Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1874-09-11
THE JEFFERSON COUNTY PRO-
TEST. --'
SEINE Plain Facts About tn ST IA rs 10
the syOGe%i.

EDITORS CHRONICLES: / happened
to notice in this mornings issue oftte,
Press and Herald, u communication
headed . The Republicans Of Jefferson
County Protest against the action OF
the recent County Convention" /
wish to say word concerning this
protest, through the columns OF your
Repub6cqn paper. The two first lines
Of the communication brand the whole
as a batefaced falselood connected for
the purpose of creating diseDrd-in the
Republican party Of this equity, as L
will show you.
The lines referred to read thus;
+" We, the undersigned, delegates APP
pointed TO attend the Convention at
Dandridge,n SC. Now [ have the hon
o. to be Secretary of the Rupub-
lican Central Executive Committee
of Jefferson county, and know that
two of the signers to this protest, and
the identical two who originated it,
were not delegates to said convention.
One of them, A. E. SaWyers, is not and
has not been for some time recognized
as a Republican, and has not been
voting with the Republican party.
Besides this, he is an outspOkeif per
soYaoE enemy of Col. Th9rnburgh, as is
also the other of the two-rfos. North
ern. Further, I have authority for
SAYING that three other men whose
names appear to this &" protest = have
never seen the original, and knew
nothing of it's existence untiIGit was
published The vote in the cOnven-
tion stood 29 for to IA against the reso,
lntious-or two to one The pro
test" has sixteen names to It,
two of which were not delegates, ana
| three of which are signed WI heut
| authority Leaving the. pittful num-
|. Der of, eleven names TO protest aasfal l. /
the action of three delegates from each
civil District in the County, making
! In all 43 Delegates. The pretty protest
saws further: after having fraudu~
lently passed Resolution, endorsing
Hon. +. NJ. Thornburgh, and instruct
ING said Delegates to cast the vote OF
| Jefferson County for him." The
4 Chairman of, the Convention is an
I openly avowed Houk man. The Con
I vention was largely attended, as they
| don't deny. After the Resolutions
| had been received and adopted,
and other business attend ! to,
| and after Houk's friends had
| been to nearly every delegate
voting in the affirmative and tried 10
| get some one OF, them to make a mo-
! tiOn to reconsider and failed, one OF his
| friends who was not a delegate insis-
| ted on the right to move recOnsidera-
|, ton, which was justly overruled,
! showing conclusively that those voting
in the affirmative did not regret hav
| ing voted for the resolutions and had
no intention Of reconsldefing'. and
! further there were some delegates mot
| present, who are known, to nave since
! expressed themselves for the resolu-
| tons and would have; voted Tor them
had they been present. Thefe were
also two proxies one in the 8tn5 DlS5rlct
and one in the 9Th, legally authorized
to be cast for Thornburqhj< both OF
which BY neglect failed to be
| culnted which, had they been
counted, would have made the vote
stand 81 for, to IA against the Resolu-
tions. The whole fact is simply
| Houk's few isolated friends in this
county are "hurti2." They are sore,
and why should they not be, after
they had made 4. grand rally of all
their forces, to end it in confusion
without any definite action, retired i'll
disorder, resolved to try to effect their
originally intended plan, of disOrgun-
izing the Republican. party, by and
through the bold and ready use of
falsehood which they can command
readily. and inSgreat abundance. IL
Mai. Derrick even made 3 HOukiSh
speech before the voting advocating
the Judges banking system, Which
all sensible people understood TO be
done for influence and effect.
L. IL. TO-.
days Press and Herald, in which it is
in-law of Col. ThOrnburgh, prepared
the resolutions referred to in that
| weak and one-eyed effort called a
"Protest y ...... .... ........ ID
l happened 10 be one Of the com
mittee of three on resolutions, etc,
and [ here positively assert that Col.
]. NJ. Minis had nothing to dc with
writing ordctating either the language
or spirit of said resolutions, and
neither did DR.. J. Nat. Lyle, referred
to as the ring manager y, Of, the
Thornburgh delegation. ...s-~.' .::.
In conclusion, l will add,
that the convention passed
Off tremendously as regards
wrangling, &C., Notwithstanding the
wishes and efforts of the Honk men
to the contrary. l say futher, with
out fear of successful contradiction,
that the Resolutions are expressive of
the sentiment of large majority-in
proportion to the rate for and against
the resolutions-Oft the Republicans of
this county, and we feel proud of them
as we do of the honorable J. NJ. Thorn
burgh, for whose benefit they were
adopted. ..ass .-.s --:..
[ wish it to be distinctly under
stood that write this letter with no
luminosity, enmity or ifl-feeiing to-
wards the signers Of the protest" or
any of Judge Houk's friends. / only
wish to relieve the good Republicans
of this county, who met here on the
occasion above referred to for the pur-
pose of doing justice between man and
man, from the embarrassment the cir
culation of such a slanderous commu-
nication is calculated to place them
under Respectfully. ..l.s, ..-....,.
Secretary Central Republican Execu-
tive Committee Jefferson county. II
'.- Cadet CIOfFliuS. ..'"
The undersigned, would res pectfully
call the attention of uaraOfs and Of h