Year: 1869

now than in 1867, and it is thought at
least 10000 Conservative votes can be
cast for sENTER or STOKES. The Rad
ical vote is thought to be about eq ually
divided between those candidates, the
former possibly few thousand ahead,
but the Conservatives held the
balance Of power. We have before
noticed the late decision of the
Supreme Court of Tennessee, which is
considered Hslegalizing every preceding
registration, and deprives Of all vitality
the several arbitrary acts of BRowNLow,
by which it is charged that he teok from
the people their constitutional rights
and set aside properly authenticated
and authorized proceedings. Every cit
izen of the State who has ever been
registered since the Inauguration OF the
post bellHm rule is entitled to and canno'
be deprived of his right. This is the
decision of the Supreme Court. This, II
is true, takes from SENTER, who is now
acting Governor, the advantage ne
would have had, in common with his
predecessor, BRowNLow, in manipulat-
ing the registration Of voters I;
but, though the ultraists would
have no right to complain OF
being fought thus with their own wea'
pons, fair-minded mOA would not desire
to see the use of unjust and tyrannical
agencies, even for the best ends, and
there will no doubt be gain arising in
the right direction from the unchecked
management of the machinery of the
election. Some surprise has been ex-
pressed that BROwNLow, the most ma
lignant of the proscriptive Radicals,
has come out emphatically for SENTER.
The explanation, as given by Tennes-
see cotemporary, is that BRowNLow
sees that his proscriptiye position on
the franchise is no longer tenable, and
though unwilling to acknowledge it, he
leaves STOKES for ope whose recent ut
terances he would havepronOunced here
sizes month ago. At the same time he
hopes to dispose of political rival in
STOKES, who is looking to be Governor
as stepping-stone to FowLER's place
in the Senate, where he might cast into
the shade the decrepit old man from East


Tennessee. The significant fact, how


ever, is that the Republicans in Tennes


see are beginning to discover what was


learned in Maryland, and will be sooner


or later in every Southern State, that,


in the language of the New York Tri-


bune, "our government must be republi-
can or despotic, and that a rule based


on the prescription of fQl. third of the
adult males-this third comprising
two-thirds of the property, with very
large share of the natural ability,
experience and intelligence which are
presumed to fit men for a responsible
participation in politics-is question:.
bly, republican. 1t may do-nay, it
muslin the immediate presence of a
formidable rebellion; it cannot be
maintained indefinitely after that re-
bellion has thrown down its arms. Our
Southern Republicans are quite free in
telling us what they must have, and
how impossible it is that they should
live under rebel rule We tell them, in
turn, that it is impossible that we
should perpetuate rule over the
South in which the people of the South,
or any considerable share of them, are
denied voice. If we should attempt
to do it, we should simply sacrifice our
ascendancy in the North, and they can
Judge where this would leave the Repub.
licans of the South. We can do and
dare much here for equal human rights.
We are shorn SAMPSON whenever we
shall undertake to argue and insist that
a part of the Southern people ought to
be disfranchiOed and powerless ever
more. We know that we can maintain
no such position, and we are nowise in
clned to attempt it,"