Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-04-06
THE NEXT QUESTION ron THE
LFGFgLATUHE

A week before the election, the Governor
publicly announced that he relied upon the
Radical majority to refuse seats to those WHO
resigned, rather than participate in pro-
ceeding aimed at the destruction of populnr
rights and liberties He has doubtless made
every Radical member of The Legislature
fully acquainted with his hopes and wishes
upon the subject. And the greater part Of
them are, we fear, in full sympathy with
him on the question. When the House
OF Representatives meets, therefore, there
will be close count of noses. and
all who are willing to retain their
seats, even at the expense Of public
liberty, viii probably be admitted, and
the rest rejected. We will thus have pre-
scented TO us the strange spectacle Of fifty odd
counties Of the State assuming ali the func-
tions Of State Legislation, and the rest for
biden entrance into the law-making body
A large proportion of the citizens of Tennes-
see, if this programme Of the Governor is
carried out, will be utterly dumb in the
making Of the laws which are to govern
theml Yet the Legislature will pass laws
which the people will be expected and re-
quired to obey. 1t will impose duties and
obligations, levy taxes, impose new burdens,
require new duties-among which latter will
be that some specified citizens of each of
these counties shall see to the execution of
the DISTINGUISHING law in all elections by the
people. They will be cut off in the present
and the future from those rights and priyi-
leges which properly belong TO freemen.
What could be more abholTent to ma
tive Tennessean? What could be in more
direct conflict with the education, the tradi-
tions and the practices of free republican
communities? 1t is the introduction of the
arbitrary rule of THAD. STEVENS and CHAs.
SUMNER and their Congressional puppets
into the State OF Tennessee--the land Of
JACKSON, Observer, of BLoUNT, of WHITE,
of POLK, Of BELL, and Of the DoNELsoNs
and RoBERTsoNs, the EwINGs and the long
list Of pioneers who subdued the wilderness,
and made a garden out of the hunting
grounds of the savage. An illustrious his
tory Of a brave and heroic people, who are
this day occupying the grounds hallowed by
the commingling dust of fathers and moth
ers, loved and cherished above all earthly
objects, is to be terminated in the
usurpations Of a petty faction--and the
future glory and the tales Of COM
ing generations are to perpetuate the
recollection and to inspire admiration
for the BRowNLows and FLETcHERs and
ARNELIs Of the present Ifthese and their
crew had appeared upon the troubled waters
Of strife, even at the period of their subsi-
dence and calm, and had taken the storm
tossed people to the inviting shores Of peace,
presenting succor and encouragement, assis-
lance and comfort, or even kind and gen.
erous and hospitable rords, they would have
linked themselves indissolubly to the popu-
lar heart for all time to come. But, alas
for human perversity and depravity. In
stead of this, they turn upon the people with
violent usage, and, going beyond the bounds
Of personal revenge, seek to engrai upon the
institutions and laws Of the land principles
Of government and measures of legislation
subversive of republican freedom and popu-
lar rights
is it possible that q majority Of the Legis-
lature can follow the course of this fatal in
fatuation, this cruel tyranny, this unauthor-
lied invasion of public liberty Not for
ourselves, but for themselves and the chill
dren who arctic come after them, we would
appeal to their sense Of justice, of honor and
of good faith to their own people, to pause
before they follow the pathway marked out
by these new raised apostles Of fanatical err
ror 1t will lead TO confusion, and ill-blood,
and disgrace. To expect good from it is
impossible. Though it may not now be so
seen by the majority, it will soon
become visible that it is full of evil, and
nothing but evil. Tennessee wants peace on
the basis Of liberty and Of constitu-
tional laws. This, sooner OF later, the
people of the State riH have, whatever OBJ
structions may be temporarily thrown in
their way. What these distractions may
be, or however formidable they may be, we
cannot tell but that they will I've overcome
is just as certain as that Tennessee remains
a State Of the Union, and the Union remains
n free Republic. 1t will not be through
force, or fraud, or an imitation Of the violent
and revolutionary tactics which would bring
them about; but by the silent and resistless
power Of the people, which is as regular in
its operations as the season, and is as neces-
sary to our Republic as the sun is TO our
celestial system,