Clarksville Weekly Chronicle

The Louisville Courier-Journal has an article in its issue of the 13th inst. on which we desire to make a few comments.

Being double-leaded, we presume that special attention was desired by its author.

The aim of the editorial in question was to have the Kentucky delegation to the national democratic convention instructed to give its vote solid for Mr. Tilden as the presidential nominee of the democracy. We have no controversy with the C.-J. on a matter which exclusively concerns the democrats of Kentucky, but as we think it possible that a movement will be made to have the Tennessee delegates similarly instructed, and as the arguments which may be advanced in favor of doing so will probably be similar to those of the C.-J., we desire to record our opinion that, in this state, a delegation uninstructed as to persons, but strictly instructed as to principles to be contended for is the right and only safe mode of action.

The following extract contains the gist of the argument of the C.-J. and will be the subject of our comment:

States are ennobled by brave and faithful hearts, who dismiss their doubts and their fears, and go into battle to win or to lose.

There will be no child's play at Cincinnati. The fighting there will be real and it may be protracted.

Shall Kentucky appear as one of the wings of a noble army, with which she is identified and has won triumphs, or as a guerilla band, hanging first on the right flank and then upon the left, her counsels shaken, her solidarity lost and her hard-won and well-worn honors scattered to the four winds of heaven? We put it to every Kentucky democrat—whether he be for Tilden or not—can Kentucky afford to detach herself from the great power in which she has so large a residuary interest—to split her forces and resources upon an occasion so momentous—and, instead of the leader that she was and is, tie herself to the hazy fortunes of the cliques and factions which would use her to this, that and the other uncertain end? Rather than see her thus reduced in rank—rather than see her sunk so low—we had rather see her instruct against Tilden, and, though going into the convention against us, go in a UNIT.

Now the state of things which the C.-J. predicts at the Cincinnati convention, and which is extremely likely to occur, is the very thing which every true democrat ought to labor to avert. The C.-J. anticipates a furious personal struggle in reference to the nominee, in which the democracy are to be engaged in internecine strife. The C.-J. has certainly done its part towards giving our convention this character, and, as we look upon it, has thereby done a most injurious part for the national democracy. Such a state of things is exactly adapted to the purpose of withdrawing the attention of the democracy from the great political questions at issue and tearing the party to pieces with an unmeaning personal altercation.

We express these opinions in the firm belief that the name of Mr. Tilden will not be presented to the convention at all, his bodily infirmities being such as to make it impossible for him either to sustain the excitement of a presidential canvass or to perform the onerous duties of the national executive if elected. We ground this opinion both on facts publicly known and on private information. We are satisfied that the politicians now working the Tilden movement are well aware of this, but desire to keep their machinery in gear for the purpose of controlling affairs in the convention and bending them to their private purposes. Both Mr. Tilden and his friends have again and again obscurely intimated that something is to be sprung upon the convention unexpectedly at the last moment, which is to reduce the democratic party to the alternative of submitting to the dictation of that machinery or of giving up the contest against the iniquitous designs of the republican party. This being our view of the situation, it is our belief that our only safety as a party consists in sending to Cincinnati men un shackled by hard and fast instructions which will be found totally inapplicable to the circumstances which will arise when the convention assembles,