Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-07-17

StltutI0ndl rights and their dOmeSti
peace, the supposed right of stat
secession from the Union becam
rapidly general belief with fnultt
tudes in the south, while still great
er multitudes, not pausing to consid
er the question upon any strict con
stitutional principles, resorted t
| the broad right of revolution as
| justification for any. cause whicl
they deemed necessary for thei
safety. 1t is commonly said ant
with perfect truth that the mer
fact of the formation and triumph
of sectional party in the north die
not Justify secession upon any prin
ciple; that the people of the Gul
states should have waited until tn,
republican administration and con
gress had done something in disre
gard of their constitutional rights
Thiswas what the democratic party
of the north would have had then
do. But in periods of great nationa
and sectional excitement it is idle
to expect that People whose fears
are aroused will take counsel of theil
reason alone. 1t is useless now tC
charge upon their leaders a purpose
to mislead them. You may accu-
mulate all the evidence that exists
and may manufacture as much
more as you choose, tending to show
an ambitious conspiracy of southern
politicians to break up the Union
the fact still remains that the people
of the south saw majority of the
people of the north turn a deaf ear
to every remonstrance that was adj
dressed to them against electing a
president upon a purely sectional
issue and by the votes of a sectional
party. 1t was this that gave the
disunionists of the south the great
lever with which they worked; and
It would be as unphilosophical, as
it would be unjust, if we of the
north did not now recognize the
fact that the true principle of our
national constitution was put to the
arbitrament of war because of fears
that we ought never to have al
lowed to be excited. Into that war
the democrats of the north entered
as dutiful and loyal citizens, not
withstanding their convictions that
it had been unnecessarily brought
about. They contributed to its
prosecution freely of their blood and
their treasure; and it is because
they did so that the doctrine of state
secession was forever suppressed,
and that the constitution of the
United States stands to-day olsen
thralled from the heresy of seceS-
sion, and admitted by all who dwell
beneath its sway, from the lakes TO
the gulf, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, to be the supreme law of the
land.
From the spring Of 1865 forward
the republican party, which had
the control of public affairs, had
nothing to do but to provide for the
practical resumption by the south
ern people of their relations to the
Union and to secure what might
reasonably be considered the proper
results of the establishment of the
supremacy of the constitution. For
the accomplishment of these OBJ
jects they had the best possible OPP
pOrtunity and means in the disposi-
ton and temper of the southern
people. While that people mourned
for their lost cause, as any people
would have mOurned who fought
for principle in which they had
come TO believe, they frankly and
honorably submitted to defeat and
looked to the wisdom and patriot
ism of the north to devise the means
by which the supremacy of the fed
eral constitution could be preserved
without impairing the fundamental
principle of state government. But
now there came about a course of
events i'll which there was developed
in the republican party a policy
that was purely selfish, completely
unstatesmanlike, and having for its
object the retention Of their own
political power.
Mr.. Curtis then gave an account
of the various amendments to the
and continued:
We are now ten years from the
of the last of the amend
ments of the constitution, and in all
that period there has not been, and
there is not to-day anywhere in the
Union, a singlestate that has sought
or desires to eVade them, or single
party or faction that does not accept
them. In all the courts of judica-
ture, state as well as federal; in all
state legislatures, by all the people
of all parties, they are regarded as
fixed and integral parts of the con-
stitutiOn of the United States. But
while the amendments stand, and
must stand, it is altogether a differ
ent question whether they justify or
excuse or whether any part of the
constitution justifies or excuses the
measures that have been resOrted to
for the purpose of maintaining IA
party in the possession of political
power. In my view the republican
party-I speak of the leaders who
have governed it for the past tif-
teen yearS-are entitled to the bad
pre-eminence of having strained,
twisted and distorted the cOnstitu-
tion and its amendments out of all
their normal meaning and operation
for the purpose of perpetua ling their
own political power. While / be-
lieVe them to be justly answerable
to this charge beyond all former
parties that ever existed, / think
there must be added to this charge
another: that they have infected a
large part of the people with the
false and dangerous belief that
change in the administration of the
government would be followed by
Il revival of that doctrine of states
rights which is an admitted heresy,
and by the loss of what are called
the results of the war. You will
remember that the first negro vote
that was ever cast in the south was
cast before the fifteenth amendment
of the constitution had been ratified.
By an act of mere physical force,
exercised by parcelling out the
southern states into military dis
tricts and military governments,
the republican congress made the
negroes a part of the governing peo-
pie of each state, and initiated the
system of securing a solid south, in
which the numerical force of negro
votes could he made to predominant
over the votes of the white people,
before the federal constitution had
been made to speak at all in regard
to the right Of suffrage. You are all
familiar with what followed; you
know what kinds of governments
the southern states had for period
of about seven years after the close
of the War-governments which the
cant name of "carpet-bag" suffi-
ciently describes. 1t was a period
i'm which ignorance, rapacity, plum
der and villainy rioted in the pos