Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-04-02

fence had passed long years in exile
Hungary has been true 10 herself, ana
steadfqst, and God has not forsaken, but
has avenged and justified her. None Of
her leading men have ever urged 1t upon
her that she should consent to abdieate
|, her sovereignty and become a Province
Of the Empire, and ~perpetually disfrsn'
ebise those entitled to her eternal graft
indie. and confess that she has been
guilty of treason and rebellion, because
otherwise she must submit to despotic OF
military rule, and suffer the last indigni'
. ties of tyranny or, II such abject aban'
Comment of right was ever counselled, II
was rejected by her with silent con
tempt.
a little while ago, when the dangers
that accompany defeat seemed TO have
passed away, and its penalties and what
the North regards as the price Of blood
and the expiration of treason seemed nc
longer likely to be exacted, the leaders
Of public opinion in the South, as We
have said above, were defiant and even
exultant. Their speeches, in the open
air or in the halls Of legislation, rung
high and clear with the bold tones Of
martial and ehivalric ardour. The idea
Of submission to tyranny was indignant
lly spurned. Tie Congress of the United
States, thus deied, and the Constitu-
4 tional amendment spawned by ii spit
upon and insulted, condenses its maiig,
nifty, its raneour and the venom Of its
hate into two enactments that create
over us q despotism like that which OPP
presses Poland and from which God has
liberated Hungary and the clarion notes
of defiance and jubilatiOn Of many of the
South's silver-tODgued orators die away
into despairing means, and on all sides
co~unselloTs spring up, advising her to do
what q little while ago she swOre she
would not, to curse herself with the
abominatiOn of negro suffrage, enact the
| Constitutional amendment, and disfran-
chise the Doblest, purest, wisest Of her
sons, and declare in the most solemn
] manner possible that the blood OF her
children was shed in an unholy and IN
! righteous cause, and shed in vain, in the
idle hope Of saving the South from deg
radiation and loss Of honour and man
hood together.
Hungary waited and endured for nine
teen years: but our South, when yet
she has hardly felt the yoke OF military
Despotism, is urged to hasten to denude
herself of all her ancient prerogatives,
/ TO cede away her rights, to abdicate her
sovereignty, to descend from her high
estate, and eat the food of shame and
drink the cup Of humiliation to the
dregs,-to give away all that makes ex-
istenee tolerabie, in order stiI1 to I've,
and because il she does not give, It will
at any rate be taken from her. That OF
which we are robbed, may be reclaimed
What we cede and by our solemn act
surrender, is gone from Us forever.
Its said that if the people do not sc
cept the terms dictated, il they do not
procure themselves to be registered, and
vote, they will be DISTINGUISHED, and in
each Southern reconstructed STATE, be
like US who are DISTINGUISHED in Tennes-
see. What then? We here in Tennes-
see, have not consented to our own dis
reimbursement. We are no parties to
any action of the State. We have not
lost the right, we have not sold theright,
we have not gambled away The right, to.
overturn by lawful and constitutional
means the d~espotism that force has i'm
posed upon Us. We have not fastened
the yoke upon Il own necks. No Obli-
CATION Of good faith, no estoppel Of any
sort, no law Of prescription bars u re-
covery of our human rights, or precludes
us from taking from the negro the right
Of suffrage, and from our insolent rulers
the monopoly Of the powers Of govern
ment and legislation.
Shall we, because we have not enough
of patience to endure and wait like
Hungary, and to bear for a few years
what she bore for twenty, absolutely de-
bar ourselves from even a reversiOnary
right to independence and TO equality in
a Union Of States ? Shall We deprive
ourselves of that immense power of
passive Indifference TO the welfare of the
States that opRress us, in which consists
our only e OF eoercing them ta-do
rs justices Shall we help 70 make their
expressions and injustice profitable to
them, and to crown their iuiquity with
success? OR shall We remain free
TO rejoice at their disasters, s Hun
gary did at those Of Austria, aud as
Ireland r~ejoices ST those Of England ? |
Have we manhood enough to suffer and
endure? VIII We fooiishly cast away
the only and the sure means, which
Hungary has found so effectual, OF re-
covering all the rights Of which our
States have been robbed, Of compelling
the restoration to them Of all their old
prerogatives, Of humbling and punish
ing a insolent and arrogant oppressors ?
For Us to cast one vote, is to concede
all they ask and do all they demand. I'll
we cooperate at all, the whole work is
our own, and our States are lost forever.
Where would Hungary be to-day, II her
people bad Ratified the humiliation by
Austria Of her separate and distinct
nationality and her ancient constitution g.?
She would have been forsaken by the
Almighty Con, as we shall deserve to
be, If we cannot endure as she did, and
with a passive heroism defy the malice
Of an ignobIe tyranny. It is hoped that
we can be coereed and whipped-ln 10
help the Northern States escape the con-
sequences of their infamous legislation.
Shall we then be be weak, 50 unwise
as to de it. and so make viIlainy
successful, or shall We retain the means
Of redress, which alone the oppressed
possess be the weakness and not the
strength Of the Empire whose PROSTATE
Provinces We are sind. uninterested in
T. fortunes, care for what befals it, only
% far as its misfortunes may enable us
o recover our rights?