Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-06-14

| Are bley 70 dfTeSb IOm hbN3 fi
try them by Court Martial, aud sen
tenoe them to be put to death Are
they 70 take men into the Park or out
into the suburbs and shoot them, and
send TO their wives that they q go and
get the bodies? Or are they only TO
enter private houses by force, and seize
such arms as they may fancy OF their
trihing ~peccadillos in the way Of fora
cling, it is not worth while to speak.
1t may as well be at once understood
that these things are not to be done in
Memphis. Tennessee is at least nomi-
nally q State, and has q Constitution and
Laws and Courts Of Justice. Memphis
and Shelby county do not entirely belong
to the honest gentlemen who fatten and
thrive here on the pickings Of Office and
by plucking the taxpayers, Whatever
the Estate Guards" may be, whether
militia or a standing army, they have
no powers whatever OF interference with
citizens. They can only act when called
on for assistance by the civil officers. II
they do any act whatever without law
full warrant they may lawfully be re-
sisted, and if necessary to self-defence,
put 10 death. If they undertake to ar
rest any one, he may resist and kill
them. IL they attempt to enter a pri-
vate house against the owners will,
which in England even the King cannot
do, they may lawfully be shot down,
and so, when breaking The laws, they
ought to be. They are, by the Constitu-
ton, in strict subordinatjon to the civil
power. They have no business to hold
Courts Martial and try citizens. They
have no right to summon Magistrates to
come and set in their camps. In short,
they have simply no powers at all, ex-
cept to act in aid Of the Sheriff or other
proper civil officer, when summoned by
him to do so.
As 10 the other matters that are of
vital interest to the good citizens Of
Memphis, orr police are VIGOROUSLY too
few to prevent q riot. There Is immi-
nent danger Of violent collisions and
bloodshed at the polls in August. The
negroes are banded together, and at the
disposition Of men who will use them
without scruple to effect their ends. 1t
is intended that they shall take and keep
the polls and prevent Conservative citi-
zens from voting. The incorporate Ian
guage Of two Of them st Brownsville
warns US to prepare for the worst. For
the good citizens, the men Of wealth,
| the respectable mechanics, the industri-
| Gus laborers not to organize to prevent
/ excess and outrages, and enforce order
and fairness at the polls, viii be simple
| faulty. If it is true, as has been openly
I charged, that the Registering officer, one
| DAVIS, We believe, refuses to register
white men entitled to vote by
the present laws OF Tennessee, and
negroes who say they intend TO
vote for ErHERIDGE, and that he has
/ registered hundreds CT uegrces perhaps
| thousands, who sre not entitled to vote,
what he so does unlawfuIly is LII and
void. He cannot give the Iightof voting
to q negro to whom the law does not
| give it: and we hope that when the cit
/ liens organize, they will tsks steps
~peaceably to prevent negroes living IN
Arkansas and elsewhere out Of Shelby
county from voting, aud to spot and
cause the lawful arrest Of every
guilty Of perjury. They should assist
those who are Illegally excluded from
registry, to institute actions against the
Registering officer, and in every way
endeavour to have the laws enforced and
wrong and outrage Of every kind pre-
/ vented.
We r not alarmists, but there is
cause for apprehension, grave reason to
apprehend trouble, and those are very
unwise who endeavor to shut their eyes
to it, aud pcoh-pooh it. We counsel no
resistance to any law but we again
urge all good citizens Go RFm themselves
for their W defence, and to orgsaize
so as to be able in an emergency to act
together. No one, not even those superb
-personages who announce to US that they
sre here to govern Us, hiss any right to
object 70 it. 1t is both lawful snd pAtri-
otie so 10 organize. It VIII not be 8 cen
spiracy, like the loyal leagues, nsr a ban
dftti, like the State Guards but a Civic
Guard Of men who have some stake in
the community, and some interest in
maintaining law and order. There are
none to protect them. They must pro-
tect themselves.
Our amiable, temperate and discreet
neighbour, the AUalnnche, disspproves
our proposition Of organization, thinking
it certain,-why, it does not say,-to pro-
duce appalling consequences; and coun-
sells all good citizens mutely to submit to
whatever fate NAV have in store for
them, Of outrage or indignity, rather
than to unite together beforehand to pre-
vent injury. The advice Of the AVa-
Iaache is undoubtedly honest, and may
be wise but if it is, it is very unwise,
while dissuading good citizens from Or
ganizing for defence, artfully TO exaspe-
rate them, and prove the necessity for
the very action it disspproves, by an in
temperate recital Of their wrongs and
d-enuncistiOns Of individuals as 6t ob-
jects of the popular vengeance. If We
do rot dare to organize and unite, for
the purpose of defending our property
and lives, why indulge in useless COM
plants and impotent denuneiations,
which only crafty those who Cypress Us,
and so far from awaiting us anything,
only exssperste our masters2 If we
must submit to every Imaginable wrong,
and have lost even the right Of self-de-
fence against lawless violence, let US at
least learn to respect ourselves enough
TO be silent.