The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-15

the people. He must reorganize with men
whose history, and, more especially, recent
career, show them to be in sympathy with
the great national movement; who were in for
the war, heart and soul; who cannot be sus-
pected of any disposition to betray the great
principles for which the people fought; but
who have the wisdom and the courage to
oppose a firm front against that evil and
dangerous policy of extreme Republicans that
can only end in giving the political balance of
the nation into the hands of half million
negro voters. This is the issue. If the
President meets the necessity boldly, he win
have the sympathy and support of the nation;
if he goes half way, and stops, he will only
have made matters worse.
From the Tribune.
Nobody has ever thought it amiable to
snatch bread from the starving, or polite to
pull his bed from under a dying man; but, it
seems to u.s. akin to these attentions is the
attempt to bully freedman out of his vote.
There was little too much of this for patience
in the late Tennessee election. We can pass
over the passion of that retired marine war
rior, Admiral Semmes, for the right of an old
salt to swear is as prescriptive as his right to
chew tobacco; and we cannot be sufficiently
thankful that he did not burst vessel on
election day, but survived the aggravation with
his arteries in their usual order. We can also
! pass over the mournful walls of the AUdlaRche
newspaper, which hints at going to war again,
| if not day after tomorrow, at least in the
| course of month or two. 1t is quite another
matter when we find the Clarksville Chronicle
! advising citizens to withhold work from all
| colored men who voted for Brownlow-nOt
Immediately, mark you but whenever labor
ers can be found to take their places.
Now, threatening to discharge a man from
employment unless he votes with his en-
| ployer is the most shameful sort of bribery
| conceivable, and the wretch who succumbs to
| such influences might just as well be a slave
| as a so. called freedman. His freedom is merely
nominal. The best part of him belongs to the
! political trader who buys him at the poor price
| of permitting him to earn living by the
sweat of his brow. Whether an employer
| thinks negro suffrage eXpedient or otherwise
does not in the slightest degree affect the
moral question. There are those who do not
understand the use of money, and when they
| get it, unwisely squander it; but does this give
anybody right to pick their pockets? Shy
lock justly said that those who took the means
whereby he lived, really took his life; and to
abandon man to pauperism and starvation
simply for exercising plain legal right, is no
better than knocking him on the head. Then,
again, what difference does it make whether
the bribery of a voter is effected by a sum in
hand or by prospective wages by cajolery or
by threats by thrustipg a spurious ballot
into his fist, or by promising to starve him
into political orthodoxy?
In every country in which anything like
general suffrage prevails, this purchasing of
votes, while it may not seldom be resorted to-
is held to be disreputable. In England,
| bribery proved unseats a member of Parlia-
ment. In most OF the respectable States of
this Union there are laws guarding the
! liberty OF the voter to vote as he pleases; and
these measures are taken to protect men
| who do not and cannot need the protection
which is absolutely vital to the freedman.
Now, intimidation, for many reasons, is vastly
| worse than a plump purchase. The fellow
! who sells himself out-and-out is probably lost
to all feeling of the unspeakable degradation
of his position, and no doubt would dispose of
his grandmother's body to the anatomist OF
course, he who can only be secured by
threatening to deprive him of bread for him
self and his wife and children, is better
worth saving from a shameful oppression
and an insidious temptation. The fact
that he must be reached by such means
| presuppOses a certain degree of hOnora-
be feeling on his part, and the very
| desire for work is in itself praiseworthy. Play
ing, therefore, upon domestic love, taking ad-
vantage of pressing necessities, aVailing him
self of an accidental superiority, the employer
| who bullies dependant out of his most sacred
privilege, and wheedles him into becoming a
mere tool is guilty of moral larceny, and as
souls are of more Importance than bodies, per-
haps he may be declared guilty of moral
murder. 1t is eXtOrtion, and extortion under
| aggravating> circumstances. 1t is merely an
attempt to starve voters opinions and pre-
| ferences out of him. 1t is worse than bread
| and water, with the grave instead of
dungeon.
But we do not mean to insult the intelects
of our readers by arguing this matter. We
can better employ the space at our disposal in
warning the people of Tennessee. If bribery
be once established as a system, they may bid
a long good night to the prosperity and re-
spectability Of the State. Those who buy or
bully blacks will soon be buying or bully
ing whites; and the inevitable consequences
of this will be the domination of dollars, and
the gradual transfer not only of poor people,
but of mechanics, laborers, and shopkeepers of
small means, to the hands of those who are
able to pay for them. The white working man
who rejoices over the attempted degradation
of the black workman will find that petty
tyrants are no respeoters of color. His turn
will come next. The want of daily bread has
nothing to do with the tint of the cuticle.
Man, of whatever race, eats OF digests, or
else dies. We predict that, if the intimidation
of the blacks is successfully kept up, in a few
years the advocates of oonfscation will obtain
power the friends of the South will find it
difficult to resist.