Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1868-07-24

W pIeseuJ Ill Uetall J1e enOrmlJleS OF
these franchise acts. We can only
briefly advert to them.
NEGRO SUPREMACY.
What provision of the Federal Con-
which forbids State to pass
a bill of attainder or ca post .fdcto law
has been either audaciously violated,
or 1t is so easy of envasion as to be ut
terly worthless for the protection of
American citizens against the mad
ness of faction or the licentiousness of
power =? and the intention of the fra
mers of that instrument have been
utterly frustrated by the ingenious
devices of revenge and hatred. For
1t cannot be denied that, under the
pretense of fixing the qualification
of voters, ttro-thtfdS Of the white men
of this State have been divested of
the elective franchise, by Legislative
as punishment for as
surrance Offenses, as punishment for
assurance offenses for which they
have never been challenged by any
process of law.
BY virtue of the disfranchisement
of the great mass of the white people,
Tennessee is now practically under
the dominion of the negro.
WHY THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE WAS
GIVEN TO THE NEGRO.
1t was not, however, until it be-
came apparent that no franchise law,
however restrictive or harsh as to the
white population, would retain power
in the hands of one domestic faction,
that the negro was endowed with the
ballot to serve alone their selfish in
terest, are the great body of the white
people of the State, citizens of the
republic, long accustomed underanci-
ent usages and the laws of the State
to exercise the right of suffrage, dis
franchised, and the lately emancipa-
ted African slave unified, according
to the universal experience of man.
kind, for self government, intrusted
with the gravest duties ever devoled
on freemen. If this legislation resul.
ted from any conviction that univer.
sal suffrage, regardless of race as q
principle, should be introduced into
the American spstem, however foolish
and dangerous we might esteem the
measures, its projectors would at least
be entitled to that respect which ever
attaches to sincerity. But we are not
permitted by the facts to accord u
them this consideration. If it was on
principle, and from honest convic.
ton of duty, that the ballot granted
the rude, illiterate and still same
barbarous negro it would have beer
done at once, and not postponed until
every expedient had been tried by the
present official incumbents to gel
along without his vote; nor would an
honest advocate of negro suffrage
deem it consistent with his theory tC
exclude the great body of white peo-
pie from the elective franchise while
bestowing it on the African race
We are therefore compelled in justice
to the truth of history to represent al
these Outrages on the ancient rights
liberties and privileges of American
citizens as perpetrated solely in the
interest Of 4 party, and to maintain
In official position a particular class
Because the whites would not sustain
this class, and their politics, they are
stripped Of the franchise of American
freedom, and the African is ar.
rayed against them, for the pre-
sent dominating over them-an ele-
vation of an inferior race, however
inconvenient and insulting, for the
present, to the superior-tO ultimate
iy result, as all intelligent men must
know, in the utmost future calamity
to the negro. In the past career OF
the Republican party antagonisms
have been productive of many evils,
and great wrongs have often been
marked by public indecorum and in
dividual depravity; but never before
the present and now passing period in
our history has any political organi-
zation dared to trample on the sub
stantial liberties of the American cit
izen, or sought to wrest the elective
franchise from those entitled to it by
the ancient usages and laws of the
republic. No faction ever before pro-
posed to secure its success by such q
crime.
This offense is the more rank he
cause the act does notstOp with strik-
ing down the liberties and franchises
of the citizen, but heaps upon victims
of this lawlessfless the igrominy OF
political subordination to an inferior
race.
SOUTHERN WRONGS A NATIONAL
DANGER.
Did the founders of the republic
ever intend that any part of the white
should he subjected to the black race!
1t concerns the people of the North
ern States-who thank God are yet
free, scarcely less than those represen-
ted by your memorialits-to over
throw the infamous policies of which
we complain. flour people within
the several Southern States are to be
taxed, and our domestic policy shaped
by the lately emancipated slave, and
the irresponsible adventurer; who
uses him as an unreasoning instru'
ment Of this purpose, so Will the
Northern citizen be taxed in the nG'
ti0nat assessment by the same con-
stituency, and through the Nationa!
Legislature his political and material
Interests will be affected by the same
minteligent and irresponsible vote
TO substitute for the intelligent white
voter Of the South the negro electoi
is to expose the interest of tho North
to almost the same hazard that
threatens those of the South. In this
matter the welfare of the white man
in the South cannot lie separated from
that Of the white man in the North
ACIS OF LEGISLATIVE TYRANNY.
Odipus and oppressive as are the
francli,c laws of Tennessee, they
have been greatly aggravated in all
their evils 10y the registration acts
and their administration. The first
statute committed the work OF, regis
tration to the Clerks of the County
Courts, who are officers elected hy
the people, and therefore so situated
as 10 understand that ii was not pru-
dent for them to play the roio Ofpetty
tyrants, or trifie with the rights and
liberties of the citizens. But by a
subsequent acts these delicate. and re-
annns Ia 1nt 10, "A a N.a Raan agglnnnI IA