Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-01-20

may also marx new era-an era OF
prosperity as we'll as pe&ce-a return
to the observance of laws and Consti-
tution-a purifcation of the Govern
ment, and an elevation of the charac-
ter of those who administer it-a re-
union of all the people-a restoration
of fraternal feeling-a regeneration of
the Republic
! "Ring wild bells,
Ring ont sky high!
Ring out the old,
Ring in the new;
Ring out the false,
Ring in the true"
[Great and prolonged applause.
General Walker, from the commit
tee on resolutions, made the following
report, which was unanimously adopt
ed:
Whereas the Constitution of the
United States was ordained, among
other benficient objects embraced in
its purview, to 'esta blish justice" and
secure the blessings of liberty to our
selves and our posterity:" therefore
be it.
Resolved, That it becomes the i'm
perative duty, as it Is the highest po-
litical privilege of good citizens, in all
times of public peril and of threaten
ed outrage whether proceeding from
covert fraud, or from the bold en-
croachment of despotic power, to find
in that sacred instrument the means
by which to resist the forces of cor
ruption and repel the cohorts of tyran-
ny.
Resolved, That the present critical
situation of pnblic affairs, arising from
a disputed presidential succession, has
been mainly created, as we believe, by
privy conspiracy of desperate polite
ians in the ranks of the Republican
party, men who, in the pursuit of po-
litical aggrandizement, and following
the lures of public plunder, have wick
edly combined for the purpose of de-
feating the popular will, as lawfully
expressed through the ballot-box, and
who, In the attainment of their ends,
betray as little scruple for the obliga-
tions of public morality and the pro-
prieties of official decorum as for the
plainest mandates and clearest injunc-
tions of the Federal Constitution.
Resolved, That the revolutionary
and iniquitous character of the plot
which has been framed by these con-
spirators is sufficiently attested by the
shamelessness with which, in moving
on their objective points, they are
found swift and bold to override the
the national charter, to trample on the
precedents OF parliamentary procedure
that are coeval with the existence of
our Government, and even to convert
their own most recent records and
most deliberate opinions into a by
word and kissing with which to point
the finger of scorn at political recre-
ancy without parallel In the history of
any country.
Resolved, That from the origin of
our Government it has been the con-
ceded right as in the interest of polit-
ical integrity and public justice it is
the bounden duty of both Houses of
Congress to exercise examination and
counting of the electoral ballots, to the
end that no frauds be perpetrated and
no surprises practiced against the
rights of the people and the equality
of the States in this crowning act of
our republican system; and hence we
proclaim that any partisan policy,
which requires for its cOnsummation a
reversal of this traditional procedure,
is condemned by that fact alone to in
cur the Just odium of all honorable
men, as involving a willful usurpation
of power and daring innovation upon
the principles and methods of that po-
litical system which we have received
by inheritance from our fathers, aud
which it is the duty of the present age
to transmit, unimpaired and untarnish-
ed to the coming generations.
Resolved, That the consummation |
of such a conspiracy would bring
speedy and widespread disaster, not |
only to the checks and balances of the |
Federal Constitution, but also to the |
financial credit and financial strength |
of the Federal Government, inasmuch |
as prudent men at home and abroad
never consent to submit their fortunes
and capital to the precarious fate of a |
political system, seen to be resting on
the broad basis of popular suffrage, !
and placed under the @gis of constu-
tional law, but converted by partisan
caprice aud cupidity into subject for
the contests of faction, and therefore |
liable, at any moment, under the exas
perations of civic strife and contention,
to perish in the storm of popular
frenzy. In word, Mexican finances
are the sure sequel of Mexican poll
ties.
Resolved, that the repulsive aspect
of this meditated usurpation is rem
dered doubIy odious by the alliance it
has effected with the bayonets of the
Federal Executive, and it is mark of |
the public shame and seal of the
public sorrow in this distressing epoch |
that the President of the United |
States should have placed the sword |
of the nation at the disposal of po-
litical conspiracy to destroy the gov
ernment of States, as it has done in
South Carolina and Louisian, ard that
he should now be gathering that army |
at the capital of the nation under cir
cumstahce which induce the painful
belief that they are called here, not to |
preserve the nation for whose defense |
they were enlisted, but to intimidate a
co-ordiate branch of the Government |
in the discharge of its constitutional
duties.
Resolved, That, in spite of the thick
clouds which hang over US and obscure
the future of Our beloved country, we
resolutely refuse to despair of the Re-
public, and confding, as we do, in that
Divine Providence which has hitherto
guided our people through every dis
aster, we have no words of patience
for that political apathy and cowardice
which, without exhausting all the rem
edies furnished by the Constitution,
would betray the cause of truth and
right by tamely surrendering the
shripes of freedom to pollution, and
exposing the sanctuary of public JUS
tice to a ruthless spoliation,
Resolved, That cherishing, as we do,
deep and abiding faith in the purity
of the cause we advocate, and persuad-
ed as we are, on the evidence now be-
fore US, that Samuel j. Tilden and
Thomas A. Hendricks have been fair
ly, legally, and honestly chosen to fill
the two highest places in the gift of
i j l.