The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-04-08

military bill for tennessee. mo,
he said. sswhat do they want with sol
d;ers in Tennessee? The country is
ouiet When / left Aurora i was
afraid TO come South on account OF
the biq stories saw in. the papers
Int I believe they are all lies. IN
tend to start hub and spoke factory |
here, and have been introduced 70
Gen. Cheatham and several others
and have met with nothing but Kind
ness"
might multiply instances, but the
above will show how truthful ana IN
telligent men feel when they come
and see for themselves. The whole
damnable scheme is SO transparent
that comment is superfuous. Il is
simply and solely desperate enort
for Radical supremacy. Il feel GER
tain that the political affairs Of Ten
nessee. touching both white and black,
would be as fairly administered if
committed to her representative men,
as those of Illinois or Wisconsin.
Furthermore, do not believe that
history furnishes parallel to the
patience and confluence ofthese men
under continued calumny! No man
who reads can forget how readily the
people of the South at the close OF
the war responded to every demand
made on them by the General Gov
eminent how men from whom the
sweat of battle had scarcely dried
were seen and heard on the stump,
counselling cheerful obedience, peace,
and an i'm Mediate return to the pur-
suits of industry. 1t was remarked
even by Radical papers that the uni
versal disposition at the South then
was to resume the occupations OF
life and to observe the laws. They
erpected that the Union men would
control the legislation, and shape the
policy of the State. During the last
| five Years their conduct has been such
| as to entitle them to the confidence OF
the North. 1t must be remembered,
however, that the war left IN the
South, like the residuum ola subsid--
| ing deluge. all manner of villains and
desperadoes. larceny, robbery,
rape. and murder in appalling audacity
and frequency, rendered life and
property unsafe. The courts, organ
lied bv Judges and District Attorneys
appointed by ANDREW Johnson, Mil
itary Governor" put in motion the
long disused machinery of justice,
and soon the jails were filled with
criminals of all grades and colors
| TO try was to convict; for villainy
was bold, and robbed and murdered
| in streets of the capital. The dregs
of the caldron of civil war, the camp
followers of both armies, the men
who robbed friend and foe, the living
and the. dead, filled the penitentiaries
to overlooking. Social order was
returning, and a sense of security be-
ginning to comfort the weary souls
of men, when the State government
struck hands with villainy; Brown
low began to open the prison doors,
and to pour back upon terrified
people the dangers they had just es-
capped. Week after week, through
the streets of Nashville, gangs OF
these convicts, in prison stripe, were
parad2d to the wholesale clothing
house of Bolivar III. Cooke & Co., in
the Public Square, clothed in citizens
dress. aud turned loose. If to try
was to convict, to be convicted was
to be pardoned. Felons, encouraged
by these pardons, grew holder, and.
embittered against the meh who had
prosecuted them in courts, went back
| into every neighborhood, spreadin
terror. Crime ran riot; for Brown
low had organized hell.
Let each army furnish all instance,
and doubtors are challenged as to
their truth by the public records at
| Nashville. Three men of the 10th
regulars deliberately decoyed Police
man Kennedy from his home atnight
and murdered him. They were con-
vicred and Brownlow turned them
loose In few months, one ofthem,
Grant. came back, waylaid ID. Weaver
(for 20 wears teller in the Planters
Bank in Nashlille) in broad daylight
on the open highway, gagged him with
cords. robbed him, and threw him in
to ditch to die. He was convicted,
and is now in the penitentiary, Brown
low having no longer the pardoning
power.
| Vow for the oth9r: Bill Tucker,
private in Company c.. LIST Tennessee
cavalry Confederate for some crime
was put in Jail at Knoxville, and &C.
cupied the same cell with Brownlow.
He did his reverence the kindness OF
thrashiug some one who insulted him.
(See Brownlow's book, where the in
cident is given in detail) The rank
of neither army contained more
murderous ruffian than Bill Tucker
since he war he was arrested in Nash
vile in the act of committing bur.
glary, was tried, and convicted
Brownlow pardoned him out. Since
; then, he has been charged with rape
and is now in Jail, having been caught
with '.jimmy' in his hand forcing a
, store door in Nashville. Hundreds
of such instances can be furnished
J which can be substantiated item by
item. What followed? What would
have followed in any country
What always has followed paralyzed
law and strangled justice? "Lynch'
, law. The State "bore the sword in
vain," and had ceased to be "a terror
to evil-doers." Its contract with the
people was broken, and self-preserva.
ZION was found even in ''the territ-
ries" to be the first law Ofnature. In
California lynch law has ruled as the
vigilance committee )" in Indiana as
the Regulators" and in the South as
the "Ku-Klux Klan." 1t has done its
work, and is a thing cf the past.
Like all its fellows, it dealt out tough
Justice aud sometimes oyershot its
mark. Even the law in its recognized
tribunals sometimes does the same.
1t was an organization for the proven
ton of crime, not for the murder OF
the innocent, either black or white,
Rebel or Union. Clad in their mys-
terious mantles, they inspired terror
in every one who met them: for to
see them was to be frightened. But
their errand was with the guilty alone
and the only mark they looked for
was the mark of Cain. Who were
they, these ghostly cavaliers, who rode
| bv night and melted out to evil doors
speedy retribution? They were
men who had wives and little ones in
lonely cabins; who had barns, and