Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-08-14
NELL S. BROWN.
The ereat Whig Statesman Upon the SitHa-
tloB...He Says we must not Di.
vide Our Forces.
Ne Reviews the Past and the PRESENT Of
Politics In ths UsItsd States and Pro-
nouness for the IategrltV Of the
Democratic Party.
He Is Opposed 10 a Third Party, Is for his
Country and is Uaalterably Opposed
to Radioallsm In any Shape.
NASHVILLE, August 6, 1870

tofore affiliated with the Old-line Wing
party. that il is their duty TO withdraw
from sctive cooperation with the Demo
Gratis and Teorganize a separate party
And YOU ask ''my counsel as to the course
old line Wings should pursue, in the pres
ent and approaching crisis" do NOS
feel myself entitled to give advice or
counsel, for / occupy no official position,
and am the eXpectant of no Office. Be
sides, feel very much inclined TO con-
suit my own peace and TepOse, which
have never found in political life. But
respect your wishes, and have, upon the
questions of the day, very decided con-
yictions: and as / have nothing to hope
or fear from declaring my opinions,
cheerfullY comply with your request by
placing them al your disposal.
L have no sympathy with any scheme
that may be entertained for the formation
of any separate OF new party; and would
regard such course a. lll-advissd and
fraught with mischief and disaster. We
are 10 the midst - a struggle Of the
gravest magnitude-Ons involving moth
ing less than the perpetuity of free con-
stituti0nal government. We are already
on the field, marshaling for the combat
which is TO ensne in November; and ali
experience teaches us that il is hazardous
on the eve of battle, in the presence Of .
veteran foe, to change front or to divide
ouA A0Abo1s AAu AAANN ~ 6be+nNf
is not mere party sscendaney-not the
elevation Ofone set of men over another
not the emoluments or hOnOrs Of Office,
and certainly not the mere qualification
OF resentment for the past.
The alternative is pressing upon us with
ofninous and menRcing front, whether
Capitalization Is TO go on until IL eulmi-
mates in despotism, or shall the Govern
ment be restored to its original simple
ity, dignity and equality among the
States and people, as il came from the
hands of Washington and his compeers.
] charge that those in power have yio-
lated and are every day violating the
great organic principles of the Govern
ment, and If not arrested in their career,
we shall soon have nothing left bat the
name and the forms of liberty. The war,
ended more than five years ago, and yet
up to this time the cOantry has been sub
Stsntially governed by force. Our State,
one of the old thirteen, ilustrious for her
services. her statesmen, and the indus
try and enterprise of her people, Is still
kept out of the Union, first upon one pre-
text and then upon another. No free
State has ever been more Outrageously
treated than Georgia. North Carolina,
our venerated mother, distinguished for
her past services and sacrifices, and the
great names of the men she has reared
and sent forth, although for sometime
in the Union, as it is called, is even now
oppressed by a local and detestsble ty-
rsnny which imprisons her best citizens
at pleasure, spurns the writ Of hdbedS
corpus, and defies the courts; and the
government at Washington, instead OF
coming 20 the relief of helpless people,
upholds and sustains the rod which af-
flicts them.
This has been substantially. and IN a
greater or less degree. the policy toward
our own and the other States of the
South. And this good day none of these
States or people enjoy more than quasi
condition of freedom. Soon after the war
closed, the colored population, then re-
Gently freed, were precipitsted upon the
ballOt-boX, while simultaneous with this,
various schemes of disfranchisement
were adopted, by which large masses of
the whites in every State weredeprived Of
the right of voting, thus giving, in many
men over the whites. In the meantime,
the fourteenth amendment was forced
upon the country and declared adopted,
at a time when the Southern States were
eipless-disfranchised under the control
of strangers and the colOred people. This
amendment disqualities from holding
Office large mass of the leading men Of
the South, and confers upon Congress the
power to enforce its provisions by apprO-
of law they please.
The fifteenth amendment has been de-
clar6d adopted under the same circum-
stances, with like reserve of unlimited
power of legislation TO enforce its proyi-
sions. That legislation has been had
and is to be earned out by force. In the
meantime, under all these disqualifca-
tions and restrictions, in~the presence of
bRyOnets everywhere, many OF our prin-
cipal offices have been filed by strangers
and adventurers, who had no identity or
sympathy with us, and who have been
busy and Ofiicious in inspiring the colored
people with hatred toward US. They have
not been satisfied to make the cOlored
man our equal, but by their amendments,
so-called, by their Legislation, and by the
use of fierce and terror, they have sought
TO make him our superior, and to perpet-
uste their own power and our degrada
fion. How any native born Tennesseean,
educated in the principles of Washington,
J Jefferson, Madison and others, and afiilia-
ting and being led by such men as Clay
and Webster, and White and Bell and
J Jackson, Grundy and Polk, can approve
and support these extraordinary meas
ures, passes my comprehension.
learned that all power, not expressly
conferred upon the Federal Government,
or fairly implied, was reserved to the
States; and that that reservation for all
local purposes, was as independent as
though the Federal Government had
never been created, j am now too old to
lesson. How these cherished
ideas, derived from our political hand
boOks have been carried out, let the
mournful and prostrated condition of
these States answer. In Tennessee our
condition has greatly improved in the last
twelve months; and If we are prudent
and firm, and remain united, We have
cause 20 hope that the worst is over with
our local grievances. But, like prudence,
1irmne6s and union are Indispensable, in
order to exert our full weight in the ma
tional councils, and aid in restoring the
Government to its original purity. We
desire 10 see the tariff system changed TO
one Of mere revenue, and adapted to an
economical expenditure. We desire TO
see the income tax abolished, and the
mode Of meeting the public debt mate
rally changed, either by paying IL in
greenbacks, or by more gradual process
OF extinction, and consequently with a
lighter system of taxation. We are deep
~ Interested in the construction OF the
Southern Pacific railroad, and In
1eveeing the Mississippi river. Above
all we desire to re-establish the
Government as our fathers left it to us,
excepting only such changes as have been
wrought by the events of the war. We
desire 70 see restored the equilibrium be-
tween the different departments, so that
= man cannot be dragged from Richmond
for an assault, even on member OF Con
gress, and tried and Imprisoned by that
body, as has been done.
Now, in all these views, and many
others that might be added, If 1t were
proper TO reiterate them in one letter, l
assume that the great mass of old Wings,
as well as Democrats, concur, and earnest
ly desire TO see them carried out. This
cannot be done unless they unite. And
can they not act in council in pursuit OF
an end that appeals to their patriotism,
their interest, and the prosperity and hap
piness of the whole country? III there DO
any reason why they cannot, it is founded
solely in the mere fact that fifteen years
ago they were antagonist parties. But L
maintain that both these organizations,
rs they then existed, are extinct, and the
questions which then divided them have
been settled and passed away. In fact,
there is now no such organization as the
Whig party. 1t WAS destroyed by the ag-
ttstlon Of the slavery question. The
Democratic party was more tenacious Of
life, but became disrupted by the same
question, and by the events of the war,
The question Of slavery Is forever settled,
and no sane man proposes to revive 1t, or
disturb its adjustment. This leaves no
living issue between Wings and Demo-
crats that may prevent their joint action.
At all events, We are engaged in strug-
gle which rises above all party, and in
which all preiudiees and antipathies
should be buried and forgotten. / have
no difficulty in harmOnizing my action
with Democrats and Republicans who
agree upon these general views Of govern
ment. Nor must we be startled by
name. The name is nothing; but what 1t
imports is everything. You cannot sane
tify bad man with good name, nor can
you sully good man by bad name.
History Is replete with instances where
people of dissimilar tastes, and creeds,
and pursuits, united for the common
safety. On the eve Of the battle Of New
Orleans, the roaming sauadrons of the
G7lf, stirred by the inspirations of patri-
etisp8, came up TO the rescue Of the Cres-
cent City, and swelled our attenustsd
Nneseg that memorable morning. So,