The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-07-29
ofthe onc-the seer and interpreter

of the other. - ---
Pete Nrney, the other nominee for
the Middle Division of the State, Is,
preemincntly qualified for the posi-.
ton Of SUI RENE Court Judge. He
was born in Franklin county, Ten
nesseo, and is q SON of the Hopkins
L. Turney, who represented our State
n ith distinguished ability for six
years in the United States Senate,
commencing in March, 1916. Pete
Turney is large in person, and is
equally as cspacieus in heart and in
tellect. He is a lawyer, enjoying a
large practice, and as q citizen he is
the very soul of honor, truth and pu-
rity. He is the idol of his friends
and neighbor, who honor and esteem
him. Easy of approach, affable and
genial in his manners, kind in his dis
position, fixed in his friendships and
his principles, decided in his opinions,
and 80 constituted that when q truth
or measure once receives the cfnl
appreciation Of ii his judgement mo
personal danger, no popular olamor,
no considerations Of mere policy, can
cause him to waver.Go netti 1910 81
ri Col. Thomas j. Freeman, of Browns
vile, and Gen. John l.. T. Sneed, of
Somerville, are the candidates from
West Tennessee. -. -,,.i.,.t.....'.,
Col. Freeman was born in ,Maury
county, whence has come many of the
leading, men of the State, and is now
in his forty-eighth year. Early in life
he emigrated to the west and has
here grown up with q community
that can scarcely date further back
than one generation. At the call of
Gov. Harris be raised a regiment of
infantry in 1851, and with It entered
the service of Tennessee and the Con-
federate States. He was on duty
through all the arduous preliminarics
of tic first year of the war, and was
severely and dangerously wounded
ut Shiloh, where he was conspicuous
for gallantry. In 1864 he was ap-
pointed Circuit Judge of the Trenton
Circuit, an Office which closed with
the war between the States. Since
that event he has been devoted to his
profession.
Gen. John L. T. Sneed is so well
known and so much beloved by the
people of West Tennessee that it is
with difficulty we can cOnfine our
selves. at the late hour at which we
write, to the employment of mOder-
atephraseology in the expression of
what we know is the public estimate
of him. He was born in Raleigh, n.
G., the birthplace of Andrew john
son, some fifty years ago, and drifted
to the then far west when only four
teen years of age. He studied law in,
and in his 21st year was elected from
Shelby county to the Legislature
where he served full term. In 1851 |
he was elected Attorney General of
this district by the Legislature, and
of the State in 1854 by the people, by |
a majority of six thousand. AS a
scholar he takes rank among the most |
eminent at the bar of the State, and
is regarded as among the foremost |
criminal lawyers of Tennessee. The
possession of these peculiarities of
attainment, admirably fit him for
the position tn which he has been
nominated, and to which he will GER
tainly be elected. r...
No gentleman ever became candi-
date in Tennessee whose personal vir-
tues have won more devoted friends
than those of Thomas A. II. Nelson.
When thepassions of war were arous-
ed and Nelson lived in the midst of a
people thoroughly exasperated. and a
district rent by incurable discussions,
he still pursued the even tenor of his |
way and such was the love he inspir-
ed and such the profound respect for
his intellect and personal virtues, that |
his integrity was never questioned; |
and while men fought one another,
and East Tennessee was a seething |
cauldron of demoniacal passions, Nell |
son cultivated his little farm and |
an impoverished family |
by steady professional toll. His Opin- |
ions underwent NO, change. When
the war was over he had forgotten
wrongs done by Northern or Southern |
enthusiasts. and like John Williams |
and others who had cOncurred with |
him, he sought to restore order and
peace, and condemned in unmeasured
terms the absurd vsgaries and vio-
lence of Brownlow and his adherents.
The partisan history of Judge Dead
erick is much the same with that of
Mr.. Nelson. Nelson is q poet, q
dreamer, an enthusiast, while Mr..
Deaderick has spent his whole life in
the midst of musty tones. He is a
living impersonation of those fault
less English expounders of common
law, whose learning has defined pop
ular rights through many centuries.
OF his personal history, we know
nothing more than this, like Nelson,
he was a Wing, and when the war
ended he shut out from memory the
fact that it had ever occurred. Mr..
Nelson was educa ted at the East Ten
nessee University, and through all his
life has been q laborious student.
He is to-day, one Of the most tastefu
bellies lettres scholars of the South,
and has pronounced at the hastings
and in Congress speeches of faultless
literary taste and elegance. The Lon
don Times, years ago, did Mr.. Nelson
the honor to publish one of his
speeches delivered in Congress, and
pronounced it the best specimen of
forensic oratory that had emanated
from the American Congress since
John Randolph illustrated the per-
lection and purity of the English
tongue. The contest of Mr.. Nelson
with the late Governor Jones for a
seat in the Senate of the United States,
when Nelson was beaten one vote,
will not aOon be forgotten by those
VINO remember the earnestness and
lofty, honorable spirit with which the |
c conflict was conducted. Nelson's re-
cital of the incidents of that wonder
full contest, in glowing verses, has
often been reproduced by the news
paper press. Hardly less remarkable |
have boon the relations Of Andrew
johnson and Nelson. They have col
lided often in years gone by, and
words were almost blows. Nelson,
frail as he is in person, never faltered
when the rude Red Republican De-
mocrat, as johnson then was, came !
fariously and uttering !
anathemas such as crushed Gentry in
after years. O. oral h -Ar.
In private social life Tom Nelson is
kindly, generous to fault, simple
and conffding, full of tenderness. He
is devoted and tireless in his friend-
ships, and is only too credulous,' as
cribing virtues to others that are Pc !
culiar to himself. His name alone
would make the ticket successful in