Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-07-26
THE CHANCELLORsHIP.
A Complete Retaliation of n Worm
ont Islander.

In a lengthy communication TO the
Banner of Sunday morning, Mr.. John
Reid comes out and announces himself
the author of an anonymous publication
about me in Tuesdays Banner. Mr..
Reid is man of standing, high charac-
ter and great responsibility in this COM
munity, and L regret that l have been SO
unfortunate as to forfeit his good opinion.
He charges me with the crime of having
sought Office from Mr.. Lincoln, viz: the
Mission to Russia, the position once oc-
cupied by his distinguished brother-in-
law, Gov. n. S. Brown. | must &C.
knowledge to Mr.. Reid that | did not
have the cool effrOntry to offer myself
for this high Office. But had Mr.. Lincoln
rendered it to me before Fort Sumter was
fired on, would have accepted it, both
for private and public reasons that would
have been satisfactory to myself and the
people of Tennessee. My next great
crime is that as a member of the firm of
Cantrell 81 White, l agreed that said firm
might receive $500 in Confederate money
from Enoch Cunningham, and use it if
we could in the South, and account for it
to him if it should prove available to the
firm, but if it was lost he was to be the
loser. In other words, we took the money
with the distinct understanding, that if it
was lost by investment or otherwise.
nothing was to be repaid. This was the
agreement as l understood it; no person
was present except Cunningham, Mr..
Cantrell and myself. Cunningham came
and begged as to take the n3oney
as q tGvOr to him, we did not
apply to him for money, we had
no draft toimeet in New Orleans for bal
ing and rope. Cunningham was seated
at a table in my office, took the Confed-
crate money out of his pocket and counted
il down on the table. Mr.. Cantrell
received it and gave him a note forit. In
q day OFT two afterwards Col Milan came to
my-ofiice and stated that he understood
from Cunningham that we had taken some
Confederate money from him end he
wished we would take his likewise Mr..
Cantrell agreed to do so, and made the
terms with Milan. did not see Milan
pay the money. He may have given a
check, but understood it was for Con-
federate money. We sent it South and
lost by the war all we had, including Cum
ningham's and Milam's money. We were
largely indebted, and l was earnestly de-
circus that our assets should go to our
real creditors, some of them women and
orphan children, whose money we had
borrowed and used. We resisted the paw
ment of the Cunningham and Milan
claims not for our own benefit but for the
benefit of DIR honest creditors. In the
progress of the trial, as Mr.. Reid has
shown, we had to make a witness of Mr..
Cunningham, as we ourselves by the law
at that time were incompetent to tes-
tify. l had full faith in him
that he would tell the truth. Mr.. Cantrell
had some doubt. / knew when we made
him our witness we could not contradict
him, and Mr.. DemOss informed him thathi
evidence would be final and we could not
dispute it, that if he admitted that il was
Confederate money, he would loose the
case, but that if he proved it to be any
thing else besides Confederate money, he
would gain tie case. The temptation
was too strong for Enoch's love of truth,
the love of money prevailed, and he
swore that it was either a check, or twas
Tennessee money; if it had been a
check the bank books would have shown
it, and, therefore, he had to say it was
Tennessee money. Demoss came TO me
with q smile of triumph on his face, say
ing he had won the case, that we could
not contradict him; he was our witness:
he was entitled to a judgment; l said yes;
take your judgment. At this stage of
the game, Mr.. Canuell became furious,
and declared he would make it dear
: 800 to him; that he would prosecute him
for false swearing; that he would go be-
fore the grand jury, then in session, and
prosecute him for perjury. l felt SYM
pathy for Cunningham; he had large
family, was respectfully connected, and
wished TO save his reputation if possible;
tried to appease Mr.. Cantrell; tried to
compromise the case, and with Demoss'
assistance the matter was comprc-
mised; the notes were settled,
and no judgments taken. So Cunningham,
after he had sworn false in regard to his
pretended claim and made himself liable
to a criminal prosecution, received
notes in payment, which melted HIM, as
am informed, As cents on the dollar
1t pains me to record this affair. Ihad
much rather have covered the whole
transaction with the mantle of charity,
than TO expose this matter to the public.
Mr. Reid, in his excitement, has imposed
this task upon me, and forced me 10 ex-
pose the vile tools with which he is g.
deayoring to destroymy prospects for cleo
ton and bring ruin upon my private char
acter. In his cooler moments Mr.. Reid
will regret that he has borne false witness
against his neighbor
i will now inform the public why all
this attack has been made upon me.
Some months since, Mr.. Cunningham
wanted 10 be made President and Receiv-
er of the Edgefeld and kentucky rail
road, and wished to elect a Board of Di-
rectOrs that would elect him President.
lie came to me for my proxy. ! re-
fused to give it to him, telling him that |
had given it to Col Ramsey. He wished
me to revoke it and give him a new
proxy. / declined TO do so. was in
formed by Mr.. Joseph Hamblin for what
purpose EnOch wanted the position, and
he also informed me that Council was the
proper man to elect; that he, Cheatham,
Col. Ramsey and Nick HobsOn had paid
large amount of security money for roll
ing stock for said road; that the
Legislature had given them the
surplus earnings of the road
after the payment of the remaining ex-
penses; that it was right that these
men should have the care of the road;
that they would manage it well and eco
nomically; it being their interest to do so.
| was satisfied of the truth of these state
ments, and gave my proxy to Col. Ramsey,
a brother in-law of Mr.. Reid, in order to
assist him to get back some of the secu-
rity money he had paid for the railroad,
Is well as to assist all other creditors that
had paid security money for the road.
This transaction gave Offense to Mr..
Cunningham, he was defeated, because q
better man lcaS elected. If ! contribu-
ted anything to that event, think l am en-
titled to the thanks of the community,