Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-08-18

places lWOuiu ne lnrouucb iulo uie
family circle the very scum Of the
common Jail, the forger, counterfeiter,
pickpocket, cheat and swindler OF
the Police Courts? IL not, then
why should be extend these civil
courtesies and social amenities to
men who, being more intelligent, are ten
times less pardonable for the commission
OF crime as great as any we have emu
merated. Is not the man who taxes you
to support him in Office, aud denies you
the right of representation, as dishonest
as he who picks your pocket2 Is not the
man or men who deny you the right Of
suffrage by the force of militia bayonets,
while himself and his accomplices divide
among them your property, as criminal
as the highwayman who demands your
money or your life
Ipjured innocence, in lucrative posi-
ton by the grace of Radicalism, may
complain that this is harsh language. It
is not more harsh than the case
urgently demands. We are free to
confess that 80 far as Radicalism
is concerned, we have no respect for it,
nor for any man, high or low. who is
identified with it, but we would not
prescribe man for embracing that poll
tical faith, solely. The man who votes
to disfranchise you, however, is your per.
sonal enemy, and the party who so pro-
scribes you need expect nothing else in
| return.
The events >which have transpired
within the past few days have afforded
abundant reason, without going into de-
tail, why we sheuld no longer have any
compromise to make with those who keep
US disfranchised. The day of conciia-
tion is over with us, and experience
teaches that we need not hope for it from
the other side. We have had humilia-
ton enough, with insult piled mountain
high upon mountains of injury and in
justice. We deserve what we have re-
ceived, in o measure, for lowering our
dignity and manhood so much, as to en-
tertain momentary suspicion that our
oppressors were capable of rising above
partisan prejudice and revenge to do
| Justice to their fellow-men, whose taxes
support them in Office. We have no
more kind speeches and courteous phra'
ses for disfranchising radicalism while
taxation without representation is its
motto. Whether our electoral ticket be
Withdrawn from the field or not, hence.
forth we intend to handle the monstrous
iniquity without gloves; to deal with it
as some treacherous and venomous rep
tile, whose ugly head every mans heel
should bruise--as dog with hydropho.
bia, whom to leave unmuzzled would be
to endanger the lives Of the people, or as
the sacrilegious thief within our temples
whom to tolerate would be to participate
in his guilt
Our long patience and silent submis-
sion to the insolence and injustice of
those in brief authority, and our PROPOSE.
tions now to abandon to them the field
uncontested, whenever they propose to
control it by bayonets, impresses them
with the belief that that patience and ST.
lence is the result of coward fear. We
solemnly assure them that such, if enter.
tanned, is an erroneous Interpretation OF
our pacific demeanor. We have coun-
soled peace and practiced it, in the vain
hope 1--WE are at length compelled to ad-
mit) that peaceful attitude on our part
might possibly have begotten a pacific
policy with our adversaries. 1t seems
that we have hoped in vain, and we shall
no longer hug the delusive phantom. We
have never mistaken the schemes Of
Browplow and his unscrupulous agents
to retain political power here, but we did
hope that the moral force of public opin-
ion would have induced them to aban-
don that policy. From its accidental
birth to the present time, we have
locked upon that miserable abortion
which the super-loyalists of Tennessee
style "the State Government as the
shallowest deceit that ever had exist
ence. We have regarded the measures
by which it has sustained itself as nothing
more than well-concocted plan of sys'
tematic plunder. This thing is not gov
ernment. Its measures are not laws.
Its party tactics are not politics. 1t is
legalized robbery and nothing more
Wholesale piracy and nothing less Un-
der the solemn conviction Of the truth of
that trite maxim, that submission to
tyranny is treason to God" we believed
it was our right, and that it was our duty,
in this national canvass, to demand fair
election by every means short of re-
sert to arms, and if quarrel was
fastened upon us to meet force with
force. II, from prudential motives, as
involving the salvation of our holy cause
in other quarters, we should conclude to
avoid the possibility of such conflict
by q withdrawal of our electoral ticket,
we are determined, nevertheless, to meet
prescription with prescription. Be that
as it may, however we have not pro-
posed to cease our warfare upon the Rad
icsl despotism in this State, so long as
the present franchise law remains
a blot aud stain upon the statute
book, from any absurd fear of the
anger of Brownlow's militia. Until that
odious measure is annulled, we hold no
intercourse, make no compromise with,
nor in any way countenance this Brown
low usurpation. Our desire has been for
peace, and our course has hitherto tended
toward moderation, but we do not desire
it at the cost Of our dignity and self.
respect-s peace to be purchased only by
the emasculstion OF msjority of native,
tax-paying citizens by a beggarly mi
nority, who have cowed and bullied them
thus far into all manner Of submissions.
When that franchise is wiped out, We
may talk about political and social
equality, and the dawn Of the era Of
good feeling" and all that. but never till
then-uever, till we are as free as
our oppressors-never, until we can
stand up in our manhood, equal in the
Law and before the sight Of Heaven
never, by the Ged that made US.
Neros, little and big, on the new con-
tinent, as well as the old, in drunken de-
bauchery. can fiddle aHd dance, sur.
rounded by suffering men, women and
children, and burning houses and ruined