Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-10-03

DescrtIOhs from the Hh&hAs- AEAus
ness OF the People i'm Their OPPOSE
ton 20 Negro Equality.
Chattanooga Correspondence Of tbe New York
Tribune,
From present indications, the Demo-
cratic marty will make larger gain of Con-
greSsmen iii this State at the ensuing No
Yember election than In any other State OF
the Union. The present representation
stands seven Republicans TO three Demo-
cTats. After November il is likely to be
nine Democrats to one Republican. This
is a very large gain in State sending bat
ten Congressman, and the reader viii be
curious 10 know the reason for so great
change, so decided a revolution in pub
lie sentiment 1t is on account of the
Civil Rights bill, more than all other
causes combined. Until the Senate passed
that measure, Tennessee contained more
white Republicans than any other South
ern State. This was the natural result of
the decided Union stand taken by the peo-
pie Of East Tennessee in 1861, a section of
the State that put 10000 Union soldiers
into the Federal army. From the day that
the war ended until the Senate passed the
Civil Rights bill, the Republican party con-
tinGed to increase in strength in Tennessee.
At the last general election, and that OF
1872, thew elected seven out Of ten Con
gressmeH, and came within about 1900
votes of electing their candidate for Cover
nor. To be sure there was & split in the
Democratic party that year, but this does
not account entirely for the increase in
strength among the Republicans. Ii was
caused by the influx of old Wings into the
Republican party, class who have never
been quite satisfied with their quarters in
the Democratic ranks.
= But the Civil Rights bill has changed all
this like a fash, and almost annihilated the
Republican party in this State. The whites
who came into the party in 1872 have left
il in hurry, and taken many thousands
with tlIln. The Civil Rights bin has
been dear gain to the Democratic party
of Tennessee of from 5000 TO 10000
votes. Take Knox county. for example,
The home of Senator Brownlow. In 1872,
Brown, Democratic candidatefor Governor,
receiyed1,I los votes, and Freeman, Republr
can, 2J6S votes. or very nearly TWO TO one.
La that county there are but S74 eOlcred
voters all told, even if every one should vote,
so that We know that nesfly 5000 white
men voted the Republican ticket in 1872.
Yet such has been the havoc wrought in
the Republican ranks by the Civil Rights
bill, that in August last, at the county cleo
ton, tire Democrats carried the day by
nearly 1000 majority,
This is but sample Of The sudden
change wrought among the white voters all
over the State by the passage Of the Civil
Rights bill by the Senate, aud the cOnse-
quent agitation % That subject. Even those
of the whites who still remain faithful to
the Republican party are almost unanimous
in their opositiOn to the Civil Rights bill
as it passed the Senate. do not believe
there is one white Republican out Of seven
ty-five who faVO~s it, nay, do not believe
there is one in q hundred No man can
be elected TO any office in this State who
advOcs;eS it. The only Republican wlE
apparently has any prospect of being elect
ed TO Congress from this State is r. r. But
Ter Ofthe lst District. He is as bitterly
opposed 10 tle Civil Rights bill as
any Democrat in the State, or ever
Ire, ia his strong Republican dis
tTic, could not be elected. II is conceded
that he will be elected, but in no otter dis
trict is there a probability of Republican
success. There is possibility Of it in the
Second District, but in the others there j:
not even so slight a chance. The vote d
the negroes is not affected by the Civil
Rights bill one way or the other. They
continue to vote the Republican ticket a;
usual, but they are so far in the minority
that it is only by the strength of the
white Republicans chat the party
can be said to exist. In only
two counties in the State, Fayette and
Haywood, are the negroes IN the majority
and in one of these their majority of voters
is less than fifty, In the First Congress
SIGNAL dis:Ficf, composed of eleven cOun
tics, there are but 1915 cOlored voters, Ii
the Second district there are but 2.523. Ii
the seventeen counties, composing the
Third district, there are but 1886; in The
Fourth district, 4,O27. There are fourteen
counties in the State containing less thar
100 colOred voters each. Scott has bu
three; Cumberland but seven, and Morgan
-. You viii readily see tHat without ;
large white element in the Republican
party in Tennessee, it would not attain
respectable size. Il has had more of tha
element than the party in any Southern
State, and would have held it, and, | be
lieye, finally gained control Of the Stat
Government had not the Civil Rights bill
dashed il 10 the ground.