Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-02-21

| SHNnu HOS serve bn0 purposes OF the 6rOWn-
low dynasty, they passed law authorizing
the Governor to set aside the registration
OF any county, and then appoint more PHI
ant tool to do
THE DIRTY WORK MARKED OUT FOR HIsI.
1t was so apparent that the first laws
would not accomplish the purposes intended
that the Governor, of his own motion, dis
franchsed twenty-eight of the great coun-
ties OF Tennessee by one sweeping edict be-
cause they had voted for men hostile to him
and the creatures he wanted to keep in
power.
In his message to the Legislature, dated
Nov. %, 1865, the Governor said:
believing that an applicant for registra-
ton must either be known. to have been a
man Of publicly known Union sentiments at
all times, or must produce proof under oath
that he comes within the provisions Of the
law, have, in the application Of this con-
stInction, thrown out and not taken into
account the votes cast in the following
counties as illegally registered, namely:
Hawkins, McMinn, Monroe, Meigs, Grundy,
Van Buren,, White, Putnam, Jackson, Ma
con, Coffee, Frsnhin, Marshall, Benton,
Williamson, Davidson, Sumner, Robertson,
Cheatham, Maury, Humphreys, Mont
| gomery, Stewart, Lawrence, Gibson, Weak
ley, Madison and Lauderdale.
"The entire vote of the State is 1,7S3;
emitting the vote Illegally registered, it is
reduced to $1,000. But l must repeat that
there can be no doubt but that large por-
ton of the voters in the counties l have
1 demonstrated to reject were justly entitled
to certificates if the law had been complied
with. l sincerely regret that loyal men
should be deprived Of their votes by the
fault or mistake of others. The remedy
lies in a new registration, which hope will
be at once ordered, for, having acted in this
matter with deliberation and from a sense
of right. shall be compelled hereafter to
| dislrga d rec.ions held in the counties in
Dictated il this report as illegally registered"
This would not save them, and the other
laws l have referred to were passed, where
by, when registrars appointed by the Gov
ernor saw fit to register a man, under all
| the limitations and restrictions imposed
upon them, still, power was given by the
| Legislature to the Governor
! TO SET ASIDE EVEN THAT REGISTRATION
and to appoint ether registrars in their
places. will refer particularly to only one
of the largest counties in the State, the
county of Henry. The registration was set
aside in that county, which contained three
! thousand legal voters, only few days be-
fore the election, and new registrar was
appointed, who only registered nineteen men
and the county of Henry could only cast
that vote! During the time all this was go
ing on, when all these arbitrary powers
were given to the Governor, he himself was
a candidate for election; and in 1867, when
the Legislature was elected that sent him to
the Senate, and at which he was elected
Governor, the State was disfranchised down
to the very lowest possible point.
HARDLY ANY MAN WAS ALLOWED TO
VOTE
unless he was known to be in favor of the
Legislature and of the Governor, and OPP
posed to everything that they did not order.
Sir, these laws of the State of Tennessee
are all to be found in your "annual CYCLIC
pedias," which you all have in your libra
ries, if you will turn TO them. They will
all be found among the laws of Tennessee
of 1866, 1866 and 1867, and you will find
there that while that Governor at first
BITTERLY OPPOSED THE RIGHT OF THE
NEGRO TO VOTE,
while he denounced them as unfit to exer--
else the right of suffrage, while he spoke of
making arrangements for sending them
away from the State, and forcing them to
settle elsewhere, yet when be found that
with all his registrations, with all his remov-
ais and appointments, and all his disfran-
chisements of counties, it was impossible
for the Legislature and himself still further
TO retain power, he appealed to the Legs
lature in the fall of 1866, or the spring of
1867, when the House had rejected univer-
sal amnesty and universal suffrage, to come
to the rescue, and put the ballot in the
hands Of the negro, which they Of course
did. The Governor said:
must, therefore, be permitted to express
the hope that this General Assembly will
not cease its present session without the
passage of the bill granting suffrage to all
loyal males properly qualified by age and
citizenship. Coward" is the watchWord
which shields and inspires two continents
Now is the time for Tennessee to show to
the world that she belongs to the advance
guard on the great question of equal suf-
frage. With the loyal men of the State al
lowed to vote, the government thereof will
remain in loyal hands. Without their votes
the States will pass into disloyal hands, and
a reign of terror, not so easily described
as realized, will result.
Mr.. Speaker: the great point desired to
make in a personal explanation was that
l had not falsely charged any man when
stated a pandemonium had been made in
the State of Tennessee. If had omitted !
to use the more refined word, and said the
condition of things in
TENNESSEE WAS A HE'LL on EARTH,
l should hardly have gone beyond the truth. !
can 90 over the record of the State of
Tennessee and show step by step, how that !
- L
ed; how irresponsible and plundering mill !
tia were organized and put over the people |
of that State enforce obedience to political !
mandates; how military orders were exc
cuted; how proclamations were made; how |
martial law was declared, and how all these
things were done upon
THE SIMPLE DICTATION OF THE GOVERN
OR OF TENNESSEE,
backed and supported by a Legislature re-
presenting a very small minority Of the /
people. l will not take up the time Of the
House in reading them, but will incorpo-
rate them as part of my remarks. Then
gentlemen will see that what have stated
of the State Of Tennessee in that connection
was strictly true; that it was the worst
governed State upon the American CONT
nent. her people disfranchised, and disorders
prevailing b6CduS0 Vi IL,
A HUNDRED THOUSAND
of her men kept from the polls; a militia
to no one but the Governor
sweeping the State from end to end, and
thrown out whenever itgsuited
him. IEhave before me the testimony of
the most loyal men in the State, men like
Mr.. a. A. Steele and Hon Edmund Cooper,
himselfa candidate for Congress, showing
that all these men were DISTINGUISHED, and
all these things were done, all this dis
turbance created, the militia ordered out
and men kept from the polls, ali simply for
the purpose (snd for no ether purpose) of
electing Legislature and Governor who
were creating all these disturbances and
committing all these outrages.
THIS Is THE SWORN STATEMENT
of this gentleman, Mr.. A. A. Steele, to
which referred:
81 know that several good Union men
were refused certificates by our registrar of
voters, solely, as l believed, because he
thought they would ] OF vote for Brown
low; at least it was very difficult for any of
them to get certificate, and quite easy for
any man, even of rebel antecedents, to get
a certificate to vote if he voted right as it