Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-08-10

0culI, II Is ceFtdlH ltidt tHc PAAOSo
who direct the course Of the good
ship Tennessee will have no easier
problem for what win be the lead
ing question in the politics of this
State?
THE STATE DEBT.
Everybody wants it STAYED off,
and especially those who seek Office
at the hands Of the people find it
terribly in their way, bit 1t tciH not
be stared off, it comes back and
back again upon us, and every time
it comes it is a more perplexing
problem than it was before. For
instance, it was a weighty problem
two years ago, tits a much weightier
one now. For one thing two years
interest have been added to it; for
another, one Legislature (and that
a Legislature elected on a platform
which proclaimed the sanctity of
the debt)-a Legislature so elected
has adjourned after refusing to enact
a compromise, which, in the eyes of
all who recognizethe validity of the
debt, must be pronounced liberal
one as proposed by our creditors.
What will be the action OF the DEM
ocratic party this fall we forbear to
conjecture until the convention at
Nashville to be held on the fifteenth
shall have published its platform ;
we can only point out as the master
difficulty of the situation the COM
plication of State and Federal poll
tics, in virtue of which it is impOs-
sible to take a decided position in
reference to the debt without en-
dangering the loss of more than one
of our seats in Congress.
In our cities the speciOus general
tiles of the indefinable party best
known as the National Greenback
has already broken in on the Dem
ocratic organization sufficiently to
defeat its candidates, and any di-
vision in the party caused by con-
,ficting policy as regards the State
debt would imperil matters still
further. We are cOunseled there
fore to adopt some compromise
which may put that veXed question
aside without solving it. That is
one side of the question, but there is
another to it. That reason was
given two years ago, and we can
fOresee no future time at which il
will cease to be operative. Two
years ago we had two Senators and
a President to elect, and now seve-
raj members of Congress, and in
1879 there will again be Presiden-
tial election in prospect, and so on
to the end of the chapter; so that
the counsel which proposes silence
and inactiOn in the matter is virtu-
ally a proposal to adjourn the con-
sideratiOn of it sine die. Meantime,
the regulators never have agreed
to adjourn it, they have been loud
anu DAdACiAAA dDOAAN IL lOA ElAACC v
while those who recognize it as a
sacred truth have been silent and
are still cOunseled to be silent for
fear of compromising important
matters in Federal politics. 1t is no
wonder that under such a course
public opinion has been growing
more and more adverse to an honest
recognition of our liabilities as a
State, and it is not difficult to con-
lecture what such a course will end
in.
There is certainly, at least in this
county, a strong substratum of feel
ing for the credit of the State. The
recent Judiciary and county cleo
tiOns manifest this plainly enough,
but if we are to expect this political
element to speak out, it must be
spoken to. This muzzling one side
of a question and leaving the other
vOciferous cannot go on forever
without suffering that element to
die of hamilton.
1t will be said, care there not
other subjects to write and speak
about? Must the question of the
State debt be held prior to all
others ?' All this has been said to
us, and our only answer is that the
State debt cannot be SltbOrdinGted to
any other until IL has been either paid
or compromised or rep,tdiGted. More
than this we will not say until after
the Nashville convention.