Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-04-30
THE RADICAL WAR-WHOOP.

Acting Governor FIetcher's EXPOSE
ton Of the Programme of Radical
characterization of speech 40 be
Denied-EtherIdge to be Put Down
by the Bay Announces
An Tennessee.
We snbioin extracts from the speech of
A. j. Fletcher, Secretary of State, and
acting Governor ofTennessee, in the absence
Of Brownlow, delivered to the Radical
meeting at the capitol on Saturday last,
and as reported in the Press and Times of
yesterday, 10Th. 1t is an authoritative ex-
position of the purposes of the autocratic
leaders of Radicalism in this State, in the
present campaign
But have a far more important matter
to speak of Addressing myself to white
as well as black. i advise you to so act as
to secure harmony in the Union ranks
guard against discOrd and division-keep
your ranks closed up and move in serried
column. Not 20 much for the sake of the
party but because we are on the eve of
troubles of a far more serious character
than mere political strife. The accident of
position has given TO me standpoint from
which | am better able to anticipate events
than most of you are. | say this, not boast
ingly, but because my daily duties are such
a. to enable me to comprehend the situa-
ton with greater facility than others differ
emily situated. | say then with sorrow,
but not with dismay, that we are on the
eve of serious trouble probably ola social
and financial disaster-possibly of bloody
collisions. The Conservatives have selected
candidate for Governor for the purpose of
bringing on this state of things And like
all others contemplating crime, they have
chosen the instrument best adapted to a
sure execution of their purposes. They
have selected a candidate who proclaims
that Won have no State government, but
void and bogus concern which no man
Is bound 10 obey. He holds and
prOclaims that the present Legislature Is
an imposition, and that no man IL bound
TO obey the laws of It's authority. He holds
that the present judiciary has no authority,
and that its decisions are all utilities. He
declares that the constitution of Tennessee
has never been amended, and that conse-
quently the slaves are not free. Such were
his declarations in his last reported
speech-a speech which he has never re-
canted, and which he will scorn TO recant,
unless it be to cheat the colored man out of
his vote. In that speech, made at Trenton
after the people at the ballot-box had
amended the constitution so as to abolish
slavery after your Legislature had met and
SO declared after they had passed their
laws and adjourned, and gone to their
homes-in that speech, nearly two years
after Mr.. Lincoln's proclamation abolishing
slavery, he declared that the shareholders
whom he was addressing had as good
title to their slaves as they had before the
war. He advised them to reduce their ne
grocs back to slavery by force, and TO shoot
down any white man who might inform the
negroes they were free. For that he was
arrested, and before s court-martial haugh
tily pleaded glaity Besides, it is well
known at Washington, and at his home,
that he constantly inculcated the right and
the duty Of the people to overthrow the
present State government by force. Only
last August, Etheridge and Baxter, and
others, projected and advocated State rev.
Olution, and actually broke ground on the
stump in favor of the scheme. Etheridge
left Washington in August last, declaring
his purpose to take the stump and urge the
overthrow of the State government by
force In short, Etheridge has donenothing
but advocate violence from the FIRST dawn
Of the present State government down
TO the present time. By his nomination
his party have thrown down the gage of
revolution. l have said that he was nom
mated for this purpose. / am authorized
to say so from the TACT that the leaders Of
the convention declared, in an hour after
convention adjourned, that they did not
expect TO elect and had not selected him
for that purpose. have said this instrlI-
meat Of seditl0n and violence was we'll chosen,
and so | repeat.
Few men in America have greater power
TO influence the bad passions of bad men
| than Emerson Etheridge. Reason ia not
his forte To prudence and discretion he
is a stranger. Malignant denunciation,
bitter reproaches, inhammatory harangues,
these are his favorite and only weapons
| Now, this is the sort of man theIConserva-
tives have chosen to canvass the State.
Wherever he goes he will address his APP
peals 10 the disfranchised class. The I'M
subiugated will be out to hear him-the
ex-guerrilla will be cut to hear-that class
Of men who are hardly restrained now
from violence will listen to his frantic dis
cources Wherever he goes he will be fol-
| lowed and attended by violence. This is
| indeed 10 be his business, his mission.
| These outbreaks, which are inevitable, 'cU
harc 10 b. met and pat dorm, and they pU be
met and pat dorm. Does any man suppose
I that Brownlow will stand idle and see the
| flames of violence and sedition burning and
spreading No sir, it will be- his duty to
eTtinguish The fire wherever II breaks out,
| and he ,rM not b. lou 10 do IT, Now this is
the trouble have alluded TO as only a few
weeks ahead Of us 1 am no alarmist, for
| am not in the least alarmed Sedition