The Union flag. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1865-187?, 1868-09-04

( or magnanimous defiance was ever uttered.
There was neither grandeur in victory nor.
pathos in defeat Eloquence attempted no
successful flights poetry felt no Inspiration
music had none but borrowed melodies art
furnished neither statutes nor pictures, and
literature not line to be remembered. Such
was the "lost cause in It's hey-day as il ap-
psared TO all but the deluded women and
youth who decked its hideousness in the
hues of their own gaudy imagiuatioas or,
such are not the kingdoms of earth. Nations
are not constructed Of so base MATERIAL -
| Well It is called the "lostp cause, Just as we
speak Of a "lostA woman, a 'lost spirit,
"lost" soul.
So understoOd, tits no paradox that it still
abides, direful, portentous, a power for evil
in the land. Hardly had it recovered from
the FIRST craven fear Of hanging and con6sca-
! tion which followed the defeat Of its arms
before it renewed the same vile practices
which marked its progress from the outset.
Clothed by the mistaken cemency of the Ex-
ecutiye with local authority, itforebore hos
tility toward the Governmt Mt and the Nnrth-
e-n people, and exhausted its yirulence upon
objects at home, the emancipated and enfran-
chised colored people, the white Unionists
and persons of Northern birth, especially set
tiers since the war or to borrow It's own dia-
lect, the "niggers," the "scalawags," and tile
"carPet. baggers."
TREATMENT OF coEoRED PEoPLE.
The hostility tothe colored people amounts.
to passion, almost to madness Everything
| likely to alleviate their bard condition has
been resisted bitterly as leading to "negro
equality their freedom, their right to con-
troll their own labor, to own property, to ia.
| tify in court, no less than the right to vote
and to hold office. Efforts for their educa-
tion have provoked especial persecution
| School-hOuses have been burned and schools
| .roken up scbOol-mAsters, white and color
| ed, have been subjected TO cruel scourgnes
and other nameless indignities, and driven
away; school-mistresses have Jared only not
sosSad and these outrages, not single acts
of wiCkedness, confined in their locality, but
so numerous and so far asunder as to demon
strate pTeconcert and purpose. The riots at
Memphis and New Orleans, in 1865, are but
too well known. Murdered, shot at whipped,
| robbed, disarmcd, to say nothing Of insults
and cOntumelies numberlessi what have these
people done to provoke, do not say deserve,
such treatment2 According to no mans
| theory were they the responsible cause Of the
war which resulted in their freedom. Not
by their own seeking are they free. To them
every franchise has come like unsought bless
ings from above. Nor can il be truthfUlly said
that they have misused their gifts. The ar
] son, rape and slaughter additionally in re-
serve for the master race whenever the slave
| should be made free, have not believe, in q
| single instance occurred. With all their dis
couragements they have been more nearly
| self sustaining than the same number Of
landless and homeless people Of the white
race.
The few millions wisely aud humanely ex.
pended by tie Freedmens Bufean for the
care Of the very old and the very young, and
| for securing 70 ali some degree OF Justice
1 and fair dealing, have been rendered neces-
sary by neglect and oppression when we
l should have expected better things. Ii was
| something else that aroused the ire against
them. Every individual cslored man sur
rounded by his li.tle household, in his cas-
| tie Of defenss,p though but the humble cab
| in, Is to the "lost cause" bandage Of de-
| feat, and be is visited with tie wrath impo-
! tent against the power Of the Government
| Il Is the ignoble vengeance of the rufian
who, wOrstee in hisppblic brois, takes salts
faction at home in beating bis wife and chill
dren. Such Is the spectacle nightly exhibi-
ted somewhere 10 the South os party Of
young white, men, claiming to be gentlemen,
boastiug Of chivalry, stealthily Surrounding
| the lowly home Of an iLodfensiye colored
man, generally one whose years aud charac-
Ter give him influence with his race, drag
| ging him from bis bed to lacerate him with |
| hundreds Of stripes If not to take his life
Brave young men the pride Of the "lost
cause" soldiers, perchauce, 10 the non-com-
batent departments Of .be confederate ar
mics, figuring appropriately at''tournaments,
as they call the puerile limitations Of the cast
OF rubbisbOf an obsolete age
rREArNEsr or WHITE uSfoSisrs.
| Not black men alone are the objects Of their
spite. The Union white men, loyal to their
! lGOvernment who either never Joined the
% lost sausen OF have abandoned il, Southern
by birth, education, and constant residenee,
the q scalavags' Of their vocabulary, come
| In fol heavy share. None so worthless as
10 escape. The best tAleuts, the highest
culture the purest morals, alike with the
lowest and most degraded, fall into cohdem-
nation if not in sympathy with this aecursed
spirit. The recent assassination Of Ashburn
was representative crime. The men who
slew nlulHWtIo tut NIpt W tutil tutto1 anu
they struck him down, not for any personal
grievance, but, as the embodiment Of
IDEAS and principles which they hnted Il
was an act truly worthy Of the lost cause
one Of It's most Characteristic developments. !
An old man, much beyond the meridian,
honored BY being tbe chosen Of his people, |
In thscapital Of bis native Georgia, denied |
admission TO the house Of public enler,ain-
meut, forred 70 accept obscure lodgings, is |
aroused from sleep a midnight By band Of
wretches, and slain by the side Of BIS bed.
His murderers assume to be the FIRST in what /
they eau society They plan the eeed for
days ADD execute Il sith As little mercy As
gang Of pirates. Ho visa Radical, bad been
A consistent Union man, and favored the re-
consrucsion aels Of Congress and the new
Constellation. This was the head and front
Of his offending 10 conceal their guilt they
charged Il upon his friends, the colored peo-
pie To palliaio Il they malignsd bis charae-
Tor. TO justly Il 70 their own eousoiencs
they cried, e One enemy less r. Fools the
number Of the martyrs never grow less.
rna cAnrEr-BAagEns.
Another claas especially obnoxious 70 the
"ioht cause are the man Of Northern birib,
who have gone Into the South since the var,
A =. I