Public Ledger

Shall we have a State Convention?
The Columbia Herald echoes the inquiry.
The Memphis Ledger asks; and the
State press is silent. Outside of these two journals and our
own, the State are ready and willing to speak.
We do not want any "select" Con-
vention, nor do we want "packed" dele-
gates to New York.
If the times are not ripe for a true rep-
resentation of the people; if the people
are not ready to assert their rights in po-
litical caucus even—we are dead, and
have no right to intrude into a living
party like the Democracy.

Are the people of this State alive po-
litically, or dead? Are they ready to
take their fate in their own hands? Do
they feel competent to do so? Or do
they choose to be forever the shuttlecock
of fortune between Brownlow and John-
son? Let our brethren of the press an-
swer, if they represent the people.

The above is from the Nashville Ga-
sette. Bad as is the condition of the
State, we have hoped that there was life
in the land yet. We are told that Ten-
nessee is a State of the Union, and as
such entitled to choose her own rulers
and control her own destiny, as well as
Massachusetts or New York. If that is
not so, if we are indeed dead, if the
people cannot or will not speak, then we
say with our cotemporary we want no
conventions, caucuses, or privilege to
kick or squirm, or "intrude into a living
party like the Democracy." But it is
because we have both the right and the
power for self-government, as we think,
if we will but exercise it, that we urge
both a political convention and a peo-
ple's State convention. One may beget
the other. A political convention, an
effort to be represented and aid in the
great regenerating work of the Democ-
racy, which is to redeem the country,
can do us no harm, to say the worst of
it. And we have therefore indicated a
wish that the Democratic Committee at
Nashville should call a convention for
the selection of delegates.

Is that committee dead? If not, why
is it dumb? If the State is politically
dead, why is the Gazette busying itself
with politics, and the Banner, the Dis-
patch, and other of our able journals at
the hub, straining every nerve to beat
sense into the dead, instead of delving in
the inanities of literature, and singing
lullaby and soft songs? If the press rep-
resents the people at all it is not yet
true that they are dead, for it is in the
main manly and outspoken for all the
rights of a free people. We want union
of the press, energy and action; not any
throwing up of hands in despair. We
want no rivalry, but emulation and co-
operation in sustaining right views,
though they come from the humblest
honorable and conservative journal of the
State. We believe the difficulty is not
that the people are dead, but more that
the press is silent, when it is an incum-
bent duty to discuss and to speak.

If it is right and expedient to
hold either a political or radical
people's convention, that right needs
advocacy, without which concert
for efficient action was never seen or
known among any people. It is not
they, but the press which has been remiss
in this matter. If it is unadvisable or
wrong to meet in convention for any pur-
pose, let that appear by a fair exhibit
of reasons. Then the matter will be set
at rest. We count the Nashville Gazette,
the Columbia Herald, the Greenville
Flag, the Chattanooga Union, the Mem-
phis Appeal and the Avalanche, of the
Conservative press of the State, as favor-
able to Democratic organization at least.
There may be others, and more than have
spoken. We speak on this subject be-
cause we occupy an humble place among
the journals of the State, and have a
right to speak. We say what we think,
while we aspire not to lead, but to take a
respectable place, where others more able
and wise may lead. We unite with the
Gazette in the request that the press
shall speak out on this subject. It is
through the press alone that any desirable
initiative can be taken.

We are tired of an exclusive devotion
to matters of national importance, while
what concerns us so nearly at home is
ignored. Our State government is more
contemptible than the Rump itself, and
it is high time that it was scotched. It
is in our power. A people's convention
will do it, and it is that people's privilege.
And we shall be, if we are not already,
the hiss and jeer of the States, if, trem-
bling and daring not the exercise of a
plain constitutional right which belongs
to us, we remain under the domination
of a twentieth of our whites, who drive
the blacks, and whose dominion we can
brush away as a cobweb, when we will
as they who would be free, and themselves
will strike the blow. Shall we not have
even a political convention? Shall we
not even meet and compare notes?
Can any good reason be urged why
lukewarmness on this important subject
should longer continue? Are all rights
so completely overthrown in Tennessee
as to be hopeless of future rescue, and
unworthy of a single renewed and manly
effort to assert and regain them? If so,
it is time to quit the field of politics for-
ever, and, unlearning the lessons of our
fathers, which belong alone to those who
have a will to be freemen, make gossip
our study, go to dallying with the flowers
of literature and rhetoric, and singing
Mother Goose's melodies, for the benefit
of grown children. We have indeed
become extremely depressed by oppres-
sion, misgovernment, and unprincipled
and wicked outrage. But we deny that
the life and spirit of Liberty is extin-
guished in Tennessee. We deny all
reason for despair, and we can but ex-
press our firm belief, that if the press of
the State will come to the rescue in the
simple and emphatic expression of the
real and true voice of the people, it will
be the beginning of a better day, wherein
we shall yet behold the great Volunteer
State, with all the descendants of the
heroes who made it so, "redeemed, re-
generated and disenthralled." And we
trust, therefore, that the press will not be
silent, but speak its mind, whatever it
may be. For ourselves, we are in for the
war, and do not intend to strike our flag.