The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1870-01-08
Sensible.

deal has been said about Congressional in
reference and the reducing of the sovereign
State of Tennessee to territorial condition
The able and talented editor of the Mem
pbis Sun, thus knocks the wind out of the
shadowless humbug of radical "scattera
ton :"
A correspondent, Citizen" desie to
know "if there be real danger of Tennes
see being renitted to a territorial condition,
like Georgia., and gives reasons apologizing
for seeking information on the subject. We
answer that from all the lights before US,
there is not the shadow of ground for be-
lief that the State government of Tennessee
will be interfered with by Congress. In the
first place, Congress has no right-not even
a pretert-for Interference in Tennessee.
This State, unlike the other Southern
States, was not reconstructed undertfe re-
construction acts of Congress. Our admis-
sion or re admission into Congress was Sc
cured before the terms of admission or re-
construction were proposed to the other
Southern States For four years last past,
through her regularly elected Representa-
tiYes and Senators, Tennessee has had
voice In the legislation of the country. 1t
has in fact helped to make the laws which
were applied to the other Southern States.
There is no department. of the Federal gov
ernment which has not IN some way, rec
Ognized the State of Tennessee as restored
to all its rights and privileges as a sovereign
State within the Union. To talk then about
setting aside our State government, and max
ing territory of Tennessee, is nothing but
the most undisguised nonsense. Congress
can more make a territory of Tennessee
than it can of Kentucky or Ohio, and there
is not Radical in Congress that does not
know and recognize the TACT Nor have
Stokes, smith Il Co proposed any such
thing. They have, it is true, pelltioned
Congress to investigate alleged frauds at the
late election in this State Their object is
to make capital for themselves, and to de-
stroy the political influence of Brownlow,
Senter d Co, by whose corruption they
charge the Republican party in this State
vas defeated. Perhaps Stokes, IN his igno-
rance, has no more sense than TO suppose,
that even if Congress shoald find corrup-
tion in the late election in Tennessee, it
could or would set aside Senter and put him
in position But the leaders of the Radical
Earty in Congress are not all knaves, and
hence Stokes Is AS dead a man Ia Washing
ton he is In Tennessee. a fact all this
talk about interfering In matters affecting
the State of Tennessee Is the merest bOsh,
intended on the part of the getters-up tn
make political capital and control Federal
Offices in the State, and by Others to intimi-
date the Legislature and Convention in what
ever action they may propose. lf the Su
preme Court at Washington had discharged
its duty, it would long since have pro-
nounced its opinion on the Tennessee fran
chise act now pending before it, and in do
ing SO, it could not have failed to decide the
only ques ton about which there can be the
least difficulty in this State, and that Is,
whether, under the said franchise act, and
the laws subsequently passed, the negro is
entitled TO the right OF suffrage But this
question having been lodged or delaye the
Convention which meets next week, will
proceed to deal with it as to it shall seem
proper, and without the least regard to Con.
gress er any other power in existence. Even
if that Convention should determine to ex
clude negroes from the ballot box, and the
people of Tennessee should approve their
course that would afford no ground for Con-
gressional interference, as III the case of
Georgia.; for Tennessee, unlike Georgia, is
not amenable to either Congress or its re-
construction laws. But there Is another
most conclusive reason which inclines US to
believe that all this talk about provisional
governmeet in Tennessee Is the merest
trash Suppose that Congress had the
right, as it has not, to do with Tennessee as
it pleases Suppose that Congress had the
power to investigate election frauds In Ten
nessee, as pressed by Stokes and Smith
Does any one believe that Brownlow,
stokes, Smith, or any of the Congressman
from Tennessee, really desire Congress to
t,a'B them out Of their seats ? do not these
men make more money as Congressmen
than they ever did before in all their lives,
and is it reasonable to suppose that they
would now desire to be stripped of their
honors and emoluments az Congressman
The thing is too absurd for belief, and yet
such would be the inevitable effect of re-
mitting Tennessee to a provisional govern
ment or to a territorial condition.