Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-08-17

IN DoS4lDIt bLfb poullie buO1lQ IhRS COuHOeDcR
as thirty-nire millions of them had never
heard their names. Very few could eel
them now il asked the question, except
/ when they have been advertised discredit-
ably, ike Fish in the consequential damage
muddle, or Robson in the Secor swindle.
During large part of the year, covering
some five months, the President is absent
from the seat Of government, having good
time at Long Branch or elsewhere, and
neglecting his public duties. His "official
family" follows his bad example, and
hence all business in which the people are
interested sufers from Indifference and de-
lay. Common sense will teach you that all
who say to the contrary speak untruth, and
| need not recite instances, Of which there
are many. .. 4-.-,e--,-.-
| Nosense Of propriety restraints the Presi
dent from gratifying his own desires, and
we must only be thankful that he is not
with his children travelling from court to
court in Europe, where if reelected, I've
no doubt the first summer will find him.
Our republican institutions have been
greatly scandalized by the parade made in
behalf of the Presidents children at the
palaces of the various European monarchs
during this summer. Contrary to all pro-
4
diplomatic attention, and, in fact, demand
ed it; ing that they have no official
connection with the Republic, and stand
upon the same plane precisely as the child
rem of any other citizen. Foreign govern
ments treated them with the diplomatic
courtesy belonging TO members of royal
houses, attaching political significance to the
| style md manner of their reception.
| Those who regard these departures from
the duties and proprieties of the Presiden-
| tial office-the nepotism, incidence, gift
taking, cfiice-peddling, and corruption Of
| the ineumbent-as of no consequence, only
convict themselves of fatal want of the
| qualities essential to true republican citi-
| zen. If we cease to respect our own laws
and institutions and to insist upon the OBJ
| servance of them by our official agents, we
| shall soon be ready for master. Besides
| ali this, we have witnessed a monstrOus
abuse of the patronage of the government
to serve the Presidents political ambition.
He declared HIMSELF to me, among others,
as friend of the one-term principle in the
spring of 1868, and invoked the weight of
his name to assist the passage of an amend
ment to the constitution to carry it into eff
feet. l am sincerely of opinion that the re-
eligibility of the President to a second
term is the greatest constitutional evil Of
our system. 1t is poison at the
root and vital part of our tree of liberty,
the fruitful source of an allperyading cor
ruption, deceit and usurpation. Some
men make light of the one. term plank of
the Cincinnati platform. They will not do
so if they study the philosophy Of it in con-
nection with the history of past admins
trations as well as the present one. l re-
gard it as one of the most important fea- !
lures of the canvass, but will not enter up
on an argument here, as 1t requires the full |
scope of discourse to do it justice. EX-
perience proves that all the engines of gov
eminent are worked by the administration !
to perpetuate its power. Monopolies are |
subsidized for their influence, and the |
money power is courted even to the extent |
of packing the Supreme Court to compel a |
reversal of its own decision upon the legal |
tender act. Hundreds of millions of acres |
of the public lands are stolen from the peo-
pie TO give to pet political fiuanciers, and |
even the great Pennsylvania Railroad Com |
pany, which boasts of being the wealthiest |
on the continent, has the Presidents as
sistance il robbing the people of Washing
ton of park properly for depot.
In measures Of this class, Congressional |
aid was sought and not difficult to obtain. |
The tie that binds the President to bis sup |
porters in Congress is the material one of |
mutual intereSt-'the cohesive power of |
public plumber"
To perpetuate this power numerous acts |
have been passed TO strengthen the Execu- |
tive arm; amongst others the enforcement |
Act or bsyonet election law, which compels |
American citizens to deposit their ballots |
under the shadow of an armed soldiery |
whose commander-in-chiefis the President |
himself. Then we have that most atrocious |
outrage upon the Constitution, the Ku-Klux |
law, which with the bayonet election law |
will have revolutionized our form Of gov
eminent, as soon as an ambitious aspirant |
for absolute power chooses to avail himself |
Of that which they bestow.
Under these, the independence of the |
elector, now threatened, may be over |
thrown; States are reduced to provinces,
and Governors, from The rauk of independ- |
ent executives, hold their places by suffer |
ance Of the supreme ruler at Washington. |
Rebellion, sach as 1t has been known, de |
jltre or de tGctO, has become an affair of le |
gal construction defined by act of Con- |
gress, and the President, in bis discretion,
may order his soldiers into State to sup |
press it without being asked by the Govern |
or or Legislature thereof, as the constitu- |
ton requires. If the Governor Of State |
dares to carry out its laws as required by |
his oath, his State may be placed under |
martial law by the President, and he may |
be arr ested. Any judge who should dare |
to extend to him the sacred writ of habeas |
corpus, would share his fate. Thus State |
may be wholly deprived its Government; |
"a 4 r.. - -, IL
be done under color of law, will be done.
Their acts were of the Presidents ask |
ing. Three times had the House passed |
resolutions Of adjournment by three
fOurths vote upon the distinct declaration /
of its speaker and his followers that no such |
legislation as the Ku-Klux law was needed; |
bus no sooner did Butler apply the whip of
the Presidents message than they went |
back to their seats and dutifully passed the |
bill.
1t was a pitiable spectacle-not the coun-
terpart of the battle Of the Barens wringing
magma chdrtd from King John at RunDy-
mede, but alas! the reverse Of it! An Amer
lean Congress surrendering magma chGrtG to
a new master more than six centuries after |
it had been won by their British ancestors.
am friend of the Federal Republic
a constitution which derives its authority I
from the people, who alone are sovereign,
and prescribes the powers they have con-
fded upon the general government while
reServing TO themselves and their States all
the rest.
Two heresies have asssiled this Republic
from the period of its formation, namely,
and GENERALIZATION. l am and
always have been equally opposed to each.
l have opposed the distutegration of the
Republic by secession; am equally OPP
posed to revolutioniziDg the form OF the
government by Capitalization. / not only
regard the Federal system as a solution of
the difficulties which rendered ancient
leagues and considerations insecure, but its
as necessary to liberty. There
is no incompatibility between its manifes-
tations of nationality and the free exercise
of the right of local self government. The
bias given towards Capitalization by Ham
ilton during the first two administrations
through congressional interpretations and
executive rulings, gave rise to appre-
tensions which resulted in a change
of policy, and influences which were in
tended to couuteract the tendency towards
by that law which drives par