Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-04-14
THE OBSTACLES.

Dg the cuu VI ILLS McCA I'VE are WITT
ting on Monday the 9th) we confident
ly predict that the transfer of power in
South Carolina from the hands of the
carpet-baggers to those other own cit
liens will have been completed with
efficiency and without a serious strug-
gle. OF course this success if realized
will render US the more sanguine in our
hopes of similar result in Louisiana,
though most men are aware that the
case of that State presents difficulties
far more perplexing to the administra-
ton of Mr.. Hayes than that of South
Carolina.
The difference is that in South Caro-
lima the face of the returns gave the
electoral vote to Hayes and Wheeler
even by the admission of the Demo-
cratic investigating committee, while
the same returns have been pronounced
by the highest legal authority in the
State to have given the State Offices to
Gen. Hampton and the other Demo-
cratic candidates, thus relieving the
President from any embarrassment re-
lating to the validity of his own cleo
ton in that State.
Not so in Louisiana-the face of the
returns previously to their manipula-
ton by the returning board, were even
more adverse to the electoral vote for
Mr.. Hayes than to the election of the
State officers. In order therefore to
carry out his purposes in Louisiana he
is compelled to inhibit his commission
from any investigation of the validity
Of Packard's election and to place his
purposed action there on other grounds.
Hence the commission he has sent
into Louisiana, is instructed not in
quire into the transactions connected
with the late election, but into the
causes which impose peaeeable and
lawful government in that State. tits
evident that such an inquiry will carry
them straight towards the rock which
NhOJ oiO AuSti uClcu " dNOlus -OI tue
results of the late election and the
means by which the true vote was SET
aside are the very causes which keep
the State in an irritated and excited
condition.
Hence, as everybody sees except Mr.
Hayes himself, the commission itself
was a cardinal blunder. The only
prudent method open to him was and is
a straightforward order expressed with
military curtness for the withdrawal OF
the troops, and this had been better
done month ago than now. But
the President is beginning to realize
the scathing deDunciation of Judge
Black, that fraud vitiates everything
alas, it vitiates even the best inten-
tions; we are beginning to believe in
the sincerity of his intentions but the
consciousness of this original vice
in his title is already paralysing the
the execution of them, aud nothing is
done with the decision and resolution
which is called for; his very order ia
Gen. Sheridan in the South Carolina
case is apologize and hesitating in.
stead of being brief aud peremptory
as becomes a military order.
And the worst of the case is thai
his antagonists see his weak points, anC
press upon them with a crushing
weight. We have before us the oper
letter of Packard to the Presiden
dated April 9Th, which we are con
strained to recognize as an able docu
ment, much ADLER than weshould have
anticipated from such source-in al
probability it is compiled by wisel
head than his. The three question.
which he propounds for the commits
sion's investigation can, as far as W.
can see, neither be evaded nor answer
ed, that is from the Republican poin
of view; they are as follows:
First-Which is the legal government Ell
titled TO recognition?
Second-Which is the legal Judiciary?
rection prevail, within the meaning OF SCI,
lion 4, article of the Constitution of TIT
United StateS2
Democrats would have no difficulty
at all in answering these, but to The
present administration they present in
superable dificulties-how these viii
be surmounted we cannot conjecture
we have still hopes that the case o.
Louisiana will ultimately be settled a,
satisfactorily as that of South Carolina
Indeed we do not see how the Presi
dent can reeede from it; the old posi-
ton of his party once abandoned car
never be resumed and there is no Other
open to him but that which he is en-
deavoring to establish. 1t is one il
which he will have the support of hi.
old antagonists, the Democratic party
certainly that of the Southern pres:
and of Southern statesmen-how he i.
to secure that of his own party, anC
how he is to escape the stamp of con
domination which his present policy
sets on his past record, is problem
for him to solye-we can give him NJ
aid there.