The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1877-04-12
SCHEDuE
Firing upon Fort Sumter.

Firing upon Fort Sumter.
Sixteen years ago today Fort
Sumter, of Charleston, 4 military
post OF the United Safes, was fired
upon BY Confederate guns, initia-
ting the prolonged, desperate. de-
vastating struggle for liberty. In
looking back over these years 50
fraughe with events and changes,
what heart does not bleed az the
woes eutaiIed upon humanity and
what patriots breast does not swell
with indignation at the wrongs
heaped upon a suffering people.
War. death, famine, destruction,
cOnfagTatiOHs, miseries, woes, FOL
low each other in gaunt muItitudes
and memory shudders 1T the bare
recollection How family ties have
been broken; how labor has been
overturned; how the basis Of all our
institutions has been uprOoted, how
the very object Of our confederation
has been garbIed and changed and
made the excuse for the most iufa-
nous outrages ever perpetrated1
how the very thoughts Of the peo-
pie have been woOed and forced
from 4 contemplation and love Of
liberty into channels that first toll
crate, then acknowledge and finally
submit TO outrageous despOtisms-
these are subjects Of surprising
speculation and alarming reality,
aud remembering them, it IS impos-
sible TO conjecture what the end
will be. Was the war simply to
free the 1egroesz IL was denied,
but time demonstrated its truthful
ness. Is the object now to make
the former slave the political master
in the SOUTH It is denied, but
every effort and every cousumma-
tion point iufexibly TO it. This
has been the tendency Of affairs for
sixteen years-the complete de
struetion Of Southern individuality
and the utter annihiIation Of South
eru institutions. Has the tide spent
it's force and is it now receding;
The hopes of the South rest solely
upon this bare possibility, for it
stands helpless and bleeding, sup
slicating and poverty-striken, rest
ing and relying solely upon mercy
and justice At the hands Of = faction
that has never yet exhibited its ca
pacity TO have mercy or its wiling
ness TO give justice. Amidst all
these indiguities aEd wrongs the
south has stood cOnfding in the
hope that the furies would saciate
their spleen and yet do justice to
her. Her greatest fault has been IN
being too couddIng, and to remuu-
crate this confidence, the faction
that has desOIated and destroyed
her crowns its career Of Is long
years, fed with infamy, by cOusum-
mating Al outrage upon right and
liberty that would blanche the
cheeks of devils and rival IN pOllu
ton the most dIaboIicaI invention
of satan's brain-and still we be
lieve their prOtestatious and hug
the vaPOry delusiou. '-paciicatlon," -
TO our breasts. The vail Of time
should have long since hidden this
hideous picture of the past, and
charity should have prompted some
reparatiOn, at least 4 discontinu-
auce OF the outrages, but the enemy
has deliberately kept the chasm
open and with foul lies accused the
South of It. VIII the time ever
come when the ghost Of the past
viii cease its visitatiOns, and when
the South viii be accorded the PRIV
iIege of asserting its rights without
being accused OF pertidy and tFea
son: We hope so, but We have no
faith in ''pacifcation7 "a presented
TO Us to-day at the hands Of fraud,
and believe that the deliverance
must spring from the spontaneous
right that will sooner or later assert
itself in the minds and hearts OF the
American people We do not rake
up the past as an argument nor TO
1re the hearts of Southern men, but
these are matters of history that
throw some light upon the animus
Of the party in power, and teach Us
how 10 receive its offers of ''pacifca-
ton" "PacI6cation" is the foul
wooiug of the venomoas reptile,
radicaiism, sugar-coated and honey
combed with the appearance of fair |
ness, but the web and woof is as
poisonous as the acrid matter Of
se-peat's poisoa-gland-insinuating
and insidious- Upon each alniver-
sary OF this day the South has start
ed with a newborn hope. bu. the
end OF each year has brought bitter
disappointment Let IS hope on,
and hope ever, but for the love of
God and human liberty and right, I
do not be deceived by the party |
that has never yet kept 4 promise or |
did q fax act
On his arrival home from Wash /
ingtcn. Gov. Hampton said in 4 1