Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-05-28
prpr111nns RAnIcALIsM.


Either the Tennessee rebels are worse
than the rebels of tho ten Southern
States, or Brownlow and his followers
are more radical than the high priests OF
radiealism at Washington. He has dis
franchised every white man in this State
who is under suspicion of having been a
rebel, either in deed or sympathy. No
man who is even suspected, can pass the
ordeal of Davis and his brother Regis
trars throughout the State. No white
man. whether he was for the Union or
for separation, if known to act with Con-
servatives, can count with certainty on
obtaining a permit to vote. We 1--we
under an iron rule, we walk under an
untitled rod, we stand in the depths
where the avalanche buries itself and all
beneath it. One word from the man
whom men call the Governor of Tennes-
see, strips the people of every right &C.
corded to freemen in the declaration OF
Independence and rendered forever
sacred by the Constitution of the
United States. The grammarian,
in defining the verb, described
The status of the white people
of Tennessee-the only right they
possess is, to be, to do, ana 20 suffer.
Brownlow said the war closed two years
too soon. Had it continued, the South
ern people would have ceased to be, to do
and to suffer
But, as a friend Of ours in Mississippi
used to say, the point is this" Con-
gress, the only orthodox embodiment of
Radicalism, does not disfranchise all
the actual rebels in the Southern States,
but allows all who we're not old office
holders, to vote. The great masses Of
the people-the Southern armies them
selves, can register and vote. 1t is only
the leaders who are DISTINGUISHED, and
those of them are not, who have never
taken an oath to support the Constitu-
ton of the United States. The Radi-
Gals of Tennessee do not sustain the
Radical party of the United States.
They do not sustain the recon-
struction measures of Congress.
They are in open rebellion against that
body. They are in open rebellion against
the whole North, Democrats, Republi-
cans, Radicals, and all. They will not
accept the principles of the reconstruc-
ton acts. Congress thinks it is unjust
to disfranchise the great masses of the
Southern people. Congress thinks it
is not safe. Congress thinks it iniqui-
tous and unjust Congress thinks the
peace Of the country would not be pro-
NOTED by so internal a policy. Not so
with the Tennessee Radicals. They do
not care if a volcano bursts forth from
every acre Of the South and blows all
hands to the devil, so they retain Office.
They solemnly assert by their policy
either one of two propositions: that the
rebels Of Tennessee are worse than the
rebels Of the South, or that they, the
Radicals Of Tennessee, are in open re-
bellion against the policy of Congress.
From one or the other of these positions
they cannot escape. But the worst Of il
is, they are dragging the eolored people
by the thousand into treason against
Congress. They are preparing these
people for trouble. They are pouring
poison into their minds, and preparing
them COR that grand catastrophe which,
sooner or later, overiakes those who out
rage the rights Of man and defy the God
Of Nature.