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


no interest in the general welfare of the
country carpet-baggers, riding into no.
tice upon the receding waves of political
revolution; foreigners, coming down
among US from the North and feasting
and fattening upon the scattered spoils of
civil war; low, but cunning, adventures,
without honor or position in the States
from whence they came, nosing about,
like dogs in deserted camp,
craunchmg among the bones and
pampered upon the marrow that were
left. Titus Oates revealed, for time, in
falsehOod and perjury, and caused many
persons to be punished for, or suspected
of, being concerned in the Popish plots
as to which he made his false accusations;
but his villainy was slowly discovered,
and he was ultimately brought TO justice.
Many of those who have been concerned
in the misrepresentation of the Southern
people were tried last fall and condemned
by their constituents. Others were shaken
in their Congressional seats, and, in the
last agony of fear, are trying to rekindle
the embers of dying hatred but the
people are weighing them, at last, in
the scales of justice, and their doom
is already recorded in the fearful sen
tence, s'Thou are weighed in the bal-
anCe and found wanting" Even
in Tennessee, Stokes has been left at
home, and the malignant Maynard, who
is as dark and mysterious as the Black
Priest of st. Pauls, has heard a note of
such fearful warning that he would vii.
lingly make new judicial district in
Tennessee, and find u Covert from the
tempest" in Federal judgeship.
Although the people of Tennessee, in
common with the entire population of the
Southern States, have painfully felt that
the Crittenden resolution which was
adopted by Congress in an hour of gloom
in July, 1861, and which declared that
''the war has not been waged in any spir-
it of oppression, nor for any purpose of
conquest Or subjugatiOn, nor for the pur-
pose of overthrowing or interfering with
the rights or established institutions of
the Southern States" was most cruelty
| forgotten in the hour Of victory; and al
though they well know that the suprem-
acy of the constitution has not been
maintained, and that the Union has not
! been preserved with all the dignity,
equality and rights of the States unim-
paired, " as the people of the North said,
| through their representatives in Congress,
that they would preserve it; yet the PEG.
pie of the South, aside from
the ordinary losses of war, have sub
mitted TO the deprivation of their rights to
millions of property in slaves, and have
never, since the war ended, unsheathed a
sword or levelled musket in opposition
| 10 the resis.less power of the COnquerOr.
Frustrated and vanquished in the civil
war, they returned, in good faith, to the
| peaceful pursuits of life and have done
all in their power TO repair their broken
fortunes and restore their ruined dwell
ings. The officers and soldiers Of the
Southern army have entered the few and
narrow avenues of business that were
open TO them, and have submitted to their
losses and deprivations with a sublime
heToism greater than the renowned cOur-
age which they were ever wont TO dis
play upon the field of battle Not
squadron has been mustered nor q sword
drawn since the final surrender, and yet
il has been continually represented that
the people of the South are dissatisfied
and discontinued, and are ready to begin
another revolution; aud no effort has
been spared which falsehOod could stimu-
late or malice invent, to riyet the chains
of conquest and perpetuate our political
degradation.
Without adverting, further, to other
Southern States, the slightest glance at
the political condition of Tennessee will
show how false are the charges which
have betn made against cur people, and
how wantOn and cruel have been the pei
secutions to which they have been sub
jeCted.
Many of the most enlightened citizens
of Tennessee have regarded the sO-called
amended constitution of 1865 as the
handiwork of a mass meeting, gotten up
while the war was still pending and fla
grant, and adopted in the true Napolecnic
style, by meagre vote polled at the very
point Of the bayOnGt, and as being, in
fact, no part of the constitution of the
State. That constitution was declared
satisfactory TO the general government
because it abolished slavery; but adopted.
as it was, under military coercion and
duress, the opinion generally prevailed
that, in calmer times, it might be de- |
clared void by the judicial tribunals. |
Now what did the abused ''Rebels' of |
Tennessee. acting with the Conservatives, |
do on this subject, in the course of the
past year? They called convention, in
solemn form, and held it Of their own
accord; and, without the presence of |
bayonets, or the employment of force of
any kind, they adopted constitution by
which slavery was abolished forever in
this State. That constitution was not
dictated by the government at Washing
ton. II was not manufactured, as most
Of the new constitutions in the Southern
States have been made, 10 order. 1t
was the matured wisdom of the
hour, in view of the changed