The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-04-23
For the CITIZEN.
APRIL 9th, 1874

APRIL 9Th, 1874.
3LR. EDITOR 1T is unfortunate that
there is any opposition to a convention
for the selection OF candidates to Eli
our county offices. If the people would
only think of the outrages we endured
under radical rule when Brownlow was
Governor, Mullins Congressman, Gar
ner State Senator, and Dillon, of David
son county, the Representative of Giles
when our eyes were disguised with
the sight and our nostrils with the
stencil of the East Tennessee radicO-
rabble militia, sent here for the ostensi-
bic purpose of protecting the precious
carcasses of a set of men who had been
fOisted into the offices both State and
county by negro votes, when decent
white men were disfranchised and
forced to submit to this damnable ini-
guilty; there certainly would be no
doubt as to the necessity of harmony
and unity in the approaching elections.
Three conservative candidates for
Congress are already announced. The
radicals are as silent as the tomb, but
their one candidate will be selected in
time to secure the entire vote of the
party. Suppose that Maynard should
be elected GOvernor-Gibbs Congress-
man, and radicals represent us in both
houses of the Legislature-that our
county offices are filled with radicals
that Summers Civil Rights bill becomes
the law of the land, what think you
would be our condition in six months
after the election? If L am not greatly
mistaken in my estimate of the mateFi-
al that cOmpOses that party, our cOndi-
ton would soon become as bad, if not
worse than it was under BrOwnlOw rule.
The Leopard cannot change his spots,
a Il
enter into the heart of a radical to be
just or generous. The sting of defeat
from which they have suffered for four
years, has fOstered a desire for revenge
upon their VictOrs.
The man or men who marched in
procession with the negroes to hear old
Mullins utter his infamous libels upon
the honest yeOmanry of the country,
will (dll into line when opportunity Of
fers, as naturally as ducks take to water
their instincts and inclinatiOns lead
them in that direction.
Now, if for. want of harmony in our
ranks, radicals are elected to the State
and county offices and the Civil Rights
Bill becomes a law, the honest white
men of the country will be utterly ig-
nOred in the administration of the al
fairs of State and county. Negro and
radical COnstabieS, Justices and Jurors
will then become the order of the day
and so continue until the outraged re-
spectability and manhood of our people
viii rise in arms against it and then will
be repeated Brownlow's diaboIical mi
litia scheme for the subjugatiOn of the
intelligent and virtuous, and the eleva-
ton of the ignorant and vicious part of
the population. However much we
may differ now in the choice of caRdi-
dates, we win then be united in an effort
to extricate ourselves from the radical
yoke which we will certainly wear as a
result of our discussions.
In view of these facts, let us discard
looking solely to the general good, labor
earnestly for a convention which shall
reflect the will of the public. Let each
civil district hold primary meeting
and send delegates to the county con-
YentiOn, and when assembled in con-
yentiOn, let the nominations for the diff
ferent offices be made, AMI let the dele
gates from the districts vote upon the
nominations and declare the nominee
who receives a majority of the votes,
the choice of the convention. If this
plan is adopted, no one can charge that
the convention was packed, or that few
self-cOnstituted leaders made the nomi-
nations. When the nominations are
thus made, whether our particular
friends are chosen or not, let us unite
upon the nominees and save ourselves
the modification of defeat and the ruin
Gus consequences which will certainly
follow the triumph of the radical party.
CIVIs.