Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-09-27
.lFrom the s.. Louis Republlcan.lI

The uprising among the people
against the existing political parties is
not the movement of class. The
farmers are not alone in revolt against
the prevailing order. Merchants and
mechanics, and the industrial classes
of every profession are taking a part
aud contributing to the force at work.
Nor can the adherents of the old par
ties justly charge the farmers clubs
with being exclusive in their aim to
control the course of political events.
The nominations for county officers
made by the farmers of Illinois is a
sufficient refutation of such charge.
All the nominees OF the clubs are not
farmers. In many counties, whorthy
merchants and mechanics have been
called to stand as candidates. Indeed,
1t appears that the very foundation
idea of the movement is to escape the
clutches of the ring masters ofthe old
packed and drilled party organizations,
and MOTTO set up a party of a class to
the exclusion of all others. Thus far
the farmers appear to have generally
nominated men who were no place
hunters. They have called them from
their stores, their shops and their
farms, to take service in the interest of
political reform. The selections have
sought men to fill Offices, who had the
confidence of all classes-men esteem
ed for their intelligence and honor.
The Offices are seeking the men, not
men the offices.
It's impossible yet to estimate the
momentum of the great upheaval, or
to clearly point out the direction which
it may take. 1t is ene of the most re-
markable facts connected with this re-
volt ofthe people thatit is spontaneous.
lfparties growfrom seeds of conviction
terminating in the general conscious
ness, the farmers movement, as it is
called, is very promising develop
ment. 1t has not been forced by any
hot-house expedient. [ has appeared
au at once, not in one township, eoun-
ty or State, but all over the Mississip-
pi Valley, and in the Gulf States.
1t is growing too, not alone IN
the number of ITS adherents, but 1t
it is expanding lin its view and
purposes. The leaders are for the
most part new men in public life, but
they are rapidly acquiring the knowl-
ege in which they are deficient, and
now no longer address their appeals to
the farmers as class, but to all classes
interested in securing thorough refor-
nation of the politics of the nation.
In its deeper analy ses this movement
reveals reactionary spIrit-a force of
universal conviction in the public
mind that the character of the Gov
ernment has been changed, and chang
ed not in the interests of the great
body of the people. 1t seeks to re-
store to them the balance of power lost
during the fierce struggles of the last
fifteen years. 1t means protest
against assumption OF unwarranted
power by those appointed to execute
the laws; means a warfare against
concentration of power In the hands
of a few; it manitests hostility to the
rule of rings; it strives to break the
power and prevent the undue ascend
ency of great financial corporations;
it fights against.th growth of corpor-
alton aristocracies it aims to secure a
return to the precedents of the purer
days of the Republic, and thereby ar
rest the now too plainly manifested
tendency to centralization-perhaps
imperialism. But as yet the princi-
Piles have been uuformulated, and its
political ideas are unerystalized. It
is not, however, blind exhibition of
farce. The fundamental doctrines are
plain enough in their manifestation.
There is no room for mistaking the
purposes of the great body of the peo-
pie. Theyare making war uponabuses
which have grown up in the Govern
ment which threaten to become inte-
grail elements instead of accidental
excrescenees. The peepleare running
no tilt against windmills. They real
ize the power that is to be arrayed
against them, and are preparing for a
struggle in which all old party dis
tinctiOns will be forgotten and which
will terminate only when they have
succeeded, or the liberties of the peo-
pie are destroyed.