Clarksville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1865-1867, 1867-04-12
THE DUTY OF rHR HOUR.
NUMBER ..

EpIroR or CHRosIcbE;---In your last Issue,
| trespassed at some length upon your col
umns with an endeavur to convince the
people of Montgomery, that its once free
white population had no present hope of re-
gaining their lost liberties and franchises
other than an energetic appeal to the colored
citizens, who now mainly compose its voters,
and that an effective appeal might be made
to them wholly consistent with past relation.
ships. had then no intention of pursuing
the subject further, but the persuasions of
some friends have induced me to again in
trude upon your readers these convictions
upon the best methods of disabusug the
colored mems minds of the falesehood and
, prejudice, the Radicals have been and are
still insdiously instilling.
In all our instrumentalities for this end,
truth and candor, both about the past the
present, and the future, are Damascus blades,
whose edge cannot be turned by anything
forged in the Satanic armory of our foes
There is much the latter have accomplished
and still propose to consummate for the ne
gro race, that we have not done, or expect
to do. They have given them freedom, and
the right to vote, and now appeal to their
cupidity with the prospect of bestowment
Of our property upon them. Already their
organs in this State have begun TO taunt the
Conservative party with attempts to effect a
ridiculous political miscegenation. In let
ter, written from this place to the Nashville
Press. and Times, descriptive of the meeting
here on the first of April, the writer affects
| to ridicule the appeals Of the orators Of the
day to the colored element and charges up
on one of the most distinguished Of them,
that in the Confederate Senate, during the
war, he advocated the "braining women and
0 children" In conclusion the gentleman III
0 frantically suggests the presence Of Brown.
lows militia in GAINESVILLE, as a necessity tc
the safety of Union men; which translated
means the making Of certain obscure indi
vidual, Colonel by appointment, as the sam,
: obscure Individual found it impossible tc
: achieve the distinction, face to face, upor
r the battle field, with the men he now Sian.
f ders. / allude to his wretched calumny
: however, only to show the spirit and the
purpose of the adventures who have played
this last desperate card Of negro enfranchise
ment, and white enslavement upon hazard
where liberty is at stake upon our side, an,
! ill-gotten pelf and power, upon theirs. The,
@ will not hesitate at any fa!sehood upon tn
h Southern people, or scruple to msrepresen
their declarations to the colored people,
But these falsehoods and Misrepresentation
Ii will be shorn Of their effect If we refuse l.
u oppose them with anything short of entir
! sincerity of statement.
v regret to see that some of the Conserya
tive Press of the State, amongst which mum
y, Der, yours is creditable exception, Mr.. Ed
tor, seeking to parry the charges of tn
- Brownlowites, upon their late change Q
" 'front.' by partial DISBURSEMENT of our oil
A, position towards the black man. do ne
lie mean by this, that these papers are not say
ing what is true, but, they are not maxim
a clean breast of it by any means. So lon
;e as they do not, they and our party must |
r sensitive to the rdicule of the Brownie,
organs, and proportionately injured by i
TO shafts. He who has nothing to defend ca
le carry the war into Africa, if he chooses
IS Surely our people could recognize that the
at have nothing to defend, and therefore max
IF the ensuing campaign against the Radica
an entirely offensive one. By acknowledl
=. ing every thought and prejudice, hostile
~ the negroes present attitude that we ha,
Or entertained in the past, we tell him, not onl
ne what he already knows, but give him Il
" only assurance he desires, that these though
nj and prejudices are things of the past.
have that confidence in the potency of trutl
= to believe, that when rightly presented
81 will triumph over the most specious falls
g. hood. And if there is any truth it is TIL
the true interest of the emancipated sla,
Ill of the South, is to unite politically with
III white population. There are and have bet
q many causes, conspiring to obscure the r.
cognition Of this truth from the colore
Vi people, which | need not mention.
ed 1t is only necessary to consider, in tn
d. connection, the most feasible instrumental
he ties of inducing their cognizance of it no,
To Amongst these, my own conviction is that
ho plain and straightforward policy, brookir
no halfway course is the best. From sue
" vantage ground, we shall be cap .
Eli against the miserable taunts of inconsistent
tn now lavished upon US by those who ha,
to been ever true to the devil, whatever bann
IN, he upheld. We have said that our pre-
and speakers, so far as we are acQuaint,
with the effects of both, have not gone r
IA enough in this direction of frank and nj
tn disguised discussion of the political issu
nd with the negro, yet they have gone f
". enough to excite the liveliest fears of Il
in Radicals Of Tennessee. Take up any one
their papers, and you will find, both fro
their editorial and epistolary matter, tn
they much fear lest the white men of Te
To- nessee, whom they have DISTINGUISHED mi
eu undertake to tell the negro, whom they ha
m arrayed against them, the whole truth al
ey nothing but the truth. Right well do Il
,cl cunning miscreants know that whenever Il
nv is done, that the black and white man of d