The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1867-07-20

gift Of our fathers, as it was, is and ever
should be, unchanged.
There, too, lie crossed two common swords,
such as are worn by army surgeons Be
teen the points is a mysterious looking
bronze ehalice, filed with something the
smell Of Which reminds you Of Old Rob
ertson.
On your right, at a small altar. stands
long lank, lean Forty Acres" behind you,
at another desk or altar, stands a once Pro
vOst Marshal Around this long, dark, dirty
room, sits the Loyal Leaguers, some black
and some white, and among them some of
our most worthy citizens There are also
not few whose copper, which sticks out
through the whiteWash given by this Loyal
League
The gas is now darkened Forty A cres.'
with eyes upturned like " duck IN thun
der storm" his lean hands opened out to-
wards Heaven, mumbles out prayer This
done, the Chairman (the jolly, good-natured
kind looking miller. not of Mansfield"
though quite as pOrtly) steps forward with
book and match in hand, and fires the mvs.
teriOUs looking cup which darts up flicker
ing blue flame, such as is represented as
burning in the Eternal Hades." With
your right hand on the book, and the left in
the air, you now take the oath of allegi-
ance," known to all and are most particu-
of the United States" (unaltered, on which
your hand rests, and the Constitution of the
State of Tennessee. What Is the latter
Constitution Who can tell you ?
You are also sworn to keep the secret of
the League, to UOte for none bat Loyal men"
etc. In that long dark, dirty room, on the
right side Of which stood about one hundred
old rusty muskets, in such presence, before
the Pickering blue flame which hut made
do
Forty Acres voice IN prayer still sound
ing in my ears, I was with others made a
loyal Lacquer Surrounded with parapher-
MALTA Of humbug, " e were sworn also, as be-
fore said, to do even unto death all 10 our
power to make liberty eternal, d" to vote for
none but loyal men" etc.
VIZ were next initiated into the signs and
passwords etc. Let one suffice; but if you
wish, you can have them all To pass your
self Lacquer, when questioned, give the
Four LIS as follows: right hand raised
to Heaven, thumb and third finger touching
their ends over the palm, and pronounce
Liberty Bringing the hand down in
line with the shoulder, pronounce " Lincoln.
Dropping the hand open at your side, pro-
nounee LOYAL" With your hand and fin
gers downward in the chest, the thumb thrust
into the vest or waistband, across the body,
pronounce " League"
a
ing" of the same character unworthy of
place here Suffice it to say that such is the
character of a combination which bids fair
to rebaptise unhappy Southern souls with
blOod-such are the willing or duped senti-
ments ready to carry out the will Of our mod
ern Jefferys and DaIrympIes, Masters of
Stair, Glen!y0ns and Lindsleys#-such are
the Loyal Leagues which in darkened rooms,
before blue mysterious looking fires cross
swords and psalm-singing humbugs have
sworn in about fOrty-ive thousand sim
pie freedmen, and takes from each miser-
able half dollar fee Of initiation. Those
poor creatures have stood before that blue
fame and all the other grim paTaphernalia
Of this dark room hUmbug with a supersti-
tious awe, mingled with fear. To them it
was the Carloo Dithaa " of their native
iungles, the Obi Man" with his poisoned
cocOanut They viii never forget that blue
flame, those crossed swords, the wild upheld
eve Of Forty Acres" with omlnously IN
lifted finger of the worthy miller, as he
pronounces the {" Anathama, Maranatha on
all who secede or break the terrible pledge
Poor simple, wrOnged creatures! In the
wild storms Of midnight when the blue
lightning thrusts its fngers through tho
stOrm-tOssed cloud, their Imagination will
bring out clothed with terror that darkened
room, that mysterious fame, the upturned
eye of Forty Acres" and the " So mote 1t
be of the mixed multitude.
Gentlemen, fellow citizens, freemeL-
look at this mummery-this political num-
bug, and think that men of rank of Standing,
Of fine intellect and kind hearts are there.
How can you account for it, in this nineteenth
century What does it mem Has the
Lord our God forsaken usT Are we a peo-
pIe2 Has he made Us blind that our ruin
may be more sure2 I4eaguers, and rnadmen,
beware Like blind Sampson, you now sit
beneath the tower, not Of oppression, but of
human rights. You are madly grasping the
law and the ballot box-the sure col
umns of liberty IF you bow yourselves
as he did, the beautiful structure will fall,
/ and you and your children will perish IN
wept Under its ruins Leagues, beware /!
| A day OF retribution IS coming. Blind
/ guides leading the blind, how can you es-
cape2 Every act Of your own and of your
leaders Is calculated to provoke blood. Hou
know this Do you think to grind the An
/ glO-SaxOn race beneath the heel of your
deceived colored dupes? You thrust them
once into the fiery furnace of war to save
your own children. You emancipated them
as a military necessity. As the. last hope
Of our lettering Government to save your
selves, you and your party laid violent hands
on the " cOlOTed element, and now you say
that it was all love for that element.
Let us look at Mr. LincoIn's letter to A.
G. Hodges, ESQ, Frankfort, Kentucky, da-
ted April 4. 1864:
" [ believed the indispensable necessity
for emancipation and arming the blacks,
would come It came, and [ was in my
best judgement driven to the alternative OF
either surrendering the Union, and with it
the Constitution, or of laying strong hands
on the cOlOred element and arming It.
choose the latter"
Further quotation is unnecessary, com
ment useless, and now, dear Leaguers re-
member, when you tell the poor freedmen,
that it was your love that made him free,
you speak not the truth when YOU tell him
you gave him the right of suffrage on the
same account, when twas to save your ba-
con- and that you can do no more for the
poor freedmen than BALKAN did for the
poor brute which refused to carry him.
Finally, Loyal League No. J., beg
leave to say to you, when you are about to