Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-03-10
THE NATIONAL INPAMY.
Terrible Arrangement or the Electoral
Commission by the Honorable
John Young Brown.
He Explains the Situation, and Ac-
cepts the Inevitable.
An Eloquent and Able Speech.
Congressional Record.

|
been burlesque upon truth and JUS
| tlce; tragical in that it has been muir
: derous to every principle of law, fair
dealing and honor that should gov
: ern among men.
] was in favor of the bill creating
J this Electoral Commission | indulge
now in no childish repinings over the
result. 1 thought we could trust the
selected men of the highest court OF
the foremost Government in the world.
Human laws can not put limita-
tions upon fraud they may punish,
but they can not prevent. We trusted
these men and they have betrayed our
trust. All laws must be administered
by human agencies if you have the
corrupt judge, no matter what your
laws may be, you hear false iudg-
ment. Jeffreys was just judge save
where the interests of the crown were
concerned. Bacon, "the wisest and the
meanest of mankind" took bribes,
rendered, with one or two exceptions,
just judgments. Hale, although re-
fusing to take the civic oaths of Crom-
well, yet was made one of his judges.
Our judges of the Supreme Cour1
held their Offices for life. with liberal
salaries; are independent of the mu-
tations of politics, each having his
personal and political honor to main
tain, and thought that surely there
if the depravity of Radicalism was not
universal-we could find integrity. My
confidence was generous, patriotic, un-
doubling in these men and in our
case submitted. But 10 this Electoral
Commission supposed incorruptible
sages, in their exulted positions, have
played the part of banded jockies, and
have done in the face cf the world
that which hungry mountebanksshould
scorn. They have done.
| That blurs the grace aud blush of modesty;
! Calls virtue, hypocrite takes of the rose
From the fair forehead
| And sets a blister there.
And these successors of John Mar
shall To-day how must each feel
''his title, like a giants robe, hang
loose about him" Suspicion is whis-
pered that certain judicial commissions
bear the dark and damning stain Of
intrigue and ring jobbery and that the
FIRST Judgment of their holders was the
price paid for their promotion. These
indeed are days of degeneracy aud
shame. Read and consider the record
of the decisions of the majority of
these men; note their shutting tricks,
their Inconsistencies, their evasions;
and they are such as would bring the
blush to neOphytes in learning such
as pigmies in self-respect and honor
would abhor.
In the fable we read that the cat was
changed by the fairy into the fine lady;
yet at the banquet, upon the appear
ance of rat, this fine lady chased it.
Apply the story, and you need no sug-
gestion to draw a conclusion from its
moral.
You have but barren scepter in
your gripe. Your fresh garlands en-
twine around your hatchment, Your
party stands to-day surrounded and
saturated with such turpitude that the
| judgment of the hour and of mankind
hereafter must be against it.
Your jugglers have proclaimed your
victory, but it is tarnished with shame
and accompanied by perjury and
every species of fraud. The Republi-
can party is in the attitude Of
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
And put itfn its pocket.
What of the SOUTH The conduct
of her representatives during the last
few months has refuted the ISLANDERS of
years. Their votes and utterances here
have been for peace, law, and order.
The South has been familiar with
misfortune; sorrow and defeat have
mingled in her experience. She has
drunk the cup of bitterness to the
dregs, but thank God is a stranger 70
dishonor, and most of us from that
section stand for the faithful and in
flexible execution Ofthe Electoral bill
Honor says it, policy says it without
it we drift into confusion. Our es-
cutcheon is unstained We can bet
ter afford to accept disappointment aud
defeat than by parliamentary shifts and
tricks to avoid the orderly execution
of the law against which only eighteen
Democrats of this House and only one
in the Senate voted.
Something has been said Of bargar-
gaining with the South. You can not
win them over by bribes they want
nothing but justice. / see before me
a distinguished and cherished friend
from the South Mr.. Lamar, a gem
tleman of the highest ability and
unspotted integrity; honored by his
people and worthy Of their trust Ispeak
not by his authority, but as his name
has been mentioned in this connection,
| say that am sure he would shrink
from such coalition as his soul would
recoil from a cruel wound or dishonor.
The men you could bribe in the
South are not worth having. You
would loathe them when you gotthem;
they would have no following or inhu-
ence at home. And if they were to
Join your party to sustain il in its past
and present policy, they would find
themselves political pariahs in the land
of their birth. Nothing will couciliate
the South but justice, and will so find
it. They want rest, order, home rule.
Your largess there will be thrown away
if given to corrupt. These people are
your peers, equals, before the law and
neither by bribery nor force can you
change them from serfdom to villainy,
in the precious name of their manhood
and womanhoOd l repudiate the init
nation with scorn unutterable.
There will be no division in the
Democracy. Lay not that fattering
JUNCTION to your souls. 1t is a differ
ence to-day only among them as you
my countrymen Of the Republican
party, in the name of justice, of peace,
of truth, of liberty, of civilization, in
the name of all these ask you to halt.
Forbearance has its limits; / say il
not in menance, but in sorrow and SOL
emn earnestness.
The manacles must fall from the
limbs of our sister Southern States,
You must call off your dogs. These
unfortunate people have been baited
and badgered until the just sentiments
of the world in indignation condemn
your cruel policy.
Is yours to be an imitation Of the
celebration of Roman victory with
these long-suffering States chained to
your triumphal car? Are the clapk-
ing of their chains to be heard ming
ling with your hosannahs to liberty aud
free government? If the fraudulent
action of a,villainous Returning Board
, of State is so sacred in your eyes
that by reason of State rights you will
not 20 behind the certificate Of a COVER
nor whom you have aejudged usurD-
, err, how dare you logger keep your
soldiers there to sustain the thieves
, who have been necessary TO your dis.