Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-01-20
The People Heard From.

The right of petition is coeval with
English liberty. The use and inhu-
euce of it was felt with us in abolition
times, and is beginning to be expert
enced once more Petitions from the
people urging dispassionate, unparti-
san, and patriotic action in counting
the electoral vote are being received
by Senators almost daily, aud are al
so being presented. This method of
suggesting the public will is peaceable
and praiseworthy. 1t appeals to the
bestside Of political nature, and threat
ems the worst side. Senators and Rep
resentativcs who do not live entirely
in the present, who recognize an obli-
cation higher than party fealty, ca
reer holier than demagogism, a popu-
larity broader than that of a constitu-
eney, and honors more solid than those
that reward men for 'pluck" and cum
ming, will not turn deaf ear to this
voice of prayer and warning. When
right and expediency combine to urge
upon men a certain course of action,
they are quick to recognize and pursue
the path pointed out, unless they are
the victims of infallible folly or per-
verseness. We cannot believe that
the temporary and empty success OBJ
tanned by the illegal counting in of
Hayes, or the possibly disastrous ac.
apartments of usurpation snd revo-
luton, can compensate for the future
losses which must attend the attempt
ed and vicious exercise of functions
derived from mere numerical force.
Many Republican Senators are com
paratively young, yet have been devot-
ing their manhood to building up
characters creditabie to themselves,
agd likely to be a source of pride to
their posterity if consistency marks
their careers. The question with these
gentlemen is, whether or not they will
sacrifice the accumulations of the past
and the promises of the future to a
party triumph that must be both
ephemeral in it's enjoyment and ia tai
in its results. If they are either
thoughtful men or well-advised men
they will respond to the spirit of the
petitions that come from the body of
the people.
1t seems natural for the mind, in
our present crisis, to turn to the histo-
ry of the mother country and compare
the period which preceded the revolu-
| ton of 1853 with our contemporaries
Gus experience. Usurpation, wrong,
and tyranny threatened the dearest
rights of Englishmen; the army was
/ devoted to the schemes of the oppres-
sor, and the courts were dedicated to
| the consummation &C a conspiracy
against the Constitution a Jeffries
was judge then, as Bond is Judge
now.
The people, loath to resist the de
| tdcto government, and averse to change,
| involving the uncertainties Of civil war
for they too had fresh recollection
of Monmouth's rebellion as we have
of our own-sought through the chan
mel of petition the redress due their
unparalleled grievances, and what they
thus sought in vain they at last OBJ
/ tanned by a somewhat violent and Wig
oroHs revolution.
Men as loyal as Clarendon, as con
sentative as Halifax, as brave as Chur-
/ chill, deserted the faithless sovereign
and enlisted in the ranks Of the deliv-
erer. The British Constitution came
out of the fiery furnace purified and
exalted.
Let us take the Lesson to heart and,
without applying the extreme remedies
of our ancestors, secure our Constitu-
ton. our Union, our Government, aud
our rights by obeying the voice of the
people, speaking through the petitions
that are presented to our National
Legislature mainly, if not entirely, by
Republican Senators.-7he Union,
Washington City.