Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-08-30
rarely alludes to political matters,

rarely alludes to political matters,
says:
There Is q CREST necessity for q better
representation of financial and mercantile
concerns in both houses OF Congress,
where there is a sad deficiency in both
theoretical and practical knowledge The
business men OF the country have q right
TO demand of the leaders OF both parties,
that a higher order shall be placed in
nomination for Congress. We can no
longer afford TO have the important CON
Germs Of the Federal Government handed
over, u~nreserv6dly, to village lawyers and
aspiring politicians. Men Of experience,
knowledge and ssgacity are needed, who
will not, from Ignorance or from corrupt
motives, yield themselves to the agents
of monepolies, or the perpetration ofmere
bnncombe. ~ 3
And we observe that a circular has
been prepared, by many merchants
and Others who have visited the south,
and is now being spread throughout
the north and west for signatures,
calling ON all the northern and vest
ern merchants, business men, farmers
and people TO rally for the protection
OF their trade with the south. So
soon as the hundreds of thousands Of
signatures, destined to be obtained,
have been procured, the petitions will
be embodied, suitably prepared and
sent on TO Congress. We extract as
follows:
Whatever may have been the political
-s-l.-, - -. 81, .oan.H.t- g. a-.-
tenn of reconstruction, however c~onsonant
its principles may have been with your
own, and Its ethics with your sense of
Justice as a primitive measure-the great
fact is, that reconstruction, as carried on
through the agencies of white politicians,
imported from the north, and ~inexperi-
enced and ignorant negroes, lately
emerged from slavery, is running the
South, materially and financially.
In the face of the vast natural resources
of that country, derived from a climate
and soil that produce the most valuable
commodities of commerce, in spite of the
great energy of her people, applied 10 the
re~o1peration of the country, and to the
repairing of the waste of a destructive
war, it is a great truth that its strength is
being sspped, and its wealth eaten up
by the rapscious agents that have been Sc
lected TO give practical form and reality to
Lub pIluClBAOo Vi AOCOhSlA uSNAOAs
No mines of productive wealth are rich
and ~exhaustless enough to stand the drain
upon them made by a class of men who
are the governing power. With the APP
palling power of taxation in their hands,
they are without sympathy with the
people who are taxed-not responsible to
the people because not elected by them.
The State Legislatures, therefore, are but
speculative shambles, where votes are
80 eofl 1s1-1 roFfJo 80 fha ,,arlraf
the most reckless appropriations made,
and ruinous burthens laid upon the nom
represented taxpayers.
: We believe, if this system of irrespon-
sible government endures much longer,
the south will be bankrupt, and the prop
erty of the people will be not only virtu-
ally but actually confiscatod. If the
north and west were to reap the benefit
of this confiscatiOn, s~elhshness might
palliate it with a show of argument. But
il is only sharpers and Adventures, I'M
principled and nameless men-a disgrace
TO US and to you, from whose midst they
have come, that will reap the fruits OF
this widespread plumber, under the forms
of law.
We, as merchants and business men,
finding the south among our best Gus
tomers-and you, as a people OF a section
deeply concerned in the solvency of this
RT6dl SOubDeTu tIduC, dEc W suuoE ny AulS
ignoble conspiracy, to bankrupt a people
who nave not the power to resist
We cannot sell, or you manufacture
goods for a people whose financial life
is being squeezed out of them by a swarm
of political vampires who have fastened
themselves on every vein and artery Of
Southern prosperity.
We ask you if the war was fought for
this result2 That the worst element of
-Lz-ll H. = go 49, H.
ury, and at the same time, beggar and
impoverish a section whose productive
energies play so important a part in the
commerce of the land.
Was IL for the benefit of this class of
prOfigate wretches, who, by their loud
mouthed professions of loyalty, have at
tanned political positions at the South, to
which they wOuid never had dared to as
pire had they remained in the section so
unfortunate as to give them birth? Was
it to sustain a class of unIr ntipled.
seriblers TO keep the country flooded with
invented reports of indignities Of
fered 30 Northern men, and .outrages
committed on poor defenseless and igno-
rant negroes, that they may keep alive
the spirit of enmity that has so long dis
tracted the country. These false reports,
the subject of Geographic dispatches. the
theme of correspondents, thus widely
circulated lnrOhgn the norm anu west,
OF the insecurity of life and property
through the Southern States, has not only
materially assisted in retsrding, but al
most entirely counteractsd all their efforts
to induce immigration, OF which they
stand so greatly in need.
Whereas, to US who have visited the
South, it is well known that there is no
portion of the American Union where the
industrious laborer, farmer or mechanic
is more generously welcomed, or where
the traveller, either for business or pleas
ure, meets with more general courtesy
than in the Southern States.