The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-05
The Lesson of Tennessee.

From The Tribune
The Republican triumph in Tennessee ends
the discussion in regard to the colored vote of
the South. Nor promises nor threats could
win the freedmen to the support of the party
which had opposed their liberation, and given
all its sympathy to the Rebellion. Yet Ten
nessee is the only State in which general con-
cessions have been made to the colored men by
the Democracy; they were invited to send
delegates to Democratic conventions, and at
time when timid Republicans in the Legisla
ture were afraid to allow black men to sit on
juries, there were Democrats shrewd enough
to offer them share of the offices in the gift
of the people. On the other hand the planters
of Western Tennessee used stronger means to
secure the colored vote for Etheridge: dismis-
sal from employment was the penalty of a vote
for Brownlow, and so universal were these
threats that General Thomas was compelled to
interfere for the protection of the colored men.
But terrorism could not drive fattery could
not betray; the freedmen of Tennessee knew
that the Republican party was the only party
they dared trust, and cast their votes solidly
for the Republican candidates. This unauimity
is prophetic. If the blacks are radical in Ten
nessee there can be no fear that they will be
conservative in Louisiana or South Carolina.
the triumph of the Republican party in the
South. Nothing can prevent it but the faith
lessness or indifference of the Republicans in
the North; it is yet in our power to make or
mar success The full and perfect confidence
of the colored voters of the Rebel States is
given to us, and to keep it we have only to de-
serve it. But if the Republican party in New
York. New Jersey, and Pennsylvania denies
the right of suffrage to the cOlored citizens of
NaNn FnfN Nf4 4l,., &c, sin
cerity must be inevitably lost. Two opposing
principles cannot co-eXist; there cannot be one
rule of justice for the South and one for the
North, but that policy which in the name of
freedom we impose upon others we must our
selves accept Conviction of hypocrisy, before
the bar of the nation, is the alternative, and
nothing could do more to check Republican
enthusiasm in Alabama or North Carolina than
the announcement that New York had refused
the ballot to her own citizens. If we want to
build up black mans party that is the surest
and speediest way, nor could we have the
etfrontery to complain of a political Organiza-
tlon based on distinctions of color, which we
ourselves recognized and proclaimed Yet we
have no fear now that justice will be long
denied to the colored men of the North; let
them vote as they may, it is not with their
politics that we are concerned, but with their
! rights. Even were it certain that every coored
vote in New York would be cast for the Demo-
cratic ticket, our voice would be for impartial
suffrage. And upon lower grounds, surely,
the devotion of the freedmen of Tennessee to
the Republican cause should be an argument
with those politicians who never fully accept
principle till time has proved that it is also
expediency.
Tennessee has taught that lesson. This is
the hrst State election at which the blacks
have taken full part, and though the canvass
was ierce and personal, and every provooation
to riot was given, order was maintained
| by the civil authorities and by General
Thomas, 1t is true, were excellent yet they
were notoriously insufficient had there been
any truth in the Democratic dogma that the
! equal rights of black and white necesstate