TENNESSEE. 



721 



526,068 internal telegrams and 360,689 inter- 

 national dispatches. 



As regards the receipts of the telegraph ad- 

 ministration, they increased from 823,538 fr. 

 51 Ep., in 1867, to 921,182 fr. 45 Kp., in 1868, 

 although the expenses increased also from 748,- 

 976 fr. 46 Ep., in 1867, to 846,900 fr. 60 Ep., 

 in 1868, leaving in the latter year a surplus of 

 74,281 fr. 89 Ep. 



TENNESSEE. This State continued 

 throughout the year to be the most discordant 

 one in the Union. The Legislature was unani- 

 mously Eepublican in both branches, and the 

 Governor was one of the extreme representa- 

 tives of the same party. The great source of 

 irritation and of the consequent troubles and 

 disorders has been the disfranchisement of a 

 large majority of the white citizens for partici- 

 pation in the cause of the Southern Confeder- 

 acy in the late civil war. 



A Eepublican Convention was held in Nash- 

 ville, on the 22d of January, to choose dele- 

 gates to the National Convention of the party 

 which was to meet at Chicago in May. One 

 negro from each congressional district was 

 added to the State Executive Committee, and 

 resolutions were adopted expressing the high 

 estimation in which the delegates held the 

 "eminent services rendered to the cause of 

 loyalty, liberty, and progress, by his Excel- 

 lency "W. G. Brownlow, Governor of the 

 State," and hailing with "mingled feelings of 

 pleasure and delight the reinstatement in 

 office, as Secretary of War, of E. M. Stan- 

 ton, by the Senate of the United States." A 

 compliment was also paid to Joseph Holt for 

 his " courage and fidelity to the Union." 



The Conservatives held a convention in the 

 same city on the 15th of February, to name 

 delegates to the National Democratic Conven- 

 tion at New York. In the resolutions adopted 

 on this occasion, they indorsed the administra- 

 tion of President Johnson, and declared him 

 to be the choice of the Democratic and Con- 

 servative people of Tennessee, as a candidate 

 for the next presidency. They resolved, how- 

 ever, to support any other good man, true to 

 the Constitution, and to the rights and liberties 

 of the people, who might be put in nomina- 

 tion by the National Convention. At a subse- 

 quent convention of the same party, on the 2d 

 of June, a platform of considerable length was 

 adopted, which declared in favor of paying the 

 national debt in current paper of the nation, 

 and of taxing the obligations of the Govern- 

 ment. The following were also contained 

 among the resolutions : 



Resolved, That, as, in the course of events, the 

 question whether a State of the American Union 

 could, under the compact, secede, was submitted to 

 a contest of arms, and decided in the negative : and 

 as it is wise that theories in government should be 

 abandoned when found impracticable, therefore, the 

 American people, North and South, should accept 

 such decision as final and conclusive ; nevertheless, 

 we assert and maintain that the Constitution created 

 the Federal Government supreme under well-defined 

 VOL. vin. 46 A 



limitations and restrictions, leaving the States a large 

 mass of residuary rights and powers over their do- 

 mestic concerns, and making the States coequal in 

 respect of such rights ; and that the result of the 

 war has not, and should not, in any manner be con- 

 strued to impair these rights, or aggrandize the power 

 of the General Government to the endangerment of 

 public liberty. 



JResolved, That we recognize the system of African 

 slavery formerly existing in a portion of this country 

 as extinguished by_ the result of the war, and that fact 

 is ratified by a binding constitutional amendment, 

 but that we regard the measures of the Federal Con- 

 gress, bestowing the elective franchise on the black 

 race in ten States, and withholding it from large num- 

 bers of the white race the owners of the soil, and 

 payers of the Government taxes as a gross usurpa- 

 tion of power, and that such subjection of these 

 States to the political and social control of negroes 

 is a policy unjust, unwise, and oppressive, and tend- 

 ing to excite a war of races ; and that any measure 

 which seeks to deprive the white men of America of 

 their rightful position of superiority and supremacy 

 in the administration of the Governments, hoth Fed- 

 eral and State, or to divide or impair it, is fraught 

 with great danger to the perpetuity of free republi- 

 can institutions. 



An address to the National Democratic Con- 

 vention was afterward prepared by a commit- 

 tee appointed for the purpose, in which the 

 conduct of the party in power in Tennessee 

 was vehemently attacked as having deprived 

 the State of "republican government as un- 

 derstood by Americans." The restrictions 

 upon suffrage, the arbitrary power exercised 

 by the Governor, and alleged attempts to bring 

 about the supremacy of the African race, were 

 all bitterly denounced as among the " oppres- 

 sions, usurpations, and miseries to which this 

 State has been subjected by the minions and 

 agents of the party now in possession of the 

 Government of the United States." 



A good deal of trepidation appears to have 

 been caused from time to time in different 

 parts of the State by the exploits of a secret 

 organization, known as the "Ku-klux Klan." 

 According to the statement of Governor Brown- 

 low, this was a military organization, " com- 

 posed of ex-rebel soldiers, and those in sympa- 

 thy with them," who aimed at the overthrow 

 of the State government. Many vague stories 

 were told of threats and violence, of assassina- 

 tions and outrages committed by this organiza- 

 tion from political motives, but no well-authen- 

 ticated instances are given which can form the 

 basis of any reliable account. 



In June, the following correspondence 

 passed between Governor Brownlow and the 

 commander of the Department of the Cumber- 

 land: 



EXECUTIVE OFFICE, ) 

 KNOXVILLE, TENX., June 15, 1868. ) 

 Major- General George H. Thomas, commanding , etc. : 



The following is a copy of a dispatch from the 

 Hon. Mr. Arnell : 



COLUMBIA, TENN., June 14, 1868. 



To W. Q. Brownlow : 



The Ku-klux searched the train for me last night, pis- 

 tols and rope in hand. Empower me to call upon the 

 military here if necessary, in your name, to suppress all 

 armed and masked parties in this vicinity. 



I propose to fight it out. S. M. AENELL. 



This is but in keeping with what is going on in, 



