Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-07-05
THE NEW DEPARTURE.

gaging much of public attention. The
new programme, as we understand the
denounces corruption in
high and low places; condemns all sal
larry grabbers, from the President down
TO the lowest carpet bag, or scallawag
of that iniquity. 1t calls
upon the people to rise in their might
and hurl from power. every official
who has basely forfeited his honor and
betrayed the interests Of his constitu-
ents for money or place. 1t confesses
the inability of either party to reform
or save the government and therefore
invites and urges a union of the bet
ter elements of both, as the only means
of staying the tide of corruption and
arresting the progress of the admins
tration towards a centralized despo-
tism. Such is a brief outline of the
ends contemplated by the new depart
ure and the only means by which those
ends can be reached.
Neither party can be relied upon to
bring about the desired change in the
administration of the government, be-
cause experiment has demonstrated
that democracy cannot do it, for the
want of votes, and that Radicalism
will not do it for the want of inclina-
ton. Yet, as corrupt as. both parties
are conceded to be, there is enough
honest material, hidden away in the
back ground of both, which if disa-
bused of traditional prejudice and cut
loose from party affinity, could stand
upon a common platform and COM
mand strength enough to crush with
one hand, Grant Radicalism and, with
the other, Bourbon Democracy-the
latter destined to an early disappear
ance beause of its easy absorption by
the former. One thing must be clear
to well informed men in every section
that is, if the Grant administration
is to be overthrow, it must be done
by northern voters, and where are they
TO be found? Not in the ranks of a
democratic minority, weakened as it is
by its swell-head, rule-or-ruin element.
The difficulty in securing voters
enough to defeat the Grant admins
tration is thus pointed out and solved
by the Cincinnati Volksblatt:" IF,
it says the anti-Republicans could
find anywhere, some neutral ground ON
which they could unite with the other
elements of opposition, the days of the
administration party would be num-
bered. But the dissatisfied Republi-
cans do not wish to become Democrats.
They do not wish to tear down a rotten
party organization to raise another
which is just as rotten into power.
They are in favor of the destruction
of the Republican, but not for the re-
establishment of the Democratic par
ty, and as long as nothing new and
better is offered to them, they will
content themselves with the old, how
ever bad it may be"
1t was this view of the subject which
gave birth to the Cincinnati platform,
and it is this view of the subject, that
has originated the new departure in AL
len CO., Ohio. In supportofthe Cincin-
natl departure, we argued that it was
the duty of every honest and patriotic
Democrat to accept the olive branch
rendered by the liberal republicans,
because they could do so without a
sacrafce of vital doctrines and because
it was the first duty of every honest
patriot to break down an usurping ad-
ministration, as the first step towards
the restoration of constitutional liber-
ty; and that when the food of corrupt
despotism had subsidized, it was time
enough to hunt up and reset the con-
stitutiOnal landmarks buried or re-
moved by the fierce surges of. passion
and prejudice. The wiser portion of
the Democratic party did accept the
terms of alliance, but the Bourbons,
in both sections, fearing the loss of their
positions as leaders Of the unterri-
fed" leaped from the platform and
sought the realization of their selfish
ambition in the camp of the enemy.
Rejected, if not despised, by the
people they betrayed and deserted,
they would now be political pariahs
were they not petted by Grant, as de-
coy ducks to entice other birds of their
own feather to lave the wings of their
dirty ambition in the Radical cesspool.
We look upon the Allen county de-
parture as particularly well timed, be-
cause it paves the way for unity ofac-
ton by that powerful body,-the Pa
irons of husbandry, numbering-as it
no doubt does-many Radicals of the
straitest sect, whose devotion to party
predisposes them to sacrafice even
their own interest to abstract loyalty.
Their connection with that organiza-
tion-prompted by a consciousness of
existing evils-will gradually lead to an
investigation of their causes, and the
deeper the investigation, the more GER
tain the conviction that Radicalism,
with its rings and monopolies, is the
deadly enemy of liberty and the cruel
Oppressor of agriculture and every
form of honest labor. In this transit
ton state, the liberal platform affords
a resting place, where conflicting opin-
ions may be further harmOnized by
mutual concessions of essentials.
The Radical may become a liberal
while spurning the thought of ever be-
ing a Democrat, and the Democrat
may become liberal without any sac
rafice-save his idolatry of party-on
the altar of his country. Liberalism
and the farmers Oranges hold out the
only hope, in ouropinion, for the over
throw of the present corrupt admins
tratiOn and the restoration of the honor
of the government, the material pros