Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-08-16
rHE DEFEATED COMPROMISE.

the time this paper goes to press
that the proposed compromise of
the State debt was defeated by pop
ular vote on Thursday, the seventh
inst, and that a very small proper
ton of the vote of the State was cast
either pro or con. 1t is not our pur-
pose to complain of the result, which /
has disappointed us, or to visit with |
censure any of those who We're in
strumental in bringing it about. 1t
has never been the practice of this
journal to wrangle about settled
questions; the present and the future
are the main consideration with us
in all cases, and when we refer to
the past it is with the view of de-
irving guidance from it in reference
to our subsequent course of action.
The defeat assumed, then, the
question for us is how it is to affect
our future political course, and what
will be its bearing on existing polit-
zeal relations. A precise answer on
either of these questions would at
this time be premature, as we are at
present ignorant of what is going to
be the course either Of those with
whom we are accustomed to act or
of those who are habitually our an
tagonists; but this, we think, it is
safe to say at present, that by this
event all questions relating to the
State debt are, for the time at least,
placed outside of politics; if we
hear of them at all it will be not on
the stump or at the ballOt-box, but
i'm the Federal Courts. Perhaps the
result is a fortunate one; it gives us
a respite for awhile from the fierce
controversy and angry recrimina-
ton to which this question has given
rise, and will enable us to study the
matter more dispassionately and in
a more leisurely way than has been
possible of late, and, under these
circumstances, it were as well to
dismiss it from these editorial col
umns.
But we have an Office to dis
charge ia reference to the recent
voting, which needs immediate at
tention, and that is to vindicate the
Democratic party from much scan
dial and obloquy which will be cast
upon it on pretext Of the voting on
Thursday week. 1t is already a
favorite position with Republican
editors and orators to brand the
Democratic party as the champion
of reputation, and the vote we are
considering will be eagerly seized
upon as confirmation of this
charge. 1t will be the purpose OF
the present paper to refute that
charge so far as it is grounded upon
the transaction in question. We
undertake to prove that, whether or
not the defeat of the compromise Is
an act of reputation, the Demo
cratic party is not responsible for
that defeat. 1t will be as well to
premise that there are two sides
even to the question whether all
who voted against the compromise
did so i'm spirit hostile to the pay
ment of the State debt. We are
absolutely certain that some State
credit men voted against it, and
more of them stayed away from the
polls, on the ground that the COM
promise bill itself was largely
tainted with reputation that those
of the bondhOlders who consented
to its acceptance did so under duress,
under the apprehension of getting
that or nothing, and that therefore,
whatever it was in form, it was in
practice a fOrcible imposition upon
them of the sacrifice of half their
capital and two-thirds of the stipu-
lated interest upon it, and therefore
virtual Reputation of that much
of the debt. We are free to ac-
knowledge that these considerations
had sufficient weight with ourselves
to cause considerable hesitation and
balancing of reasons before we could
advocate vote in favor of it, and
it was only the dread of the worse
that might occur if it were rejected
that reeonciIed us to the support OF
it. So far, then, from the adverse
vote being in all cases an act Ofrepu-
diatiOn, it was in many cases die
tated by conscientious conviction
of the duty of paying the whole debt.
The reasonable enquirer will be
convinced by one circumstance alone
on the surface of this transaction
that it is necessary to look beneath
the surface in order to understand
the true bearings of the vote. All
the prominent men of the State,
whether State credit or low tax
Democrats or Republicans, came
forward and advocated on the stump
the passage of the bill which so
strangely under the circumstances
failed to obtain the popular vote.
In East Tennessee two prominent
Republican politicians and all the
leading Democrats were conspicuous
advocates of the measure; in Mid
die and West Tennessee every Rep
resentative in the national Congress,
whether in the Senate or in the
House, openly either by letters or
by public addresses urged its adop-
ton; State credit men risked the
charge Of reputation and loW~tax
men that Of selling out to the bond
holders by advocating the cOmpro-
mise, and yet in the face of all these
combinations in its favor the meas
ure was lost. Surely this strange
result needs to be accounted for and
forbids an Interpretation of the facts
one way or another until some anal
vsis of the causes which produced
this result is made.
The matter least understood, and
therefore requiring most eXplana-
a., :, tho mart ,DIaVa1 byy tho Re-