Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-04-10
THE TRUE ISSUE-EHE CONSTR
TUITION AGAINST THE
EMPIRE.

ABOUT, Wflal " z aAC SOinS " WV
for, to work for, what we have to
hope, what we have to fear, as the !
outcome of the now approaching
quadrennial controversy. Thatthere
is question OF vast moment under
lying all our political controversies,
a question that will assert its pre-
dominance over all others, whether
recognized by conventions in their
platforms or not, whether Grant,
Sherman or Blaine be the Republic
can candidate, whether Tilden,
Bayard or Hancock the Democratic
candidate, a question already at the
basis of all contests in or out of Con-
gress-this is a fact which men must
be blind indeed to ignore. 1t is
simply the question whether the
Constitution, devised and sanctioned
by all the great statesmen of our
past history, shall continue to be the
framework of our Government, or
whether it shall be superseded by a |
centralized despotism, which shall |
practically abrogate the apparatus
for self-government which we have
hitherto looked upon as an impreg-
nable fortress of our liberties, the
inalienable heritage which we have
received from our ancestors and are
to hand down unimpaired to our
posterity. That this controversy is |
now upon US, that it is not a ques-
ton of the distant or immediate
future, but is even now going on
and has been going on for years;
that it does not depend upon the
choice of candidates or the mani
festoes of conventions is what we
desire to make clear in the present
paper. t.
There are those among us who
think that the immediate danger is
averted if any way the nominal
ton Of Gen. Grant can be averted. |
All such hopes had better be aban-
dOned. The one motive with the
extreme stalwart faction for prefer
ring him is the suppOsition that his
possession of the Presidency would |
give their faction the control of the
army to support any innovations I
they might desire to introduce. In
that respect Grants gaining or
losing the nomination would not
weigh with a pins weight in the
matter. The Republican party, and
its stalwart' wing at that, already
possesses the army so far as personal
influence can assure it to them.
Sherman and Sheridan are ready to
do the will of the stalwarts, who
ever may be President; if a Repub-
lican, the stalwarts will rule him as
they rule Mr.. Hayes, who, by natu-
raj constitution and previous habit
of thought and action, was no stall
wart till they took him in hand. 1t
is well that the country should
know how completely the army is
in the hands OF the stalwart wing
of the Republican party. The pro-
cess by which it became so COM
menced long before the war wasl
ended. 1t entered into the admin
istration of the war department
from the very earliest annals Of the
war ii dictated the quiet wedding
out of all officers, such as Mcclellan
and Porter, who did not speak the
shibboleth of the party; it estab-.
lished as a principle, nowhere en-
acted but everywhere acted upon,
that the road of promotion should
be in the line of Republican profess
sion and practice, and both during
and since the war it has made the
military academy at West Point the
forcing-bed of sucking stalwarts by
packing the faculty of instruction
with men of that persuasion and by
modifying the curriculum itself so
that military tactics and party tao
tics go hand in hand, and centralism
comes in together with the school
OF the battalion. Any respectable
constitutional lawyer need only
read the commentary on the U. S.
Constitution which is used as text
book at West Point to see that its
alumni are industriOusly trained in
the doctrine that the proper func-
ton of the U. S. army is to rule the
United States.
As regards the army, then, the
empire is not thing of the future
but of the present; nay, in a large
measure, Of the past. 1t is already
a well-tempered weapon, ready to
serve the purpose of the party in
power, whatever service they may
require of 1t.
The Supreme Court, once the pal
Iadium of the Constitution as it was.
is also already the willing tool of
that reactionary revolution which is
the Constitution. 1t
had already before 1877 shown itself
the obsequious servant OF the Exec
utive. The Infamous Bradley was
placed in it fo= the purpose of car
rying out the purposes of a railroad
company which had made itself
acceptable to the President, and
when the time came that its MEM
beers were to be called upon to sane
ton the great crime of the last cleo
ton. one impracticable member
vas inducedto resign anda bringing
toSl Of power set in his place and
the peoples will shamelessly set
aside. And now there is no degree
,f turpitude and lawlessness to .
which it cannot be brought in the
interest of the factiOns which thus