Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-08-05

lions of dollars and it Is not vet known
whether the Government will be able to
recover it or not.
OTHER SPECIMENS or DEMOCRATIC RULE.
That party did no, overturn our land
system, Notwithstanding it was very good
one During the year 1871 the system was
much improved; that must BE- confessed
But the Democratic party was not in power
that year. We ought also gratefully to
remember that the grants of land made for
educational purposes were not repealed.
The fact furnishes striking illustration
of spating mercy. But the phenomenon is
not difficult to explain. Such grants were
made only to States in which the lands
we're. Such lands were found for the most
part only in new States. The new States
we're very unanimously Democratic in poll
tics. The States receiving the grants could
alone administer them,anh the party seems
to have felt confident that grants so admin
istered would not promote the cause OF ed
ucation more than gratis of money hed
promoted the cause of commerce. All who
are familiar with the early experience of
the school funds ia the southern and some
Of the Western States, viii need no other
assurance that confidence was not mis-
plSced.
The Capitol was not transplantei
when the Democratic party retired f
control, in 1861, scarcely building be
longing to the Government was finished.
Perhaps, however, the party would have
avoided that cause of reprOach if they had
earlier formed the design Of transferring
those buildings to the use of another gov
eminent
Armies were then maintained Their
ranks were thin, but they were sumptuously
otficered--oliicered far too largely by those
who had been educated in every sodierly
grnce save that of allegiance
navy was suffered to exist. But as
it was found IL little too loyal to desert its
flag, and little too gallant u surrender
it, when the hour Of national peril arrived,
that navy was scattered in remote seas
Do-NoTuISG POLICY,
The Presidents of those ha'f-f rg,tten
years were as dilligpnt, by annual and
special messages, to explain why the Fel-
eral Government could 90 nothing. rs the
Congresses were to 90 nothing Like the
two brothers engaged in the Temperance
cause, one Of whom l.ctured on the evils
of intemperance, while the other furnished
"a shocking example 30 Democratic Prgsi-
dents We're pcreunialv eloquent in cx-
pounding the impotency Of the National
Government. while Democratic Congress es
were as persistent inillus;rstiug it,
The pret4xt for this strange suggishnpss
was an umi4b.e one CONSTITUTE nal inhi-
billions were pleaded IN excu.e for all ornis-
sions. They constantly neglected great
national interests, because they feared to
infringe upon the pr"r"gn i've of States /;
they proclaimed thcm.c.vcs the cd ,uuiln-
of states rights they arruguJeI o rh,.u-
selves the name CT the States RIGHTS party.
1t was n speciuus prelcnse, but it wa- NJ
terly insincrre. 50 long as our archives
remain, 30 long that very lamy viii r-
known a. the one which struck h, ton est
| blow at the rights Of Stats which could re
contrived
That i, the party which, on 'hc 18th OF
/ September, 1850, wrote the fugitive slave
act in the statute book. BY that nct the
| United States commanded the Federal
courts to multiply court commissioners
without limit. BY that act the United
States offered such commissioners a clean
/ bounty Of five dollars each, for certificates
| that residents of Massachusetts, or of any
other State, were fugitvcs from Texas or
some other State and when such a certificate
was obtained, pledged all its forces to re.
move such resident to the State wherein he
was cl-imed; which made that certificate
so purchased, Of such huck sters conclusive
/ evidence Of the right to remove, and COM
manded every tribunal within the insulted
/ State to be still, and all its citizens to aid
/ the outrage statute the very first victim
OF which was a free man from Pennsylvania
who, being declared fugitive by a five.
dollar commissioner, was transported tC
/ Virginia by the UniSed States, and finding
no man there base enough to claim him
he was allowed tn get back at his own ex,
pense
In all those years the national character
had not been raised an inch. On the con
trary, through them all, it had fallen con
stantly lower and lower.
When England and France proposed, il
1852, to join with the United States in mu
tual Remuneration of all designs on Cuba
an American Secretary of State did no
hesitate to assign as n reson for refusing t,
join such convention, that it would Civ,
"A new and powerful impetus to attacks
ION the island of Cuba, by lawless band
sdventurers from the United States, will
the avowed design Of taking possession o
the island'--attacks which, he argued nj
administration would be strong enough t,
resist.
THE ORDER oBEYED.
That command has been fulfilled. Their
is no slavery in any Of your Territories
That will scarcely be denied even by tn,
opposition journals. There is just as littl
slavery in any Of the States. Something
more than you then thought possible Ia
been accomplished.
, OTHER THINGS ACCOMPLISHED.
But there is no need to dwell upon tn
national achievements Of the last thirteel
J years-they were to conspicuous not {
have been seen they are too recent to b
, forgotten, 1t will suffice to present a SEIZED
ule Of the leading events.
J At home and abroad the Union was pro
claimed to be dissolved in 1861. The Unio
} is restored now.
= Nine States then claimed TO have lei
: the protection Of the Constitution forever
, They have all returned to that protection
] now. Those that thou gavest me | hav
, kept, and none is lost" said the Saviour Q
? men. The Republican party has preserve,
more than the States you committed 10 il
? keeping. 1t has found those which wer
t lost
. In 1861 the " Confederate States O
Ia