Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-07-06
THE BALL OPENED-JORDAN
SPRINGS.


SPRINGS.
The barbecue in District No. 4 |
was not the first meeting of the sort
since so many of our friends and
fellow-citizens have assumed the
toga candida, but it was the first
which we have attended. We
thought it better to give candidates
time to tune their pipes, so that by
the time they had found the key
note and were ready for the concert,
as soon as they had settled what
was to be the character of the over
ture and what the principal theme
for treatment, we might come in as
critic and say how far they had
kept time and tune. 1t tnrns out
that we had timed our Intervention
right; the principal performers have
taken their positions, and we have
a fair conception how they are going
to maintain them. The discussion
has fallen into the rut which, in all
probability, it is going to maintain
to the end of the contest, and we
may as well ventilate our own Opin-
ions about it now, with the under
standing that what we say now will
serve for many barbecues from Dis
trict to District 20, from Jordan
Springs to McAllister's X Roads,
from Port Royal to Sailors Rest.
Our travelling companion was
Judge Rice, one of the candidates.
We arrived on the ground at a little
after 10 A. NJ, and found that most
of the candidates were ahead of us.
These were Messrs. Allen and Rice,
candidates for Circuit Judge, Messrs.
Tyler, Yancey and B. d. johnson,
for County and Criminal Judge, and
Can't. Seay for Chancellor. Besides
these it was hoped that Coils. Bailey
and House, our Senator and Repre-
sentative in Congress, would give
some account of their doings in
Washington and of the future pros
poets of parties, but fate was adverse
and they were not heard.
OF the candidates for Judiciary
offices it may be said that, if they
had confined themselves to topics
properly germane to their candida
CIV, it would not have been needful
to state anything, for the one ques-
ton ought to be the competency
and the integrity of the candidate,
and that cannot be determined by
any speech on the stump. Some of
the candidates, however, especially
Messrs. Allen and Yancey, insisted
on giving a political turn to the
discussion and bringing in the ques-
ton of the public debt. This irrel-
avant talk, among other of its
effects, absOlves us from the neutral
ity we expected to observe in refer
ence to the judiciary candidates, or
rather, cOmpels us unwillingly to
depart from it.
Mr.. Allen led off. Admitting
that the district court did net imply
anything like party politics, hesaid
that party spirit had nevertheless
entered into this contest, and he
would therefore define his position.
He was in favor of cheap govern
ment and low taxes; said that any
compromise offered by bondhOlders
ought to be considered by legisla-
ture and then referred to the people,
and that in any case he was not in
favor of any increase on the present
rate of taxation. OF course this inn
piled that he was not in favor of
paying interest or principal of the
public debt, as the present rate of
taxation is VIGOROUSLY inadequate
to that purpose.
Judge Rice followed him and,
avoiding politics, appealed to his
record during the nine years he had
held the office, and requested that
men would vote for him according
as that record would bear investiga-
ton. He recognized the fact that
his decisions could not hope to be
pronounced in all cases free from
error no man ever sat on the bench
who could claim that; but he chal-
Ienged their assent to the claim that
they had been honest and correct
according to the best of his ability,
and reminded them that experience
was the most important means for
diminishing the errors of human
fallihility.
Mr.. Allen now rose again and
claimed that Judge Rice must not
be allowed to reserve his political
opinions, and put him through
Catechism rs to the articles of faith
he had laid down for himself. These
Judge Rice, after some discussion,
answered until he came to the ques-
ton of increasing the present rate
of taxation, when he declined an
swering any further. We cannot
help regretting that he did so; we
know that the Judge is in favor of
the honest payment of the interest
on the public debt, and that if he
had given his true sentiments he
would have lost the vote of the re-
pudiating element then present; but
he will lose that anyhow, and a
frank avowal Of his principles would
have gained him other votes both
there and elsewhere, while an unde-
cided position will endanger the
loss of both votes. He might, it is
true, have adhered to his position
that this Office in question is judi
ciary and not political, and that
therefore political manifestos were
out of order; but, if that had been
his position, he should have refused
to answer any of the questions.
But the speech of Mr.. Nancey was
the type of the political speeches by
which the judicial bench is brought
down to the level of the huStiDuS