Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-08-31
THE CONGREssEOxAL CANVASS.


To the people Of the Ninth Congressional Dis
frfct:
Ten days ago 1 announced myself q
candidate for Congress from your dis
trict. AT that time ! promised to give
YOU the reasons for becoming q candi-
date. I now submit them to you can
| didiy and without fear, believing that
YOU will Judge me with equal eandor
and courage, and will not assaiI my mo-
tives nor use the easy art Of misrepre-
s~entation, as do those who are the slaves
Of oppression, and the mere tools Of party
machinery.
was constrained to become q eandi-
| date because men Of both political par
ties desired me to do so; men who do
mot feel themselves represented in the
! candidates selected by the conventions,
and whom they viii not support. The
trickery and corruption of political con-
ventiOns have made them justly OdiOus
to the people.
Coming before you without the per-
| mission of either e or convention,
/ expect the opposition OF those who
have used the party machinery 70 fOist
themselves on the public, and Of those
l who hereafter hope for hOnOrs through
! the same pernicious means. Having
no alliance with any ring, clique or fac
ton, and disdaining to wear the collar
of partisanship, the curse of American
politics and the enemy Of good govern
ment, 1 come before you unaided by the
| spoils of Office and unsupported by the
terrors of the party lash.
III were a mere ofiee-seeker, Ishould
haveused the machinery Of party to aid
me in securing the emoluments and
hOnors of Office, but / am bold enough
to believe that a nominee Of a conven-
| ton has no better right to address you
and to ask your support than / have, or
any other citizen has. i shall make no
appeals to the passions or prejudices OF
/ the hour, but address your Judgment,
your sense of right, of Independence OF
character and your patriotism. A large
majority Of the people Of this district
and of the State are Conservative in
their political opinions, but they have
been forced by the despotism Of party
leaders to suppress their honest convie-
tons and their sense Of duty to them
selves and country. Iserved four years
as a Confederate soldier. Ny voice was
against a precipitation Of the two sec
tiOns Of the Republic into the late IN
happy war, but when those more ready
than 1 brought it on, my convictions OF
| duty led me to 90 with my State, and
cast my life and fortune into the strug-
gle, and gave the best years Of my early
manhood to the unequal conflict. 1 oc-
cupied no sinecUe or bomb-proof posi-
ton.
When Appomatox Court House wit
messed the closing scenes of our terrible
struggle, 1 accepted my parole, and
with it the situation the parole itself
recognized. 1 returned to my allegi-
lance to the government Of the United
States not merely in form but in spirit
and in truth. Educated a Constitution
al Democrat, l have maintained the
Constitution as it is, and advocated and
battled for the political principles now
embodied in the Cincinnati platform,
and readOpted by the Baltimore Con-
vention. / was considered ain advance
of the time" but the progress Of events
has forced the politicians up to where l
have long been holding the standard OF
the people.
From the late Congressional Demo-
cratic Convention, the people confident
ly expected a nomination of q who,
in some degree, represents the new order
Of things, and whose political blood was
young and new enough to give vitality
to the ticket. But the convention was
run in the old grooves. sOiled a they
have been by the hands Of manipulatOrs,
and so ciOgged with old rust that it re-
quired many hours of hard labor to re-
store the old machinery to working Or
der.
Am I a d1sorganizer because / protest
against the action Of a convention which
violated the confidence of the peOple2
Am l a disorganizer because IGNORE
the nomination OF q convention, a ma
iority of whose delegates admit that the
action of the convention has q o enough
! fair dealing it to bind them to support
it? Am l q disOrganizer because l be-
lieve the convention was not true to its
own convictions of political duty to the
people. Am / a disOrganiZer because /
believe the delegates in the convention
had no power to bind the people after
violating the confidence reposed in
them? a
In 1858 and 1859 we had a COnserva-
tive party in this State; in 1870 it was
progressive, and adopted q State con
stitution recognizing universal suffrage
and the equality before the law of every
citizen, white and black. In 1872 we see
it adopting a Republican party platform,
but in its party organization it is as hide
bound as il was in 1865 when it de-
nounced the constitutional amendments
as the work of fraud and violence,
and denounced those who recognized
them as enemies of the South and trail
tors to the Democratic leaders, as if the
two things were one and the same thing.
T.I-- n.-l.,r- ,.9a - a Da1sa,1
representing the worst features Of the
Republican party, animated by the
spirit of sectional ~partisanship which
gloats over the subjugation Of the South.
Landon O.. Haynes-so far as his pOliti-
cal record a speak for BIN, and nis
political utterances since the war a
bind him-is a Radical Democrat, who
believed that the acceptance Of the sit
uationU was treason, and that universal
suffrage, because it guaranteed the right
tOvote to the colOred citizen, was q crime
against the South.
/ see in those two representatives Of
extreme political opinions the expo
nents Of a White mans party y and a
a Black mans party,u involving a con
test of races which can end only IN the
absolute destruction Of the commercial
and material interests of the South.
The Southern people understand the
political situation, and will work out
their salvation il the politicians Of the
old school viii no longer oppose them.
are two things the Southern peO-
pie desire to do, and will do: First, to
regain for the Southern States positions
in the uew Union equal to those of the
Northern States; and, secondly, to re-
store at home friendly feeling and mu-
tual confidence between the whites and
the blacks. The first can be accom-
plished by o restoration Of a sentiment
of nationality, and a respect and reyer-
ence for the Constitution as it is. The
second by being just and generous to the
eOlOred people, without whose labor
the Southern States would be vast IN
cultivated fields, growing into g wilder
The good viii and good opinion of my
fe~llow-citizens are more precious to me
than the mere honOrs of a public Office.
But the South cannot now return to the
old grooves. If / am elected to Con-
gress l shall 90 there not as the chattel
of any administration or of any party. /
So long as the incoming administration,
whether it be hat of Grant or Greeley,
adheres to that policy Of administration
recognizes and invites equality Of
the States in the Union, l win sustain
it; when it departs from those prinei-
pies which underlie such a policy, L
shall take my position in the ranks of
the opposition ~
The nomination Of Horace Greeley
was the work Of dis~organizers, amajOrity
OF whom were in the ranks of the Re
= 1s.,--,.k Tie AAr,sa,Ts1~ r.~,.A
d~isintegratiOn of the old political war
which are incapable Of inaugu-
and executing a policy Of peace,
because the leaders of these parties were
the authors Of q sectional, civil war, and
If they would, forget the hates
- ox-iI v.oo,Crsoe Of the mast Around