Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-09-19
OPPRESSION IN THE SOUTH.-WHAT
BEN.WADE KNOWS ABOUT TT.


The subjoined is an extract from recent
speech of Senator BES. WADE, of Ohio. He
had just returned from the Philadelphia
Black-and-Tan pow-wow, and probably re-
peated the Munchausenisms told him by the
seedy crew of Southern loyalists,p whom
be met there. There is not a pound Of truth
in a thousand tons Of such stuff:
wish here to say that have witnessed a
spectacle that never expected to witness. /
was down at the great Convention at Phila-
delphia of Union men, who, on account of
the tyranny and depravity of the peo-
pie in the South, were not permitted
10 hold a peaceable convention in any of the
Southern States. We have this from the
Presidents own organs, the New York Times
and the National Iateliigeacer, they boast
that Union men could not hold a convention
in the South to take into consideration their
own welfare. | witnessed what never ex-
pected to witness; had been member of a
great many conventions which met to settle
political questions, but ] never had seen a
convention of oppressed men, writhing under
the heel of tyranny.
l never saw, from the time of the old Con-
vention of l776, a people who had been
trampled beneath the heel Of oppression of
the British King, up TO that time; no con-
vention of white men ever met when one of
the number could say, Myperson is insecure,
my properly is in danger Of confseation,
my family Is in danger Of being trampled
under the heel Of tyranny, while / 60 forth
| to deliberate on the questions relating to this
state of things. / had a great curiosity to
see convention of men meeting under the
| heel of tyranny, writing beneath the most
accused oppession that ever settled upon
mankind. And let me say, that that great
| Convention, assembled beneath those woes
ofoppression, sat with gravity and serious
ness such as 1 never witnessed in any con-
vention before. Men there were there
| whose families at home they were not sure
would survive until their return, many of
them not daring even to go back. 1t was a
spectacle I never expected to witness, and
hope 10 Ged there may never be necessity
| for such spectacle in the United States
| again. 1t was a lesson, a school to the
statesman. All the frivolity and trifling
that attend political conventions were, as it
were, burned out in view of their terrible
wrongs under which they labored. And
| finally, when they came to set forth their
| GIltNdUCGS III al d0uIGco Nildb Will IOIlBd
to-day in gravity, ability, in the relation of
the wrongs with that great declaration of In
dependence that set forth the wrongs of the
British Kings. commend it TO you all to
read. Those were the representative men
of the Union party in the South; they were
men of the greatest ability in that part OF
the country; they had preserved their loyal
ty and integrity during the terrible ordeal
through which they had passed. Even the
perils Of death staring them in the face, had
never led one of them TO swerve from. the
path of rectitude and right. They gloried
in the old flag and were willing to sacrifice
their lives to maintain it. ~
Let no copperhead get up and say that we
of the North exaggerate the woes of the
Union men of the South. Let them not say
we have hard feelings toward the men in the
South, for they have in body detailed their
own woes and the tyranny exercised over
them. They implOre us of the North te
save them from utter destruction. They
say that since the Inauguration of the policy
of Mr.. JOHNSON, their oppression has been
seven-fold increased. They declare that
soon after the surrender of the enemy to oul
flag, these rebels were cowed and bowed be
meath the power of the United States, ana
thought that if they could escape with theil
lives, they would willingly submit to any
condition the Government should impose
upon them. They even sought to have thG
Union men of the South placate the power
Of the Government in their behalf, unit
JOHNSON betrayed the great trust the nation
placed in his hands until he turned arount
and undertook to raise up the secessionist
of the South to trample them under foot
Then their courage and luminosity arose, ant
their hostility is seven-fold what it was be
fore the war, and determination now await
them, unless the strong arm of the North in
terposes to work out their salvation. Thert
is not man there but says if we fail to keel
majority of two-thirds in Congress, thei
future is sealed and they will be extermi
mated.