The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1877-01-18
THE PEOPLE SPEAK,
The Free North Thunders
Against the Hayes Con-
spiratOrs.
The sth of January Meetings.

The Sth of January Meetings.
The meetings were largely atten-
den in many of the States, and a
determination evinced to resist the
conspiracy to defeat Tilden. All the
resolutions call upon Congress to
provide plan for counting the cleo
toral vote, declare that the two
houses alone have the power to
count and not the President of the
Senate, and if the Senate shall claim
such power for its presiding officer,
they then call on the House to exert
all its constitutional powers to de-
feat such action.
In Ohio, the Chairman made a
speech Of half an hour, which was
frequently interrupted by applause,
notably so when he declared that
should the contemplated act of usur-
patton be perpetrated by the Presi-
dent of the Senate, and it should be
sustained by the Republicans in the
Senate, it would be the duty of the
Democratic House of Representa-
tives to declare Tilden and Hen
bricks elected, and it will then be our
duty to stand by our House of Rep
resentatives and Tilden and Hen
bricks, if need be, with our property
and our lives. I'VE want no war
We want peace at every sacrifice,
except that of our Constitution, our
Union, our honor, our liberties and
our lives.
The meeting in Washington was
immense, at which Mr.. Henry Wat
terson said:
There can be safety nowhere, least
of all in the National Capital, when
the President of the United States,
the secretary of War and the Secre
tary of the Interior, the two most in
1uential members of the majority in
the Senate and the general of the ar
my are committed in advance of an
undetermined Presidential election
to any fixed partisan policy. But
when these organize themselves into
a corporation; when they surround
themselves with troops; when they
use the power lodged with them as
a supreme trust to secure devices
and preteXts for its perpetuation,
and, thus equipped, when they bold
ly proclaim their purpose and
threaten all, friend and foe alike,
who refuse to acquiesce, they justify
the ascription Of conspiracy laid at
their door, and furnish cause for
misgiving in the blavest heart. 1
say misgiving, but not fear. Civil
liberty cannot be wrested from the
American people at all, either with
or without q fight. They are pa
tient and law-abiding; they will ex-
haust the peaceful agencies placed
by Gcd, nature and the Constitution
of their country in their hands, but
they will not submit to usurpation,
and, if it should become necessary
that they should have leader, an
other Jackson stands ready to take
his life in his hand and make their
cause his own. trust that no such
emergency will arise, but the way to
prevent it is to prepare for it. My
hope is that conservatism enough
will be found in the Senate to defeat
the schemes of extreme men. ex
pect to see here on the day the vote
is to be counted 100000 unarmed
citizens exercising in their persons
the freeman's right of petition, and
giving the honest Republicans of
both houses of Congress two guar
antees, one that the people want on
ly what is right, the other that they
will accept nothing that is wrong
In other words, the Presidential vote |
shall be counted precisely as it al
ways has been, and not by |
the President of the Senate,
who has no power whatever |
except to open the certificates. If
Mr.. Hayes has majority, he is the
lawful President. If neither Mr..
Hayes nor Mr. Tilden has a MAORI
ty, then the House elects. But If
Mr.. Tilden has a majority, then
and this as 'Old Hickory" would
put it and mean it-by the Eternal,
he shall be inaugurated. There is
no more to be said on the subject.
1t is in every way free from complex
ity. Compromise is certainly out
of the question. We have had, or
we have not had, an election In
either event the Constitution is
plain, and it must be maintained to
the letter.