Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-10-30
Fnor AnornEREp r.owrAxEss.

a speech for our side, but somehow
or somehow else couldn't get off
on the right foot. / rather think /
was fuller Of talk beforeJudgeWith-
ey's decision in the case of the bond
holders VS.. the railroads, than
have been since. You know US
low-tax men said the state-credit
men wanted to rush this state debt
question to a final consummation
before a decision could be obtained
through the courts. Now the decis-
ion has been heralded all over the
United States, and now some of the
old churn-head state-credit men
will step up and look us low-taxers
right in the eye and ask as, "What
are you going to do now since the
decision, as your main prop is
knocked from under you ?" Then
we hang our heads and remain as
dumb as an oyster, unless we can
sum up brass enough to tell them
the court was bribed. And you
know as well as l do when we say
a lawyer or judge is bought by the
bond-holder that that makes it so.
When the day appointed for Mes
srs Rhodes and Munford to address
the people of our district, rolled
around, about 80 or more of us gath
cred at the appointed place long be-
fore the time fixed for the discus
sion. Munford led off in II hours
speech, and OH how our old low
tax hearts leaped within us when
he called on the Great I Am to pity
the people in their poverty. AS we
low-tax men considered his speech
unanswerable, we were perfectly as
founded to see Rhodes rise to speak
at all. AT the close of Munford's
speech we low-taXers were in the
zenith of our glory. But Rhodes
commenced to take us down but
ton-hole lower. From argument to
argument and from fact to fact he
went, pulling us down inch by inch.
until at last he said: elbow much
do you Iow-taxers pay into the state
treasury? ?" l began to look around
Ito see if any one saw me) and re-
fleet, and 1 saw about one out of ev-
cry five who paid from 2 to dol
lars per annum into the state. Now
four-fifths of us who were bowling
as loud as anybody could about low
taxes had nothing in the wide world
upon which to pay taxes but our
heads, so / didn't know how could
employ my time better than to pray
to Beelzebub with all the zeal in me
to have Mr.. S. f. Wilson appoint
commission and send it over the
state TO teach men better than to
cry high taxes when they paid no
tax except poll of $500. My old
low-tax heart has got honesty en-
ough left in it to openly confess that
Rhodes met Munford at every point
and answered it satisfactorily to any
honest, rejecting mind and then
continued his speech by asking
a great many very important ques-
tions and making some remarkably
positive assertions all of which Mr..
Munford failed to notice, although
they were pressed repeatedly upon
his memory. In my meditations,
as my mind flies from man to man
over the county, and / find nearly
every state-credit man pays state
tax and nearly every low-tax man
pays no state tax, it astounds and
mystifies me to find it thus. Who
can answer? Why, men who have
been paying state tax are willing to
continue to do so, and those who
have never paid any state or rail-
road tax either are positively OPP
posed to the others paying it. 1t
seems to me to be like gentleman
raised in town and still living in
town, to go from house to house
bowling and prating about certain
old farmer paying 80 cents per hun
dred to have rails split. Although
he splits none and has none split,
nevertheless he must make as much
or great deal more fuss about what
[ have done and what L do, than I
or my neighbor farmers who are di-
rectly interested.
Moral-After due consideration,
if you pay state tax that is oner-
GUS and weighs heavily upon you,
and your conscience dictates repu-
diatiOn, then vote accordingly; but
if you pay no state or railroad tax,
it is none of your business, so do
not vote for those not to pay who
have been paying and are still will
ling to pay, in order to meet what
they conceive to be their just and
honest obligations. God will hold
you just as accountable for your po-
litical actions as for any other. If
it is honest to vote yourself free of a
debt to the state, why not do the
same with a debt to your neighbor?
Dishonor and disgrace is attached
to one as well as the other. Let all
true democrats go to the election
next Tuesday and work for Wright
and the right. ONE-EYE.
Oct. q, 1880.
Our friend One-eye need not
have waited for Judge Withey's de-
cision before he changed his mind.
Judge East's judgment in his decree
confirming the sale (printed in this
paper) covers the whole ground.
There never was prop to knock
from under him if ne had but
known it.-ED. CHRONICLE.
-.
REMEMBER that reputation was