Clarksville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1865-1867, 1866-05-25
REPUTATION.

We see statement in the papers,
to the effect that radical member of
Congress has declared that the South
ern States will be kept out of the
Union until the national debt is
paid. OF course, this suggestion can
have originated only in the apprc-
hcnsion that Southern influence may
. be exerted in favor of reputation.
And why this apprehension? 1t is
not based upon any manifestation,
by the South, even of desire to
throw off the burden of the national
debt. The only basis, then, for such
fear, on the part of the Radicals, is
to be found in their own acts, and
the suspicious which ever accompa.
ny the consciousness of wrong do
ing.
It's well known fact, that millions
upon millions of Government bonds
are held by the radicals of the North,
and it is equally well known that a
radical Congress, in the interests of
party, enacted law, exempting said
bonds from taxation. The mercena-
ry spirit which prompted this enact
ment, and its gross injustice to the
laboring millions, whose scanty means
are taxed to make up this deficit in
the national revenue, may we'll Gre
ate apprehensions that debt SO un-
equally borne, should be repudiated
unless the taxes are equally adjusted.
The poor man almost pays for the
air he brcathes, whilst the Radical
Millionaire wallows in luxury and
licenciousness-his door barred, by
act of Congress, against the ingress
of revenue officials. Injustice, so
glazing, naturally suggests the idea
of retribution; but why look alone
to the South as the source of the
apprehended danger The people
of the North, except the bondholders,
are subjected to the same wrongs,
and they must be considered more
tame spirited and more thoroughly
sujugated, than those Of the South,
or the discrimination would not be
made.
If, however, feeling in favor of
reputation is growing up, in either
section, it has been planted and nur-
tured by the Radical Congress. A
precedent has been established by
the forced reputation of the Rebel
debt; but, their fears, driving them
even beyond this point, the Radicals
have been laboring earnestly to make
the payment of the national debt a
constitutional obligation-the bonds,
Of course, remaining exempt from
taxation. This line of conduct is an
effective means Of calling public at
tention to the crushing weight OF
taxation, and the crimenality of lift
ing it from the shoulders of public
creditors and casting the almost en-
tire burden upon the less favored,
more deserving aud working classes
So far as the people of the South arc
concerned, there is a determination
TO do their whole duty to the coun.
try. But if they are to be taxed
without being represented; if their
agricultural products are to be dis
eliminated against, in the distribu,
ton Of burdens, they must be more
than human if they neither feel MOI
resent their wrongs. During theil
colonial existence, the Northern
States felt towards England as We
must feel towards them, under SINH
lar circumstances. Facts have jus
tilted, and history has approved tb'
justice of that feeling, in the on,
case, and will they not do it in tn,
other? Equal and exact justice i
the best remedy for all political ills
and the best security against thei
recurrence.