Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-04-06
NAsvIldE UNION AND AMERICAN WEDNEsDAY APRIL $780,

of suffrage for themselves within her Dor
ders. They have done this in all her pre-
vious history and have the right to do il
now. By gigantic and highanded fraud
they have been cheated out Of this right.
and have been robbed of their own deter
rnination of this great domestic question.
1t is their deep and solemn duty to con-
denim this swindle at the polls upon the
first opportunity. 1t is their duty to up
hold the principle of seltgovernment, and
to render verdict against those who re-
fused to trust the people at the ballot
box on this, as upon all other SUBJ
| jects. Indiana stands recorded at
Washington as having ratified the
amendment comforting suffrage on the
negro. Who dares to say that this is On
honest record of the popular will? Let
that question be tested and the infamy be
rebuked. But l stop not here. believe,
as | have ever believed, that the admixture
| of the two races is fraught with evil and
curses to both and with blessings to none.
All history tells this sad, calamitous story,
and sustained Gov. Morton when he occu-
pied the same position l do now. There
is not spot of earth beneath the sun where
the experiment has been tried that has not
been bhghted. often with ashes and blood,
and always with a deterioration of both the
races, an acceleratiOn of all the vices of
mongrels, and backward flow of the tide
of civilization Nor will we in the future
years escape this revolving doom if we per-
sist in the attempt to absorb in the body
polite three millions of degraded and in
ferior race. The wretohed results NAV
come slowly here in Indiana, but they
will as surely come as the foot prints of
time continue to advance into the unknown
years. There are some who perhaps de- |
sire the votes of this people. do not. I |
would treat them in all kindness as 1 ever
have, but the white man of my own great |
race-great in all the worlds history, great
IN peace and war, great in science, letters. |
free governments and Christian progress /
can better control the destinies of this proud /
Commonwealth without their aid, and into |
his hands l cast my fate, and with a white /
mans party l will stand or fall Already /
the yagrant negroes, the black lazzaroni of |
Kentucky and other Southern regions are
In transportation TO Indiana. Already it is
loudly announced that their votes are to
encompass my defeat if l am again a can
didate. 1t will be for the laborers of the |
State, the white men who till the soil, the
mechanics in the shops, to determine |
whether they desire this population IN their
midst. 1t will be for the oppressed work
ing men of every aYocation and calling |
who have nothing left save the civil rights Of
to decide whether they wish to |
share them equally with the African. / will |
appeal to them whether Indiana, border |
State, shall be overrun with the refuse
black elements Of the South. will appeal
to them whether they will encourage the
presence of these elements in their fields, |
their workshops and at their fresides. |
Nor do 1 fear the result. The people Will |
be true to the rights of their State, true to
the wise and safe traditions of the fathers,
true to their once lofty blood and history, /
true to the purity of their industrial pur-
suits and social organization, and true to
that highest type of civilization which /
springs from a separation of tie races.
And if bad and designing men are flooding 4
Indiana with negro population which of
right does not belong here-f this nefari-
Gus scheme is at work to control elections,
[ warn and implore the agents of the out |
rage to desist. I implore them In the |
name of humanity to stop, or thspredic-
tons OF Senator Morton In regard to the |
sanguinary evils that would attend negro
suffrage may be nearer their fulfllment |
than the prophet imagined when he utter
ed them. 1t is enough for the bona tde
resident black man to vote here under the
fraudulent adoption of the fifteenth amend
ment fear that an imported mass of this
race would overcome the patience Of the
Iaboring white man.
MOTIONS MALEyoLEEoE AGAINST HIS PoIITI-
CAL OPPONENTS.
Leaving however at this point the wide
sphere of national issues, reach the fin
atty, the completion, the climax of incon-
and self-condemnation in the SEN
ator's discussion of the history of his own
State. His malice has destroyed his mem
ory In the rage of bis malevolence
against his political opponents, he has
made use of dates which blacken and
crush him. As the malignant aeouser, he
has not been satisfied with reviling alone
the living. He turns backward in the
pathway of time and tears open the graves
of the dead. He drags forth their honored
remains and, like the uncleaD, midnight
beast of Oriental chimes, banquets upon
the possessions of the charnel house. 1
cannot now at this late hour, follow him
in detail through all his ISLANDERS against
the bright history of the State, but hear
him as he utters this foul aspersionl
''For it is not too much 10 say that for
fifteen years before 1861, Indiana was in
many respects the worst governed State in
the Union"
This period embraces eight years of adj
by Joseph A. Wright as Gov
erroE, and nearly four years by Ashbel P.
Willard. appeal to the people, irrespec-
tive of party, to answer whether they look |
back with shame and regret upon those
plentiful and peaceful years.
Did Gov. Wright make the worst admins
tration known in the United States? Is
there single stain on the gifted and warm
hearted Wizards official career? He fell
upon more trying scenes than his prede-
cessor; but nothing now save an unappeas-
able partisan rancOr, envenomed perhaps !
by the memory of personal defeat, ever
vexes with calunlpy the hallowed precincts
of his tamil His life was broken in the
midst of manhood; his great heart ceased
TO beat at MONDAY; he fell with an unfn-
ished administration on his hands. Let his
be the broken shaft Of unsullied |
marble, and blistered be the tongue that
disturbs or dishonQrs the dust that reposes
beneath this sad and mournful emblem.
Gov. Wright was more fortunate. He
ul6u llll " WARS anu az d AAiiAO duoHANiOo
for his fame. His labOrs had been many |
and various, but be had lived to behold
them all mature He died in a foreign
land, clothed with the official honors of his
country. Looking back upon a long life,
he might well say that he had fulfilled a
mission, and that his record was a pure
example to the humble aspiring youth of
his native land-member Of Congress, |
Governor, Senator, and Foreign Minis
ter. Sometimes there came clouds be-
tween us and varianoes upon the journey,
but the charity Of the death bed, sent like
the sunlight of the morning across the
ocean to me in messages never to be erased
from my heart, dispelled them all. Shall
his rest now be rudely shaken by the
tongue of indiseriminate defamation?
Shall he be tradueed as an incapable or a
corrupt Chief Magistrate of Indiana? 1t is
true, with an air of offensive patronage, it |
is conceded that he tried TO prevent one /
specific act of alleged corruption, but had |
not the ability to succeed. The fame and |
name of Joseph A. Wright, are the prop
erty of the people of the State. To them |
remit the care of his memory with the full
assurance, that there is no portion of his
useful life more dear to ALTO his family,
to hischiIdren and his friends, than the eight
years which partisan hate now seeks to dis
grace.