Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-06-25
SURPRISING THE FREEDOM OF
SPEECH.

SPEECH.
The hirelings Of the administration are
advancing step by step towards personal
government. Summers speech on Grant
tells the story in unmistakable language,
and presents facts which no one can dis
pute. As a consequence, Summers speech
is to be suppressed. The Philadelphia Age
of the 10Th inst. has the following para
graph:
ais it contrary to any law TO sell Charles
Summers speech in Philadelphia? A re
spectacle citizen assures US that he saw the
sale Of it stopped yesterday, in Chestnut
street, by policeman, who, to a remOn-
STRANGE, replied that he was ObeyiDg orders
How is this? We all know how hard the
police worked to elect the Grant candidate
in the fourth district. The Investigating
Committee told us that. Have they now
begun to work for Grant by suppressing
speeches about him? Under which of the
bayOnet laws is this dOne?'
This statement shows the desperate
straits to which the Grant men are already
driven. But this is not all. The Benton
(Oregon) Democrat says the following
notice was posted up at Yaquima Bay, in
that State:
NOTICE.-Any person employed on this
wOTk-Cape FOulweather LighthOuse-wbo
shall speak dsrespectfully, on or off duty,
of the President Of the United States, of
any member of the Cabinet, or any superior
officer Of the Government, will be immedi-
ately discharged. HENRY NJ. ROBERT,
Major Of Engineers, U. S. A.
Here is a revival of the sedition laws by
order of "Henry NJ. Robert, major Of engi-
neers." This ''major" is supervising the
construction of light house on the Pacific
coast, and his head workmen speak of gov
eminent officials in a manner that men are
apt to converse on such subjects. He brings
into requisition that plank ofthe Republican
platform called "silence'-ifsilence on these
subjects is not observed, the men will be
Immediately discharged" As the Wash
ington Patriot suggests, the workmen prob
ably criticised the President for taking pres
ents, or the Secretary of State for bungling
the treaty, or the Secretary of War for sell
ing arms to France, or the Secretary of the
Navy for paying the Secor claim, or the
Postmaster General for the Chorpenning
job, or the Secretary of the Interior for
specializing in Georgia railroads, or the Sec
rotary Of the Treasury for his syndicate"
operations, or some superior officer" for
mutilating or purloining the army archives.
These comments may have been made in
the privacy of their own homes and when
"off duty" Yet it is now announced, in
a formal "notice," that this liberty is de-
MED. The Patriot says:
cat the last election in California, the
men employed at the Mare Island navy
yard were marched to the polls like SO
many mercenaries and compelled to vote a
marked Administration ticket, under threats
of being deprived Of employment. Many
of them were dismissed subsequently,
when their votes had thus been obtained
and the State carried by fraud and coercion.
The facts and the proofs were brought to
the notice of the Senate, without prOduC-
ing the least impression on the majority,
who regarded this outrage as
"smaTt trick" 1t is fair to sup
pose that Oregon has just been Sc
cured by like practices. The navy
yards at Philadelphia and Portsmouth have
been prostituted in the same way. In fact,
the whole authority Of the executive has
been directed to strengthen his hands, to
centralize power and to prepare the way for
q change, by which free institutions are to
be sacrificed and imperial government built
up on their ruin. This is what Radicalism
now means and what Grant is laboring to
accomplish"