Year: 1866

| The Union State Central Committee, O
| Tennessee, have addressed to the President 9
review of the political situation in that quar-
ter, which will undoubtedly make profound
impression upon the public. as well as the
House Committee on Reconstruction. The
address saws:


"By virtue of the schedule adopted by the
people, the Legislature assembled in April
last, and enacted franchise law, which was
intended to exclude disloyal persons from the
polls, and thus prevent the enemies of the
National Government from controlling the
political action of Tennessee This law. how
ever, partly from its want of perspicuity and
partly because many of those charged with its
execution were unfriendly to its object, was
IN many counties practically disregarded, and
the loyal people of the State have now little
hope that ITS enforcement can prevent the DO.
htical organization of the State from passing,
at no distant day, into the hands of those who
have been In active sympathy with the rebel
lion


An effort will be made in the next Legisla.
ture to give efficiency to the law aforesaid,
but it is doubtful whether the political ascend.
ency OF the rebels can be prevented;


1.-The returned rebel soldiers and those
who animate with them openly boast that at
the next general election they will obtain en-
tire control of the State Governments In
deed. 1t is now the case in many counties that
those most notorious for the advocacy and
support of the rebellion are first to receive
the support of the people for Office. Service
IN the rebel army is, in many parts of the
State, the best passport TO position and BOW
er, while to have been connected with the
Union army is regarded as stigma deeper
and more indehble than the brand upon the
brow of Cain -


Governor Brownlyw has given the State a
loyal judiciary, ''yet all their power and in
hnence cannot prevent rebel juries from prac-
nclng the grossest inJusilces toward loyal men,
while It IS almost impossible to bring rebel
offenders to justice"


Should loyalty lose the judiciary. its last
hope will be exhrguished. sin social aud
business point of view, Union men and Union
families are prescribed and insulted. The
policy of the rebels is not difficult to foretel
II they regain ascendaney in the government
of the State


They now submit to the national author
lty simply because they can no longer resist
II. They accept the situation for the reason
that they cannot avoid it, They acknowledge
their defeat, but glory in the stubbornness
with which they resisted. They resign their
hopes Of confederacy, but maintain the ius-





inadequate to express the scorn and contempt
they feel toward those Tennesseeans, who. as
they allege, betrayed the Southern honor and
Southern independence by joining the ranks
OF the oppressor. Their protestations of low
atty are sheer hypocrisy, mask assumed for
a pretext, to be thrown off when that object
is accomplished y


The masses of the common people were at
first disposed to resume in good faith their
fealty to the National Government, but


Their convictions were formed under the
false teachings of those who educated the
Southern mind and fired the Southern heart
for rebellion The false teachers still direct
public sentiment. Rebel lawyers are still their
trusted legal advisers: rebel preachers still
illuminate from the pulpit; rebel physicians
still VISIT their families; rebel teachers still
instruct their children, and rebel presses still
disseminate among them the perverted views
and pernicious doctrines which have wrought
all the ruin in the land. 1t is in fact among
the common people, who have less reason
for practcng dissmulaton, and who are less
influenced by motives Of policy, that we find
the most uneqIivocal expressions of deep
seated hostility to the Government and friends
of the Government


This is new feature of the Southern stu
alton. and if it is not an exaggeration. must
be looked upon with alarm If the rebel
masses are again under the dominion of the
rebel leaders, it is blind leading the blind and
both will assuredly tumble into the last ditch
together.


As to emancipation, the Tennessee rebels
own that 1t is an accomplished fact, but DENY
us Legality, "denounce 1t as an act of fonl in
justice, and twill as sure as they attain th
ascendency. under circumstances which will
no y thn,WN +rNa ttL !
latlve procedure, reduce the freedmen to
bondage more abject than that from which
they have escaped"


at is to be regretted that our present ,eg-
isature has evinced such tardiness in confer
ring upon our colored citizens those civil
rights 50 necessary for their security and we'll
being IN the community. Most likely it will
yet redeem itself from the deserved reproach
by some wise proceeding for their welfare:
but what avail would be such legislation if in
two years 1t should be swept from our statute
books p


They urge the admission of Tennessee
congressman and add:


Nv e have however, no hesitation in de-
claring that ifsthe consequences of their ad-
mission must necessarily be the withdrawal
of all further restraint upon the rebels of Ten.
nessee by the authorities of the General Coy
ernment, and the surrender of our State and
Its loyal people to rebel domination, we are
not prepared for the sacrifice Too well do
we know, and too painfully have we expert
enced that their interested mercies are cruel
ties, to be willing ever again to pass under
their yoke.


Another memorial. with the same sigma.
lures, has been sent to the Congressional
Committee on Reconstruction, and contains
the same general statements but more in de-
tail 1t dwells upon the impossbility for tou.
rlsts and soJourners from the North TO know
all that is to be known with reference to the |
temper and designs of insurgent Tennes-
scans.


These memorials are in temperate language
and must recommend themselves to the at. |
tention of the Northern people and the Ma. |
honal Legislature. They are in accord with |
our private advices from the same quarter,
and with the letter ofAlexender H. Stephens,
recently received in Washington, which saws
1.-THE original Union men of Georgia suffer
greater prosecutions now on account of their
opinions than they did during the days of the |
Confederacyn


1t is well that these disclosures are made
before, rather thnu after, the work of recon-
struction is completed and the ex-slavehol.
ders are restored TO power in Washington and
all the Southern capitals.


EMIGRATION SOUTHWARK - According to
the New York Commercial, not only is emf
grafton South eeasing, but many who have
gone South are returning. This is especially t
the case in Tennessee. In several localities.
the native population has served notices on
the new corners to quit, while many who, at
the close of the war, proceeded from the
w estern States into Tennessee for business
and other enterprises, are now disposing Of
their effects pre- eparatory to going back again.