Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-10-18

chisement Of the negro without being
qualified by education and habits to ex-
ercise the right of suffrage, is a very dan
gerous experiment Their merchants
and traders and manufacturers are in
terested in the prosperity of the South,
and these classes are beginning to look
with many misgivings upon the plan of
restoration Of the South adopted by Con-
gress For instance, correspondent of
the New York Posi-, writing from Vicks-
burg, Miss, in which State the registra-
ton returns show a majority Of nearly
fourteen thousand negro over white
voters, says:
1t is undoubtedly an evil that tew men
will control this immense vote Of the freed
people. But it is an accident of the situa-
ton, and it could not we'll be otherwise. = II
is probable that five men will rule Missis.
sippi, and it is especially unfortunate that
these men are not our beat men. Nothing
is more natural than that adventurers, for
selfish ends, should seize the party reins
and drive the whole machinery of the
party. There are many Republicans here
who disapprove of this feature of Repubi-
can policy, but it was a necessity of the
situation.
The New York Commercial, in notic-
ing the negro enfranchising question in
Virginia, and the result of the same, re-
marks
The pestilential Hunnicutt continues to
make use Of the influence which he has ac-
quired over the Virginia blacks, to produce
discord and division in the ranks of the
Republican party. He repudiated the Re-
publican ward meetings held in Richmond,
and in a speech to the negroes warned them
to beware of Northern doughfaces who
are settled among them, and pretend to be
Republicans" 1t is extremely unfortunate
for the blacks themselves, and for the party,
that few vicious, rule or ruin fellows like
| Hunnicutt, have contrived to gain such in
| fuence over them. Let us hope that they
will ere long, however, swing loose from
these baneful leaders, and listen to wiser
| counsels.
4 correspondent of the New York
Herald writes as follows
As an indication Of the animus of the
Radical party in Virginia, Hunnieutt, who
is its acknowledged leader there, said in a
speech in Charles City county few days
since, that they had nothing to fear if a
war of races should occur. He reviewed
the results of registration in each of the
Southern States, showing the negroes their
physical preponderance in the Gulf States
and South Carolina. He said he had no
report of the relative strength of the two
races in North Carolina; but in Virginia
the white majority is only thirteen thou
sand. Hunnicutt and his set number
twenty-five thousand, and if they only
| numbered thirteen thousand each one of
them would go with the negroes They
were bound TO make common cause with
them. Again." said he TO the negroes,
"you have no property. The white race
owns houses and lands. Some of you are
old and feeble and cannot carry the mus
ket, but can apply the torch TO the dwell
lings of your enemies" This sentiment
was boisterously applauded
A Richmond correspondent of the New
York Times says NEGRO political SUI
premacy is fixed fact in Virginia" and
adds
The negroes will all vote, and vote the
same way. They are fully organized, are
enthusiastic and exultant, because they are
certain of victory. Many of them, too,
are disposed TO be overbearing and insult
ing, and things look very gloomy for the
white race. 1t is bad piece of business.
The whites have all the wealth and intel
| ligence, but the negroes have all the polit-
ical power through the ballot. They are
conscious Of their strength, and will use it
without mercy. They will cast their votes
as one man for out and out Radical Repub-
licans, and while To the most important
offices white men of their own party will
be chosen, they will surely claim a share
of the spoils. The convention that is te
be elected on the 22d will be thoroughly
Radical, though il will doubtless
be composed of white men. A
constitution will be framed, which
will disfranchise a great many whites,
contscate large estates, multiply off,
ces, and increase the taxes on property.
The forebodings of these writers are
not without sufficient grounds 1t is the
disposition on the part of the negroes,
noticed by Them to permit themselves to
be controlled by bad white men, mere
adventurers, that is causing the uneasi-
ness which is thus early manifesting itself
among the people of the North in regard
to the present political condition and
future of the South "The necessity of
the situation" Of which the Vicksburg
correspondent Of the New York Post
speaks, was the desire to reconstruct the
Southern States in the interest of the Re-
publican party. The interests nor the
wishes of the people who compose these
States were never taken into considera-
ton. twas the rule.or-ruin principle
that suggested the reconstruction plan
adopted by Congress; and now, before
this plan has been consummated, intelli-
gent members of the Republican party at
the North see that it is 10 enure
to the benefit, not of the great mass
oil the people, but to few men,
mainly irresponsible adyenturers, who
have managed to acquire an undue
influence over the black voters, and
whose only feeling for this class is
that they may use them to promote their
own selfish ends 1t is now seen that the
negro may be so controlled in political
affairs by designing, pestilential white
men as to inaugurate war of races, and
that means ruin not of the South alone,
but of the whole country, resulting in the
determination of the weaker race. The
indiscriminate enfranchisement Of the
negroes Just released from slavery, was a
step fraught with very serious conse-
quences, and it may well cause those who
precipitated it upon the country to trem-
BILE for the consequences The danger is
growing more palpable every day, under
the manipulation of the Hunnicutts, who
are to be found in every one Of the South
ern States, and may well excite grave APP
prehensions on the part of rejecting men