The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1874-08-05
OUR KNOXVILLE LETTER.
A DEFERRED LETTER-THE RUL1

L
A CONSERVATIVE VICTORY
A NEGRO'S MISTAKE LETS A
SECRET OUT-COL w. Fl. TUR-
LEY SOLICITED To RUN FOR
SENATOR.
KNOXVILLE, July 27. 1874.
DEAR GAzETTE-"The Fall fights
have opened" On Saturday Will
Rule and Lafayette Ledgcrwood tried
their hands at fist-i-cuff, and both
got bruized up a little, but neither
hurt so badly as to require the aid of
a surgeon. The cause of the diff
Guilty wasqa report of the speaking of
the day before, in the 10th civil Dis
trict, which was sent to the Press and
Herald by Capt. Ledgerwood. In
this he charged that Rule had claim;
ed there was n ring, of which he
(Rule) was the head, and that said
ring intended to rule Knox county.
Rule denied the charge and Capt.
Ledgerwood reasserted it; where
upon Rule called him liar. To this
Ledgerwood replied that he mustnot
use such language, as he very well
knew he could not resent it. Rule
replied by again calling him a liar,
upon which Ledgerwood called him
a did liar, when Rule struck him
! blow and clinched him. Capt. Ledger
wood showed him off and gave him a
rap over the head with his stick,
which closed the fight, as parties
stepped in and prevented further
difficulty.
Now to you and me, and to great
many others who know the parties,
this cannot help being regarded as a
most unfortunate affair, particularly
to him who struck the first blow.
Nothing that Will Rule ever said or
did has hurt him so much as this one
blow.
The canvass OF our candidates for
county offices is growing quite warm.
Matt Swan, for Sheriff, is making a
splendid race, and unless matters
materially change between this and
the day Of the election, will be elect
ed. The other Conservative candi-
dates are also making a splendid
fight, and their prospects are bright
ening every day. Cur Radical friends
are using every and any sort of
means to secure success, but in many
instances it is recoiling upon their
own unhappy heads most disas-
trously. The people throughout the
country know that the Republican
! party is the parent of the Civil Rights
Bill, and believe that it is a duty
they owe to themselves and poster
ity, to record their votes against that
ahOmination. They say. and wisely
too, that the party which has for its
foundation stone such a doctrine as
this, is the thing they have to fight;
that as far as the Radical candidates
for county Offices are concerned, they
may not favor the bill themselves,
but then they are part and parcel
of the organization which does favor
it, and therefore, they will vote
against them that as the cannot all
be in Congress to vote against the
great iniquity when it comes up for
final action, they will just take this
opportunity of voting against it, by
voting against any man who is in ac
tive sympathy with the party to
which it belongs. The party lash
will have to be applied rather more
vigorously than usual, if the Radical
party does not lose largely in this
election. The party leaders are al
ready crying out that 1.-THE Civil
Rights Bill has nothing to do with
county Offices" But the people think
differently, and say the same cry
will lie raised when it comes to vote
for members of the Legislature and
Congress, if listened to now.
One of the funniest little incidents
/ happened the other day that has oc-
CURED during the canvass. You
know that Sam Ramage and Charles
d. McGutfey, Radical candidate for
Attorney General for the District of
Knox, both affect the Flamingo-
style in personal appearance. Well,
it so happened the other day as
Ramage was crossing the street, that
a colored gemnodn hailed him with,
IS Hold on dar. / wants to see you a
minnit.'' Sam stopped to see what
was up. when the colored man and
brother proceeded thusly: "Pse
been a dom what you told me, and
they's all goin' to vote for You. /
/ told EN- you was for de swivel rights
bill all right, but dat you had to tell
| dem white fel!ers you was agin it, in.
order to ketch der votes" .Ramage
replied that that was all right, and
started off, when the "culled brud-
der" again halted him, and told him
| he would like to have little more
money, as he wanted to send his fam
| lily down the country. When Inform
ed that he was mistaken in the man,
and that the gentleman addressed
was not the one he supposed, you
ought-to- have- been present to see
that under jaw drop, and the whites
of those eyes roll up. and hear that
horriful exclamation. "What amt
you Mr.. McGuffey?' "No. am
not, - was the reply. "Well den, l
spose Use made a mistake" and
exit darkey.
We, in Knox county. would like to
have our mutual friend and fellow
citizen, w. II. Turley, run for the
State Senate from this Senatorial
District. We need for the position.
man of enlarged views and sue
cessful business experience. The
next Legislature will be the. most
important body that has met in this
State since 1861, and, as a conse-
quence, we need the very best men
in the State elected to it. We have
= n II.