The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1874-06-10
A Merited Castigation.
Senator BrownIow Answers the
Reverend Bartlett.
''The AIiscegenation Brigade and
the White DOdging
Politicians
The Manhood of the Country
Ought to Rise up against the
Petty Persecution.
From the Knoxville Chronicle.

From the Knoxville Chronicle.
MEssRs. EDIToRs-I wish, through
your columns, to reply to an attack
made upon me in a public address
before q large audience of all par
ties at our neighboring town OF
Maryville.
The address to which I refer. was
delivered by the Rev. P. NJ. Bartlett,
ID. D., President of Maryville Col,
lege. For the information of my
friends at distance. who have not
the honor of knowing Mr.. Bartlett.
or the character of his school, I will
say that he is Presbyterian clergy.
man. and that his college is q mixed
school, where the whites and blacks
are educated together.
have no personal feelings against
Mr.. Bartlett. and will say that
have always heard that his College
was in a fourishing condition. and
that he was jealous and capable
instructor.
Mr.. Bartlett is mistaken in sup
posing that the passage OF this Civil
Rights Bill will make his favorite
theory Of mixed schools popular in
Tennessee and the South, or that it
will eradicate any prejudice now ex-
listing toward them. Mr.. Bartlett
seems to think that the passage of
the bill will break down social pre-
judiees. In this he is mistaken. for
these are, and always will be, be-
yond the reach of legal enactments.
So far as my information extends,
the white people of East Tennessee,
of all parties, who endorse my posi-
tion on the Civil Rights Bill. have
never manifested a disposition to
throw any obstacles in the path of
Bartlett, in his mixed school under
taking.
Mr.. Bartlett's school is mixed,
but it is private school, and those
patronizing it are only exercising
the rights which the people of the
South claim for themselves that is,
local self-eovernment and freedom
from Federal Intervention in the ad-
ministration of purely local and do
mestic concerns. The white people
who send their children to Maryville
College, do it voluntarily, and be-
cause they have no objections to the
co education Of the races. Now |
should be utterly opposed to any act
of Congress, which would prevent
this. People of all classes ought to
be left free to select their own as
sociations. What | object to in MIR.
Bartlett, is that he is unwilling to
accord to others the same privileges
which they accord to him, and the
patrons of his school. He is a re-
preventative of a small class of white
men in Tennessee, who may be pro
perly termed negr0-ecorSbipperS. They
are not content that the negroes
and whites should be educated to-
gether where they desire it, or that
they should have equal educational
facilities in separate schools, but
they want the civil rights bill pass
ed so that all white people shall be
compelled to adopt this mode of edu-
cation, or be taxed to support it,
whether they adopt it or not. This
civil rights bill treats the black race
as superior to the white, and gives
it superior privileges. The New
York Times sustains this view of the
case, and, as the leading organ Of
the National Republican party, it
expresses the views Of hundreds of
thousands of Republican readers. I
quote from the Times of but a few
days ago. In its issue of May 9th,
it says:
Nobody would think for mo-
ment of making such law as the
one new proposed. for the benefit of
the Irish or German immigrant and
it is not singular that the popular
sense of justice. which is always in
advance of that of legislators, should
be already asking why the negro
should be thus especially favored.
If it is intended to break down social
prejudices it will prove futile, for
these are and ever have been beyond
the reach of legal enactments. fit
is designed to give the negroes
rights which are not accorded to
other classes of citizens, it will be
equally a dead letter, for the people
will not tolerate any distinctions
in the law or against any class.
This bill is in fact, distinction
against all classes except the ne
groes, and as such it is sure to meet
with general opposition. IF it is
accepted as Republican measure,
the party is sure to suffer from it.
This fact was very clearly recoeniz-
ed during the lifetime of Senator
Sumner, and we do not see that his
death has made any difference in the
CASE
Mr.. Bartlett, though white man,
seems to regard the black race as
entitled to superior privileges to his
own. / do not believe that the per-
sonal freedom of all the white peo-
pie of the South and all their rights
ofself-government, should be sacrific-
ed to accommodate a few thousadd
negroes, or to crafty the
eaprfces of negro-worshipping white
men and selfish politicians.
Mr.. Bartlett. in the lecture he de-
ivered. is represented as arraign-
ng me for the letter / wrote in reply
10 the attack made upon me by the
Nashville Colored Convention. He
my letter as untime-
~" " out of place and 8 unchris-
,ian,' and in speaking of the white
people of East Tennessee, character
zed them as white trash who
should be compelled to have their
educated with the blacks,
Is provided in the Civil Rights Bill.
Now it is entirely immaterial with
nc whether man holding Mr.. Bart
Iett's views, regards me as a States
nan or a Christian.
Tho fante onI sroiJorte ,1,,,.zo4