The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1868-05-23
A PATRIOTIC LETTER
InalienabIe Rights Asserted.
Proper Course Recommended.
NASHVILLE, MAY Is, 1868.

NASHVILLE, May Is, 1868.
EDIToRs MEMPHIS APPEAL: /
Gents An influence is at work in this /
State, as I have discovered since nv recent /
departure from Memphis, to preclude any
participation By the late Confederate soldiers |
in the coming convention of the Democracy
of Tennessee, to be held at Nashville on the |
9th of June and in the National Democratic
Convention, to be held at New Y ork on the
4th of July.
1t does not amount to a purpose to ar
bitrarily do this thing; but is felt in efforts
to induce every one who took any part in the
recent struggle Of the ConfederacY for indie
pendence, 10 decline attending at these as
semblies upon pretended grounds of expedi-
ency, and to submit the representation of
Tennessee at New York to men who were
known t. be for the Union
Upon consultation with many of nv late
associates in the war, | have Concluded to
advise against any further political emascu--
lation of ourselves in the party movements
of the State
We are already sufficiently prescribed in
the Consultation and statutes which now
govern the State, against our consent, the
prescription of which has, through the
mendacious hostility of our legislative enc
mics, been added to time and again, until
now we barely live under the accumulated
weight of disfranchisement and oppression.
Shall we superadd, by our own action, to
! those prescriptions and exorcisms Of our
] selves from all participation in the assem-
/ blies of the State and National Democracy,
! and publish TO the world a confession that
we are too unworthy to intrude ourselves
! into the councils of the party2 The Ma
1onal Democratic party, through its com
miStee, have inyitedt-u TO take part In the
! Convention which Is to assemble at New
/ fbr At If Vt,lr 7 =
test Oaths, no qualifications dependent upon
4 the partwe hare taken in the late war, but,
like true Constitutional party, it opens its
| doors and invites all who may choose to
come, without reference to the past To
suggest, then, an answer to so catholic an
invitation, that we who are the true repre-
/ sentatjves of the greater portion of the Con
stitutional men of the States feel ourselves
| unworthy to soil the deliberations of that
Convention with our presence, would ex-
hibit us in attitude of serViie degradation,
that thrust we have not reached as yet In
this view Of the case, then, it is my advice
(giVen from a sense of duty, and against q
reluctance which is aYerse to any personal
display of myself in q matter of this kind
to all my. comrades to participate in the
county meetings, and to send up full delega
tons to Nashville on the 9th of June, com
posed of good and true men, without refer
ence to the divisions which were made bJ
2 the war.
The only hope of restoration of a good
government in this country is in the success
of the National Democracy in the. mex
Presidential campaign. / trust my late com
rades win not, from expediency or othe
motives, absent themselves from a participa
ton in the political exercises which are t
result in the choice of standard bearers
made with view to so patriotic and desira
bic an end. So far as l am personally con
cerned, have no desire to take any part il
politics, nor to occupy any political position
whatever; but I do not wish to see my Stat
represented by men whose only claim t
public favor is the dexterity with which the
took either side of the question IN the lat
war; as interest dictated, and who ban
. upon it as their only capital for popular SUI
port, n, B, FoRREsT.