Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-03-22

uses this plain and unequiyocal language
Reconstruction strictly SO called, may
speedily become thing of the past. But
another great practical question win take
its Place, and already looms up in the
near future. Indeed, it is already before
Congress in the various bills and resolu-
tons which have been presented upon the
Tennessee question. AS this is subject
which no longer has to deal with the adj
mission of States from outside the pale,
but rather with the mode of keeping them
to their pledges within the Union, an
other word should be substituted to ex-
press the appropriate legislation which
our amended Constitution empowers Con-
gress to enact in behalf of the vested
rights of all American citizens, of what
ever shade or color.
s'That the recalcitrant State of Ten
nessee will be, and properly may be, sub
| iected to process equivalent to second
reconstruction, we do not for moment
doubt. 1t will be for other States to de-
termine by their future conduct whether
the same process shall or shall not be APP
! piled to them. If it be true that the per-
| fidy of the rebels who have obtained full
| control in Tennessee is the most damning
| instance of its kind, it is no less true that
other States, especially Kentucky, seem
inclined to repeat the experiment. The
| time when Congress may properly pause
| to question its own constitutional right to
guarantee to every State republican
! form of government in its fullest sense,
and subject to all the limitations of the
| Reconstruction acts, has passed, and it
only remains to march with firm tread
toward the YindicstiOn of every right of
every citizen.
This programme is also boldly avowed
by the Washington Republican, another
organ of Radical opinion, and one whose
givings-out are supposed to be reflected
from the White House. In its issue of
the 14th inst. that paper says:
''Gen. Littlefeld has Just arrived in
town from North Carolina, bearing an
official requisition from Gov. Holden
upon-the President for troops, to be used
Alamance county of that State, which has
been declared by the Governors procla-
nation to be in instruction. The COM
munication will be laid before the Presi-
| dent to-day. 1t is said Gov. Holden
threatened to declare several other coun-
ties in state of instruction, unless the
condition of things should change. The
| programme is TO throw out the votes of
the insurrectionary counties at the next
State election, thus insuring a Radical
triumph"
The closing sentence of this paragraph
is very significant. 1t is a confession
that, right or wrong, the Radicals mean
that these States shall elect Radical can
didates. The leaders will go on with
their aggressions just so long as they see
unmistakable signs of submission on the
part of the people. Col. John w. For
ney, editor of the Washington Chronicle,
writes March 12) to his Philadelphia pa
per, (the PreSS,) over the signature of
Occasional" strongly advocating the re-
reconstruction of Georgia, and sums up
his reasons for treating that State as a
conquered province, with the conclusive
proposition that Congress may do SO with
perfect safety. 1t is this feeling which
prompts the Radical leaders to demand
that Tennessee shall be taken out of the
Union, and RECONSTRUCTED in the inter-
est of Radical oflice-seekers. The Radi-
cal creed is that of the Islamite, by a
mere conversion of terms. The worship
| per of the Koran affirms, with the sword
as the instrument of propagandIsm,
''There is no God, but God, and Mahomet
is his Prophet" So the Radical party
has raised similar cry just as cOmpendi-
Gus, just as brief, and just as relentless,
to be enforced by the same argument of
| trenchant steel, ''There shall be but one
party in this land, and the Radical party
is that party While the unfortunate
Southern States afford at this time the ma
terial theatre for practical political opera
tons, says the Montgomery Advertiser,
the issues, which are presented, whether Of
principle or expediency, nolongerso much
concern the people Of the South as those
of the North and West The two great
parties in the North and West are nearly
equally divided in numbers, and it IS GER
tain that the Democratic party possesses
the muscular force, if it were properly or
ganized, TO oYerawe the tyrants who are
seeking to subjugate them as they have
already destroyed the political liberties of
the Southern people. The real struggle
for official power and for performance
in doctrines and principles is now to be
witnessed in the action of parties in these
two great sections. The practical propo-
sition asserted in the extract we have
quoted from the Chronicle is nothing
more nor less than the affirmation of the
right of the Radical party to suppress
Democracy as dominant political organi-
cation in any and all of the States of the
| Union. Its broad and significant utter
ances cannot be mistaken and they clearly
mean this; and unless the course of afro
cious usurpation be arrested, it viii. finally
come to this by a process Impractical demon
stration. Having forced the ratification of
thefourteenth and fifteenth amendmentsto
the constitution of the United States by
the coercion of the Southern States in the
face of the submissive Northern and
Western masses, they apparently see no
reason why they should not now proceed to
suppress the Democratic or anti-Radcal
party in all of the fifteen Southern States,
or wherever in these States, as in Georgia,
Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina,
it may threaten the supremacy of Radi-
calism. Really this last exhibition of
tyrannical force would be no more mon
strous in fact or in principle than the first
has been; and, therefore, the usurpers at
Washington are disposed 10 venture on
further demonstrating the capacity of non
resistance of a demoralized people. II
is now evident, so that no intelligent
citizen can pretend to misunderstood it,
that the Radical policy of reconstruction
IL -, 900, ,sf ~, ction hoe no lonUpr any