Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-07-22
THE RIGHT SPIRIT.


ton meeting at Knoxville on Saturday,
which was addressed by Col, John Bax-
ter. The Knoxville Press and Herald
says
He showed up the corruption, despotism
and usurpation of the Tennessee State gov
eminent in mastery manner, illustrating
the condition of affairs by the fact that in
one district of Blount county there are
some ten or twelve pardoned convicts, con-
yicted by Radical Jurors, and pardoned by
the Governor, who were now possessed of
certificates to vote, while gallant Union
soldier who was honorsbly discharged as
Major after three years service, had been
denied a certificate TO vote. We cannot
carry Tennessee unless we carry the Gov
ernor and all, and there is no remedy at
present except by force and that he would
not advise"
This is the right spirit Let the des"
potism of the Brownlow government be
exposed before every crowd that can be
assembled in Tennessee, as well as
through the Democratic and Conserva-
tive papers; let this despotism be laid
bare in all its hideous deformity, in all
its outrages upon law~abiding people,
and then let us appeal to those who are
permitted to exercise the elective franz
chise to do us justice through the ballots
box This may appear hopeless to many
who are under the ban, but it needs no
extraordinary Intelligence to see that the
party which has sustained the Brownlow
despotism is already beginning to crum-
BILE to pieces Here in Nashville, where
a bitter feud exists in that party, we can
sec that the despot is losing his power
The same is true of Memphis, and pers
haps of other towns in the State. The
carpet baggers," as those Northern cit
liens who have come to settle among US,
are called, and the home Radicals are at
daggers points over the Offices. Let us do
nothing to heal or cause these Radi-
Gals to forget for the time these differen.
ces. BrOwnlow and his minions would
glory in some imprudent act on the part
Of the Democrats, or even a respectable
number of them which would serve to
make his partisans forget their wFang-
ling about the Offices, to make common
cause against the people of the State who
are not Radical. 1t has been given cut,
and correctly we judge, that Brownlow's
main object in calling the Legislature
together is that that body may authorize
him to call into service ten regiments of
loyal militia, with which to harrass the
people and provoke collision which will
unite his partisans who are wrangling
about the Offices and the Jobs that may
be picked up, and thus continue the dis.
Embellishments and exclusions which
have cut of the Democratic and Conser-
vative masses from that participation in
shaping the affairs Of the State which is
the highest evidence of citizenship The
Louisville Journal seems to rightly APP
preciate the delicate and responsible po'
sitiOn of the political opponents of Brown
low, when in referring to Tennessee it
says
determination is the Brownlow cry
and it has produced its effect. Long suf-
fering will drive any people mad Des-
peTaiion will make any people reckless.
This ID Brownlow's object and the object of |
the Radical party. They want to produce
a conflict between the people and The mi
litia. They want "a civil war in Tennes-
nessee" They think they can send Gen. |
Thomas down there and stamp it out, and /
make of it besides great campaign argu- |
ment"
There is the thing in nutshell 1T is
the policy of Brownlow and the bold,
bad men by whom he is urged on, to pro-
woke a civil war" that he might let |
loose upon a defenseless people a band
of desperadoes and cut-throats who
would have mercy for neither age nor
sex We have no doubt that tits fixed |
fact that the militia win be called out /
and stationed in different portions Of the
Middle and Western divisions of the
State to harrass and annoy the people,
and by systematic cruelty and outrage,
worse even than was practieed by the
militia last year, to provoke peaceable
and quiet citizens to acts of violence in
retaliation for these wrongs We know
it is difficult for high-toned, honorable
men to restrain themselves under such an
accumulation of wrong and outrage as has
been and will yet be perpetrated in tho
name OF law and order, but we trust we
shall be pardOned for urging our fellow
citizens to 80 conduct themselves that in
whatever emergency may happen they
will have right on their side If COLI
sion must come, let it be brought on by |
our oppressors. Let the people Of Ten
1essee show to their brethren of the other
States, in the critical emergency just
iawning upon them, that they are a law
abiding people, and that they seek to
redress their wrongs only in a legitimate,
awful way, and right win prevail in the
nd. The immediate future is overcast |
With dark and gloomy clouds, but let the
PEOPLE of Tennessee act with manly firms
less, under and within the law, and they |
will wrest victory from adversely and tri
,mph over the calling despotism that now
Weighs them down.
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