Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-09-09
GOVERNOR FOOTE TO THE FRONT.

JUt EhNUh EOO1E 1U AKtG EAeVNAs
By the action of the State Republi-
can convention at Nashville assembled,
Gov. Henry S. Foote carries the ban
ner of the Radical party as Elector for
the State at large. To those who are
familiar with Gov. Foote'S previous
career this is by no means surprising,
for in long life devoted to politics
there is no other party, no other sec
ton of party which he has not tried
and then quarrelled with, and it iseven
a satisfaction to reflect that he has now
touched bottom at last, and cannot
very we'll fall any lower. So that, if
this were all, we might we'll leave him
there without farther remark. But
when we read his speech before the
assembled wisdom OF the radical par
ty and note the position which he Sc
lects as his battle ground, we frd it as
founding even in HMM him who we
thought was no longer copable of do
ing anything which surprise us. He
commences the campaign by attacking
Samuel j. Tilden as a secesSiOnist; and
in order to unload, and as it were, strip
for the fight he says in the opening of
his speech: when the Democratic
party in the State of Mississippi where
/ then resided in 1861 became a mere
disunion faction, l forsook its ranks
and acted with such Union Wings and
Union Democrats as we're willing to
enter into a generous and manly strug
gle for the preservation of our price
less institutions from threatened over
throw" After reading thus far we
had to lay down the paper and take
breath before we were capable of read
ing farther. 1t was precisely in that
year 1861 that we first had the honor
of becoming acquainted with Gov.
Foote; and, whatever cur admiration
for his great talents, the last character
we should have thought of investing
him with would have been that of a
champion of the Union.
There must be some thousand Of
people now in Nashville who have
listened to the red hot secession
speeches which he made during the
spring of 1861 and for ourselves we
had nearer view of his zeal when
night after night he met US at the of
fee of the Union and American, and
together he and ourselves worked at
the concoction of secession resolutions
to be let off at secession mass meetings.
WE'LL we make it a practice to take
every mans account of himself, but, if
Gov. Foote on his leaving Mississippi
came to Tennessee to save the union,
he had a wonderful way of setting
about it. .... ..s
1t is no part of ours to set seriously
about refuting either the charge of
secession as made against Mr.. Tllden
or the still grosser one of completely
with the frauds and populations of
Tweed and his associates. For, in the
first place no one believe in them; the
very men who raked the Tammany
mire to pick out of it some of the
ISLANDERS which the members of the
rings devised against their chief an
tagonist must have retailed them with
some disdain for the missiles they had
seIected-and if they needed refuta-
ton, our readers have only to look
back to our last issue wherein We pub
lished Mr.. Hewitts complete exposure
of their worthlessness when advanced
IN congress by Mr.. Kasson.
1t is only necessary for US here to
state that the charge of secession
against Mr.. Tilden was grounded upon
the fact that he as well as all
wise and humane statesmen in the
North including Mr.. Lincoln him
self was in favor of exhausting
every possible form of Cancellation
towards the South, hoping against
hope for a settlement without the
dread arbitrament of war-but when
war was Inevitable took his position as
a Union man. His biographer men,
lions that he was heard to say, ad-
dressing a Southern statesman. that il
the South expected Northern Demo-
Gratis to hold the government while
they whipped the North, it was mis-
taken; if war came Northern Demo
Gratis would support the government
He participated in q meeting held al
the residence of General Dix to dis.
cuss ways and means of raising the
$4,000 troops which Mr.. Lincoln had
called for and was in frequent confer
once with Mr.. Lincoln himself upor
the subject: aud in the Democratic
National Convention at Chicago, hC
insisted that peace between the NORTH
and South on any other basis than th'
,,esforation of The Uaion was manifestll
imnossible. that if we could not live
together peacefully in the Union ''0'
,gqs the onlyalterRGtiUe. :.
Tits surely an Ineligible prOpositiOr