Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-10-12
CIRCULAR.



branch of our next State Legislature. II
| is well known TO many of you If not all,
that am practising physician, and that
| this part of the year Is our sickly season,
| together with affection of my family, will
prevent me from making a regular canvass
| through the district, and laying before you
those things which l consider to be of i'm
| portance to you, which most deeply regret.
1t has ever been my opinion that those who
seek to occupy the high position of repre-
sentative OF q free, enlightened and chris
tian people, should seek to do the will of
the people, and not their own will; and to
do this as it should be done. The greater
mass of the people should know what their
representative intends to try to do for them,
for the position of representative is that
of agent; and as such he should ever
feel disposed to carry out the viii and
wish of his principal, and should at all
times be governed by the instruction of
his principal. This I hold to be his
duty. But, fellow citizens, as it is i'm
possible for me to make regular can
Vass, and see you face to face, | avail
myself of the opportunity of laying before
you by means of this circular, such things
as l deem of interest to you, and such
things as / consider you would wish to
know concerning me, for frankly admit.
that, in presenting my name before Won.
asking at your hands the position of Sena-
tor, that you have right to demand of me
full showing as to where stand in the
great political struggle, which, at this time.
is exciting the public mind, from Maine to
tie Gulf of MexicO-andi in which the great
mass of the people are deeply interested.
Well, fellow-citizens, permit me to say in
the first place, that L have been, ever since
have been voter, Democrat, and | still
belong to the Democratic party, and see no
reason why should abandon that old ban
ner, which has waved in triumph over so
many well contested political contests, and
under the control of which this great coun-
try Of ours met with such wonderful pros
perity. But notwithstanding | have been
Democrat all the time, you will allow me
to say that ] think the Democratic party
committed an error in adopting the Clncin-
natl platform, and pledging the whole Dem
ocratic party to the support of Greeley and
Brown. My reason for thinking so is, that
the Democratic party has number ofmen
in her ranks in every respect qualified to fill
the high position of President of these Uni
ted States, without forming collision with
the moderate Republicans. This think
was an error. But, as the Democratic
party has in her wisdom adopted the Gin
cinnati platform, and is going for Greeley
and Brown, wheel into line, and go with
my party. think this to be my duty.
Fellow-cltizens, there are two distin-
guished Tennesseeans before the people of
the State for Congress at large, to-wit:
Gen. Frank Chestham and the Hon. An
| drew johnson, and l feel it my duty to
state which of those two gentlemen / am
in favor of. have nothing in my mind
to keep back from you. / therefore say
that am in favor of Gen. Cheatham, be-
cause know him to be firm, true and
honest, and whatever he believes to be to
the interest of our State, he will have the
manly courage to stand up and defend our
rights to the last. He stood by us in our
] darkest hours, and | am satisfied he will
| not desert Us now. But there are other
things which | feel it to be my duty to pre-
| sent to your consideration, and which you
will doubtless expect at my hands, should
| | be so fortunate as to be elected your Sen.
ator, which deem of great Importance to
| you; and first, it is well known to you
that we have Tax Collector, whose duty
| it is to clllect the public tax and pay the
same over when thus collected; and gen.
! orally under this system it takes the Tax
collector two years to collect the tax assess
| ed for any one year. Now am In favor of
abolishing the Office of tax collector, and
making it the duty of the Justices of the
| Peace in each civil district to collect the
| tax of said districts. This they could and
would do at once, without delay or trouble;
| and if need be, give the per cent for col
lectIng the same that the tax collector is ROW
allowed by law, and let the said Justices of
the Peace be under the same rules and reg
ulations and restrictions that is now i'm
posed upon the Tax Collector. And sec
| ondly, as the law now stands, note given
for land forms no lien upon the land, for
the purchase may if it is sold and trans
| ferred, if a deed is made to the purchaser
unless a lien is retained in the face of the
deed upon the land until the purchase
money is paid. Now l am in favor of
making a note given for land lien upon
the land until the purchase money is paid,
notwithstanding, the note may be sold and
transferred, and no lien retained in the face
of the deed for the payment of the purchase
money. Thirdly, under our law, as it now
stands, widow is not entitled to years
support, unless the deceased left on hand
at his death the article out of which t be
years support is to come. Now l am in
favor of giving the widow years support
out of any personal property that the de-
ceased owned at his death. Let the same
consist in whatsoever kind ofproperty it may
FelloW-citizens: heretofore the opinion
has prevailed that no man ought to be q
Representative in your State Legislature
unless he was a lawyer, and so it ha:
been that your Legislature has been gov
erned and controlled by the legal pro
fession, and l ask you with what re-
suits: Lawyers have been sent there
from session to session, and now our State
is in state of bankruptcy. am in favor
of sending farmers,-men who know from
experience the wants of the country and
who will work and not talk all the time
and do but little or no good, The farming
interest should be fully protected and there
is no class of men who have such interests
at stake as the farmer, and who will be a.
likely to protect the farmers interest a.
they will. When first thought of present
ing my name to you, for the position o
Senator l INDUCED the hope that 1 would
have an open field. But in this ! am dis
appointed, for | now find that | have
two opponents, to-wit: DR.. G. j. Herrin
of Lawrence county, and the Hon. j. A
Tinnen of Giles; and just here, permit me
to say, that l think both of my competitor:
are gentlemen, but notwithstanding my
good opinion of them, it is my strong
desire to beat them, and secure to myself
the position to which l am now aspiring
With regard to the Hon ]. A. TinnoD,
must comics that | was surprised when IsaW
that his name was before the voters of thi:
senatorial district as candidate for Sena,
tor; for, i'll am correctly Informed, it has
been the understanding of the people of the
counties of Giles, Lawrence and Wayne
that these counties should have the Senator
time about, SO as to have no confusion; anC
whether it was the understanding or not,
here boldly say, Fellow Citizens, that it i!
right, that such should be the case. Now
Giles had the last Senator, and Lawrence
came up to her help man TO man, no
thinking for moment that Giles would
want the Senator again without givins
Lawrence any chance for it whatever
Now l do not think this i
right; neither do believ,
that the great mass of the citizens of Gle:
are m favor of this move, but the move
ment is totally the work Of the few.