Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-08-14

Tha contrast bstween the Two candidates
heIno =, :very strong. no fair-miHded Demo
Graf can doubt what be ought to do. Yet,
the reluctance which many of us feel to
vote far either of them is hard to overcome.
did. and do. most heartily sympathize
with tf,at class which received Mr.. Greeley's
nomination in much sorrow. / am sure
This feeling proceeded from no unworthy
nassion or pre;udice, but was the natural
res,iit of sober thought on the condition of
the country and the fitness Of things per-
tanning thereto. 49, 80.
In our view the controversy between the
narties was not about men, and not wholly
On Questions of mere administration. The
Liberal Republicans and some Democrats
think that we owe all our sufferings to the
corruption or incapacity of Gen. Grant and
the RINGS that surround him. But the
nriyne cause lies further back and deeper
down in wrongs for which the triumph of
Mr.. Greeley with all bis reforms offers no
immediate atonement and only a partial
remedy. In England, after every civil COM
motion, the victorious party vented its rage
and gratiied its rapacity by passing bills of
attainder and bills of pains and penalties
against their fallen and helpless opponents.
The best and greatest men of their respect
i've ages were the victims of these legisla-
tive DEGREES. In all the most notable cases
subsequent Parliaments acknowledged the
wrong, reversed the attainders, and made
what reparation they could. Our fathers
determined that no such thing should ever
be done here, and so they put their solemn
interdict into plain words, and made it
part of the fundamental law that neither
Congress or any State Legislature should
ever pass bill of attainder. The recon-
struction act of 1857 was bill Of attainder
more deliberately cruel, and with pains and
penalties more compendiously unjust than
any British bill that ever was passed. But
its authors were conscious that it could not
stand, and they must replace it
with something else, for sooner or
later the courts would be sure to pro-
nounce it void. Besides, the object being
to put the Southern people under the donli-
nation of greedy adyenturers from the
North with unlimited license to Cypress
and plumber them, the officers of the army
were not very good agents in such netari-
Gus business. The negroes would be in
struments of tyranny much more easily
managed. But an act of Congress dis
franchising the white people for offenses
real or imputed, and handing over their
State governments to negroes to be run by
them in the interests of carpet-baggers,
would be merely another bill of attainder,
or rather a modificatio of the first one,
making it much worse, but equally within
the reach of judicial correction. In this
strait they resorted to The expedient of con-
verting the Constitution itself into bill of
attainder. The fourteenth and fifteenth
amendments were frauds upon the spirit
and letter of the instrument, inasmuch as
they effected the worst outrage which it
was made to prevent. They were carried
against the Known will of nearly every
State in the Union, by shameless deception
in the North, and by bl utal violence in the
South. "May this be washed in Lethe and
forgotten? Certainly not as long as any
portion of our people are compelled to bear
the intolerable burden Of the yoke thus fast
ened upon them. Ineed not say hoe much
they have suffered already, nor try to con-
lecture how much they will be called to
endure hereafter; but it is certain that any
ordinary despotism would have been Wis
itation of mercy in comparison. When
we reflect that the number and rapacity of
the thieves that have been upheld
in their pillage by means Of
the negro governments, we cannot
help but regret the non-adoption OF Mr..
SteYens's proposition, atrocious as it
was, for uniVeral confscation. The PERM
cious consequences of this rule are felt in
the general as well as local governments.
The legislation of Congress is largely con-
trolled by fit representatives of the carpet
bag interest, and the worst acts of the Exc
cutive Administration are done to please
the power which cOTrdLs the negroes at the
meeting-places of the Leagues, and drives
them hence to the polls.
Mr.. Greeley's election will do all that we
could wish to free us from these evils. 1t
will not even be a popular condemnation
OF the base means by which they were in
flicted upon us, but it will begin the process
or their gradual extinction. 1t will give
the white people reasonable hope that
the heritable qualities OF their fathers blood
may some day be restored. In the mean
time, if it does not reverse the attainder, it
will at least insure merciful execution of
it. Democrats who disliked Mr.. Greeley's
nomination have reflected well, and think
will support him with almost perfect unani
nifty. The thought that victory will not
give us everything at once may diminish in
some degree ''the rapture of the strife,
but it will not impair the efficiency of their
support, for they are impelled to their ut
most exertions by profound conviction
that nothing but his election will save the
country from long period of misgovern-
ment, and perhaps the total destruction Of
our free institutions. l am with great re-
spect, yours, etc, j. ,. BLACK.
YORK, PA, Aug. 3, 1872.