The Hickman courier., 1872-06-01
sOcI8 ASSASSINATION.
A VIrtugs and Innocent wo-
man ne TO Death by SLAM

| IL
SOmeiO or three weeks ago vague
rumors commenced to reach Nashville
seriously affecting the reputation of ex
Presldent q ohnson and lady of Green
vlile-Eue OF the postmaster at that
place We made inquiry, were informed
on g92d authority that the statements
we're baseless, and refrained from MAKING
any allusion thereto in our columns. But
the gosslps would not desist all manner
OF reports concerning the lady and gem
tleman mentioned were persisiently kent
in circulation aud we finally teleorapbed
to prominent citizen of Greeneyille,
who answered, several days since, as fol-
lows:
There is not an atom of truth in the
alleged scandal. Lying tongues have
driven avIrtuous, Christian lady to iu
sane suislde- This is a candid statement
of the fzats."
Ccnv'dced Of the foul injustice that
had been done, we still forebOre. out Of
it undue publicity. put the following dis
patch from Brooklyn, New York, to the
Indianapolis Journal, shows that the
slanderers were determined not to be
defeated of their purpose:
"A few days since it was announced
that Mrs. Emily Harold, wife of the
Postmaster at Greeneville, East Tennes
see, had committed suicide by shooting
herself through the head with revolver.
A letter just received by resident Of
Greeneville, now in Brooklyn attending
the Methodist General Conference, con
veys the intelligence that Mrs. Harold
had been seduced by ex President ohm,
sou, and that discovery and exposure led
her to the commission of the rash act
Great indignation is expressed among
the citizens of Greeneville, against the
ex President, and many of the best citi
zens refuse to speak to him on the street.
We have had every opportunity to
learn all the circumstances so grossly
misstated in the dispatch above quoted,
and have no hesitation in saying that, for
heartless cruelty on the part of the in-
stigators and perpetrators, this affair
stands unparalleled IN the annals OF
social murder 1t was frequently re.
ferred to by prominent East Tennessee
Repu blicans during the State Convention
OF their party recently held here, aud
they were unanimous in declaring that
the reports which rendered Mrs Harold
insane and led her to take her own life
were as false as the malice of those who
invented them was inappeasable aud
devilish. All of these gentlemen were
1Ir. Johnson seoliticai pponenis-some
Cf them his p oual euemies~-yet they
all expressed the frmest conviction OF
his innocence, all bare testimony to the
life time piety Of the lady with whose
name his had been so fatally associated.
They explained that Greenvllle is a gos-
siping village Of some thousand inhabi
tants, and that for Mr.. johnson to so
much as bow to n lady on the street is
sufficient 10 make her the social prey Of
his enemies. His moral conduct since
be retired from the Presidentizi chair 10
his home in that place has been IRE
proachable. Even had such not been
the case, he would hardly have been base
enough to betray the wife of his oldest
Iriend-of the man who toiled beside
him in the same shop and who was not
forgotten in the days of his fame and
prosperity. Nashville Banner.