Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-12-27
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Admitting that there is an irrepres-
sible conflict going on at the South,
permit us to ask: "What is your RENE
dy tor it?" The carpet baggers, seal
awags and negroes, as you call them,
could not get Office in the cotton belt
but for negro suffrage; with negro
suffrage they cannot fairly be prevent
ed non getting the Offices; do you pro-
pose, then, TO disfranchise the negro as
a remedy, and. if not, what other rem
edy do you think should be resorted
tOs In our Judgment, the remedy
rests entirely with the white people of
the South.-Chattdnooga Commercial.
We agree, and have for years insist
ed, that the remedy rests entirely with
the people of the South. If the Re-
publican party had let it rest there,
blacks as well as whites would be a
great deal better off to-day, and the
problem would have been eliminated
from politics years ago. Our remedy"
therefore, is not new one, but very
old--as old, at least, as our American
idea of government. 1t Is the local
management of local affairs. Let the
Southern people, whites and blacks,
adjust themselves to their new re-
lations. The Southern white under,
stands the black, while The Northern
does not. So the negro understands
the Southron, while he does not under
stand the Northern adventurer, as the
Freedman's Savings Banks amply
prove. Let us work out this problem
for ourselves. We are the interested
parties, and our interest is to adjust on
a basis that viii be permanent because
Just. In asking this, we ask no more
than we have always accorded others.
We have never sought to regulate the
relations of labor IN the North. We
have never interfered in their strikes,
and the "locking-out" and discharging
Of workmen, and the widespread riot
ting that has often accompanied these
disturbances. We take it for granted
that the people interested, employer
and employees, understand their situa-
ton better than we do, and can adjust
the matter more to their own satisfac-
ton.
The notion Of our contemporary
that with negro suffrage, carpet
baggers and scalawags cannot fairly
be prevented from getting the Offices"
would be laughable, if we had not so
many sad proofs to the contrary. Negro
suffrage has not, does not, and viii
not keep them in power. State after
state, Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia,
North Carolina, Texas, Arkansas, Ala
bama and louisiana have overthrown
themat the ballot-bOx, notwithstanding
negro suffrage. Federal bayonets
have been appealed to at every step to
sustain the lettering mountebanks.
Louisiana is kept under Kellogg's heel
to-day, only by Federal intervention,
and the Astounding loyalty of Louis
ianians to the United States. Under
like circumstances, Massachusetts her.
self would manifest no such loyalty,
but become as disloyal as she was Just
one hundred years ago. Everywhere,
even in South CSrolina, negro suffrage
has proved insufficient, and the aid of
Federal soldiery has been evoked. Now
that the negroes of Mississippi threaten
to elect Democratic Legislature next
year, that State also must be placed
under martial law. Witness the re-
cent caucus of Southern Republican
Congressman, and their demands on
their Northern brethren for fresh in
reference. Need We say more in dis
proof of the Commercials assertion ?