Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1872-05-23
A INDEED.

A DESPOTISM INDEED.
Ten years ago, the Southern Confed-
eracy was bouyant, sanguine and despotic
in the luxurious plentitude of its power
VIZ and glory. Nearly a million OF chlvalrous
md enthusiastic ASonthrons stood behind
bayonets. cannons and breastworks, each
one inspired with an earnestness and zeal
as if his individual endeavors were the
s pivotal point on which the d~estinies of the
eas South would turn. The Confederate
armies had achieved many important vic
tories. Prisons were swarming with blue
iiveried %captives. France was watching
the struggles with selfish interest and had
placed MAMMALIAN on alMexican throne.
= England had invested largely in the Con-
SD federate Cotton Loan-rescued Mason
and Slidell, the Confederate ambassadors,
from our guardianship and the favor OF
the Crown had permitted the construction,
ct British ship-yards, of iron vessels to
prey upon our commercial marine. lnva-
sions Of large armies were penetrating
loyal states. The exquisite friendliness
of Northern Copperheadism was inspiring
the expectation that the Government must
finally surrender to the rebellion under
the compulsion of a strong public senti-
ment. The spurred and booted heroes OF
Jefferson Davis rode their war steeds with
an air of superb confidence. The press
fed their gormandizing readers upon the
sweet pabulum of ingeniously fabricated
falsehoods, whilst the cowardly stay-at-
homes completed the measure of %contri-
buttons to the rebellion in gasconade and
expressions of Union men. In this hey
day of the Confederacy. it will be remem-
bered by thousands of maltreated union
lists with the most vivid recollection, that
these ''home guards" spared no pains to
bring them under the most merciless sur
v%eillance of military despotism. The gleam-
ing bayonet was pointed into door Of every |
loyal man. They were arrested upon the
streets, the highways. in the field. the
workshop and dragged forth from their
beds at midnight by a Hardened and bru-
tai soldiery and sent to prison to die,
amid its filth, vermin and loathesomeness,
the ~victions of disease and starvation.
Now, these facts are both the written and
unwritten history of the Southern
rebellion. The war is over, the Con-
federacy is torn to pieces, the Govern
ment is triumphant. What is the re-
suit? Not a single rebel has been
punished for treason. His bloody skirts
have been washed las white as snow"
with a baptism of amnesty and pardon.
No bayonet, or prison or gallows s~hackles
his liberty of thought, speech and action.
He is beneficiary of magnanimous deal
ing, and enjoys. in the fullest degree, the
restoration of a forfeited citizenship. And
yet. lin the face of these historic truths,
we frequently hear rebels declaring that
this is the most tyranical Government on
the face of the earth, shaming even Euro
pean despotism in the wanton excuses of
heartless power. OF course, these gen-
rtlemen, SO zealously devoted to the Lost
Cause are ~irreparably injured by the re-
voting outrages they have suffered, and
their hope and opportunity of compensa-
tory redress and Arrangement are compass
cd in the election of Horace Greeley.
AL A-
This candidate of Great Expectations, in
yscognition of the chief element of his
support, will abrogate the dictatorship
shat has characterized the Presidency Ct
Grant, scatter the myrmidons of Repub
licanism like a flock of frightened sheep
and destroy the lost vestige of Radical
occupation in the white House," Poi
Then the tyrannies of a loyal admins
tration will have passed away, and recall
ed from the fields of war and the obscurity
cot political existence since the war, Eve
will rally once again" to the places of
power and %satiate our hungry souls upon
the spcils and honors of which we have
been SO long and previously deprived
For this transformation we must depend on
great and good Horace Greeley" We must
forgive and forget the hard words he has
said-the injustice he has p~ractised upon
a. We must conquer at the ballot aox the
soldier who conquered us in the field. We
must ayenge the suffering, trials, morti6-
cation and disgrace of our defeat. To
the orders of Greeley, March, and may a
1sword pierce the heart of him who refuses
70 obey the command. =
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