Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1868-11-06
From the South Bend dnd.) Nat. Union.
A WORD 70 CUR PEOPLE.


vable shape, horrid stories of out
RACES perpetrated upon union men are
manufactured In that land of military
despotism by the wholesale, and then
little, trifiing, peddling demagogues
are sent up here to retail them to us
In quantities to suit our credulity.
1t Is our duty to inquire into the
motives that actuate these men, and
"by their acts We shall know them, /"
II they may be found worthy of con-
fidence we may believe them, II not,
If they are here merely to cause mis-
chief, we ought to tell them that their
presence Is not desirable, that our
people are q people of peace, that we
love the sound of the hammer and
the buzz of machinery better than
the wailing miseries Of war.
1t is not the purpose of the writer,
In this article, to abuse or defame the
Republican party, its principles, or its
leaders. His object Is to present to
you In Its true light the character of
the men who are sent here to cause
dissension among US, to set us against
each other, and to review the course
Of them as sample of the rest, nor
does he wish to be understood as at
lacking these men as private citizens.
With that he has nothing to do, it is
only in their political capacity that
he assails them. Indeed he believes
that in his personal relations with his
ieiiowmen, no purer man ever lived
than he whose political course the
writer wishes to hold up to the scorn
and contempt of men. He does this
not that he may injure the man, but
for the good Of his people. He does
1t that he may warn all men, of all
parties, against the influence of him
who has not the bold, manly honor
able courage to stand by his friends
and his principles when pressed by
defeat, but, who is ever anxiously
upon the lookout for the uppermost
wave that he may ride uponit, a man
who Is the political enemy of all
mankind. Over and over again he
has betrayed all men of all parties,
and of both colors, shifting so quick
ly that few men know where he stood
yesterday, still less care where he
stands to-day, and we shall be COM
PEELED to follow hurriedly If we wish
to find him tomorrow. There Is no
confidence to be placed In such men.
We can admire q bold, fearless,
openhearted, candid enemy, but all
mankind from gray haired age to in
fancy turn with detestation from him
who wins confidence to return 1t with
q base betrayal.
Whenever public men set them
selves up In political character as
leaders of tho people, 1t becomes the
duty of all men, whatever their own
views may be, and irrespective Of all
personal feeling, nay, even, ifneces-
sary, at the sacrifice Of life itself, and
all its dearest relations, to examine
into the past lives of such men, to see
whether they are worthy of conf
dence. To make this enquiry is a
right which no public man win dare
deny, and from which no honest man
will shrink.
The people should know the char
acters of their leaders, and follow
none but the pure and true, none
but they whose lives are grand and
noble, whose characters approach an
almost god -like kesimplicity and majes-
ty,-a more than Roman integrity
The people should know whether
their past lives have been one steady,
unwavering, unflinching, eagle-like
course In the cause Of God, justice,
truth, liberty and right, "as God has
given them to see the right" or
whether 1t has been light, giddy,
trifiing, ever changing, now here, now
there, like the lightning's zig gag
course, "a mere Will o. the Wisp, to
lead deluded followers, first in one d.
rcction, then in another, and then
call upon them to retracc their steps.
Men of the latter class are not the
men In whom to put our trust. They
are not the men to tie to. They are
mere broken reeds upon which to lean
our strength. They are without fore
sight, without wisdom, without that
discerning Judgment and determined
energy so essential to success. Their
minds as variable as the winds have
no balancing power, and they them
selves very soon become mere degrad-
ed, helpless, pitiable tools in the hands
of designing men, who even while
using them, scorn and detest them.
Then, when the contemplate thing
has served their purpose, they kick it
one side as heartlessly and unceremo-
niously as they would a decayed car
cass. What a pity that the cultiva-
ted, refined, enobled human mind
should so utterly fall, sink down,
down, deeper and deeper, until It
reaches such unfathomable DEPTHS of
'degration until ut last, like the feeble,
Pickering light of an expiring candle,
IL goes out in utter darkness, unhonor-
ed and unknown.
Wenow approach a painful task
Through Its performance we shall
dose for life, perhaps, the friendship of
a man who Is nearer and dearer to us
than all Others combined. DUTY to
God and our fellow-men, to our coun-
try and an outraged and oppressed
people Of eight millions demand that
we should no longer remain SILENT
Gratitude to n people who, when we
We're among them, a stranger in q
strange land, treated us like a brother,
and whose last repeated request upon
leaving them was only the poor favor
90 correct, as In us lay the power, the
false Misrepresentation concerning
them, to defend, when assailed that
honor which Is dearer to them than
life, urge us to defend them against
the vengeful malicious assaults of the
hireling tools of the oppressor.
Even handed justice now demands
the fulfillment of promise that we
gave two years ago to a resident of
Tennessee. Apromise that was given
upon his request that when returning
would truly represent the condition
ofSouthern Society, and deny the false
charges which, as he said, only ten
ded to divide and distract our people,
That promise we gave, and the man
who asked II was Judge w. A. PETER,
OF Clarksville, Tennessee. That man
made u violent radical denunciatory
speech at the Court House on We'd
nesday night, Sept. 10th. At the
opening Of his peech he invited oppo-
sition. At It's close, however, he was