Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1867-10-03
Confiscation : Self--Pres-
erVatiOn.

pOiutSO dho AoiSANAS SSaAAi
ton of lookout" from the Knox
vile Free Press. The subject he
discusses is one Of vital interest
70 our people. The threat is made
that the property of every one
who discharges a negro laborer
for political conduct (and of this
the negro will be both witness and
judge is to be con6scated. This
is no mere newspaper utterance.
1t comes from a man who, to-day,
has power and influence. Itmeans
something. Its forebodings aie
terrible. A people insensible to
the alarm deserve to be robbed.
We have laughed long enough at
what we considered ridiculous
and monstrous propositions. We
thought the people of Tennessee
would never suffer negro suffrage,
nor tolerate the testimony of a
negro in a Court of justice against
a white man. Yet, we have lived
to see these things come to pass,
and, as surely as the sun shines
upon US to-day, this other and
greatest evil is fast approaching
M. Editor:-The suggestion in
your paper of the 22nd in regard
to getting rid of the negro at once,
is wise one. Certainly no PEG.
pie on the face of the earth have
ever been called more imperiously,
by the principle of self-preserva-
ton, to act promptly in any given
direction than the people of Ten
nessee are called to discharge,
without delay, every negro now in
their employment. You know,
sir, and every gentleman of COM
mon intelligence in the State
knows, that the negro has hither-
to been treated with as much con-
sideration and kindness by the
white people of this State since
the abolition of slavery, as has
been possible under the circum-
stances. The former masters
have manifested constant dispoa
sition to encourage the negro
They have employed him at fair
rates, or have rented him land on
liberal terms; and the whole his
tory of the case will prove that if
the two classes had been left to
themselves, without the officious
and too often arbitrary interference
of the Bureau for the last two
years, the negro would now be hap
pier and better off than he is, and
the white man would be more In
clined than ever before to befyiend
and aid him. But the operations
of the Bureau; in conjunction
with the designing and unprinci-
pied self-seeking Radical whites,
nearly all of whom are exotics-
mere adcenturersfrom Yankeedom,
whose only hope for position and
place in the State is in the negro
have resulted only in Inaugural
ting suspicion aud hostility on
the part of the negro towards the
whites, which of necessity drives
the white man TO adopt such
means for selfprotection as must
prove detrimental to the material
interests of the latter. The con-
slant tendency of this interference
las been directly towards the
sincerely deprecated by
Ill good men-of begetting and
iostering a mutual antipathy be-
.ween the races: and SO success
iully, as well as adroitly, has this
'cheme been managed by those {
whose whole dependence for politi- !
al preferment depended upon it, q
hat the negro, blind to his own
interest, and deaf to every voice
f reason and common sense, has
llowed himself to be chained
and and foot to the Radical car,
nd has bound himself by unusual
aths to do. the bidding of those :
rho refuse him all participation 7
the Offices of honor or profit TO @
e filled in the country. Nor is Ii
lis all. The negro has been 4,
Iainly dependent upon the. Con- !,
.rvatiyes and disfranchised por- @
on of the people of the State for
nployment and means of sup-I,o