Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-10-02
strlctnres on COnkling by the New
York Evening Post, Republican.
GAINESVILLE. TENN.

approved, and not being able to
rule, he has, it is said, with true sa-
tanic ambition, resolved to ruin.
Certainly his speech at the Acad-
my of Music would seem to con-
firm these suspicious. 1t was thro-
ought an insidious assault upon the
best character, purposes and hopes
of the Republican party, and under
pretence of vindicating and de
Tending it put the argument in such
a shape that the effect of 1t must be
to repel every man of generous feel
ings and honest logic by whom 1t is
carefully read. Its only object was
to revive and reinforce that narrow,
odious and malignant sectienalism
against which all the better mem
bers of the party have been strug-
Cling for the last ten years. 1t says
in SO many words that the issue of
present campaign Is sectional and
only sectional and in order to
prove that it frames what Burke
thought to be impossible, "the in
dictment of whole people" in the
lowest spirit of the carpet-bagger
and the demagogue.
Before considering that aspect of
his address, however, let us see
what Mr.. ConkIing's notions of the
duties OF a president of the United
States are. Washington, Adams,
Jefferson, Madison and others have
taught us that, though officers are
chosen by parties, the moment they
are chosen they become the repre-
sentatives and organs of the whole
nation. Gen. Jackson was most
earnest and vehement partisan,
whose preiudices, naturally bitter,
were aggravated by the kind of per-
sonaI abuse with which he had met
vet Jackson had the manliness and
patriotism to proclaim that "the
chief-magistrate of great and pow
erful nation should never indulge
in party feeling he should always
bear in mind that he acts for the
whole and not part of the commu-
nity." Mr.. Conkling thinks other
wise. In order TO give a sly stab at
President Hayes he says that "the
candidate of a party is the exponent
of a party, and, after he is elected,
can have no will but the will of his
party" 'sFew things" he adds,
in snearing way, 'Fare more des-
picable than first to secure elevation
at the hands of a party, and then in
the hope of winning pretentious
non-partisan applause, to affect SUI
periOr sactity, and meanly to imply
that those whose support and con-
fidence were eagerly and deferential-
ly sought are wanting in purity,
patriotism, or some other title to l
respect" In other words, public
officer is not to be controlled by his
constitutional obligations as he in
terprets them, nor by a conScien-
tious sense of duty to the whole peO-
pie, but by the wishes of those
that elected him specially; or, as
things now go, by the managers of
the machine. Never has the ma
chine theory of politics been stated
more openly or with more unblush-
ing audacity.
The entire animus of Mr.. Conk-
ling's reasOningsis that the President
should be elected by the machine, |
and when elected be controlled by
the machine; he is not to address
himself to an Impartial admlnlstra-
ton of the duties of his office, ac-
cording to certain fixed political
principles, but he is to become the
instrument of predominating in
terests, or of those parts OF the ma
ton where production, conSump- |
ton, building, titled acreage, rail-
way traffic, postal returns," etc.,
happen to be in the ascendant. But |
that is not the spirit of our cOnsti- |
tuition. The constitution fixes, with |
great minuteness of detail, the |
modes of our elections, and when |
an election is closed it regards the
result as the act of the whole peO-
ple. In order to get an expression |
of the manhood of the nation, each |
vote counts as one and Is as good as |
any other vote; and, as Mr.. Conk-
ling himself says in the outset OF
his address, "the supreme, the hnai,
the only peaceful arbiter Is the bal
lot-box. In that urn should be
gathered, and from it should be
sacredly recorded, the conscience,
the judgment, the intelligence OF
ALL" But no, argues Mr.. Conkling |
afterward, it is not the votes that
ought to be considered, but the
places that the votes come from. If
they are put in by the South, which
is unfortunately impoverished by a
long civil war and many years of
carpet-bag extortion and riot, they
are bad and dangerous votes, but if
they are put in by the North, where
commerce, industry and manufac-
lures thrive, and large revenues are
paid, they are good and wholesome
votes, and entitled to the rule.
In order to justify his cold-blood-
ed sectionalism, and to carry the re-
publican cause back to the state in
which it was at the close of Grants
administration, ignoring the noble
and efficient services of Mr.. Hayes
and his cabinet in healing old sores
and bringing about kind and con-
ciliatory feelings, Mr.. Conkling gets
up tremendous bugaboO. It would
be frightful bugabOO if it were not
one OF the kind which bites off its
own head, His mode of constructs
ing the scare-crow, put in a logical
shape, would be this: First-The
democratic party, If it succeeds,
would be controlled by the south;
second, but the south is only one
seventh of the people of the Union,
and has but One-fOurteenth OF the
producing, commercial, industrial,
tax-paying and property interests
of the country; and ergo, third, the
whole vast business of the country
will be at the disposal of a very in
considerable minority of those who
are concerned in it. A formidable
conclusion, indeed, if it were validi
but assumptions OF fallaey lurk
both in the premise and the conclu-
sion, and nobody needs to be fright
ened out of his senses.
The first assumption or impljca-
ton is that the south can succeed /
by itself, which 1t cannot. Even If
we suppose it solid (and it IS by no
means certain that it will be so In
NovenIber) 1t cannot succeed with /
out the aid of two or three of the |
great middle states which are most |
important factors in that sum of
sproducing, commercial, industrial,
ax-paying ard property interest"
which Mr.. COnkling flourishes in |
its face. It cannot succeed without
securinga majority of votes in New
Jersey, New York, Indiana, and