Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-12-14
A CEAxpIoN AGITAToR.

WIN q cndpUeI Vi hOIo lllOH anu All
dersonville horrors rather than deal
with the ISSUES Of the present. So
deeply IS he absorbed in the study of
the partisan literature which flooded
the country during and soon after the
war that we fear he will never catch
up with the spirit of the age. Soon
after General Chalmers was reelected
to Congress the journal pleasantly al
luded to him as the Fort Pillow
butcher rechosen by the I" Mississippi
Democratic bulldozers." The para
graph concluded as follows: rs it
any wonder (the Mississippi papers
published in Chalmers district pre-
dict that the constitutional amend
ments are to be declared null and void
in case the Conservative Democracy
carry the next Presidential cleo
tiOn?" The parentheses are ours,
to indicate the words which our CO.
temporary either accidentally or pur-
posely left out in reproducing an arti-
Gle from the LEDGER. We stated, for
the information of the Journal, that
General Chalmers was sick in Louis
vile, KY, at the time of the election /;
that the colored voters had an inn
mense majority in the district, and
that owing to the presence of yellow
fever among the whites, which rarely
attacked the blacks, the latter had the
fullest possible opportunity to vote
as they pleased, and we also called
upon the Journal to designate the
papers referred to in General Chal-
mers district, knowing full we'll that
there were no such papers. Well,
this journal starts in with reply Of
nearly FIVE columns, much of it solid,
and a column or so in fine nonpareil,
by saying
A more deliberate piece of whtewash-
ing we have not read these many DAYS
than the above article from leading or
gan Of solid South, in which it refers to
General Chalmers, the notorious butcher
of the loyal garrison at Fort Rillow as
an alleged participant of the so-called
Fort. Pillow massacre of April y and
ID, 1884 The damning record of this
cowardly butchery Of 300 to 400 loyal
Onion men-white and black-after their
Surrender, covers one of the darkest page,
Of American history, and next to the
wholesale starvation Of Union prisoner:
at the rebel hell-hole at Andelsonville
Georgia, was one of the most outrageou:
violations of civilized warfare which the
wan Of the rebellion furnished, and there
were not few similar atrocities in other
portions Of the South. Forrest and Chal
iners stole into Fort Pillow under tht
guise Of flag Of truce, favorite mode o
Strategy with bandits everywhere.
Here follows a long extract from tn,
congressional subcommittee, consist
ing of the late Vice President, Ber
Wade and Mr. Gooch, of Massachus.
etts. This was bitter partisan, one
sided report, artfully calculated t.
bring odium on the yanquished South
ern people, and to fire the Northern
heart. 1t certainly had the lattel
effect on the editor Of the Journal
and he has never cooled off yet. Their
is considerable method and ingenuit
and brain in his madness. He con
tinues to quote from some rural paper
in Mississippi-papers, by the way
that we have not the honor of ex
changing Without in his five column
fails to state that any of them are pub
lished in Chalmers district, or to cit
one single instance Of "bulldozing @
intimidation in that district durin
the late canvass. Having struck tn
Fort Pillow mine, he delves deeper an
deeper among the bones, and nevC
comes out except once week to rea
some backwoods paper from the pin
woods Of Mississippi with a circula
tion of two hundred copies, includin
the exchange list, in whic
there is complimentary a
lusion to Jefferson Davis. H
revels while over the deliciou
morsel, snufs rebellion and treason
the air, goes back to his work feelin
much refreshed and writes up the;
country papers as the mouth pieces
Jefferson Davis and the whole Soutl
Here is another extract from the fy
column paragraph before us
When this Lost Cause organ Of shat
Democracy-the Memphis LEDGER-int
mates that any respectable portion Of Il
colored people of Mississippi, of the Sixt
congressional district of that State, vote
for or upheld Chalmers, the hero"
Fort Pillow, it ISLANDERS grateful an
long oppressed race of people who are vi
bhNIN ulSliNuNulrtN NliIuNEu uput -Atool
sippi and deprived Of all the rights
American citizens which were given
them by the laws Of the country as one
the results Of the late war Of the rebellio
The colored Mississippians have not y
forgotten the bloody memories of Fo
Pillow, even if the editor of the LEDGE
is so ignorant Of the horrid crimes vii
which the name of that fort is forev
pie, but loyalists generally. Fort Pi
low" among Unionists is equivalent
alamo" among the Texan pioneer
names rendered forever memorable in Il
annals of cruelty, barbarity and brutalit
in the records of war the world over.
But how these elections in Mississipr
on the 9TH Of November last, were col
Quoted, lot the Southern press itself spea
W. o,,vo a favy pttnfofionu from, cn,,,,