Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-05-13
SOME MORE 'seUTRAGEs" NIPPED
IN THE RID

IN IHE BUD.
The Press and Times delights in hold
ing up the people of Tennessee who are
not Radical, as stiffnecked and rebellious,
and that Union men are unsafe among
this people. So anxious is that paper to
make this impression, it does not stop to
consider the correctness of stories Of out
RACES reported to it and to which it gives
currency. The Columbia Herald of
Saturday gives the true version in regard
to one Of its late outrages as follows -
1.-THE Press and Times has character
istic story of the wrongs of one Thomas
White, colored, whom it reports as having
been driven away from this place by mys-
ter;ous threats against the peace and life of
said White. OF course it is all lie. We
have learned from responsible cOlored
persons that Tom did receive certain
vague threats, but they came through IN
reliable negroes, who probably had SIMS
ter motives for driving Tom away. lie Is
Of too little consequence to have any enc
mics among the whites, were he never so
LnCdns NOtAlb BAIh " Jul nNAAOOA ahN Jul
wife, Tom, and behave yourself"
A few days ago the Press and Times
had cock-and-bull story from one of its
reliable" correspondents as to what
''the Rebels or Ku-Klux" intend doing
in Smith county; that they had burned a
negro schoolhouse at Carthage, and had
notified the teachers in the same "in a
bloody handwriting with a coffin at the
head, that they should suffer death un-
less they went North where they be-
longed;" and that "they say they intend
to get rid of the id Radicals and ne
groes in this (Smith) county" This cor
respondent then declares that the grand
jury for that county was composed OF
Rebels, "and they don't find bills of in
dictment against Rebels, no matter what
they may dc" This was a sweet morsel
for the Press and Times, and in its virtu-
GUS Indignation it exclaimed:
as it possible that there are not enough
decent Conservatives in Smith county to
put down the cowardly rnffianism in their
party?'
This story went the rounds of the
Radical press, and was pointed to by
those who try to justify the Brownlow
dynasty, as proof of the business of the
disfranchisement of "Rebels" and other
Outrages against an unofTending people.
But the Indignation of the "oficial news
paper" was destined to be short lived,
for in its issue of the 10Th inst. appears
the following letter from the General
Claim Commissioner for the. State, an
unimpeachable Radical, else the Legisla-
ture would not have given him his Office
NASHVILLE, May IL, 1S6S.-Eiitor
Press and Times: see in your paper of
the 9th of April a communication from
Carthage, Smith county, which, among
other things, says: ave have a Rebel
grand jury, and they don't find bills of
indictments against Rebels, no matter what
they may do"
consider the above Islander upon the
Jurors referred 10. / do not known what
your correspondent is, but if he knew any
thing about the grand jury he knew that
all but two of them were strong Radicals,
and among the best citizens of the county
Neither can understand how your CORES
pendent learned the jury was finding no
indictments, when the truth is that over
fifty-two bills were found, a much larger
number than has been found by any grand
jury since the war in Smith county.
/ hope your correspondent will in the
future conflne himself to facts, and not
villify the best men of our county. SO far
as the Ku-Klux are concerned in Smith
county, | will say that they are all known,
and will be looked after by the grand jury
that will be empanneled on the 4th Monday
in July next. | am as much opposed to the
Ku-Klux demonstrations as your cores
pondent, and will go as far as he to sup
press them, but | will never be caught
wilfully villifying the best men Ofmy party.
L think it my duty to vindicate my
neighbors and friends from all such insinu-
atoms as those cast by your correspondent,
hence l request that you insert the above in
your paper. Very respectfully,
THOMAS WATERS.
If the honest Radicals in the different
counties would thus expose and denounce
these outrageous attempts to stir up strife
and bring further oppression upon the
people, we would have a very different
state of affairs in Tennessee to that which
we witness to-day.