Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-09-17
TBROWNLOW.'
He Says the Civil Rights Bill Will De
the Prelude 10 n Military esPotisn
The south and the Third Term.
Knoxville cor. Of the New York Herald

He Says the Civil Rights bAti VIII
the Prelude 10 n Military DesP0tism
The south and the Third Term
Knoxville cor. of the New York Herald
This morning your correspondent
called at the residenceof Senator Brown
low on Cumberland street In this city.
1t is proper to state that his health
has been much improved by his pro
tracted soiourn in his old home. he
enjoys a joke keenly and laughs heart
lily when a good story is told IN ms
presence. Ineed hardly state that he
watches the course Of political events
closely, and now hat Tennessee is a
unit, the whole whitepopulatlon having
accepted his opinions as these affect
the Civil Rights bill, the Senator IS
deeply interested in the courseo f events
in Alabama and other Southern States:
In Alabama the fercest political
conflict that has sheer waged since lS4O
Is now pending, and the very results
predicted by Senator BrownlOw IN De
cember last have su~pervened. The
Civil Rights bill has shaped the issue,
and the contest is one of races and not
of parties. 1t is not only political but
social and personal. The white man
who votes with the negro becomes IN
the eyes of the populace, anegro and Is
assigned a negro position in social life.
1t may be wrong or unwise or absurd,
but such is the fact .ud statesmen
must recognize facts.
When / entered Senator Brownlow's
apartment / found him lying on a sofa
surrounded by gentlemen from differ
ent parts of the country. They were
engaged in discussing the very ques-
tons which now engage popular atten-
ton everywhere.
l asked, "To what, Senator, do you
ascribe the frequent recurrence of col
lisions between whites and blackss"
Senator Brownlow-Plainly enough
the number of these deplorable incl
dents have been multiplied of late, and
they have their origin in the Civil
Rights bill. Negro speakers, and
newspapers, and dishonest, unscrupu-
lous Adventures In politics have fast
ened on the negro mind the conviction
that the Civil Rights bill will make
black white and destroy the last bar
rier between the races, not only invest
ing the negro with every social privi-
lege he would enjoy, but obliterate
every distinction made by the God of
nature and by negro instincts and
habits Of life, shaped and crystalized
through countless centuries.
COrrespondent-In view of the fact
that hostility to the Civil Rights bill Is
universal among the whites of the
South, what will probably be the con-
duct of the North9
Senator-There is but n of two
courses to be pursued. Either the North
must recognize the palpable fact that
the social relations of the races must
be left to regulate themselves, without
the intervention of the law-making
power, or the Civil Rights bill, becom-
ing the law, must be enforced at the
point of the bayonet. In other words
the enactment of the bill is the instant
transformation of our republican sys-
TEN of government, and that Of the
South must be a military despotism.
How soon the North would lose its lib
critics after thoseof the Southern States
were annIhilated would be a question
for one mana President In name, a
dictator in fact-to determine. While
Presi emit Grant is incapable, in my
opinion, of such conduct, yet 4 Presi-
dent welding the army and having it
distributed over the South to preserve
the peace, would have absolute control
over elections in fifteen States. The
white people would not vote ana cleo
tons would be farcical. Not only are
the fortunes of the South, but quite as
deeply are those of the North, involved
in the defeat of the Civil Rights bill.
ICorrespOndent-What do you think
of the third term andsOf Grants as
sent to a candidature?
Senator-Much nonsense has been
written about the dangers of this pro-
posed elevation of President Grant in
point of honor above his predecessors
in the high Office he has administered
most wisely and well. Do you know
that Andrew jackson would have held
a third term if his health had not been
impaired by his residence In the White
House by the wound inflicted in a duel
iand by his growing old ages Hon.
Eohn Bell, of this State. used to tell in
conversation (and Mr.. Bell was incapa-
BILE of falsehOOd) long after Jackson
died, that such were the intentions and
such the ambition of the hero Of the
Hermitage, and Jackson was not the
less a patriot or hero or statesman.
Ills third term would have been moth
ing more than an extension of the first
two, and popular liberty as perfect after
as before the event. Such would be
the issue of Grants third term, and l
can only say that if Grant vetOes the
Civil Rights bill he can carry each
Southern State having a white major
ity.
Senator rownlow severelydenounced
the outrages recently committed in
Gibson and other counties of Tennes-
see, and said he was well pleased to find
that Gov. Brown had gone in person to
the scene of these outrages to assure
the arrest of the muFderers.