Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-08-07

Il
taught by Jefferson; his scrupulOu
/. care to keep the military in stric
subordinatiOn to the civil authority
his high regard for civil liber
ty, personal rights and the rights o
property his acknowledged ability
in civil as well as in military affairs
and his pure and blameless life, al
point to him as a man worthy of the
confidence of the people. Not only
brave soldier, a great commander
wise statesman and q pure patriot
tut a prudent, painstaking, practi-
cal man of unquestioned honesty
trusted often with important public
duties, faithful to every trust, and
in the full meridian Of ripe and Wig
orous manhood, he is in my judg-
ment eminently fitted for the high
est honor on earth, the presidency
of the United States.
1 Not only is he the right man for
the place, but the time has come
when the best interests of the coun-
try require that the party which
has mOnopOlized the executive de-
partment of the great government
for the last twenty years should be
retired. The continuance of that
party in power four years longer
would not be beneficial to the public
or in accordance with the spirit of
our republican institutions.
Laws of entail have not been
favored in our system of govern
ment. The propetuation of prop
erty or place in one family or set of
men has never been encouraged in
this country, and the great and
good men who formed our govern
ment and its traditions wisely linn
tied the tenure of Office, and in
many ways showed their disap-
proval of leases of power. Twenty
years of continuous power is long
enough, and has already led to
irregularities and corruptions,
which are not likely to be properly
exposed under the same party that
perpetrated them. Besides, it should
not be forgotten that the last four
years of power held by that party
were procured by (liscreditable
means, and held in defiance of the
wishes of a majority of the people.
1t was grevious wrong to every
voter, and to our system of self
government, which should never
be forgotten or forgiven.
Many of the men now in Office were
put there because of corrupt parti-
san services in thus defeating the
fairly and legally expressed will of
the majority, and the hypocracy of
the professions of that party in
favor of civil service reform was
shown by placing such men in
Office, and turning the whole brood
of federal office-hOlders loose to in
fiuence the sections.
The money of the people taken
out of the public treasury by these
men for services often poorly per-
formed, or not performed at all, is
being used in vast sums with the
knowledge and presumed sanction
of the Administration to control the
elections, and even the members of
the cabinet are strolling about the
country making partisan speeches
instead of being in their depart
ments in Washington discharging
the public duties for which they are
paid by the people. But with all
their eleverness and ability a dis
eliminating public will no doubt
read between the lines of their
speeches that their paramount hope
and aim is to keep themselves or
their satellites four years longer in
Office.
That perpetuating the power of
chronic office-holders four years
longer will not benefit the millions
of men and women who hold no
Office, but earn their daily bread by
honest industry, is what the same
discerning public will no doubt fully
understand, as they will also that
it is because of their own industry
and economy and Gods bOuntiful
harvests that the country is COM
paratiVely prosperous, and not be-
cause of anything done by these
federal office-holders. The country
is comparatively prosperous, not
because of them, but in spite of1
them. This contest is in fact be-
tween the people endeavoring to
regain the political power which |
rightfully' belongs to them, and to
restore the pure, simple, economical
constitutional government of our
fathers on the one side, and a hum
dred thousand federal office-holders |
and their hackers, pampered with !
place and power, and determined to |
retain them at all hazards, on the |
other. Hence the constant assump- |
ton of new and dangerous powers |
by the general government under
the rule of the republican party.
The effort to build up what they |
call q strong government, the inter- |
ference with home rule and with |
the administration of Justice in the |
courts of the several states, the in,
reference with the elections through |
the medium of paid partisan Office
holders interested in keeping their /
party in power and caring more I
for that than fairness in the cleo
tions /; in fact, the constant encroach-
ments which have been made by
that party upon the dearly reserved
rights of the people and the states
will, if not checked, subvert the
liberties of the people and the gov
ernment of limited powers created |
by the fathers, and end in a great
consolidated central government, |
strong indeed for evil and the over
throw of republican institutions.
The wise men who formed our
knew the evils of a
strong government and the long
continuance of political power in
the same hands. They knew there
was tendency in this direction in
all governments, and consequent
danger to republican institutions
from that cause, and took pains to
guard against it. The machinery
of strong centralized general gov.
ernment can be used to perpetuate
the same set of men in power from
term to term until il ceases to be a
republic,aOr is such only In name,
and the tendency of the party now
in power in that direction, as shown
in various ways, besides the will
lingness recently manifested by a
large number of that party TO elect
president an unlimited number of
times is quite apparent, and must
satisfy thinking people that the
time has come when it will be safest
and best for that party to be retired.
But in resisting the eencroachments
of the general government upon the
reserved rights of the people and
the states, / wish to be distinctly
understood as favoring the proper
exercise by the general government
of the powers rightfully belonging
to 1t under the constitution. En-
croachments upon the constitutional
rights Of the general government or
iuforfoPonan with the nr0nnr eyer.