Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-02-25

} Houses of Congress with secessionists
and disunionists?
| have said, and believe, that when a
reconstructed State had given in its adhe-
| sion to the series of amendments pro-
posed by Congress to the Federal Consti-
tU~on that then such State should be adj
mitted to all the rights and privileges of
any other State, and that all of her citi-
zens should be restored to full rights, sub
ject and amenable to the laws of the
Federal Governments general in their ap-
plicatiOn. And had the present Legisla-
ture of Tennessee, though illegally
elected, ratified the Fifteenth Amendment,
as it was morally bound to do, and con-
fined itself to ordinary legislation and
amendments to the State Constitution in
the manner prescribed by that instrument,
l for one would have been in favor of
ending our political strife in Tennessee by
overlooking the illegal manner it was
elected. But when we look at the char
acter of their legislation and find it an
illegal body itself, providing for the as
sembling of an illegal and revolutionary
Convention, pronounced by the newly
elected Senator, Hon. Henry Cooper, rev.
dictionary, l think at least that body and
its doings should be abated and held as
null and void in the general interest of
law and order. And if Congress means
to take any notice of the "situation" in
Tennessee, it ought to do so before the
the revolutionary party now in power in
that State shall have further complicated
affairs by carrying into execution their
work. That the condition of the Union
lists in that State Is becoming deplorable
is manifest to the least Observant. | have
received several letters from Hon. 4. J.
| Fletcher, Secretary of State ever since
the reorganization of the State Govern
ment, to which l refer as showing the
state of affairs in our unhappy State,
and ask that they may be read by the
| Clerk
| The Clerk read as follows:
OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF STATE, NASH
VILE, Jan. Is, 1870.-My Dear Sir Il
address you this letter in compliance with
your request in your letter to Mr.. French,
and because | believe you and have uni
| fOrmly agreed on the political question
which have agitated our own State for the
| last five years. When the reconstruction
| policy of Congress was first announced
| felt apprehensive it would fail to afford
adequate protection to the cOlOred race or
to the lOyalists scattered throughout the
| South. No one but native or longtime
resident of the South could form an ade-
quate idea of the hostility of the great
body of the Southern people toward the
negro as a freeman, and no one but
Southern UniOnist could realize the depth
of their malice at what they termed
homemade Yankees" or ''natiye abO-
litiOnists." Their defeat in their cherished
object of Southern Confederacy seemed
to intensity this hostility.
1t is natural, or common at least, for
those who are defeated or fOiled in their
ambition to cast about for some one to
blame and to seek revenge upon. Often
the object assailed has been merely pas
sive, and sometimes wholly innocent. So
it was with the Rebels after their defeat
Their cOnquerOrs were beyond their reach
or defiance; but here was the poor negro
who had been mostly passive walking be-
fore their eyes a freeman, but in some
| sense an instrument of their overthrow,
and here was the Inflated Southern Union
list who had sympathized with thessGOvern-
ment and laughed at their calamities.
These two classes, in spite of the presence
of martial law and of Federal bayOnets,
were the subjects of the most embittered
| denunciatiOn, and when the least OppOr-
| tunity offered the objects of instant in
| jury. When the military power forced
upon them a State government to be car
Tied on by these hated domestic Yankees,
and that State government deprived them
of the right of suffrage and added other
| disabilities, their rage, though smOthered
| by fear, knew no bounds.
Tennessee has for five years been a
seething volcano. Secret conspirscies
have been formed, secret societies estab-
| lished, midnight expeditions of masked
murderers have prOwied over the country,
and assassinatiOns have been the order of
the day. There has been all the time but
| one salutary check upon them, and that
has been the menaCing attitude of the
| Federal GOvcTnment-fea of the same
power that had dispersed their armies
| The presence of the dread of Federal
power kept this volcano from open erup-
| tiOn but there never was a day until after
the last August election when, if all fear
of Federal punishment Lal been removed,
| they would not have hanged the Governor
and Legislature in twenty -four hours, and
have expelled every UniOnist from the
| State, cOntisCated their goods, and re-
| duced the negro back to slavery. As a
remedy for this state of things the Con-
| gress proposed the Fourteenth Amend
ment, which would have disabled only
| from holding office about one man
Inn. HrnI 4I,aN
without sanction or penalty. State
disfranchisement was our only resort,
and that was denounced by the President
and apparently not favored by Congress.
We were left to grapple with the case as
| best we might. Whether if We had had
| a friendly President we might have sue
ceeded is predetermined. Unfortunately,
| for the want of one, the experiment was
| not tried. We should assert and demand
a government that will protect us as our
| right. We have reached point in our
| perilOus journey where the road has three
| forks. We encounter anew dilemma with
three horns. The first is submission to
State government, which is the offspring
of fraud and official corruption, the child
| of perjury, ready to Cypress and destroy
| us NuCucNtI IL OidlC OO 81, lllC StCOllU -
to attempt its overthrow by the usual pO-
litical means-discussiOn and the ballot;
the third is to ask and demand of the
General Government that protection our
fidelity to it entities us to.
In my judgment the last is our only
alternative. We cannot acquiesce in the
present rebel rule without compromising
our self-respect and becoming parties to
an infamy. We are too feeble to Crap
pie in politics with the rebel majority of
numbers, wealth and power. We must
| turn, then, to that Government for whom
we have suffered so much, and whose
flag we followed through evil and good
report in spite of the dungeon and the
gallOws. VIII it hear our demands?
viii it act promptly in our behalfl
| will only add that the constitutional
| right of the General Government to re-
duce rebellious Stale from its position in
the Union to territorial condition is in
my mind unquestiOnable, and that this
treatment of the rebel States will have to
be adopted at an early day and continued
until such time as immigration to and
emigration from the South shall change
the people,
have made the condition of Tennessee
my study for five years. l have held the
second executive office in the State since
April, 1865, and my official duties have
brought me into daily intercourse with
citizens of every part of the State. My
| course has been conservative and cOnCila-