Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-05-15

single colored man in the Legislature
which elected him to the United States
Senate. Therefore Brownlow argues
that he is not indebted to the negro for
anything. With candid bluntness, he
attributes his successive triumphs sole.
ly to the policy of Acknowledgement,
saying of his last promotion:
There were but four Democrats out
of one hundred and nine members, and
If there had not been a colored man In
the State there would not have been
exceeding a dozen Democrats elected
to the Legislature because of the policy
of Acknowledgement, if nothing else.
The above line of statement; which
hardly varies from the historic facts,
but merely leaves out of sight link
here and there which would rather
weaken the chain, is well calculated to
mislead the ''unintelligent members of
the convention" to whom it is address.
ed Take, for instance, the following
passage, relating to 1861 and 1862:
Passing over the events that result
ed in my Punishment from my house
and State, will say that with the Fed
eral occupation of the State, 1 began
the agitation of the freedom of the col.
ored people, and ceased only when the
shaekles had fallen from every slave in
the land"
No one would care to gainsay one
word of this statement. Yet the sim.
ple-minded man and brother viii think
there must be something wrong In it,
when we quote from Brownlow's mes
sage to the Legislature in October,
1865. the following condemnation of
both the principle and expediency of
negro suffrage:
think it would be a bad policy, as well
as wrong in principle, to open the bal
lot-bOx to the uniformed and exceed
ingly stupid slaves of the Southern
cotton, rice and sugar fields.
1t is quite evident that the ex-Gov-
ernor looks on large portion Of the
Tennessee negroes of to-day, and pref
ty much all their leaders, as still "un-
informed and exceedingly stupid" In
his message of 1866, he continued:
When the people of Tennessee be-
come satisfied that the negro is worthy
of suffrage they will extend it, and not
before; and repeat that this question
must be regulated by the State author
ties and by the loyal voters of the
State, not by the General Government
In other words, Mr.. Brownlow op-
posed the means by which the great
mass of Southern negroes were endowed
with the sufrage-opposed the only
means by which they were at all likely
to obtain it-namely, the Intervention
or the General Government, by the
adoption and enforcement of the
Fifteenth Amendment.
But Brownlow changed his tune in
1866. Why? Let us see. That was
a troublous year with the Radical ring
masters. There were three sessions of
the Legislature. Why? Because
under the first franchise law, So many
taxpayers got a chance to vote, that
the local elections showed the whole
Brownlow concern would go by the
board in the next State campaign.
They patched up more stringent law
to disfranchise all Rebels" still
leaving the negroes out in the cold.
The troubles attending the passage of
the law developed an annoying amount
of Democratic strength IN the Legisla-
ture, and to make things doubly sure,
a third franchise law was enacted in
February, 1867, enfranchising the
blacks as so many Radical recruits,
and at the same time DISTINGUISHING
more of the whites. Practically, the
law pretty much ostracized all
but those who would vote the Brownlow
ticket. That this law was inspired
by the exigencies of the party, and not
by any desire to elevate the NEGRO, is
shown by the fact that an attempt to
give him the right to sit on juries was
defeated at the same time.
We might cite Mr. Brownlow's plan
for packing the negroes off to them
selves in some semi tropical territory
like New Mexico, besides other curious
links in the chain of events since the
war; but the above suffice to show his
beautifully varied consistency on the
everlasting "nigger" question.
To return to his last and third letter
on civil rights. He accuses the negroes
of reversing Judge Taney's decision
and proelaiming that white men have
no rights which negroes are bound to
respect. The following abstraction, If
uttered by a Democrat, would be con-
strued into prediction of the destruc-
ton of their present freedom:
When the Secessionists of the South
went to war for an abstractiOn-the
right" to take slaves into territories
where the laws OF God and nature made
slavery Improbable, as the Colored
Convention propose to wage war upon
the white race for an abstraction IN CON-
pelling the co-education of the races, l
predicted the destruction of slavery.
The following string of extracts may
be regarded as embodying the Senator's
ultimatum to his quondam clients:
1t is a well known fact that several
thousand white men and ex-Union SOL |
diers In East Tennessee voted for nv
competitor in 1867, because of my
friendship for the co-ored race and ad-
vocacy of their political mot social |