The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-10-19


State. Mr.. johnson was then Governor
| there There was then such an alarm
spread in the State that great many
persons and companies called upon him
for arms. He inquired for what purpose?
They said to defend themselves against
instruction. Large quantities of arms
were distributed. But when he came
to examine into the facts, he found the
whites were organizing in considerable
numbers, with the purpose Of extermin-
ating the whole negro race in that por-
ton of Tennessee. He was compelled
to call out the militia and use every ex-
ertion to prevent it. = ~
In conversation with him, not long
since, he said to me that, while he would
desire that those States in the formation
of their constitution should do as they
did in Louisiana, strike out all cOnstitu-
tional restriction upon cOlored suffrage,
and that the legislature should be en-
powered to extend, from time to time,
the rights of suffrage to certain superior
classes of the. colored people. such a.
those who had performed military SER
vice, who had for long time been heads
of families, and supported them by
their own industry, and who had de-
monstrated clearly their intellectual fit
ness to exercise this right of suffrage,
while lie would be glad to see that conn
ing from the States themselves, as it
was right which the States alone
should grant, he was decidedly of opin-
ion that if he, as President, in the
present condition of the people there,
i'm the present condition OF the old pre-
judices, almost hatred existing between
the two races, were to insist that suf-
quo e,h no tnI t., hn l1,f
the colored people in those States as a
condition precedent to their being re.
cognized as States i'm the Union, ii
would produce actual war between the
blacks and the whites. Mr.. johnson all
his life has lived there and has been
| Governor Of Tennessee before the rebel
lion, and military Governor during the
| rebellion, and he knows what he says,
| OPINION oFGENERAL GRANT. 49,. ,
But / will not stop here. This is too
serious a matter for men with fiippant
tongue to pass over, as If there were
nothing in it. The other day, when
General Grant was here, spending seve
raj hours with him in free conversation
upon this subject among others, he ex-
pressed to me the same opinion. Said
/: General Grant, / never quote pri-
vate conversation without express per-
mission. Am L permitted to state what
you now state to me?" Said he: Ger
tainly; there is no concealment on my
part.n And he stated To me in the con
versatiOn that a considerable portion of
the troubles between the whites and the
blacks, that had already occurred was
i'll consequence of this unwise attempt
to force negro suffrage in those States.
He said, further, that If the Federal
, government were to attempt to do il
| and to enforce it, it would undoubtedly
produce war between the two race
| there. ti lr.t 81 jFH.uf
Now, how does it seem for some o
! those young men that were never Their
i'm their lives, and know nothing abou
it, some editor of a newspaper, or SOM
stump oratOr-how does it seem for sucl
men, i'm presence of authority like this
to say it means nothing, when / stant
up before the people and plead to saw
the lives of these poor, downtroddel
men, whom their misguided zeal anC
philanthropy, and blind fanaticism
would hurry into their graves by hun
dreds and thousands, perhaps? Zap
, plause.J
: OPINION OFlGENERAL SHERMAN.
But there is still another and no less
high authority on the subject.
In conversation with General Sher
man, that great captain, who was thi
day in the city, and who desired mucl
to be present here this evening; Whose
} friends telegraphed to Chicago for tn,
purpose of OBTAINING the boat that III
might be here, but were unable to do so
which much regret for [ would prefe
to say it i'm his presence, L found HI
entertained the same opinion. Tha
great captain, who, at the head of hi
conquering legions, swept through the
very heart of the rebellion, who is ia
miliar with the condition there, VIII,
has lived in Louisiana, and who was al
the head of a military academy there
when the rebellion broke out, he, too
in conversation with me at Madison,
was decidedly of the same opinion with
General Grant and the President.
| My fellow-citzens, when stand here
pleading here against this insane pro-
ject, for it is none Other--this insane
project of insisting that the Govern
ment of the United States, while en-
deavoring to establish peace in those
States, should adopt policy leading to
a bloody war of races, by forcing negro
suffrage upon the people of the South
at this time, against the unanimous
opinions of the white race-what most
Of the free States will not do, though
their numbers are SO small that they
could have very little weight-a most
fearful proposition under these circum-
stances. / do not rest upon my own
Knowledge am bound to regard the
warnings of those great men--our great
est men-who have been there, and
state what the effects of such policy
would be. And he must be very brave
man who, never having been there and
| knowing nothing about it, stands up anC
says sit is all delusion; there is NOTHING
in it. [Cheers.] 1t is moral cowardice
and only timid men who say this.U-
(Cheers.1 In view of such authority o.
| have given, he must be brave indee,
who sees no danger in such a policy
Brave! All brave is not the word. fS
fools rush in where angels fear t,
| tread"
| Fellow citizens, We read of civil wa
in Hayti. What is that war? 1t is a wa
of races more than anything else. 1t j
war between the blacks and mulat
toes. This prejudice of races is thin:
very deeply seated in human society
and not a thing to be trifled with.
But to return to the question under
discussion, five proceed and copsum-
mate the great victory which we have
won by the adoption of the constitution
81 nr.sl. 4 M