Clarksville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1865-1867, 1867-03-01

MY W NVto W pinp T1otc, We IVY ieuNc
TO call their atteution TO few con.
sideratioas which will prove to them
that the Radicals, so far from being
their true Friends, arc using them as
mere tools for the accomplishment of
Radical designs. According to the
Constitution ard laws, every citizen,
of the proper age and residence, has
the right to vote, and every voter has
the right to hold Office and serve on
juries. These rights are essential to
full citizenship, and it is a gross vio-
lation of the fundamental principles
of the government to withhold tho
two last named rights from any man
upon whom the first has been con.
fcreA.
Having made this statement which
all can understand, and none success.
fully controvert, VIC ask our colored
friends to consider we'll the reasons
which induced the Legislature to
grant them the right to vote and, in
the same bill, deny them the right to
hold Office and serve on.jurics. There
is dirty trick under the seeming
act Of friendship, and a very slight
investigation will suffice to expose it..
If the Radicals are, in truth and sin
certify, the friends of the negroes
if they honestly desired TO make them
citizens and the political equals of the
Radicals, they would not have con-
fcred one qualification Of citizenship
and withheld the others. IF they
believe the negroes competent to ex-
ercise Che right Of suffrage, they must
believe them qualified to hold Office
and to serve on juries, because quail
i6cation for the higher privilege
necessarily implies fitness for the
lower.
Why is it, then, that suffrage is
granted without the other privileges ?
1t is because Radicals want the Offices
for themselves, and believe that they
will get the entire colored vote. But
if the negroes were allowed. to hold
office, they fear they would vote for
men of their own race and color and
thus deprive the tricksters of all the
benefits Of their transparent knavery.
The object is so plain that no one can
fail to see it, and the conduct Of the
Legislature amounts to the declara.
ton, that the Radicals are the friends
Of the negro so far as they can use
him pro6tably, put will trust him
with the exercise Of no right that can
create rivalry for the possession Of
the loaves and fishes, They say to the
negrocs-"You may vote because you
will vote for us Radicals, but you
shall not hold Office because you
would then vote for men Of your own
color, and we, the Radicals, would be
left out in the cold" It is true they
are not honest enough to say this, in
so many words, but their acts pro.
claim it too plainly to be misunder.
stood, and any one, with common
sense, can see the trick and appreci
ate the motive.
There are men, in every communi
ty, who will try to persuade the col
ored gentry that our Interpretation
of Radical acts and motives is not
the true one; bat let the negro ask
them, plainly and directly, why the
right to vote is granted and the right
to hold Office and serve on juries is
denied, and they will be satisfied, by
the wriggling and lodging, that the
rascals ere guilty. They can give
no other reason, and tell the truth
than that they conferred the right O.
suffrage as the last hope of holding
power, and expect the colored popu
lation to support them in return fol
the privilege bestowed. The white
man with the right of suffrage, car
vote for whom he pleases, but not SC
with the colored man, who is forbid
to vote for one of his own race, tha
he may be forced to support whit,
Radical. True friends never act il
this selfish way, and We can assure
the colored people that, if the Radi
Gals had not believed they could con
troll the colorcd vote, they would
have seen them in Guinea sooner
than have given them the right o
suffrage,
In meE's dealings, We like to Sc,
honesty and consistency. If maj
believe thing to be wrong, he ough
to have nothing to do with it; but i
be believe it right, let him Ego tn,