Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-08-22
THE ONLY ISSUE.

I
into insignifcance-shall this land b
ruled by intelligent voters or ignorant
ex.chattels2 As that goes so goes the
country onward and upward to aRgran
disement and greatness, as power N
the earth, or downward to despotism oil
anarchy and degradation, compared with
which Mexico is paradise. IL is
question which most nearly and init
mately concerns the Southern people
But it is one of infinite magnitude to al
the States. Upon its decision depends
the balance of power, intelligent repub
lcan government and the preservation
of liberty, as much in one State as an
other. Decide it one way and you have
a nation pacifed, content, united, pros
porous, and made up as Of yore of a peo'
pie obedient and loyal to the supreme
law. Decide il the other, and you have
profound dissatisfaction, discomfort, dis
union, lawlessness and mischief accumu-
lated, with a sense of insecurity and a
consciousness of calamity, with people
disobedient and dsIoyal, because the
very idea of virtuous republic is oblit-
Grated from their hearts, and there is
nothing left to love.
What is to be the compensation for
such sectional Legislation as thus drives
a large portion of great people TO mad
ness and eternally relentless hate2 That,
we say frankly, will be the result in the
South of the enforcement of negro dom
ination on its people.
How then is it to be compensated 2
For no republic can afford to punish of
lenses at the expense OF its own pros
perity. The Northern States are likely
to be divided equally between the DEM
ocrntic or Conservative and the Radical
parties. If then the Africanized South
holds the balance of power, are not the
States of the North at once under the
same control with the States of the South p?
Have they not fallen into the pit which
they dgged for themselves2 They pro-
fess to reconstruct, and have fallen on a
plan by which they can only destroy
The poisoned chalice which they pre-
pared for us is commended TO their own
lips. and they will drain it to the very
dregs. And when it is done the South
will not weep, that, with itself, the OPP
pressor has fallen
We do not pretend to speak
in the interest of the North, but rather in
that Of the South. Or, we would say, in
the name of sound craftsmanship, wis
dom, magnanimity, liberty and hu-
mainly. We wish well to the North and
South. We shall be true to both, to the
| Constitution and our oaths to support it.
But if, with reyengeful hearts, and for
the purpose of cruel and unusual pun
ishment, that Constitution, which we
have been compelled by bayonets to
swear TO maintain, is to be trampled I'M
der the feet of vindictive and short
sighted jacobin majority, we avow that
we are thereby absolved from all duty
and fealty to the dominating American
Tyrant! If there is rebellion in that we
fear not to utter t-for it is easier to be
crushed under as martyrs to liberty
than to suffer oppression as cowardly
and accomplishing slaves.
These views address themselves to the
North quite as really as to the South. If
a white mans government, by educated
and intelligent men, is desideratum to
us, it is also indispensable to them. Rule
eleven of the great States by the negro,
and you rule the thirty-six.
There are two remedies against such a
calamity-one certain, and the other
problematical--the first a repeal of the
negro franchise law, the second univer-
sal amnesty and enfranchisement If
neither one nor the other is adopted, this
land is doomed, and for twenty or fifty
years there will not be corner of it tit
for the residence Of an American free
man. And the only remaining alterna'
tive hope is that we may settle speedily
into the certainty, security and calm OF
an absolute despotism; which, indeed,
as impaired with the present status of
the State of Tennessee, is eminently de-
sirable.