Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-12-04

SOntc uSIS W say VIC arc SOAS " 49,
anyhow, for if the people viii help us
we will stay. Give the Democratic
Legislature chance. The Republican
Legislature made promises, and de-
ceived us. Let US try the Democratic
Congress awhile. The Republican
Congress held up measures before the
people without any intention of carry
ing them through unless they got pay
for it. The civil rights bill they never
intended to pass.
He said that there were parties who
would carry them to the Mississippi
river and then kick them into it, if
they got their pay for it. He was in
favor of staying here for the present
at least. Unless equal rights and JUS
tice were granted to all this country
would go down like all other monarch
les. Look at Ben Butler-he has been
in every mean thing that has originated
in Congress; he has worked only for
pay. See the work he did for Kellogg
in Louisiana, and thetrouble he caused,
then see what the people of Massachu-
sets have at last done for him. Look
at the:Freedman' Saving Bank swindle
that Congress perpetrated upon you;
look at ali these, and then don't pin
your faith to any one till you have
tried them.
Resolutions were presented by va
rious members, acknowledging that the
laws ofGeorgia give them the same
rights on railroads and juries as white
men, but complaining bitterly that in
actual practice they are seldom or
never placed on juries, while the Iail-
roads forbid their going into the cars
of whites, but white men come into
their cars "to their infinite disgust"
A chap named Pledger, evidently
afraid that Georgia negroes might be
swamped by a migration eastward from
Alabama, offered the following:
Resolved, That the colcred citizens
of Alabama be requested not to emf
CRATE from that State, and that the col
ored people on the border of Georgia
and Alabama be requested tomove into
the latter State, provided the Legisla-
ture of that State does not pass obnox-
ious laws.
This same Pledger made a speech, in
which he said:
The people of this State did not re-
ceive their rights from either of the
courts, that is from the Civil and
United States Courts, and the Judges
controlling the latter should be re-
moved at once. A negro who votes the
Democratic ticket is fondled by the
whites, is associated with by them, and
receives welcome at their homes, and
receives from them all that we now ask
in the Civil Rights bill. don't want a
white man In my car, where my wife Is
beside me; he smokes, etc. l don't
want this and won't have it, and will
not associate with the whites until the
Civil Rights bill is passed, and then l
want ali. Shall we leave here or shall
we emigrate? Loud cries of 90, 90,
co. Yes, We Will go either to South
Carolina, Alabama or West. The lat
ter is the best place, ! think. They
may put up the prices on the railroads,
but we will 60 in wagons. There
are a thousand wagons ready to con-
vey us away right now. 1t is my opin-
ion that there will soon be a conven-
ton TO amend the law and enact the
old Imprisonment law, and then If you
dare say you are going West, they will
tell you, you can't, and they Will i'm
prison you for saying so; and again, in
your name, We ask the Congress of the
United States to remove the United
States officials and our government for
failing to administer justice.
Another speaker represented that
the Texas fever was worked up by land
sharks and agents of the railroads with
large land grants, who wanted TO sell
out, and didn't care what became of
the negro, so they got his money. Be-
sides, Texas was a chill country. If
they would go to work and save their
money, they could own half the land
in Georgia in few years. This speaker
was not well received, and his remarks
were subsequently condemned by the
convention.
One Jacobs, an agent Of the Missis-
sippi Bureau Of Immigration spoke
next, landing the advantages offered
by his State with its rich alluvial soil.
He claimed for Mississippi the best
public schools in existence terrible
,l1r -, Fo.,oobu.otke o-J .,11 +bar,
was no political trouble there, as the
negroes had everything their own way,
except that they divided with the
Democrats in order to have somebody
to 60 on their bonds. In response to a
direct question, he confessed that the
tax rate was one and half per cent,
outside Of the county tax-four times
that of Tennessee.
Resolutions were passed condemn
ing the course of the United States
Attorney, also our venerable friend
Sam Bard and one Holtzeclaw, reye-
nue. officer, but in the confusion it was
not clear whether they were adopted or
not.
The second days proceedings open
ed with an address from Gov. Smith.
In response to an invitation of thecon-
vention, he appeared on the stand and
said In substance:
The best thing for the colored peo-
pie to do was to 60 to work. He had
never known an innocent man to be
punished in Georgia. The class of
men you see standing around the cor
ners of streets, ETC., are the kind that
break into the penitentiary, and bring
you all into disrepute; those that work
have other things to think of. As re-
CARDS emigration, you cannot better
yourselves by going to another cOun-
try. You can't be rich, prosperous,
nor happy without you labor. A man
is very sh0rt-sighted who expects to
have peace in this world. He had ad-
ministered the law to the benefit of all,
without exception; and if they could
not live in a country governed by law
they had better go where there was