Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-09-20
j. Check to sherman.

4 OmSGA 10 sherman
Mr.. Sherman having charged
revolutionary conduct on Congress
| for refusing appropriations to pay
Supervisors and Deputy Marshals,
Mr.. Ewing replied as follows:
| Dodging the question of the con-
stitutiOnality and expediency of the
law, Mr.. Sherman arraigns Gen.
Rice and myself for having refused
appropriations of money to hire
these spies and Marshals to inter
meddle with State elections. He
says the Withholding of public
money for this purpose is more
dangerous opposition than the at
tempted notification of the tariff
laws by South Carolina, put down
by Gen. Jackson, or even the at
tempted succession by civil war.
By this doctrine notification and
secession are made easy by the re-
fUsal of a majority of either house
to obey the law" He seems par
ticularly sorry to find Gen. Rice
and myself, after our honorable
record during the war;" in this ter
rible attitude of notification and
rebellion. ''If they were right
during the war, they are wrong
now. | have no disposition to crit
icise them or arrain them, but /
propose to follow the old Republican
flag that was hoisted in 1854" Stop
there, Mr.. Sherman! / want, in
the midst of your patriotic perora-
tiOn, to call your attention to the
fact that in following the Republi-
can flag in 1856 you, yourself, offered
an amendment to the army appro-
priation bill to the effect that ''no
part of the military force of the
United States herein provided for
shall be employed in aid of the
enforcement of the enactmentS of
the alleged Legislative Assembly of
the Territory of Kansas - and fur
adopted; and further, because the
Senate refused to concur in your
amendment, you filibustered and
forced the adjournment of the first
session of the Thirty-fourth Con-
gress, leaving the army without a
dollar of appropriations; and fur
ther, that when the President called
Congress together again you voted
to adhere to your amendment, and |
undertook to force an adjournment |
of the session without permitting |
the passage of the army appropria- |
tion bill, but were overruled by a |
few of your conservative Republican |
colleagues joining the Democrats |
and saving the army from disband-
ment for want of an appropriation.
AS you seem to have forgotten
this striking page in your political
history, refer you to the Congress
sional Globe, Thirty-fOurth Con-
gress, part second, 1866, pages
l ,754, 1,790, 1874 and 2,240, and
page Is of the appendix. You will
find the references handy, as they
are all in one volume.
The difference between your posi-
ton then and now is this: Then
you were struggling against bad
use of Federal troops in a territory,
over which the Federal Govern
ment had supreme control; and
now you are struggling for a bad
use of Federal troops and Marshals
to control State elections, with
which the Federal Government has
nothing whatever to do. You were
willing to disband the whole army
then rather than suffer the Federal
to exercise its un-
doubted powers; and now you de-
lounce as rebels and nullifiers men
who served through the war for the
Union, while you prOspered in
peace and comfort at home, for dis
banding your hordes of partisans, {
1aid from the common Treasury of ;
he people to Wrest from them the :
control of their ballot-boX. !,
/ am not disposed, my fellow
citizens, TO claim that in the ordi- .
lary exercise of its powers Congress
S at liberty to withhold appropria- :
ions for purposes prescribed by !,
aw. We did not withhold any ap- :
the failure of which is 8
It all likely to interfere with any of
he departments of the Government !
n the exercise of their ordinary 6
nd acknowledged powers. We
merely forbade the use of any money q
ppropriated for the army to trans q
Iort or maintain troops at the polls; .
nd we withheld no appropriations, :
kept for the fees of Marshals and q
heir deputies. We knew that ali :. 9
be Marshals would be patriotic =
nough to hold on to their offices q q
nd draw their regular salaries, and T,
erform all their ordinary and use y
IL duties, trusting to Congress to .
ay their fees for legitimate service. +
We merely resolved that the public
should not be wasted, nor
ne control of our State elections e,
lterfered with by hiring bummers IL
nd shoulder-hitters, or bribing
eedy men out of the common it
easure of the people. And we W
ow appeal from the advocates of re
edaral interference to the lovers of IL
ome rule to sustain our action, We
ill let the ballOt-boX itself declare ir
neither it Is safer in the hands and W
nder the control of the officers of
le election precincts or of emissa- I'll
es hired by the administration iu
nd backed by bayonets. This is
1t revolution nor notification nor hi
but only an orderly, hon. in
It and patriotic appeal from Cesar OF
the people.