Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-08-09

Ne-th, we quote at length. 1t says;
The triumph of the Brownlow faction
proves only the success with which il has
manipulated the registration of voters.
As an indication Of State feeling or policy
it amounts to nothing. When man in
office possesses the power of disfranchis-
ing his opponents, his election or re-
election can be considered only sign Of
thorough, unscrupulous work - not Of
moral strength, or personal or political
popularity. And when he outrnges pro-
priety by appointing candidates as
registrars, and so enabling them to adapt
the lists to their own convenience, the
fact Of their election follows as regularly
as night follows day. Indeed the Ten
nessee election was, on the whole, q
meaningless formality. With four fifths
of the whites dislranchised, and with the
registration altogether in the hands of
Brownlow and his men, what signifies
the vote Of thursday last2
For similar reasons, what importance
attaches to the absence of the riot and
bloodshed which were widely feared ?
That the election passed off quietly, is
good ground of rejoicing. But the cause
Of the quiet ought not TO be overlooked.
1t was not Brownlow or his volunteers
who preserved order, nor the superior
strength of the victors, nor the peaceful
disposition of the people. To the United
States troops belongs the praise. Gen.
Thomas, acting under instructions from
Gen. Grant, was the great peacemaker
ofthe day. His arrangements restrained
the i'll blood which exists on both sides,
and rendered orderly what would other
wise have been scenes of violence and
strife. The circumstance is not particu-
larly gratifying. 1t is not pleasant to
reflect that Federal bayonets are indis
pensable auxiliaries of an election in q
State supposed to be reconstructed. But
so it is, and we may as well recognize it
frankly.
The condition of Tennessee is, then,
to day, as it was ~eek ago--volcanic J;
so evidently explosive that it must con.
tinue source of the most painful
anxiety. On one hand, Brownlow, with
all the iusolence of power, and with the
State organization in Lis hands; on the
other, the rebel Democratic element,
angry, aggressive, kept down only by
soldiers. Between these parties the
greater number of the white Unionists of
the State are crushed, as between the
upper and neither milestone. The sole
hope Of deliverance for this class-the
sole hope of peace and prosperity for the
State-lies in the adoption of more mod.
crate counsel than can be anticipated
while Brownlow fills the executive chair.
1t is the remoteness of this prospect that
renders the aspect of Tennessee de-
plorable, and that suggests the danger
of an extreme proscriptive policy in re-
organizing other portions OF the Sonth.
The New York ErpresS, conservative,
says upon presenting to its readers the
returns:
And now, what is the result Of it all Z
We answer: To keep Tennessee awhile
longer under one of the meanest despot.
isms with which ever people were ours.
ed, and to send to Congress seven fraud
ulently elected members to help make
laws, not for Tennessee alone, but for Us
here in New York, and for all the rest
of the country. These Tennessee Rad
ical members of Congress, thus forced
into the capitol as it were, by fraud,
force, terror, are to sit there, perchance
to make constitutional amendments for
us, to impose taxes upon US, TO help i'm
peach and remove the President, and
to aid the Stevenses, the Summers
the Wilson's, and the Buffers, to plan
new usurpations and new outrages upon
constitutional liberty and the rights oi
the people And all this, be it remem'
bered, while Democratic and Conserva
tive members from Kentucky-of whose
regular elections there can be no reason
| able doubt-are not permitted to take
their seats. A State that never rebelled
against the Union, but which sent forty
thousand of her sons to suppress tho re :
belliou, franchised-while the negroes
and mean whites" of "secesh Ten.
nessee are permitted to send whomso-
ever they like to Congress (provided they
be neither Democrats nor Conservatives
to strengthen the hands of the tyrants
and despots who are already supreme
there
We have thus presented to our readers
at some length the views aud deductions
of the press of the great, commercial
metropolis Of the country, and the con
sistency of the tone of the metropolitan
journals quoted, both Radical and Con =
servative, cannot fail to impress us with
the fact that the Northern sense of po-
litical decency has received shock from
the result of our contest a week ago.