Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-08-23

q 1
: men, who have acted together in resistir
the encroachments of Radicalism on Il
e Constitution since the war shall now mai
, one party, and | have no more respect II
the Judgment or motives of a man no
acting with the Democratic party, VIII
publicly parades these old issues, TO sti
no strife. than do for the heart an
hand of the man who would quarrel wit
his wife ana parade before his childre
her supposed weakness in receiving tn
, attentions Of other beaux rather than hi
long before the marriage.
The men thfs condemned and censured
and whose fate, it is said, is ,written il
blood, would come TO Convention nov
accepting the issue made with them, an,
their friends would aid them, and in tn
Convention the question would be, VIII,
is strong enough to engage in the pro
scription businessg o..
Postpone this Convention, let Gen
Brown, Gen. Quarles and myself com,
together aud travel over the State am
make our own records. We may diffel
upon some questions of State policy, bur
all over the State we will unite our friend,
in the great common fight against the
Radical power at Washington. We will
all stand before the people as the allies OF
that great party which in the North is
Waglng such heroic war for the Consti-
tuition. We will all stand side by side
| with VOORHEES, and Winthrop, Fillmore
and Hendricks, Brooks and Pendleton.
We will all unfurl the same banner, and
will respond to our friends in the North.
We, too, are Democrats.
We cannot afford, now that the ques-
ton is made, and made in such bitter
terms, to adopt any other name To
adopt any other name now is as party
to condemn and pass judgment on the sc
cessiOn Democracy of Tennessee.
Before the question was so bitterly
made, we could have assumed the name
of Conservative" and there would have
been no objection to it in our State poll
tics, but now that it is MADE, and made
because it is said that large portion of
the people of Tennessee are a doomed
people, it would be cruel to adopt even
so good name as Conservative.
il In agreeing upon this name now, there
viii be fewer dissensiOns than there would
be in abandoning another name in 1872,
as we would have to do, if we adopted
new one now.
When / look back over the last five
years l am amazed that we want to quar-
rel with each other about the past. Can
we eliminate each other, and point to the
blood of our fallen brothers and say, You
did itg Have we this spirit9 If these
are to be the new party lines certainly all
good men will turn away from them, and
in silence fix their minds upon the COM
mon grave of the Wing and Democrat
who sleep together, side by side, with no
angry remembrances of the past.
Should the convention be postponed,
anything do and every word l utter shall
be done and said to produce harmony and
not discord.
| trust my course since Radicalism, in
1865, robbed the people in Tennessee of
their liberties, will be some guarantee of
my fidelity to the party now fighting for
the Constitution. | have tried to be pru-
dent, but have never avoided response
bility. took the ground at once that our
true policy was not silent submission to
the great outrages done in the name of
loyalty. Time and again enumerated in
public speeches, which were published,
the outrages of the Radical party. This
did for two reasons which | constantly
stated, first, to make the party odious so
that good men, who were deceived by
them, would quit their party; and,
secondly, to aid in perpetuating, until
freedom came, the manhood of our people,
which seemed to be giving away.
On one occasion when BrOwnlow's
militia was first called out they were sent
10 my old county, and in cold blood
murdered poor Brown, almost in sight of
his wife and children, without the slight
est provocation. The news came to
Nashville that Brown was murdered and
that other men who had been Confederate
soldiers had been run off and would be
killed as soon as found. l got on the
first train that left Nashville and went to
that county. Many people had left home
and were hid out, and the militia was
to kill Confederate soldiers
whenever they found them Immediately
On reaching them summoned few men
and advised public meeting-sent run
lers all over the county, and the second
lay after l got there we had meeting of |
1ne thousand people. The militia sent us
word they would come and break up our
meeting. This we prepared for. In the
meeting denounced the militia as muir
lerers and thieves. We telegraphed to
Washington and then collected all the
proof and literally by moral power we
forced the removal of the militia.
When Nashville was infested with a
band of plunderers, who in the name of
loyalty was robbing the people, l publicly
attacked them as thieves, and broke them
down. During the whole of this time l
walked the streets at night, TO show them
what towards they were, and to aid in
the manhood of our people.
In every conceivable way l have done
al in my power to break the spell of Ten
lessee RadIcalism, and l shall not now,
when a great national victory is in full
view, do anything to disturb the harmony
If the great party now marching on to
victory.
But the people everywhere demand a
full discussion of our questions Of State
policy before they act, and not to give
hem the benefit of this discussion before
| convention is to take charge of their
business without proper power of attor-
ley.