Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, and rebel ventilator. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1863-1866, 1866-02-07
Conservatives and Radicals.

The country is now divided into two political par
ties Conservatives and RsdieaIs-and under the
banners of these parties all men who take part in
the politics of the day fast srraying Themselves
and all journals-not nsutral-are taking one side
or the other. All parties pretend to conservatism
in one way or another-conservatism as they inter
pref it, and they desire it shall be understood and
We find in them ALL and sstride of them all, class
who profess to be distinctly conservative We pro-
pose in this article to set forth what we understand
by conservatism and radicalism, and to show pre-
cisely where we stand, and where this journal in
tends TO stand.
Conservatives, in their own day, are general dis
senters protesting against the powers that be, and
all they do, fsultfnders critics, who want reform
they the outs whose high calling TO fight the
ms. Many Of them are bankrupt politicians some
of them have, during the last four years, been on
both sides of the great struggle some of them have
sore heads most of them dent believe in party pol
itics at all, but for organizing party which is
not party, and 90 for the adoption Of creed that
is not political. They in favor of things they
Gre opposed to tinkering with the Constitution and
hey for trusting the people of the South. They
would like to see all radicals swing up by their
necks. They have no patience with those who lack
faith in the patriotism of those who brought the
war, and fought against the Union for four long
years. An out-and-out genuine Conservative ad-
mits the negro is free and lets his slaves go es the
result of the war but he asserts that they made
free by fraud and usurpaton, and that the Govern
ment owes him fair price for his negroes, and is
lot honest if it refuse to pay. His peculiar affection
for the Constitution of his country inspired mainly
by the clause which protects those who have spit
upon it and trampled that sacred instrument under
their traitoro feet They the advocates of len
iency, of humanity, and of the benign precepts of
christianity; and he is wanting in patriotism who
sees any wreng in the rebberes, murders imPrissn-
msnts rsPes and crueties inflicted by rebel soldiers
and officers who were acting under orders from q
de facto government They believe that men out OF
the rebel army whose hands are dripping with the
blood of loyal men, should be at once admitted TO
the halls of Legislatures, and Of Congress- at
tired in rebel uniforms. They are opposed to any
and all franchise laws limiting the right of suffrage
except where they are intended to keep the negro
from the polls. Such is CONSERVATISM, and the
editors of this paper are not of that class
A radical is one who, without any conditions, il
for the Union, and for putting down all rebellons
got up TO destroy the Union, at any cost of money
and blood. If slavery get in the way of restoring
the Union, he is for wiping that out. he is for
keeping every man out Of Congress who can't take
the Congressional test oath and believes that no man
has right 10 seat in Congress who can't take that
oath-Eho can't swear that he never bore arms
against the Government of the United States; who
never held any civil or military Office under the So
called Confederate States Government; and who
never voluntarily aided and sbetted the cause of the
late rebellion. The Radical believes that no other
class of men ought to aspire to seats in Congress
They believe that the Congress of the United States
ought to exact from the rebel States before one OF
them is readmitted full and satisfactory guarantees
against another revolt, we'll of future good be-
hsvior and future loyalty. The Radicals believe
that troops should be continued in the South until
every Southern State acquiesces in the results of the
war; and the peopB learn to behave themselvss.-
They believe with President johnson, that treason
should be made odious, and conscious, intelligent
traitors punished with death" And with the Pres.
ident further that if there be but 5000 loyal mu
in Tennessee they ought to govern the State while
all rebels should occupy the back seats" Such il
Radicalism, and the editors of this paper are Rad
ICALS!