Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-01-05

ton, the choice of a Senator, and
any whisper of an opinion on State
affairs except the parrot cry of
slow tax, was shrunk from as
pestilence, for fear it should operate
unfavorably to somebody's aspira-
tions. An Assembly so elected
could not well be expected to do
better than it has done, and but for
two or three personal matters we
should spare our readers the details
of the process by which the good
man of Tennessee has been drag
ged through the dirt. Two of these
matters are the speeches of Messrs.
c. g. Smith and r. p. FrierSon.
These two gentlemen stood shoulder
to shoulder in the struggle for an
honorable settlement Of the State
debt. The speech of Judge Smith
occupies large portion of our edi-
tOrial columns this week, and they
have never been better occupied.
Any elaborate eulogy of it on our
part would be supehuous and pass
for oficious putting, where none was
needed. Our readers will read it at
tentively and will not lose one point
Ofits incontrOvertible arrangement.
Mr.. Frierson'sspeech will be given
next week, and speaks for itself.
The next gentleman whose course
we have to speak about is Mr.. Gar
ner, the Senator for this county with
Stewart and Robertson. We allude
to his course with profound NORTH
cation and humiliation, for, from
the relations which he bears to this
and Stewart county, his course viii
be taken by many as the action of
those two counties as well as Rob
ertson, in which he himself lives.
To those who look beyond the sur
face the honorable position taken
by MeSsrs. Smith and Brandon in
behalf of Montgomery and Stewart
will remove this impression, but
many will not look beyond the sur
face and will only see that the
chosen Senator of the three counties
was the author of the one act which
defeated the acceptance of the offer
of our creditors to cancel the debt
for half the face of it. The part
taken in the matter by Mr.. Garner
was as follows: A bill had passed
the House of Legislature. to close
with the compromise proposed by
the creditors at half the face of the
bonds, with six per cent. interest,
the coupons to be receivable as
taxes; this measure had passed in
all its provisions in the House and
was on its second reading before the
Senate when Mr.. Garner offered
an amendment 10 strike out the
clause making the coupons re-
ceivable for taxes; this of course
killed the bill; the bondholders
could scarcely be expected to give
hundred dollar bonds for fifty dol
lar bonds without any additional
security for interest or capital. The
Senate passed the amendment by
one majority and then, the House
not cOncurring in it, the bill was
lost.
This was no unexpected termina-
ton to the business, but Mr.. Gar
ner was not the man who should
have killed the compromise. Those
who heard his vOciferous; we might
say furious prOtestations, in our
Court House a year and a half ago
against Il dollars delinquency in
paying the debt, would have sup
posed that any one rather than he
was to be the murderer of the bill.
We are not informed whether Mr..
Garfield proposes to prosecute pO-
litical career in the future, his errat-
ic course in this his first essay would
not seem to indicate the qualities
that promise success in such a pur-
pose; but however this may be, we
once for all warn him not to base
his expectations upon the future suf-
frage of Montgomery and Stewart
counties. We doubt very much the
acceptability Of his course with the
citizens of RobertsOn; outside of
Robertson he is certainly dead as
political aspirant. And now we
have another campaign in Tennes-
see with the State debt as an Gle
ment of conflict.