Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1860-03-02
Opposition State Convention.
EVENING SESSION.

1ANANo Hh1coAONs
Col. stokes from the Committee on Resolutions
reported the following:
The members Of this Convention, chosen In pri
mary meetings of the people in their respectiv,
counties, and representing the sentiments and opn
ion of all those, whether Wings, Democrats OF
Americans In times past, who view with concern
and not without alarm, the present political condi.
ton of the country have convened for the purpose
Of taking counsel together and to adopt such
ures as may appear best TO awaken the sleeping
patriot and arouse the Indifferent TO sense of the
impending dangers, and to unite their energies TO
to save the country from the disovganzing and re-
rolutionary spirit of the times They believe that
the time has come and will MOI brook postpone
ment when, If ever the progress of abuses and
rupton in our Government which all history shows
are the parents and forerunners Of revolution and
anarchy, may be stayed If they cannot be eradica-
ted
That we may not be accused, of exaggerating the
extent of the existing abuses and disorders in the
body polite, and overrating their disastrous and
baneful consequences, brief enumeration and de-
scription Of some of the more prominent of them,
will be submitted to the judgment of the people,
who alone can apply the remedy.
A little more than thirty years ago the editor of
newspaper in New Hampshire who had rudely
assailed the character Of Secretary of State was
denied the publishing of the laws of Congress, a
job insignificant in value, which had been accorded
to him under previous administrations This was
denounced at the time by the whole opposition, as
an act of tyranny and abuse of executive patronage
-an attack upon the freedom of the press-upon
liberty ITSELF in poisoning the fountain from which
was derived one of its chief supports. At this day.
strange as il may appear without any change in the
form of Government, important public offices are
frequently bestowed upon the proprietors and edi-
tors Of public journals in the interest of the ad-
un tratiO and snla and IL
them, or the profits of them, amounting sometimes
to thousands, distributed among them without
scruple, and under Executive influence and direc-
ton
Under the maxims and teachings of Jefferson
confirmed by the practice Of Madison Monroe and
j. Q. Adams, the freedom of political opinion was
held to be Of SO sacred and important character in
Republic that in period Of thirty years proscrp-
ton or removals from Office for opinions sake were
unknown. During the same period Of time the
preservation of the purity and independence of the
elective franchise was held TO be so important that
the interference of Federal offices in elections State
or National, was forbidden according to the teach-
ing OF Jefferson who announced that such inter-
ference would be held just cause of removal
| But soon after the close of the period to which
reference has been made, the wholesome doctrines
and sentiments Of jefferson and of his immediate
successors upon those important subjects lost much
of their force and respect with the public.
The first departure from them by the popular
Chief Of new Administration found excuse among
his followers in the fierce assaults made upon his
private character by his opponents in the canvass
which had terminated in his election; and iustifica-
ton in the special circumstances of each case of re-
moval.
But in time, under various plausible pretexts
particularly that which assumed that the rctrench-
mcnt of expenditures and reform of abuses promis-
ed by the President in his first Inaugural Address
could not be carried out unless the public offices
and employments, ministerial as well as political
and administrative, should be in the hands of his
friends and supporters, the injuncons of jefferson
ceased To he respected and the wholesale proscrp-
ti'R which followed the discovery of this necessity
led in the end to the introduction of long train of
abuses in the exercise of the appointing power in
the distribution of executive patronage and to a
practical operation of the government subversve of
the spirit and intention Of the Constitution. The
freedom once conceded to the oiiicehoders as well
as all other citizens to approve the acts
and measures of an administration as their udg-
ment and conscience might dictate, can now be ex-
ercsed only under the penalty of forfeiture of Office
tealty due TO the country and its government from
all citizens in their is held to he transferr-
ed to political Chief or TO party. No political
heresy no matter how mischevous and dangerous
even though 1t aims at the destruction of the Con-
sttution-no violation of solemn pledges or duties
is held 70 be cause of exclusion FROM or appoint-
men to office, provided the essential point Of honc1
is saved in bearing true allegiance to party
jealousy with which the freedom of elections
and the purity Of the elective franchise was once
guarded against the influence of the executive
power and the interference of Federal officers in
elections is no longer recognized by those who have
the control of affairs Of any Importance to the pre-
servation Of free institutions.
Under the operation of new maxim in dspens-
ing executive patronage, that o the victors belong
to the spoils,' the maxims of jefferson have been
reversed and new tenure of Office prescribed not
known by the Constitution. Ofice-holdcrs are ex-
pected and required to interfere isey ia elections
under penalty of dismissal and thus the whole corps
OF civil officers and employees and their dependents
hundred thousand or more in numbers dispersed
over the country constitute a standing political
police force-trained hands, disciplined TO any SER
vice which may be required in upholding the party
in power
At every Collectors office in the large cities-at
every post Office in every CITY, and respectable vii
lage III the land, may he found political club-room
from whence issue missiyes giving instructions to
the faithful.
The purity of the elective franchise in the pre-
sent times is not exempt from the temptations and
influences of pecuniary brbes with executive con-
nivance.
II is notorious that per centage of the saleries
of Federal otice-hOders has been frequently II not
regularly assessed and collected to raise fund to
be transmitted to whatever State, or Congressional
District il may be deemed necessary to enable the
party to carry an election. And, thus portions Of
the public revenue derived from the people tens of
thousands in amount are turned into corruption
fund, TO stihe the voice, and defeat the will Of the
honest and independent voters.
These evils and abuses great and gross, as they
manifestly are, may be tolerated and liberty may
survive, and the country may prosper for a season,
while the great body of the people continue un-
stainted by corruption; but how long that season
may be, will depend upon the operation of some OF
the indirect and more remote consequences Of the
abuses above enumerated. The maxims observed
and practised upon in the distrbuaton Of the spols
for the last quarter of a century, has undoubtedly
lowered the standard of public morals, and ditfuscd
a mercenary spirit over the country.
Lured by the magnitude of the spoils, the rewards
of partisan services thousands take to politics as
profession, trade, livelihood An army of poll
tcal mercenatrieS and adventures is thus recruited