Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-07-18
LETTER FROM MEMPHIS.

Troubles ON Election Day-Murders
and AssassinatiOns Anticipated
How we may Eseape-WhO RespOn-
sIbIe-DIrectiOn Of Popular Eumi-
tIes-An Earthquake at Memphis
philosophy of the Matter.
Correspondence of the Union aud Dispatch.
MEMPHIS, July 16, 1867.-There is
deal of anxiety because of apprehended
troubles on election day. In more than
Barbour Lewis Loyal Leagues, have as
serted their purpose to go to the polls in
armed bodies. Outrages done last year, in
Irish and negro riots, are TO be avenged.
Ten thousand colored people, from this and
adjacent States, all made voters, it is
thought, will be gathered here. If strife
begin, where and how will it end ? There
are six thousand exRebel soldiers in this
city and its vicinity. Suppose a case of
rape occnr-the peculiar crime of mad
dened colored men-what horrible Incl
dents would make this election day ever
memorable! Who must be punished?
Not "Rebels." They will not approach
voting places. They have no business there.
Are blacks criminal Who has armed
and organized them Who has imbued
them with incurable enmities against those
whose fortunes and destiny are inseparable
from their own? Who has filled their fan
cies with hopes of wealth to be derived
from Hardeman Smiths confscation bill,
sometimes called the indemnity act?
Colored people are blameless. This dirty
crew of adventures, who have gathered
here to lord it over us, and monopolize
Offices, and tax US as never people before
were robbed-these are they against whom
popular passions are slowly and steadily
directed. 1t is not against Northern men,
as such, but that class of them who do not
deny their purpose to crush and humiliate
and rob to utter penury the DISTINGUISHED
people of Tennessee. There are Tennes-
scans as selfish and base as Adventures
from other States. 1t is against these
white men, and not against their colored
dupes, that popular hatred shapes its terri
BILE course.
SOLDIERS WANTED.
1t is we'll to contemplate dangers that
threaten us, and / would fain hope that
Gen. Thomas will have here a sufficient
force to prevent disorder and the seizure Of
the polls by armed black members of Bar
bour Lewis loyal leagues. Ten thousand
colored men from this State and from the
swamps of Arkansas and Mississippi, it is
thought will vote here in August Brown
lows militia would only aggravate evils.
They are odious to degree that | cannot
define. Let us have Federal soldiers. We
know something of them, and are willing
to entrust our safety to their fairness, dis
cipline and courage.
MEMPHIS SWALLOWED BY EARTHQUAKES.
The city is very dull, though enlivened
by a small earthquake Saturday and to-day.
1t was occasioned by the explosion of
torpedo used in destroying the wreck of a
steamer thirty or forty feet below the sur
face Oft water. The river current, you
must know, for many years past has been
running with all its force against the shore
at this point. The depth of water is from
forty to sixty feet. There are tub-currents
and whirlpools constantly cutting away the
very foundations of the city. The bluff
rises eighty or a hundred feet above the
surface of the water, and far below, who can
tell what work the resistless, restless stream
has done. Elsewhere the shore drops in.
Why may not Memphis, at this hour, stand
upon a bold promontory beneath which
catfish, old as Noah's food, disport them
selves? Memphis needs a cold bath. Its
political morals surely require purif-
cation. The first ague fit that shakes
mater terra may let US down a thousand
feet Oh so. There's comfort in the reflection
that fires below are probably extinguished.
The Mississippi flows beneath the soil for
forty iailes on either side. This is shown
by wells dug in the lowlands in which the
water rises and falls with the tide-level of
the river. Ceaseless evaporation from this
source of moisture, causes the equal distri-
button of rain through winter and summer
months, and enables us to grow cotton more
successfully than the people of all other
countries. If the river was ieUied, the re-
suit might be calamitous. If a respectable
earthquake should come along we might be
engulfed.
CHEAPNEsS OF REAL ESTATE.
However mach may be alarmed about
this frightful possibility above discussed, |
dread more a war of races, which Radical
ism exhausts ingenuity to beget. Property
here grows cheap, not so much because the
earthquake is feared as a mightier revul-
sion in the political world. There are houses
for rent on leading thoroughfares. Radical
ism is doing its work faithfully and well.
BUSINESS, CHoLERA--RAILROADs.
There is deal of cholera morbus in the
city, and quacks, by advertising specifics
for Asiatic cholera, have frightened people
of the interior. | don't think there has been
a case of cholera here. have neither seen
nor heard Of one. There is much talk
about the consolidation of our railway lines,
and connecting them with the river. The
sooner this is done the better for the roads
and for Memphis. GRACIOUS.