Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-10-31
TO THE DEMOCRATIC VOTERS OF
TENNESSEE


such information and advice as may seem
necessary to attain the success Of our party,
and through this the triumph of those
political principles which we deem essen
tial to the public welfare. We find the
Radical party of Tennessee thoroughly or
ganized, active, energetic and watchful
It has at its command to do its work in this
canvass thousands ofvolunteers and seven
tenths Of the Federal officials who are to-
be found in every county and in nearly
every civil district of the State. On the
other hand we find the Democratic party
torn with dissensions and distracted about
personal issues as though the contest was
one of men instead of struggle fer prin-
ciple. We find independent candidates
and 'bolters" in every Congressional dis
trict and in nearly every county. thus
endangering the success of the party
and bringing within the range of
reas onable probability, the election of
three or four Radical Congressman and
| greatly jeopardizing Democratic major
ity in the Legislature. The result of the
recent elections in some of the Northern
States has largely increased the probability
| of. Grants reelection, and thus largely in
| creased the necessity for solid Democratic
delegation in the House of Representatives
| from Tennessee in order to prevent
change in our government from Democratic
Republicanism to Radical Consolidation
and Capitalization. This change the
| Grant administration could easily and
would surely make, if we can judge the
future by the past, if the Grant party
| should again have two thirds vote in the
House Of Representatives. The memory
of Radical rule in this State is too fresh
in the minds of our people to require any
argument toprove its certain fatality both 10
our material interests and our political
rights In addition to other important
legislation, the next Legislature will by an
act of the last session of Congress again
lay off the State into Congressional dis
tricts so that we shall have ten Congress
ional districts instead of nine as at present
The Radicals, who claim that they will,
through Democratic disseDsioD, elect ma
iority of the next Legislature, openly avow
that if they succeed they viii so district the
State as to certainly give them five men,
| bers of Congress for the next ten years.
These are matters Of Federal and State
legislation too important AMI too threaten
ing to be overlooked or disregarded.
How shall these apprehended dangers be
| surely avoided? We know of but one plan
which ipsures success: That is for the Dem
ocratic voters of the State, to lay aside all
personal preferences and prejudices, to listen
no longer to the discordsnt voices of those
disorganizers who for months past have
been proclaiming from the stump and the
| tripod that the great political need of the
day is the disruption Of the Democratic
party, and stand firmly in this hour of trial
~, E
and vote for its nominees. The question is
not now whether this or that Democrat
would have made the better candidate, but
whether the nominated candidate is not
preferable to bis Radical opponent. We
have endeavored to obtain from reliable
sources in every county in the State ap-
proximate estimates of the vote that will
be received by the various candidates now
before the people. From the information |
thus obtained we give it as our sincere con- |
Viction that there is not an ''independent"
candidate for Congress, not one, who has
the remotest chance for election. We fur !
ther give il as our earnest conviction that |
the support of these independents" by |
respectable proportion of the Democratic |
voters of the State will ensure the election |
of from three to five Radical members Of |
Congress-among them, that chief of the |
tribe, he who for seven years has been the |
most bitter, the most proscriptive, the most /
vindctive, the most unrelenting enemy OF |
q restoration to the Southern States aud /
Southern people of the rights and privileges |
guaranteed to them by the Constitution of |
the Emitted Ststes-Horace Maynard. Ben
iamin +. Butler of Massachusetts, may
have at some time shown some spirit of
reconciliation, exhibited some disposition
to forgive, manifested some indication Of
returning leniency-Ho-ace Maynard never.
Whenever his single objection could pre-
vent the removal of political disabilities, he
has ever been present and prompt to make
it. After the elective franchise had been
restored TO the people of Tennessee; when
peace, quiet and fraternal feeling prevailed /
in this State, Mr.. Maynard, true to his hos
tility to the people Of Tennessee, went 10
the room Of the Congressional Committee
On Reconstruction and privately placed in |
the hands of its Chairman, B. f. Butler, /
the following propositions to which he had |
obtained the signatures of five of his col
leagues:
"FoRTY-FIRsr CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STs,
WASHINGTON CITY, d. c., Feb. Is, 1870. /
Hon. B. +. BUTLER,
Chairman decentralization Committee:
Gas Representatives from the State Of Ten
ourselves and our constituents, we submit the
following propositions and earnestly press their
immediate consideration upon your committee;
81. We submit that the power now controlling
the STATE of Tennessee is-whOlly Illegal and re-
volutiOnary, brought about by fraud and vio-
lence in CONFIRMATION OF the constitution OF the
State as reOrganized by Congress.
49, That the present State government OF |
Tennessee is wanting in the great and essential |
requisite OF good government T1hG t,v Th 1S
proper protection of the property and the lives
of its citizens.
49, Tie State government Of Tennessee as
now constituted and revolutionized has never
had any recognition by the Government of the
United States, and we ask that Congress take
immediate steps to provide for us government,
republican in form, that will cOnduce to the
happiness OF and welfare Of all its people.
az. We ask that you supplement this work
with an act for the enforcement of the third sec
ton of the fourteenth amendment to the Con-
stitution of the United States"
Signed: SAMUEL NJ. ARNELL,
W. b. STOKES,
W. +. PRossEE,
LEWIS TILLMAE,
W. j. SMITH,
HORACE MAYNARD.
txShall this man Of political vile and pol
itical guile be returned TO Congress from the
State at large by a minority vote? This
must be determined by the Democratic
voters of Tennessee. If they divide their
votes on Cheatham and johnson, as they
now seem disposed to do, 1t would be
idiocy to deny that Maynard will be elected.
A majority of the Democracy of the State
will cast their votes for Gen. Cheatham,
the nominee of the Convention held after
4 two months notice publicly given by the
State Executive Committee. But that
majority must be sufficiently large to
secure the defeat of Mr.. Maynard. We
will give it as our honest belief that Gen
Cheatham's majority over Mr.. johnson IN
Middle and West Tennessee will be greater
not only than Mr.. Johnson's majority over |
him in East Tennessee, but will be greater
han Mr.. Johnson's entire vote in East Ten
nessee, euen though he should get every
Democratic vote cast in that division of the
State al the last election-l6, POI, which is
impossible. That we do not speak at ran
lom we repeat as we have before stated
hat we have endesvored to obtain from
reliable sources in every county Of the
State approximate estimates of the vote
hat will be received by the various eandi-
iates now before the people.
We have reports from seventy-two
counties twenty-five in Rast Tennessee,
,hirtv-one in Middle and nineteen in West |