Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1874-10-24
CONGRESSIONAL SPEAKING.
House and Harrison.

and one fourth colored. As Mr.. House
made his appearance, he was greeted
with long and loud applause. Assoon
as quiet was restored, he rose and in a
speech of one hours length summed
up the history of the party represented
by his opponent. He arraigned them
for violated pledges, constitutional vi
olations and laws trampled upon, show
ing its reckless career, outside of con-
stitutional law, eliminating in an eff
fort to pass the odious Civil Rights
bill, denominated by Senator Brown
low, member of the party to which
his competitor belonged, as 1.-THE sum
of all villanies in politics" He placed
before his audience the outrage bust
ness of the Radical party, in all its in
fanny and hideousness, in light as
bright as the MONDAY sun; and elo
quently, as House only could do, he
denounced the total faithlessness and
want of honesty of party that would
Systematically manufacture political
food and capital by slandering large
section of the country, and thus driv-
ing from its borders capital and popu-
ation. He said to the colored people
he knew not how they would vote In
this election, but they should not
forget that this country was their per-
manent home and the home Of their
children, and that their interests i'm
peratively demanded a cultivation of
amity and good feeling between them
selves and the white race-that their
interests would remain with them and |
their children long after the Republi-
can party had been ground to dust |
beneath the indignation of the people |
whose every sense of right and justice
it had outraged. He said they had |
made character during the war for
peace, quiet and faithfulness which |
was commendable, and advised them
not to sacrifice this character by fol-
lowing the blind lead of few whites
whose political life depended upon a
state of ill-will and strife between the
races. Mr.. House then introduced to
the large audience his competitor, and
asked fer him patient and respectful
hearing
Mr.. Harrison followed in a speech
also of an hours length, deyoting the
first ten minutes to the propriety and
advantage of discussing fairly and dis
passionately all public questions, and
urging its tendency to promote peace
and good will among all the people of
our common country. He then told
the colored part of his audience that
he had expressed wish to see them
divide upon the various questions be-
fore the public, some voting with each
of the political parties, but said the
time had not arrived for them to do so
as yet-meaning, perhaps, not till after
the November election. He deplored
the existence of a white mans party,
but assured the blacks their only safety
was in voting altogether. He then
launched into the outrage business,
and told of many that were new to his
audience, some of whom are readers of
the public newspapers-and we take it
for granted his list of outrages had
their origin with the grand central ma
tional republican outrage committee at
Washington. He argued that the white
people of the State, the Democratic
party, were wanting in fairness, frank
ness and sincerity. Just here we tho't
we saw slight, redeeming blush of
shame suffuse the Hon. Gents face
but it may have been a sudden recol-
lection of a committee outrage item
he had forgotten before. Next he I'M
dertook to show how he was not for
the civil rights bill; but upon this sub
iect he certainly made the impression
upon his audience that he was muchly
mixed, and closed this subject with an
apology to his colored hearers for this
slight depression from his republican
duties, but assured them he was as near
the thing as was possible, not to be the
thing. He praised, briefly, the nation
al banking system and the national
currency, showing its uniformity over
the country and solvency, but failing to
mention the twenty millions interest
paid annually to bondholders for this
blessing, or to show why United States
treasury notes, for which the govern
ment is directly bound, but upon which
they pay no interest, would not be as
uniform and as solvent-as of course
they would be. He endorsed the re-
construction laws as the wisest that
could have been passed for the South.
He briefly commented on the fact
that House, in the olden time, had
worn the livery of the old Wing party
as he (Harrison) had done, and thought
it strange he now wore the livery of the
Democratic party. He supposed Mr..
House would explain it. He then sat
down amidst the applause of the col
ored part of his audience, whose eb-
bingprejudices, suspicious, and dislikes
he seemed TO have succeeded in galvan-
izing into new life.
Mr.. Houses reply of fifteen or
twenty minutes was a grand burst of
eloquence, a whitening, burning de-
nunciatiOn of the unjust, unwise and
odious reconstruction laws-inaugura-
ted not for the purpose of restoring
the union, but for the unworthy pur-
pose of bringing about the ruin and
death of the South, so that the carcass
might be tied to the Republican party
to aid it in its unworthy partizan pur,
poses. He said it was true he once
wore the livery of the old Wing party
and followed it so long as its banner
foated in the breeze-but that he
thanked God he could say he had