Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1872-05-11
Q withdraw and form such a Govern

to withdraw and form such Govern
ment as we need. /"
Abundant proof exists that the ma
Ijority of the Southern people asket
only their rights under the Bond
These were denied them. Were the,
kicked out of the Union" as mem
Der of Congress asserted when discus
ing reconstruction measures ? Wer,
the people of these seceeding State,
Rebels? =? They broke no law. The,
did only what Massachusetts, and othel
States have always claimed right; 9
right which A. Lincoln asserted il
Congress in 1915 could not be taker
from the States" 1T was inherent il
the nature of the Government"
Did any of the States when helpint
to form the Federal Government give
power to co-erce itself? A. Hamlir
said in the New York Convention: "TC
attempt to co-crce State for any sun
posed delinquency would be the mad
dest project ever devised. No State
would allow itself to he so used, no,
would any State allow its territory tc
be crossed for such purpose"
If the Federal Government had reall,
right to co-erce, why resort to trick.
cry and deceit to bring about coils.
ion between the Federal and State gov.
ernments ? Did not Seward admit to
Mr.. Adams, :" We have contrived to
throw the onus of beginning the war
upon the South y? Can you find q
parallel to this act in all history
Look at it (! Men calling themselves
statesman--men who had taken a
solemn oath to support the Union and
and the Laws, now resorting to trick
cry, and deceit to destroy that Union
and bring on a civil war! A war
which, according to your own words in
1886. would be a "parricidal-a fra
tricidal war, with a wickedness beyond
the wickedness of any war in human
annals"
Can words express the blackness Of
such crimes? Men calling themselves
Observation-Disclosures DESTROYING
that which their fathers reared Phi.
lanthropistl thirsting for blood
Good, good if blood come, let il
GOMEZ 1t cannot come too soon" etc.
And blood you had-the blood of your
slaughtered brethren!
Can you COUNT the number? Do YOU
know how many died of terror, expo
SIRE and want? Your Higher Law
theory has borne terrible fruit. Peo-
pie ignorant of facts cannot conceive
of the outrages and wrongs inflicted
on the Southern people during the war
by Federal soldiers, and since the war
by Federal officials.
A gentleman ofGeorgia says of them
in 1868: We are the carcass; they
the vultures picking our denuded
bones. The little that was left us after
the war they seize, and only release
after paying a heavy bonus into private
pockets. | have even known them TO
steal by night from the pittance of
corn sent down by the Government for
distribution among our starving poor.
They get rich, and retire, and another
horde of vampires takes their place.
Not content with thus dcspoiling us.
they annul our contracts, and toll the
laborers off, under pretense of higher
wages, and under the patronage of a
bureau whose promises are as rotten
as the promises of Pharoah. While
mourning the loss of thousands of the
noblest Of our race; while suffering
the poverty and desolasion with which
our conquerors have visited us; while
memory stings with the rape, the arson
wh,ch parbarians under arms enforced,
and heartless officers permitted, it is
not IN human nature not to- feel resent
iment against those who would still
play the tyrant, and grind us in the
dust o..
Az pic-nic In ONO, given to some
returned soldiers, General Sherman is
reported as saying to them: He did
not WISH they should feel badly on ac
count OF anything they had done to
the southern people, for they, by their
act OF secession, had forfeited all right
to anything, even their lives. Every
thlng belongs to the United States
Government, and L as their agent gave
you PERMISSION to take whatever the
Quartermaster did not want"
Facts, many of them, in their nature
so ,barbarous as to be almost beyond
peilet, conhrms the sentiment uttered
Dy sherman, and leads all who know
theSe facts, to infer that the object of
the federal soldiers, backed, ofcourse,
py the Federal government, in their
war upon the South-was Ito destroy
10 kill-t9 cause to perish, all, both
young ana oIdIiittle children and wo-
men-and to take the spoil of them for
a Prey
W lthess thc wanton destruction of
private property by the raiding cavalry
listen 10 the spirited reply of lady
OF ~, who, after having twenty (26)
SIX army wagons filed with plunder by
Shermans men, was ordered out of the
mouse mat they might burn 1t, If you
Durh the mouse you burn me in it.