Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-05-15
The Constitution Against the
Empire.
THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
W AT NASHVILLE.

The internal pOiltleS OF tennessee
are in a condition which leads us to
study with care and anxiety eve. v
thing that may transpire of nature
to excite movement in the political
atmosphere. Thevery silence which
has for some weeks been maintained
On domestic topics by nearly all our
organs of political thought has been
OMNIBUS of serious perturbations
when the time comes for it to be
broken; for that silence has been
dictated not only by the predomi-
nance of federal politics, but also by
the feeling that we have domestic
matters of difference unsettled
among us which cannot be stirred
without a collision of opinion which
may be violent enough to effect a
disruption of all existing organiza-
tions and to establish a chaos in the
body polite the final resolution of
which no one can foFesee.
There may be those among our
readers who think that the silence
had better remain for awhile longer
unbroken, and that the insoluble
questions which have so long been
troubling US may still be advan-
tageOusly held in allegiance. We
could wish to think so, but see no
grounds for the opinion ; public
events will not stand still if we do,
and there is no more dangerous way
of approaching a serious crisis than
that of coming upon it with our
eyes shut, prepared with no precon-
certed principle of action when
action may become necessary.
Events are coming upon US now in
quick succession which may force
action upon US, and it would be the
very faulty of cowardice to defer
all thoughts upon the principles
on which we are to act until the
crisis is upon us and elaboration
becomes impossible.
One of these events we conceive
TO be the state convention held al
Nashville last week by the republi-
can party.
The time has been, and that very
recently, when the proceedings of Il
republican convention in Tennessee
would attract but little attention in
these columns. We knew that the
democracy would be united agains
it; we knew what would be the
stereotyped topics of defamation
with its orators and the stereotyped
items of its platform; we knew that
it would parade as the distinctive
tenet of the party the support of
public schools by public funds,
which funds were stolen by that
immaculate party when they had
the handling of them; we knew that
the bloody shirt would flap wildly
and that the public debt question
would be gingerly touched upon in
order that republican worker
might be able to talk of the honor
of the state where state credit was
in favor and intrigue with repudi-
ators-where men called themselves
low-tax men. But things are diff
ferent now. 1t becomes more and
more difficult every time they meet
to keep the democratic party united,
and, to do the republicans justice.
their platform. of last week makes
no uncertain manifesto as regards
the public debt. We had better at
once give their utterance in full on
this subject; all the rest is the we'll
known commonplace of republican
manifestos and may be left to an
swers which it IS constantly receiv-
ing in all parts of the United States.
Their declaration on the debt ques-
ton alone concerns US:
Resolved, That the bonds Of Tennessee
heretofore deliberately recognized by both
the republican and democratic parties as
legally issued, are a valid indebtedness
binding in law and in morals upon the
property and conscience Of the state, and
that any attempt 10 impair the obligations
OF that Indebtedness, or to readjust, or scale
it, or in any other manner TO change the
letter and spirit of the contract, without the
voluntary consent Of the bond-holders pre-
yiously, fairly and understandingly OBJ
tained, Is downright reputation and an act
OF high-handed dishonesty.
Resolved, That any voluntary proposition
from our creditors to take less than the
wal raaf ~ Hw
losses incurred by our citizens during the
war OF the rebellion, should be thankfully
and unhesitatingly accepted, and the new
contract faithfully and promptly complied
with; and we denOunce the refusal Of the
democratic party to accept the % and
proposition as the refusal of liberal and
voluntary reducuonj and We recognize in
said refusal overwhelming evidence that a !
large majority OF the democratic party in |
tends To repudiate the bonded debt of the
STATE ana tneFeoy 10 subject our state to the !
opprohriuin of all peoples who regard the |
contrtc.s of state with her creditors as OF /
sacred inyiOla bility.
Resolved, That the reasons prompting the |
democratic party Of Tennessee and OF ot her /
states at the south To repudiate the debts of |
their respective states, will, when logically /
carried OUT prompt them also To r,apudiata
the entire war debt of the United STATES
ana we hereby declare our solemn judg- /
ment 10 be that. as soon as the 'repudiatfiip /
element OF the democratic party has wiDs3 /
ont the debts OF their res ective STATES they
will declare in favor OF tie debt incurred BY
. ~ ''''''S'' a." FAN"NA Wing TUE Chloh.
Excepting against the injustice
which attributes reputation indis-
to the democracy rs =
party, and ignores the guilt of the
republican party in aggravuting the
difficulty of resisting it by its in
trigues with the low-tax party and
its covert instructions to negroes to
vote for that party where there
were no republican candidates-re-
cording our due protest against
these injurious aspersions, we affirm
hat the substance of those resolu-
lions is sound doctrine, and, what
IS more, that its insertion in this
platform is a dangerous thing to the
democracy Of Tennessee.
The inOrdinate arrogance of that
which dubs itself the low-tax sec
ion of the democratic party has
rome far to excuse, though not to
Justify, the sweeping charge of repu-
liation against thedemOcracy itself.
+ is true that its tenets are directly
t variance with every manifesto
f the party made since it gained
the state; but alas,