Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-10-04
A STUDIED EFFORT TO KEEP OUT
OE TIE COIrRTS

OF THE COIKlS.
One feature Of the municipal imbroglio
which has Just eliminated in the inter-
ference of the military 10 install an
illegally elected Mayor, should perhaps be
brought out more prominently than 1t yet
has. and that it is the studied effort that
has been made by the usurpers from the
Governor down to keep the matter out of
the courts. If Mai. Alden is the legally
elected Mayor of Nashville, which he
claims to be, he knows full well that he
had his remedy in the courts when Mayor
Brown refused TO surrender the Office to
him Mayor Brown contends that Maj.
Alden has not been legally elected Mayor
of the city, and he appealed to Chan
cellor Harrison for sn injunction re-
straining Maj Alden from taking loreible
possession Of the Office to which he claims
to have been elected, but the Chancellor
refused to issue the writ prayed for.
Gov Brownlow had previously construed
the law, and by proclamation declared its
meaning and intent, and the Chancellor
may have regard that as final as against
Mayor Brown and his cO-Oficials How
ever this may be, the refusal Of Chan
cellor Harrison did not authorize Maj
Alden to seize by military force the
Mayors Office and eject Mayor Brown.
Ifhe had applied to Chancellor Harrison
for mandamus to compel Mayor Brown
to show cause why he refused to sur
render the Office, the writ would have
been issued, and the matter could have
been legally adjudicated, and Mayor
Brown would have submitted cheerfully
to the decision Of any judicial tribunal in
the State before which the case should
have been brought Here is proof Of
the weakness of Mai. Alden's pre-
tensions, and of the fragrant usur-
patton that has been perpetrated
by the sanction of the Governor. The
law and the courts are set at naught, and
bayonets invoked to enforce the edicts of
an arbitrary and lawless faction. And
the Chancellor tacitly connived at this
disregard of law, for in view of the threats
that were publicly and freely made of a
resort TO military force to carry out their
purposes by the faction claiming the
control of the city, he could not have been
ignorant of the intended high-handed dis
regard of law that has just been enacted.
We repeat there has been no purpose on
the part of the faction classically termed
by Secretary Fletcher Adventures and
"bummers, to submit the question at
issue to the decision of legal tribunal
from its inception, The purpose has been
plainly and boldly announced that the
Interpretation of the franchise law by the
Governor should be final, and that it
would be enforced at the point of the
bayonet 1t matters not that our con-
stitution provides that all courts
shall be open; and every man for
an injury done him in his lands
goods, person or reputation shall
have remedy by due course of law, and
right and justice administered without
sale, denial or delay The courts are
not to be invoked in cases so doubtful as
this, nor are they to be open to men who
oppose the schemes of the Radical fac
tons We have arrived at that stage
when no citizen or number Of citizens
who may oppose the usurpations of the
Governor and his cohorts, can appeal to
the courts with any hope of redress, The
courts were open to Maj. Alden, and if
his claim be well-founded, he would have |
been put in possession of the Office by |
decree of the court, and Mayor Brown |
would have retired and the city and
State saved the disgraceful scene that |
was enacted at the city hall on Wednes-
day, of the military, in time of pro-
found peace and in a professedlv Repub- |
lican State, with a written constitution |
and laws, forcibly ejecting the Mayor |
and installing a claimant of that Office.