Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-09-27
T0FREE-
ING THE NEGROES.

vention, whose duty it was to prepare
and report platform for the convention.
Horace Maynard was chairman of this
and it embraced VIM. H.
Wisener, of Bedford, and ]. B. Bing-
ham, of Shelby, among its members.
Mr.. Bingham is the editor of the Mem
phis San, and in its issue of the oath
inst. that paper says of Mr.. Wisenert
F'He was opposed to the abolition of |
slavery by Lincoln's proclamation, and as
late as the fall of 1864, he believed that
wrong would be set aside. The Baltimore
CONVENTION, which nominated Lincoln
and johnson, in that year, adopted plat
form which acknowledged the abolition
of slavery as an accomplished fact. In due
time the Union men of Tennessee met at
Nashville to put Presidential ticket in
the field, Wisener was there of course.
He was on the committee on
resolutions. 1t was proposed to re-
adopt the Baltimore platform on
the subject. Wisener and Bridges
the latter former member of Congress
from East Tennessee, both opposed it.
After a long discussion, the matter was
referred to Andrew johnson, the Military
Governor, who labored with them for
hours in his private Office in the capitol.
The convention meanwhile adopted the
platform reported from the committee,
and WiSener and Bridges were supposed
TO have been satisfied. But when the
proceedings appeared in the papers, next
morning, there appeared 'protest,"
signed by Wisener and Bridges, against
that portion of the platform which had
been adopted, which acknowledged the
abolition of slavery as an acknowledged
fact! The publication of the 'protest,
under the circumstances, and without no.
mittee, was regarded as in some degree
an act of bad faith on the part of Wise
ner, who was its author @ fzaE -
TOwhat particular feature of the Bal
timore platform Mr.. Wisener so seriously
and strenuously objected is not stated, but
it must have been that resolution which
bore upon the subject of slavery, in
which it is declared - .. .Ha.
''We approve and endorse, as demand,
ed by the emergency, and essential TO the
preservation of the nation, and as within
the Constitution, the measures and acts
which he President Lincoln has adopted
to defend the nation against his open and
secret foes; that we approve especially
the Proclamation of Emancipation, and
the employment as Union soldiers of men
heretofore held in slavery"
That this was the feature that called
forth Mr.. Wisener's strenuous objection
to the readoption of the Baltimore plat
form, is apparent from his subsequent
action in the convention of 1864. The
ninth resolution of the platform reported
by the Committee on Business is as fol-
lows:
'Resolved, That our fathers, as bull
wark and safeguard of free republican
form of government, framed Our National
| and State Constitutions subject to such
| notifications, from time time, in matters
of detail, as experience demonstrates to
be important and calculated better to Sc
cure their permanent object; and with the
same end in view, as the means of pre-
serving these venerable instruments in
their integrity and true spirit, we are in
favor of the complete suppression of the
rebellion and the immediate abandonment
of slavery, which has been already prac-
tically abolished, and its prohibition in
the future by all suitable and proper
| amendments
This plank in the platform was ''uani-
mously adopted" according to the report
of the proceedings of the convention, but
no sooner had this fact been announced
than Mr.. Wisener presented the following
protest:
'FThe undersigned did not concur with
the committee on the eXpediency of that
portion of the ninth resolution which re-
lates TO the immediate abandonment
of slavery, and beg this to be received
and entered on the journal of the pro-
ceedings of the convention.
.. SWIM H. WIsENER, SR.,
"GEo. w. BRIDGES,
81. w. FRAZER. -
On the next day both Bridges and Fra
yer withdrew their names from the pro-
test, but that of Wisener stands to this
day.
In 1864, more than eighteen months
after Mr. Lincoln issued his proclamation
of emancipation, Mr.. Wisener was VIC
lently opposed to giving the negroes their
freedom. He stood out bitterly against
lndorsiDg the emancipation proclamation
and protested against the immediate
abandonment of slavery. If he could
have had his way, do the negroes of
Tennessee suppose they would have been
voters to-day? Now he is nominated as
the Radical candidate for Governor. AT
least four-ffths of the Radical party of
this State are negroes, and this is the
record of the man they are asked to
vote for.