Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-01-17
scANpALoUs ASSAULT.

g slfis the mission Of The press to enforce
virtue and combat vice. To defend the
innocent is not only q duty, but pleas
ure. When great wrong is committed,
and affects the public, the pressis bound
to expose it. Feeling ourselves to be
one of its missionaries, we have studious
.ly guarded the reputation of our states
men when unjustly assailed. But more
especially have.we extended our iatherly
protection to the innocents who compose
the Tennessee Legislature. We are in
tempest of excitement this afternoon.
.gg We are furious. A correspondent OF the
Metropohtan Record has done it all
He has dared to write as follows Of our
pets who make laws at Nashville
Great hogheaveus, what set There
are some good and true men among them,
TO whom all praise; but the generality
on the honor Of free niger or North
ern Methodist preacher, such dirty old
mess was never seen. Men who got one
vote, and only one, in their whole county;
Men pretending to be representatives.
who received eight, or ten, or dozen
votes in counties that should have cast
who can hardly write their own names,
and hardly read them when written.
Greasy, bloated forms, redolent with
fumes of corn-cob pipes and rotgut
"a. - whiskey. Great filthy creatures, from the
~ i@ corners of whose mouths the tobacco
mice oozes and tri.kles steadily down
npon shirt-bosoms that look as if they'd
never seen water since the days of
NoAH's flood. No 10 cowhide brogans,
check calico Shirts monstrous noses of
fiery red, that fame like beacons to warn
che voyager off the breakers of the dog
gerry; hands that leave a grimy stain
wherever they touch, boards matted with
gravy, "ambeer" and sorghum, and heads
efgg that are scratched with q ylgor that IN
camp would have been highly suggestive
of "a bite "gHA
Is it not scandalous2 How can we
e sit quietly by and hear such slanders1
We can't do it II is not in human ma
ture. Wrath is wrath, whether in a bull
dog, or in complaisant editor. When
y reused, the editor is desperate. We are
ag roused, and intend to be reused. We
have cause to be reused, aud when reused,
co.'s we are rouser of others But the cor
respondent goes on: saa aataW
And this dirty-shirted, dirty-handed,
dirty-faced and dirty-mouthed set of g-
noramuses and blackguards with their
uncleaned rawhide boots stuck up on the
mahogany desks, and squirting their
"uigger head tobacco over the carpets
~ and walls of one Of the finest capitol
buildings in America, is absolutely crush
~ ing. grinding the life out of as noble a
State as ever formed part of the quoHdam
Republic" From lightning and tenn
nest. from plague pestilenee and famine,
from battle and murder, and smallpox,
measles and hogebolera, good Lord, de-
liver us But from such legislature,
oh, deliver us far more mnchlyl
This is too much. We bog before the
majesty of this great libel, because. with
all our wrath, we End that we are no
match for IL We might storm, but could
asi not wreck the SANDER on the pillows of
vengeance We nigbt sweep over the
ocean of passion, bat this colossal
slander-craft would outsweep the speed
of our wings We might improviss sn
earthquake, but-well, well, we viii not
We are too much fatigued at this time
We breathe awhile.