Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1872-02-23
DIR. w. r.. SEWER.

The editor of the Press & Heralt
makes the following remarks regard.
ing the bad tastes and ill-timed tenn
per exhibited by DIR. Sewer in his
long indictment against the Demo-
cratic party. There is no party op-
posed to the Democracy but that OF
the radicals, and this ill.timed assault
upon the former is in direct aid ol
the battle. The whole gist of this
long winded whine of DR.. Sewer is
an appeal to all Union democrats to
abandon the party and fall back into
line with the radicals. The Press &
Herald hits the nail upon the head
when it intimates that its present OBJ.
ject is the election of Easily and the
defeat of Earnest. t.-ED. News.
A Long Deferred Lament.
The Bristol Courier contains a some
old friend, DIR. w. Il. Sewer. in the
shape OF an explanatory address TO his
late constituents of The First Senato-
rial District. The paper may be cour-
teOusly STYLED personal ieTemaid, over
imagined political wrongs, and we feel
a sincere regret that the Doctor should
have deemed his grievances worthy OF
present airing. The defeat of the Doc
10, Co hn 10 III of
LIST Fall. is siIll The irritating sore,
which he will not allow 20 be healed,
but seems to nurse as a sort OF COM
fOrting source of disquiet, when other
ills fail of sufficiently lively sensations.
The burden of the Doctors complaint
is. that he was defeated because he had
been Union man, and that the spirit
of The Tennessee Democracy he.efore,
as illustrated in his defeat, is "pro-
scriptive" o. former Union men.
We were the first in The State, we
believe. 10 present the name of DIR. Sc
vier, as a candidate for Speaker; and
this we did without any suggection or
procurement on his part. Although
our political antecedents had been the
same, we did not predicate his claims
TO the position upon the gToundsthat
he had been a Union man. To what
extent that fact may have
ly inclined us toward him, we can not
say but We do know that his assumed
qualification for the Office, was the
merit urged by us in his behalf. We
did not, like the Doctor, as he says in
his address, regard his position as
rather fortunate, inasmuch as it fur
nished the opportunity of putting to
practical Test and refuiation the truth
of the assertion" by the Radicals, that
Conservative Union men would be "i3-
nored" and ''repudiated." We had ne
such distrust of the party with which
we were acting. We had no reason to
desire 10 subject the members of it 10
any such "tesC We construed lob
Iivion of the past" to apply 10 Union
men as well as to Rebels. We had
ceased 70 inquire what man had been
"during the war.n We had taught
and been taught, that we were a party
drawn into association by common
sense of The destructive spirit of Radi-
calism and were inspired by common
desire 10 effect its overthrow and re-
store good government both TO The
State and Nation. We wanted no new
",ests," applied, and while DIR. Sewer
may have thought his opportunity for
insiiiu;ing test" ''fortunateI one
we can assure him that his best friends
# lends who had been Union men
deplOred the issue which he and few
indiscreet friends from his own locali-
" sought to make for him. The dec
laration that The time had come Ito
find out whether a Union man had any
no Il . iaof bal A
"a mere echo of the Radic refrain
betrayed disposition not 10 "ignore
the past" and provoked an uncalled-
for issue between the Doctor and his
chief competitor, that was offensive 10
the leading men of cur party, regard
less Of their Gntecedents. ThequestiOn
between Union claims" and LOS:
Cause pretentions," which the two as
pirants kept in agitation, was repro
bated by every cOnsiderate observer
of the contest. and even the day before
the election, they had ceased to look
upon IL with any degree of pleasure or
We opposed the election of present
speaker, and still regard the selection
as having been unfortunate, and-we
say it in all kindness-we were fully
at The fine that DIR. Sewer
himself, brought about his own defeat
and the election of his opponent,
which, even as it happened, was a
surprise at the time-Gen. Vaughn be-
ing elected by ten votes, when it
would have required eleven had all
the Senators present recorded their
votes.
DIR. Sewer assumes too much when
he says ''the badge of inferiority is
placed upon all men who were the
friends Of the Government during the
war" There is perhaps, in some
quarters too much of the spirit COM
plained Of manifested, but we fear
the Doctor too greatly magnifies the
lesson OF his own defeat IL hardly
means so much, and the Doctor will
think better of himself, by and by
indeed, as he draws near the conelu-
sion of his address, his feelings take a
kindlier turn. He turns from his