Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1872-11-02
It For the Chronicle.
TO THE VOTERS OF ROBERTSON
MONTGOMERY AND STEWART
COUNTIES.

1
next Legislature, from the Senatorial
District composed of the above named
counties, am before you occupying
that position. / cannot resist the inn.
pulse, which urges me irresistibly on,
to lend myself to a cause which / con-
ceive to be vital in every aspect to the
wellbcing and interest of our common
country. leone before you, believing
the old adage that "the voice of the
people is the voice of God" that the
free and untrammeled opinion of the
people is the only safeguard to the lib
erty of a republican government
Standing upon this foundation, come
authorized by no convention, upheld
by no caucus, appointed by no clique
or ring, supported by no combination,
but freely offer myself a sacrifice upon
the altar of my country, endeavor-
ing to throw back the tide of selfish
ness, pride and conspiracy which, un-
der the shape of hydra-headed monster
assuming any and every shape, is at
tempting to assert its right to rule or
ruin. 1t is not in my province, fellow
citizens, to canvass the county, to
mount every style, block and stump
in town and country, like a vender of
worthless patent medicines, to offer
myself as panacea for all the ills to
which countries, governments and peo-
pie are heir to, recommended by this
faction or that, endorsed by clique
or ring, or any sort of conspirators,
who may infest your county towns.
No, my countrymen, l come not before
you offering an immediate remedy for
all your maladies. | fear there is not
balm enough in Gilead to relieve you.
1 do fear that the old ship of State is
already in the vortex of the whirlpool
which leads to ruin, because, and on
account of the pilots, and those who
recommended them to be competent
pilots. They are all of one sort, and
not of you or l. 1t is, fellow citizens,
this convention system, this monopoly
of wise-acres, who panpered by long
indulgence, assume the right to think
domineer, and appropriate everything
to themselves and their minions whom
they put in Office. 1 warn you as /
would against the wrath to come, ]
conjure you by the memory of the
signers of the Declaration of Inde-
pcndence, and by the instrument itself,
to resume your authority, delegate it
to no set of men to think for you, but
think for yourselves and choose, select
some one from the midst of you who
is with you and by you and for you, to
represent you, one who knows your
condition, knows your necessities, and
who with you feels and endures the
grinding hardships which we daily ex-
perience ana realize.
Fellow citizens, before l go farther,
l must. tell you to whom l appeal. /
am not appealing to the banker or the
lawyer, to the money broker or the
shaver, for these are the men charge
/ arraign them before a tribunal of the
people as being our oppressors-who
assume to themselves the right to hold
and establish packed conventions, to
charm with tongues trained to deceive,
while they gag or put words into the
mouths of others in order to wrap
around them all the privileges of the
country, and all immunities of the law,
who arrogate to themselves the cxclu-
sive right to dictate to and domineer
over the people, who constitute them
selves into Executive Democratic
Committees, appoint members to their
conventions whom they know they can
influence, really self constituted
junto, whom you must obey. Fellow
citizens, these are not the men to whom
| appeal. / Iappeal to the bone and
the sinew of the country, to those who
bear the heat and burden of the day,
to those who SOW and let this other
clan reap, to those who strew but allow
the others to gather, to those who
need free schools and would gladly
have them in order to expand their
minds so as to resist aud drive back
the oppressor who has no sympathy
with them. Iappeal to the common
soldier, who MANNED and blightcd,
drags out miserable existence to-day
upon half rations with his loved ones
upon desolate andrcnted spot, rented
from his oppressor for whom he fought.
| appoal--appeal to heaven in its mer-
cy, in its justice, to make the poor no
poorer, but toinvest them with prop
er sense of their rights, to think for
themselves and assert their choice at
the ballot-box in opposition to con-
ventions which are theirgreatest enemy.
Fellow-citizens, | am in favor of
equal rights and equal laws also that
the laws should be simplifcd, that ey-
cry one who has to abide by them, III
he has ordinary sense and ordinary cd /.
can understand them when he
reads them, and that every man be al I
lowed to plead his own ease at court if
he chooses also that the strictest
economy and retrrnchment shall be
observed in every department of our