Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-08-05

ing nullity, and more stringent mea'
ures were demanded. A few months ag
new law was adopted, meant to pre-
scribe all white opponents of Radioalisu
aud invest with the elective franchise tn
bordes of unlettered, standardization
hicks who could be used as stepping
stones to the treasury vaults and unlim-
tied power.
The FIRST practical result of this new
infamy transpired on Thursday In Mem
uhis alone, thirty.fve hundred blacks
nearly all of them indebted to the pat
ronace of disfranchised Conservative
men for the meat and bread they eat, fol
the clothing they wear and for the few
dollars in their pockets, sustained the
PARTY who have robbed their immediate
benefactors of the dearest rights OF free
men and are seeking to crush them into
the earth. They voted to indorse the
most odious prescription, save conhsca-
ton, which Government, republican IN
form, could devise. They voted to de-
prive the men whose taxes save the State
from bankru ptcy from any participation
in the government They voted to sad
die the burdens Of government upon the
white Masses and take from them all
its benefits. They voted TO sustain the
party who have thrust the intelligent, edu-
Gated white men, who opn the property of
the State, into the background, and placed
them in the power of the ignorant and
depraved. They voted to sustain the
party who bear none of the burdens OF
the Government; the mass of whom are
mere adventures, seeking wealth and
place by means no matter how unscrupu-
lous, intending, when no longer able to
rule, and filch from the pockets of the
disfrsnchsed masses, to return to their
former homes and enjoy their i'll gotten
wealth
1t is not natural for men to caress the
hand that strikes them; yet the past
course of the Conservatives of Tennessee
has furnished humiliating illustration
of this seeming anomaly. They have
employed negroes by thousands, and re-
lieved them from starvation. They have
picked them out of the cutters and
clothed and fed them. They have pat
these beggars on horseback, and the
adage has been verified. The objects of
their charity (for it is charity to befriend
one class above better class who seek
it, were no sooner mounted, than, with
whip and spur, they rode down their ben
efactors and trampled them under their
feet.
To say that men, black or white, SO
void of common gratitude as, with
scarcely an exception, to place them
selves under the banners of their bene-
factors most deadly enemies, and lend
their now powerful assistance to forging
and riveting the chains upon those who
alone can furnish them wherewithal to
live, should for q single hour longer be
tolerated as employees, is to urge little
more forbearance than frail humanity
can exercise 1t is to protect vampires
that seek your hearts blood. 1t is to
embrace and caress those who FIRST rob
you and then bind you with chains
For our friends to sever all relations
with those who have so seriously injured
them, is simply resistance to proscrip-
ton. We do not usually love and cher
ish those who betrsy us into the hands of
our enemies; and if the blacks suffer
the legitimate consequences of their un-
worthy actions, they may blame them
selves and their INSCRIPTIONS advisers
for it. The plea that the tblacks knew
not what they were doing has no bearing
in the premises. If utterly powerless to
choose between right and wrong, they at
least knew there was some great ques
ton to be decided; and not understand
ing it, even brute instinct should have
suggested the policy OF non-interference.
But they were as enthusiastic for
Brownlow, and as vulgarly denunciative
of Conservatives, as the vilest leaders
in the Radical ranks. They hunted !
down like wild beasts every black man
who avowsd Conservative principles.
They knew that they we're voting against
the wishes and interests Of the white
masses in the State and knowing it,
crowded every polling booth and thrust
white men aside.
Let them look TO their new friends for
support, and cease looking for it to those
whom they are treating as enemies.
The proportion Of Radical to Conserva-
tive employers is not as one to twenty.
The place of every Radical black can
be easily filled by white who will not
stab those who befriend |
him. This revolution in labor should |
progress until all places now filed by
avowed enemies are occupied by known
friends. Selfrespect. as well as self
defense, demands this. 1t is question
of political life or death. We have the
solution in our own hands. five possess
no more spirit than to uphold those who
rob and betrAy rs, we deserve to be
kicked and cuffed and plgndered without