The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1869-09-16
From the Memphis Avalanche.
A Clear Statement of the Status of the
Tennessee Conservatives.

From the Memphis Avalanche
A Clear Statement OF the Status OF the
Tennessee Conservatives
Negro suffrage is fact as fixed and un'
alterable as the freedom of the negro
and it is wise policy ana statesmanshIp
TO deal with facts as we find them, and
endeavor TO extenuate an evil VIC cannot
eradicate. Ancient history-our own
history-proves most conclusively that
men once invested with the right of suf-
fraye will never be satisfied with anything
less. We cannot afford to have as per-
manent element of the community any
disfranchised class. There would be but
faint hope of peace and domestic tran
GUILTY. in Tennessee with dangerous civil
and political inequalities ranking like
poison in the bosom of large class of
people. Peace and prosperity can only
be secured by equal laws and free ballot
for white and black. An experiment
proved that Tennessee could not afford to
have fostering in her bosom large class
of disfranchised white men; neither can
she afford to harbor fifty. thousand dis.
franchsed colored men. The enfranchised
whites of Tennessee must redeem their
pledges. They must be as willing to give
as to receive-to make politically free as
to be themselves politically free. Time
has fully convinced us that the perma-
nent peace and future prosperity of the
country can only be assured upon the
broad basis of universal suffrage. For
two years the disfranchsed people of
Tennessee have demanded of their politi-
cal adversares the restoration of the peo-
pie to their inherited suffrage rights, ex-
pressly disavowing any purpose to inter-
fere with the rights possessed by the ne
gro. We can show from the files of the
Conservative press for two years that
such were the promises made to the negro;
and if, OH ascending to power, the whites
should rob the negro of his suffrage, it
would develope turpitude and Il duplici-
ty that would provoke the scorn and ex-
ecration of the civilized world. 1t would
reopen old sores, array race against race,
and after living over the dreadful scenes
which for four years have made Tennes-
see hell on earth, public opinion and the
force the whites to give back the rights
of which they had pundered the negro
by shameless mendacity, brazen hypocri-
sy and Infamous disslmulat;on. "Junius"
sings the same old worn. out, exhausted
song about this being white mans gov
ernment, and should be ruled by white
men. Most assuredly it is white mans
government and most assuredly it will be
ruled by white men. This pretended fear
about the power of the negro is paying Il
poor tribute to the Caucasian race. TO
pretend to believe that the penniless, gno-
rant, illitcrate negro will control the
wealth, the learning, the intellect of the
white men, who own all the land, ia the
baldest humbuggery of arrant dema
gogues. With universal suffrage, the
voice of the negro in the political storm
would be like Il rain-drop in the sea-
Treat the negro kindIy-convince HIM
that you are his friend, and that you
would not rob him Of his right TO vote
and the affection which he has lavished
upon the carpet bagger will be given to
those among whom he lives, and whose
prosperity is his own. In Mississippi
there were seventeen thousand more col
ored voters registered than white; yet
when the election came on the whites
carried the State by many Thousands
What have we to fear from negro suf
frage in Tennessee when the whites have
Just carried the State by seventy thou
sand? The opponents of universal suf-
frage tell us that but few negroes voted
for Senter. Still the white majority is
seventy thousand; and we find men hold
ing up their hands in holy horror, pre-
tending to fear that this white mans gov
ernment will rot be ruled by white men !!
Recognize the negro's right to vote !;
cease to abuse and sneer at him; treat
him as human being, with soul in his
body, and as susceptible of The sensbili-
ties, the resentments and tralties of hu-
manity, and he will at once emulate the
magnanimity of the whites, endcavor to
rival them in industry, enterprise and
thrift, cultivate amity, educate his chill
dren, acquire homesteads for his family,
strive to deserve the confidence of his
fellow-men, and, above all, he will never
cast his vote to tho injury OF tho white
man, who he has learned by kindness is
his only friend.
MISUNDERSTANDING" in the Au-
gust number of the Nineteenth Century,