Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-06-20
HAS TIE UNION AND AMERICAN
SUED THE BANNERe

SUED THE BANNERe
State of Tennessee-To the Sheriff
of Davidson county-Greeting: You
are hereby commanded to summon Al
bert Roberts, E. II. Roberts, r. G..
Roberts and George E. Purvls, part
ners under the firm name of Roberts e.
Purvis, if to be found in your county,
to be and appear before the Judge of
the Eighth Circuit, at the next Circuit
Court to be held in the county of Da-
wilson, at the courthouse in the city of
Nashville, on the first Monday in Sep
TENDER next, then and there to answer
John G. Burch In an action of libel to
his damage (S50,000) dollars. Herein
fail not, etc.
Such is the language of the writ
served upon the proprietors of the
Banner in the libel suit instituted
against them by Col John G. Burch.
Whether this suit is brought by the
plaintiff as private citizen-or in his
public capacity as Comptroller of the
State Treasury, or what is the nature
of the publication by which he claims
to have been hbeled and for which
he seeks to recover the damages
named IN the writ, are ques-
tions which the UNION AND AMER
ICAN does not propose to discuss
from any point of view; they have been
referred to the courts for settlement,
ana there, feeling assured that justice
will be done, We are content to leave
them. But the defendants have seen
fit TO adopt a different conrse. They
propose to take the suit out of the hands
Of judge and jury and to make their
defence through the columns of the
Banner. Whether the public senti-
ment they hope to manufacture
by such means will prove ad-
vantageous to them and proportionate-
ly injurious to the plaintiff, it is
nat for us to inquire. Col. Burch has
the advice of able counsel who Will see
that his interests do not suffer, and he
asks no aid or active sympathy from
this paper. If he has invoked the in
terposition of the law, not to silence"
the Banner, not to prevent the "exer-
else of its legitimate mission" not to
play game of bluff, /" but to compel
the proprietors of that paper to prove
in open court, the ibelous charges
whatever they may be-On which
his suit is based, he will
doubtless assign, at the proper mo-
ment what are deemed good and suf-
ficient reasons therefor. In the mean
time, however, we do not intend that
the Banner shall place the UNION AND
AMERICAN In false light before the
public with regard to this suit. 1t is
not our fight. End as it may, the inter-
ests of the UNION AND AMERICAN can
not be, in the slightest degree, affected
by the result. The plaintiff fortunes
and those Of this paper could, under no
circumstances, be disassociated to a
greater degree than IN the proceedings
which he has instituted against the
owners of the Banner. The alleged
libel was not published against the
UNION AND AMERICAN, nor against
Col. Burch as its former editor and
present joint proprietor, but affected
his reputation and standing solely as a
private citizen or public official We
seek in the courts no PREPARATION forany
harm the Banner may be supposed to
have done us. And in still less degree
have we had cause to regret its
rivalry in the field of journal.
istic enterprise. There is room
enough in the world for us both, and
If the Banner has recovered some of
the ground lost in 1872 by what might
be termed in broad spirit of charity
its eccentric course, it certainly has
not done so at the expense of the
UNION AND AMERICAN. No class feel
the hardness of the times more acutely
than newspaper publishers, yet if the
BanRer stands as fairly to-day in cir
culation and prosperity as the UNION
AND AMERICAN, we can afford to con-
gratulate it upon the forgetful temper
of the time and forgive its exultation
over the prospect of our premature de-
mise