Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-07-01

a HdtlOudA OahA, a hASH pIOlCCtlNC
tariff, public Improvements, de-, all
of them doctrines opposed by the
Democratic party throughout the
United States, does any one suppose
that such convention, adopting
such a platform could rightfully de-
mand the allegiance of a single
Democrat or justly call itself a DEM
ocratic convention in any rationab
sense of the word? The absurdity
of the question renders the answer
surpertiuOus.
Nevertheless, conventions man
aged with reasonable discretion are
important agencies in establishing
parties and keeping them together.
Thus when it became necessary al
ter the war to ascertain whether
and on what terms the oppressed
masses in the South and the Demo-
Gratis of the North could cooperate
as party in opposition to the pre-
dominant Republican party, a con-
vention was indispensable for deter
mining the conditions on which
united action could he based and
here let it be borne in mind that
one of those conditions, without
which the alliance could not have
been contracted at all, was thes anc-
tity of the public debts, both State
and Federal. Without the adopt
ion of this there would have been
no Democratic party at all. Ac-
cordingly when the delegations
from North and South met together
in National Convention the first
principle they agreed upon as the
basis of the party organization was
that the National and State debts
should be sOlemnly recognized and
their liquidation pledged and,
when the State conventions met,
they ratified this compact, and the
Democracy of Tennessee especially,
enumerating all the bonded debts
now disputed about, pledged itself
to the recognition and due settle
ment of the whole.
This compact it is clear can be
set aside by no convention of a sim
gle State without its ceasing to rep
resent the party in whose name il
it should SO presume so to speak il
would ipSO .JdctO cut itself off from
the Democratic party and cease
to be a Democratic convention
Nor could even National Demo.
cratic convention set aside the com.
dact except by declaring the dissO-
luton of the party which was es-
tablished on that compact as Il
basis.
1t is therefore not the name alone,
nor the acts of conventions which
can by themselves effect the CONT
nuity OF parties, but only adhesion
to the principles upon which the par.
ties are based and for the carrying
out of which they were organized.
y State convention is bound by the
acts of National conventions of the
same party, and National con-
ventiOn is bound by the declara.
tiOns of its predecessors and a ViO-
lation of this indispensable princi.
pie by any local convention not
| only releases the members from
their allegiance to it, but even
demands their active opposition tC
an organisation so stultifying itself
The application of these princi.
pies to the acts of the majority Of
| the sO-called Democratic convention
| held at Nashville last week, is
plain enough. That majority laid
down platform in direct cOntradic'
| ton to the recorded decisions of the
Democratic party uniformly af.
firmed and verified ever since its
first organization it is therefore no
Democratic convention, and its adj
| herents are no Democrats, and
those who participated in its cOun'
sels and disapproved of its acts had
no way left of maintaining theil
allegiance to the party except by
withdrawing from its ranks and
protesting against its proceedings.
From these considerations it be-
comes manifest that the action OF
the O-called Democratic cOnVen
ton of last week has no just claim
upon Tennessee Democrats for the
support of either its platform On its
nominee. ID. +. w.