Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1872-08-31
no the COIored voters OF Madison
County.

10 the COIored voters OF Madison
County.
am no candidate for your votes
and never expect TO be, therefore
you cannot charge me with any sell
fish object in addressing you this
brief note. My object is simply to
give you some advice which l hope
you will receive in kindness and act
upon.
/ commend you for the good
part you acted in our late county
elections. You did not clan togeth-
er and cast your votes as a unit for
any given number of candidates.
mo, you divided your votes as did
the whites; for this you deserve the
praise of every good citizen of the
county. There is nothing that
would prove more injurious to the
future welfare of your race than for
you to clan together, and plant your
selves in solid body against the
whites among whom you expect to
live. 1 warn you against the carpet
baggers and pretended friends who
are trying to use you for their own
selfish ends. You remember that in
1867 nearly all the whites were dis
franchised. OF the votes cast that
year the blacks polled fully nine
tenths. How many of the offices did
your people get that year, when you
did nearly all the voting? Did you
ever think of this? You were treat
ed then by Brownlow and your pre-
tended friends, just as the white
man treated the Indian when they
went hunting in partnership. They
killed turkey and q buzzard, and
when they came to divide, the
white man said to the Indian, "you
may take the buzzard and I'll take
the turkey, or I'll take the turkey
and You may take the buzzard."-
Practically these carpetbaggers are
treating you in the same way, in Sc
curing your votes, whilst they hold
the offices.
These same pretended friends
win try to make you believe that
Grant is your especial friend and
Greeley your bitter enemy, when
the truth is, Grant was your politi-
cal enemy up to the commencement
of the war, and Greeley the most
powerful friend you had on this
continent, for more than thirty
years. Many of You, doubtless, be-
lieve that Brownlow is a particular
friend of your race. ask those of
you who can read to call at a book
store and buy a copy of Brownlow's
debate with Pryne, and read it,
You remember a few years ago
the first Methodist Conference ever
held by your race in the United
States was held in this city. There
were about seVenty-fiVe preachers
here, and Brownlow's Militia, then
stationed here, robbed six of the
preachers of all the money they had.
This is fact well known to many
of the colored people of jackson. L
advise you to cut loose from such
thieving party and take your posi-
ton with honest men.
The true gentlemen of the South
are your natural and best friends,
and the time will come when you
will hate your present pretended
friends with all the bitterness that
they now try to make you hate the
white people among whom you
were born and raised.
believe. that l speak the senti-
ment of every former STAKEHOLDER
when 1 say that 1 would not return
you to slavery if could with the
scratch of my pen. No, no South
ern man wishes this.
was born and raised with your
people, and some of the happiest of
my boyhood days were spent with
the little negro boys belonging to
my father. l have washed in the
same mill-pond, and fished in the
same creek with them; and many
time marched in solemn procession
to bury dead kitten or chicken
and then preached the funeral!
/ am among those who believe
that the colored race are the natu-
raj friends of the whites of the
South, and that they have been ali
enated by listening to the bad coun-
sells of very bad men; but time will
remove this prejudice from their
minds. also believe that the ear
ly associations of the two races will
yet manifest itself, and that the
Southern whites viii look, with
confidence, upon the negro race as a
great reservoir of political strength.
w. w. GATES.
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