Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-02-07

ballot written and signed by himself in tn
| presence of the inspectors, which should b
preserved long enough to afford certain
| proof of his act in case of a contest. Th
franchise should be withheld from all per
] sons in Government employ and their sub
oTdinates in any public work or service.
I Nfnth-Taxation should be enforced witt
| absolute equality upon all property not be
| longing to the Government, without exemp
| ton or distinction of any kind, thereby re
Stra1n1ng the unworthy devices by which
wealthy men and the politicians escape The
| duty of contributing to the public ffSc. The
| needed taxes might soon become so light as
| TO be almost unfelt, as was the case before
| our civil war. Efectual provision should
| be made for the exclusive devotion of the
public domain to public uses, or to the en-
couragement of actual settlers thereon.
Tenth-The existing public debt of every
description, including that created by States
and all other civil divisions, should be eX-
cfnpted from enforcement by ordinary pri-
vate action, and should not be renewable
Measures should, nevertheless, be instituted
TO enforce its payment, both as to principal
and interest, in gold coin. The interest
should be thus paid punctually as it may
fall due, and the principal as soon as reason
ably practicable.
The general principles of this
scheme for subverting our present
Federal Union and converting it
into a centralized bureaucratic Gov
ernment is not now for the first
time promulgated by Mr.. O'Conor.
He mentions that its main features
were inculcated in an address pub
lished by him in 1875, afterwards
incorporated by him in a magazine
article, of which we ourselves have
seen copy, published in pamph-
let form during the last Presiden-
election. 1t was but little read at
that time outside of New York.
We may say that, though even then
it never received our approval !;
there was better excuse for it then
than there is now. AT that time all
the Southern States were ruled in
the interest of the Republican party
through the influence of the carpet
bag State Governments, all the
white people of the South being dis
franchised; SO that the Republican
party in power could neutralize any
opposition to their policy originating
in the North by the control of forty
votes given in the United States
Senate by the solid South, then
Radical South. There was some
excuse for a New Yorker who found
two Senatorial votes of his oSRn
State sWamped by forty from the
South, which represented q popula-
tion not much greater than that of
the State of New York.
We do not think ourselves called
upon seriously to discuss the pro-
visions of this singular scheme by
which it is proposed to supersede
our present Federal Constitution,
because we do not see the slightest
probability of its being seriously
pressed upon the American people.
It is a good deal like some of the
paper constitutions drawn up in
such numbers by the Able Sieyes
during the French Revolution, some
of which were adopted by the Con-
stituent Assembly and some not,
but none of which ever went into
practical operation. Our next Con-
should the present one be
broken up, will not be written in a
lawyers study; it will be the result
of colliding forces, which will flash
fire enough to burn up all the paper
constitutions that were ever pro-
jected.
We may as well, however, point
out that such a scheme would
(among other Objectionable features)
aggravate rather than cure the evil
for the remedy of which it was pro-
jected. Mr.. O'Conor recognizes as
the monster evil of the present day
by patronage, govern
ment through the aoorki'ag of office
holders and oflee.seekers, and the
main purpose of his projected new
Constitution is to set aside that
method of party rule. Now let US
examine it a little as an instrument
designed for that purpose.
Admitting, or rather contending
(for we have long been insisting
upon it) that through the disposal
of patronage our Presidents have
more actual personal power than
the sovereigns of any existing State
in Europe, the one thing which
limits that power so far is the
fact that in our country a very
large portion of the executive bust
ness is not disposed of by the Fede-
raj Government at all, but by the
Governments of the several States.
Now, suppose the Federal patronage
indefinitely multiplied by absorbing
all the State offices within its sphere
of administration, and it is easy to
see that the power of the Executive,
now almost irresistible, would be
to such an extent as to
render all other departments of
mere bureaux of adj
ministration, as independent of the
will of the people as is now the case
in Turkey and Russia. 1t seems a
logic to say, '"The executive
patronage has now made the Presi-
dency much too strong, therefore
increase that patronage thirty-fold
in order that it may be weakened"
But he wouldn't havea President,
he says; he would have an execu-
tive officer elected once a month by
the Legislature to do the executive
business, who would not obtain
much power because he would not
in power long enough to
make the necessary combinations.
How often it has been proved that
a great lawyer is not necessarily a
great statesmanl and never so