Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-10-15


"There never was a time when brains
Wasniose needed" says the Banner, whose
italics and bad grammar we but quote.
Yet it is the Bonner and Mr.. johnson who
seek to ostracize the brains of Tennessee
that were on the Confederate side. In this
they both directly oppose the spirit aud the
lester Of Mr. Greeley's campaign, who said
in bis speech at the Gait House, Louisville,
at is not for the sake of the prescribed
alone, that speak. Every community has
a right to the best services of all its citi-
zens." The Banner says with emphasis
that ''the war parties must go out of etis-
tence, = but 1t goes further than Rsdicalism
in prescribing class whom Radicalism no
longer proscribes; and Mr.. Greeley says
publicly that SO long as you have any class,
however small, prescribed for rebellion'S
sake, SO long will their honest neigh
bors side with them, saying it was
merely an accident that these
men held ofi-e before the
war while we did. not; We are as guilty as
they, though they are prescribed and We
are not. It is through just this process, 90
accurately detailed by Mr.. Greeley, that
Mr.. johnson and his organ have evoked
something like what they now deprecate
as an esprit da corps Of the lost cause.
Tennesseeans are not ashamed Of their
manhood; they fought like men, and failed;
like men they accept results; but they
recognize in Mr.. johnson or the Banner
tripod, no spiritual right to search their
souls and force them to ''confess crime"
1t Is the glory Of England that she has for
centuries refused to recognize political
offences as crimes. Even Radicslism has
never required from ex Rebels confession
Of crime. Mr.. johnson, while Mil
itary Governor, never embodied such
requirement is bis ingenious
ly devised, copper bottom, IRON
clad eaths. But now, in the eighth year of
peace, ex Rebels like the Banner. demand
OF their confederstes such confession Of
crime, although the Banner itself has never
made such confession, but pleads the baby
act. How sharper than serpent's tooth is
the tongue Of an ungrateful child.
Wego further than our contemporary in
saying that ''the only parties which can pos
ably exist in this country after Nov. 5,
1872, will be those only that are sincere
and earnest in the parpstua,ion of this Re
public, this Union" We say, further, that
only such parties do exist or can exist to-
dsy-that only such parties do or can exist
In the South. Weagree with Mr.. Greeley
that, if ever there should arise
another secession party, which Heaven
forefend, it viii not be in the South. Any
one who represents the temper of the
South otherwise, but joins the Radicals in
misrepresenting our people. So long as
ex-Confaderates, in the first flush Of defeat
held aloof, their modssty might have been
misconstrued into she sullen morosenes:
of plotting foe. But now, in resuming
their normal position among an ex-CoDfed
crate people, participating in Federal poll
tics, and joining hands With the Liberals
the North, they give the best evidence pos
sible of returning Interest in the affairs c
the country and their fealty TO its future
They are not blind, nor are they mora
monsters: they are as much concerne
in the future Of the government
uuder which their children an
their children's children viii live, as tn
veriest loyalist in the land. And they ar
honest men; their record through the los
cause is itself a proof Of their loyalty to hon
est convictions. They are not re-actionisi
in any legitimate sense of the WORD; IL
only the Mortons and Conklings and Can
erons, who charge them absurdly with seek
ing to re-establish slavery or pay Rebel per
sions. They are re-actionists indeed again'
the corruption that rules the hour. The
are re -sctionists, like Gratz Brown, Schul
J and Summer, against the one-man powt
that threatens to swallow up this republ
: in concentrated despotism. If that
! Gstraason make the most of il,