Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-09-06

to-day, there are two menin Greene county,
who owe their lives to the influence which, i
| brought to bear upon the rebel authori-
I ties, who had uniustly condemned them to
| death.
In this good work / was assisted by Col.
HENRY NJ. AUSTIN, Of Memphis, who had
the confidence of the authorities at Rich
mond, whittier he went at my request, for
the benefit of the condemned. And there
are others now living whose lives were pre-
served through my efforts, while more than
one hundred other men are now living in
different parts Of East Tennessee, who were
discharged from prison in this and other
States through influences which / brought
to bear upon men in authority. In this
period of time did more than $40 900 worth
Of professional labor without compensation
or reward, and expended from my own means
for the benefit of clients more than S., 900,
ard among other clients. Mr.. FLETCHER lras
grdtHitoUs recipient Of Isy professional services
to a Uery considerable ertent and yet notwith-
standing my constant and unceasing labors,
for this period of eight months, the entire
charges for this class Of cases, Of my law firm;
which was composed Of three partners
scarcely amounted to $4,000, of which my
proportion was less than $4,000 of this sum
all except some $500 in Confederate money
is still unpaid, part of which | will be
able to realize and the balance viii be lost
Yet in the face Of these facts the general
outlines of which were well known TO Mr..
FLETCHER, he has had the effrontery, the
iagratstlde and the dishonesty to accuse me of
sitting on the street corners, like a vulture,
watching for the blood-hounds Of the rebel
lion to bring in Union prisoners for me to
fleece. 1t is well known here and elsewhere
that never needed such aids to obtain prac-
tice. AT the risk of being charged with
egotism, | will say for his benefit that du-
ring professional life of twenty-five years,
| have never been idle for the want of busi-
ness. But this he knows perfectly well, and
all / have to add in regard to this matter is
that when he made this charge he uttered a
WiIfd, deliberate premeditated and malicious
lie. One other thing and / am done with
Mr.. FLETCHER, the embodiment of true
courage and loyalty. He has been misin-
formed. | made no allusion, whatever, in
my speech at Greenville, to his personal
difficulty with Mason, at that place in 1861.
IL had so far as / know, no connection
with the politics of the country, and if it
had, | should have felt myself precluded |
from referring to the matter, in considers |
ton of the relation of counsel which / sus-
tanned towards him.
For these reasons no allusion whatever,
was made to this matter. The law pre- |
sumes him innocent. | am free to say that
this presumption was strengthened by the /
abandonment on the part of the State, of the |
prosecution against him, but since he has |
chosen to refer to this matter, and to say |
that have more than FIVE hundred times, |
Il Al L. coI Ill
he must excuse me from making disclaim-
er. 1t is not true that ever entertained or
expressed such an opinion. His bearing in
the fight was certainly unmanly, and any one
who knows me at all, must admit that am
incapable of endorsing dastardly act. His
time, decordagt0 The brief Of the
testimony furnished his counsel seemed to
have been a necessity but after he had Civ
en- his adversary the fatal shot, those rascal
ly legs. true to their villainous instincts
turned and precipitately fed into GEORGE
JONES store, some twenty-five or thirty
yards distant, and then out again
throwing him over the steps fiat upon his
back on the pavement, while he yelled Justify
all the time-lnurder, murder, exhibiting a
which subjects him to universal
ridicule among those who know the facts,
and which is a fitting rebuke to his present
pretentions. Conduct which
have never endorsed, and for which am
unwilling to be held responsible. And now,
having disposed of Mr.. FLETCHER, will
add, in the language of the courts, that it
)nly remains necessary for me to hand him
over 10 the execration of an outraged and
betrayed people, who will, ere long, measure
,ut to him and those who associate with him
n his nefarious efforts to transfer this peo-
Die, body and soul, into the hands of a hos
lie fanatical and sectional party, in order
hat he and his associates may be continued
n the overseership of this State, that pun
shment which their perfdy and ingratitude
% richly merit. One word more-if there
S anything of left this most exquisitely loyal
gentleman, and he has any taste for another
tournament, let him attempt it, as l have in ]
eserve much interesting matter which can
lot be well compressed in this effort, but ;
which it will give me much pleasure to dis '
lose