Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-11-03
THE RECENT CANVASS.
Viewed from n Rep0rsOrsaI stand
point.

All over this State-the ssgrand old Vol
unteer State news paper reporters las
night sought their humble touches with
blessed sense Of relief in the consciousness
that the canvass Of 1874 was at an end
and that u re will now be a surcease o.
the unbridled elOquence which has beer
| raging throughout the land for 10 thess
many months, and to which reporters have
been c1mpe led to listen.
Every reporter in Tennessee is now
| thoroughly acquainted with that intensely
/ exciting sublect-the national debt, he
knows 10 a cent what the State debt was at
midnight last night, and be has revealed
in sums Of millions, billions, and even tril-
lions Of dollars for 50 long that quite an eff
fOrt-is required in order for him to bring
his mind down to a calm and satisfactory
consideration of the modest amount which
forms his weekly stipend.
As for the sickening details Of Tho Civil
Rights bill he is familiar with them all,
whether presented 10 him labelled bluntIy
s'Ciyil flights Bill" shat sum of villain
les" "the Social Rights Bill or "Sum-
neTs'S legacy" He has heard all about the
Stokes-Senter controversy, he knows more
about the Funiing bill than the men who
drew 1t, and if the Assessment law possess
ses any teatures-'infamOus or otherwise
which lie cannot glibly recount, he Ger
tainly has not properly attended TO his
duties.
He is also acquainted with that docu-
ment called the PeHitentiary Lease, and
has had his sympathies so worked upon by
speakers Of the one side in clamO-ing
against the competition of convict with
honest labor, that he has frequently been
ready to join in an assault upon the States
stone mansion, but has IS frequently been
dissuaded ana led to adopt more con
serVative view, when shown the enormous
saving effected by the State under the
present management of that institution.
There was time when the average Ten.
nessee reporter longed for bonds and looked
forward with impotence 10 the hour when
he would own one and would occupy his
leisure time with clipping Off the coupons
therefrOTn and drawing the interest due.
But he don't care a cent for bonds now
indeed, he looks with horror upon men who
own bonds, and insist upon their six per
cent. per annum being paid semi-annually
in gold, while the poor, One-armed, or
One-legged soldier hobbies I'D to the
counter of the United States treasury and
receives their miserable pittance Of 4 mem
sion in gteenbacks. No, he don't want any
bonds.
And then there is the currency question
and the resumption Of specie payment
business; what little he don't know with
regard to these all-absorbing topics isnt
worth knowing, and in some instances he
.cOnteBplates issuing a pamphlet
upon those subjects which will be a re-
markably lucid and well-spelled eOntribu-
ton to the current literature of the day.
And how his blood has boiled at the pic
ture OF free people being ground into the
earth-eTushed into smithereens, as it were.
by the burden of taxation, and were il not
for the fact that he is honestly persOnified,
believing in the full payment of every lust
debt, and for the additional fact that he
rarely attains the dignity Of a tax payer, he |
might have been led to listen to the siren |
voice ofthe repudiatoT, as he rapidly figured |
up the tCtai amount, which has been paid
IN interest on the bonded debt of the eoun- |
Try, dwelling upon the fact, that said bonds |
have been purchased al much less tkan |
heir face, while the interest has been paid |
)n the sail amount.
All ibis, and much more. For about |
wo months Of the campaign, these sub /
ects wero intensely interesting to the re- |
porter, but, after hearing them discussed |
or FIVE or six hundred times, somehow they
OSt their freshness, and for the las. month |
hey have been rather dry feed; hence, it is
With 4 feeling Of keen satisfaction that he /
ealizes this morning that the canvass OF |
S74, so far as speech-makiRg IS concerned, |
S over.