Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1876-04-27
Blountville, April oath, 1876.
Our Washington Letter.

WASHINGTON ID. c.,
April 22nd, 1876.

ApTll ZZnu, 10 ~.
A rigid exploration of the catacombS
of the world wherein all the rejected
theories and errors Of human governments
are deposite ! away from the gaze of the
present generation of men, or dilligent
search aln2ng the debris of our recent
rebellion contained in the sepulchrc of the
lost cause would fail to produce a more
mischieyious or odlous doctrine, or one
that has been more uniformly condemned
by the intelligent and loyal masses of this
Republic than that resurrected by Tucker
of Virginia, during the debate in the
House on the adoption of the minority
report of the Judiciary Committee in the
Hallet Kilbourn case. 1t appears that
Tucker, as Attorney General of that
State, shortly before the war, decided
that the local authorities could legally
seize any mail matter brought into the
State by, and at the expense of the U. S.
Government, in the custody of L. S.
officials and for the convenience and we'll.
being Of that State, and anything found
adversely criticising its peculiar insti-
%tution,'' or in any other way distasteful
to the tyranical oligarchy that ruled the
"Old Dominion" with the Bowie-lnife,
the pistol and the lash, was declared in>
cendiary in character and ordered sup
pressed. Tucker was maddened-had his
Southern heart fred by some pertinent
in:errogatories Put by Mr., Blaine, and
when he had reached a pretty high tens
p~erature, be was betrayed into a very
indiscret admission to the effect that he
did make such a decision, that was a good
one when made, and equally good now.
fuckers speech was loudly applauded
by many Of the Democrats, but a look Of
CONSERVATION was discernable among those
possessed of a larger share Of political
sagacity, who are sufficiently we'll versed
as to material sentiment TO know that
any attempt at a revival of any Of the
prc-slavery or anti>progressive dcgmas in
the spirit and at the diction of which the
Government was largely administered
during the last fifteen years preceding the
war, will provoke such a storm of indig-
nation against the party guilty of such a
sacrilege as to bury it in the same grave
where the said 'lost cause now reposes,
Hence such fire. brands as Ben Hill,
Tucker and some of their associates in
Congress, with JEFF. Davis, looms and
others in the South, are regarded with
deep solicitude, and a sleeplcss vigilance
in watching their movements and choak-
ing them into silence, when they begin
to manifest dangerous symptoms, is the
only course they can safely take. 1t APP
pears to be the impression here that the
Democrats are determined to prolong the
session SO that any candidate nominated
at Cincinnati may be subjected to the
most rigid scrutiny with the desperate
hope of finding some ~irregularity in his
public or private life, that, by being ven
tilated a few weeks before the election,
will so discredit the Republicans with the
people that they may be able to take ad.
vantage ofthe apathy and confusion which
the expose would produce and steal into
power before there was time to concert
any effective measures to avert such u
national calamity. There is no question
but that tie leaders Of that rebel copper.
b head league, called the Democratic party
are secretly making the most strenuous
effects to,neutralize the detrimental effects
that Investigation has incidentally bad on
the prominent men of that party Their
desperation is all the more savage from
their long season Of obstinece from public
Office and plumber. A correspondent of
the New York Times writing from Col>
umbia, S. c. under date of April 10Th,
1876, OF the Presidential election says 4:
"lf the Democrats are successful, the
Republican party of the Cotton States
, must die out forever, for by one means or
3 another the Negro voters would be pre-
: vented from exercising the rights Of cit
izenship which were assured to them by
= the results of the war and their white
. leaders would be obliged to leave the
r country and seek homes elsewhere. y n
n y y y n No fair>minded OBJ
, server who travels through this part of
the country, can deny that the "old res.
, idents,' the native whites OF South Caro>
lima, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisana,
are themselves to blame for many Of the
burdens by which they arc now oppressed.
They are arrogant and OvsrbeariDg they
. are eaten up with false pride and ~intoler>