Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-03-09

constituency; the constituency own
him; he is their servant to do their
will, and a generosity which con-
sisted in giving away their favor
and preference would be simply
giving away what did not belong to
him.
So much for considerations of
generosity, but now for Col. Clai-
borne's demands that he should go
to Neutrality-suspicious. he has
never been there yet. We thank
the gentleman for stating the doc
trine of rotation thus barely and
markedly, for it only needed that to
make its absurdity apparent. On
the theory of professional politicians
it is true there is some reason in it.
Their theory is that the Government
is magazine of good things created
for the special behOof of office-seek-
ers and office-holders, and that as
these good things are not nearly as
numerous as those who seek them,
there ought to be frequent changes
in order that each may at least get
a taste sometimes. That states the
question as it affects the office-seek-
ers, but how as it affects the people?
1t is for the peoples benefit and not
for that of Office-seeking politicians
that this Government was instituted.
How does rotation affect the peoples
interest? Itsimply determines for
them that they shall never have the
services of experienced statesmen /;
that experience shall be a disquali-
| ficatiOn for office. Need we say any
thing of Col. Houses value as an
! experienced statesman? The prac-
teal endorsement of his fellow
statesmen at Washington speaks for
US. Wherever the Southern repre-
sentatives need a wise, prudent and
eloquent man to speak for them it is
Col. House now who is always
placed in the front, and in the meas
ure of all others affecting Southern
interests and needing for its advo-
cacy the incest tact and the most
persistent vigor-we speak of the
Texas Pacific Railroad Bill-it is
our Tennessee orator and statesman
who is by general consent put for
ward as the pilot to steer it in its
difficult and perilOus course through
Congress. To plain business men
who care nothing for the claims of
rival politicians it seems a perni-
ciOus maxim which should require
the withdrawal of such man from
public life to make room for another
whose only claim is that he has had
no experience.
We do not hesitate to say that
this doctrine of rotation, which is a
Southern and Western doctrine, not
an Eastern one, is the curse and ruin
of the Democratic party. The East
ern politicians are too wise for such
folly. When they get good man
in Congress they keep him there,
and what is the consequence? 1t
stares us in the face when we study
the records of the present Congress.
With a Democratic majority in the
House, whenever the parties have
been brought into actual collision
the Republicans have Out-man-
euvred them and obtained the adj
vantage, though the Democrats had
the numbers if they had known how
to handle them and why? Because
the Republican tactics were directed
by men of experience, while the
Democrats had placed their interests
for the most part in the hands of
raw stump speakers who knew
nothing of party strategy and dis
cipline; in one word, rotation ruined
them.
Such is the complication of parli-
amentary rules and procedure that
it takes two years for a member to
become sufficiently familiarized
with it to act freely and intelligently
in political contests. Then if, dur
ing a second term, he shows that he
has brains enough to use his expe-
rience with effect, and make an eff
ficient member, rotation comes in
and demands his removal to make
room for some hungry claimant
who has to commence the process
again. How the practice is to be
remedief it is hard to see. 1t is
easy enough to see that by it the
interests of the people are sacrificed
to those of politicians, but it is only
through politicians that the remedy
can be applied and their interests
run directly the other way. The
voice of the people loudly demand
ing the suppression of such a prac-
tice might do something, but who
is the man to evoke it?