Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1874-08-08
THE MAsS.MEETING.


1t viii be seen, in the proceedings |
of the mass meeting, on Monday last,
that call is made upon the various
precincts to select delegates to Con-
vention, on the I'D inst, to nominate a
for the lower branch of the
and also, delegates to a
joint convention to nominate Floater
for the counties of Stewart and Mont
gomery, which last is to meet at Oak
wood, on the 10Th inst. The meeting
also recommended Convention, here,
on the I'd of Semptember, to nominate
a candidate for State Senator, from
the counties, of Robertson, Stewart
and Montgomery. 1t can hardly be
necessary to urge upon the people
an earnest and honest attention to the
high duty they owe to themselves by
practical adjustment of the question of
seif-goyernment, growing directly out
of the right to choose delegates to re-
present their will and their interests.
The experience of discordand democrat
ization, through which they have
passed, this week, ought to admonish
them of the evils resulting from the
failure, on their part, to combine in
intelligent harmony, and oneness of in
terest, for the purpose of silencing the
voice of discord and crushing the am
bition of incompetency. Talk of
peoples government when a handful
can control the entire mass When
one man can say to a county give me
the Office | seek, or | will fill it with an
enemy to your honor and prosperity"
Yet such is the political condition of
the county, that a few disorganiz-
ers are masters of, what should be, the
virtuOus and intelligent majority. AL
ready threats are being made that the
nominee of the proposed conventions
shall be defeated. By whom? By
chronic disorganizers. And how are
they to effect it? By putting them
selves at the head of an ignorant and
vicious horde, numerous enough to
constitute majority, in the absence of
the hundreds who feel no impulse of
patriotism, and know not, or care not
how their government is administered.
If this state of things is to be per-
petuated in Tennessee and the South,
every honest man should pray for the
intervention of the strong arm of
kingly power rather than prolong the
erign of an ignorant, vicious and semi
barbarous populace-more cruel and
tyrannical than any other known form
of despotism. We say to the people
of Montgomery that if they would
have it otherwise, they must learn at
once, what their duties are under a
government yet nominally free, and
resolve to discharge them in a spirit
of stern integrity. They must consent
to be governed by an inferior race, or
boldly assert and maintain the superb
ority of the whites. Everyvote given
every step taken in the direction of
political reform, must be upon this
basis, or else peace and prosperity
must be an idle dream of the past with
no hope for the future. Let these
considerations have their weight in
the appointment of delegates, let them
dictate the action of the conventions
and let the people determine to give
them full expression and effect through
the ballot box. The people must govern,
or be governed 1.-The first fnsures popular
liberty, the last all the ills of corrupt
misrule, If they fail to do their duty,
they have no right to complain of rings
or cliques. They are the architects of
their own ruin, if they fall, and must
be the conservators of liberty, pros
perity and happiness, if those bless
ings are to be renewed. There are
impracticables in every community,
who would not turn upon their heels
toavert any political calamity unless
it paid them TO do it. Against such
the people must be on their guard
nay, they must exterminate them, not
with fire and sword, but by creating
public sentiment which will awe them
into the assumption of virtue they
do not possess.