Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-10-13
BEWARE OF THE LOBBY.

the chosen representatives OF the
American people are setting their
faceStowards the national capitol, jim
tent upon their duties and privileges
as members of Congress. In behalf
of these gentlemen we have often
found it our duty to address the
people, but now it is in behalf of the |
people that we propose to address
some considerations to the Senators |
and Representatives whom they |
have elected. We have an eminent |
right so to do; this is a peoples pa
per; it is interested in politicians
just so far as the people are inter
ested in them, and the grounds upon
which they claim our consideration
consist solely in the fact that they
have been selected by the people as
the representatives of their will in
the councils of the nation. 1t is true
that there are those among them
who are highly esteemed by us for
their personal qualities, but, in what
we are about to say now, we pro-
pose to rise above personal consider
atiOns and to speak in the name of
the people to those whom the peO-
pies voice has invested with the
solemn responsibility of legislating
for the public well-being. Especi-
ally we consider ourselves as adj
dressing those who go to Washing
ton commissioned with the franchise
of the Southern States. Their posi-
ton is in many respects exceptional
at this time they have never, since
the war, stood on ground so advan-
tageOus for speaking and acting pO-
tentially in politics as they do now.
At first the South had no represen-
tatives, for the carpet-baggers who
stood i'm that position were worse
than none; but by degrees State af-
ter State shook off the incubus of
alien rule and, one after another,
men took their seats in Congress as
really authorized to speak for the
South. Even then the Southern
members were made to feel that
they were there on sufference, and
even in their own party were ex-
pected to meekly follow the lead of
those by whose gracious permission
they sat there; but the time is now
come when Southern memberships
with a voice as potential as that of
any one there, and when their sup
port is perhaps even more anXiOusly
sought than that of any other class of
politicians. Now, what we desire
to impress upon them is thatjust in
proportion as their power and free
dom OF action are enhanced by this
change of circumstances, exactly in
the same proportion their response
bility is augmented, and that re-
spOnsibility is exclusively to the
people; primarily to the people
of the United States, then to the
people of the section from which
they go forth, and lastly to that par
ticular constituency whose votes
were the efficient cause of placing
them where they are. 1t is to hold
them to this responsibility that we
now seek to gain their ear. We
charge them that they accept no
other allegiance cOmplicating this
their sworn allegiance to the people.
inducements innumerable will as
sail them at every. step as soon as
they set foot within the national
capital to transfer this allegiance to a
widely different claimant-tOthein in
terests of official life in Washington,
to the interests of individuals and
companies and rings, whose agents
thrOng the corridors and committee
rooms and Hobbies of the capitol,
haunts open to all, and from which
no interested parties are excluded
except one, and that is the people
of the United States. The people
are not there, every one else is.
Every legislator will do well to re-
member this when approached by
an agent who solicits his vote in
behalf of this railroad or that
patent for army or navy use or
the other bill for the improve
ment of Mud creek. He must re-
member that, however plausible the
argument for the measure in queS-
ton, there is another party to the
transaction of whom he is the sworn
agent, bound by oath and by every
consideration of honor to ScTutiniZe
il, and act upon it rigidly in the in
tereSt of his client, and that client is
the people of the United States.
These things ought not to be dis
cussed in the lobby at all these
agents and solicitors have no bust
ness there; anything they have to
urge which is really entitled to
hearing can be urged in open COM
mittee with no secret combinations,
and it would be well for the public
service if every member of Congress
would deem it homogeneous with his
dignity as legislator to be seen in
private conference with man
known to be frequenting the halls
of legislation in the interests of
ring or railway or any other
scheme demanding special legisla-
ton for its profit.
The lobby is the direct antagonist
of the people; the former wants
the government to be run for special
interest, the latter for the general
interest of all, the great inequality
of the arrangement being that the
lobby is always on hand, the people
never, except by those who are cleo
ted to represent popular interests,
hut whom it is the main business of
the lobby to win over in favor of
special interests; ifthey are so won