Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-08-17
MOSES. AND A GREATER THAN
HOSES
From dc Missouri Republiean. l5th.

From the missouri hepnbilcan, l0tb.
When Moses freed the Israelites he
marched them forty years through the
desert Of Arabia. lie felt the impossible
ity of changing at once a host Of slaves
into people Of freemen, and devised a
scheme by which the greater part of the
generation who made the exodus died out
before the rest reached the promised land.
70 the growing generation he gave new
religion, and conformed their minds to the
ideas Of law and culture. Moses first had
to make men out of the slaves before he
could think of making them citizens. They
we're Ignorant, superstitious, vicious and
filthy. He made the Lord to appear to
them a 3 uexeaeefal mastsf eif aoihiag
but fear could rule them. IL the name Of
this terrible C5d. i1e established stringent
laws, by which the 9th Of slavery vas TO
be cleaned out Of their hearts and from
their skin. And yet those from whom the
great man had to wash away the moral and
physical dirt Of long and cruel slavery,
were not originally barbarous or inferior
race, but the descendants of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, the renowned patriarchs
of the Orient.
How would Moses have treated the ne
croes after their emancipation from slave
ry? A greater man than Moses, Governor
BroWnlow, teaches us how He would COM
mence at the other end. Why should he
not? He has a material under his hand
which is by far inferior to the Jews. He
has to deal with a race which, for many
thousand years Inhabited one Of the most
fertile countries of the world; race who
lived in the vicinity of the Egyptians, the
most highly cultivated people of the olden
times, and who nevertheless remained in
such ignorance and barbarity, that the
greatest modern student of their race is
bound to say of them, that not single page
written by negro has ever existed as an
evidence Of any kind Of culture amongst
them. He had to deal with a race which
unquestionably was more stupid, more ig-
norant, more superstitious, more inclined
! to a low existence, than the lsraelites ever
could be, even at the time of their deepest
humiliations; with a race finally, that was
not liberated by one Of themselves
but that became free by a concurrence
of external circumstances. Did Governor
! BroWnlow with this material try similar
process of civilization TO that of the model
| legislator, Moses? Oh, no! He is a
greater man than Moses; he could dis
pense with a similar experiment The
| negroes once were the tools of the South
| he thought-let them now be the tools oi
| the North. Consequently he makes q
Radical voter ont of the negro before he
| has made him to be a man. He makes
the slave the master-the superstitious
ignorant and filthy being, the superior o
even a more refined class of white mer
than he himself ever belonged to. Th'
slave of Yesterday, he to-day permits to bt
| the master of his former master. ln tht
| name of American civilization he exclude!
the white men from government, anC
permits the negro to govern them. Inca
! pable Of sustaining their own families anC
| of preserving them from starvation, II tn
| Federal government should not come K
| their succor, Governor Brownlow find
them perfectly fit to preside over the des
tiny of the whole commonwealth. Ih
state Of equality between the white and tho
colored, unnatural enough as 1t Is
was insufficient for a lawgiver c
the stamp of Governor BroEnlow. III
raised the negro dboue the white man. II
did not let the elder generations Of freed
men die ont and raise the younger little b
little for their new atmosphere OF liberty
but in less than forty months has thu
greater legislator than Moses marched hi
negroes to the front Of American cultur
There stands the monster; an America
commonwealth ruled by African brute
TO keep up such state of things all th
bayonets Of the whole world will be insult
cientl Still another step in advance 20
must 90, Governor Brownlow! In ord'
to perpetuate the monstrosiiy, you mu
reduce the white men of Tennessee to d
harbarity Of the negroes You hay
ALREADY disfranchised them; that is n
enough. One step more, OF you will 10
your game after ALL You can make Ii
negro vote, and you can disfranchise Il
white man; but finding it impossible
raise the negro to the habits Of lie, TO q
education and to the perfectness Of Il
whites, you must reduce the white men
Tennessee to the stage Of the coiored rae
You will have to barbarize the white ma
/ Go IL Parson; you cannot be Moses;
then a Brownlow through and through.