Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-07-15
A. S. COLYAR AND HIS WRONGS.
He Tells Them All Oter; From First
TO Last.
What He Has accomplished rs a Great
Party Pdrifyer.
To the Union and American;

NASHVILLE. July IA, 1S14.-IOur arti-
Gle headed "a, $. Colyar and His Wrongs"
and published ON the 10Th ult., when L was
absent from the State, was seen by me for
the frst title to-dat. shall ask Tut little
of your space to reply.
You are perhaps right in tile estimate
put Upon me by the party press: l Know
thH az riulit ~ satine the Radical press IS
shy of me, and think 1t is equally true OF
the Democratic press. The leaders OF these
two organizations, and especially the press,
have alternately controlled the legislation
ri the state since 1865, and alternately they
nave rad tHatg6 of tbs delicate questions
growing out of the war l have
hem in the habit of saying and
very frequently writing, that some vi these
leaders on both sides ought to be in the
asyiun, ANA Others of them ot.stt TO re IN
the penitentiary. have not changed my
opinion. and it is not surprising that am
not popular with these gentlemen.
II is true these two organizations are
subrused to embrace all the people OF the
State; but Mr.. Editor; the mistake which
| think fdu ilaAe Is, In surprising that tile
| talking and writing members OF these two
families are the people;
When tile question IS fairly thade, the
noiicv Of both these battles Il Al presgnt
fastened on the people, BY the leaders,
will be condcInne1. Inro GlA oihy
be done however, when men Of nerve
and brains, who by the politicians have
been kept back, get before the people 10
discuss measures and EXPOSE corruption
! cen in their own party.
You are right in another thing. 1 am
not a success as politician. Ii would take
| a man of greater ability than | ever claimed
10 expose rings and at the same time be
popular with rings-tO attack and expose
Radicals when they proposed to steal from
| Democrats, and then attack and expose
Democrats VIII II they proposed To kl-klux
| Radicals; and az the same time I've popular
! with eithst sid6;
You say OF me, "treat as are his capa-
bilities in spheres where any, man Ought to
be proud 10 shine, itrepreSsible as is his en-
ergy when there is any work before him,
! he has 10 very serious degree impaired, if
not completely exhausted, his opportunities
for usefulness in political life by having
| failed to cultivate the art of keeping quiet
when sound judgment suggests silence
Thanking you for the compliment tfOr a
rose is pleasant to the smell even when
fOhnd growing in a biincll Of thoiIis,,
ami Obliged again, to admit tile laciS OF pru-
| dence. and that | have often spoken out
| greatly to my detriment. This perhaps.
| however, was not so much a lack OF
| judgment as you may suppose. | have
| known all the while as well as know now,
| that the road to success in the Democratic
party was, 10 take no sides on any question
that came up until the party met, and
| decided, which side was on. | have al
ways been perfectly aware of the fact that
| the surest road to success In the party was
| TO never attack ANYTHING dOfe by the party
or any prominent member OF It, and TO new
ef adriiit that thh bpbOSle party or ATTY
member Of 1t had ever done anything that
was right Those rules have not observed
and hence am obliged to admit havetalk-
dtOO much.
= Nv views in reference To the way OF get
ting office, are not popular with party Lead
erS. | entertain the fixed conviction that
when a man declares himself a candidate
for office and particularly an Office OF digni-
ty, that his mode Of electiOneering
should he by meeting and addressing the
people instead of going from place TO place
TO electionser with middleiiien. | think a
man should 60 before the people and ad-
dress himself to questions instead of at
tempting to control a few wire-pullers in
each county by personal interviews.
This not being the custom is unpopular.
The answer 10 all you say about the
! Banner is that under the recognized rule,
and which your paper has had much to do
! in establishing, the Banner can no more
afford to recognize indei endent political
views than your own or any other party
paper.
You say | have written too much, made
too many speeches and been i candidate
100 often. This is all true, looking at my
Success as politician. ! do not like. 10
/ make a challenge, but allow me 10 say that
there is no measure of State policy which |
/ have advocated since the war which your
paper did not afterwards approve. lmmi-
/ grafton; divOrcing the State and the rail-
roads; working cOnvicts at something
purely productive instead of coming in com
petition with our mechanics; opposition TO
| the Ku-Klux, as well as opposition
to corporation rogues, and especially
harmonious action between the
Democrats and Liberal Republicans.
As to nv being a candidate, only twice
| have | declared myself a candidate +
any office. The first time, as announced at
the time, to denOunce on the stump the at
tempt TO revive the doctrine Of state
| SOrereigHfy, and the second time, to aid
| Mr.. johnson and others in breaking up eau
cuses which had completely given the State
over to a ring.
Whether the fight made by Mr.. johnson
aud those who acted with him, did not to
some extent, open the eyes of the people as
| nf flaa tho
now taken TO prevent its repetition is the
| best evidence.
By way of apology for the many hard
| things said about me i'm the article, you say
'swe have not forgotten how almost single
handed he wrested our city government
| from the Alden ring Of thieves, and saved
| the taxpayers a clear million of dollars,
| for which il must be acknowledged his ser
vices got but scant recognition"
This being the first recognition of my
! services, in that affair by any city paper,
and indeed the first by any party paper in
| the State, Won will allow me again to re-
| turn my thanks, with the illustration again
of the rose and the thorn.
Allow me TO say, rs you introduce a sub
| iect which to me has come TO be a source
| of much pain and which rarely refer TO
| that in manuscript penned for my OWN
| family, of all that took place the thing
which | most specially notice was the kind
words of the press out of the State and the
influence of party on the press in the State
Under the influence Of party leaders, some
| of whom were appealed to to
help and refused; 5 ONE Of whom
were specializing in checks, and some Of
whom were actively engaged in the war on
the city. no word of commentator was
uttered by the party press in the State nm
| til YOU do it. at the end of five years, in an
| article which my own family can't atf'rd to
! preserve.
You deny the hostility of your paper
aud can't afford to disprOve the denial by
again having published what has in par
been forgotten.
On two occasions personal references tC
me were of such a character that | wa
compelled 70 ask a correction, and twice
rec ntly and before this publication, tn,
articles Were personal and not argumenta
tive.
This is not ALL know Of no occasion
for the offensive allusiOn in your paper an'
the CIdrkSrNe Tobacco Leaf to my son
who has certainly given nobody ohense
except that he is my son.
You say my recent attemptto organize ;
partvjwaS an utter failure. | beg leave TO say
that have attempted to organize no party
have simply. with Others, taken the tirs'
| -ta,, ~ c,,4-att tlla abuses and WrDugS a