Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-09-16

He condemned the way in which the
penitentiary labor is at present dis
posed of. and showed how the revenue
may be further increased and the bur
dens of the people lightened in several
ways, so as to render the State resour-
ces available for all necessary purpo-
ses, including the payment of the State
creditors without increasing the pres
ent rate of taxation.
Having thus given an account Of his
stewardship the rest of his speech was
a surprise. He assumed the agrees
sive and overhauled the record of his
antagonists. The impression had
somehow been received that his speech
would be altogether defensive, and
neither the audience nor the other
candidates were prepared for this at
titude of the speaker. He first took
up the record of the Hon. Dorsey B.
Thomas. He showed that he had been
times-server from 1861 to the pres
ent day; that in that year he had
pledged himself to do all in his power
to sustain the independence of the
South, and in every respect would be
as loyal to the new as he was to the
old government; that if the war con-
tinued he expected to be found in the
ranks fighting for the honor and indie
pendence of his section, &C.. /" but that
in 1870 he took the iron-clad oath, de-
nying any of these things. He proved
that though now opposed to paying
the State debt, interest or principal,
he in 1869 voted that honor and good
faith demand that this interest upon
the public debt be paid at the earliest
practicable moment, and its principal
securely provided for at maturity"
He followed the course of the Hon.
Dorsey through his whole legislative
career and proved that he, the present
LO1o tao candidate, had uniformity vo-
ted against every measure for reducing
taxes that he had voted for exempt
ing corporations from all attachment
of property for debt, but against ex-
empting $3.50 worth of the laborers or
mechanics property from sale by legal
process.
Then he took Gen. Nancy in hand.
He assumed that his claims rested up
on what he had done as General in
the Confederate army and as a rail-
road constructor. In the first capac-
ity he had always somehow been too
late to be present when fighting was
done, and in the second he had spent
more money per mile in building the
railroad from Nashville to Lebanon
than had been spent on any railroad
on the face of the globe.
Finally he said that in the four
handed game in which he was now en-
gagged, "Yardley held a pair, and Man
ey and Thomas were standing pat and
betting on nothing.
This aggressive mode of warfare was
thing that Messrs. Thomas and Man
ey were not prepared for. While they
were making speeches to which no
answer could be given, denunciation
was the character of every sentence
they uttered, but being now thrown
back on the defense of their own re-
cord they staggered helplessly; their
words were feeble, few and faltering
and Gov. Porter was the unquestioned
conqueror both in attack and defense
Gen. Maney's position is peculiarly
humiliating. He is waiting for the
track to be cleared before he will
start his train. This means in plain
English that he wants Squire Yardley
the colored Republican candidate, re-
moved. But how? It is known that
the General made visit to East Ten
nessee for this express purpose, and
did succeed to get some resolutions
passed there denouncing Yardley as
having been bought up to run against
him by the Democrats. yet Yardley
still lives. We do not of course pre-
tend to know what is done in the Sc.
cret conclaves of parties, yet we think
that it is quite as likely that the Re-
publicans have failed to buy him of
as that the Democrats have bought
him on. One thing is certain-he has
as much right there as the General.