Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-06-24
:
q STOKES AND HIS ORGAN.

laij = hASh Es AND HIS ORGAN d II
no The State Journal labors through
three fourths of a column to show
that Gov. Senter's plan of re en-
franchisemeht will be long and
tedious, and can and win be post
poned until the restoration of this
right ITO the white tax payers will
be practically Of no advantage to
them, and it clinches its argument
after the following fashion ia
1o"" Besides this, who does not know
| when the Governor Of Tennessee is cons
lined to the sphere Of his legitimate
duties that he is nothing more than Rel
cording Secretary Of the Legislature .
mere portion of the ceremonial of the
State government. & Of what avail, then,
IS the pledges OF Senter? DO they bind
y single member of the LEGISLATURE
And who, lawyer or Judge, will undeTS
take 10 say that if the next Legislature
should repeal by its own act the
former enactments on the elective
franchise, especially since the decision
pronounced by the Supreme Court at
Brownsville, it wonld not Immediately
enirAnchise every citizen Of the Slater
Or has it been forgotten that there IS
now pending in the Supreme Court, at
| Washington, Q cause involving the con
stitutionality of all these acts Of the
legislature, and which decision will set
tie the question in December next, long
before any convention could convent
The organ must be preparing a
short cut, a flank movement for
Stokes when he gets into Middle,
or West Tennessee. But this little
game will not win. The Supreme
Court of this State has recognised
the franchise act as part Of the con"
stitution, this decision was rem
dcrcd before the passage Of the
third franchise act, and it will re-
quire something more than the
mere act Of the Legislature TO get
rid of this piece Of Radical iniquity,
unless the Supreme Court of the
United States shall decide, as the
organ intimates it will. In that con
tingency, only white men would be
legal voters in this State. Courts
over which Radicals, or the MAORI
ty of Radicals preside, are exceed
ingly unreliable, and that at Wash
ington may not "settle the question
in December next as the organ
suggests it will, and it
is preferable that we labor for a
convention and get that to work
with as little delay as possible.
While the State Journal is telling
US what Senter and his friends will
do and will not do, why does it not
throw little light on the positi ION
of Mr.. Stokes and what he proposes
to do2 He is reported as playing
a sort of "now you see it, and now
you don't see it" game in East Ten
nessee; at one place favoring con-
vention, and at another "furiously
declaiming against Rebels voting"
and declaring that "sooner than see
them vote, he would have his throat
cut from ear TO ear, his head and vi
tails cut and torn out, and his body
discovered. The Chattanooga Re
publican, a Stokes organ, says in its
issue Of June %: Il
eve are under the impression that
Stokes had all the while declared hin-
self in favor of calling convention. Mr..
Wilhoite so understood him in his Cleve
land speech, who writes to the Knoxville
Wing that the following questions there |
propOunded, were answered atfirmatively:
Will you if elected Governor, recon-
mend thu calling-o of constitutional com
Vention of the State for the purpose Of
amending or making new constitution; |
and also the repeal of the law exempting |
negroes from paying poll tax@" |
These reports are all from Radical
sources, and they all show that Mr..
Stokes is playing the game Of the
desperate gambler, that is, pledsing |
himself if elected, to recommend
the holding of convention to
amend OF revise the constitution,
where such a measure is popular
and then taking the opposite ex-
IRENE where continued disfranchise-
ment will carry the day. The State
Journal informs us that il ''belongs
to that school of politics which en-
joins honesty and fair dealing in
politics as well as other matters"
Will it tell us how 1t can reconcile
Mr.. Stokes East Tennessee cam
paign with the school to which it
adhcrcs? While Mr.. Stokes is cars
rying on this uncertain, bushwhack-
ing campaign in "Rebel disfran-
East Tennessee" his organ
here is "holding the promise TO the
ear that northumberland will
be reached by u much sherter cut
than through convention, and
ii will come all at once, and not
gradually rs Mr.. Stokes proposed
in his opening speech here to dole it
out to Rebels" We suggest that
the organ insist on a policy from
its leader on the question of restor.
ing to the white taxpayers tn e
rights of which they were deprived
solely to keep the State government
n the hands of Radicals. Gov
5enter has advocated the same pol
cy on this vital issue all through
East Tennessee that he marked out /
n his opening speech here, and his
organs give out no uncertain notes a
IN the issue which rises above i
|