Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-01-07
THE MUNICIPAL ELECTION IN MEMPHIS

| Inc munlclpal election in Memphis
| which came off on the LIST inst. was one Of
the closest contested and most exciting
ever held there. The candidates for Mayor
| were j. J. Busby, Democrat, and John
League, Republican. League and the en-.
tire Republican ticket were elected by an
average of eight hundred majority. This
does not appear as If the Republican par
ty of Memphis was growing weak very
fast. The Union ana Amcricn has been
deceiving itself, we fear, and laying q
fiattering JUNCTION to its poor soul that the
circumstances do not justify.
The appeal accounts for the defeat of
the Democratic candidate by saying that
he had arrayed against him "open HOSTILE
ty, secret treachery and the Union and
Irish, Germans and negroes" We clip the
following sketch of the successful candidate
from the appeal.
/" He was an Irishman, and was born on
the fourth of April, 1929, in the
city of Londonderry, and is therefore in
his forty.fifth year. Before he arrived
at the age of eight years his father died,
leaving his widowed mother in destitute
circumstances, but, firmly resolved to
battle against misfortune, and to acquire
an education, although Catholic, he APP
piled to the trustees of Gwynne's Insti-
tuition, in his native city, for admission
to that famous school. founded by John
Gwynne, Presbyterian gentleman, for
the purpose of supporting and educating
the orphans of the city and surrounding
country, and securing to each, at the
proper age, trade. There he was edu-
Gated, but after serving several years to a
cruel taskmaster,. learning the art of
coach painting, he was compelled to
leave Londonderry and make his future
home in the United States. Arriving in
New York in September, 1885, more than
twenty-five years ago, he continued to
work at his trade until 1855, when he re-
solved to invest his savings in the South.
With view to inform himself as to the
most desirable place to locate permanently,
he, in October, 1858, left the employment
of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad
Company, and from that time to Septem-
ber 1860, travelled as pedler through Vir-
GINA, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi
and Louisiana, when he fixed upon this as
the most thriving city in the south. His
career, since that time, is known to most
of our citizens. After the surrender of
Memphis he became member of the
Board of School Visitors, in which position
he proved himself, as he has ever been, a
friend to our admirable system of public
education. Our citizens also elected him
city tax-collector on privileges three times
in succession. In 1865 he was appointed
to and filled the Office of Surveyor of the
port of Memphis. which he held until
called by the people of Shelby county to
fill the Office of county court clerk. At
the expiration of his term of Office in 1870,
he retired to private life, and has ever since
filled the position of cashier of the EN-
NETT bank.
Mr.. League is quiet, reticent but firm
and resolute man, one who keeps his
own council and thoroughly honest will,
if he can work free of his ignorant sup
porters, make an excellent executive of
flcer. 1t has been his ambition for years to
reach the position of chief magistrate of
this city that he might prove to the poor
boys of the Irish city he left so many years
ago that this is a country where a man
may, by honest effort, lift himself above
and prove himself superior to the humblest
lot in life. He wanted to prove, too, to the
solid, thoughtful, intelligent and highly
cultured people of Londonderry that the
United States is all that its most patriotic
citizens claim for it, the one great field for
individual enterprise, as we'll as the asy-
lum for the oppressed of all lands. We
hope his ambition will now take another
| form-that of making good Mayor, one
whose name will long live among our peo-
pie, honored because of the enduring title
heshall earn for honesty in that impor-
tant office.