Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-08-12
TRUE DEMOCRACY.
The Mass Meeting of State
Credit Men Saturday.
JACKSON, COOPER, WRIGHT,
JAMES AND BUoUo
Present Living Truths and Liv-
ing Issues.

Ing ISSUES.
The true Democracy is to be con
graduated upon the success of til
ratification in this city last Saturday
Seldom for years has a larger GROVE
attended political gathering here
and never, we venture to say, ha
more wholesome political food beel
placed before the masses, ant
many a man who sat upOl
the fence or had followed the falls
lights upon the shore, and gone afte
the unprincipled and damning here
sy of repudiation-fo for it must lead t
repudiation-was reclaimed and re
turned to the fold and again declared
his allegiance to the time-honOret
principles and faith OF the party.
The calm, dignified and statesman
like utterances of ex-senator Cooper
the systematic and unanswerablt
logic and earnest, honest mien o
Senator Jackson the keen sarcasm
and irresistible wit of Mr.. James
the elo3uence and solid array O
facts by Gen. Wright, and the forci
BILE, convincing and patriotic thought
of Mr.. Buquo, could not fall without
effect upon such an audience of think.
ing, honest men. These men and
their able compeers will carry the
doctrines of true Democracy-the De
mocracy of Jefferson, of Jackson and
of Polk-into every county of the
State, and the readjusters cannot
answer them.
We regret that we cannot give
these speeches in full, but the absence
of a stenographer makes it impossi-
Bile. We give below such a-report as
we were able to get up. but in neither
case is justice done the speaker:
Mr.. II. G. Merritt, chairman of the
announced that eX-Sena-
tor James E. Bailey had been chosen
to preside over the deliberations OF
the meeting. COL. Bailey expressed
his qualification at the honor that had
been conferred on him in calling him
to preside over an assembly of ear
nest men, who knew that something
more and greater than party success
underlies this question, who believe
that there is principle in the mat
ter. He was glad to be present, be-
cause some of the brightest intellects
of the State were here--men who
would give reasons for the faith that
was in them. Thirty years age
he met in the Representative
chamber of the Legislature ex-Sena
tor Henry Cooper, whom he knew te
be one of the truest men that Ten.
nessee had given birth to, who would
now address the assembly.
MR.. COOPER's SPEECH.
On taking the stand Mr.. Cooper
thanked Col. Bailey for the intEOduc-
tion he had given him. Some years
ago he had retired from the political
arena, after serving to the best of his
ability in the offices to which the
people had called him. He had only
to the field of politics when
he saw this great question taking
hold of and jeopardizing the inter
ests of the State, and believing that a
policy should be carried out in one
and that for the good of
the State. He felt that all Demo-
Gratis desired the success of the party,
but that no party could be successful
without principles. Such success,
could it be obtained, would. be the
direst calamity. A party without
was like a ship without a
or life without purpose.
Principles should be its sheet anchor
and on principles it should rise or
fall, Are we the advocates of the
of Democracy Many of
those with us have grown gray in
the service of the party surely these
men are not wrong: others were just
upon their polit-
ical career and would be the guardians
of her principles and her honor, and
they could not make false steps thus
early in their career. Are we
not here as the advocates of the prin-
ciples which have ever won for De-
her victories? Is there a
in our platform that is not
as an old acquaintance-a
stone to the party? What
is it that divides us? What is the
great dividing principle to the DEM
Ocratie party in Tennessee, for we
need not discuss those which divide
rs from the common adversary, the
party? Is it question
Of policy or of principle? for upon its
solution we must stand or fall, and
hat which is based upon principle
,hall stand. Each is an individual
sovereign under our form of govern
nent, and individual respect requires
LIS to act in politics as in our private
and every true man should
his Individuality.
The state debt was the question
which divided the Democratic party.
)nce the party was unit, the va
idity of the debt was not questioned,
Lani there was no doubt as to what
We were called to do. Some, how
,ver took divergent views, and Gov.
Marks, elected as an avowed believer
n the validity of every dollar of the
lebt, as affirmed in his Winchester
peech, in a message attempted to
how a difference in the validity of