The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1869-08-12
Victory for the White Man in Tennessee.

THE malignants in the Cabinet at Wash
ington must contemplate the result of
their interference with the Tennessee
campaign with lively satisfaction. They
committed the Administration to the
statement that the Radicals in that State
represented the only true Republican par
ty, and that the Administration at Wash
ington desired their success, and would
employ its influence and authority in their
behalf This has been done The Presi-
dent may fairly be supposed to have sane
toned such action, because he could have
prevented it with a word, and, if it did
not meet his approval, it was his duty to
interfere.
If the men controlling the Cabinet and
the President know of what they speak,
and tell the truth, the Administration and
the Republican party have just met with
a crushing defeat in Tennessee. In 1867,
Governor BrOwnlOw was elected over
Emerson Etheridge by 1896 majority,
and in the Legislature the Republicans
had majority of eighty-three in the
House, and twenty-five in the Senate.
Now the returns of the election on Thurs
dav, thus far received, indicate that 1.-the
only Republican party in the State" has
been beaten by majority of about thirty
thousand and will lose control of the
Legislature.
There have been few more sudden and
sweeping revolutions in this country than
the recent one in Tennessee. Both the
national and State governments were in
the hands of the defeated party. 1t had
all the advantage that the control of the
Federal and State officers could give it. 1t
had all the machinery for carrying cleo
tons by fraud, and was skilled and un-
scrupulous in such work. Its leaders
were demagOgues and bad men, at the head
of the half-barbarous negroes and the
despicable whites who were willing to
ally themselves with the negroes to dis
franchise, and insult, and Cypress the best
and most intelligent men in the State, and
representing three-fourths of its wealth.
This was the condition of affairs not one
short year ago, and now that party is so
thoroughly beaten and demOraliZed that
there is but little prospect that it will
attempt to keep up its organization. 1t Is
beaten on the question of investing its OPP
pOnents with control of the State govern
ment when three-fourths of them are
denied the privilege OF voting, and have
no voice in the decision of that question
If beaten now on that question, what hope
can it have of a life worth preserving
when the ninety thousand white men of
Tennessee resume the ascendency to which
they are justly entitled? May it not as
well give up the ghost? Its speedy death
will not Obliterate its infamies and their
consequences, but will prevent their
memories from being kept continually in
the minds of the people.
Senter, the Governor of the State, and,
tc hoy no, of w hot
was the ruling party there, while profess
ing allegiance to it, appeared as the advo-
cate of a policy which has killed it. In the
name of Republicanism, he has assailed
the measures which gave the party the
ascendency in the State. The Radicals
obtained possession of the State govern
ment by prescription of the white men
of the State, and by force and fraud.
There are not many men who will i'm
aglne that Senter was controlled by purely
patriotic and just motives i'm demanding
white reimbursement He was brought
fairly to meet the question whether Radi-
cal rule could be continued by crime and
despOtism. 1t is not necessary to suppose
that he considered what ought to be done.
He did consider how he could retain power.
He came to the conclusion that the party
which elected him, inasmuch as it was a
minority party, made up of the lowest and
worst classes of men in the State, and rul-
ing only by trickery and villainy, could
not long stand under its black record, with
nothing but few mean white and a few
thousands of black men, who were but
little better than savages, to support it.
Tie thought that honesty and decent
respect for the rights of white men were
the best policy. So thinking, as Repub-
fl,<l L. g 81 II
publican party in the State, in the name OF
Republicanism he smote the party, and ii
! fell. He employed the machinery which
the Radicals had created to carry the cleo
tons in the State to kill the Radicals. He
drew from their ranks to himself three
fOurths of their numbers. He made use
OF the power and spoil which his office
gave him to strengthen himself and bis
adherents, and crush the party which
made him Governor. Processing to act
with it, and be obedient to it, he made
war on it, and it was his hand that most
sOrely wounded it.
Whatever may have been his motives
IN this, whether cunning, remorseless
policy, or open and generous piety, he
:" did that which was right" He killed
that which was not fit to live, and which
it was his duty to kill
He has found out that minority party,
made up merely of besotted negroes, can
not long control the Southern State gov
ernments by force and crime. The extent
of his offending is that he has repudiated
that idea, and made war on it. 1t is the
soul of the reconstruction infamy. There
IS not a provision in one of the military
bills which was not framed TO meet that
idea They have had a fair trial of it in
Tennessee, and the Radicals in Mississippi
and Texas want to try it. Should they
carry the elections, how long would it be
before the majority of their party would
become disguised with its cOrruptions, and
the infamy of the prescription of white
men, and follow new Senters to decency
and justice p Chicago Times, August z.