Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-07-06


be carried on without taxes, nor
even any practical device by which
they can be diminished, except his
one cherished position that no debt
must be paid with them. The time
was when, as one item of reduction,
he advocated the abolition of the
very office for which he is now can
didate; this, we presume, he must
now have abandoned, or he would
not have stood on the hastings last
Saturday. However, taxes and the
payment of the debtor were not the
only grievances he insisted upon.
Property is another. He openly
aUOlced that he gLOried IN the cOnlnltt-
nistic increment. We thank him
for this avOwal' We have been in
formed that he has been in the
habit of avowing communistic SEN
timents in private, but did not
know how far he was correctly rep
resented, but we have long seen
plainly enough that communism is
the logical inference of reputation
it has long been manifest to us that
there is no moral distinction be
tween the confiscation of debts and
the conflscation of property; that
there is no more injustice in CLASH
flying the proprietor as an oppressor
than the creditor, but we have
never heard before of the public
avowal of the principle in Tennes-
see, and we thank Mr.. Yancey for
confirming, what we have before
now maintained, that reputation
and communism stand upon the
same basis, and that, if the one be
right, the other cannot be wrong.
But is it possible that the men
who cheered the declaration of Mr..
Yancey at Jordan Springs under
stood the true bearing of these avOw-
ais? There can have been very few
there who are not the owners of
some property; are they ready to
divide it with the first tramp who
comes along? Many an industrious
colored man who heard him has by
care and industry been enabled to
own the cabin in which he lives is
he prepared to divide it with the
lazy, trifing negro who has not in
dustry enough or sense enough to
own anything. And yet cOmmu-
nism means exactly this. The pro-
prietOr is the only thief. That is the
cardinal aphOrism of the commune.
We are not writing mere persi-
fiage, but desire our words to be
taken in the sense of solemn warn
ing. This menace of communism
is no mere empty dream Z; it is be-
coming more practical every day.
The communists mean business, and
have already got their candidates
elected in California as delegates in
a convention for remOdelling the
State Constitution. One class of
rights cannot be tempered with
without loosening all rights, and
the rights of credit and those of
property are too closely identified
to leave the one class safe when the
other is trifled with. These facts
we respectfully commend to the
consideration of Mr.. Yancey's sup
pOrters in District No. 4. We should
add that he closed by trium-
phantly cOngratulating Mr.. Allen
for having joined at last the good
cause. We trust he will not be I'M
duly elated by this recognition, but
that rather it will lead him to sober
reflection upon the position he is
settling down to in his eagerness to
catch votes.
Judge Tyler next took the stand.
His address was Il calm and elabO-
rate vindication of his public career
from the attacks which have been
made upon it. The public are al
ready familiar with the main points
in it, and it is not necessary for US
to go into its details. The broad
position with which he closed was
that he took the financial affairs of
the county in state of disorganiza-
ton and ruin, the treasury empty,
the bonds at a heavy discount and
the taxes high, and that now there
is money in the treasury, the bonds
are at par, and withal the taxes
are lower than they were when he
entered upon his duties as financial
agent of the county.
1t was arranged that Mr.. Baker
Johnson should reply to Judge
Tyler after dinner, and it was hoped
that Coils. House and Bailey would
also speak, but a drenching rain,
which lasted from o'clock till after
sunset, adjourned the meeting. Mr..
Baker Johnson requests us to state
that he will make his speech in
reply to Judge Tyler on the 9th
inst, for which day he has appointed
to speak at Jordan Springs.
We have only to thank the iOvial
and hospitable citizens of No. 4 for
their good cheer and genial well
come, hoping that they will make
better arrangements with the clerk
Of the weather next time they give
a barbecue. As it was, we have to
tender them our additional thanks
for a copious shower-bath which
lasted through the extent of our
hOmeward trip.
GORTCHAKOFF AND REACONS-
FIELD IN BERLIN.