Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-11-19
MEMPHIS LOYAL LEAGUES.
THEIB NUMBERS, MANA.
GERS AND TROUBLES.
Scramble for Omces-IaternaI
Feuds.
An Old Citizen Gone Under
Pity Him.
Explosion of the Leagues.

There are nVe great Loyal Leagues II
Memphis. Three are black and tw,
white. The largest is the Brownlov
League, having nine hundred black anC
only Ave or six white members. Th'
Fred. Douglass Council" is next il
strength; said TO be a pumpkin coloreC
society, Of which BARRIERS and meztizoi
are members. Thereare from6 Y to ten
white managers in each of the black
Leagues. Drs. Shaw aud Beecher, Judge
Hunter and an old citizen Of Memphis
now holding a rich city office, by virtue
OF Conservative support are members Of
the pre- eminently black BrownloW
Council. The city official referred 10.
entered the League very recently. One
/ Of his eolored associates stated yesterday
7 on Shelby street, that his conversion was
! too late and too sudden. Itseems, more
over, that be first sought admission into
the more ~aristocratic Lincoln Council
over whose sessions DR.. Shaw usually
presides. Rejected by white men, be
found ingress among blacks. How our
friend Of former years found it in his
heart to assume obligations eunniDgly
shaped, to control African temperament
and stolidity, amazes and dumfounds all
decent people. He has certainly made a
leap in the dark.
Darkness, death and deep despsir
Reign in eternal uproar there
THERE'S 3 white Council thatholdsits mid
night conclsves in Pinch. The dreams
OF our Irish fellow-citizens have been
disturbed by the W~ranglings of Jim Da-
Wis and associates while discussing the
relative merits of the several Rspirants
for the M~Ayorality. 1t seems that Mr..
Davis is hard headed, and like many Of
his partizan friends, who deem c0lored
voters useful machines in furnishing Of
fees TO white men, he would have q
general convention Of all the Leagues to
nominate candidates for municipal Of
fees. He has accomplished his purpose,
and, as the story goes, all the Councils
will convene on the night of the first
Thursday in next month to nominate the
successor of Mayor Lofiand. We bear
that there is a curious schism involved
by recent incidents in the black Coun-
ellis. 1t seems that Northern black men,
ike the illustrious TOles and Rankin,
have come down upon the unlettered,
honest, simple minded cornheld colOred
population Of Memphis, and undertaken
The task Of engineering the whole ma
chiuery OF the Leagues. Memphis gen.
tlemen have grown very FESTIVE under
the ulInluAAiOu VI AOlCb ~ AAn CACHs
and Drs. Shaw, Beecher, Hunter, Blewis
ard the two Post offices, lone on
Union. the other at the northeast
corner Of Jefferson and Third s%treets),
have toilsd assiduously to allAy the
ferment. To a great extent the
foreign Oberlin impOrtatiOns have lost
caste, and it is with great difficulty that
Northern white men hold the reins. In
fact. several old citizens Of Memphis,
of every hue, from a tar-bucket to "Yel-
low Jack" have intimated their pur-
pose. even in the councils, to take mat
ters in their own hands and shake of
the mastery, not only of Csnnady, Ran
kin and Toles, but even to defy the su-
prema authority Of Shaw, Beeeher,
BIeyis and other white engineers Of this
double. faced explosive machine. 1t
seems thkt Of the many cOlOred North
ern gentlemen gathered here to organize
these Leagues and pocket the profits, not
one bore q. musket in the war. The
story has also leaked out that Shaw,
BIewis, Hunter, and all the other Loyal
Iasguers, were " bummers mot q sin
gle musket- bearing white Union soldier
has .vhitened" the door Of a single
Council. These facts look badly, and
freedmen are not wholly blind. The
whole Of this horrible combination, with
all It's dangerous elements, may there
fore be destroyed by the destructive
agencies which now give it strength.
Many unthinking white men, drawn into
the League by past partizsn violence,
fail to attend ~convocations Of the
Leagues. They say that il evils result,
white men alone will be held responsible.
The repeal of that section Of the Fran
cbise Act has been discussed in the
Leagues which denied blacks the right
10 hold office. In the contest
for the Mayoralty now conducted so vi0-
Ieutlv by the friends OF Beecher, Shaw
and Smith, cOlOred voters begin to learn
the truth. They ask why this clause in
the Franchise Act was not repealed by
the former General Assembly, which
was clearly invested with the right TO
rescind the OdiOus prohibition. The pres
ent Legislature is very nearly the same,
in its constituent elements. Why was
the ~benefsction postponed? One Of
Shawis friends has stated, IN condemBa
ton Of Gen. Smith, formerly, as now, a
member Of the Legislature, that the re-
peal as effected is designed as q fraud
upon the cOlOred people. The Legisla-
seeks to carry favor with blacks,
conscious that the Courts must declare
that the Franchise Act, q V through the
Of 8 State Convention, can nei-
Their be repealed nor amended.
Here then lies the danger. When
blacks see how they are h~umbugged by
the Legislature, and bambOozled by
Shaw, Beecher, Lewis and the rest, find
ing themselves simple dupes and tools of
cunning, selfish tricksters, they will de-
mand the c~onvOcation of a State Conven-
ton. In this the sO-called rebels will
Shaw and his crew viii oppose
the proceeding. 1t must come. Delu-
sions practiced by the managers of the
Leagues cannot always shape the
conduct of freedmen.