Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-07-18
FARMERS I'm COUNCIL.

To the Editor of the Union and American:
Please allow me space IN your columns t.
reply to the article in the Turf, Field Gac
Farm of the 18th inst, criticising the farm
ers' meeting held in Nashville on the 9th
inst, for | am glad to see the active part the
UNION AND AMERICAN is taking in ad.
vancing farm interests. | also hope the
Turf, Field and Farm will copy,
Mr.. Turf, Field and Farm-In your is
sue of the 18th inst. you have seen proper
to criticise the meeting of farmers of Da-
wilson county, Tenn, and I know you will
give to farmer space to reply to your ed
itolial. And just here permit me to say
that you have gathered from some brainless
correspondent, or from some newspaper.
unfriendly to the best interests of the agri-
cultural class, an imperfect, and per conse-
quence an incorrect idea OF the object OF the
aforesaid meeting; and you use the only ar
gument that can be made use of by the
opponents of the farmers, viz: class legisla-
ton.
Do not lawyers and all other learned pro-
LESSONS, and mechanics, race horse men,
and all other trades and professions meet
together when they please to consult upon
measures touching their interests, and Sc
FLU AACA W lCR1EOC1b LLCA 1u6u WHY
should not farmers meet and consult with
out inter- upton or misrepresen
Moreover, you are too far removed from
the scene Of this move to be able to under
stand it in all its bearings. And then, too,
the pressure of State aud Nation in the leg
islation is directly upon and adverse TO the
producing class; and yet how little voice
have they in shaping the policy of either
department.. Our farmers have thus been
too often already lulled to sleep by the per-
suasive eloquence of professional gentlemen,
because, forsooth, these professionals" are
ready takers on the hastings. We have
too often witnessed few men in a COM
munity, under the Old Convention and Ex-
ecutiye Committee system, regulating and
controlling the affairs of State, and selecting
all the office-holders and legislators. This
you are doubtless familiar with, and you
know, too, that these tricksters employ
newspapers and correspondents to circum-
vent and break down those in their way.
Now, the object of this move is to break
down this old system OF hoodwinking the
masses, and to select the best men in a COM
munity as epTesentatives-nott those who
would legislate for class, but men of large
experience, liberal views and in direct sym
pathy with the great mass of the people
men who have been successful in their own
affairs-and men who will legislate impair
italy for all the interests of all classes.
Suppose you that farmers held majority
in the United States Congress, would we
hear any complaints about class legislation
in favor of New England manufacturers?
Do you not know that Congress is made up,
at least majority of them, of politicians
and would-be-p politicians, not statesmen,
but political hacks, as they are popularity
called, who work more aud speak longer
for selfish purposes than for the public good.
design merely to hint at these things as
they are too well known to need details of
how matters are worked among politicians.
L do not profess to know it is in other
other States, but in, Tennessee, agri-
culture, the basis of all prospect y, is under
a cloud, by reason, as l think, of lack of
proper legislation upon measures of vial
importance to this great interest. In vain
have our legislators been appealed to, to do
something for agriculture commensurate
with its importance to the revenue of the
State. a reaction is nov going on in our
State, and men must prepare TO accept re-
suits thaS an enlightened public sentiment
and enlarged statesmanlike views seem to
demand at the hands CT lawmakers.
Your queries as to many acres a lawyer
has to own before he is a farmer, and the
action of our meeting, are highly eolored,
and | regard them as one of the low APP
peals to popular prejudice against mans
possessing more than truck patch, which
| did not think you, as a public journalist,
would stoop to or indulge in.
You ask if professional man, who has
no farm, as fairly represents the agricul-
tural interests as one who has. answer,
emphaticalIy, no; because he does not know
the wants nor interests of this class. But
cannot a practical farmer represent the in
terests of this class as well as professional
man; whether be owns farm or not? Can
4 man be practical lawyer and a practical
farmer at one and the same time? Most
assuredly no. And just here Is the point.
If the farmers throughout the length and
breadth of the land do not come to the res
cue, assert their rights, have their proper
voice in the affairs of State and Nation,
then l am free to confess that the country
will gallop to the devil as fast as time can |
fy, for too much politics, too many laws,
too much governing of the people, is what |
Is running this country. Too many politi |
clans might have been urged also. 1t is |
,he interest of the legal Fraternity to make |
4 multitude of laws-Go mystify and con- |
fuse the outsiders-so that lawyers only |
IAN interpret the law. 1t is their bread and |
meat.
1t is high time, the farmers were asserting |
,hei lights and looking to their interests, |
7ital to all our prosperity. Their rights to
positions of profit and honor are not a whit
behind lawyers and politicians. Farmers
ire clearly entitled to these positions by
eason of aggregate numbers and wealth,
md they should not and will not let pro-
essional men, or such papers as the Turf,
Field and Farm, in the interest of cities
md politicians drive them from their pur-
,ose and their Interests
A still further agitation of this subject in
our paper, Will, / hope, have the desirable
fleet of arousing the Farmers TO sense Of
he tue interests, aud cause them to Or
,anize throughout the State and country
nd have proper concert of action, aud in
IL time to come make lawyers to feel and
now that they are not willing longer to work
nder the crack of their whip. Why, it
GEMS that the lawyers have determined
hat the farmers Of Davidson county shall
ot be allowed to meet and to take counsel
Dgether unless by their permission. How
o the farmers of the county like to be die
ated to by professional men after the
lyle of the late farmers meeting? More
f this hereafter. / am ONE OF THEM.