Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1874-08-13


remarks wouldbe er tenpore as he had
not made a political speech in two
years d; hut had he not said so, no one
who heard him on this occasion would
have thought ii. The strictest atten-
! ton was given him throughout and
all regretted that the time given was
not sufficiently long in which to do
himself or the subjects under discus
sion justice. ssszsszEssz .zszsglssss4s
SPEECH OF JUDGE L. c. HOUK.
Judge Houk on taking the stand,
hoped he would have as patient hear
ing as his competitor who had just pre-
ceded him. AS his time was short he
would devote but little Of it to discus
sing the merits of the assessment law.
He thought Col. ThOrnburgh was in
the condition of the old negro preach
err, who on being asked by his master
what he did when he found a knotty
text of scripture that he couldn't ex-
plain {? )replied that he often found such
passages, but when he did so he lust
shouted Glory!
He appeared before the citizens of
! Roane county TO ask their vOtes-ex-
ercising the right of every American
citizen to run for office-fOr the posi-
ton now filled by his competitor,
which he thought he could fill in
more satisfactory manner. He did not
propose TO enter into personalities, but
could say as regarded himself that his
| private character had been assailed by
! INSCRIPTIONS men.
Col. Thornburgh claimed that he
had made the race nearly two years
ago at the solicitation of the leaders of
the Republican party. That might be
so, but he said not. He had voted for
the Colonel, though not as a Kepubli-
can candidate, but to beat the Demo-
cratic nominee of the Battering Ram
District" He showed that his COM
petitor ran on the wOrkingmen's tick
ct, as theirs and the peoples candi-
date. He didn't blame him for this.
for one could run on any ticket he
chose, but he disliked to have his own
integrity called in question as going
back" on a promise given for a clear
| field, when no such pledge had
been made by him, then or at any
time.
No one had a right to pledge any
other than himself AS to what he would
do two years in advance, and he APP
pealed 10 the freemen of Roane county
if they would not rebuke the presump-
ton of self-styled leaders who would
barter their franchise in advance in
favor of a man not then in their dis
trict.
Once be had run against the nomi-
nee of the party, Mr.. Maynard, and
got soundly beaten as he deserved to
be, but he was tight then, while now
he was clothed in his right mind and
had been sober for years. While this
sin against him was true, there was
one thing that could not be laid at his
dOor-he had never been the nominee
of the Democratic party.
Judge HOuk then read extracts from
the proceedings of the Democratic
Convention of July 4th, 1870, reported
in the DAILY CHRONICLE of the 9th
July of that year, in which Thorn
burgh was nominated on the same
ticket with ID. X. Young for Judge
and George Brown for Chancellor.
He plead guilty to wanting to 90 to
Congress, but if he went he expected
to go by Republican votes. st had been
said that if Col. Henderson, Of Knox
vile run, he would divide the Demo-
cratic vote. Col. r. X. Byrd had been
long a supporter of Thornburgh and
it would have been an easier task to
sever the ligament that bound the
Siamese twins together with a scythe
than to sunder their interests.
Col. ThOrnburgh tried to take great
credit to himself on account of the re-
peal OF the back salary grab, but he
had received eight months pay at the
advanced rate, which virtually COM
mitted him to the bill, "steal " or
"grab," or by whatever name it might
be called.
His competitor claimed clear track
now on the score of being a sound Re-
publican. If he had run on that ticket
there might be some reason in his de-
me- a hI1t hn IL mot hot fsyl-
ct, for he well knew had he done so,
it would have been 10 certain defeat.
From the year 1861, and in fact all
along, the history of the party in the
State he had been making Republican
speeches. but he would ask when the
clarion voice of the Colonel had been
heard prOclaiming the sentiments he
now prOfesscd to so ardently admire ?
During his canvass for Congress two
years ago his competitor had made be-
tween thirty and forty speeches, for
which before his time was out, he
would have drawn about $ll 900. He,
the speaker, had made more than five
hundred speeches, but had never
received one cent, but if paid in pro-
portion would open bank and give
his competitor " free thing"
He did vote for the assessment law,
but admitted he did not then under
stand its provisions as we'll as he did
now. Ali the laws bearing on the
subject of taxation had been boiled
down into one, which fact had not been
understood, and while the inventory
clause of the law was the receipt of
special abuse, yet such feature had
been on our statute books for half a
century, and a schedule of property
was required to be given long before
the present law was dreamed of, all of
which went to show there had been
much ado about nothing
Concerning the funding bill, he had
been in favor of the measure from the
time of his election and had so voted,
Freeman had made the Gubernatorial
race on it. He had made a speech in
caucus, as stated, but in it had taken
occasion to argue against loose phrase
ology, and thereby excluded the Tor
bett issue of the State Bank money.
and 1sham @. Harris bonds. He saw
his old colleague, Wester, on the floor,
and though they differed, yet he had
never heard of that gentleman abusing
him about the bill, or charging that
he had sold out to the Damooroc1y