Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-11-02
THE APPROACHING ELECTION.

THE APPROACHING ELECTION.
Before the next issue of our
journal the people will once more
have recorded their votes in an
election for National, State and
other offices. The canvass has been
shorter than usual, but much more
wearisOme. So far as our own feel
ings about it go, we are conscious
chiefly of a sense Of relief that it is
nearly over. And why this utter
WEAKNESS and disgust? 1t is be-
cause we are engaged in contest
i'm which there is no principle of
public economy at stake, no issue
made, and the real question at issue
is shall the Democratic party be
broken up and destroyed, or shall it
be maintained as an organization
under which to continue the fight
against that policy which it is agreed
by both the contestants has ruined
the nation. For the contest here
mt least is between the Democratic
party and the sO-called Independent
Greenback party. The Republican
party is ostensibly spectator here
not an uninterested one by any
means. 1t is quietly awaiting the
result in the hopes that its old an
tagOnist, the Democratic party, may
he shattered to pieces in the present
senseless contest, and then it may
step in and recover the supremacy
it has so nearly lost. The struggle
therefore, we say, is between the
Democrat and the Independent
Greenbacker, and there is no princi-
pie at issue between them. The
greenback, it will be said, is the
issue, but it is not. If it were, there
might be some rational argument
between the two; but there is no
leading Greenbacker who has stated
what he means by the Greenback
question, what he really wants
done about the greenback. There
are followers, it is true, who will tell
you very fluently what they want;
they want two or three billions of
greenbacks issued in a lump to pay
the public debt with, and another
like sum to replace the National
Bank notes which are to be cancelled
i'm day, and some of them want
another pile sufficient to build every
man house who asks for it, and so
on. But the leaders don't say this
they encourage their followers to
say it, but they know that it would
be suicidal in them to indulge in
such extravaganza, so they fill their
speeches with hollow common
places about capital, and labor, and
the public debt, and the bOndhOlder,
and silver, and the greenback, and,
if they are pushed to say in detail
what measures they want adopted
to remedy all this, they either
contend for what is really the pol
icy of the Democratic party which
they are seeking to destroy or they
take refuge in vague generalities
defining nothing.
We cannot argue with the Green
hacker, then, on the greenback as
our subject, for two reasons: he has
no definite policy about the green
back TO argue upon, and the division
which certain clique of men are
trying to effect in the Democratic
party in this county has nothing to
do with the greenback. They were
working at it before the greenback
was talked about, and if that con-
troVersy were settled tomorrow
they would be working at it still.
The division for its own sake is
what they are aiming at; the green
back is only a preteXt. They are
bent upon breaking up the Demo-
cratic party for the simple reason
that they could not rule, and will
therefore ruin it if they can. So we
have no argument with them there
is nothing to argue. If they desired
to harmonize with the Democratic
party, ample opportunities have
been given them, concession has
been stretched to the verge of sub
mission, but they do not desire to
harmonize; they are resolved on
anything rather than harmony. We
leave them to their own devices.
Our appeal Is not to them, but to
the thousands Of voters who want
to see the business Of the country
relieved from its present paralysed
condition and to bring about a re-
Vival of prosperity throughout the
land. To such men we would say,
go to any political meeting you like
where Democrats and Independents
are the debaterS and observe this
one thing, that the evils which
they both describe and the causes of
them are simply comprised in the
policy which has been pursued by
the Republican party for the last
seventeen years, the policy which
the Democratic party has resisted
for the same length of time.
you want this policy reversed. Can
any but an insane man suppose that
this can be effected by SCATTERING to
pieces the party which has always
resisted that policy and causing it
re lie helpless under the feet of that
other party which is the author of
that policy. If your own common
sense fails to answer this question
Alright, we can help you no further.
THE SPEAKING On SATURDAY.