The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-06-14
THE State of Tennessee, like the Stat

FRIDAY MORnISG, 1OSE. ~. =
Tay STATE of Tennessee. IKE the State
OF Kentucky, occupies an unenviable
position, and both are undergoing
a purgatorfal process. Civil gov
eminent In either of them Is a sort Of
,nocksry, and yet the military are mot
free 70 act as they are In the ott-and-
out uureconstructed States- In Ten
essee the Union men have nominal
control, while In Kentucky the rebels
carry on with high hand. The CAM
paign now going on In the former State,
between Brownlow and Etheridge, Is a
regular relic of pro-slayery barbarian.
In violence and bitterness, 1t equals
any Of tbs legends Of the border" and
Il Is hard 70 tell what phase itmay yet
assume before election day rolls round.
Parton, in his life Of Jackson, gives as
some graphic pictures OF 2Tennessee
politics In early days, but We remem-
her nothing in his book that SURPRISES
some ofths scenes that characterize the
progress OF the present campaign. On
both sides It Is a desperate struggle for
supremacy, neither party having any
condolences In the disposition OF the
other to do Justice. The Union element
feels that 1t dare not trust the
men who inaugurated the rebel
lion-the men who scourgcd the State
In Is8l-who drove the people Of
East Tennessee from their homes,
burned their dwellings, and hunted and
I,o,nj,ad fathers and sons through the
mountain passes from Cumberland
Gap TO Chattanooga. On the other
hand the secession element claims to
be in the majority, and It also claims
that the Union party knows no such
thing rs moderation In its hour OF vic
tory. but Is bent not only upon negro
suffrage, which has been already de-
creed, but upon every species Of politi-
cal and personal ostracism. Etheridge
declares that only negroes and outlaws
can vote in Tennessee, and that Brown
low is gradually destroying the power
of the majority to make an effectual
resistance to his prOscriptive policy. Bot
ELhridge Is an extrGTagaut, wild and
utterly unreliable stump speaker. He
started out as a Union man In 1851, and
continued as such up the emancipation
proclamation. He parted with his an-
Incidents then just sCarliled did withhIs
about the SAFE date. and ever since has
been absolutely ferocious in his attacks
upon all that Was done in Congress,
and all that was done in Tennessee. At
one time 1t was necessary to put him
under confinement, so mIsehevious
were his efforts TO demoralize and dis
organize the Union element of the State.
He wrote a letter alter Johnson be-
came President, abusing mud scandal
izinR HMM the most extravagaut man
ner. He has also held and promulgated
the doctrine that slavery still exists in
Tennessee, and that the emancipation
proclamation, sswell as the subsequen:
net OF Congress, aboIishing the iDstitu-
lion, were wholly null and void. In
deed bis entire career for the last four
years has been one of persistent ridi-
Guile and denuncIaiiou of the Union
cause. In this way 1t happened that he
became the champion and nominee of
the rebels for Governor, and Il Is
through his supposed ability TO show
an original Union record that they
hope to succeed al the polls on the day
ofslectioD. z - .e- r.
Bat they will not succeed. The
Union men, assisted by the negro vote,
will carry the State. And it is abso-
IutelY necessary that they should. We
know the worst that is likely to happen
under BroHnlow, but no man can fore
telI what would be the consequence
either 70 Tennessee, to the South or TO
the country at large, of electing such
man as EthTidge, and Of bringing into
power the rebel element. The short
road 10 restoration and tranquility Is
the absolute subofdinatlon OF the rebel
element from virginib to Texas. Any
exceptional triumph only raises vain
hopes OF reaction, and delays perfect
settlement of the distractions LEFT on
hands by the war. The country waits
and longs for peace, quietness and pros
perity, and II Is certain that we can
only attain them by Keeping down
those who under one disguise and an
other desire to reopen the issues Of the
war in order To escape the consequences
OF defeat. s5se - ~ II ).
THE .Louisville Courier. one OF the
most prominent rebel organs during
the war and still wholly in the seees-
sion Interest, admits that Mr., Lincoln
in his amnesty proclamation offered
the South fair opportunity 70 end the
war honorably, and that II they had ac-
cspted his offer, thousands Of lives and
millions OF dollars would have been
saved. Itsays: asH
"No one will deny that IL, when
PTesident Lincoln issued his proelhnnn5
tt0n OF amnesty to the people Of the
Confederate States, the Goufederates
had Rccepted'the offered terms and re-
turned to their allegiance, the wisdom
of placing this power In the hands OF
the President would have been tunfVer-
sally acknowledged. for the war
would have been Immediately brought
10 close, thousands and tens of thou
sands Of valuable lives would have
been saved, millions on millions of
debt. upon which we are! now paying
interest, would have been avoided, and
the Union would have been immedi-
Ataly restored
At the time this proclamation was Is
sued, the whole Democratic press de-
ffded IL, and not q Democratic paper in
the country had the patriotism TO sug-
gest thit IL be complied with. How
can the charge that the Republican
party was animated by hate and bent
upon revenge and spoilati6n, be main
tained In view of the above striking adj
missionf NV d 80. n