Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-04-10

G0Q. doubtless IL IS palnful 10r some OF
these assessed individuals to be reminded
by the charity tax-gatherer that they are
the authors of the distress and wretched-
ness which now aflict so many of orr
unhappy fellow-citizens; but then they
should reflect that this assessment which
is levied upon their property, is but
trife when compared with the confisca-
ton practiced in East Tennessee, which
is daily sweeping into the Rebel treasury
the entire estates Of loyal men. The men
who have been called on by Gov john
son within the last week to relieve the
wants of our people, who are starving for
food and shivering in their rags, are re-
sponsible in large measure Tor the con"
fscation of loyal property now going on
in East tennessee. John Overton, the
richest man in Tennessee, probably, gave
his estate, valued at $5,OOO,OOO, to the
cause of rebellion. Who can estimate
then the amount of mischief that man
has wrought in so doingf Is $4,000 a
heavy penalty for him to pay? Ought
he not rather to be deprived OF every
dollar of his property, and let its
proceeds be devoted to paying
the war tax? Other persons as
sessed equipped Rebel companies;
others gave sums of $4,000, $4,000,
$4,000, and $4,000, to the cause of
bloodshed and rebellion. What is the
pittance which they are asked to
contribute to the holy cause of charity,
compared to these large sums 1t is an
easy thing to pay $500 for warehouse
to present to Rebel officer, but grew
GUS burden to pay 1.-THE OF that
sum to comfort or sOlace the fans
ily which has been boreaved by the act
Of that officer. ltappears
then most unreasonable that any one
who has helped to stir up and promote
the rebellion, should compton, OF this
assessment Thousands of loyal men IN
this State are being stripped Of all they
possessed by the Rebel courts, and why
should our secessionists complain ifsOme
of them are asked to contribute to the
support of the poor---to sip mouthiul as
It were from a bowl which they have
forced others to drain to the very bottemf
Whenever one Of these aggrieved devo-
tees of rebellion begin to croak over the
little pittance for which they have been
assessed, let the reply be, Remember the
confscations in the Knoxville COnteder-
| ate Court
"Since writing the preceding article,
we have learned from Judge Whitworth,
of the County Court, that there are now
in this county five hundred families OF
soldiers in the Confederate army, who
are dependent on charity for support;
and four hundred and fifty other persons,
most of them representing families, who
are also destitute and must be fed and
clothed by some public provision and
that this latter class is continually IN
creasing These facts fully establish the
wisdom, humanity and necessity of the
assessment levied by Gov. johnson.
Again in the onion Of Feb. z,
1868, he published a list of such as
had not paid the first and second
instalments of the assessment, and
editorially threatened those who
did not come up and pay by the
10th of that month with ga visit
from authorities authorised to make
the money" This is the tune this
accuser Of President Johnson piped
then. This editor may say that
his bread and butter depended upon
his piping just the tune he did, and
there will not be a man or woman
in Nashville to gainsay his asserva-
ton. But what are we to think of
him now when he turns round and
stabs the man he thus defended
with all his powers of reason and
argument? What are the people of
Nashville, of whom he then spoke in
such malignant terms, to think of his
feigned sympathy for them now, or
at least of his effort to stir up re-
sentiment against President Johson
for an act he so warmly defended?
While he was thus defending the
assessment imposed upon citizens
Nashville and Davidson county by
Gov. Johnson, he was doing all he
could to bring odium upon this
people In the midst almost of his
labors defending the assessment
which Gov. Johnson had ordered
he said in an article in the Nash
vile Union of December %, 1862,
headed " Retribution
"A few years ago that miserable cid
traitor Buchanan, cooperating with
jeff Davis, attempted to drive Kansas
into the Union as slave State, at the
point of the bayonet, and hundreds of
citizens of that territory were butchered
in cold blood or hung up by the roadside
in carrying out the nefariOus plot. 1t
failed miserably. Buchanan was inglo-
riously defeated Kansas came into the
Union not only free State, but radically
Republican. And to-day Nashville, that
nest of polluted, corrupt, and treach-
erous pro-slavery thieves, swindlers and
traitors, sees Col. Martin, of Kansas,
appointed her provost marshal, with
regiment of soldiers from that State to
watch over her How signal and strik-
ng is the retributiOn
These are choice epithets he APP
piled to the citizens Of Nashville
polluted, corrupt and treacherous
pro slavery thieves, swindlers and
traitors"-whose hostility he now
seeks to arouse against President
Johnson. What was this but an
appeal to the passions Of the Kan
sas soldiers to avenge the death of
their friends who were "butchered
in cold blood or hung up by the
wayside" upon the unarmed and
defenseless citizens of Nashville ? |
And yet this man calls upon our
people to remember that Andrew
Johnson, while Military Governor,
imposed a heavy assessment upon
some of them "to give bread and
to the widows and orphans
of Confederate soldiers" The
quotations we have made show |
beyond all question that he
would have defended and |
a "semi-military" order