Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-07-08
Letters fran Candidates.


MEMPHIS, July 3, 1870.
Editors appeal; In your editorial OF
this days APPEAL you intimate an opin-
ion that I am under the disabilities of the
I4th Amendment OF the Constitution of
the United States. You VIII find in to-
DAYS Ledger q letter from myself, in
which you will perceive your error. Had
1 entertained a doubt upon this subject /
should not have permitted my friends to
have brought my name before the public
in connection with the Supreme Bench.
Nv knowledge of the conductors of that
paper forbids the idea of an intentional
Injustice in this editorial. But to correct
the impression it is calculated TO produce
on the public mind, may I not request
you to publish this note to- morrow MORN
ing and the very brief statement of facts
in the letter, which a friend has handed
the Ledger for publication in its issue of
to-day.
Very respectfully, GID. J. PILLOW.
Editors appeal: In your editorial Of
this morning you undertake, in a very
summary manner, to pronounce General
Pillow, Colonel Looney, General Bate,
General Quarles and others guilty of Of
lenses that disqualify them from holding
offices in the State. We think you do
these gentlemen great wrong to assume
to sit in Judgment and ~prOnounee SEN
tence upon them at all. That, we think,
ought-to have been left to another tribu-
nal, and we cannot understand why a
friend should pronounce them guilty in
advance.
We are not familiar with the personal
history of the other gentlemen named,
but General W. A. Quarles we have known
from infancy, have never lived more than
ten miles from him. and know that he
held no Office at the breaking out of the
war, and has held none since which dis
1 qualities him from holding the office of
n. L. THOMAS.
It was not our intention to charge
as offenses what are known to be yir-
tues. Nor did we intend to pro-
nounce the fact of disability as
otherwise than co~njecturally true,
however positive or unguarded may
have been the afiirmations of our ar
tiele. Our object was only TO guard
against the danger of running men
who might prove disqualified and
lose US the fruits of victOry-nOt to
PREJUDICE any particular cases of our
friends. If the objection does not
apply to them, our article is not an
tagonist to their aspirations, as it waE
certainly never desired that it should
be.
The following is the card referred
to in the above letter of General Pill.
low. That General Pillow is not
under disabilities imposed and created
by the Fourteenth Amendment is suf-
feiently evident from his statement.
That he is eminently qualified and
worthy of a place on the Supreme
Bench is not less true:
MEMPHIS, July 5, 1870.
Messrs. Galloway and DuBose:
In answer to your inquiries of this date
as to my disabilities, I have to say that /
never held any official position in which
the oath TO support the Constitution OF
the United States was taken or required
of me-; therefore the Fourteenth Amend
ment to the Constitution places me I'M
der no disabilities. 1 never held any
office under the Government. either State
or Federal, except those Of Brigadier and
Major GePeral of the United States army
during the Mexican war. 1 took no oath,
nor was any required Of me in entering
upon the duties of these positions. Ia
addition to this, L would state hat ! was
pardOned by the President of the United
states two years before the adoption o.
Fourteenth Amendment, the effects Of
which were to remove my disabilities il
any had ever existed.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
GIDEON i. PILLOW.