173 Series I Volume LII-I Serial 109 - Supplements Part I
Page 173 | Chapter LXIV. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION. |
Mr. Thigg, from the business committee, again submitted their report. After much discussion, the declaration of grievances and resolutions were finally adopted as follows, without division:
DECLARATION OF GRIEVANCES.
We, the people of East Tennessee, again assembled in a convention of our delegates, make the following declaration in addition to that heretofore promulgated by us at Knoxville on the 30th and 31st days of May last:
So far as we can learn the election held in this State on the 8th day of the present month was free, with but few exceptions, in no part of the State other than East Tennessee. In the larger parts of Middle and West Tennessee no speeches or discussions in favor of the Union were permitted. Union papers were not allowed to circulate. Measures were taken in some parts of West Tennessee, in defiance of the constitution and laws, which allow folded tickets to have the ballot numbered in such manner as to mark and expose the Union votes. A disunion paper, the Nashville Gazette, in urging the people to vote an open ticket, declared that "a thief takes a pocketbook or effects an entrance into forbidden places by stealthy means-a tory in voting usually adopts pretty much the same course of procedure." Disunionists in many places had charge of the polls, and Union men, when voting, were denounceed as Lincolnites and abolitionists. The unanimity of the votes in many large counties where but a few weeks ago the Union sentiment was so strong proves beyond doubt that Union men were overawed by the tyranny of the military power, and the still greater tyranny of a corrupt and subsidized press. In the city of Memphis, where 5,613 votes cast, but five freemen had the courage to vote for the Union, and these were stigmatized in the public press as "ignorant traitors who opposed the popular edict." Our earnest appeal to our brethen in the other divisions of the State was published there only to a small extent, and the menbers and names of those who composed our convention, as well as the counties they represented, were suppressed and the effort made to impress the minds of the people that East Tennessee was favorable to secession. The Memphis Appeal (a prominent disunion paper) published a false account of our proceedings under the head, "The traitons in council," and styled us, who represented every county but two in East Tennessee, "the little batch of disaffected traitors who hover arround the noxious atmosphere of Andrew Johnson's home." Our meeting was telegraphed to the New Orleans Delta, and it was falsely said that we had passed a resolution recommending submission if 70,000 votes were not cast against secession. The dispatch added that "the Southern rights men are determined to hold possession of the State, though they should be in a minority." Volunteers were allowed to vote in and out of the State, in flagrant vialation of the constitution. From the moment the election was over and before any detailed statement of the vote in the different counties had been published, and before it was possible to ascertain the result, it was exultingly proclaimed that separation had been carried by from 50,000 to 70,000 votes.
This waspublic mind to enable "the secessionists to hold possession of the State though they should be in a minority." The final result is to be announced by a disunion Governor, whose existence depends upon the success of secession, and no provision is made by law for an examination of the vote by disinterested persons, or even for contesting the election. For these and other causes we do not regard the
Page 173 | Chapter LXIV. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION. |