Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1858-12-03
GILAAIRKSWIILIlEs
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1853.

n0y- The N. Y. Times, in view of the
wretcbed ma. administration of that city,
says
We believe We express only the settled
judgment of rejecting men, when we say
that self government, with universal suf-
frage, in large cities, has proved n failure.
1t does not answer the purpose Of govern
ment.
Why restrict the failure to large cities ?
1t is true the failure sooner manifests it.
self there, because there are found in
more concentrated form, the causes which
lead to the failure but the same causes
are at work throughout the length and
breadth of the country. 1t requires
patriotism, talents, integrity, and ex-
perience to fashion a government and fit
1t for the protection of all the great in
terests Of the people; and to keep that
government pure and effective, all the ele-
ments, above enumerated, are unsceasing-
ly required. Are these qualifications to
be found in the vagabond masses that in
fest and disgrace our cities and towns p
Are they to be found in the vagrant hordes
that ramble through the country as des-
ttute of interest in the government as OF
knowledge of its principles2 Are they to
be found in the vicious who crowd our
prison houses, and in the ignorant who
feel no inspirations higher than brute
instincts Yet to these, unprincipled
demagogues have given the balance Of
power in this Republic, and have sunk
themselves to their level to obtain theil
votes.
In former times, when the ship of State
was ballasted with wisely restricted righ
Of suffrage, wheu the officers were homes
and capable, and the crew interested in the
cargo, it rode the waves in safety, and de
fed the winds that whistled through it,
rigging. But when that ballast was thrown
overheard and an iudiscriminate and mot
ley crew was taken on board, and tn,
officers began steer, not for the safety o
the ship, but to please tho masses tina
crowded the deck the voice of muffin,
began to be heard, discipline gave palce t
disorder and riot, the compass was n
longer consulted, and the winds and tn
waves, conformity with the vicious and dis
cordant elements on board, hold the goo,
ship at their mercy, drifting it hither an,
yon, whilst the officers and crew are inten
only upon plundering the cargo.
None but fool, or knave will conten,
that government can be prosperousl.
administered without wisdom and integ
rity, and to presume that both can b
found, in abundance in the mass of voter
who control our elections, through th
agency of their dishonest leaders, is gross
ly absurd Yet this is the theory upol
which American statesmen profess to act
They set out with the nonsensical assump
ton, that all men are equal, and end b
placing the lives, the liberty, the hap
piness, and the property of the ntelligen
and conservative few at the mercy of tn
rabble-majority. The foreign pauper, @
convict who landed, yesterday, at Ne,
York, is, to-day, the equal, politically, {
the Governor of the State. The nativ
who has spent his life in ignorance, vic
and squahd poverty, is the equal, polite
ally, of him whose talents, industry, an
integrity have impaired wisdom to on
councils, wealth to our country, and hone
TO American character. This is the sol
of equality dcmagOgues clamor for as a
inherent right and which has so eff ctr
ally demoralized the uation, and is
rapidly subverting law and order, an
erecting as the standard of individual an
political justice, the lawless will of d,
graded and maddened majority. Univers
suffrage is a universal curse, and Il
assumed equality upon which it is base
is the dstcmpered dream of fanat
brains.
RSe- AZ an ov;Janoa oc .bo borr,or