Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-01-12
THE CONGRESSIONAL NEW
YEAR.


commences the business of the pres
ent Congress. The extra session of
last fall and the portion of the pres
ent session which elapsed before
Christmas were mainly occupied
with preliminary and preparatory
measures i'm which nothing has yet
been decided, but during the discus
sion of which It has been determin-
ed where men stand, what are the
questions to be determined and who
is on this side, who on that. In
truth, some such preliminary Skin
mishing as we have had the last
two months was needful to clear up /
several mysteries which were per-
picking mems minds and without |
which it was impossible to tell what |
any individual or party was likely |
to do. The President had taken |
two new departures rs regards two |
very weighty matters, the removal |
of troops from the Southern States
and the mode of making the civil
service appointments. How were
these to be received by the two
great parties in the Nation? And
especially would the new policy
cause a division in either, or in
neither, or in both. Much specula-
ton was also INDUCED in as to the
amount of support and opposition
which the two great financial and
monetary measures of the Demo-
cratic party would meet. And on
all the questions our minds are
clearer than they were last NOvem-
Der, so that we can now form
definite conception what we have
to deal with. Aided then by the
light which proceedings in Congress
have thrown upon them let us dis
cuss each of the topics which we
have above indicated and try to
estimate how far our conceptions of
them have been cleared up.
THE SOUTHERN QUESTION.
To a man reading some of the
denunciations hurled at President
Hayes by the COnkling-Blainec con-
nexion il would appear that the
withdrawal of troops from New
Orleans, Columbia and Charleston
was the substantial gravamen of the
offence given by his .eXcellency to
that connection. They are guilty
of the vilest hypocrisy when they
thus declaim; and it is a cheering
sign of the waning power of the
Republican party that they are
driven to sneaking hypocrisy in the
place of that brazen, defiant audac-
ity with which their villainieS were
avowed i'm former days. The with
drawal of military support from the
Packard and Nichols governments
was a fOregOne conclusion before
Mr.. Hayes was President Mt all, be-
fore he had changed his tune from
the cant of the bloody shirt to
the milder cant of Constitutional
scruples. 1t was only disObedience
to the Gen. Grants order on the
part of the Secretary of War which
prevented that step from being ac-
complished before the Inauguration
of Mr.. Hayes. What he and his
accomplices did about it was simply
to intrigue for delay i'm order that a
bargain might be made before it was
done. Indemnity for some of the
base criminals who did the counting
in and a quiet acquiesence in the
work of the Electoral Commission
could not have been purchased by
that transaction unless it was de-
layed till Mr.. Hayes could have the
manipulation of the business. And
nine-tenths of those who control the
strategy of the Republican party
were at that time consenting to the
trade. No! the whole Republican
party except the carpet-baggers re-
cognized the fact that the mill
tary support to carpet-baggery was
PLAYED out, and those who are now
bowling against it would not, if
Mr.. Hayes resistance were out of
the way, dream of such quiXotic
scheme as reinstating it. That is
all a dead issue, let us turn to some
thing still alive.
CIVIL SERVICE APPOINTMENTS.
There indeed the shoe does pinch.
For many years now the Senate has
been making advances towards
wrestling heappOinting power from
the President, and all the changes
which have been gradually and inn
perceptibly made in this depart
ment of politics have tended in this
direction. Resistance to this ten
dency would have been in conson-
ance with our views, for we have
long thought that the Senate was
acquiring too much power, but such
resistance required very bold
President and one very strong in
his political position. Mr.. Hayes
may have been the one, he certain
~ was not the other; he was the
President of a waning party, did
not possess the confidence even of
that, and the inherent vice in his
title rendered him the last man to
attempts position from which An
drew johnson had to come off de-
feated. Still he might have held
the solid Democratic vote, and
enough Republican votes in the
Senate to confirm his appointments,
but this combination required that
he should be sincere in his profess
Sions of Civil Service reform, while
unfortunately almost every appoint
mcnt he made gave the lie to them.
His protested principle was that
the distribution of patronage was
not to be made the means of enlist
L