Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-08-13

Act, act in the living present;
Heart within and God Oerhead."
We have now answered why we think
Democrats should support Greeley. Let
as come to the other question, why
should we support Grant? When he
refused TO receive the surrendered sword
of General Lee, the Southern soldiers
| honOred him. When he stayed the ar
rest of General Lee by President John
son, our hearts warmed greatly toward
him. After he had said, q Let US have
peacer and after his election to the
| Presidency, the Southern people and the
/ Southern press almost unanimously
ceased opposition to him and prophesied
] well of his administration. We all hoped
/ for the best, but hope deferred soon made
the heart sick. Instead of peace, we
| found him preparing as if for war;
Georgia, which had passed through all
| the travail of reconstruction and been
admitted as a State. was remanded to a
| territorial condition; the Infamous ku-
/ klUx laws were concocted and passed,
and armed soldiers quartered on citizens
in time of peace; the hd6eds corpus
writ was suspended; innocent men were
/ deprived of liberty on suspicion, and,
after false prosecutions and convictions,
on the perjured testimony of hired in
| formers, were incarcerated in the peni-
tentiaries of distant States. The inhu-
man militia of
NORTH CAROLINA AND ARKANSAS,
without one word of objection by the
! Federal authorities, were permitted to
carry on wholesale robbery and butchery
of the people of those States. Amnesty
was refused to our prominent men, IN
| less they would ask for it on bended
knees and pledge themselves to become
members of the Republican party. And
when application was made to Grant to
assist in obtaining aid from Congress
to rebuild the Mississippi levees, which
he had cut to waste, the brutal response
was: ''if you are too poor to rebuild your
own levees, sell your lands 10 Northern
men, who can and will rebuild them"
And all this under the siren song, "Let
us have peace.n We supposed when
we first read this declaration that he
meant peace, but we have learned by
sad experience that it was mistake in
the printer, who inserted an "a" for
an ri" He meant peice, and when
thus spelled the whole body of cormo-
rant Republicans, like hungry darkies at
a barbecue whosmel the roasting meat,
joined joyfully in the shout "let Us have
piece" When the Alaska job was being
put through they were rather new at the
business-were little shy, and whis-
pered softly, "let US have piece" But
when San Domingo was about to be
gobbled up, like fish fed in pond, they
had become more bold, and were all
floating around with open mouths, cry
ing ''let us have piece" while Grant, it
is said, was preparing to perform the
part of the whale in the gObbling opera
ton.
The richness of the spoils of office re-
calls deserters like Logan, and brings to
the camp new soldiers of fortune like
James Low, of South Carolina, who has
been for long time watching with
longing eyes the proceedings in the
Radical camp, and shivering out in the
cold like wet and hungry spaniel of a
winter day, and who at last comes
whining up: LET me have piece"
When Mississippi was to be robbed, the
carpetbaggers of every shape, from
DANDY A1IEs
to horse-faced Eggleston-Of every hue
and color, from pale-faced Morgan and
saddle-celored to ebony Moore, came
swarming down upon us like the hun
CRY mosquitoes of the swamps, and stick
ing in their little bills, say, hIset US have
piece" And there they hover around
the State and County Treasurers', the
SheTiffs' offices, and all the public Of
fees where money is to be found, and
suck until their little bellies are so full
that they can suck no more, and they
are compelled by very obesity to fall off.
They are fastened upon like the "Old
Man of the Sea- and as Mr.. Greeley
says, they obey the apostolic Injunction
to "prey" without ceasing. They have
added millions TO the public debt of
every Southern State; they have issued
and appropriated bonds for railroads
never intended to be built; they have
been defaulteTs in State and Federal
offices; they have made fraudulent con-
tracts and issued fraudulent warrants
from our Boards of Supervisors; they
have engaged openly in the sale Of
courthouse lots in our counties, where
appointed Commissioners tOlocate them;
they have polluted our courts of Justice
by prosecuting some men and by sup
pressing and dismissing indictments
against others; they have made our hall
of Representative a den of thieves, and
for want of other cattle have bought and
sold themselves in the very temple of
our legislation. They have scattered
over the Southern States, and
"Wherein they move in anger, desoIation
tracks their progress;
Wherein they pause in amity, affiicuon
mOurns their friendship"
If Horace Greeley had never of
fered himself as bail for our imprisoned
ehieftain; if he had never proclaimed
universal amnesty; if he had never ac-
complished another good deed, if he had
never uttered one other word of consOla-
ton to US, his name should be en-
shrined in the Southern heart for those
words, which should be written in letters
of gold and transmitted to our latest
posterity: 1.-The thieving carpetbaggers
are
A MOURNFUL FACT.n
We have thus contrasted the opposing
candidates; let US now turn for a mo-
ment to the opposing platforms. If each
party was entitled to equal credit for
honesty of purpose, there might be little
to cavil about in the enunciatiOn of
their principles. But when we find
party passing kuklux laws whose
chief has reported the South to be at
peace; resisting by every possible dodge
the reform of the civil service, when its |
leader has outwardly recommended it, |
and resisting the passage of the amnes- |
ty law when its President processes to |
desire it, we are convinced that there is |
either a total want of harmony in the |
party, or else the grossest attempt has |
been made to practice fraud upon the |
country. In either event the party is |
of confidence. The Liberal |
platform proclaims all that we expect |
or desire from the Liberal Republicans, |
and if we assist in electing their candi- |
date, we shall expect from them q fair |
administration of its principles. How |
is it with the Radical proscriptive Re
publican platform? The fourth section |
proclaims the duty of the government |
in protecting its citizens everywhere u |
and yet it is well known that an Ameri- |
can citizen has been imprisoned for |
months on the island of st. Domingo, |
simply because he was opposed to |
Grants scheme of acquiring that island, !
and it was feared he might enlighten |
the people in regard to their right if he
was turned loose. This is certainly |
most fragrant instance of profession un- |
sustained by practice.
The fifth section makes honesty, eff |
cheney and fidelity essential qualifica- |
tions for public position, and when we /
the appointment of Murphy, |
Casey, Leet, Emery and hundred 9TH
er thieves of lesser note, we are lost in |
of the
COOL IMPUDENCE
of men who can announce such plat |
form in the face of such practice. 1t is |
said that the ancient soothsayers could /
not look each other in the face without /
and we can imagine what a
scene there was when this clause was
and what CHASTITY grin
must have passed around the circle,
with Morton trying to look solemn, Ben
Butler giving his cock-eye a more know
ing leer, and John Logan turning his /
gaze to the West and counting to HIM
self the profits to be made from his ex-
pected dealings with the Teton Indians. |
In the same section they make myste-
1. -As