Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-09-30
His Opening Speech at jones'
bOrO Yesterday. EFt
a Scatl1fng Arrangement Of the
Radical Party in General,
and its GuDernatoriai.
Nominee in Par .-,r5l
.Io0ag lticular. aiioH 8d3
Maynard as a Rebel, a Loyal
Reconstruetionist, and an
Apostle of Civil f7t
Rights.
The Ugliest Record I'm the His
tory of Tennessee Politics.

tOEy Vi 4cilncSScc Il OuGicSs
Feloac Citizens:
am candidate for Governor of Ten
nessee, nominated by convention OF dele
gates, representing the sentiment of the
Democratic and Conservative party of the
State, and come before you with the con-
fidence that this powerful endorsement ma
turally inspires. The office of Governor
once place of ease, aud free from respon-
sibility, IS now, under the operation Of ex-
isting laws, place of great labor. with ex-
traordinaTy duties to perform. 1t is, there
fore, Sof the highest Importance to the
people of the State, that this high Office
should be filed by one whose sympathies
and sentiments are in accord with their
| own.
The State Of Tennessee has territorial
area of more than 5000 square miles, with
a population of nearly 10000 souls, and
history full of splendor. Beginning at
the formation of the Watawga Association,
when the territory. now composing the
State was an appendage of North Caro-
lima, down 10 this good hour, Tennessee
can present to the world, names as Illus
| trioJIs as can be found in the history of
modern times; Presidents and Senators,
juTiSts and soldiers, who have, in peace and
in war, made her name famous. And when
a concentration of the intelligence, public
spirit and enterprise of her citizens, shall
have developed her physical and CONNER
eisl resources, her greatness swlll be as
Sured.
The future Of Tennessee depends upon
the present generation-upon the men who
make and execute her laws-upon the wis
dom of one, and the courage and firmness
Of the other; and If these elements are
combined. we will make our State the
home of plenty, Of quiet and security, our
good name Will be maintained at home and
abroad; Immigrants from every land will
come to us and bring with them their
wealth of brain and muscle, and assist us in
the development OF country rich in every
thing thai constitutes the wealth of State.
Tennessee is already the educational
centre of the Southwest, and when the
great Universities recently established in
our State Shall be placed III successful
operation, and our system of common
schools fostered and protected by wise
legislation, we will have secured all that
good government can bring 10 us.
How are these results to lie attained? l
answer, through the agency of the Demo-
cratic party of Tennessee, a party whose
leaders have turned their backs upon the
animosity Of the past-men who realize
the importance Of living issues, and who
feel that the future greatness of the State
depends upon present wise and prudent
action.
The Republican party of Tennessee cap
not be entrusted with the control of the
State Government. 1t has no policy, and
lives upon a single idea, that of loyalty to
the Federal Government during the war
between the States; and its leaders seem re-
solved to perpetuate, if possible, the recol-
lections Of the bad blood and evil passions
of that unhappy period. Its old prejudices
are its lIfe-blOOd, and no opportunity of
keeping them alive Is allowed to escape.
While they controlled the legislative pow
or in Tennessee, these prejudices were
stimulated by odiOus acts of disfranchise-
ment, and by the adoption of a rule that
disqualified majority of the people of the
State from services as Jurors, with other
offensive legislation that destroyed every
thing like repOse and tranquility, and made
the great body Of our people feel that they
were to be degraded because Of a political
sentiment.
do not believe that the people Of Ten
nesSee viii ever give to my competitor and
his political associates the control of the
State Government. They canRot forget
that after the elective franchise had been
restored to the people of Tennessee; when
peace, quiet, and fraternal feeling prevailed
in this State, Mr.. Maynard, true to his hos
tility to the people of Tennessee, went to
the room of the Congressional Committee
on RECONSTRUCTION and privately placed in
the hands Of its chairman, Il. +. Butler,
the following propositions, to which he had
obtained the signatures of five Of his col
leagues, Arnell, Stokes, PrOsSer, Tillman,
and Smith:
"UIdSbiRgtoR, FEB. 10, 1S70.-HOn. b.
F. Butler, chairman Reconstruction COM
mittee: "As Representatives from the State
of Tennessee in the Forty-first Congress; in
behalf of ourselves and our constituents,
We submit the following propositions and
earnestly press their immediate cOnsidera-
ton upon your committee:
Il. We submit that the power now con-
trolling the State of Tennessee is wholly il
legal and revolutionary, brought about by
fraud aud violence in contravention Of the
Constitution of the State as recognized by
Congress.
50. That the present State government of
Tennessee is wanting in the great and es-
sential requisite Of good government, with
out which, peace and happiness are impos-
sible, tO-wit, the proper protection of the
property and lives of its citizens
''3. The State Government of Tennessee,
as now constituted and revOlutioniZed, has
never had any recognition by the Govern
ment Of the United States, and We ask that
Congress take immediate steps 10 provide
for us a government, republican in form,
that will conduce to the happiness Of, and
welfare of, all its people.
~. We ask that you supplement this
work with an act for the enforcement of the
third section of the Fourteenth amendment
to the Constitution of the United States"
IL is fair to presume that if through
fraud, or through outside interference, he
should be made the Governor of Tennes-
see, he would call for Federal aid to enable
him to give our people "a government re-
publican in FORM and in character like
that now enjoyed BY the dOWn-tr0dden and
oppressed people OF Louisiana. To State
thus governed, where hate usurps the place
Of political wisdom, no immigrant would
come, no capital would seek investment,
and no industrial or educational system
could prosper.
But if you would know what Radical
rule means look b South Carolina. AT the
close of the war, the State debt was small,
and the people were not burthened with
taxation; but in only twenty-five counties
$50, 1S4 acres of land, equal in area to 96O
square miles, have been sold or confiscated
by the State Ills year. For the two years
1874, as far as reported, the sales and
fOrfeitureS amount 20 SiS,657 acres, or
1926 square miles. In the county of
Charleston alone, the sales for 1874
amounted TO 10000 acres, or 4O6 square
miles, CT one acre in every nineteen acres
of land In The State has been cOnfiScated
under the glIiSe of taxation, that the rulers
of the State might be enriched; their pur-
poses have been accomplished, but they
have brought ruin and bankruptcy on the
State, and have demon strated TO the world
what is meant by Radical rule in the
South. AID II their policy needs to be
illustrated by other examples, took to Mis-
sissippi, to Louisiana, to Alabama, and to
your own State.
The Democratic party is liberal, tolerant
and National. 1t erects no single Idea as
standard Of political orthodoxy, but invites
the cO-operai ion OF every true man. II is
in full sympathy with the lab)r of the
country, whether IL is in the great move