Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-01-14
TIE CIVIL RIGHTS BSBGE.
, the Union and American:

10 TIC lllOu anu ALACAttsAts
NASHVILLE, Jan. 23-The supple
mentary negro civil rights bill, intro
duced into the House of Representa-
tiyes by Big Pussy Butler, the would-be
but couldn' t-be Governor of MassachU-
sets, Is Just throwing a tub to the
whale. The SalaIy-Grab party Is on It's
last legs, and this is a desperate effort
at a new departure. 1t was born IN
strife and can live only by blood, thun-
der, or corruption. The questions
which gave it birth have long since
been settled ut the lannon's mouth,
and it has Outlived Its usefulness.
Since that settlement, its history has
been, four years of sectional Oppres-
sion of the South by Ku-Klux
and reconstruction laws, followed
by four years of unparalleled cor
ruption, reaching every State, eOun-
ty, city and village II the land.
The credit mobilier showed the cloYen
foot, and the Philadelphia Convention
proclaimed for new departure IN the
way of economy and reform. But there
has been no economy we know Of, I'M
less Grant has stopped drinking-f
that be true; and as for the reform, the
people cant see it." So now they
have sent their High Priests and Ring
Leaders to the top of the mountain of
corruption to spy out what shall be
done. And what do they see? To
their intense disgust they find the
whites and blacks at the South getting
to better understand each other, and
the new order of things beginning to
work for the interests Of both races
peace and harmony prevailing to suchan
extent that the colored people do now
enjoy all the privileges of the white
people; and after their own fashion,
have a school system, a duplicate of the
whites; they are elected to Offices. etc.
in short getting along splendidly,
and the Chief Priests say unto them
selves, this will never do, we must be-
stir ourselves, else the colOred vote at
the South Will be lost to us. How TO
prevent it was referred to the Ring
leaders, who promptly say we must
make the colored folks believe that they
still have rights which are withheld,
and who so apt to pronounce it in the
halls of Congress as the veritable b. T.
B.. neat candidate for the Presidency,
who comes forward ard declares that
he had recorded an oath on the battle
field some ten years ago (Which
he had conveniently forgotten
until the present suspicious mOment),
to force equality Of the races; he then
alludes to the dead upon the field of
bittle-and says 1.-The bronzed faces
turned upward to the morning sun,
fully attest the bravery Of the race
Does it not occur to the colOred race
that that same battlefield proved an
other fact, that the Republican party
has been, still is, and ever VIII make
cats paws Of the colOred people, to DO
their fighting, to suffer the penalty Of
their unwise legislation and to hold
their position by obtaining the suf-
frages Of the same class, which
they get by false representa-
ton and fraud, such as is
meant and intended by this "CtUit
Rights Bll2' The colored people are
fast finding out who are their friends,
whether it is the men they are in daily
contact with or those In the magnih-
cent distance, who profess such analogy
ed lore for them? The great mass of
the colored people IN the South, except
in a few cases, where they have been
melted to do mischief by some white
interloper, have behaved with a re-
markable degree of prudence, and we
feel safe in saying that Congress can
pass any laws it pleases, to make a rup-
ture between the races Of the South
that both viii continue to exercise the
same forbearance and prudence towards
each other in the future as they have
in the past. And if the white