Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-07-12

iHAu III VIC 'oS'Atcj anu FtnueFeu IL certain
that large number Of those who had
been made voters by the law Of June,
1865, should remain disfranchised 1t
was not alleged that they had committed
any crime after being enfranchished, but
they would not vote to please BrOWnlow
and Fletcher Without the semblance Of
justice or law, these men were deprived
Of their right to vote; a right which the
highest judicial tribunal in England de-
eided more than century ago was a prop
erty right, of which man could no more
be deprived than of any other property,
except by due process Of law: that is,
trial and conviction by jury.
In his message of November 6, 1866,
the Governor said of this new law:
"The franchise law passed on the Sd of
May last is not yet fully in operation. Re-
gisters have been appointed in all Of the
counties Of the State, bat many of them
have not completed their labors and made
their reports. As fast as they have done
80, have ordered elections in compliance
with the law. | am happy to state that
the Registers have been generally faithful
and firm in the discharge of their impor-
tant duty. Except in the city of Nashville,
the late special elections seem to have been
held substantially in accordance with the
law"
Again it was demonstrated that the
majority of those enfranchised under this
law would not sustain the Brownlow-
Fletcher usurpation, and in despair these
twin adopts inpolitical iniquity demanded
that the negro, whom they hoped to
wheedle into their support, should be en-
franchised, that still more stringent
franchise law for white men De passed,
and that they be authorized to disfran-
ehise whole counties whenever their
schemes would be advanced by such an
act of perfdy This demand was obse-
quiously complied with by acts passed
the 18th of February and the 8th ofMarch
Ofthe present year Under the last named
act Brownlow and Fletcher have disfran-
chised, excluded from the right of suf-
frage," every citizen in twelve of the
counties of this State And why was
this done The constitution of Tennes-
see provides but one way in which a
qualified voter may be deprived of his
right to vote, and that is upon conviction
of having committed an infamous crime
The citizens of these twelve counties ac-
quired the right to vote under the fran
chise laws Of 1865 and 1866, if they did
not possess this right before, yet upon the
mere motion of these twin architects of
ruin, thousands of citizens are deprived
of right which our constitution declares
can only be restricted for an infamous
crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted by court of competent
jurisdiction And there are thousands of
our best and most substantial citizens in
every county of the State whose rights
have been similarly triAed with by a
venal majority in the Legislature. For
these repeated wrongs the people have no
redress, for the Governor, whichever for
the time being exercises the powers of
that Office, has made Judges dependent
upon his viii alone, for the tenure of their
Offices and the amount and payment of
their salaries
These and their accessories constitute
the Pandora's box from which issue forth
the brood of evils that afiict Tennessee,
leaving us in "a condition compared with
which that of Virginia or of Georgia is
one Of Ethiopian bliss 1t was not that
Tennessee was reconstructed too early,
but from the shameless perfdy and grasp
ing ambition of men thrown to the sur
face by adventurous circumstances, that
the State has suffered so terribly, and
made this people an object of commisera.
ton with unprecedented, fair minded men
of the North la his message to the Legis
lature, dated the Sd Of October, 1865,
only six months after the Inauguration of
the State government, the Governor was
forced by the good behavior, the 'loyal'
conduit of the people, to confess that "the
of government is working well,
except in a few instances And like in
stances might have been found before the
war Had our authorities then risen to
the level of craftsmanship and inaugu-
rated policy of justice toward a people
thus reconstructed and striving to bring
the State back to the old paths, affairs
would have gone on smoothly. But the
weak men who have control of the State
government assumed that every man who
did not sustain them in their usurpations
was "disloyal," and system of persecu-
ton and annoyance has been inaugurated
that has left the State in far worse cons
iitiOn than any of the Southern States
And the facts, coupled with their own
snow that Brownlow and |
Fletcher and their henchmen are the sole |
authors of the disorders that prevail in |
Tennessee to>day.