Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-09-23


mon school system under which all persons
between the ages of five and eighteen years,
not incapacitated for the same, shall re-
ceive, free of charge, such elementary edu-
cation as Congress may prescribe, the Con-
Qress shall hare the pOtcer to establish
therein such system and cause the SAME
TO RE MAINTAINED AT THE EXPENSE OF
SUCH STATE.
This amendment is still pending, and
will be put through whenever the ne
cessity is apparent, and in the present
temper of the Northern Republican
mind there can be no question as to its
ratification by the requisite number of
States, so that if the white people of
the South Yill not educate the negro in
mixed schd{ds voluntarily, they will be
compelled 20 do 50 by the strong arm
of the FEDERAL Government.
Now fof Mr.. Maynard's position.
During thS canvass preceding the Au-
gust election, he made a speech at
Thorn GroSe, in Knox county, and the
gist of what he said on that occasion
was this: "He thanked God that he
had the mahliness to comeup and meet
the issue squarely, and defend the &C.
ton Of the Republican party; that he
was in favor of the Civil Rights bill,
but for the reason that there was so
much prejudice against public schools
and so many difficulties to be overcome,
he thought itbesttO sag nothing about the
mised school clause, and let that regu-
late itself" This was, we are assured
by the KnozUille Press and Herald, al
most the exact language used by Mr.
Maynard.
Tie most unsuspecting cannot but
understand what a world of meaning
lies in that expressive phrase-to "re-
gulate ITSELF" How viii the question
regulate itself? AS the Press and
Herald says: by Congressional enact
ment. We have already heard great
deal said about compulsory education,
and if this bill should pass, compulsory
education would be the very next plank
added to the Republican platform.
Why? Because the public school sys-
TEN in many of the States would be de-
strOyed, and Congress, in its wisdom,
would declare it necessary to the gen.
eral good that special law to that eff
feet be enacted, TO go into effect in
those States where there was no public
school system. What would be the re-
suit? All our children, without dis
tinction of race or color, would be
driven together into the common school
there to be taught, by persons appoint
ed for that purpose by those in authori-
ty at Washington. This is no mere
idle fancy; it is the sure consequence
Of the passage of the Civil Rights bill. "
That Maynard would vote for such
bill may be readily imagined: On the
9TH of February, 1872, the day before
the common school bill passed Con-
gress, MIR. Hereford, of West Virginia,
moved to amend as follows
"PrOvided, That no moneys belonging to
any State or Territory, under this act, shall
be withheld from any State or Territory for
the reason that the laws thereof provide for
separate schools for white children, or re-
fuse to organize system Of mixed schools"
The amendment was agreed to-yeas
Us, nays 81. Among those who voted
in the negative, and, therefore, against
giving Tennessee her share of the COM
mon school fund, because she would
not organize a system of mixed schools,
was Horace Maynard. With such a
record against him, it would appear to
make very little matter indeed whether
Maynard favors leaving out of the Civil
Rights bill everything about common
schools" as he would be absolutely
certain to vote for some other bill con-
tanning the amalgamation feature.
Now who are the most ardent sup
porters of Mr.. Maynard in Tennessee?
They are the negroes who, in their
State convention held in this city in
May last, adopted the following resolu-
ton:
Resolved, That we will use our utmost
endeavOr TO stamp upon any demagOgue
who seeks TO betray the privileges Of our
children TO their full enjoyment of impair
tial aud equal privileges withpublic schools,
the brand of the traitor Judas as deserving
politically a traitors doom. whom we will
never, never join hands with nor support,
but will regard as our public and political
enemy, more terrible to Meet than a savage
beast, more injurious than any catastrophe
that could befal us, or any calamity THAT
c,uld be devised by any wicked unseen
power.
Is it to be supposed that a single
man of those who voted for this resolu-
ton, or who indorses it-as almost
every negro in the State does-will re-
fuse to give Maynard his cordial sup
port:
Oscar Williamson, colored, who ut
tered this sentiment at black-and-tan
convention in Fayette eounty-''I am
going to have my Civil Rights if have
to ride in the blood of the whites up to
my bride bits, and pointing to the
academy, } we will have our children on
top if it sinks every white child in Fay
cite county into hell''-is en- enthusi-
astic supporter of Maynard, with his
social equality and mixed schools ideas,
as is also Scales Fields, colored, who
uttered this sentiment at the same
b'ack-and-tan convention:
Some white people say that if the Civil
Rights bill becomes a law cOlOred men will
marry their daughters. Well, there are
some very handsome colOred gentlemen
and if they do not want their daughters to
marry us they must teach them not TO love
US. If the Civil Rights bill is passed, put
your daughters under lock and key.
All such representative negroes 90
as far as j. w. Cardoza, the colored
Superintendent of Public Instruction
in Mississippi, who declared