Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-01-27


State-the people acting freely and
voluntarily. 1t was not, like the pre-
tended constitution of 1865, the action of
small mobs, in a few counties of The
State, moved and governed by the armed
soldiery, but was the deliberate act of the
whole people; final and irreyocable.
Nothing could demonstrate more conclu-
sively their perfect sincerity.
Yet the party now in power in Ten
nessee, vilified and abused solely becausei it
does not affiliate with Grants administra-
ton, receives no credit from the people
of the North for the voluntary and ire
vocable abolition of slavery, but is calum-
mated, as retaining spirit of insubordi-
nation, and m,srepresented as being still
hostile to the National Government. 1t is
a great misfortune that we have not, since
the war, had men in Congress who had
either the spirit, the honesty or the
ability to disclose the plain, unvarnished
truth. Stokes, whitening in the anguish
of defeat; and Maynard, chagrined and
mortified, but severely exasperated, at his
reduced and meagre majority, will not,
and dare not, tell ii; and there will be no
CLEAN of sunshine upon the benigbted
hours of blasted and expiring Congress.
If the abolition of slavery was the
cone thing needfur' to be done in the
estimation of our Northern conquerors, it
has been done, and, at least, done effectu-
ally in Tennessee; and if the spirit of
hatred, cherished against us, originated
alone out of the existence of that institu-
ton, it should be abandoned with the dis
appearance of the cause that produced it.
But the demon of persecution becomes
more rampant in proportion to the disap-
pearance of the supposed causes for per-
secution, and seeks to manufacture new
causes of offense and to whet its appetite
for blood. Yet, aOhdt have the people of
Tennessee suffered ? Not to mention the
usual casualties of war, or to detail the
inumerable instances in which private
property was carried North by officers and
soldiers, and never accounted for as the
fruits, but only enjoyed as the spoils of
conquest; not to dwell upon the former
Acknowledgement of our people and the
military government of the State by ose-
third of the counties composing it; not to
speak of the bribery and corruption which
have been openly charged, or the outra-
geous frauds committed in the endorse
ment of railroads that will never exist;
or the thousands squandered in the sup
port of military guards that were a foul
and useless excresence upon the body
polite; not to mourn over the reckless
and insane war upon the Bank of Ten
nessee, or the wasted taxes wrung from
the hard earnings of an exhausted
and impoverished people; nor to
recapitulate other outrages, ''black
as ten furies and terrible as HE'LL
we wish to call the attention of the peo-
pie of the North to form of persecution
which has done, and is still doing, its ex-
ecrable work, if not so secretly, at least
as fearfully, as the Council of Venice,
Holy Vheme of Germany, or the Spanish
Inquisition. While the swords have been
turned into plOughshsres, the spears have
been turned into pruning hooks, aud the
District Attorneys, the Marshals and the
Clerks and jurors of the Federal Courts
have been the reapers, or cleaners, in the
fields of Southern desolatiOn. Since the
war there have been more than two thou
sand indictments and infOrmatiOns in the
Federal Court at Knoxville alone; and al
though the number has not been quite so
large either in Middle or West Tennessee,
yet i has been large enough to
swell the Golfers Of a few hun
cry and tardy patriots who made
their peace with "lhe powers that be" in
time to save their bacon. Large sums
have been paid by the Government for
costs in these causes, but much the larger
amount has been paid by the people
themselves, who were the victims of con-
tinu9l persecution under the forms of
law. In vain was it urged that, by the
terms of surrender, Gen. Grant had
promised that the officers aud soldiers
might return to their homes and should
not be disturbed by the United States
authorities, so long as they observed their
paroles and the laws in force where they
resided. The District Attorneys and
Marshals and Clerks-the non. combat
ants of the war-were anxious to have
an honest penny at the expense of Graft
ors;" and though the ''Rebels" were
bleeding at every pore, they discov-
cred new veins and arteries which utterly
depleted them. The State for the past two
years has been swarming with spies and
informers, hunting up and down the hills
and holows, destroying the stills and
properly of the people and prosecuting
them to fine and Imprisonment, under
cruel laws which were never published in
the State and of which the people never
heard until after these wicked and merci-
less prosecutions were commenced.
Last, but not least, the courts of the
United States have been turned into en-
gines of oppression for the punishment
of office-holders who do not belong TO the
"Radical persuasion, and who have the
temerity to hold their offices because they
were the choice of a free people. The
act of Congress to enforce the fourteenth
amendment was not passed until late in
the spring or early in the summer of last
year, and has not, TO our knowledge, ever
been published at length in the State.
Many of those who were elected under it
were candidates before its passage
and never heard of its existence
until after their election; but
Judges, Clerks, County Trustees,