Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-04-30
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
Roy's Disquisition on Democratic
Brass.
From our Regular Correspondent.

| NM GD11Oh Ii bAC DVuONA oLl
party should shed the brass frou
her face each spring time as doe
the snake his skin, or the deer hi
antlers, / am sure that, if the
brass coat of each succeeding yeal
were treasured up, the posterity o.
this unholy old pirate of the politi'
cal seas would find themselves in
possession of enough brass to erect
a mammoth monument to the mem
orv of their lamented ancestor.
Mark these figures: The Senate is
ruled by forty-four members, and in
that body are twenty,three rebel
brigadiers. These twenty-three vet
Grams of the cause which got lost in
the swamps, but which is about get
ting out alive, rule the Demo cratic
caucus. The caucus rules the party,
and the party declares from every
corrupt Democratic dung-hill, that
they mean to rule the country.
This is the Senate. In the House
the Democratic strength is 143,
and of these IS are Confederate
patriots, and thus we have as
ruling element in the Democratic
caucus, band of these heroes, led
on by the immaculate Blackburn.
Plainly, then the South is shaping
the legislation of the country. Vir-
tually there is no representation
for any State which is not repre-
sented by rebel soldiers or their
coparceners. Certain Western
States have fallen on their
knees to beg this modern pOlit>
ical tyrant, the caucus, that
their interests be respected, but
no attention has been paid to
them. King Caucus, the late lille
ultimate offspring of the lost
cause" rules the day. We are in
the clutches of the South. And
what is the South ? Conkling tells
us that the eleven Confederate
States only paid into the Treasury
for revenues,,this year, thirteen mill
ion dollars, while twenty-seVen
States, which adhered to the Union
paid in over two hundred and
twenty millions. Yet the South
must rule the country. What do
you call that but brass ? One point
Senator COnkling might have added
that it costs more to collect the
revenue in parts of the South than
the income amounts to, but this is
not true any where in all the North.
Yet the South must rule the coun-
try. Brass The North pays in
to the Treasury two hundred and
twenty millions to run the Govern
ment. A part Of this goes to main
tain mail routes in the South and
pay officers for executing Federal
laws in the South. The North may
furnish the money, but the South
must have the right to say how it
shall be spent. If that divine in
stitution, the Confederate caucus, is
not allowed to legialate for the
country then they say plainly to the
North, which furnishes the money,
eve can't afford to vote any of
our money to run the Government
until We have our demands salts
fed" That is brass! That is
Conkling said it
was treason I don't think
the country will dissent from
his view of the case. The
South murders her citizens for poll
tics sake, cheats them and swim
dies them out of their bread and |
meat, terrorizes them until they fee I
from homes, friends, the graves of
their fathers! flee into unknown |
lands yet the South is pure, high
toned, progressive and presents
nently fitted to rule this great
1t is characteristic of
them either to rule or ruin-mostly
to ruin. But | am decidedly of the
opinion that they wont do either
enc of those two things just now in
this country. That maudlin
sentimentality, which has been
perching itself on the wreck
timbers of war, cooling as
love sick dove, wooing the late trait
ors in arms to come to the feast of
the prodigal son, this weakness of
the North, is now passing rapidly
away, Instead of it is springing
up an iron nerve. The great North
which contributes two hundred and
twenty millions annually to the
Treasury of the Government is
waking up as lion from its slum-
bers, and when it sets upon its enc
my, the South, with its "caucus,
woe unto that Insignificant section,
which now essays to domineer be-
yond her sphere. The rebel caucus
,urns Union soldiers out of Office
without cause, refuses to enter