Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-03-16

Inc haulCalS continue cODnteut "a uAS
success of their efforts to have the State
reconstructed. They have worked with
energy 10 accomplish the result and have
resorted 10 every device which despera-
ton and ingenuity could suggest. They
have been busy in getting up petitions
from all portions of the State. They have
forwarded to Congress numerous prayers
for protection from the Ku-Klux. We
are informed that the Radical leaders at
Washington have been furnished withlong
lists of outrages which are said to have
been committed in Tennessee. These
perhaps viii never be published,
certainly not until il is too late to establish
their falsehood. Tennessee is now on
trial, and the hearing is ca parte. We
have again and again demanded that the
Radical charges against the State shall be
accompanied by the necessary specifca-
tons. But all that we can evoke is a
repetition of the old charges of Ku-Klux
outrages. If Congress desires to do JUS
tice in the premises, an opportunity for
defence should be given before con-
demnation. We have. never enter
tanned a doubt that if fair in
vestigation were permitted, it could
be clearly, satisfactorily established
that there has not been within the
entire limits of the State a single act of
violence for political opinion since the
August election. Might is assumed by
some 10 make right. We are sure that
no other right can be found for the pro-
posed Radical reconstruction of Tennes-
see. We still have faith in the justice of
majority of Congress. We yet believe
that Maynard, Butler g. Co. win fail in
their attempt to overthrow civil govern
ment in Tennessee. We find in the Chi
cago Times the following view of the
Congressional project for reconstructing
our State:
AS to the pretences presented for con-
gressional interference with the State gov
eminent of Tennessee, there are excellent
Republican authorities denouncing themas
false Inthe debate on the Georgia bill, Gen.
Farnsworth said that when Butler and the
Radicals under his lead wished TO carry
any arbitrary and lawless measure con-
corning the Southern States, they fabri-
Gated accounts of murder and violence,
and made these the basis for clamor in the
House; and that in this work they were
assisted by the Washington Chronicle.
There is greater respect for law, and
greater protection for life and property,
and greater security for all just and law
full rights in Tennessee, to-day, than there
has been at any other time since the com
mencement of our late civil war. A few
weeks ago, the Radical leaders in that
State prepared and sent out circulars stat
ing that the lives of '1oyal" men were
unsafe there; and that they were subject
to lynching and persecution. The Leg
sature invited the men signing the circu-
lar to come forward and testify as to
when and where murders had been COM
mitted, and name instances in which Off
GERS of the law had failed TO perform
their duty. It is needless to add that
such testimony was not forthcoming.
Leading Republican newspapers have
commended the Constitutional Convention
of Tennessee for granting political equal
ity to the negroes. Under the Fifteenth
Amendment, States can deprive the major
r e 10 ballot Nv -,
what are commonly termed property and
intelligence qualifications from voters
The Tennessee Convention required merely
that voters should pay poll-tax, and did
not in any way discriminate against the
negroes. The men ruling the COnven-
ton had been engaged in the rebellion,
and when they came together there were
abundant prophecies that they would act
in a vindictive and proscriptive spirit to-
ward the negroes and the white Republi-
cans of the State.
The Radicals in Tennessee proclaimed
Immediately after the election which
overwhelmed them, that they would not
submit to their defeat. They invoked
Congressional inference there, and have
been manufacturing falsehoods which
might serve as pretences for such inter
ference from the day of election until
now.
Thus it is seen that, were the authOri-
ty to overthrow the State Government by
act of Congress clear and unquestioned,
its exercise would be entirely indefensible.
1t is, however, an insult to common
sense to say that Congress can take any
such action as is proposed by Buffers
bill, without deliberately trampling on the
plainest provisions of the Constitution.
Notwithstanding this, it is unsafe to
predict that the bill will not pass. The
Senate is hesilating on the Georgia bill,
because Bingham's amendments permit
the people of that State to hold an cleo
ton next fall. The carpet baggers write
that 50 surely as this be granted, the State
will pass into the hands of the Democrats.
For this reason, it is proposed to prolong
the terms of Bullock and the present
although the former has been
convicted of theft from the State Treas
ury on proof which is conclusive and
incOntrOyertiblc.