Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-08-26

cided to amputate his leg (both bones Of
which below the knee were shattered)
and the decision of the wise men was COM
municated to him, his calm and laconic
reply, which was often told about camps,
was, No, you won't; intend to be
buried with it. Six months OF suffer
ing followed, in which he sturdily resisted
the assaults of death with the patience
of philosopher and the resolution of a
stole, but he saved his leg and came back
to the field and his comrades ON his
crutches. The test of man is in his
evil as well as his good fortune and we
scarcely know which marks him most as
the true man-his fiery and impetuous
bearing amid the death hail at Chicka-
mauga, where, in charging the enc
my's works he had two horses killed and
the third one wounded under him or the
misfortunes which befell his decimated
command at Nashville, when, after the
then recent battle Of Franklin, which
'thinned the ranks and broke the hopes
of our army, it was crushed by the as
sault of the enemy. he moved amid its
shattered ranks and broken columns on
wounded horse-his other having just
been killed-a sclf-poised and resolute
soldier. From the time he fired the first
gun on the Potomac, inspired with hope
for his loved South, until the last shot in
the North State, there was no more de-
voted patriot or soldier in the field.
His true character has been further illus
trated in his bearing since the war. Ac-
cepting the situation, he promptly
set about recuperating his broken for
tunes, but in no instance sanctioning
that which he believed to be wrong in
principle-holding aloof from political
matters; asking nothing from his OPP
pressors, but awaiting with dignity. and
patience the inexorable logic of
events. His home destroyed-his prop
erty attached by Union men to whom
he owed nothing, for executing orders
from his superiors, he yet defed and
denounced them refusing any terms
whatever of compromise, he fought them
out successfully before the juries of his
country, to the shame and discontinue
of those who would undo him. Though
brought from afiiuence to poverty by the
action of the Government yet in no in
stance would he take fees from those
who would oppress his people True to
his convictions of right he did not smile
for favors, nor crook the pregnant
hinges of the knee that thrift might fol-
low fawning." Generous, manly, and
as well bred as the best blood of all the
Howards, with a personal and political
record of which any man might well be
proud, he is the peer of any one in the
land. Thoroughly conyersant with our
State affairs, no one can write or speak
of them more eloquently Popular with
his comrades in arms and with the masses
of our people, we thought he was the
very man to head our columns in the
Gubernatorial canvass. We think so
still, and only retire his name at his own
request. Iff r
Thus much we have written express
sive of our views from lifelong ac-
quaintance, and, as we grow older, we
become the more fully convinced that
the only kind of men fit for positions of
trust are those who have displayed upon
the active theater of life qualities of |
personal courage and sharply defined |
points Of character. The smooth-talk-
er, irresolute trimmer, who adjusts his
sails to every breeze, can never be de-
pended on in moments of trial and diff
Guilty. Sooner or later, he will prove
treacherous, In State as in War, we
need men of pluck as well as head, and
one of this kind is worth "a whole will
derness" of weak-backed, weak-kneed,
ornamental statesmen, who blanch lily
white at the first approach of danger,
and are incapable of the slightest manly
exertion in the hour of noed.