Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-04-15

measures, the inevitable tendency and
effects of which must, in the end, if
not rebuked, produce the overthrow
Of their liberties. Mankind become
wicked by degrees, and governments,
like individuals, do not become thor
OughIy corrupt and despotic in day;
aud when we see the hight TO which
Grants usurpatiOns have arisen, and
how utterly unavailing have been
all the efforts made to cor
rect them, we may safely conclude
that an effort will be made by him, at
the next election for the Presidency,
to override the will of the people.
The evident object Of Grant is to OBJ
tain control of all the military power
to enable him to effect his purpose and
so increase il hereafter, upon any
plausible pretense OF resistance which
NAV be contrived. The first opera
ton Of the device win be to control
the elections in the Southern States by
the show Of armed force, TO compel
them into a new rebellion, if possible;
then to call upon the North ''tO sup
port the Government, " and to fix
himself and his party in supreme, ir-
responsible, and immovable power.
That they would do all this in the
near future, if they can, is plain
enough from the fact that they have
begun to do it now. Before
the burden and shameful wrong OF
reconstruction was imposed upon it,
the South was thoroughly ~peaceable,
after the war, and would have grown
altogether orderly and prosperous
long ago, but for the cruel and I'M
christian methods of Congress, to
make recent slaves the political mas
tiers OF their former owners. And for
this a]trOcious deed, which could have
been prompted only from the infer
nal regions, the authors of it, how
ever predominant for the hour, viii
hereafter be visited with a terrible
r~etribution. We know Of no OUtrages
in the South which have grown out Of
politics; but it may be possible that's
under this system Of tyranny, con-
ceived and put in force by men who
were once lOudest in denunciatiOn Of
the "oligarchy," and "the slave
power" there have been, here
and there in the Southern States,
an occasional administration Of lynch
law; burnings and rObberies and mur-
ders may have been avenged, and
men may have leagued to-
gether for the defense of their
property and their lives, against
negro plunderers and assassins,
who sometimes acted under State
authority, and were cOuntenanced
and upheld by the authorities at
Washington. The offenders in all
such cases were amenable solely to
the municipal law, and in most all
such ofenses would have been either
prevented or punished, but for the
practical encouragement to the OPP
pressors rendered at the seat Of the
Federal governmet. The question re.
ours, whether such apalpable scheme
for the overthrow of the liberties of
the country can be consummated?
We think not; because the
people, for the most part,
slow to understand the approach
Of danger to their civil rights, and if
not organized, p~Owerless to resist it,
do begin to appreciate the tendency
Of these proceedings. This was made
manifest by The recent election in
New Hampshire. The people, in
deed, have had warnings enough in
the open exercise of unconstitutional
power by the administration and by
the circumstances Of men who have
heretofore acted with the Republican
party, and who would not have
except that they foresaw the
serious danger menacing cur hitherto
free institutions.