Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1871-06-24

d The Radicals continue to harp up
on the utterances of JEFF Davis, and
TO gloat over this shadow Of pretext
for additional insults and wrongs to
the southern people, who no honest
man holds responsible for the lang
uage Of u single individual, even
though that language were treason
able. Had he issued a proclamation,
calling out seventy-fve thousand
men, to put down insurrection and
crime I'm the mining districts Of Penn
sylvania, he might well be held gull
ty of treason against the Constitu-
ton. But such an outrage, upon law
and liberty, pales before the horrid
crime of expressing the hope that the
time Is NJ hand when lie may freely
express his thoughts aud feelings
about the condition of the country.
We, who are old enough to remem-
Der how long and how dearly the
American people cherished the free
dom Of thought and speech, so sac
reilly guarded by the wisdom Of our
forefathers, in the original charter
under which the government was
inaugurated, cannot readily sanction
the tyranny which withholds this
right, nor accept rs the normal con-
d.tion of free government, acts pal
pably at war with every principle
upon which that government was
originally founded. Had Mr.. Davis
refused to open his mouth when call
el upon to speak, his silence would
have been construed into the sullen
and logged spirit of rebellion; and
lurking antagonism to "the powers
that be-" would have been the war
cry of Ratiicalism. Had he, with a
few PREDATORY remarks, repeated the
ten commandments, long since for
gotten by the fanatical descendants
of the Ground heads" of the days of
Cromwell, he would have been fierce
ly assaulted for charging upon the
dominant ENTHUSIASTICALLY and
collectively-every crime and vice
forbidden in the Decalogde and
every one of them would have winc-
ell rs his conscience applied to his
case, the one, or more, Of the Com
mandments he has habitually viola
ted. But Mr.. Davis, i'm his wonted
spirit of charity, withheld the truth,
knowing how offensive it Is to the
guilty; and II Is not what he said, but
what he forebore to say, that marks
the extent of his offending. His po-
sition, very aptly, illustrates the ia
BILE OF the wolf and the lamb. The
ravenous nav of the Radical wolf
Graves the blood of its predestined
victim, whose Innocence serves only
to sharpen the hunger of the insatia-
BILE beast, who muddies the pure
stream of justice and truth, and holds
the innocent lamb responsible for the
foul dissertation.
1t shall never be charged upon us,
that, under such circumstances OF
wrong and insult heaped by the min
ions of despotism, upon one of the
noblest and best of men, we joined
in the hue and cry against him, and
swore 1t was he, who muddied the
stream hoping that, by so doing, we
might perchance, appease the hunger
of the ravenous beast. Mr.. Davis is
more than human, ii he has never
erred, and they are less than just,
who, forgetting his sufferings and his
losses, his earnest and honest devo-
ton to the South, join the Radical
pack that is hunting him down-not
because he endangers Radicalism, but
because Radical tyrants need AN adj
ditional pretext for additional acts OF
tyranny.
TtYt, GsAn.ta. t., al l.