Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-04-03

Wine VIC tltiiu nave DccH ONeIdMeu Dy the
bayonet and the cannon. Every appliance
by which men have ever been subdued to
tyranny has been held and used in pro-
fusion by the party IN power, from the day
the war closed ON the bloody soil of Vir-
ginia until the present hour.
'Sir," continued Mr.. VOORHEES,. sthe abso-
lutte destruction of free institutions from
the Potomac TO the Rio Grande commenced
with the earliest dawn Of peace. Sherman
received JOhnSton's surrender upon the
precise basis on which the war had been
prosecuted at every stage. He stipulated
that the soldiers of the South shodld lay
down the arms Of their unequal warfare,
return to their States, whose existen &c had
not then been denied, and resume the pur-
suits of industry where they had left on,
subject only TO the destruction of slavery,
which was wrought by the movements q
| armies. and not proclamatiOnS. lie hao
more than thousand preeedents in the de-
[ liberate and recorded actions of this Gov
enm nj for his cOnduct. lie was sus-
tanned by both branches of Congress IN m
Vulnerable ways; by foHr years Of incessant
and yoluminous legislation, 10y the enact
meRt Of app0itionment laws throughout
the States whose people were in rebellion,
by distrcting them for judicial purposes,
by leyying upon them direct taxes as menu
bers of the Union under the Constitution,
by The c0usi ant reception of their represeh-
taiivcg on the floor and in the Senate, 10y
tie most solemn and binding joint resolu-
tiOns and by every other mode IN when
this department Of the Government can
commit and pledge itself. He was upheld
by every document also TO which the name
of the Executive was attached during the
war, by every message, inaugural, procla-
nation, and order of that prolific period.
The courts added their weighly sanction,
from those of the lowest and feeblest
jurisdiction TO those of the lOftiest preten-
sions and powers. No Government in the
widespread history of the nations Of the
earth was ever under voluntary and self-im-
posed obligations of greater force and mag
nitude. The word and the honor Of the
Republic had been plighted over and over
again TO its own citizens and in the sight
and hearing of the civilized world. The
moment. however, that resistance ceased
and the way was opened for the long pent
up purposes of revolution, contradiction,
and rapine, the party in power broke with
shameless haste It's most sacred faith, flung
aside the mask il had worn for years, adj
mitted that previous pretentiOnS and prom
ises were fraudulent, and clamOred with
wild ferOcily against the hero Of ;he march
30 the sea because lac had believed they
were true and sincere aud had acted on them.
The terms which Sherman gave to a
fallen foe had often been rendered to
that foe before he fell but they were
uow madly thrust aside in the hour
of victory, and the general himself de-
nOunced far and wide as a traitor to his
country. The hue-andcry was raised
against him as if he was a fleeing fugitive
from justice. That memorable aud dis
graceful outbmst cannot he covered with
oblivion. il more resembles the enraged
scream of a beast Of prey about to be baf-
fed 0ut ofthr victim than the reasonable ex-
pressions Of human beings. The victim,
however. was surrendered to the clutches
Of an iHaamed and victorious party, and
the work of demolition and ruin was at
once commenced. From turret to founda-
ton you tore down the government of
eleven States. You left not one stone upon
another. You rent all their local laws and
machinery into fragments and trampled
upon their ruins.
"This was the beginning of the present
organization; those odious and rmsighily
fabrics which now cumber the earth, and
which stand IS the open, reekng, and con-
feSSed shambes of corruption, pollution,
and revolving misIrle. They embrace not
one single element Of popular consent.
They are the hideous offspring of your own
unnatural and unlawful force and violence.
The great body of the people Of that I'M
fortunate section had no more share in the
rebuilding of their local governments Than
the SepUvs Of the East Indies have in the
affairs Of the British empire. They were
excluded from all participation 10y the most
elaborate and minute schemes of legislative
prescription of which history makes any
record.
"The first duty Of the provisional govern
mcnts which You established was to call
conventions TO frame new constitutions for
these old States, aud TO prepare them for
r2admssiOn into that Union from which
YOU had sworn 50 often and so sOlemnly
that no State could ever Withdraw. These
conventions were provided for by laws en-
acted here. The number and the quality
of the delegates to them were here speci-
fled. Who should be eligible and who in
eligible was your work, and not the work
Of the peope to be governed. You not
only said who should be elected, but yOu
likewise determined who should elect
them. You fixed the qualifications and
the color Of the voters. You puTged the
ballot box Of the intelligence and the viz
tue on which alone popular liberty can be
safely founded, and you admit in their stead
the suffrage Of the most ignorant and UNI
qualified race now inhabiting the globe"
Mr. Voorhees, then describes the ostra-
cism and political punishments visited upon
the old citizens of the South. Intellect and
virtue, public and private worth, spotless
character, splendid altaiments, graceful cgl-
ture, and the experience and wisdom of age
were all passed by under the reconstruction
Of violence and fraud. In the reorganisa-
ton Of ali the Southern States, the men of
talents, industry and integrity were exclu-
ded from office and the people deprived Of
their services at the most critical period in
the history Of their States. Every man who
had in former days filed any Office, and who
Attll illZ lll' AbliillNb bILNt IiAC 0SlIlbilo
was clothed with the slightest responsibility
or charged with the smallest official duty by
those with whom his destiny and his home
had fallen, was marked by the blight of in.
eligibility, and like the leper of old it was
made a crime for the people to again reach
forth TO him the hand of friendship, CON
fdence, aud support. Even the sacred
instincts Of human nature became disquali-
fcatiuns for office. The ties Of kindred
were made criminal under this new and
revolving system. He who gave a cupo cold
water, and crust of bread to his thirsty and
furnished son. under aims for 4 cause which
he believed 10 be right, and for which he
was willing to die, was branded with dis
honor and driven out from the councils of
his countrymem. The loving mother who
sheltered her weary aud wounded boy, laid
him IN his own familiar bed at home once
more, kissed his feyerish lips, wiped away
the gathering dews Of death, and with