Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-12-03
H. G. TO BENZ. F.
The Removal OF Disabilities Rad
the fifteenth Amendment.

4
You will have remarked, is very often
pronounced, from one end of our country
TO the other. travelling somewhat, OBJ
serving little, and reading newspapers
considerably-quit often hear it men
toned, and Git may surprise you ia learn)
not always admiringly. And yet, while
have for many years heard and read all
manner of evil said of you--some of it
absurdly groundless and false-I cannot
| recollect that ever heard or read sug-
gestion that you were a fool. Now,
come before the public to impeach, not
yourself personally, but policy where
with your name is popuiarly and promi-
nently identified, as lacking rational mo-
| tive and at war with common sense |
allude to that policy which prolongs IL
definitely the prescription and disfran-
chisement of large portion of the men
of the South for their part in the late re-
bellion.
Understand that speak fromthe stand
! point not of sentiment, but of business.
do not here impeach that policy as harsh
or hateful, but as deficient in tact-in
gunption. l impeach it as nursing and
intensifying enmities certain to subYert, at
no distant day, the party which is identi-
fed with it.
| will not dwell upon the well-known
fact that the late Gov. Andrew, in his
farewell message or address, put forth
four years ago, strongly urged policy
antagonist to this-a policy that contem-
plated the early and complete Cancellation
OF the South, through the enfranchisement
and magnanimOus treatment of her natural
leaders. Nor need invite your attention
to the fact that Gen. Sickles IA shrewd,
thoroughly practical politician) officially
demonstrated, more than three years ago,
against the prescription of prominent and
wealthy ex-Rebels, as depriying him of the
services of the very men he urgently needed
and could make most useful in governing
South Carolina. Nor do / care to press
home the fact, of which you cannot be
| ignorant, that the Southern men of edu
cation and property are by far more rea-
sonable and less bitter than their poorer,
more ignorant neighbors-are less impla-
cable, more rational, and more ready to
unite heartily in rebuilding the waste
| places of the land. Nor will | dwell
| upon the noble addition made, on motion
| of Gen. Carl Schurz, to the latest national
platform of the Republican party-that
| plank which declares prescription tenn
| pOrary expedient, rendered necessary by a
grave public peril, and to be abandoned
when that peril shall have vanished. /
rest on the naked fact that the Repubh
can party imminently needs the good
will which this policy repeIs, and must 60
under if that good will be not secured.
l assume that you realize the absolute
| necessity of the triumph of the fifteenth
| amendment to the success of Gen. Grants
administration, and that you must be
aware that the fate of that amendment is
| yet doubtful Ten adverse States suffice
| to defeat it; and seventeen Jersey,
Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennes-
| see, California and OregOn-are already
beyond hope. The loss of Tennessee was
at once a calamity and blunder-One of
those intense stupidities which a great
| party is seldom allowed to repeat How
Rhode Island, Indiana, Georgia and Ne
braska stand, | need not inform you.
Suffice it that it will require the wisest
counsels and the best efforts to avert the
| threatened failure Of that great and wise
measure of safety, benignity and peace.
The men now coming TO Congress to
| demand that Tennessee be upset, and
Virginia remanded, and Mississippi and
| Texas held as satrapies for an indefinite
period, unless they vote ashley are hidden,
utterly fail to comprehend the situation.
They evidently suppose that we have
| nothing at stake-that We may keep three
OF four States unrecOnstTUCted, and uu-
| represented in Congress during pleasure.
l hope you know better-at all events, l
DO. We do not merely need the 10Th
| amendment ratified before 1S72-we uTg-
emily need it now If it be delayed one
| year longer, we shall have more than
one State Legislature beside that of New
York assuming to withdraw the ratifiCa-
ton already accorded; and, while you
and may rightly deny the legal validity
of such withdrawal, l am sure neither of
us viii dispute its moral weight. Con
necticut is to hold an election next April,
when the votes of her colOred citizens
| will be found exceedingly useful if
| not absolutely needed; New Jersey and
Pennsylvania have L. S. Senators depend
| ing ON the result of their next State cleo
tons respectively, and the like votes are
| absolutely needed in the former, and prob
| ably so in the latter Several seats in the
| next Congress from Ohio and other States
will be won or lost, as the right to vote for
| members shall be exercised by their whole
people or only by the whites. Kentucky,
Maryland and Delaware will each be
| stOutly and hopefully contested next year
if the amendment be meantime ratified,
while we shall not elect one member from
all three of these States if it be not. To
my apprehension, the control of the next
House of Representatives will probably
hinge on that event.
/ ask you, then, to consider, as prac-
teal man, whether we can afford to pick
and choose from among those disposed to
| favor that Observation-Disclosures it will
not be suicidal folly to repel any prOffered
| OF possible support | ask you whether
any attempt to pry into the motives of
| those who may favor ito ascertain
| whether they were not Rebels, and, if so,
/ whether they have not Tepented of having
been such-is not childish exhibition of
that spirit which ''goeth before a fall. "
/ In short, / ask you to consider this whole
matter in the light of naked, hearty,
| hOmely common sense, and act upon it as
the demands of the eXigency shall seem 10
require.
The urgency Of the case must excuse
| the freedom of this appeal. Rightly or
wrongly, the country regards yOU as the
leader in Congress of those who have
been most exacting in their requirements
| of the defeated Rebels, and least inclined
| to treat them with confidence or gener-
| ositv. The TeproaChes which I have in
| CURED in this quarter will never attach to
| YOU, and your adhesion to the policy
! which the occasion demands will never be
| attributed to weakness or sentimentality
| | ask you, therefore, to place yourself
| promptly and heartily at the head of q
movement looking to the instant and COM
plete removal Of all political disabilities
| whatever from any and every one who
favors or shall favor the fifteenth amend
ment, and their prompt restoration to all
the privileges of citizenship. ''Let us
| have peace ~ HORACE GREELEY.
| A CORRESPONDENT of the LeavenwOrth
| (Kansas) Times and Conservative,
writing from Hays City, on the 10th ult.,
says "The buffalo migration south has
hardly commenced yet Sometimes a
herd eighty miles wide crosses the rail
road, thus showing that the race of buTfa-
lOes is not dying out very rapidly, and
that the sixty thousand rowing Indians on
the plains win not want for steaks or
Toasts for year or two to come.
|
| A LADY resident of San Francisco asks
800, 900 damages from two citizens for
divers grievous injuries received by her
while witnessing q display of fireworks
on the night of July 4, in consequence, it
is alleged, of negligent and unskillful dis
charge of rocket by the defendants.