Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-06-18

I
| present.
Signed ]. ]. WoMACK."
Capt. Womack having thus indicated his
intention to not be present, Major Hobbs
said he was going to make the statement
anyway, as representatives of the two city
papers were present. Turning to Mr..
| Campbell, clerk in the Comptroller's Of
fee he inquired:
Mr.. Campbell, will you please state
what you were doing from Feb. l, 1873, to
MAY /, 1873?
Mr.. Campbell-I was clerk in the Comp
| troller's office from October, 1871, to your
| induction into office, (Feb. LIST, 1873
at which time, at your request, l took
| charge of the books of The Office as chief
| clerk, which position l still occupy.
Hobbs-Were you not my principal
| clerb?
Campbell-I suppose | was, from the
| fact that had charge of the books, and no
one else had charge of them. think you
| had made no selection rs first CLERK. Ifyou
| had. was never notified of that fact.
Hobbs-Either by me or any one else?
Campbell-Neither by you nor any one
else.
Hobbs-Mr. WOmack was here frequent
", was he not?
Campbell-Yes, sir, he was sitting
around here most of the time from lifetime
of your election until he went into your
office as clerk.
Hobbs Did he at any time tell you he
was first clerk of this Office?
Campbell-He did not.
Hobbs-Nevtr demanded Of you the
books, or anything of that sort?
| - 81
HObbs-Now, gentlemen, l want to refer
to this report in the UNION AND ANERI-
| CAN Of last Saturday, of an interview held
by Mr.. Bell, of that paper, with Mr.. WO-
mack the day before. would much rather
Mr.. Womack was here-much rather-but
as he has been notified to be present, and is
not, it is not my fault. j read from that
report: Il never saw Hobbs until at the
time he was elected Comptroller. l had
been living in McMinnville, practicing law
l came to Nashville during the session OF
the Legislature in 1873, as a candidate fol-
the office of Secretary of State. Several Of
nv friends in the Legislature worked fol
Hobbs and finally succeeded in electing
him Comptroller. After the election, he
came to them and said: Gentlemen, owe
my success to your efforts, and am willing
~ uO lAlliis Ndb lbl lOus uSA4f
that, most emphatically; the men came tC
me.
Then Womack saws, according to the re
port, Several of my friends worked fol
| Hobbs" That do rot DENY, but l didn't
go TO them, and for the truth of this asser
| ton | refer to Capt Wood and Maj. Moi
fatt. They came to me, in the presence o.
| Hon. Jacob Leach and Attorney General
1 IT M,nfra,, I didn't l-Dnvu lVOrfaa
then, and had no reason to think he would
accept a clerkship in the Comptroller's of
fee after having aspired to the position Of
Secretary of State. l deny promising him
the place of chief clerk, but l promised to
try to do something for him, if l could. II
the funding bill passed promised Mr.. WO-
mack, in the presence of Mr.. Batson, my
clerk, to give him charge of the funding de-
partment.
Then again: Womack says: 81 was told
of this promise and called on Hobbs, when
| he reiterated his promise, and when he
took possession of his office, appointed me
chief clerk" That, also deny most posi-
lively; as Mr.. Campbell has just shown
you, he was chief clerk, and
called into the office during the absence of
MI. DdlSOu. WIZ was d. llOlllC SlCh-CdllCu
in to clerk until he returned. Do you re-
member the time he served, Mr.. Camp
bell?
Campbell think about a month.
HObbS-Well, WOmack says a month;
thought it was three weeks, but we'll put it
at a month, for which l paid him S75 in
the presence of Mr.. Campbell, who proba-
bly, remembers the circumstance.
him hnf
don't know the amount.
Hobbs-Well, l paid him SIS. Womack
saws: u remained with him during the
three months he held the place and only
received one months pay" / say paid
him big pay for every DAYS work. His
statement about nv resigning the Comp
trollership is true, or nearly so. Womack
goes on to say, speaking of my resignation:
"Hobbs didn't treat me in very gentle
manly manner. The first notice we
had was when Col. Burch came
in and said, well, gentlemen, l
suppose you know there has been a
change made in this Office, and that am
now the Comptroller We, that is Camp
bell and myself, told him we had heard
nothing of it before. A few days after,
Hobbs was about to leave the city for his
home at Waverly, without letting me know
anything about it, AZ"
The fact of the matter IS, remained in
the city a week afi er my resignation was
accepted. didn't try to get home without
letting him know ii, but was perfectly
willing everybody should know was go
ing home. During that week Womack
came to my room one night. He didn't
propose a settlement, for l owed him moth
ing. but remarked that he had left his wife
crying-that he had bought some articles
OH time and that if he couldn't get some
money, they would be levied on-or words
to that effect. He asked me if he couldn't
borrow $500. l understood him to say
''borrow, but he says "get." refused to
loan it to him..
In day or so left for my home in Wa
verify. He wrote me soon after Igot home,
demanding $500 damages, saying in case l
refused to forward it by express L might
consider had law suit on my hands, to
which letter l replied that if he got a cent
more from me he would get it in the Su-
preme Court.
In his published statement, Womack
proceeds: 1.-The case was continued once,
and was passed over once on account Of the
absence of defendants counsel. 1t is now
set for next week, but l am afraid Hobbs
Will get another continuance. We are
ready TO have the case tried and have been
from the first"
The truth with regard to that is, he has
never summoned his witnesses. The case
was on demur until last Saturday, and has
never yet been ready for trial. have been
perfectly willing so far as | am concerned,
for the courts to settle the matter between
Womack and myself if he had not report
ed certain things which, | think, needed
correction.
He who often swears distrusts his own
word.