National Republican., 1881-12-16
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Parties In Tennessee.
Those who have been critically watch
ing events in Tennessee for the past year
are aware that important political changes
are impending there, and that in all
probability the next campaign--1SS2-
will see Hoi State wrcstCd from the con-
troll of the Bourbons, either by q straight
Republican triumph or by some such
combination as that which triumphed in
the Old Dominion. The Democrats of
Tennessee are as badly divided up on
State issues as were the Democrats of
Virginia at the inception of the Malone
movement. Indeed it may he said to be
in a far worse condition. for while their
party inNirginia was divided into only tWO
factions the party in Tennessee is split
into three separate, distinct, and warning
factions each one more anxious to de-
stroy the other two than to triumph over
the common enemy of all. These fac
tions may be distinguished as follows:
First-The first faction, and the strong
est one probably, if numbers only are con-
sidered, is opposed to the settlement of
the State debt at any particular figure
until the question is passed upon by the
people at the ballot-boX. So far as they
personally are concerned they would
probably vote against the payment of one
dollar that was not contracted in ante
bellum times or that was not incurred to
aid the rebellion. They utterly repudate
all debt incurred by such State admins
trations as Parson Brownlow's or any
other "nigger administration" as they
phrase it, This faction is principally
made up of the irreconcilable confeder-
ntes, who still live in the war and re-
inounce all the results of that crisis as they
should the devil and all his works. They
are the implacables, the die-in-the-last-
ditch men, to whom the resolutions of
'9S are more sacred than the Holy Bible,
and whose titular saint is JEFF Davis.
Second-The second faction is made up
of men who care more for the success of
the Democratic party-0 they are al It's head
than they do for the credit of the
State, or anything else that does not
make them prominent, and at the same
time fill their pockets. These fellows are
all for. the party and No. /, and
might very properly be termed the No. l
Democracy. They are all for har-
mony and union in The party. They are
ready to pay every dollar the State owes,
legitimately or illegitimately, if that will
bring harmony and success, or they are
ready TO repudiate every last cent, if that
..in i,o 1, a; t.;,, I,, gl,
are thoroughly INSCRIPTIONS as to means
If they can secure the desired end. They
are now shouting Harmony harmonyp
as they know that without harmony in
the party their day is over, and they will
have to retire from the well-iilled man
tive nubbins of private life.
Third-The third faction is made up of
the very best men in the Democratic
iparty of the State; men who are inter
ested in business enterprises throughout
the State; men who know the benefits
and advantages of an untarnished repu-
iiation in the money marts Of the world /;
men who are anxious to rebuild the waste
,places left by the war; who want TO see
the State debt honestly paid, or put in the
process Of rapid liquidation. These men
are the real backbone of the Democratic
party. They have gone just as far on the
Bourbon highway as they ever expect TO,
and they are now determined that the
party must either take new course, or
they will disrupt it. They are the men
who pay most of the taxes, and who give
Tespectability to the party, and in moral
power they far excel both the others.
They know that they are in the right,
and also know what they want to do ex-
actly, which gives them great advan-
tage in the pending struggle for the su-
premacy. .
From this hasty review of the situation
1t will be seen that the Democracy in
Tennessee is in "bad case" Factions
mos. Tand 3 can never harmonize with
out such an utter abandonment of prin-
ciple as would render them infamous in
the eyes of the people of the State, and
the antagonism between these two fac.
tions is so intense and bitter that faction
No. 2 is utterly powerless to secure har-
bOul anu IO-opSlotlph ptANNSh NllNhl
The Republicans the State are 30 nearly
equal in numbers to all these antagonistic
factions that it will require but very
slight detection TO throw the State into
their hands. The true policy and the one
likely to be adopted is TO secure co-opera-
ton between the Republicans and the
honest debt-paying anti-Bourbon Demo-
Gratis.
The Republican leaders of Tennessee
fully appreciate the propitious gravity OF
the situation, and will cooperate with all
liberal men in striking Bourbouisn blow
there from which it never can recover
THE story Of a proposed dual State gov
ernment in Mississippi, with view to
calling for Federal Intervention, is absurd
ridiculous, and without foundation. The
defeated State officers contemplate no
such folly, and Hamlet" cannot be
played with the part Of Handel left out,
The South is getting along well NOW, and