The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1869-09-21
A RADICAL PROTEST FROM TENNESSEE.


The overwhelming defeat Of the Radical
candidate for governor of Tennessee has
brought out Radical protest against the
result Of the election which, considering
that small minority of the people have by
fraud and usurpation been domineering over
the majority for four or five years, is not
strange. This protest emauatea from con
cave Of dissatisfied Radical politicians which
called itself together at Nashville last mouth
TO consider the situation. They considered
it, and found themselves overwhelmed be.
meath the load of popular indignation, and
of course resolved not to be content to lie
there without some protest against their sit
ed it. After reciting the fact that Senter
received 1865 votes while Stokes receiv-
ed only So, 1876, in connection with the other
fact that Grant received Sc, 7j7 and Sey.
mour only 2C,3ll, the professors conclude
that the election, Sin legal contemplation is
simply null, invalid, obligatory upon nobody,
giving authority to nobody" For the rep
resentatves of revolutionary faction which
seized the machinery of government in Ten
nessee bvforce of foreign bayonets and foisted
themselves into power, this is extremely
modest. Reference to the figures of the
poll taken at the recent election shows
how complete was the despotism established
By the bayonet under Brownlow. Seymour's |
vote in 1865 was only q fraction over $4,000
and that of Etheridge for governor, the year
previous, only few hundred over $4,000. |
Now the vote for Senter and entranchise-
ment is only few hundred less than $780,.
O00 Even these professors do not allege,
as part of their grievance, the counting of
any false ballots against them; they only
complain that men have been allowed to
vote, who, by the Wholesale DISTINGUISHING
laws of Tennessee, had been excluded from
the polls. Nearly one hundred thousand
men are here admitted to have been exclud
ed from the elective franchise by the infa-
mously proscriptive legislation of the RAD
cal revoluhonists and usurpers of Tennessee;
and because, under more liberal regis.
tratons, the tax payers Of the state have
been admitted to a voice in their own gov.
eminent, the miserable horde of foul politi
clans who have fattened on the states deg |
radiation and misfortune "protest in the |
name Of free government and popular liber.
ty everywhere"
What 10 the object Of this protest? Can
1t be anything less than the encouragement
Of secret desire on the part OF the defeated
Radical candidates in Tennessee to claim
The offices for which they have been so en-
phancAlly rejected? The protest is signed
ny eight persons, representing each congress
sional district Of the state. OF these eight
professors Horace MAYNARD, John Trimble
and David Il Num- are Radical members of
congress from Tennessee. These three
Radical congressman thus lend the inau.
ence of their positions to the encouragement
of the open violation of all legal sanctions,
for they declare that the recent elections
are obligatory on nobody and that they are
utterly null and void. What does this mean?
Certainly nothing less than that the defeated
Candidates Of the Radical party should treat
'he election Of their competitors as null and
VOID, aud that they claim and exercise the
functions OF the Offices for which they were
candidates, thus dispensing with courts and
eliminating the Judiciary as useless
branch of the government. These mer
would assume that the elections have beer
crarried By illegal voters, and allow no re
view Of or appeal from their psrtizan iudg
ment, but proceed by force to execute il
and Dust from Office all persons holding Ger
ti6cates Of election. Such are the men VIII
protest din the name Of free governmen
aud popular liberty against the rights 0
the people.