Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-09-19
NEGRO SUFFRAGE OR WAR.

II is no exaggeration to say that the
issues between the Conservatives and
Radicals is narrowing down to negro
suffrage or war This is startling fact,
and it is best TO look il in the face at
once, and provide for eventualities The
signs thicken in the North, and cast their
shadows over the South The people of
cur section, it is to be hoped, will escape
the horrors of another civil war. The
contest is to be terminated on Northern
ground, and peacefully, gloriously, we
trust. We are party to the contro-
versy just as a prisoner is who is being
tried for an oifense, and in the dispo-
stion Of his case has no voice whatever.
Quiet, but steady, would be good motto
for our people. After having expressed
the gratitude We feel for the President
efforts in our behalf, and after hurting
back the satanic slapders concocted,
pointed and poisoned for our destruction,
we can do little more without inhicting
ON our own cause an injury. AS the
Northern people have placed us in this
attitude, and then divided upon the dis
position to be made of us, we can only
be, until the question is determined,
anxious spectators Of the contest If
they drift into civil war, the fault can not
be charged to the South.
And,yei we hear the BRowELowS and
BUFFERS threaten that in given con-
tingencies, the South will be utterly
destroyed. They speak Of war with the
nonchalance Of one who loves a con-
Migration, delights in pillage, aud is
never so happy as when the shrek of
murder is upon the air. The venom of
the Radical party originates in part in
the sympathy manifested by the people
of the South for the Conservatives of
the North, and their aspirations to be
free. If these Southern States would
consent to their own acknowledgements
and degradation-if they would consent
to negro suffrage, and allow the Radicals
to control all their governments, we
should hear new air played upon the
Radical organs. " would shake the
rafters Of those grand edifces so long
devoted to African anthems, and roll
with harmonious cadence all round the
sterile circumference Of New England
We should hear eulogiums upon the
Confederate dead-honied lyrics poured
to the memory Of those who, to-day, il
not denied graves, are forbidden TO have
that last tribute which a living, loving,
broken heart pays to Affection mOnu-
ment Pilgrims from Plymouth rock
men and women, dwarfed from the orig
inal stock brought over by the Mayhower,
would repair to the grave Of SToxEwALL
JACKSON. That great man would be
claimed, perhaps, on the authority Of
musty books Of genealoy, to have de-
seended from the orthodox race in Eng
land In the late war, which is the oc-
casion Of the development Ct Puritan
hatred Of the South, they would discover
the finger Of Providence and the fat Of
Jehovah. They would discover that it
was ordained for momeutous ends, and
that JEFFERSON DAVIS, LEE, and all the
great souls Of the South, were only the
chosen instruments for the achievement Of
the Puritan millennium. Audit is because
theSouthern people viii not consent to the
CELEBRATION of the pride, pretensiOn and
free 4hcn=;ss peculiar to the Cavaliers Of
modern times, and because they will not
lie down in abject Submission and be
come slaves Of q dominant race, TO whose
bosoms the sentiment Of tolerance or
magnanimity Is s stranger, the most sw-
ful fate is 70 be hurled upon them-the