Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-10-07
TIN PENIrENrrARY LEASE.

! TIN PENIrBNTIARY LEASE.
In 1890, themen of that day thought It
was hardly the thing to take men who had
! been found guilty of crime, strip them,
! tie them to whipping post and whip them
| like dogs and let them go. They thought
| the better way was TO erect n building and
maize them work, hence they built the pens
! Tertiary. One of the great cries about the
! Republican Administration was with re-
| gard to their management of the prniten.
| tiary. How had it been managed ? The
! Legislature had passed a law letting it out
| to the highest responsible bidder, and under
! this law it had been leased to Ward 4
| Briggs. This law was passed in 1866. When
| this Democratic party came into power
1 in 1862 this lease had yet
nearly two years yet to run.
! The Democratic party was then
| proscriptive and denunciatory, and deter
mined that no body but their own chosen
men should have anything to do with aG-
msnistrating the affairs of the State. Hence,
| you recollect they wentto work, and every
| Republican officer was swept out of Office
within six months after they got control
| this party that my competitor tells us is the
party Of love, kindness, generosity, liberal
| itv. and all the high Christian virtues
/ Laughter
Well, they passed a law turning Ward
/ ~ DFlgRS OUT tl JuN ItHllclIlhlNs 'llth'
Mr.. John G. Brown tells us in his Pulaski
speech that it cost $4,000 to get these two
men out That is his statement What
were the facts? When these men found
that they were going out, they had a great
| lot of property on hand in the shape Of
tools machinery, etc, which they had been
| compelled to purchase to carry out their
| lease. and they thought their property was
worth this sum Of Sl63G00 and the Legis-
! l.. 4 (',tpnfrAllnr of
| Treasury to pay it. Then he says, in the
| same speech, that it took the sharpost kind
of management TO keep Ward II Briggs
from getting SSD 900 more before the courts.
! These men claim that they were entitled TO
something for breaking up their contract,
and l supposed it did take all the manage
ment of good Democratic lawyers to pre-
vent Democratic court from doing justice
to these men.
They got the penitentiary out oC the
hands of the Radicals, and these Demo
CRATES came together and passed law
giving the management of the institution to
a Board of Inspectors That was in 1870,
When the Legislature met in 1871, these
inspectors reported they had made r clear
profit to the State during the year of S94
900 This report was made on the lst of
October, 1871, and looked very handsome
it was an Improvement on the Radicals,
you know. Laughter
Things went along Il few weeks swim
mingly. On the 18th day of November,
which was on Saturday, Governor Brown
astonished everybody by sending a
special message to the Legislature,
saying that on the previous day the
inspectors had leased that establishment to
two men named Tom. O'Conner and Mr.,
Looney, and he sent in the lease for the
Legislature to ratify Why did they send
this in if the Inspectors had Il right tC
make "a lease? Because the law authorized
them to make no such contract, and Gov
Brown knew it. The agreement was made
on Friday, the 18th day of November, 1871
and sent in next day with message re
commencing its adoption, by which lease
they proposed to let these men have for five
years after the lsL day Of December mex
the use of all the property connected with
the penitentiarY, tools, engines, grounds
buildings etc, together with the labor o
all the cOnviCts.
This property cost the State of Tennessee,
perhaps 1000, 000 and the convicts mum
bered some go, and all this for the price o
$4,000 year, although these Inspector
? who had made this lease had protested they
had made nearly 100000 during the yea
Just ended. The lease was made wilhou
anybody knowing of it, and was sent in OF
Saturday at the beginning of the session
when there was but little business beins
done and many mem hers had zone home
Nothing was done with the matter unti
t MondaS the 2Oth and than II yosnnt riyh
throngb tbe Senata nndcr wbin Ind sn1r
r. and sent in to tho House the neyt dav
Q Wednosdav !. yyos taken nm and let m.
read what was done:
$ Mr.. Enioe, Chairman of the Commit
g too on Pepitcntiarv submitted rnDort an,
r. said The Committees believed mis- nronosi
tion The hest to be done under the circum
S stances and recommended il be odopted.
/ "Nr V-ugbn, of David SON nresen,ed
70 bid from Nessrs. Newsom. Horton ~ Co.
n of Nashville. proposing to lease the peni
It tantiarv on the same terms offered b.
, o. Conner & Lgonov. at $4,000 per an
70 num-
a This Won see. is for $1,000 moro tina
1 was offered Inv o. Conner Il Looney, or ia
n five years $4,000 vet this bid was nc
e considered at all.
Here comes a message from Gov. job
r. C. Brown ~ procured the Attorne
;; General of the State to draw up the cor
e tract and | hone YOU will sanction il
e That message was a short one. but he 500
0 sends in another, of greater length, (
r. which he presses the matter.
!, Mr.. Speers moved to postpone action o
= the contract until the next Tuesday ut
/