Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-11-15
.rArE ANN GENERAL PoLTrlos.


The contests O. the present fall
being over and the plan of next
years campaign not yet decided
upon, it seems a favorable time for
us to bring forward some general
ideas about the relative predomi-
nance of local and general ideas in
political transactions. An evil, as
we think it, has been growing on us
since the days of General jackson,
the reverse of that which threatened |
the infant Government when we
were first launched as an independ-
ent nation. Then the difficulty
was to induce politicians to give
any attention at all to questions in
Federal policy or even to accept of
Federal Office. Their own States
had hitherto been the field of their
ambition and the interests of those
States had been the object of their
study and familiar topic of their
OratOry, while the Federal Govern
ment was as yet an abstraction pre-
senting no familiar ideas to their
contemplation or that of their con-
stituents. a Governor of Virginia,
riding i'm his state coach to open the
Legislature at Williamsburg, was a
much greater man than any official
who could be appointed by the Fed
eral Government at Philadelphia,
which was thing which most of
the States touched with suspicion
and jealousy. So much was this the
case that extreme difficulty was
more than once found during Wash
ington's administration in filling
important Federal appointments
with competent men.
OF course we do not speak of this
as a healthy state of things. If it
had continued the Federal Govern
ment would not have lasted beyond
the terms of its first three Presi-
dents; but we are far from thinking
it more pernicious than the com
plete subordinatiOn of State inter
ests to the exigency of Federal par.
ties which has replaced it in the
present day. We are not now
speaking of the executive usurpa.
tions of the present day; that is q
subject which has had its full share
of attention in these columns and
will dOubtlessly be duly treated o.
hereafter. But we are going to LEI
Mr.. Hayes and the Republican
party severely alone in this paper
and take the illustrations of Oul
position from the proceedings of the
Democratic party in the two State:
of New York and Tennessee, il
both of which great scandals have
been inflicted on the Democracy il
general by the liberation of evil
which were only tolerated for feal
of dividing the party. These scan
dals are the Tammany organization
in New York and reputation il
Tennessee.
The Tammany rule in New York
whenever it has become Fredomi
nant, has shown itself the very in
carnatiOn of all those evils which
were denounced by the Democratic
party in the administration o
Grants Cabinet under its Robesons
Belknaps and Babcocks; the judge
it has appointed have rivalled il
corruption and venality the ruler
of the Federal Courts in Louisiana
and Florida; its lawyers have beer
of the type notorious in the person
of Taft and PierrepOnt. Its methOC
of self-establishment has been tn
creation of innumerable and super
fiuous offices, and the prOfuse ex
penditure of State funds in eXtrava
CANT appropriations for scheme
whose final purpose was the promo
ton OF fat contracts, and all this 70
the purpose of multiplying employ
ees whose chief work il was t,
work politically for Tammany. On
of its fundamental principles ha
been that a Tammany appOinte
must never be removed from Offic
or even taken to task for offences
whatever the amount of his NAL
feasance in Office. Let him wOrl
industriously for Tammany ant
that work covers ali possible sins
it makes his Office sacred, and tn
Governor or Mayor who attempt
control or discipline in his person
denounced thenceforward as an out
law. This was the quarrel betwee
Tammany and Governor Robinson
this was the cause why a savag
brute like Williams was retained q
Commissioner of Police in spite {
his clubbings and mutilatiOns {
unoffending citizens; he was al
pointed by Tammany, he worke
for Tammany and was therefor
above all law.
Now there is nothing in ACCORD
htlCG WIFI DGlHOCldAlG pllhNlJ 1So L
all this. The whole Democrat
outside of the Tammany organic,
ton has denounced it time an
again, but whenever it is the prop,
sition to finally break with it tn
cry has been HARMONY! Don
do it, or you will give the State
the Radicals" Once or twice til
mal-practiees of the Organizatio
have been too scandalOus for endu
ance, and the true Democracy h:
arisen in its might and, with II
aid of the better elements of IL
Republican party, has laid Tan
many PROSTATE for a time. III
same thing was attempted at II
recent election, but this time
found no better elements in II
Republican party. On the col
trary, that whole party united wit
Tammany to defeat the effort of Il
Democracy to eliminate Tammau
from the government of the eli
and State. 1t succeeded; and