The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1868-07-17
Characteristic Letter from Gen. Blair.

Col. James q. Broakead
DEAR Co1oNEL--In reply to your inquir
les beg leave to say that leave to you to
Determine. on consultation with my friends
from Missouri, whether M name shall be
presented to the Democratic Convention,
and to submit the following, as whaiI con
slider the real and only issue in this con-
test; ,..-.
The reconstruction policy of the radicals !
viii be complete before The next election
the States, so long excluded, will have been
admitted; negro suffrage established, and
the carpet baggers installed in their seats
in both branches Of Congress, There is
no possibility Of changing the political
! character of the Senate. even if the Demo
Gratis should elect t! cir President aud ma
jority Of the popular branch of Congress
We cannot, therefore, undo the radical plan
of reconstruction by Congressional action
| the Senate will continue a bar to its repeal
Must we submit TO it? How can it be
oyerthrown? team only be done by the
authority Of the Executive. who is sworn
to maintain the Constitution, and who will
! fail to do his duty if he allows the Consti-
tuition to perish under series of Congress
ioual enactments- which are in palpable viO-
lation of its Fundamental principles. 49,
1.-THE President elected by the Democ-
racY. enforces, or permits others to enforce,
these reconstruction acts, the radicals. by
the accession Of twenty spurious Senator's
and fifty representatives., viii control both
branches of Congress, ard his a1mnistra-
zion will be as Powerless as the present one
of Mr.. Johnson.
There is but one way to restore the gov
eminent and the Constitution and that is
for the President elect to declare these acts
null and void, compel the army to undo its
usurpaLions at the South, disperse the car
pet-bag State governments, allow the whit
people to reorganizs their own govern
meuts, and elect Senators and Representa-
tives. The House Of Representatives will
contain majority of Democrats from the
North, and they will admit the Representa-
tiyes elected by the white people of the
South, and with the cooperation of the
President, it will not be difficult to compel
the Senate to submit once more. to the obli
cations of the Constitution. 1t will not be
able to Withstand the public judgment. if
, distinctly invoked and clearly expressed,
on this fundamental issue, and tits the sure
way to avoid all future strife to put this is
sue plainly to the country.
} repeat that this is the real aud only
question which We should allow to control
US. Shall we submit to the usurpations by
which the governmenthas been overthroWn,
OF shall We exert ourselves for its full and
complete restoration 1t is idle to talk Of
bonds. greenbaok, gold, the public faith
and the public credit. What can a Demo
cratic President do in regard to any Of
these with a Congress in both branches
controlled by the carpet-baggers and their
, allies He will be powerless to stop the
supplies by which the idle negroes are Or
ganized into political clubs-by which an
army is maintained to protect these vaga.
bonds in their outrages upon the ballot
These, and things like these, eat up tie
revenues aud resources of the government
and destroy its credit-make the difference
. between gold aud green5acks. We must
restore the Constitution before we can re-
store the finances, and to do this we must
have a President no will execute the will
of the people by trampliug into dust the
usurpations Of Congress, known as the re-
construction acts. l wish to stand before
the convention upon this Issue, but is one
which embraces every thing else that is of
value in its large and comprehensive re-
suits It is the one thing that includes all
that is worth contest. and without it tn re
is nothing that gives dignity, honor, or val
ue to the struggle. Your friend,
FRANK z. BLAIR.
This is a characteristic production
Though some may be Gimid enough to
shrink from or hesitate at certain of It's po-
sitiOns, none will deny that it is straight
forward. manly and bold. There is not a
halfway expression or word in it. The
writer dares to sPeak the truth that is in
him. He daFes to undo, in what he deems
a constitutional mode, whatever wrong be
believes to have been done. He does not
consider the people Of the South as thrust
wholly on side Of the bonds Of right and
justice. He has no idea Of folding his arms
ADD saying, that. inasmuch as the millions
in that section have been cast down, OPP
pressed, robbed, subjected to negro sway,
&c, &c, by the most Internal usurpations
Of power the world ever Witnessed, their
wrongs must be regarded as accomplished
facts beyond the reach Of redress and per-