Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-11-20

parts-preelsely such governments, too,
were guaranteed TO them in the 6unstitI
ion-anc all anxious to resume the
lormer relations TO the Union. Yet in d.
nance OF every obligation Of plighted faitl
IN open violation of the plainest provision
oi tne Federal compact, they were throttle
Dy tne ruthless hand of revolutionary fore,
prostrated IN the dust aid traii1ied be
heath tie crushing heel of a remorseles
military despotism. Their constitution
We're annulled, their laws were abrogated
their legislatures were disbanded. Tn
ermine was stripped from their Judges
their Goyernt rs Were removed, and all tn,
functions of government committed to mill
tary satraps, whose dominion over the life
| liberty and property of every man, woman
and child within their respective districts
was as unlimited and irresponsible a:
that of any absolute despot that
ever lOrded 1t over any portion o.
tie Alnlightys footstool. There was
inaugtirated over nearly one-half of ouI
country such a saturnalia of oppression,
outrage and official crime as was never seen
before, and such as | trust in God may
never be seen again. Every guaranty in
the bill Of rights-every safeguard of per
sonal liberty, as well as every bulwark of
state independence, was swept away like
sossarner before the Hhlrlwlhd.
Tie press was muzzled; freedom of
speecn1. was sappressed:; The sanetjtE. eff He
the mercy of every petty subaltern. The
ordinary machinery of just ice was dis
placed by the military co,rtfissiol,and Ih =
drtinl-hezd court martial. The citizen was
seized without vibrant, accused without
indictment, tried without a jury, con-
demned WITHOUT law, imprisoned without
the beFefit of the habeas corpus, and denied
even the privilege Of appealing 10 the civil
arm of the Government for protection or
redress.
In the meantime the habiliments OF eiti-
zenship were stripped from thousarids of the
most Intelligent ard tiftuOus of her white
population through the operation of wide
sweeping bills of attainder and infamous
ex post faeto laws, enforced at the point of
the bayOnet, while the ballot was torn
from the hands of the white eleeter end
placed in the hands CT The recently manu-
r.tttSd slave. Nor was this all, nor half
If PandemOnium itself had. taken an
emetic, it could not have vomited forth
such another offScouring of miserable mis-
the Union to fstten, like
GANGS OF HUNGRY WOLVES,
upon the fallen prosperity of that uhh Apply
section of our country.
Had this been all, had the government
been content with tl1c EXECUTION OF its re-
construction policy, had il left the people Of
The South free to manage their own do
nestle concerns under the newly modelled
governments it bad forced upon them, with
their energies quicken,d by the spur Of ad-
yerslty, and free from the paralyyins IN
fuences Of Federal nole.tatioR, they would
have BOUNDED forward again in the paths
OF progress with their old alacrity, and to-
night would have found them far on the
road to their former prosperity and power.
But so far from this, it has kept its mailed
hand continually upon their throats up 10
the present hour. BY a series of unwar-
ranted interfereness yith their local alfaire
It has ret only kent them in a condition of
constant turmoil and anxiety, which has
greatly impeded their progress, but it has
held them down while they have been plum
dered and robbed by its miniOns, until
they are in many places but little, if any
farther advanced in the paths Of material
prosperity thar Nhen they emerged from
The war.
But the people of the South have not
been the only victims of Radical misrule
and oppression. Every section of the
Union has, 10 a greater or lees extent, felt
the haleful inflhente Of the policy which
has been pursued by the party in power.
We have seen the leaders of that party i'm
mOlate almost everything upon the altars
of their own aggrandiZement, and violate
almost every trust repOsed in them by a
generous and cOnfding people. [ATplause.l
We have seen them lavish hundreds OF
OF acres Of the public domain,
and millions upon millions OF the common
treasure in subsidies to swell the colossal
fortunes of a few favored millionaires,
while the humble citizen, whose little pit
tapce was stripped from him for public uses,
has been spurned from the vestibule of the
treasury, without compensation, and to
drag out his life in penury and want, in
suited with the specious charge Of dis
loyalty.
We have seen the pampered capitalist
paid from ten to twenty per cent. premium
upon the face Of his untaXed bond, while
the hard-handed son of honest toll has been
cheated of like proportion Of his hard
earned wages through the instrumentality
Of currency debased and deprecated solely
by a vicious and shoTt-sighted legislation,
md the maladministratiOn of the govern
ment in all its departments.
We have seen the ordinary expenditures
Of the Government increase from a hun
lred and thirty-fOur to a hundred and sew
.nty-two millions of dollars in four years,
nd fn ,,,oaE er,ah raalylasc and arrnulad
as this, we have seen an on
srous tax imposed upon almost every nee
,ssary of life-and that. too, under frau
lulent and insidious system, which cheats
he wOrkingman of at least forty per cent.
)f the purchasing power of his labor, and
While it puts one dollar into the treasury Of
he country, puts two into the Golfers of the
Protected mOnopoliss, who reyels in his |
Millions Of untaxed wealth.
Under the operations of the same sys-
EN- we have seen our ship. ards deserted, |
,ur carrying trade abandoned almost en- |
irely TO foreign bottoms, and the cost of |
ailrOad transportation enormously III |
Teased.
Under miserable and fatuous system |
# finance, which places at least fifty per |
'ent. of our currency under the control Of |
host of corporations, cOniured into being !
Without constitutional authority, we have |
cen the capital of the country day by day |
upon a few favored localities, |
md concentrating in the hands OF few
sHARP-sIGHTED MONEY CHANGE RS,
While property of every kind has been /
Iepreciated, industry paralyzed, commerce
disturbed, and labor defTauded all over the /
and.
We have seen swarns of hungry lobby |
sts, almost as innGmerable as the frogs
md lice which infested Egypt in the days /
f Pharaoh, crOwding the corridors of our
Federal capitol, with every device for plum
Iering the public Treasury that human GU
,idity can suggest, and we have trembled |
With apprehension lest some devoted |
martyr TO the public service might succumb
o their alluring temptations.
One by one we have seen the bulwaTks /
f State independence and hOme-rule, the |
'nly reliable safeguards to individual lib
rty, crumble beneath the cOrroding touch /
f the central power, and we have seen the
hadOw of advancing Imperialism, in the /
ruise of the third term, falling athwart the /
hreshold of the Presidential palace.
All these things, and more, have we seen,
nd felt, and realized as we have waited |
nd watched and prayed for the day of de-
iverance TO come, and thank God we feel |
hat it has dawned at last!
The third of November came, and |
thousands Of honest hearted, pure-minded |
atriots who had acted with the Republican /
arty under a mistaken impression as to /