Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-09-09

She has vitality yet one viii YET count
her population by the hundreds Of thou
sands. She but wants few more
liberal, enterprising men Of wealth.
N "Behind the cloud the starlight looks"
Complete our Little Rock railroad,
and in ten years il alone will double our
present population. A SPARTAN.
EDITORS LEDGER II is an ipcontro-
vertible truth that our city possesses an
amount of natural advantages to make
her one Of the frst-if not the first-in.
land cities on this continent. Surrounded
as she is with a fertility Of soil unsur.
passed; with climate that has no supe-
rior-not so warm as to enervate, nor yet
so cold in winter as to at all interfere
with outdoor work-possessing that re-
quired temperature in which the greatest
amount Of muscle can be extracted from
both man and animal at the least possible
expense, all else being equal, she chal-
lenges competition in the production OF
all articles entering into the economy OF
life. If these things be so land who will
doubt that they are all that is claimed), !,
why is it that there is such degree Of
dependency among usf Why is it that
our stores are vacant. our residence doors
have SO moby "for rents" our street
corners are crowded with idle men, our
merchants clerks occupy the stools de.
signed for busy, tired customers in our
dry goods houses; that our grocers are
found playing chess or backgammon,
our monied men lounge around their
Offices careless and listless, and our
bank tellers unlock their safes and load
their tables with bank bills in the morning
and put them back again at night un.
broken, receiving few deposits and paying
few drafts2 l say, why is this gloom,
this dread dependency, this want of en-
terprise, this doubt, this awful nightmare
that has so fastened upon our people 2
say, why has this terrible dependency
seized upon us to such degree as TO
throw our mechanics out of employment,
paralyze all our manufactures, gil our
street corners with idle but willing labor
ers from week to week-with starvation
staring them in the face, with their wives
and little ones at home often eating
breakfast in doubt as to where supper was
to come from; and these not the children
of drunken, worthless parents. but the
wives and children of men of whose
friendship and confidence any honest
man would be proud2 1 say, why all this
in the once prosperous, enterprising city
Of Memphis Is it true that the ground
has ceased to give to the husbandmen her
fruits2 Has the genial sun ceased to
give the earth her fructifying rays,
causing the flowers aud grass to wither
and the seed to perish in the ground
or have the early and latter rains ceased
to fall and replenish the earth, or give
the necessary moisture to cause the corn
to grow and the kernel to gil out to its
wonted fullness ? Or, is it that the simeon
has passed over the land, blighting and
blasting both man and beast, and leaving
the land barren waste, converting those
plains into barrens; those
rich, fertile valleys into briar aud wild
vine, making home for the hooting owl
and Kissing serpent. say, Mr. Editor.
has any or all these calawities befallen
us, thus crushing, paralyzing and de-
stroyirg US for time; nay, nay, worse,
worse-war, famine, plague,
srocco, simeon, all are not to be COM
pared to that hellish tyranny that has
been fastened upon US in the shape of
negro rule. Great God Free born |
American citizens Of Saxon blood under
the dominion of Africa, not pure Africa,
but Africa diluted, and directed by Ju-
iases, wanting only the silver. These
hearted lepers, the majority of
whom left their own country for their |
good, and with umbrella and
,atchel, aided by organized mission socie-
lies. have come aud fastened on the poor,
ignorant freedman as his
spiritual director, and consequently his
legislator, thus stealing the, livery OF
heaven to serve the devil in; and they,
packed by few ignorant whites to the
manor born, have almost legislated
Memphis aud the State Of Tennessee ont
,f existence. She has been pretty well
Africanized, and a few more such years
# legislation as has been the last two
7ears, and the once Empire State Of the
South, the beautiful and rich Tennessee,
With her railroads and her great steam
'rs, floating palaces, her statesmen aud
,rators, her chivalrous men and her
oveliest of women, will have been legis-
ated from her borders, and her schools,
colleges and seats of learning will have
,ecome the headquarters for the most
Iellish conclaves the earth has ever wit
lessed. One night, prayer meetings,
mother, the political hsrsngues are
eard and the click Of arms and tread OF
oldiers under drill How long, oh
ow long is this terrible plague to last
Ne are to day powerless; but We appeal
o the patriotic masses Of the North and
Vest, TO the lover Of HE country and his
ace We appeal to the brave soldier Of
be Union, who took up arms in its de-
ense 70 put down q rebellion, to nov take
ID the ballot and save that government
bat be periled bis life 10 defend. Help
8. Are not we al brethren Isnot the
lory Of Eaisw and Kings Mountain and
Sunker Hill common glory Will you,
an yon look your own children in the
zee and say you refused TO defend the
J Jnion and the Constitution You dare
oti know you will not,
OxE or THE FIvE USIoS MEN