Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-01-21
AMERICAN sACOHuSHsm.

The usurpers and revolutionists m
Congress are often called Jacobins by the
press The term Jacobin is derived from
the name Of a club in France, which was
organized during the French Revolution,
composed of the most extreme and
blOody-minded men Of that era. They
first proposed to be the society OF the
friends Of the constitution. The mem
bers were men ofability, and soon NUM-
bered among them the members Of the
Legislative Assembly, and then became,
for season, the ruling political power
of France. This club took possession Of
the legislation of the country, and no
measure was introduced or law enacted
which was not previously discussed in
the Jacobin elab, and received its sanc-
ton. 1t was secret organization, and
ruled France with a rod of iron. 1t
finally dissolved the Assembly OF
the people, and established a di-
reetory which disposed Of the lives
and liberties Of the people at will. 1t
inaugurated the "reign of terror =
discarded the religion of God, and set up
strumpet as the goddess of liberty, an
object Of alteration and worship 1t
threw of its friendship for the constitu-
ton, and set up the standard of liberty
and equality" It dethroned and be-
headed the king and queen, and, under
the lead Of Robespiere, Danten, Marat,
and others like them, swept away French
liberty and deluged the land in the blood
of mobiles and subjects alike. Whoever
was not Jacobin was fit subject for
the guillotine, and hundres and thou"
sands of lives paid the forfeit of cpposi-
ton to Jacobinism. The streets of
Paris ran red with the blood of the
friends Of France, that the tastes of these
human monsters might be satiated, and
the spirit Of hate, passion and vengeance
| gratifed.
1t is grave charge to assert that mem
bers of the American Congress are justly
to be compared with such an organiza-
ton. But it is not made without reason.
The French Jaeobins had greater reason
for their organization than the last and
present Congress have had for their ex-
traordinary usurpations. The Radical
caueuses and the Reconstruction Com
mittee dictate to Congress just as the
club dictated to France. That committee
exerts as much authority, practically,
over the affairs Of the Union as the diree-
tory did over those of France. No such
butcher as Robespiere or Marat has yet
put his faculties into use by putting
patriots to death but the spirit and
principles of the two organizations are the
same. The means used are different, bat
the aim to abolish the constitution, tc
destroy public liberty, and to concentrate
the power of the country in the hands OF
usurpers, and to subject the people tC
Congressional DEGREES, embodying the
very essence of despotism, is the sans
that shocked the world and subjected
France to the "reign of terror " under
Jacobin rule
Those who have read French history
will see the parallel and similitude, ant
will recognize the justice of the appella'
ton of Jacobin to the extreme Radical
of our own country. The day may bt
near at hand, too, when radical feroeitl
may inaugurate scenes of blood in this
, country similar to. those which cursed
France and filed the world with horror