Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-04-26
THE EVILS" AND THE RESPONSE
RIEITY FORTHEN.

Il is Just as logical to attribute the |
" evils which have banished Just and |
wise government from Tennessee, and
which threatens to bankrupt the State
and beggar its people. to original sin. as
to Democratic sin, and indeed more so
The Democratic party as it existed before
the war and the Conservative party as
now constituted Of Wings and Democrats
alike, have had nothing to do in the pro-
duction Of such evils Whatever err
rors parties antccedent to the war may
have committed have been amply at0ncd
for If faults they did, grieyously have
they answered it, Their evil effects
could and should have been re-
covered from That such has not
been the case, is the fault Of Radicalism,
which is an emanation per Sc of the
devil himself 1t has been guilty Of more
political crime in the brief course it has
run, than all the parties that ever -four
ished ia the tide Of time Politically
speaking, it represents the idea of total
deprayily Parties have had their dav,
which committed excuses, which had
chiefs of intriguing ambition, which VIC.
lated the constitution, which passed I'M
Just aRd unequal laws, which entailed
misfortune on the whole country, or on
sections Of it, which were corrupt and
licentions, bat the history of governments
will he searched in vain for parallel to
the Radical party Of this time and roun>
try In all and every species of base
ness t. which political organizations
are subject, it is without a rival, and to
the evils which it has INFLICTED, there is
no pre- ,edent Its utter overthrow of the
constitution and gross assumptions Of
power its military tyranny, it's mock
philanthropy, its gigantic stealing, its
hartihOod in every form of political
wickedness is patent, and the good men
Of the country have trembled for the
consequences but the people are be-
ginning to appreciate that it is some,
thing more than proAigate faction, that
it approaches nearer than anything
mentioned in history, the Jacobin-
ism of the French revolution not
excepted, to the incarnation Of political
deyiltry French radicalism at the close
of the last century, was the frenzy of a
people melted by desperate demagogues
1t had the excuse ola present revolution,
and the remembrance Of ages of mis-
| government But American radisalism
ia r monstrOus thing--a cold blooded,
methOdical demonism, which follows a
war in which gallant people had fought
their passions out, and deliberately sets
to work to take to pieces the government
which survived the shock of war, and to
alter the whole constitution of society to
suit its unhallowed purposes.
Il is the source of evils unnum>
bered, and that Tennessee has felt them
is not the fault of any but its own vile
ministers Though Davis, Harris, and
Breckenridge were to be judged worthy
of the scaffold, they are mot capable Of
the crimes which lie on the heads Of the
Radical party The men who have per
petrated the evils under which the South
ern people are to-day suffering, are fifty
described by one who is competent to
know the extent of their power for mis-
chief-lIenry Ward Beecher In ser
mon few days since, he said
The men at Washington and Albany
sold their country; they sold their humani-
~ and their honor, and the trusts that
were put upon them by their constituents
They were debauchers of the young they
were the traitors; they that lifted the
sword were not half 80 much traitors: they
that despoiled the old banner and trod il
under foot; they that FRED upon The gorern-
| mcnt Of The United States Were not so much
| traitors as iHere those Ue,mia who were crawl
| ing under the foundations, and destroying
by corruption the vital power Of the gov
| eminent.