Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-03-21

dNAof JUST 1AA Au~NCRCuNCAN Sd-HScs =
emulation 0 fwealth, general prosperit
employment for the poor. ST fair wage
and schools for their children, und
absolute despotisms. There may be Il
sense Of honour, and the love Of glo.
INDUCED aud satisfied. There m,
. even BE- freedom OF thought and speec
and s public opinion that prevents Il
lawless excesses Of power, The TyraI
5 may compel honesty in these to who
e he entrgsts the public service, Which IL
e people rarely succeeds in securing, al
e he may feel settled and safe enough
the possession Of power, to be mercif
q like CESAR and NAPOLEON.
But negro suffrage would be like
: putrid poison in all the veins and art,
s ries Of the commonwealth. 1t would
o a deadly miasma, penetrating ever
where, aud diseasing the whole body
$ the State. Where the majority of til
, voters are ignorant and Of inferior int.
lect and deprsved, the most frightfI
} anarchy must o prevail, by whic
the common people would be by far th
greatest sufferers. It would debaucI
and demoralize all the coveters of office
and at once exclude from the public ser
vice the honest and capable, to whom
self-respect had not ceased to be of value
It would bring upon the miserable coun
try afflicted by it, a flood Of ills, q uni
versal overflow of curses, that woult
make despotism desirable as the onll
means Of relief from the intolerabl,
miseries of misrule and license, Of folly
vice and crime. To educate the negr,
adults is of course impossible. To edu
cate the small Africans who are to sue
coed to political power, on attaining t
full-grown n~egrohood, will be but t.
make them a little more capable for mis-
chief.
Negro suffrage, in the Southern States
where the Ethiops swarm and kennel in
m%ultitudes, would, in short, make the
country a hell on earth, q hideous, hor.
rid p-andemOnium, filed with al the
devils, Of vice, crime, Psuperism, cor
ruption, violence, political debauchery,
social anarchy the den and lair Of all
stains, shames, dishonours, diseredits,
dlsgraces, ignominies and infamies,-a
rOtting carcass, infected with all perni-
cious plaques and pestilences, like the
body Of HEROD or LOUIS the Fifteenth,
whose flesh dropped, rotten, from the
bones, while the miserable life still
fingered, and the putrid soul feebly
struggled to escape from its more putrid
prison.
Better, by all odds, at once accept a
permanent despotism, to tghich negro
suffrage cannot fail IN a. fer short gears
to lead, than consent to such a degrade
ton as no State has ever before been
asked TO voluntarily accurse and disgrace
itself withal, since the making Of the
world. No despotism, no intensity of
hate, with all its devilish ingenuities of
malice. has until now resorted to sueb a
refinement Of vindictive vengeance. Let
It be imposed ca Us, since we cannot
help 1t; but let Us stand to receive il.
and not kneel for the burthen, like the
and obsequious camels. If it is |
imposed on us, We shall be in no worse
condition than if we crouch to take
upon ourselves. If it is not, we shall
but have TO endure the military despot-
ism, which is inevitable, without the
accumulated horrors which, if it were
temporarily removed, would accompany
negro suffrage, and make the renewal of
iespotism to be unto US like the opening
the golden gates of Heaven to the
.ortured d~enizens of hell.
Let US endure the despotism. It is but
'Purgatory and through it tour States may
ssue forth, purified, into a better and
wiser freedom. 1t is so that Nations
which have sinned as ours has, are disci-
'lined and ~chastened. Let US no seek
o escape from temporary tyranny. by
lunging into the bOttonless gulf Of bar
There is yet one other reason WHY we
.ould prefer the established military
espotism to reconstruction with negro J
Mirage. If the government of Prov !
ices by B~rigadiers can but be continued ;
few years, it will prove the ruin of the ;
.orthern States, since its inevitable +
'nsequence mus be the collapsed their a
winding irredeemable paper-eurrency, a
.e ruin oftheir banks, calamity to private \
rtunes, low prices, scarcity of work. ,
stress and starvation, riots and revolts, u
d the end Of thaSholIow and deIusiye
osperity with which God is cursing our
sk-mssters, that in the end their de. .
'uctlon may be the more complete and !"
erwhelming. 1t would be the extreme %
Jolly for US, however it may seem TO "
expedienti to raise a finger to prevent !,
ar reaping the full fruit of their viii -
MES. The longer the Military Despot-
lasts, the better. 1t has been i'm
'ed upon US with the expectation that
would ha to return into ~
Union on any terms. rather u
N live under it any length Of az
.e. Then, having served its tenn u
airy purpose, it would be reputed 10 "
re been an act Of wisdom and of ms We
, or, at worst, an exceptional exercise az
doubtful power, under stress of Ne an
ity. Continue it two years, and this @a
scheme is defeated, and the men
richly deserve hanging for passing INT
internal contrivsnce over the Veto. WI
2 perhaps get their deserts. There is me
folly greater than that Of the
ting mel or States to escape from slV'
consequences of their viuoin;oa .- hav
I, and change these into successes wal