Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1869-05-01
THE PATRIO-IsM OF THE PEOPLE
MAY YET SAVE THE COUNTRY.

hOWeNer ueSpOnuenb t1e cOnuftlOn
of the country has been and still Is,
to the patriot heart, says the La
grange (Ga.) Reporter, there are
reasons why we should not "despair
of the Republic" The English gov
eminent has attained its present
solidity and grandeur through sue
cessive revolution, bloodshed and car
mage. The recent civil war in this
country has made developments in
American politics that will, it is be-
lieved, eventuate in the establish
ment of this Government as solidly
and grandly as that of the British
government. We are having our po-
litieal revolutions, which will either
result in centralized despotism or q
true republican form as first designed
by the fathers of the Republic
Though the government is now, and
has been for several years, a Congress-
iopal despotism, the Inference to be
drawn from the divisions i'm the party
of despotism, and certain givings-out
Of leading men of that party, are that
returning respect for the arks
of our fathers will finally be re-estab-
lished. There are many evidences that
the people long for change in the
disordered and turbulent manage
ment of the affairs of the General
Government. AS the evil passions,
engendered by the late war, give way
to better feelings and better counsels,
the people begin to see what fearful
precipice over which they have been
standing. They see one right after
another grasped from them by an UNI
scrupulous andirresponsible Congress.
They see that through the blindness
of passion and false loyalty to the
Government, that pretexts have been
made to cheat them of civil Liberty
They have seen the coordinate pow
ers OF the three departments of the
National Government absorbed by
that of the Legislative, composed of
INSCRIPTIONS and and ambitious men
who have been thrown to the politi-
cal surface by the disordered condi-
ton of public sentiment and partisan
excitement. They see that all ckecks
10 usurpation and oppression on the
part Of Congress have swept away by
laws imparing the just and legal
powers of the Judiciary and the Exc
cutive department of the General
Government-two departments made
entirely subservient to party behests.
Ihey have seen the rights of States
swept away successfully until nat
uralized power has been assumed by
the Representatives of the people
who, in law, are only their agents
and not their masters. They see cor
ruption holding high carnival, and
the participants engaged are men
holding the highest positions in the
land. Where peace, prosperity and
happiness should reign, they see tur-
MOL, poverty and anarchy supreme.
These things the people of the
United States might have seen for
the past eight years, had they not
been blinded by partisan prejudice
and sectional hatred. They have
been led on from one step to another
by these influences, imperceptibly it
may be said, but surely and fearfully
rapid in the road of unintentional
submission to wrong, until the whole
nation are slaves to Congressional
despotism. They have been lulled
into an Inconsistencies of impend-
ing danger by the false cry-the de-
ceptive slogan-of II party crying out
to save the Union save the Union -
when, in fact, IL WIS but the thief
crying out rs he runs, "thief!
thief'' The delusive cry has become
stale and meaningless. hepeople are
beginning to learn that the cry is not
for the country, but for oppression and
usurpation, and that it is the shibbo-
leth of the Union falsely enunciatcd
by the enemies thereof. AS the
deception reveals itself to the people,
and they begin 10 cry out against en-
croachmenIs upon the reserved rights
of States, a split reveals itself in the
dominant party in the Senate of the
United States. On the adoption in
that branch of the National Legisla-
ture, on Friday, the 9th inst, of Nor.
toms amendment To the Virginia,
Mississippi and Texas bill, making
the adoption of the fifteenth Consti-
tutional amendment n condition pre-
cedcnt To the admission of Senators
and Representative from those States
there was decisive and heavy split.
1t was carried 10y yeas and nays
twenty; and among those nays were
the following Republican Senators
Anthony, of Rhode Island; Bore
man, of West Virginia; Conklin, of
New York; Edmunds, of Vermont;
Fenton, of New York Ferry, of
Connecticut; Fessenden, of Maine;
FOWLER OF Tennessee; Norton, of
Minnesota; Patterson, of New llamp-
shire; Sawyer of South Carolina;
Sprague, of Rhode Island, Tum-
bull, Of Illinois, and Wiley, Of West
Virginia.
Fourteen Republican Senators, see
ing the handwriting upon the
wall, and fearing to go before an
outraged people with their hands