Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1861-04-12
Gil A r X s WILLIE
Friday. April u, 1851.

tTIUdy. ApI1l 10, 1901.
RE-. The institution OF slavery is the only firm
basis fora free government This seeming paradox
will no doubt siartle those who have exam
ined the proposition, and as do not intend TO ar
que il, ai this time, suggestion two may serve
rs key with which to unlock the mystery. The
leading idea of free government, is the capacity
Of the people take care Of their rights and inter-
ests and that capacity is founded upon virtue and
intelligence and to make these qualifications con-
servative of freedom, they must belong TO the ma
jority which controls the administration Of the
government. This is n selfevident proposition, and
from It we de5ucc another equally true that if the1
majority be not honest and capable the govern
ment can neither he wise nor permanent. As soci-
ty is now, ever has been, aud ever win be constu-
ted, il is ahsolutel~ impossible that the can
possess thatdeee of intelligence necessary to make
them statesmen or even competent judges of
craftsmanship in others, and without this intelli-
gence, no amount of honesty prevent them from
being misled by designing politicians, for selfish
ends. If, then virtue without intelligence is no Sc
curity for coed government, how muc. greater the
insecurity when both are wanting We may be
told, however-and IL is true-that the amount Of
intelligence here indicated is not essential to the
masses, in order to secure wise administration of
public affairs, because they select agents with
abundant capacity to secure this great end. We
grant that such agents can be found but should
they happen-as is lamentably the all over the
country--not to combine integrity and patriotism
with their talents they will, for sinister ends de-
ceve the people who without the necessary intelli-
Pence unable to detect the fraud and it is only
when the mischief is done that they feel they have
been cheated, but without knowing how. Then it
is for want of the right sort of that they
duped, and that their government becomes corrupt
and they themselves contaminated by the example
of unworthy agents in whom they coufded.
If the foregoing propositions be true, they nev-
itably bring to the consideration of third one
bearing more directly upon the irst-that the in
stution of slavery is the only firm basis of free
government-and that third proposition is; That
universal suffrage will overturn any system of gov
eminent which recognizes in it theory and practice
unless that system embraces slavery as a social and
political institution. The history Of this Govern
ment, as well as that of every other Republic at
tests the Truth of positon-that the masses are
incapable Of selfgovernment; the history of the
whole world confirms IT, and the Judgment of eve
ry enlightened man accorls its sanction of the trI,-
ism. The government of slave-holding country
may extend the right of suffrage to every free cit
zen without any serious risk to its pernanency; the
lower classes, who slaves have access to the
ballot-box, and their vice and ignorance not
felt in the administration of such government
But where slavery does not exist the lower classes
are free citizens, and with the right of suffrage,
their vice and ignorance under the lead of dema-
gogues, tell, with fatal effect upon their govern
ment. Selfish politicians and silly believers in the
perfectibility of man may say what they please to
the contrary, but theetime never has been, is not
now, and never will he, when the masses will be
sufficiently enlightened to govern themselves, and
without this knowledge the right of suffrage will
ever prove fatal privilege. Should the Free and
Slave States of this Confederacy ever be perma-
nenty separated time win demonstrate the truth of
these positions, The government of the North
with its universal suffrage and is mixed and de-
graded masses will rapidly degenerate into anar-
chy, and emerge from that political chaos in the
form of despotism. II is universal suffrage that
has given birth to the thousand and one "sms "
which curse that sectou--that has fostered the law
less fanaticsm which has driven seven States be-
You'd the pale Of the Union, and which has engen-
dered fierce liceneousness which the arm of de-
spotic power can alone RESTRAIN within the bounds
of outward observance of law. Not so in the
South. There the lower classes--the sAves--are
not only excluded from the ballot-box, but their
ignorance and vice rendered harmless to our po-
lltcal and social institutions by means of the whole
some restraints iuseparable from the relations of
master and slave, This government within gov
ernment-as we may term it's not incompatible
with the freest institutions for the white man, and
is the only security for the conlentment aud we'll
being of an inferior race, as untitled by nature as
are the lower classes at the North by social neces-
sity, for selfgovemment. These are few of the
reasons which convince us that slavery is essential
to a permanent free government