Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-12-14

effectually disposes of some of the |
allegations. Thus the insignificant
Republican vote in Vicksburg has
been used to show that there must |
have been bulldozing there. The
following is an extract from a letter
received by US from Gen. Chalmers,
the representative of the Vicksburg
District
Yiclrsburg 10 my district, and there the
Radical leaders, white and black, openly
supported me because of the apPro priation
/ had obtained for Vicksburg, and because
of my course on the Freedman's Bank ques-
ton and my effort TO obtain appropriation
for the Acorn (eolored) University in my
district. The whole people gave me q reeep-
ton in Vicksburg, and the negroes, not sat
isfied with this, gave me a separate recep-
ton, and the leading colored preachers en-
dorsed Tdc from the stand.
The above was not written for
publication, and we have taken the
liberty to print it without the Gen
eraPs permission as a vivid contrast
to the bulldozed condition of Mis-
sissippi as represented in the New
York Tribune and Senator Blaine's
speeches.
In Virginia some specific charges
of intimidation have been made.
1t was stated that in the Norfolk
District persons preferring charges
of intimidation before the Federal
Commissioners were themselves
put in Jail. Mr.. Goode, repre-
sentative of that district, denies all
this positively and states that no
arrests have been made on either
side nor any complaint made. The
only arrests actually made were for
a riot at Hempsville at night, after
the election lC0S oter. Failure to pay
the poll tax, however, disabled
many voters black and white, more
of the former than the latter, because
there were more defaulters among
the blacks than among the whites.
The truth is that the NEGRO is be-
coming everywhere property
holder, and as he does so he opens
his eyes to the fact that his interests
are Identical with those of his white
fellow-citizens and not with those of
a faction which has no use for the
South except to plumber it. We
have said nothing of Tennessee in
the above sketch because our read
ers know all about it and would
| laugh at an elaborate refutation of
the idea that the negroes in this
county voted under intimidation.
That some of them were bribed we
do not doubt, but the preponderance
of the vote they gave for the indie
pendent candidates shows where
the preponderance of bribery ex-
listed.
That is their case, and, as an
Offset, we have several thousand
voters prevented voting and threat
ened with imprisonment in New
York, employees in factories intimi-
dated and placed under inquisitorial
surveillance in Massachusetts and
Connecticut, fraudulent registration
of years. standing in Pennsylvania,
not to mention the years of unlim-
tied fraud aud oppression while the
Radicals held sway in the South.
And on no better pretext than this
it is unblushingly proposed that the
South shall lose half its representa-
ton in Congress.
We repeat the question, will this
programme win? 1t is incOnceiv-
able to us that it should. Not only
is it well known both North and
South that the negro vote is the
creature of the Republican party !;
that it was not intended to be
exercised independently of white
control, though it was hoped the
Republican party would perma-
nently control it; not only is it no
torious that solid South was con-
solidated expressly for their own
purposes by the same party; that
their frauds while in control of it
were as a mountain to a mOle-hill
compared with anything the Radi-
Gals have since done, but the whole
history of the last election goes to
show that the people North as well
as South have read, marked, learned
and inwardly digested all these
things and can never be enlisted in
the support of such programme.
In the October elections it was tried,
itfailed and was abandoned. Messrs.
Blaine and Hale tried in Maine the
sectional programme and intrigued
and fiirted with the soft money her.
esq, and were ANONYMOUSLY de-
feated. They there learned wisdom,
and, proceeding to Ohio and Penn
sylvania, abandoned the sectional
issue and gained votes on a hard
money platform. Mr.. COnkling
| throughout the last session of Con-
gress and throughout the canvass of
last autumn was studiOusly silent
on the money question, but rabid
on sectional strife, denouncing the
! President without measure for abOl-
ishing military rule in the South,
and it was only one week before the
November election that he too
found himself on the wrong track,
hastily dropped the bloody shirt
and talked ha. d money, and won on
that question and not on the sec
tiOnal issue.
Thank God, the people North and
South are sick of the sectional issue;
they are sick of the solid South, and
they know that the Radical policy
made it solid and kept itso; they are
sick of the negro question, knowing
that the negro only commenced to
be prosperous and respectable when
the carpet-bagger retreated. Grant
himself knew before Hayes was
inaugurated that that policy was
played out and ordered the troops
withdrawn, while Hayes only kerr