of the freedmen !;
if they reject that aid, the secesh must and
will come into power, and wreak their ven
geance on Union men of all colors alike
And if the Uniou men who we're ready to ac-
cept the aid Of their eolored friends in time
of war, are too proud and ungrateful to &C.
cept it in time of peace, we have no tears to
shed over their subsection to traitors, That
kind of discipline will do them good, take
some of the concet out of them aud prepare
them to sympathise with the disappointed and
oppressed.
All the candidates in the field are now COM
mitted, or in favor of the restoration of sla-
very all of them regard the Constitution of
Tennessee as mere temporary make shift
and Of no validity, and neither the candidates
or the voters seem disposed to pay any atten-
- -l.4.
The Knoxville Whig of the 18th, says:
Up to this date none of the candidates for Con-
gress in the State have taken the oath required by
the act to limit the elective franchise" and some
of them openly making war upon it. Some Of
the clerks have taken it upon themselves to decide
upon the constitutionality of the law, and refuse
TO open books Us the law directs. In some coun-
ties these bad men who set themselves up as lead
ers, have told the people TO hold their elections
without any regard to the Law. The City Council
of Memphis has decided that the law does not ap-
ply TO the election of city officers, and hence they
have elected rebel Mayor and Council. The peo-
pie, they call themselves, of Stewart county,
have held convention and nominated rebel col
onel, who wounded and psroled, and but re-
Gently released from being prisoner of war. The
act to limit the elective franchise" provides that
1.-THE oath" shall u taken by "all candidates for
Office" Nay, the candidate swears that he will
support and defend the amendments and schedule
to the Constitution, aud all acts Of the late Gen
eral Assembly.
And Governor BRowsLow is addressing and
proclamating and threatening most furiously,
but it all amounts to nothing, and simply
shows that the rebel States, of which Tennes-
see is the most promising, must be ruled by
the United States, else the colored loyalists
must be admitted to aid the Union men, OF
the control will go into the hands of the trai-
tors.