Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1868-08-28


TIE New York Herald, comment
ing upon the political revolutio,
against Radicalism now in pro
gross, arrives at the conclusion
that IL will result I'm the election of
Congress in favor of rcpudiating tn
national debt. Without stopping t,
analyze the logic 10y which the con
clusion is reached, VIC recognize tn,
iar-rcaching and intuitive knowledge
which, anticipating the progress o
coming events, leaps at bound Z,
their logical conclusion. The Herald
further contends that revolutions
have always repudiatcd the debt in
cured by civil war, and that such re
pudiation Is made the basis of com
promise for the adjustment of pre-ex
isting differences.
fln deciding upon the justice or in
Justice of paying debt, whether /,
be NATIONAL or individual, it can avail
nothing to hunt up presidents, the
safe course beingthc single inquiry, is
tlic debt just, and were the contract
ing parties authorized to create it. To
show that these conditions are appli-
cable to our national debt, the party
in power must show, conclusively,
that the South had no constitutional
right to sccedc, and that the invasion
Of it by the North had the sanction of
the constitution. .
10 make war upon n people for the
exercise of n constitutional right is
clearly a wrongful invasion, and the
debt incurred for the prosecution of
that unlawiul war can neverriehtfulIy
become, even in part, the debt of the
people upon whom that war was
Wagcd. There is no proposition in
law or ethics clearer than that neither
peoples nor individuals can be held, in
equity, bound for debt incurred in
the lawless inniction of wrongs upon
Themselves by lawlcss and unauthor-
lied parties. This just and common
sense view of the subject has not cs-
capped the Radical leaders, and hence
their eager solicitude to give SEM
blanoe of sanctity to the unlawful
debt by binding the people, with pro
visions in federal and State constitu-
lions and Congressional enactments
and paity resolutions, to its prompt
and fun liquidation in gold.
But it may bc argued that this view
of the suhicc. is no longer entitled to
any weight, because the war and the
debt have been localized by the rcpu-
diation, on the part of the South, of
the right of secession, and the rccog-
milton 10y implication of the justice of
the war. This is the argument of the
robber who would justify himself ON
the ground that his victim Volunta-
ally surrendered his purse-at the
mouth uf the pistol. But If the right
OF secession existed prior TO the war,
all the South could have done since
would have been to surrender il for
the futHrc that il n matter eXclu-
8iNcly It's own. We deny, though, its
authority TO anuul the prc-cNisting
right, and to change, by such retro
spcctivc action, our relation to the
debt, or to give an implied sanction
To the violation of that right as well
~ of the constitution from which that
right is derived.
Tho whole question may bc com
pressed into n very small compass. If
tho constitution authorized the adj
ministration at Washington to wage
war upon the South for the prcscrva-
tiuu of a Union OF force, then the war
was lu'tiliahlc and the debt Is binding;
nil M least that was incurred prior 10
the surrender, lat not Il dollar OF II
contracted since 10 Cypress the South
ana keep the Union divided. II, how
ever, the constitution does confer the
rjght of secession, and docs not au-
iaoriIo = war 10 prevent it, exercise,
ihcn the war was unconstitutional,
and not a dollar of the del, l. legally
binding upon thepcoplc, These points
have NOS yet been adhdicated, and
the Radicals, apprchcnding a decision
against th rthcpry, have been bully
ing and lcgi-latlug, ever since the
war, To prevent the supreme Court
from giving n decision upon them, or
uplu any kindred ISSUES. For one,
W. ,tlyk tp the right of secession;
dyuN tA'r1n-titutiuuality or tEc war:
rrpui'atc the obligation OF the debt, [
the drpt .t-vlt and every act of the
lhdlvu government trom the year
'tl. q ile present writing,
" ANY, law can hp shown uS, either
human ur divine, tlJt mako, IL ublig- I
ntuy up'ua people, unW~tly .
thclr liNo.aul property DESTROYED and
i1rir rA1utfN llid waste, o. pay the I
expenses 81 the m1raulug hur,l,y,, .
WcWiil recall all w. have said. Tn /
IN chen We viii stand mp for the ante F.
"'d0H rights oi the South, aud de I
unuurr the iuiVuity OF all that the /
liad."ls have dome during aud since
that uWu-, and blrlArous war rom
der'd unNIl~NhN a., persecution under .
the gll'c at christian humanity. It
IN, ht tryt.1 90 Ne are "A traitor