Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1869-08-26
TENN SEE AFFAIRS.
yT,c Position Of the Senter Rcpub-
{icans Since the Election.
They are yicfors. Shorn Of the
Spoiis ef the Victery.
The Position Of the Stokes Men in
the Republican Party.
KNOXVILLE, Ten, AUG. 9. 1869.

i
Indicated by the result of last Thursdays
voting. This State gave General Grant a
majority of over thirty thousand in No
yernber last. The last Legislature, COM
rosed Of one hundred and ten members,
was entirely Republican. To-day the
State has a Governor-Conservati or
Democratic, whichever you may choose to
call him-elected by sixty thousand anti
Bepublican majority, and a Legislature
two thirds Democratic, one-sixth Senter
and one-sixth Stokes Republican. This
result has been reached by the votes of
those enfranchised by Governor Scnter's
registration, two-t birds of whom, under the
Franchise Law as it now stands, hold ille-
cal certificates. Paradoxical as it may
seem, these men, though holding certif-
Gates illegally issued, were nevertheless
legal voters, and the election is, therefore.
legal and regular.
seemingly absurd proposition istrue
under the peculiar provisions of the Fran
chise law, for by its terms the certificate
Of the register is conclusive of the holders
right to vote. There is no appeal from
his decision. If he issues certificates ille-
gally he is responsible under the law, but
the holders thereof are protected. There
fore under our peculiar laws this election
Just over is legal and binding upon all,
though the registration commissioners have
violated the law, and thereby secured to
their party a sweeping victory. ....
Under these circumstances there is moth
ing left for General Stokes but submis-
sion The great result reached must, af-
ter all, be acceptable TO all liberal minded
men. The opposition of Stokes Republi-
cans to the immediate enfranchisement be-
slowed by Senter's registration commits
siOners, was not so much from a desire to
delay universal suffrage, as from a deter
mination that the Senter Republicans
should not profit by their open violation
of law and neutrality-suspicious. by securing
Office, or by receiving credit for hberality
or sincere conversion. The result now
reached ought to be more gratifying to
Stokes friends than to the Senter Repub-
lcans. | have endeavored to show your
readers that Scnter, Brownlow and their
followers espoused the cause of universal
suffrage because they saw there was no 9th
er course by which they could retain con-
troll of the State patronage, and prevent in
yestigation of their past corruption. This
/. not very charitable conclusion, and
may not be readily accepted by those un-
acquainted with Tennessee politics, but it
is an opinion very generally entertained
here by both Republicans and Conscrva-
tives The fact that the Senter Republl-
cans were the most illiberal and proscrip-
tive leaders in the party the fact that
hn
extreme Republicans to support him be-
cause he was opposed to universal suffrage
the fact that two days before he announc-
ed himself at Nashville in favor of uni
versal suffrage, he declared at Knoxville
that he would flavor the enfranchiscment
Of rebels when the dead Union soldiers
were restored to life and not before :" the
fact that his ardent supporters who left the
Republican party with him, were nearly
all men who hold places under him, or
were promised patronage in the future;
the fact that they knew that the Stokes del
egatcs in the Convention were very large
" III the majority, and that therefore SEN
ter could not be nominated or elected by
the Republican party; the fact that his
friends declared here in Knoxville before
they started to Nashville, that Senter
would be candidate whether nominated
by the Convention or not,--all these facts
must satisfy every reasonable man that
Scnter and his friends were determined
to keep control of the State, and that in
order to do it, they announced themselves
rs universal suffrage men, ami openly vi
olated and annulled laws they helped to
enact in order to secure their triumph.
But now. when the election is over, and
il is demonstrated that though Senter Is
elected. he and his followers are defeated
in this, that they have a Legislature almost
unanimously opposed to them, and cannot,
therefore, control and dispense the patron
age of the State, the Stokes Republicans
feel that they can well be satisfied They
have been defeated in an open contest, but
the Senter Republicans after base be-
trayal of their party, and an open, corrupt
violation of law, have lost their thirty pie
ccs of silver, and find themselves victors
shorn of the spoils of their conquest. 1t Is
notorious mere that Senter Republicans
boasted of the place and patronage they
were to receive after the election. That
patronage is now controlled by Legisla-
ture. which | hope and believe, is honest
and capable, though Democratic, and they
need not hope to use the power of the State
as they exIe ted. The Senter Republi-
cans have. therefore, nothing to boast of.
The real object for which they divided the
party has not been secured, but, instead,
they are a small faction of a powerful par
ty, made up of incoherent elements, which
are decidedly anti-Republican. The vote
shows that four-fifths of the Republicans
voted for Stokes, and he and his followers
must therefore be considered the Republl-
can party, now and hereafter. The con-
test is over. and there can be nothing gam
ed by further bad feeling but the Repuo-
licans who have supported General Stokes
IN this canvass have been misrepresented
and misunderstood in the North, and 1t Is
due to them that the facts OF the case
should be understood.
The Republican press of the North has
very generally treated the Senter move
ment as one participated in by a large Por-
!lon OF the Republican party, and as made
IN good faith and from desire to do right
Ii addition to what have said above to
shI" 'he contrary, there is this great fact
~ DC considered: The division of the par
~ was not made on universal suffrage
Ihere was, IN fact, no issue between the
two factions in the Convention There is.
OF course, dispute as to which division is
responsible for the dispracefuI scanos s, i