Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-03-28

| no act OF violence, Dut pehctauiJ uepdEt
| ed to their homes. And he who has re
| fiected upon it for a moment must SCI
that. never perhaps since the world exist
ed, was so great an example set of thu
virtue, the moderation, and the intel
ligence of people as was displayed b.
the American people when the great ar
| mics on both sides were disbanded an(
sent to their homes. Why, sir, thesI
| Outrages were not committed then. Blu
there has been more crime at the North
since the war than there was before, ant
more crime at the South. That could MOI
| be avoided. It was inevitable.
Then there are other circumstance
that must produce disorder. The people
at the South had fought for cause tha
they religiously believed in, as much AZ
we believed in the cause for which our
side fought. They were conquered, sub
dued, Inundated. But then they be.
lieved that the war had been carried on,
as we declared it should be, to preserve
the Constitution snd restore the Union,
and they expected that that pledge would
be faithfully fulfilled. Instead of fulfilling
it you put them down under martial law,
you abolished their State constitutions.
you compelled them at the point of the
bayonet to adopt their constitutions, you
set their lately freed slaves above them,
and gave the control of State after
State to the most ignorant, the least
Informed and the least interested
portion of the community. In this
very State of North Carolina ! think
it appears that the colored voters are
eighty thousand. The vote for the Re-
publican ticket at the last election was
eighty-three Thousand and some hundreds,
and the vote for the other ticket was
nearly Lightweight thousand. 1t clearly
appears that there is scarcely q colored
man in the whole State who did not vote
the Republican ticket. Now, what q
spectacle is thaii There is a State in
which but three thousand white men can
be found to join the Republican party;
and who are theyl Where do they come
frOm9 Where were they bornl What
spirit of adventure took them to North
Cardinal Who are these three thousand
white men who, with eighty thousand ne
groes, have ruled that old Commonwealth
that used to be called the firm Old North
State, the very exemplifcation of order9
In the old State, that always would vote
the Wing ticket, no matter though all the
rest of the South voted the Democratic
ticket, that pattern of order and law,
that Quaker State of the South, but three
thousand white men can be found to vote
the Radical ticket; and the domination of
that party for years and years, the plum
der of the State, the ruin of her prosper
ity has been the result of combination
of three thousand adventurers-with
eighty thousand negroes; and yetthe peo-
pie are expected to be as mild and as pla-
cid and as gentle as SO many turtle doVesl
Oh, no, Mr.. President it will not dc.
But if we are to have an investigation,
let ushave it. And when We do go into this
Investigation, and when it comes TO be
considered by the Senate, beg Senators
to look once more at history, and to find
that byno armed tyranny, by no treading of
people under the heel, has order ever been
restored, unless it was the order of des-
potism, the silence of its reign. No, sir;
if you want the people of the South to be
orderly, give them good government; let
them govern themselves according to the
nature and spirit of our free institutions;
let the intelligence of the country
have fair play; let the honesty
that economy that every body will admit
existed in those States before the civil war,
whatever faults they may have had, once
more take place. Let mere adventures
retire to the background or hide them
selves in the holes from which they came;
let once more the people feel that they
have Constitution that will be enforced,
laws that they respect, and once more you
will have peace and order there as well as
you have any where.