Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-07-20

| will excuse me if | overlook such
| things. l infer from his communication
| that it was his intention to annihilate both
lawyers and newspaper reporters. ] am Of
| the opinion that he should have limited his
remarks to the reporters, as they are dis
posed to indulge in ridicule now and then,
| (Which is the soul of newspaperdom) V.
the report of the proceedings in the Bonner
! the morning after the meeting. The part
which applied to me was received with that
| pleasantly with which l supposed it was in
| tended to be given. Whereas the lawyers
treated the meeting with the very greatest
respect and consideration, and were in all
| their acts and words conciliat Dry, except
| in defending attacks when made upon
| them. The remarks of the lawyers in
/ this meeting were in laudation of
farmers and agricuIturalists. all of them
were more or less interested in agriculture,
! and may add that all of their relatives are
! farmers or agriculturists and, it would have
been in exceedins bad taste ifrthey could
have been capable of such a tbing,as to have
| reflected upon the farmer. No ons ever
| heard me speak either publicly or privately
| otherwise than in the most complimentary
! terms Of the farmer. Having been raised
| farmer, and having a truck patch now, all
! my predictions are in that direction. In
order to prevent my actions and motives
| from being rt,iseonstrued, desire to give to
! the public the history Of my connection
/ with the meeting, and also to remove the
impression that intruded myself upon the
| meeting. For this reason will state that |
was present upon the invitation of Gen. VII.
| Jackson, who insisted that l should be
! present, and requested me to address the
| meeting. In pursuance of this invitation |
attended the meeting and participated In its
| proceedings, for a time. Finally, Mr.. Ewing
| obtained the floor, and defined farmer to
! be "a person who owned land, paid the
taxes on it, and cultivated or had It culti=
| vated," (Which definition will exclude
about nine-tentbs of the honest and hard
| working tillers of the soil OF Davidson
| county, No one of those present Directing
| to this definition, l felt would be an in
| trusion to remain longer in the meeting,
ard in pursuance thereof publicly announc-
| ed to the meeting that was excluded by
! the definition and would withdraw. Sew
! erai insisted that / should remain, which |
| did for short time; when another slGr
| came, to which replied, and then withdrew.
| | withdrew tor the purpose of showing
! to the gentlemen present, that my inten-
! tons were fair and honest, and that | was
! not present to aIinCy CT to be disturbing
! element in their midst. The lawy-Ts pres
! ent did not evince the slightest desire or
| disposition to dictate, and [ venture to as
! sert, without the fear of successful contra
| dictiOn, that if stranger had been present
he could not have diluted from their re-
marks the lawyers who participated in the
meeting. al of these terrible lawyers (to
the amount of thFee) expressed determin-
alton to support the farmers who were prop
erly nominated for the Legislature. To
meet the gratuitous iBsinuation that lawyers
were present tC dictate to the
farmers, will state that this WIS not posi-
BILE, and will give you the facts that
you may draw your own inference
as to the truLhfulness of the assertion.
With myself there were three lawyers who
participated in the meeting; there were,
perhaps; seventy five farmers present. Now,
how in the natdtS Of things could three
lawyers dictate TO seventy-flve farmers? Let
me put another question: How can the
seventy-fve or hundred lawyers dictate
to the ten thousand farmer voters in David
son county? A lawyer might suggest or
adsise, but for him to attempt more would
prove that he was demented. Any man,
whatever may be his avOcatiOn, who has
sense enough to represent this county In the
Legislature of the State, knows that his
prosperity depends upon the prosperous con-
ditiOn of the agricultural interests. He
furthermore knows that the tenure of his
office is the favor of the farmer. honestly
differed with gentlemen in that meeting
as to the expediency of nominating candi-
dates for the Legislature by meeting COM
posed exclusively of farmers. NV reason
for deeming it inexpedient was, that the |
farmers were in the ascendency, that they |
have the power when they deem it wise to |
exercise it, to elevate any man to Office that |
they favor. That all county conventions |
heretofore have been composed Of sixty |
eight delegates, forty-eight farmers and |
twenty from the city. This gives the farm
ers over two-thirds of the delegates, and |
they are thus enabled to easily nomi- |
nate any person that they may IA |
vor. But these gentlemen are op-
posed to the old system of county
conventions, because they allege that they
are corrupt. Are you prepared to say that
the fOrty-eight farmers who represent the
districts of the county are corrupt? Tread |
lightly, gentlemen farmers, as you tread
on ground bristling with danger, when
you allege that these torty-eight farmers
are corrupt. And that for this reason,
we, the farmers assembled in this meet
ing, do resolve that the chairman of this
meeting shall have and exercise the power
to appoint two gentlemen from each civil
district in this county to ascertain the sense
of the district, and represent it in the next
political meeting of the farmers. You can
not remit the question, of who shall repre-
sent the farmers of the different districts in
the next farmers meeting to the farmers of
the districts. Oh no, you cannot trust
them. But you must invest the chairman,
of your meeting, with the performance of
this delicate task. Such usurpation of
power, of which right belongs to the farmers
of the districts, has heretofore been I'M
heard of. This does not evince very great
respect or confidence in the farmers of the
questions the taste of the Turf, Field and
Farm for referring to man who possessed
more than truck-patch. l say let him
who is guiltless throw the first stone. No
one in that meeting has a right to reflect
upon the Turf, Field and Farm for this al
fusion: for this low prejudice was appealed
to in this meeting, and the gentleman boast
ingly inquired if a man who owned simply
a truck patch could speak an hour and ahalf
when be who owned % a hundred Iacres
had not spoken fifteen minutes. Whose :;
withers are wIung? Your correspondent
states that practical lawyer cannot be
farmer / will not question his assertion.
But | will inform him--if he did |
not know it at the time he \
wrote his communication-that
the action of the chairman of his meeting
has refuted his proposition b. the appoint
ment of A. L. Demoss, attorney-at-law, TO {
represent the thirteenth district in the next
farmers meeting, and the Hon. Neil s. I
Brown, attorney at-law, to represent the
seventeenth district. There does not APP
pear to be harmony between yourself and
your chairman. Either yourself or your
chairman is in error. will leave it to your
selves to determine. If he has outraged
the farmer ] would arraign and
Try him, if traitor to your
cause. desire to know by what rule,
editors, who have not even an interest in
4 truck patch are entitled to all the privil (
eyes OF your meetings, when lawyers are
Every body comedies the right
)f the agriculturists to be represented in the