Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1868-11-08

To-day, Americans, you are to decide
whether you will drift un3er the next
administration or have plan. Now you
applaud Grant. What | say to you to-
night, this 9th day of October, 1868, is
this: This epoch turns on the negro"
Here we see that Phillips idea plainly |
is that the negro question oyershadows
every other issue before the country.
And he speaks for tina ultra Radicals in
this matter as he has heretofore done
touching kindred questions sprung upon
the country by war. He claimed that
Grant would be elected President, as he
has been, but he doubted the Generals
soundness on the negro question. Here
is the point he makes touching Grants
position touching the sable individual on
which 'this epoch turns :"
"Fhe question is, What does Grant
think of the negro ? There is not man
in this house that will maintain for mo-
ment that before the war, before, 1861,
there is the slightest shred Of eivd ence
that Ulysses Grant ever had one single
idea on the negro, right or wrong. You
will allow that. Then the gun sounded
at Sumter. Did he wheel into line, did
he right about face as did Sherley, Dix
and Butler? Certainly he did not. Then
came the questions, shall we arm the
negro ? shall we free the negro? shall
we recognize the citizenship Of the negro?
You all know what killed Fremont and
what caShiered Hunter, and what made
the South hate Batter and Charles Sum-
ner. 1t was the negro. Nobody ever
felt Grant-nobody ever found fault with
him. You will all allow that am not
exaggerating or misstatiRg. You never
heard the first lisp of word from Gen.
Grant during all those years. The great
General marched right up to Appomat-
tOx, took the extended sword Of General
Lee, and sheathed it. And every man in
this audience will allow that up to that
moment the lips of Ulysses Grant
never had dropped one single word,
and his most sanguine friend has
not presumed to hint at one, or invent
one up to 1865. Is not that so ? He
went all through the war with the heaV-
ems dark, and the land shaking with
the thunders oflilty battle-felds-God's
command to the nation to do Justice
and it did not wrench one word from his
lips. And he gave no notices. Cheat
ham said, 81 rejoice that America has re-
sisted" and you know him by that.
Andrew Jackson said "The Union, it
must be preserved" Butler said, Con
traband,7 and the people of the loyal
enthusiastic idolater of stout soldier |
go to the EXTREMIST limit and ask you to
state one single watchword uttered by
him, that a bulldog might not have
growled forth, and | am doing him JUS
tice. | know all he did, and will to the
extent ofmy ability mete out to him the
lavish praise which he deserves. But
that great conflict never wrenched from
him a single word in reference to the
negro. How does he stand day
What do we know aboat him England
looks up to Disraeli and says he repre-
| sents this, to Gladstone and says he rep
reSentS that; we will trust them TWEEN
/ ty-four hours, and if they do not prove
faithful, out with them. America, in an
! hundTed-told darker hOuT-tWO thousand
million dollars in debt, with anarchy in
half Of the republic, with half million
! fresh graves, the most terrific convul-
sion that ever strained the cordage of
nationality, the great gigantic war
Of ideas-loOks up to the great soldier
| and says, What is his opinion? Mr.
Washburne asserts, Maj. Rollins Is con-
| fident Schuyler Colfax believes, Col. For
ney supposes, Henry Wilson does not
doubt, the EreR3Rg Post thinks, the
| Tribune hopes, and in the mean time
| there does not man walk this continent
who is able in this urgent exigency Of
| national affairs to quote one single writ
ten word that pledges the great General
to any view on this subject, excepting
his reply to tho nomination at Chicago.
That says, indorse thesy stem OF Con-
| gressiOnal reconstruction Well, iudg-
ing by the year 1868. that is a failure.
Congressional reconstruction, 1t means
the negro in Georgia turned out of the
Legislature and the jury bOx-it means,
every Union man is afraid to show his
head in the public streets Of Sodth Caro-.
lina--it means Texas is den Of thieves
it means practical craftsmanship. Mark
you am a frantic, ! am q dreamer, /
am a theOTiSt. If you want practical
craftsmanship 90 up to the Senate. That
is the body that admits seven of ten
States by bill, and when they have got
in, Georgia puts the negro under her feet,
South Caralina shoots every loyaliSts,
and the frightened DGUy IdreTtiSer
turns round and says, How this is tc be
remedied, nobody can tell"
The public will be gratified by the
doubts Wendell Phillips express whether
Grant is a mon-omaniac like himself 1t
Is the belief Of sane men generally that
this epoch, as Phillips phrases it, turns on
white men as we'll as black, and there
are men not without hope that General
Grant will see that the epoch " turns
in such a way as not to roll over the
legal and constitutional rights Of any
class. General Grant has been very re-
ticent upon the negro question, but he
seems to have unbosomed himself to at
least one gentleman. That man is Judge
Fierrepont, Of New York, who gave
Grant an earnest support in the late can7
yass Judge Pierr pOnt stated in speech
at New York few days before the cleo
ton, that he hal had a conversation with
General Grant one day in Washington
while he was Acting Secretary Of War,
during which the General told him that
"his feelings and sentiments were en-.
tirely opposed to negro suffrage, - and
Judge Pierrepont further represented
Grant as saying:
"Iou will remember that early in the
war, when | was in command of the
West, | publicly stated that if the ne.
groes had an instruction | would hold
my army in check until it was put down.
But long before the war was OyeTI should !
have been glad of negro instruction,
and would have moved my army all the |
faster. What | want is the Union-tho |
whole country returned to peace and sub |
mssive to the laws. I do not like uni |
yersal negro suffrage now, but the freed |
men ought to. be protected and if the |
only way to protect them in their help |
less condition is to give them the suf,-