The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1866-11-10

NAsHISGToN, D. c., October 10, 1866.
w. b. Wa!dran; Esq.
DEAR SIR: Yours of the I4th inst, asking
nay views on the grave issue now agitating
the public mind, involves questions of such
importance that I have determined to an
sWer you at some length: and as similar en-
quirics have come to me from various friends
in different parts Of the State, you are au-
thorized, at your discretion, to make this
public
The existence Of serious complications,
and the evidences Of approaching revolution,
are too apparent to need mention; nor need
their causes be alluded to, save where
knowledge Of the causes may suggest the
remedy. ] cannot hope to say anything of
such Importance rs 20 arrest or postpone the
threatened calamity but if my opinions (the
result of careful observatiOn) will enable
anE Of my friends to say in the worst event,
" we are innocent Of blame" then l will
have accomplished much and failing in this,
it will at least be gratifying to remember
/ having done my duty, as | understand it. A
frank ayoW'Hi OF my opinions of our duty, l
fear cannot be made without mourning the
disapproval Of some Of my hest friends; but
| hoping they will remember, that it is only
the true friends who, instead of hatteriBg,
kindly tells US Of our faults. cannot feel
st liberty to neglect so plain duty.
To deal proftably with living issues, we
must treat them as they are and not as we
would have them, or as they ought to be.
a ths time we find the Northern mind so
infiamed by prejudice, that our most trifing
indiscrctOns are magniied into enormous
Offenses and our sincerest evidences of 10y
atty, are perverted into most fragrant decep-
tions. Through the promptings of a CRATE
full and impUlsive nature which we can bet
ter appreciate than those in colder regions,
we have really embarrassed the President by
our demonstrations in his favor and history
furnishes no instance where Appointment
man could SO appropriately say, Save me
from my friends
] have reason to know that he, or at least
many of his ables5 Northern supporters,
have soreiy felt the weight of these infiuen-
/ ce5, but approaching the purity of the
motives inspiring them, how can they utter
a word In discOuragement
/ The means adopted to create and sustain
/ this blind prejudice in the Northern mind,
/ have been as various as they are deceptive,
and It is much to be regretted that the South
/ ern press and orators have often afforded ar
/ guments that have been but too success
( fully used against US. Some of our lead
/ ing journals have seemed to forget that
/ they might be read elsewhere than in the
+ immediate neighborhOOd of their publica-
/ tIOns: yet l am witness to tho fact that the
] editorials Of many Of these have been used
/ with fearful effect to FIRE the northern heart
/ have been mortified often, during the
! past session of Congress, by some incendiary
! Radical sending to the Clerks desk to be
read an infammatory editorial from South
ern paper as a sample Of the feeling Of the
! President reconstructed friends" towards
! the Northern people and if the editor hap
pened (as was sometimes the case) to have
/ been the recipient of a pardon, the argG-
ment was used with equal force against the
! President These editorials | could appre-
ciate and excuse, knowing they were in most
/ instances spontaneous vindications of south
i ern manhood against fancicd or real insults ;
and though l cannot 90 to the extent Of
many, who say, If no papers had been pub
lished ia the lately rebeiiiOus States, restor-
alton would now be complete, yet ! do be-
lieve that the exercise Of a discretion COM
mensurate with the importance Of the re
suits would have greatly aided the President
and materially facilitated his great work Of
restoration
Even the scathing eastigations that have
been administered to our state officials and
bogus southern loyalists, and the correct
history given Of their numerous crimes and
corrupt practices, deserving as we know
/ them to have been, and pleasant as they may
be to read, have done more harm than good
by giving them undue prominence, which
/ they have taken advantage of and actually
made Northern voters believe that they were
prosecuted Oaly because they were Union
men; and that it was unsafe on the same ac-
count for them to remain at home.
False, as all sensible men know are their
statements of being IN danger in the South
no doubt many of them are sincere, for the
wicked fee when no man pursueth; and it Is