The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-06-19

| that for selfish purposes, had raised the
| question OF politics where politics ought L
| he ignored, and presumed to meet IN some
| private room in Columbia and blaze out q
| path for the honest men in the country tC
| walk in as slaves, &C., &c. This portion OF
the letter Sc states %ha did aa1 say as e
| OTIS say, and / still say 1t.
But the sunkindest cut of all" is this:
| ''He believed the trying of negroes by
| white jurors to be an excrescence of bar
barrie ages which he hoped to see soon
swept away" Now the truth is, dld not
only not say any such thing, but never heard
any one utter the sentiment In my LIE.
never thought of such thing till read
it in the letter signed by Latta and Whit
thorne.
/ will now show what they manufactured
into III foregoing. After the candidates con-
Guided their speeches, closed the meetlng.
Latta had explained to his audience why II
was that cOlOred man when on trial In
Court, could not be allowed to have jury
of his own race. The reason ulttmated In
the fact that the Court would not allow IT.
at least this was my understanding OF his
remarks. In my closing remarks, l hap
pened TO think of this and said: "A Court
hGt t0M not aAo,o a colored man the priUtte0e Of
a jury Of his Ol0H color tchen on trial 'chen ne
asks for it, ought to Be s,0ept fr0. The oo ga
on that subject, and what still say.
They go on to state, blackburn then
closed the meeting, by saying tna5
unless something turned up, the chill
dren of those now before me, will become
hewers of wood aud drawers of water in
d. e.-unIess they voted for Black ourn & Co,
they would be re-enslaved.C The design of
this Misrepresentation needs no pointing
out by me.
What did say was more directly intend
ed for Latta and Whitthorne than for the
after having been disguised for more than
an hour, as suppose, at listening to the
their efforts (as / regarded it, to fool the
unlettered colored peopIe-"perSonaUv like
WhitthOrnP and I,atta. &c, but / believe
the political position they occupy makes
it impossible for them to be friends
colored race, 60, &C., and / predict that
unless the people raise themselves to a
higher plane and do the things that are
lawful and right before God and man,
more than they are now doing, that the
time will come when the pOster1ty of not
only those who hear me tonight, but the
white race also, will become hOuseleSS and
homeless in the land of their fathers, &c,
&C." This is nearly verbatim what l said
and l reiterate it here and now.
Closing their letter they say, blackburn
staid with Gregory and Albert, Balaam and
Arch returned to Columbia"
And so the Sheriff and his friend, the
Clerk of the Circuit Court, both honorable
men, as a matter of course, and being learn
ed, know how hard it is to destroy an error
published to the voters of the county that
Blackburn, after having announced
sentiments to colored auditory that
would make it impossible for any white
man to vote for him, staid all night with
one of the cOIOred candidates. This is the
answering voice to the initial point, and OF
course, like the initial point, is not true, but
can be proved to be untrue.
At the close of my talk to the people in
the Court House on LIST inst, l left the room
to attend to business in the bank and did
not return. l learned subsequently, that
Mr.. WhitthOrne said, in his speech, that eve
ry word in the letter signed by himself and
Latta, true, and that l, in denying it,
had lied, and that he, at this point called on
Latta to prove that the letter did set forth
the truth, and that Latta assented.
Now right here, l say that my love of |
truth, and my appreciation of character is
such, that l would have chosen death in |
preference to being in the place of either |
WhitthOrne or Latta at that time.
1t is true that my fellOw-citiZens have
blamed me much in former years, on ac- |
count of my anti-slavery proclivities, and |
recently, for my Republicanism, but | |
thank God that yet have to find the man
who believes me to be a liar. Now l don't |
want to injure either Latta or WhitthOrne, |
or anybody else. To rebuild the dilapfdated |
walls of our political Zion, is my constant |
aim and purpose. But why is it, that these |
men, turning aside from their own business |
take upon themselves the additional work |
of crushing me? Let them remember that |
this is America, and that political salvation |
is OF the people here, and that in the end, |
they will Enthusiastically vindicate the right, |
and let them also ponder the truth so well |
set forth by Shakespeare.
How stronger than a breast plate is the |
heart untaiuted.
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel |
jUst;
And he but naked though locked up in
Whose conscience with injustice is cor
rupted."
So mote It be-. q. w. BLACKBURN.