Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-04-26
ACCOMPLISHED FACTS.

free government, to obtain a passive |
acqaiesence in their usurpations, and
to pave the way for the final success |
of centralized despotism, with an air |
of benevolence and exalted patriotism,
urge upon the few remaining friends of
liberty, the wisdom of Forgetting the
past and accepting, as final and proper,
all that the past has developed in the
interest Of corrupt and lawless tyran-
ny. And, strange as it may seem, this
counterfeit northern, or rather, Radi-
cal patriotism is hailed by some would
be southern patriots, as the very en-
bodiment of political wisdom and their
answering cry is-away with effete in
situations and old fogy ideas, and up
with the standard of progress! I'm
fortunately for their character for wis
dom and craftsmanship, the adventu-
r.rs in the chances and changes of an
untried future, fail to indicate what
antiquated notions they have discard
ed and what principles should be ex-
plunged from the cata ogue of republi-
cansafeguardsthat are no longer essen
ial to the preservation of free govern
ment.
In our humble opinion, the original
Constitution of the United States was
the broadcast and soundest platform
ever erected for the security of the
rights of man; and the men who
reared it, the wisest who ever organ
lied system of government. As
an evidence in point, we all have seen
that the farther the administration OF
that government has departed from its
original landmarks, the deeper it has
sunk in the mire of corruption and
the nearer it has approached the verge
of anarchy. Yet, in spite of these
first bitter fruits of boosted progress,
appeals are still made to the people to
accept as accomplished facts, the emas-
culation of that glorious Constitution
and the reputation of the wise pre-
cepts of its venerated authors. This,
1t seems to us, is asking too much of a
people who have experienced the bless
ings of freedom-biessings enhanced
thousand fold by contrast with the ty-
ranny and oppression under which they
are daily suffering. We have all, long
since accepted as an accomplished fact,
the abolition of slavery, and no sensible
man would disturb the settlement;
the right of secession, however clear,
is now merged, practically, in the natu-
raj right of revolution. These are the
only facts we accept as accomplished
all else being, let us hope, the tempo
rary supremacy of brute force over JUS
tice and constitutional law. And from
this standpoint, We can see no patriot
ic wisdom in intoxicating the idea that
what is done, cannot, and should not,
be undone whenever the people,
awakened from theirstupid infatuation
decree return TO safer precedents.
We look upon the old Constitution
as the Gospel of republican liberty,
and upon Its authors, as the chosen
apostles whose mission it was to ex-
pound the everlasting political truths
which 1t embodies and to engraft them
upon the minds and hearts of a people
just emancipated from the rule of a
foreign tyranny. Those truths are as
self-eyident, to-day, as in the hour of
their first PRONUNCIATION, and will be as
conservative of popular liberty in the
distant future. as they were in the better
days OF this government ere corruption
sapped It's foundation and ambition
seized the opportunity to complete its
ruin.
We advocate no standstill policy; in
action is as much an impossibility in
the constitution of man as in the ma
terial universe, where all is motion
and action. Nor do we advocate pro-
gress, unless take with it, those funda-
mental truths upon which free govern
ment and public virtue must ever de-
pend for efficiency and stability, and by
stability, we mean that healthy pro-
gress which is commensurate with the
expansion of knowledge and clearer
perception of the unlimited application
of those truths to the wants of man
under every phaze of existence. Those
who advocate acceptance OF every vio-
lation of the Constitution as an accom-
plished fact and irremediable wrong,
forget that liberty is the life of pro-
gress and that the tyranny they accept,
when established, will tolerate no pro-
gress save that which tends to slavery,
10 the repression of genius and the
stagnation of enterprise. All govern
ments are liable to abuse, so long as
man is liable to error, and if every
abuse is to be aquiesced in as an ac-
cOmplished fact, usurpation and cor
ruption will, unresisted, hold sway
over the destinies of such people as
tamely submit to the inroads they make
upon law and order, public virtue and
commercial prosperity. Every error,
however grave, can be remedied by
people possessing virtue and intelli-
gence-when these are wanting, no
form of government. can make them
free and prosperous because they are
too licencious to tolerate the restraints
of wholesome laws and too ignorant to
appreciate their own degradation. IN
til this point in our downward career is
reached, it is unwise to inculcate that
every Radical abuse of power is an in
durable wrong and that submission to
1t is.a patriotic duty. It's treason toour
institutions to assert that the changes
in our organic law, brought about by
fraud and force, are beyond the reach
of he curative powers of public viz
tue and a firm resolve to be free. The
people made the government as it was,
and can remodel it upon its original
plan.