Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-06-03
Reconstruction Only Meant Enrtanchise.
ment.
He Thinks the southern People have been
whipped Enough.

He Thinks the southern People have been
whipped Enough.
EDITORS CHRONICLE: Iwish, through
your columns, to reply to an attack recently
made upon me in apublic address before a
large audience ofall parties at our neighbor-
ingtow of Maryvile.
The address to which erfer was
delivered by the Rev. 2. NJ. Bart
lett, ID. d., President of Maryville
College. For the information of my
| friends at distance who have not the
honor of knowing Mr.. Bartlett, or the
character of his school, will say that he is
Presbyterian clergyman, and that his
college is a mixed school, where the whites
and blacks are educated together.
| have no personal feeling against Mr..
Bartlett, and will say that | have always
heard that his College was in II flourishing
condition, and that he was Jealous and
capable instructor
Mr.. Bartlett is mistaken in supposing
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 preu-
dice now existing toward them. Mr.. Bart
lett seems to think that the passage of the
| bill will break down social prejudipes. In
this he is mistaken, for these are and al
ways will be beyond the reach of legal
| enactments.
So far as my information extends, the
white people of East Tennessee, of all
parties, who endorse my position on the
Civil Rights Bill, have never manifested a
disposition to throw any obstacles in the
| Rortlptt n mi Y pH
| Undertaking.
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 selfgovernment and freedom
from Federal intervention in the admins
tration of purely local and domestic
concerns The white people who
send their children to Maryville
College do 1t voluntarily and because they
have no objections to the co education OF
the races. Now [ should be utterly OPP
posed to any act of Congress, which would
prevent this. People Of all classes ought
to be left free to select their own associa
tons. What | object to in Mr.. 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
representative of a small class of white
men in Tennessee, who, may be properly
| leIHeu NGyFO-tOOTSNtJJI)CTS. lney are uO
content that the negroes and whites should
be educated together where they desire it
! or that they should have equal educationa
facilities in separate schools but they wan
> the civil rights bill passed so that all whit
: people shall be compelled to adopt thi
mode of education or DO taxed to support
| whether they adopt it or not. This civi
|, rights bill treats the black race as supC
= rtor to the white, and gives it supt
. rior privileges. The New HOr
= Times sustains this view of the case, anC
u as the leading organ of the National RI
= publican Party, it expresses the views {
u hundreds of thousands of Repuhlica
= readers. / quote from the Times of but
7, few days ago. In its issue of May 9th,
" says:
"NObody would think for moment (
J. making such n law as the one now propose
]. for the benefit of the Irish or German in
Is migrant, and it Is not singular that I'll
g popular sense of justice, which is alwaN
+. In advance of that of Legislators, should
10 already asking why the negro should
thus especially favored. If it is intende
10 to break down social prejudces it wi
nc prove futile, for these are and have ev
been beyond the reach of legal enactment
I7 If it is designed to give the negroes righ
e. which are not accorded to other classes
citizens, it will be equally dead letter, +
III the people will not tolerate any distinction
/
bill is, in tact, distinction against 8
~ classes except the negroes, and as such it
90 sure to meet with very general oppOsitiO
III If it is accepted as "A Republican measuI
the party is sure TO suffer from it. III
eey fact was very clearly recognized during Il
III lifetime of Senator sumner, aud we do II
1,i 9+e thai his death has made any ditlaren
lh in the case"
:, Mr.. Bartlett. though a white ma
IN seems to regard the black race ~ enti'l
IN to superior privileges to his own. / do II
~ believe that the personal freedom of
"a the white people OF the south, aud all tn
va righs of local self-government should
''' sacrificed IL accOmm odate few ihOusal
insolent negro+s, or 10 crafty the capriC
of negro-wOrshipping white men and -
fish politicians
Mr.. Bartlett, in the lecture he deliverC
Gle ia Represented AZ arraigning me for t
he letter | wrote in reply To the attack up
es me 10y the Nashville Colored Convento
en He characterized my letter as "uuiimely
gh out of place and "unchris ian" and
to speaking of the white peop'e Of East IT,
r ~ sSee, characterized them az "wh
uT trash who should be compelled TO IN
',e. 4 cir children educated with the blacks
m provided ia the Civil Rights Bill. Now i
hts entirely immaterial with me whether
OF man holding Mr.. Bartirtts views regal
the me az Statesman or Chri tian.
= The facts and incidents connected W
the Colored Convention at Nashville a
the insOlent dema' d. of that cOnventi
are familiar to large portion Of the p
ltly Pile Of Fast Tennessee and to Mr.. Bartl'