Clarksville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1865-1867, 1866-03-16
TIE Hon. EDMOND COOPER, Congressman elect

TIE Hon EDMOND Cooper, Congressman elect
from the fourth District, has recently returned
from Washington, and is reported to have said that
the question of the admission of the Tennessee del
egates, is indefinitely postponed. Why should
Tennessee demand a measure not melted out to the
other States Of the Souh2 They all embarked on
the same bottom, and ought to share the same fate
1t is true that this State got the start of the Others
in organizing one horse civil government; call.
ed but If this despotc rule Of tie few over the ma
n.y. is step towards tile restoration of free goserne
ment we can not see it-indeed, the States which
had no government except the military, at the
oose Of the war; are in far happier condition than
Tennessee, and further advanced towards popular
liberty. All over the South, the people have the
right of sa.ffage, unresrictedIby registration laws,
whilst here, the large majority and the best citi-
Gems are DISTINGUISHED by handful of radicals
who could never have obtained power through
merit, or popular suffrage.
The apology for this unconstitutional proscrip-
ton, Is the vague theory, that none but loyal men
have right to vote, hold Office; that the rebels,
by making war upon the government proved their
disoyalty, and that enemies to the constitution
are not to be trusted This assumption is false,
and the inference no less so. So far from making
upon the constitution, the seeding States car
ned duplicate of it with them. During the thirty
years sectional strife which preceded the war; the
South constantly asserted tLat all it asked Of the
North was to let the constitution remain intact-to
violate none Of the rights recognized by it-that
the government was all that could be desired, and
that nothing but violation Of its fundamental prn-
oiples by sectional party, could lead to any seri-
Gus conflict between the two extremes Of the Union.
This was the, then, we'll known position Of the
South, and no stronger evidence of its devotion to
the Union and the constitution at that time, can
be adduced than its earnest, persistent efforts to
preserve both IT. then, the people Of the South
we're thus devoted to the constitution, before the
war; is it strange that they should earnestly support
it now, when they are forced, again, to live under
1T On the contrary, such support is both wise and
consistent and should afford the strongest possible
proof of the sincerity of their renewed allegiance
Nor is it true that the South made war upon the
government. 1t only nesissed a sectional party
which, as we believed had seized the reins of gov
eminent to make it the instrument of wrong and
oppression. Whether the South acted wisely in
choosing the mode of redress, is not now the ques
ton; but when IN attempt is made to fasten upon it
charge of hostility to the government per Sc, and
to infer from it, continued aisoyaity, it is due to
truth to deny any such hostility and any such in
ference of dsloyalty. The people Ct the South,
who took part in the rebellion, are, to-day, more
true to the constitution than the radicals, of this
or any other State, who seek to degrade us through
the destruction of that very instrument to which
our allegiance is due, and TO which we look for
protection. But for the constitution and the Presi-
dent who upholds it with all the vigor of Execu-
tive power, the whites Of the South, would strip
ped of property and sGhordinated to the negroes,
by the very party that originated the war; Is it
still strange then, that people situated as we are,
should earnestly and honestly support constitu-
ton and President that stand between and fate
worse than determination? To say nothing OF
other and higher considerations interest is motive
enough to impel us to this course.
We do not expect the radicals 10 see, in these
remarks anything but the lurking spirit Of rebel
HUI iucapaoc VI approaching VIC S'ea' P''"'''
pies liberty, as well as the motives of higher ma
lures, justice and magnanimity are, to them, un'
meaning terms. Their highest ambition is to hold
Office, and their greatest pleasure, to prosecute al
who differ with them in opinion. But thanks tc
President johnson and the true and gallant minor
ity in the Senate, the days of radicalism and pro
scription are numbered; and with their extinction
will come freedom to the DISTINGUISHED masses o
Tennessee, restored Union and reviving pros
perty.