Year: 1867

VOTERS. .rr


Nobody has ever thought it amlable 10
snatch bread from the starving, or pollte 10
pull his bed from under dying man Dut' IL
seems to us, akin to these attentions Is the
attempt to bully freedman out OF ms vote
There was q little too much of this for patience
in the late Tennessee election. We can pass
over the passion of that retired marine warrior,
Admiral Semmes for the right of an old salt
to swear is rs prescriptive as his right to chew
tobacco and we cannot be sufficiently thank
full that he did not burst vessel on election
day, but survived the aggrayation with his
arteries in their usual order. We can also pass
over the mournful walls of The Ardidnche
newspaper, which hints at going to war again
il not day after tomorrow, at least, III the
course of a month or two. IL is quite another
matter when we find The CidrksUiHe Chronicle
advising citizens To withhold work from all
colored men who voted for Brownlow-not
Immediately, mark you. but whenever
laborers Tcan bo found 10 take their
places. Now, threatening to discharge man
| from employment, unless he votes with his em-
| ployer is the most shameful sort OF bribery
| conceivable, and the wretch who succumbs TO


such influences might just well be slave


as a so-caIed freedman. His freedom is merely


nominal The best part of him belongs to the


political trader who buys him at the poor price


of permitting linn TO earn a living by the


sweat of his brow. Whether an employer thinks
negro suffrage expedient or otherwise does not
| in the slightest degree affect the moral ques-
! ton There are those who do not understand
the use of money, and when they get it, un-
wisely squander it but does this give anybody
right to pick their pocketsP Shylock justly
said that those who took the means whereby
he lived, really took his life; and to abandon
man to paupersm and starvation simply for
exercising plain legal right, is no better than


knocking him on the head. Then, again, what
| difference does it make whether the bribery of
voter is effected by sum in hand or by
| prospective wages by cajolery or by threats'
| by thrustng a spurious ballot into his fist, or
| 10y promising TO starve him into political ortho
| doxyp


In every country in which anything like
general suffrage prevails, this purchasing Of
votes, while it may not seldom be resorted TO-,
is held to be disreputable. In England, bribery
proved unseats q Member of Parliament. In
most of the respectable States Of this Union
there are laws guarding the liberty of the voter
to vote as he pleases; and these measures are
taken TO protect men who do not and cannot
need the protection which is absolutely vital
TO the freedman. Now, intimidation, for many
reasons, is vastly worse than plump purchase
The fellow who sells himself Out-and-out is
probably lost to all feeling of the unspeakable
degradation of his position, and no doubt would
dispose of his grandmOthers body to the anat-
omst. OF course, he who can only be
secured by threatening to deprive him of
bread for himself and his wife and
children is better worth saving from
shameful oppression and an insidiOus tempt
alton. The fact that he must be reached by
such means presupposes certain degree of
honorable feeling on his part and the very
desire for work is in itself praiseworthy. Play
ing therefore, upon domestic love, taking adj
vantage of pressing necessities, availing him.
self of an accidental superiority, the employer
who bullies dependant out of his most sacred
privilege, and wheedles him into becoming
mere tool, is guilty of moral larceny, and as
souls are of more importance than bodies, per-
haps he may be declared guilty of q moral
murder. 1t is extortion, and extortion under
aggravating circumstances. 1t is merely an
attempt to starve voters opinions and prefer
ences out of him. 1t is worse than bread and
water, with the grave instead of dungeon.


But we do not mean to insult the intellects
of our readers by arguing this matter. We
can better employ the space at our disposal in
warning the people of Tennessee. If bribery
be once established as a system, they may bid
long good night to the prosperity and re-
spectability of the State. Those who buy or
bully Blacks will soon be buying or bully |
ing Whites; and the inevitable consequences
of this will be the domination of dollars and |
the gradual transfer not only of poor people |
but of mechanics, laborers, and shopkeepers of
small means to the hands of those who are
able to pay for them. The White workman
who rejoices over the attempted degradation
OF the Black workman will find that petty
tyrants are no respecters of color. His tun
will come next. The want Of daily bread bas
nothing to do with the tint of the cudcle
Man, OF whatever race, eats aud digcs,s, or
else dies. We predict that, Ii the intim iatiOn