Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-08-19
How Long. o, Lord!

HOW Long, v, Lord!
Keep peace at the South, say the
Northern friends Of Seymour and Blair !
Goad the peaceful disfrauchised white
men Of Tennessee TO desperation; pro-
woke bloodshed; thorn them and cruelty
twist the barbed spikes 10 their ranking
flesh, soy the friends Of Grant and Col
fax to their accomplices in tyranny at
the South Pity them not Like dogs
with a bad name, they have no friends
Oppressed people at the South must
evade the torture as best they can.
They must not feel, though God Al
mighty has endowed them with ssnsibili-
ties, impulses, aspirations, love of life
and liberty, like other men.
Nearly four years of peace, privation,
hopeful reliance upon the sober second
thought of the Northern people and still
the game political serves to amuse and
entertain Northern Radicals and North
ern Democrats while we poor Southern
people, like the frogs in the fable, are
not able to see the fun Of it. Are we
stocks and stones, inanimate things, to be
perpetually source Of amusement, OBJ
jects to De ever hated, ever continued,
footballs to be kicked about by every
thieving hummer, or perjured scallawagY
Is there not enough reason in the North
in the rural districts" " to perceive and
detect the villainy, the injustice, the
usurpations, the corruption, the hypoc.
risy and the tyranny of this so called
reconstructed government of Tennessee,
where maniac rules, and perjurers, in
cendiaries and ravishers of white women
and murderers of white men are pro.
tected and countenanced in their felo-
MES? How long would the people of
rural districts" in the North endure
condition of things under which the
sense of insecurity is such as to forbid
the prosecution of felony for fear of loss
of property or life 2 How like they Ito
recognize party association with men
who purposely turn loose convicted fell
ons that they may burn, rob and ravish,
and thus drive good and pious and law
abiding men into the summary infic-
ton of punishment without judge or
jury?
The people of the rural districts in the
South appeal to the people of the rural
Of the North, as men of like ne.
cessities and like with themselves, from
the calculating policy of the partisan
prize fighters, who say suffer on, suffer
still, await little longer upon the prom
ised reaction which, like an ignis fatuus,
has led us into what now appears to be
despair. Are the people of
the North powerless to protect US from
the further prolongation of the infamous
slavery we endure? Is American lib
erty, for which so much has been en-
dured, myth, and yet destined to be
scott and mockery among men?
Is it that the North does not under
stand the situation of the downtrodden
and submissive, but daily robbed and in.
suited people in the South What would
honest people Of the rural districts in, the
North think if they could now visit the
capitol of this once proud commonwealth?
There they would see General Assem-
bly, called together in extraordinary ses-
sion by maniac Governor, that he may
be empowered to turn loose upon the de.
fenseless paople of the rural districts a
horde of semi-savage negroes, who shall
have authority, without fear of future
to pillage, rob, ravish and to
slay. And, judging from present in
dications, that Legislature will place
plenary power in the hands of the dis
tingRished maniac to let loose his dusky
savages upon these people. In that mag
nifcent temple of liberty, where once
we're wont to assemble the wisdom aud
Intelligence of the State, may be seen
men claiming to be representatives of
he people, whose capacity for state
craft may be ranked below that of the
most ignorant oross-road politician, who,
instead of gravely and calmly consider. |
ng the interests Of white people, address
themselves to the mob of idle negroes
,rought here for dishonest purposes by |
Interested parties who are preying upon
he public plunder, and now are seeking
O increase the disbursements from the
that they may secure a still
arger share in the division OF the spoils.
This seething, surging mass Of semi-sav-
ges block up the passage ways, the gall
cries and the halls where white men were
nee wont to resort. There, now, instead
{ oratory calculated to arouse patriotic
motions and increase the sense of secu.
ity that was formerly felt by every
.merican citizen, vituperation and
buse of the majority of the white men
{ Tennessee hideously reverbe.ate with
q those walls, and the shouts of de-
loralized negroes in the galleries and
,bbies re-echo them. This, too, while
very honest white man in the State, who
as any regard or affection for defense
,ss women and children, feels that, un-
er the rule of such legislators, the time
fast approaching when the scenes of
Layti will be re-enacte1 in the rural dis
icts-a part of the plot which is to
ork the perpetuation of Radical mis-
lie, and the eternal destruction of
merican freedom. Ye men of the rural
stricts of the North, send to the scene
these malefactions disinterested men,
spy out for yourselves the deplorable
,ndition Of this people, and say have
,u the endurance or the patience to re-
ain quiescent and submissive as are
I'd have been this people.
If you have sympathy for suffering
How men, ifyou leve liberty better than
e, then interpose your strength to pass