The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-06-22
RrownIew,. Letter.

We read IN Jne DeSG OF DOOhs bua'
when the sons of Cop came to worship
"SATAN came also among them" And
now, when the better men of our coun-
try are demanding that right shall rule
and the shackles be lifted from the
limbs of white men, BRowNLow "comes
also among them" His letter favoring
the immediate enfranchisement of Ten
nessee rebels, is elsewhere printed.
Were we to examine the motives that
prompted it, we would say that how
ever fair and liberal it may seem, it en-
titles him to no credit. The Intention
gives character to the act. BROWN
LOWS intention is not to do the right
for its own sake, bat as matter of pol
icy. Seeing that to oppose enfranchise-
ment is to fight the inevitable, he
makes a virtue of advocating what
he can't defeat. While pro-
scription was popular he heartily i'm
bibed its spirit and mercilessly prosecut-
ed its aims. No prosecutor ever hunted
his victims with more unsparing energy
or relentless purpose than BRowNLow.
The character of SAUL of Tarsus
breathing out threatenings and slaugh-
ter against the disciples" binding and
delivering into prisons both men and
women" has yet the redeeming feature
of sincerity. The Tennessee Parsor
harassed his people solely for partisan
expediency, albeit in so doing he graf
flied the most malignant spite. Hold
ing the franchises of Tennessee in the
hollow of his hand, he was the incar-
nation of Test Oath deviltry. The
rights of individual citizens he seemed
to delight in destroying. To disfran-
chise a county was with him a royal
recreation. To override tho will of a
District afforded him the most exuber-
ant enjoyment. To crush out freedom
among the people and make mockery
of Republican Government by enabling a
handful of worthless adventurers to rule
and plumber his State, was positive bliss
to the Parsou.
But BROwNLow suited his mood to the
occasion. When public opinion seemed
to sanction prescription he was fierce, ac'
tive and unrelenting. "Upon his eye
balls murd'rous tyranny sat" Then his
militia marauders and assassins went
abroad scattering dismay. When pub
lie opinion seemed Indifferent he showed
slirht signs of relaxation, and made
ready for contingencies by subsiding
from Gubornatorial rigor into Senatorial
paralysis. And now when the popular
demands are loud and universal in faver
of wiping ont the abomination OF pros
cription everywhere, he comes out as re-
specially as reconstructed maniac,
clothed and in his right mind" and the
very policies and ideas which he formerly
insisted were life and health and peace to
the country, he holds to be as lOathsome
and repulsive as though they carried a
pestilence and call the infections that
the sun sucks up
BRowNLow's letter is valuable chiefly
as indicating the liberalizing tendency
of public opinion on the suffrage ques-
ton. Men of his class never abandon
what they believe to be popular posi-
tiou. But let them think they stand on
defeDceless ground and they will not
only evacuate the place but prove they
never occupied it. For all such people,
and for their ridiculous and unseemly
twisting and turning to catch the
breezes of popular favor, nobody
can feel any respect. The vim
dictive fury manifested by the ultra
proscriptionists short time since would
render it impossible to compare their
present liberal professions with their
past proscriptive acts, without largely
developing the ridiculous element.
In strong contrast with them, stand the
characters of men like GREELEY, who
whatever else may be said of them
have acted from principle, and, how
ever mistaken their policy, have Proba
bly, meant we'll for their country. Tht
editor of the TribHHe long ago tool
ground in favor of universal suffrage
Men of the BRowNLow and RoREMAH
stamp hooted ut him, meyer mentioned
the policy but to sneer at it. Now i
has become the last hope of safety +
the Republican party. Having alread.
enfranchised three. fourths of the ne
groes of the country, and satisfied them
selves that the enfrauchisement of tn
remainder will speedily be effected, tn
Republicans have yet no confidence i
the future. They doubt their ability t
maintain their Rscendency. Why
"Yet one thou laekest"-Charity. n
party can commend itself to the al
proval of free people, which enforoes
policy of vengeance upon peaceful an
submissive citizens. Four years ag
the Acknowledgement of the rebels woul
have enabled the Republicans almost
command their entire vote, throug
msgnanimity. Now, they may diyid
il, by liberal measures. Two or thre
wears hence enfranchisement will com
| of itself, and the new voters will be
united phalanx against the party tha
prescribed them to the utmost limit @
its power.
So it would seem, after all, that tn
mildest men of the dominant party ar
often the wisest, and that the ferees
are not only the readiest to desert j
the hour of trial, but the most danger
, ous to trust in the day of success. Th
BRowNLows and the BoRKMANs rus
their organization to swift destruction
D the GREELEYs prolong its life to tn
1 last moment of allotted time.