Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-03-21
confiscation in East Tennessee.

A correspondent writes the Nashville
linton and Dispatch from Bristol, East
Tennessee, to the following effect
The decision made by the Supreme
Court of Tennessee a few months since
relative to the responsibilities Of the Off
GERS and agents OF the Confederate States,
has had the effect predicted in d commu-
nication to you from this place. The
work of legal robbery and plunder has
just begun in this portion Of unfortunate
Tennessee. The first two acts occurred
in the past two weeks, one at Blount-
vile, Sullivan county, and the other at
Elizabethton, Carter county.
At the former place an old man,
scarcely able to maintain his large and
helpless family, was sued for damages by
one Of Tennessee's truly loil, and a
verdict rendered, not to the extent of the
damages claimed by the thieyish prose
cutor, but such as TO render his victim a
pauper the remainder Of bis years His
home, the hard earnings Of more than
three score years, and the promised re-
treat to his dear partner and helpless
children in the troubles and affection OF
forty years, is now to be wrested from
them to fill the Golfers Of so-called
"Union man !"
But TO the second act-the Infamous
proceedings of the court at Elizabeth
ton, during the past week. The harvest
there was rich and telling. One Pleasant
Williams, loyal bushwhacker during
the war, was arrested while in that CO.
pacity by four soldiers, viz: Amany,
Massingill, Wortham and Keton, and
was afterward sent to Tuscaloosa by or
der of the Confederate authorities, in
company with number of others. He
brought suit against these gentlemen,
laying his damages at fifty thousand
dollars A verdict for the sum Of
twenty-five thousand dollars was rem
dered The same loyalist brought suit
against John and Sam Lyons and John
South for five thousand dollars damages,
and obtained it without the least troubled
These men, in the capacity of soldiers,
arrested the covetous brute, held him a
prisoner for some ten hours, when they
released him. During the same time
some twenty five dollars worth of
clothing was taken from his house, but
no proof made to the effect that the
soldiers in question knew anything of
the robbery But five thousand dollars
covered the damages done in the case
Another "loyalist," one Samuel B. Pat
terson, obtained verdict of five thou
sand dollars damage against John s.
Thomas. Charge: that Thomas sent
soldiers belonging to the Rebel army
to his house for forage and supplies
These are but the out.croppings of
the character of the litigation that prom
ises to occupy the courts of East Ten
nessee for much time to come. They
(the loyalists) have every license to go
forward in this work of raking up damage
suits against class of people already
crushed and robbed. But these hungry
wolves, urged on by set of starving
Radical lawyers, and an occasional So
called Southern lawyer, will swell the
docket of persecution until the perse-
cuted will be driven to madness. 1t is
as infamous as robbery and confiscation.
And where breathes the man who would
not use some of the many means to lessen
the population of earth, should any of
them have the weakness to occupy his
confiscated estate-confiscated because
of political difference2
1t was urged in the case of Williams,
in the first two cases cited, that he lost
his health at Tuscaloosa What of this 2
How many noble sons ofTennessee-how
many of our leading citizens, not only
lost their health, but their lives, in the
butcher-pens of Camp Chase and Alton ?
By whom arrested ? By midnight skulk-
ers, called loyal meni Where died the
lamented Judge Reagan, of Sweetwater,
Tennessee In Knoxville jail? And
by whom arrested? By the military"
at the instance of the loyalists of mis-
community. The Rev. Rufus Stephens is
another, the remains of whom sleep at
Camp Chase. These are not the hun
dredth part,
The plea for damages is but screen
behind which to skulk until the pleader
can filch from his neighbor's pockets his
earnings. Too misersbly worthless to
labor in order to retrieve the loss sus-
tanned by the war, they adopt this method
as the surest to successful recuperation.
The decision in question will contri-
butte more to the moral depravity of the
country, in tempting the strong to take
advantage of his weak neighbor, than all
other causes, as the result of the revolu-
ton, combined. OBSERVER.