Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-12-09
THREE SIGNIFICANT ARTICLES.

! day, TWO at least distinctly demanding
the impeachment OF President Gran
for his action in South Carolina, anC
tho third SfGn the most respectable
Republican journal in New Y ork, con.
demning the action of the administra.
tion. The tone of the Posts Article
is particularly important, because that
paper is universally understood to re.
present and to be guided by the senti-
ment Of Republican bankers and mer-
chants of high standing, the Drexels,
Solligmans, Opdyke, Clahin, Phelps,
Dodge Il Co., Jackson L. Schultz, and
their party. 1t is understood in New
York that the Posts change Of front
is due to the influences from Wall
street, where business 10 suffering
mostly by the prospect of revolution
ary movements on the part Of Grant
and Chandler.
VIEW OF THE NEW YORK WORLD.
The World, after reciting the cir
cumstances of the South Carolina out
rage, says:
One of two things-either it is law
full or unlawful for the president of the
United States to use and delegate to
subordinates the right to use United
States troops. An overwhelming ma
jority of the American people in the
States of the great North and. West
we leave the South just now out of the
luestlon-believe it to be unlawful.
If this belief is real and honest be-
lief, the time for arguments and
speeches and newspaper denunciations
has gone by. The question Of the law
fulness or unlawfulness of such action
on the part of the president must be
decided at once, and by the competent
tribunal, which, under our form of
government, Is the Senate of United
States. There is not the least occasion
for violence or uproar or revolution.
The founders of the Constitution, wise
ly remembering the frailty of man when
seduced BY power, looked forward to
the possibility OF a president Of the
United States who should think it law
full for him to do things made su-
premely unlawful by the Constitution.
They provided tribunal for the cor
rection of such cases. Such case
has clearly arisen, and the duty of the
hour is to apply to it remorselessly the
remedies provided in our fundamental
law.
The article then proceeds to define
the manner ID which articles Of i'm
parchment should be brought, and
adds that charges must also be prose-
cuted against Secretary Cameron for
executing the order, and against every
Cabinent officer who can be proved
TO have either connived at or aided in
preparing the order. The country,
concludes the World, must be formal
ly and definitely end decisively brought
to front this matter.
THE NEW YORK HERALD.
The Herald gives great credit to
Wade Hampton and the South Caroli-
ma Democrats for their noble self
possession under trying circumstance
and pronounces as follows its opinion |
of the act
There could not be a more wanton,
monstrous and lndefensible violation |
of law than this assumption by the
Federal army Of a right to decide who |
had and who had not been elected 10 q
State Legislature.
At the conclusion of its long, vigo-
rous, but strikingly temperate and
well considered article, the Herald
says:
If the president ordered this plain
violation of law, or if, with SO many
reasons for supposing thai it would |
take place, he did not prevent it, he
must shoulder the whole RESPONSE
bility.
Quoting his message on Louisiana
the Herald adds
If the law is such as he described
it, he has clearly made himself liable
to impeachment by this new interfer-
ence with State Legislature. Unfor-
tunately for him, the impeaching pow
er is now in the. hands of his enemies, |
and there is no reason why they |
should not exercise it. We presume,
the first business of the House of |
Representatives will be to vote his i'm
peachment, and appoint a committee
to draw uparticles.
New York Post.
MILITARY INTERFERENcE IN PoLITI-
CAL QUESTIONS,
We cannot let the armed occupation |
of the South Carolina State house and |
the act of the Federal troops taking |
upon themselves to determine who |
shall constitute the Legislature of |
that State pass without protest of the |
utmost possible solemnity and energy.
According to all accounts from that |
quarter, the Federal troops we're yes
terday in possession of the building, a
military garrison with its sentinels post.
cd at the doors, and no member Of the
Legislature was admitted except those
who brought a pass from one of the
partisans of the present governor
Members who brought the certificate
of their election from the clerk of the
Supreme Court, under the broad seal
of the court, were refused admittance
by armed men. The person named
Dennis, who gave the written orders
without which no person was allowed
to enter, claimed that he was acting
under the direction of a superior,
whose name he declined to give. Of
course that superior is Gov. Chamber
lain, under whose orders the Federal
troops appear to have been put by |
President Grant, and who has taken |
this method Of deciding what persons
are members Of the South Carolina
Legislature.
We protest against this proceeding,
not only in the name of liberty and
justice, but in behalf of the Republi-
can party, whose good name and worthy
record are brought in question by this
resort to military force, in a question
purely political. Here is already in
corporated into the history of our re-
public a precedent of as arbitrary a
nature as the act of Cromwell, when
he turned the British Parliament out
of doors. The rule Of representative
bodies, that they are judges Of the
election and qualification of their mem
bers, is summarily set aside; and Mr..
Dennis, the furniture dealer, with the
Federal troops at his back, usurps that
Office Even the excuse that disturb
ance and bloodshed were dreaded, and
an insurrection so formidable that
Gov. Chamberlain would lack the
means to quell it, does not appear TO
have been made. The usurpation is
not masked with any plausible pretext.
1t sweeps away every restraint of usage
and precedent and law, and substitutes
simple force for the quiet formalties
Of ordinary legislation. The Repub-
l,oar garfx, io nof pomarful anouUh in /