Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-01-16
GRANT, LOUISIANA, SHERIDAN.


Prior to his second election, we pub
lished it as our opinion, that If sue
cessful, Grant would never leave the
White House without the interven-
ton of force, or its equivalent, such
an outburst of public Indignation as
precedes VIOLENT measures. No sooner
was his second election secured than his
purpose to hold on to power, for life,
manifested itself in open preparations
to secure third election. As long as
this scheme seemed to work smoothly.
he was apparently content to let his
popularity in the North quietly work
out the required result, but the storm
whica burst upon him in November,
changed the ASPECT of passing events
and, learning therefrom. the extreme
uncertainty of third term, through
the agency of the ballot box, he at
once, resolved, as his last chance, to
appeal to the cartridge box. Know
ing that he had won his first and
second terms upon no merits of his
own, but upon blindness of malignant
sectional hate, he hastily concluded
that nothing is wanting for the final
success Of his absolute sovereignty,
but a revival of that hate. To bring
this about, he must goad the people of
Louisiana, by wrongs and insults of the
most provoking character, to the COM
mission of some overt act against his
lawless authority. Then was to fol-
low scene of butchery, adroitly mis-
represented into evidence of southern
rebellion, which will fire the northern
heart and make Giant, third time, a
bloody hero, whose reelection is an
absolute necessity in the interest of
peace and safety.
To carry out this bloody feature in
the programme, Phil. Sheridan was
lifted over the heads of Sherman and
Mcdowell, and transferred to New Or
leans, and to hide the intent of his
transfer, he was to fill the role of q
traveller on his way to Cuba, until
the cards could be stocked and the
preliminaries settled. The game thus
prepared, could hardly have failed
of success but for the almost super
human forbearance and moral courage
of the brave men of Louisiana. They
saw through the fimsey veil thrown
over the monstrous scheme of blood
thirsty villainy; they saw that, upon
their wisdom and quiet endurance,
hangnot only their own, but the rights
and liberties of all the people of all
the States, and true to their geBerOus
and manly natures, they have foiled
the tryant and not only won the sym
pathies of the better classes of the
North, but awakened spirit of patri-
otism and political justice that may yet
save the country from the sad destiny
so long impending over it. Grants
winning card was played, through
Sheridan, with so many indications of
conscious intent to cheat, that the
players betrayed themselves to the
parties who were to be cheated-the
whole people-and thus by overactiug
their part, have perhaps, finally lost the
game. Grant believed that little
Phil. the amateur house burner and
willing butcher of women and child
rem. was the right man in the right
place and, perhaps. might have been
had he not developed prematurely,
other accomplishments and display
ed them indiscreetly. He showed too
great a willingness to do the biding of
his master and, to hasten the orders
from head quarters did, for a little
man, the biggest lying ever before at
tempted, to cover up even so great a
crime as that contemplated, by Grant,
against Louisiana and the Union
the Constitution and popular liberty.
The little papoose killer thought that
his blood,and thunder reputation would
deter any man in New Orleans from
conrtradicting his lies, but when the
best men in the city and State, men
from the North, men of all professions,
churches and associations united in
giving him the lie direct, it fell like a
thunderbolt upon his little head and
Shrivelled his wide renown into the
contemplate proportions of an un
scrupulous liar.
To Pills awkward disclosure of
Grants cold -blooded scheme to inau-
gurate civil war in order to prolong his
tenure ofpower, we are indebted for the
indignant protests against the admin
istration, by public meetings in the
North, northern legislatures and Gov
ernors, and though such protests have
been too long delayed, they may yet
stay the tide of corruption and tyranny
and repair much mischief already
done. The North is beginning to see
and feel the re-acting power of the
lawless usurpatiops which it tolerated
and encouraged as n sectional scourge,
which the South has felt long and
deeply-all the while conscious that
the curse would return home to roost.
Even an Union of force, instead of
love, must suffer, or prosper, as a
whole; for time. vindictiye and law
less power may single out its victims,
but this cannot last, because where all
interests are in common, a wrong done
to any of them is felt, more or less, by
all, and self finally adjusts the bal
lance, and rights the wrong. This
self-adjustment is doing its work in the
North which is becoming more sensi-
BILE of the Importance of the South to
northern prosperity as well as to CON-
merce at large; and if the country is
naIly saved from consolidation and
despotism, it will be through the agency
of the absolute dependence of the one
section upon the other. When patri
Otism ceases to control mems actions,
the most available appeals in behalf