Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1867-09-26
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WnaC ABOUT EmplOyln|
: Radical Prescription
lists ?---Letter from D1
. Bowen to Hon. A. A
Steele on the Subject
i, From the Nashville Union & Dispatch.
GoRDoNv1LLE, Tenn, Angus
22d, 1867-HoN. A. A. STEELE
My DEAR SIR: Eighty thousan'
white men, In Tennessee, consti
tuting the mass of the intelligence
and a large majority of the tax
payers of the State, are proscri
bed from any participation in th'
affairs of government. These
eighty thousand men are as loyal
lily obedient to the laws, and as re
spectful to the authority of gov
ernment, State and Federal, as
any equal number are in any
State in the United States. Their
exclusion from the right to vote,
and from the consequent exercise
of all political privileges, enslaves
and degrades them. Politically
they are enslaved and degraded.
Whether this political enslave-
ment and degradation is right OR
wrong, no man with. the least
sense of honor, or the. smallest
degree Of intelligence, will stop
one moment to inquire. He who
would contend that it is right, is
too far outside of the pale of hon
or for even contempt, or sunk too
low in the scale Of intelligence for
notice. This is not a question OF
ordinary difference of opinion in
which men may be equally honest
and equally patriotic, which ever
side they may occupy. That it
is fagrant wrong and outrage
for one set Of men to enslave and
degrade another, admits of no
question. To do SO in the light
of the nineteenth century, is to
exhibit the meanest and most
tyrsnny.
This then is the attitude which
the people of Tennessee sustain
to each other to-day; the proscri-
bed and politically enslaved, con-
stituting a large majority of the,
white race, including the mass of !
the intelligence, and most of the
of the State on the one
side, and on the other, their pro-
and vindictive oppress-
ors, composed of a lean minority
of the white race, many Of whom
deserted the late Rebels when
their cause began to wane, and
their new allies the negroes. I
have above briefly stated the sit
uation as it exists In Tennessee,
and in language as mild and as
little imbued with passion as pos
sible. In view of what human
nature is known to be, with what
kind of feelings and sentiments
do the disfranchised, politically
enslaved and prescribed majority
necessarily regard that. vindictive
Of white men, and the
ignorant negroes who thus disfran-
chise, ,.enslave, and prescribe them?
Is it possible that they should
patronize them in any way, or
mingle with them in social Life?
Can men once free, with whom
the memory of that freedom still
remains, become SO lost to the
dignity of manhood as not to
scorn the very presence of those
cowardly creatures who in the
hour of weakness would strike
them down? Selfrespect may
forbid any outburst of passion;
respect for the laws and regard
for the peace of society, will re-
strain ali violence, but a deep and
bitter sense of wrong and injus-
tice, and a lofty contempt for the
mean and cowardly manner in
which this wrong and injustice |
was done, will dig an impossible |
,ulph between the oppressed and
their oppressors. Men who have |
been free, and who are the descend
ants of freemen, the memory of
whose gallant deeds in freedoms !
cause still inspires them, can never |
entertain other than feelings of |
bitter hate and unconquerable hos
;ility toward those who Cypress
md enslave them. This is hui
nan nature, as it is illustrated on |
,very page which records the his
;ory of man.
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