Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1857-12-04
is 1T THE GOVERNMENT, ORTHOSE
WHO GOVERN?

tits fact, too palpable 10 pc dehlea,
that good form of government, wisely
administered, is ever productive OF COM
merciaI prosperity and social order; and
where these are wanting, it will ever be
found that the government is radically
defective, or that it is most unwisely adj
ministered. Now, we put it to the plain,
common sense of the people osay whence
the frightful commercial embarrassments,
and still more fightful social disorders
which woigh SO heavily upon the prosperity
and peace of the country Surely, none
will be SO reckless as to charge these evils
upon the framework of our govern
ment! Then there is but one answer to
the question--it is the mal-administration
of the party in power.
If we go back, in the history of the
government, behind the organization Of
the locofoco party, we shall find, with the
exception of the troubles entailed by the
Revolution, and those following the war
of 1912, that the country progressed
steadily in the march Of improvement; the
people were contentcd and law-abiding,
and the bonds of harmony united all the
sections of the Union. At that time, love
of country had not been supplanted by
by devotion to party; wise laws were wise
ly administered; native Americans govern
cd their own country, and the ballot-box
was guarded by restrictions which kept
aloof the wandering tribes which, without
n permanent habitation and fixed interest
in the government, ought never to be
vested with the power to control its ad-
ministration. But the golden age Of the
Republic has passed away, and with the
organization of locofocoism, commenced
that rule of brazen corruption which has
prostituted the best talents to the vilest
purposes, and debased the people into the
veriest serfs that ever disgraced humanity
by tame submission to the basest masters.
The Constitution has been violated by
surrendering the government of the Terri
tories to the people thereof, and civil war
was the consequence, followed by increas-
ed sectional discord. The Constitution is
violated by permitting the States to create
banks of issue, and the consequence is an
inflated currency, unconstitutional, largely
unavailable and wholly unreliable as a
basis of healthy commerce. The Consti-
tuition is daily violated, by the State judi
ciary, in the naturalization of foreigners,
and giving them free access to the ballot
box without regard to the term of residence
demanded by law, and the consequences
are, election riots, increase of demagogu-
ism, decrease of public virtue, fearful dis
regard of legal authority and war of the
rabble upon the rights of the industrious
and prosperous. The rights Of the Older
States arc violated by Withholding from
them their equitable share of the public
lands, and the bestowal of those lands as
brides to the new States, and to enrich and
corrupt individuals and corporations in
order that party may thrive upon the ruins
of the dearest interests of the country
Every officer, from the President down, is
guilty of perjury when he swears to up.
hold the Constitution and laws, and then
administers the government for the benefit
of party; and Congress has become body
of sharpers who, with the ignorance and
credulity of the people as their capita
stock, enrich themselves and n favored
few Of their party by plundering the gov
mountaineering public property t.
private use.
These evils are not the Legitimate con
sequences of our form of Government
Then what is their origcn? The mal-ad
ministration of the party in power--th
gross corruption of locofocoism-a part.
without patriotism to prompt nObl
devotion to the country, without principle
to shape a wise policy and without a sens
of national honor to feel the degradation
into which it has sunk the government
The President has become the Executiv
of party will; Congress is the mere ex
ponent of the prejudiccs and passions q
lawless faction--an aggregation of tn
worst specimens of corrupt politicians; tn
judiciary is dependent, tme-soryin2
partizan and, of course, morcenary an
corrupt, and the people, from whom a
these derive their authority, are the slave
of dcmagogucs-thc contemplate tools {
base ambition. Yet our institutions II
main as they were fashioned by the
llustrious founders, all-suficient for til