Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1868-04-17

will soon see the end of the disgusting
impeachmcnt farce. The afterpieco
il not likely To be an Improvement,
still it will be'a new sensation, cXcit-
ing, perhaps, no deeper disgust, but
varying the'monotony of II needless
prolongation of q single act of infamy.
Doubtless the managers of the stroll
ing company of political nounte-
banks will soon fix the cay for Che
impressive burial services of the dead
Republic but even this will fail to
rhock the nerves of any save those
whoseloyeof liberty has survived the
wreck of the government, and whose
faith in public virtue abideth when
fhe' thing itself has passed away like
the vision of an idle dreamer. LIB
crty has Rng been the hy-worl of
knavish politicians, and public virtue
an ignjs fatuus that misled the UNI
vary traveller, until it was itself swal-
lowed up by the whirlpool of vice and
crime, around whose circling eddy it
played, for time, with the sparkling
radiance of real gem, then disap-
peared in the frothing and foaming
depths of passion and vice. The love
Of liberty will long warm the hearts
of the truly good and wise, and virtue
will be preserved i'm a few living
Baskets with power to resist the force
of example, and impervious to the
searching qualities of temptation;
but both arc lost toHs Us a people, and
their existence, in the past, will be
derided as the rickety offspring of
would-be-sages, who forgot that the
iron rod is the only rule for the I'M
thinking and unappreeiative masses.
The few true men of the country
are amazed that thirty millions should
gaze upon the scenes of outrage per-
pctrated upon the Constitution, with
an indifference bordering OF stolid APP
athy. 1t is, however, not much to be
wondered at. Man is the creature of
circumstances his integrity even
hinges upon self, and its degree is de
termined more by well regulated pub
lie opinion than by any innate quail
tios of head and heart. If his gov
eminent be wise, prosperity general,
and the tone ofpublic morals healthy,
he is good citizen and correct man I;
but If he sees nothing but the reverse
Of all this around him, and self-inter-
est whispers that he can thrive by CO.
operating with the vicious and cor
rupt, he is made of stern stuff if he
,'csist the telnptatioTand stand firmly
by his country and Tie right. The
few who have thus resisted are the eX-
captions TO the rule of general demon
alization, and every day of prolonged
struggle between liberty and tyranny,
vice and virtue, witnesses the fall of
some one whose integrity has sue
rumbcd 60 his interest. II is by this
process of gradual disintegration, I'M
;timulus of avarice, and the prompt
ings of sclf-lOvc, that the political
TTass has become rotten, and in con-
sequence, indifferent to the duration
or degree of the evils upon which the
dominant few feed and fatten. They
feel that they, like maggots, can only
kl,,si. l. l,o
the body polite is restored to health,
they must be sloughed of, with the
gangrcnous parts, and consigned to
poverty and lifelong intamy. With
them the struggle il for life, and every
success they achieve tempts some
weak-kneed bystander to embark
with the piratical crew. The moral
contagiou spreads from one to another
Smtil all, il not rcconcilcd to, are pre-
pared for one common and indiscrim-
lnateruin, thcncar approach of which
arouSes no active Indignation, and
suggests no recourse to those means
of solt-prcScrNatlon which Virtuous
patriotism SO well knows how TO use.
TuERE is, perhaps, not a high Off
Ger of the government whose inn
parchment would have excited so lit
tie feeling rs in the ease of Andrew
johnson. This Is ascrilable to two
principal reasons, the first of which
Is, that he is of the Radical house
hold, and one Of It's pets; the second
rs that IN scVCriIg his active connec-
ton with that party, he endcayored
u crush democracy and build mp q
party Of his own. Thee two move
mcnt left him outside of both partics
ald hercf,, alike, ofsupp, II and SYM
patliy from any quarter. His cN-
trcmc RadicaliSm, which fastened
Hrownlowi-m upon Tennessee, and
fashioned the model for the recon.
structiun Of the other States, mad,
him Justly odious 10 this section, and
his third party blundcr made him
equally odiouS 10 both parties Ia Ga,
North. And when ON trial for high
crimes and misdcmcanors, every url,
patriot dcspl>cs the infamous clique