The Daily clarion., 1867-04-02
Moving Of the Waters-IThe Drift
Ing OF Public Sentiment into
tAe Conservative Channel.

= moment of resentment at the repudia
ton by Congress of the pledges Of
le the President and the substitution oi
/ another scheme of adjustment em,
E. braclng terms far more harsh and il.
is liberal, accompanied by the declara.
L ton Of Martial Law to be enforced at
Al the poiut of the bayonet, advised the
e people to remain inactive and exercise
o no agency whatever in shaping future
Is events. Ap "
y Approaching the spirit which
/ prompted this advice, while we con
: temned the narrow feeling which at
: tributed impurity of motive to those
y who urged different course, we have
. conceded to those who have not
e agreed with us the same patriotic in
tentions that we have asserted for our
y selves, and have indulged no other
. emotion than that of regret at such
y indications of distracted eounsels
u among people who should be united
y by a remembrance Of common suffer-
ings and the certainty of common
: fate.
But the argument of mere passion
cannot long hold sway, when that OF
reason takes the helm Many of our
cotemporaries who, at first blush,
counseled the policy Of inaction, by
the light Of subsequent events and of
calmer reasoning, are now advising
different course.
From among these journals, we will
submit, from time to time, extracts
not only to show the drift of public
sentiment, but to present the argu-
ments upon which the opinions adj
vanced, have been formed.
We have not seen clearer views
more cogently presented than are con
tanned in the following from the
Memphis Ledger;
| Ir is TINE FOR AcTIoN.-Let us see if we
cannot employ the reconstruction measures
of Congress to advantage. The intention of |
them is to punish, not to benefit. They |
mean to make black loyalty the basis of
Southern State governments, and we had as
well recognize at once the fact of negro suf-
frage all over the South. 1t is to be, and
there is no power on earth to prevent it. If
those of the Southern people who can vote,
fail to do so from disgust with the idea of
voting in company with their late servants,
their doom will be sealed, and the power of
government depart from them. Will this be
wisdom or folly State conventions are to
be called, and the members to compose them,
will be voted for by those who shall register,
and not others All the negro men will reg
lister, that is certain. Let us state case for
illustration
In one county in Mississippi, there are
twenty-five white men who are disfran-
chsed by the reconstruction bills, because
they had taken an oath to support the Con-
stitution of the United States, and after
wards aided the South in the late war. /
There are two thousand white men who will ,
be entitled to register and vote. There will {
be the same number of negroes. In addition {
dyed in the wool, whose mission will be to 7
control the negro vote and have two or more I
of their number elected to the constitutional q
If the white men who can reg t
lister and uote shall fail to do so, is it not i
clear that these loyalsts will be returned to t
the convention Suppose similar state of c
things shall exist in each county in the j
State. We have Radical convention that e
will frame constitution excluding from the
polls euer atter all who failed to register and o
vote at the election This constitution will II
% submitted to the people for ratification. Il
All who failed to register and vote for dele d
rates will be excluded from voting on the n
question of ratification. The result is OBJ tt
,ious. The wool-dyed loyalists, Southern e.
enegades and specimens of the rag-tag and 81
,ob-tail politicians of every cline, kingdom u
nd country, will find themselves in the m
Ugh places of the State, where they can, at 10
easure, domineer over the people But D.
oppose, in the county referred to, all the al
yhite men who are not disfranchised shall m
egister Does any sensible man doubt that I'll
hey could carry the county Does any one as
oubt that they could carry at least one II
housand of the two thousand negro votes I'll
he result would stand upon the most fa- "
orable calculation for the wool-dyed, three tn
housand whites and negroes, to one thou g
and negroes and loyalists. Now, would it u
OF be folly, madness, in the Southern people III
D throw themselves back on the high horse u'
f dignity, refuse to register, and thus allow dc
heir States to become the miserable down. 'l
rodden thing that Tennessee is to-day? Il, ~
ach one of them would have Brownlow I'll
" Governor, and Legislature like his. III
hey would lose power, as we have lost it. ~
heir courts would decide as our courts de- "H
de, and they would have just the sort of ''i
ghts that we have, the right to pay taxes ~
nd bear all the burdens without any of the y.
enefts of the State. We say to the people ~
the South, recognize negro suffrage as a -;
xed fact, and prepare to make the most of &C
The time for complaint is over, and the -
me for action arrived. -
The Memphis Bulletin advises action, of
nd puts it on the right ground as fol- fic
'ws: III
+so
"In our issue of few days ago, we advised iar
e people of the ten subiugated States to We
gister themselves, and at the proper time i'm
} to the polls and vote; and we put this wi
lvice on the ground that the whole matter to
reconstruction ftheir State governments up
ID been taken ont of their hands and con- els
yned to the military governors. No ini- are
lry step is required of them. They are not de,
fact asked to assent to or dissent from ari
g mode or the fact of reconstruction. The the
sctions are to be ordered whether they pei
i'll or not, and their governments will be err
in spite of them. To vote is wit
accept nothing, and assent to nothing the
uching the constitutionality or legality the