Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-06-29
WHOLE NO. 2,244.

: mate the value and Importance
: such a line of railway to our foreig
e and domestic commerce. To us
! the language of another in con
; pairing the Union and Centrl
2 Pacific with the Texas-Pacific:
, The facts now demonstrate that the roa
| already built is in comparison to the tru
highway 20 the Pacific what the Phoniciai
, the Alexandrian, and Constantinopolita
routes to India proved to be in compariso
TO the ocean route through which the coy
. eted riches of that country flowed :
the populous commercial provinces @
Europe. IL is, when compared to the tru
. highway to the Pacific, as the discovery G
the West India Islands to that of Nortl
America.
With no climatic foe to be en-
countered and overcome, no snow
sheds to be constructed and kept in
repair, traversing a comparatively
level region Of vast richness anC
resources, nearly a thousand mile,
shorter between the two oceans
than on existing lines, built at a
cost far below that of the Union and
Central Pacific, this great highway
has excited the fears and the cOnse-
/ quent opposition of the present
monopoly that controls our entire
transcOntinental commerce. They
know its superiority, and they fear
| its competition far more than they
feared the funding bill on which
! they dared to measure arms with
the National Legislature, and from
which unequal contest they retired
in discontinue and confusOn. They
have marshaled all their vast re
sources to crush or, if failing in that,
to emasculate their feared and hated
rival. Nothing that misrepresenta-
tion, ingenuity, and cunning can
suggest has been or will be left un-
done to accomplish their object.
Should they succeed in inducing
Congress to strangle this great en-
terprise or place i'm their control the
last remaining terminal point on
the Pacific coast of California, they
will have achieved a victory over
the destiny of the South and the
commercial prosperity of this entire
country infinitely greater in its far
reaching, evil results than could
possibly have crowned their tri-
umph in the recent struggle with
Congress- on the funding bill. None
know the value of such a victory
better than those who are now put
ting forth such earnest efforts to
achieve it. 1t is for this purpose
that a subsidized press crown their
columns with barefaced and dis
graceful misrepresentation, and the
agents that swarm from the camp
of the great monopoly compass sea |
and land, like the Scribes and Phar-
isees, to make one proselyte.
CONCLUSION.
I appeal to every fair-minded |
northern man to look those figures /
in the face, and then reprOach the |
South, if he can find ii i'm his heart |
to do so, with an attempt to rob the
Treasure because she asks of Con- |
gress the acceptance ofa proposition,
by which the Government is amply /
secured from loss, to enable her TO |
construct her transcOntinental line |
of railway to the Pacific? Can the
North, in view Of these facts, grow
piOus and economical just at this
time and drive the South from the
door of Congress with the freezing
that it is very wrong
and sinful TO grant subsidies, and |
therefore that line of business has
been closed? This may be done,
but never till life and memory per-
ish can the southern people forget
the mailed hand that deals their
section the deadly blow. The South
was once rich; she is now poor.
Over her broad and fertile domain
there is now a desert that once re-
iOiced, and many solitary place
that once blOssOmed as the rose.
Poor and destitute as she may be,
she is nevertheless a part, and
no insignificant portion, of the
Union, Whethether viewed in respect
to her material resources or her
political power.
Can any Southern Representative
oOk upon the picture and get his
to spurn his own section
rom the halls of the National Leg
stature, and tell her i'm the hour of
ler sore need and want that so far
rs he is concerned she shall never
nave a dollar, however great may
De her necessities or however, meri-
rOious the enterprise in behalf of
which she invOkes the aid of the
| know some gentle
men doubt the constitutional power
If Congress to what the bill under
proposes. / shall not
inter into that question here. 1t
would be an easy matter to marshal
,reat names on the side Of this pow
II and great names against it. We
lave had a school of liberal con- (
and a school of strict
.onstructionists. The latter school I
rave always regarded themselves ,
IS peculiarly sound on the COnstitu- [
ion, and have plumed themselves
IN their exclusive devotion to the !
acred instrument. :
| have nothing to say against |
heir patriotism or their ability but |
t their policy had prevailed there ,
ire many sections of this great /
ountry now alive with the hum Of {
thronged with great pop
llations and pouring their tribute of
wealth into the National Treasury ,
hat would to-day be reposing in ,
Drimeval forests, the abode Of the ,
Wild beast and savage. The Phari-
ee in the days of the Saviour was a :
trict cOnstructionist. When lie I
nd His disciples, footsore and 7
weary and hungry, were passing /
through a field of corn, they plucked /
he ears and ate them to appease
heir hunger. The Pharisee de- I
lounced the act as violation Of the 4
sabbath. But turning to them He +,
eplicd i'm one of those short and I
sentences that closed
he argument and exhausted the !
ubject: "The Sabbath was made ,
or man and not man for the Sab ,
,ath."
The spirit of the reply / would I
to the strict construction I
sts of to-day, and say to them: the !
was made for the coun- !
ry, and not the country for the d
But / do not regard the question
low under consideration as any {
Onger an open one. The policy Of I
congress, as indicated on many oc- !
asiOns, and even i'm reference to /
his very line Of railway, has been /
ettled i'm favor of the power. And /
o me it is a melancholy spectacle :
o behold q southern man standing :
., +oo rf,,I ,.aoraf ON tho fraok whore .