Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-08-11
VIVA. /. sald Of Our pevn.rredd.n s....
From the Lancaster Penn.) Inteligencer.l

From the Lancaster (Pcnn.) Intelligencer.l
The Legislature Of Tennessee has just
passed an act postponing for thirty years
the payment Of the principal and inter-
est Of the State debt, which natures
within the next three years. This means,
Notwithstanding the protest Of the Legis-
lature to the contrary, that the debt will
never be paid Most Of this debt was
contracted since the war for public i'm.
provements to develop the resources Of
the State. And now that many Of the
improvements are completed, or ap-
preaching completion, and the resources
OF the State should be correspondingly
developed, the Legislature is driven to
reputation. The key to this result is
found in the fact that all the negroes and
a few of the whites are permitted to vote
in Tennessee. Under such government
resources and development avail nothing
to establish prosperity. Tennessee is an
excellent State to emigrate from, as the
plains of Missouri and Kansas testify.
In natural advantages and resources,
in soil and climate, Tennessee is not in
ferior to Kentucky, while the latter State
is teeming with prosperity and her bonds
command par in the eastern markets.
Tennessee rather pro6ted than suf'
fered from the war, on account OF the
immense Federal expenditures within
her borders. But the State Of Jackson
and Polk is stricken with the leprosy of
negro rule, and the velleys that lately
budded and blossomed as the rose, now
lie uucultivated and deserted. Farms
for which 500 per acre had bsen refused
before the war, are now vainly seeking
purchasers at $25 per acre. Scores of
store-stands are idle and unoccupied in
the principal streets in Memphis. The
white population are leaving the State,
and the negro population rely upon the
Freedmen's Bureau and refuse to work.
OF course. Tennessee must repudiate.
From the Baltimore Gasette.]
"We advise the disfranchised class in
Tennessee to wait patiently and quietly
until the regular meeting of the Legisla-
ture. They can gain nothing by vio-
lence, for their own party opposes gene
raj suffrage, and asserts the right of each
State to decide who of its people shall
vote. There is no doubt that if the peo-
pie now disfranchised in Tennessee con-
duct themselves well, the next Legisla-
ture will relieve them from all disabili-
ties. But las some foolish men threaten,
they attempt revolution, they will only
make their case worse"
Such is the counsel which the New
York Post coolly gives to the people
whom Brownlow, under the auspices of
Radical Congress, and supported by
the bayonets of the military, have sub
jected to the domination of the negro,
led by white carpet-baggers and native
Tennesseans of the meanest sort. The
Post admits that the disfranchisement
of so large proportion of the white cit
izens of the State is entirely wrong, and
affects to be very sorry that Brownlow
has refused to recommend the Tennessee
Legislature, which has just assembled in
extra session, to remove the political
disabilities imposed upon so many of
the most intelligent citizens of Tennes-
see.
The proposition of the Post is that a
Legislature which assumes to represent
the popular will, cannot act in q matter
of so much Importance without waiting
for permission from the Governor. That
the Legislature is competent to restore
the disfranchised classes to their full
rights of citizenship is too well known
to need argument. This, however, would
not suit the purposes of the Radicals,
with whom the Post is affiliated. They want
to keep the negroes in the ascendency
in Tennessee and throughout the South
ern States. They we'll know that to re-
lieve the whites from the disabilities
under which they now labor would be
fatal to Radical domination in many of
the States, and especially so in Tennes.
see, where even the blacks are becoming
disgusted with the carpet-baggers, and
indignant that they should have par
celed out among themselves all the
seats in the Legislature and all the most
lucrative State Offices, leaving their negro
allies to content themselves with such
minor places as may be found in the
police force.
The true reason why it is not desirable
in the Tennessee Legislature at its pres
eut session to restore the elective fran
chise to those who have been deprived
of it, is that such restoration would swell
so largely the list of voters in the State
that it would be impossible to carry it
for Grant and Colfax.
The Post therefore says, in substance,
to the Legislature in Tennessee: " Keep
your white citizens disfranchised until
after the Presidential election is over.
If, in the meantime, they conduct them
selves well, the next Legislature will
relieve them from all disabilities" We
do not know which to admire mest in
these sdmonitions, the GOODNESS with
which the Radicals of Tennessee are
told to hold on to their usurped authority,
or the insolence with which the disfran-
chised citizens of Tennessee are ad-
monished to put themselves on their best
behavior. under pain Of making their
case worse.