Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-10-12

! as iustihable There is now collected from
| liquors and tobacco, nearly one hundred million
| dollars year The question is shall this tax
still be collected, if 50 there must be the mean.
! Of enforcing the laws for its collection.
| Here is another resolution:
NEPoTIsM.
! G. Rcsotccd, That we denounce the profgacy
! in the present administration OF the Federal
Government the corruption which has entered
all its official stations the faVorit,>m which,
| overlooking fitness for office, has appointed to
positions OF public trust friends tools 81 chose
who control public patronage, and the imbecil-
ny which directs the destnies of the Republic
without an apparent purpose, and manages it,
affairs with such embarrassment and disaster 90
the material interests of its people at home and
with such disregard of the rights and liberties
of its citizens abroad.
That convention was held on the 18th of Sep
tember, and on the 18th the day preceding the
newly elected Supreme Court met at Knoxville
and their first official act after declaring A. o.
L. Nicholson, Chief Justice was to set aside an
old and efficient clerk. % one armed man. who
had been Il colonel of one of the Federal regi-
mentS in Tennessee. and appointed in his place
the brother of one of the Judges rs clerk. and
the brother-in-law Of another as assistant clerk
Yet they come to Nashville and in convention
assembled prefer this charge offavortism against
Gen. Grant and his administration. ] refer to
this in spirit of suggestion, to those who live
in glass houses
GRANTS ADMINISTRATIONS.
a, an offset to thi, resolution, ! present one
from the Republican platform on the same sub
ject, and leave it as food for reflection:
Resolred, The Administration of President
Grant, and the policy of the Republican Con-
gress in increasing the revenues, by a faithful
and impartial collection, while at the same time
reducing the rates and objects of taxation; in
diminishing expenditures and thereby improv-
ing the public credit; assinilating the national
currency TO the coin standard, and largely de-
creasng the public debt; in securing to all citi-
zens their just rights and equality before the
law; in restoring civil government and unex-
ampled prosperity TO the States torn and desola-
ted by rebellion and civil war by an honest and
wise enforcement of the laws; by maintaining
rigidly the demands of international law SO as
TO secure the respect and good will of all foreign
nations. yet sympathizing with all peoples strug-
Cling for free government, have secured the
confidence and are entitled to the support of the
American people.
THE ENFORCEMENT ACT.
The next resolution is upon what is called the
Enforcement Act II reads rs follows:
:. Rcsolced, That we regard the act recently
passed by Congress TO enforce the Fifteenth
Amendment, rs unconstitutional unjust and
oppressive, an invasion Of the rights Of the
States subversive of the best interests Of the
people, and therefore urge its unconditional re-
peal.
If the 14th and 18th Amendments to the Con-
stitution are parts of the Constitution they ought
to be enforced. ! ask gentlemen, one and all,
of whatever opinion they may be, who is there
that wants to do any of those things that are for
hidden in that Enforcement Act Who is there
that will so publicly proclaim to the world?
TAXING BoEDs
The next resolution is akin to one which !
have passed over and proposes that Congress
should tax the bonds of the United States equal
to fair average of the amount levied in each
State on money loaned" | have already shown
you that they have made war on the income tax.
;,,lt Of
United States. Yet in one breath you are told
that the bonds ought to be taxed, and in the
next that the law which taxes them il oppressive
and ought to be swept from the statute books.
NATIONAL BANKS.
The next resolution reads Us follows
q. RcSOircd, That we are opposed to the Sys-
TEN of national banks, and urge the immediate
repeal of the law creating them, and that in
place of the notes Of such banks, the treasury
notes of the United States shall be substituted.
This is an old question, this of the currency.
We who advocated the doctrines of Mr.. CLAW
always demanded national, instead of Il local
currency We were defeated. Hundreds of
local banks sprung up all over the land some
some sound, many worthless, their issues at an
unvarying rate of discount, requiring the Bank
Note Reporter to decide and the Counterfeit
Detective 10 determine what were genuine,
cntailng endless loss upon the community.
With that old State currency compare our
present circulation. current from ocean to ocean
its credit upon the Treasury of thc nted States
and equally good whether the bank fails or not.
Never did our country enjoy 50 convenient
currency. Yet the same party which once be-
fore destroyed national currency, to the injury
of thousands, would repeat the same ruinous
policy.
RECONSTRUCTION.
The next resolution is rs follows:
10. ReSoiped, Thatthe Democracy here assem-
bed syinpathiZe with the efforts Of all people
struggling for self-goVernment, and we denounce
the policy of the party in power to reduce
whole States in our Union to a condition of vas
salage TO the general Government
II might seem that the first part of this reso-
luton had reference TO the struggling Cubans,
the new French government. or the Germans
seeking first to establish the unity of the nation
and that settled. to declare their government
free of all lnOnarches In the latter part of this
resolution, however | find, without taking a
bold issue, a general charge against what is
called the reconstruction of the Southern States.
] do not ask you to believe what | say | do
not ask you TO act upon what suggest only so
far as it seems reasonable to your minds, your
understanding. All | ask YOU is TO hear it and
hear me with candor. When the war had stop
ped by the surrender of Lee army we had some
ten States in the South that had no State govern
ment. Some men had way of saving that
these States were either in the Union or out of
the Union. If they We're out of the Union then
secession was right and the Government ought
not to have intcr1ercd with that right But if
they were ia the Union then they should have
had representative i'm Congress and had rights
like other States in the United States | never
doubted that the States We in the Union all
the time and could not be got out of the Union
I.tte ltr ayH... 81 1F...l l..