Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-07-15

ciutehins ~ ssraws and Threats.
Our city Radical contemporaries, lik'
drowning men, and for want OF real fact
and respectable arguments, clutch q
every straw. aud make rediculously
mountain of every trine, every liitl'
comm on-place occurrence, and ever,
slip Of the pos and the tongue which
turns up. Such senseless exhibition
Of themselves only proves to every OBJ
server at home that they are without rea
aud important facts and arguments will
which to sustain themselves. If tour
nament takes place, or Confederate
graves are decorated, or small body oil
our young men ride out for fancy pa
rade. these pretenders to loyalty pro-
nounce at once that 1t smacks of the re-
bellion. The only action which plsases
them Is that Of enacting the bypocrite
and wearing the loil" mask. They
care not what men believe or are, so they
90 with them; profession Of loyalty to
Brownlow is their touchstone. Real
loyalty to the constitution and the coun-
try is O crime. To demand any legal
right, to express a determination to en-
force it by all legal means, is to be in
instruction. When Colonel LaLdon G.
Haynes declared that the man who
sought to deprive him of the dearest of
all the rights Of a freeman, was doing the
worst an enemy could do, and that he
should hold him to be an individual and
personal enemy, this is again new trea-
son which calls for "a regiment Of colored
militia" at once. Aud when the editor
of the LEDGER made the apology for not
having out flag at the ratification meet
ing, which he had not thought of in time
to procure, and said humorously that he
had none but small Confederate one,
which he was not now privileged to fly,
here again is treason, i'll concealed. IT
an outrage occurs, q murder or other
crime, which would excite no particular
comment as extraordinary at Alton or
Oberln, it is at once psraded and charged
to the Ku-KIux. The city of Memphis
is daily injured by these lies for party
purposes, and they are taken up with
gusto by the Radical press, and read with |
greed by the fanaticalvipers, from whose
midst, base as they are, these miscreants
among us have been spurned and driven |
out as unworthy. They can only be ex-
ceeded in their infamies by the turncoats
and sneaks who have turned traitor to
their own section, because they had not
the virtue requisite to escape the con-
tempt and loathing. Of all respectable
people, which has, consequently, driven
them out among the scallawags. There
is no belief on the part of the Rad
ical press or people here, that
auy disposition exists on the part
of any of the late Confederates,
or the Southern people, to violate
the law. They know better. They know
that if we willed it, We could crush
them and Brownlow out Of sight within
any twenty-four hours we might select.
They know we have given remarkable
exemplification of conservatism and pa
triotism in bearing and forbearing as we
have, so much and SO long. But they
are anxious to create difficulty, for the
twofold object of aiding their Northern
coadjutors, and of inducing the produc-
ton of force here to protect the cow
ards while they steal what little is left.
They may as well beware. We tell them
that they are no more than our equals
before the law. We tell them that we want
no difficulty, and shall do what
we honorably can to prevent one.
We shall obey the laws without
transgressing single one. And we
shall do nothing against them not our
UNREASONABLE right nnder the law, and
not in necessary self-defense against
their sworn leagues, and their evil con-
duct and Vaccinations. But if, while
we would have, and earnestly seek, truth,
peace and the common good, they are de-
termined, and will lyingly bring on regi-
ments of colored militia, collision and
civil war, we have learned full we'll how
to accept the situation, and we have
only to say to them
Lay on, McDuf.
And damned be be, who first cries
Hold enough ~