Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-07-12


nounced as n submissionist, and as an
enemy to the South by this rampant
Democracy, who excluded every citizen
from position or Office that did not JOIN
them in this hue and cry
This embraces asehapter Of our his
tory of which we claim to know some
thing. What the editor of the Avalanche
saws may have occurred in his own neigh
borhood, although we will not vouch for
IT, but certainly must have been restricted
to that very narrow orbit. Here in Mem
phis the case was very different.
| Although, each maintained his own idea
of what was the best policy to bepursued,
and all stood up to their opinions like
the noble men they were, when it became
apparent that the Federal power intended
to crush the rights of the Southern States,
they We'd with each other who should
reach the standard first and enroll his
name beneath his States battle-hag.
There was no Bell Wing, Douglas or
Breckenridge Democrat then. With one
holy impulse they burned with patriot
ism that made them one in heart and
purpose. Nor is it true, as the Ava
lanche represents, that the old virus
has broken out and the proscriptive
opinions of so-called leaders are as elo-
ouently uttered as ever that is, that
the Breckenridge Democrats ostracise
and ignore any right in one who
was a Bell Wing or Douglas DEM
ocrat. They do not feel yet quite
amiably disposed toward those South
ern-born soulless creatures who wed
with Northern vandals in intiicting
every woe on the crushed and bleeding
South. and have since robbed and plum
dered at discretion, or rather without
any, even the homes where they were
born and their infancy was nurtured.
Rut let us make another extract from
the Avalanche, which says that by the
Democratic party of Shelby county a
sectional, proscriptive sentiment, arbi-
trary and yindictive, is entertained,
and by whom every approach to broad
National views is avoided, and the peo-
pie are invited to travel in narrow paths
of partisanship," and as the GROWING
demerit, e candidate is denounced be-
cause he was not true to the South in
the war When we have given TIE ex-
tract below we may notice more particu-
larly these gratuitous and untenable as
sertions-an extract embodying as much
as could be crowded into the same space,
Of Misrepresentation and ignorant as
sumption:
The Democrats North have acquiesced
to the Fifteenth Amendment, but here,
they wage war on it, and assert it is no
part of the law Of the land, and is null
and void The country has decided to
pay the national debt, and the Demo
Gratis South declare that the war debt
must be repudiated. The so-called lead
ers of the Democracy adhere throughout
to the prejudices, passions and opinions
of the past And the only class Of politi-
cal leaders in the South, who are not
willing to give up the past, is the seces-
sion, rampant Democrat, who went into
the war TO make or preserve o political
record, and fought for nothing else.
How can such men build up a party
with national views? How can a
party be successful unless animated
BY a national spirit? And how can
such leaders entertain national opin-
ions? New issues are upon the coun-
try, and these demand new leaders.
The Democratic organization OF the
South is sure to fall into the hands
Of the old secession leaders, and for this
reason, they adhere so tenaciously to
the name. With them it is struggle
for lost political power and patronage.
Hence the cry that the only possible
party 10 save the country is the Demo
cratic party2 Did not this same cry 60
up TO save the South in 1902 What
we're the triumphs OF the Democratic
party since 1860? 1t split into two parts
at Charleston, and the war followed. We
III know what the war was The South |
mnst egt Loose from all these results
and the ageReiss which pradHeed them.
The North may afford to have and koep |
uu Democratic party; the South can
not. But the North will not sustain any |
party which does not fully ratify the
war policy and war measures adopted to
overcome the South. The Democratic
South is aFrayed on Tho other side, and
inevitably So since the party carried the
South into the war,
Who is waging war on the Fifteenth
Amendment in the South? 1t Ia not 80.
The Democratic party in the South,
large majority of its patri-
otto people, regard that so-called amend
ment as infamous, and opposed II, but
were unequal to the contest, as they had
been in the war, and reluctantly are
bound to submit. What portion Of the
Democratic South declare that the war
debt must be repudiated ?" Now, if
what the Avalanche alleges were true, its
theory would be more plausible; but be.
ing false in every particular, there is not
the shadow of plausibility in any of its
assertions. Its hydrophobic, mad-dog
hatred Of the Democracy is everywhere
visible. This and nothing more"
The elections in this county show
eonclusively that the past record,
except for truth and honesty and
of no candidate has
had the slighiest effect ON the