Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1858-02-19
OIl1AlRKS WILLIE:
FRIDAY, FEpRpARY Is, lssa.
q - The locofocoa ard ehuoklina. with


merican party in the Legislature, voted
against the admission of Kansas, with the
Lecompton Constitution. This is the YER
sion of the vote, as given by the Union
and American; but we need not say to in
telligent men that the version is anything
but true. The Americans did yote-and
we are glad of it-against instructing our
Senators and requesting our Representa-
tives to vote for the admission of Kansas
under the Lecompton Constitution, and in
doing SO, they have proven their devotion
to justice and fair dealing, and have an
nounced to the public that our Represent
atiyes in Congress may be better posted
upon this subject than the locofoco ma
jority in the Legislature.
But leaving out Of view, the contempti-
bic partizan feeling that prompted these
instructions, let us look at it as a great
mora, question, affecting the honor of the
nation, and involving the vindication of
principles that lie at the foundation of all
good government. 1t is we'll known to
the whole country that Gov. Walker and
Secretary Stanton not only proclaimed,
but exposed the frauds by which the Lee
compton Constitution was carried These
frauds are fully set forth in the Protest,
against the Constitution, forwarded to Con-
gress, from the Kansas Legislature, and,
in various other ways have they been laid
before the public. Now, if it be true that
these frauds have been perpetrated-and
no honest and well informed man doubts
it--what do these instructions amount to?
To nothing more nor less than declara-
ton, on the part of majority of the Ten
nessee Legislature, that swindling is hon
orable and just; and these instructions
make that majority just as criminal as those
who perpetrated the swindle. There is no
escape from this conclusion, unless it can
be shown that the principle of law which
make the accessory after the fact pdrticeps
cr5miais, is based on error. aas 1850
The Union and American affects regret
at the position in which the American
party, in Tennessee, has been placed by
the unanimous vote of its Representatives
against these instructions. We are sorry
to learn that refusal, by any one, to en-
dorse a swindle, is source ofregret to any
Tennessean; and so far from sympathizing
with that regret, we feel proud that the
representatives of our party discarded all
party and sectional feeling, on such an oc-
casion, and stood firm in defence of natio-
nal honor and political fair dealing. But,
VIC have been told that it may, perchance,
turn out, upon investigation, that the
Lecompton Constitution has been fairly
gotten up. Wcsay, in reply to the absurd
supposition, that, even admitting the pos
sibility of such a result, it was the duty of
honest and patriotic legislators to await
the issue before getting up instructions
that commit them as parties to fraud
They knew that the whole subject was be-
fore Congress that an investigation was
about to be made, into the whole transac-
ton, and that the Representatives of Ten
nessee, in that body, must understand the
subject better than they; yet, with all
these facts before them, they did not hest
tate to endorse universally admitted
fraud, nor to instruct others to do likewise.
And, to cap the climax of folly, the coun-
try is advised, by the organ of the maj
ty of the Legislature, that regret is felt
because the American members had more
sense than to NEEDLE with the subject, and
too much integrity to incur even the sus-
picion of endorsing fraud
But, in extonuation, it is argued thai
the Topeka Constitution is also a swindle
and that the South has the right to choose
between them, without any imputation up
on its character, The South has no such
right--it has no right to do toronq. L
has the right to demand that both Consti
buttons shall be rejected, and insist that
Congress shall resume the government o
the Territories, as the Constitution enjoins
and to see that they are governed wiscl,
and upon correct principles 1t is as cloa
as truth can make it, that both Constitu
tions are hauds. 1t is E1ually clear tina
the Nebraska swindlo, pcrpetrated by Con
sress, is the originator of those frauds
aud nothing can be clearer than that Con
gross should repudate the whole bate
and so back to first principles. Rotalia
ton Of wroSg for wrong, is doctrines Q
the vicious. lie who steals from a rogue
is mono the less thief because he ha
,rrnl, rod u mrnnn .dnnr md if thn L.