Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-07-15
TIE STATE CREDIT DEMOCRATIC
CONVENTION.
a LARGE AND REPRESENTATIVE BODY OF
TRUE DEMOCRATS AND SOLID
TEHNESSEARS.
HONORABLE JOHN v. WRIGHT CHOSEN AS
TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN AND GEN.
8. z. cHEA THAN IS pERANA-
NEWT CHAIRMAN

The large body of brave, resolute,
intelligent, highly respectable men
who gathered at the Capitol Tues
day was grand exhibit of the true
democracy of Tennessee, and must
have been sad rebuke to those
whose passions and prejudices have
led them to speak cOntemptuously
of its probable numbers and signiii.
canoe in shaping the affairs Of the
State. 1t was made up of between
six and seven hundred determined,
honest, honorable men who hold
principle and the future veal Of
their State far above personal aims
and party expediency.
We give below full report oil
the proceedings, which cannot fail
to convince all who read them Of
the flrmness and honesty of purpose
that actuates the State Credit Dem
ocracy of Tennessee. They are
prompted and sustained in their
gallant fight against reputation
and dishonor by the glorious con-
sciousness of right and justice
against which the heresie5 and false
doctrines of the Readjuster platform
cannot stand:
At 12:l5 the convention was call.
ed to order by Hon. j. NJ. Dickin.
son, Chairman of the State Credit
Democratic party, who spoke as
follows:
| Gentlemen of the Convention
In 1880 the Democratic party oil
the State of Tennessee, in cOnven.
ton assembled, grappled with the
great question of our State debt,
| which portended an irrepressi5le
conflict within the party, and that,
too, even in the very midst of the
greater struggle for national SUI
premacy, in which the impending
loss of Tennessee to the National
Democracy seemed to fOreshadoW
its defeat. At that crisis, keenly
alive to the magnitude of the ques-
ton, and the relations which its so
luton bore to the great National
contest, the Democratic party, after
full consideration, sOlemnly inn
pressed with the calamity OF threat
ened disruption, conceded all for
eXpediency, which was not subver-
sive of its time -honored principles,
and 10y an overwhelming majority
proclaimed as its ultimatim, that it
re-afiirm its acknowledgment of its
public debt and its purpose sustain
ing the same, on the best terms that
could be obtained from the credit
Ors, by negotiations. The minority
Withdrew and formulated, their OPP
position in the declaration that the
State did not owe the larger portion
of its bonded debt and demanded
submission of the whole TO the peo-
pie, accrediting both sides with sim
| cerity in their declarations. The
separation was a logical sequence,
and its permanency only bounded
by an elimination of the question
from politics or Il total surrender by
one or the other of its convictions,
sOlemnly avowed and promulgated
before the world.
The two parties stood shoulder to
shoulder and formed a solid Dhal-
anX in the support of the National
Democracy, but in the State contest
they moved OH each other, and
went down in the struggle, meeting
not only defeat and diSappOint-
ment, but Inundated by Republi-
can victory and triumph, made pos
/ - 10 H. in CIV
Chastcned by defeat, schooled by
adversely to appreciate the necessi-
ty of union, but inspired with a
zeal that overleaped all barriers,
and with a fortuity that ignored
the antagonism of elements and
contemplated moral convictions as
mere opposing opinions OF eXpedi-
ency and as easily recOnciled, there
were those who undertook the
mighty work of unifying the Dem
Ccratic party upon this issue.
In the meantime, the Legislature
of Tennessee had passed Il law pro-
viding for the settlement of the
State debt at so per cent. of the
principal and ut 3, /, . and Is of i'll
| tereSt, the settlement first having
been agreed to by Il large represent
ative portion of our creditors. The
merits of that settlement as an orig
! inal measure are foreign TO the
present issue. Many of US under
| the then existing circumstances OPP
! posed the enactment of the law.
But it is a law legally and constitu-
tiOnally made and its maintenance
and not its enactment is alone now
involved. The June convention
was called by the chairmen of the
respective wings for the purpose OF
unifying the party if possible. We
| all know how that convention was
worked up, and the hopes and am
billions concentrating in it to which
the most rapturOus music ever dis
cOursed, were the seductive strains
of the HarmOnicOn.
The speaker continued in this
strain in language beautiful and
eloquent. lie further said: When
the convention met, headed by its
| master singers, proceeded TO com
pose a medley of discOrdant notes,
which, by the skillful performer,
could be sung TO a State Credit or a
Reputation audience, as the Occa
sion might demand. The overture
gave the keynote to the whole per-
Torrance, with an arrogance equal
ed only by the magnificent assump-
tiOns of Eastern pOtentateS.
This platform makes such dis
tinction, and one class proposes to
scale so per cent, of the principal.
1t is couched in the form of a ten
der, but means, and will be con-
strued by the civilized world as a
declaration that no more will be
paid. By all the teachings and
principles of the Democratic party,
this is practical reputation. The
great heart of the people of the
State yearned for the settlement OF
this veXed question. A thing OF
evil omen like the tabled AlbatrOss
it has hung about the neck of the
Democratic party, curse i'm
pending into a sea of corruption.
Many weary and Disguised by the
strife of the last few years, wanted
the dead body buried out of sight,
and seeing that fOrcible adjust
ment had become inevitable under
a united Democracy, felt
"If it were done, when tits done, then
'twcre well
| 1t We're done quickly"
He knew that a forced settle
ment, though bringing dishOnor,
| would no loss jniuriauS tO the State