Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1871-05-06
THE NATIONAL DEMOCRACY.
An EARNEST APPEAL.
Address 10 the Democrats &c the
Country by the Reprcscnta-
dives I'm Congress.


dives I'm Congress.
Our presence and official duties at
Washington have enabled us to be-
come fully acquainted with the ac-
tons and designs of those who con-
troll the Radical party, and we feel
called upon to utter few words of
warning against the alarming strides
they have made towards centraliZa-
ton of power in the hands of Con-
gress and the Executive. The time
and attention of the Radical leaders
have been almost wholly directed to
devisihg such legislation as will in
their view best preserve their ascend
ancy, and no regard for the restraints
imposed by the Constitution has
checked their reckless and desperate
career.
The President of the United States
has been formally announced us a
candidate forre-election. The declar-
atoms of his selfish supporters, have
been reissued 10y subsidized press,
and the discipline Of the party has al
ready made adhesion to his personal
fortunes the supreme test Of political
fealty. The partisan legislation to
which we refer was decreed and
shaped in secret caucus, where eX-
tremest counsels always dominate,
and were adopted by subservient
majority, II not with the intent, GER
tainly, with the effect to place in the
hands of the President the power to
command his denomination, and to
employ the army, and navy and mill
tia at his sole discretion, and as a
means of subscribing his personal am
bitiOn.
When the sad experience of the last
two years, SO disappointing to the
hopes and generous confidence of the
country, is considered i'm connection
with the violent utterances and rash
purposes OF those who control the
Presidential policy, 1t is not surpris,
Ing that the gravest apprehensions
for the future peace of the nation
should be entertained. At a time when
labor is depressed, and every material
interest is palsied by oppressive taxa
ton, public offices have been multi
piled beyond all precedent to serve as
instruments in the perpetuation OF
power. Partisanship is the only test
applied to the redistribution of this vast
patronage. Honesty, fitness, and
moral worth are openly discarded in
favor of trucking submission and dis
honorable compliance. Hence enor-
nous defalcatiOns and widespread cor
ruptiOn have followed as the natural
consequences of this perniciOus sys-
tenn. BY the official report OF the
Secretary of the Treasury, it appears
that after the deduction of all proper
credits, many millions of dollars re-
main due from eX-collectors of inter.
nal revenue, and no proper diligence
has ever been used to collect them.
Reforms in the revenue and fiscal
systems which all experience demon
strates to be necessary to the frugal adj.
ministration of the government, as
well as II measure of relief to an over.
burdenedpeople, have been persistent.
ly postponed or willlully neglected
Congress now adjourns without hay
ing even attempted to reduce taxa
ton or to repeal the glaring imposi
tiOns by which industry is crushed
and impoverished. The treasury
is overllowing, and an excess ofeighty
millions of revenue is admitted, anC
yet, instead of some measure to pres
ent relief, u barren and delusive reso
luton is passed 10y the Senate to con
slider the tariff and excise system
hereafter, as if the history of broken
pledges and unapplied remedies furn.
iShed any better assurance for future
legislation than experience has done
in the past. Ship building and the
carrying trade, once sources ofnation
al pride and prosperity, now languisll
under the crushing load of taxation
and nearly every other business inter
est Is struggling without profit t.
maintain itself. Our agriculturists
while paying heavy taxes on all they
consume, either to the government OF
: monopolists, find the price for theil
own products so reduced, that homes,
dor is denied its just reward, and in.
dustry is Frustrated by invidous dis.
ordinations.
Nearly 1000, OOO, 900 of acres of pub.
lie lands which should have been re.
served for the benefit OF the people
have been voted away to grants ana
corporations, neglecting our soldier,
and enriching u handful of greedy
spectators and lobbyists, who ar,
thereby enabled to exercise most
dangerous and corrupting influence il,
our State and Federal legislation. II
the career of those conspirators be not
checked the downfall of free govern
ment is inevitable, and with the ele-
walton of military dictator on the
ruins of the republic. Under the pre-
tense Of passing laws To enforce the
fifteenth amendment, and for Other
purposes, Congress has conferred the
most dcSpOtic powers upon the Exc
cutive, and provided an official ma
chinery by which the liberties Of the
people are menaced and the Sacre,l
right of local selfgOvernment in the
States is ignored, il not tyrannically
OverthrOwn, by laws so odiOuS that
they are at variance with all the sac
red theories of our Institutions. The
construction, given by these Radical
Interpreters of the fourteenth amend
ment, to use the language of an emf
ncnt senator (rrumbull, of Illinois, }
is the annihllatiOn Of the States.
Under the last enforcement bill the
Executive may in his discretion
thrust aside the government of any
State, suspend the writ ofhabeaS cor
puS, arrest its Governor, impriSon OF
diSpersc the Legislature, silence its
Judges and trample down its people
under the armed heel of his troops,
Nothing Is left to the citizens of II
State which can any longer be called
II right.
our hopes for redress are in the calm
good sense and sober second thought
ofthc American people. We call upon
them to he true to themselves and