Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-10-06
THE WEST TENNESSEE WING.


THE WEST TENNESSEE WING.
The respected editor of this journal
considers himself (unintentionally)
misrepresented in the notice we pub
lished of his salutatory. If we have
misrepresented him, he does us no
more than justice in believing it to
be unintentiOnal on our part, and so
DESTROYS are we of doing him full
Justice that we here and now give
him sample space and verge en-
ough" to state his own case. Below
is given the whole article, in which
he sets himself right. We make no
comment upon it, but consent to
patiently await the time when that
bugle-call shall awake the sleepers
and elicit from the chaotic void the
party, which is to be conducted
"lOithom regard to pdrtizan e.c0eoIj-
e1lcy or mere party interests" We
are also awaiting the millennium and
the return of the golden age:
HENRY WATTERSON AND DOCTOR
WRIGHT UNWITTINGLY NIISREP-
RESENTING THE WEST TENNESSEE
WING.
The Louisville Courier-Journal
favored us with lengthy notice,
which contains courteous illusions
to and kind sentiments toward us,
for which we return their able edi-
tors our grateful acknowledgements ;
vet they have, unintentiOnally no
| doubt, given very wide circulation
| to misrepresentation of our posi-
ton, which fidelity to truth and
duty to ourselves demand that we
shall correct, and which they should
in simple justice retract. The COQ-
rier-J Journal and the Chronicle alike
convey the false impression to their
readers that our paper has aVOWed
| its leading aim to be advocacy of
! the rehabilitation of the old Wing
party. Says our Kentucky friend !:
Colonel Gates, of Jackson, Tennessee, has
| issued the first number of his new paper,
! the West Tennessee Wing. It's not now be-
| fore us, and therefore we cannot state with
accuracy the political programme of the
venerable and worthy editor. He seems
now to be in search of old Wing principles,
intending, if he can find them, to give them
a cordial support.
The editor would have written
somewhat differently had our first
issue been before him, as in its in
trOductOry article he would have
seen our expression, "The Wing
recognizes the fact that the old Wing
party is of the nOblest things that
lCere. F" There is no sign of mental
reservation or Of equivOcatiOn in this
plain aVOWal of the fact that, how
ever ardently we may have desired
and confidently hoped the revivifi-
cation of the Wing party and the re-
embodiment of its principles, we
have certainly, though sadly and
reluctantly, renowned that desire
and hope, and inscribed "1ETe1Y1lti1l
nl0rtjs'' forever-upOn the
monument reverence and affection
| have reared to the memory of the
dear old party we sustained so long
and loved so well. Even though
we may have endeavOred to revive
the Wing party, suppOsing it to be
only in a state of suspended ami
nation, perchance, up to the last
moment before our first issue, we in
Sist that no editor can Justly ego be-
hind the returns" and place US upon
any other platform than that lately
laid down in introducing our journal
to the public.
At the close of a lengthy article,
in which it admits that both the
Democratic and Republican parties
are divided, notably on financial is
sues, and asserting that elf all the
old Wings of the South were taken
from the Democratic party, its ranks
would be very considerably thin
ned" the COurier-JOurnal says:
But we have wandered far from the origi-
nal object of this article. 1t was simply to
make few pleasant remarks i'll regard to
the Wing dreams of our esteemed brother of
the quill, Colonel Gates, whose conservatism
and patriotic impulses nobody has ever
called in question.
There it is expressed in a very
brief space. We are conservative
we are bipartisan. We gave prece-
dence to love of country over love
of party, even in the palmy days of
Whigery, when the national capitol
was yet resonant with the voice and
elOquence of immortal Clay, whose
hOnOred name the Greeks inscribed
upon the peribOlus of their Senate
chamber as the most illuStriOuS
champion of Greece and freedom
and we yet love our country better
than party-lOVe her the more be-
cause Of the perils she has passed.
To our kind and respected editO-
rial brothers of the COurier-J Ournal
and the Chronicle let us say that we
shall not always be without a party
we shall, in due time, be acting
with party that will devise, advO-
cate and inaugurate measures of
scope enough to embrace the whole
land and insure the peace and pros
perity of the whole nation, without
regard to partiZan eXpediency or
mere party interests. There is no
sufficient reason for any journal
chasing us a Wandering jew in
the political world. In declining to
eSpouse abe cause of the Democratic
or the Republican party, we are in
deed not alone. Let the proper
leader rise, as rise he no doubt will
ere long, and wind his bugle-call,
and we shall have a realization of
ROderick Dhu's signal to his clan,
so graphically and beautifully de-
scribed in the verse of Walter Scott,
the inimitable and immortal Wizard
of the North:
Wild as the scream of the curlew,
From crag to crag the signal flew.
Instant thro' cOpse and heath arose
BOnnetS and spears and Bonded bows;
On right, on left, above, below,
Sprung up at once the lurking foe;
From shingles gray their lances start,
The bracken bush sends forth the dart,
The ruSheS and the willow-wand
Are briStling into axe and brand,
And every tuft of broom gives life
To plaided warrior arm'd for strife.
There is, indeed, a very large
number of good people, tired of par
tiSan confusion and official cOrrup-
ton, who are ready and eager to
Join a new organization, composed
of the best elements of other parties,
with an expurgated creed suited to
the cOuntry's age and extent and
the nations condition, and do battle
under its unstained banner, for by
such reorganization the corrupt and
chronic leaders-thOSe barnacleS on
hnT hOttOO1-Doau no Cpro nod off and