The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-11-05
Mawkish BOSIa.

The Brownsville Democrat is somewh at
severe on Ex-senator Fowler Grafton on
the the occasion of the Andrew johnson
ceremonies at Nashville.
Mr.. Fowler in the course of his address
said, speaking of the youth of johnson;
The youth of Mr. johnson appeared
hedged in by so many barriers as to for
bid aspiration. Social lines were closely
drawn. Men were still accustomed to
look for responsibility, if not for high born
virtues, for places of position and trust.
As readily might the Sudra hope to be-
come a Brahmin as one so humble to seek
for high Places
To this the Democrat says:
This is all sheer nonsense in a country
that had already elevated to the Presidency
Andrew jackson, the son of poor litter
rate Irish peasant, End had hOnOred and
,dored the poor miller boy, Henry Clay,
and the great son of a pOverty-stricken,
uliterate Yankee farmer, Daniel Webster,
nor will it do to tell il In the former home
Governor Cannon, the saddler, and the
present home of Michael Burns, the har-
ness maker. 1t is, to be plain, sad stuff,
and erroneous in sentiment and in fact"
The Democrat is particularly savage on
Fowler tor saying. in his Grafton, lover
his (Johnson) head was fourished the lash
Of the proud patriciau, and after speaking
of some of he principal men in Raleigh, the
Haywoods, Stanleys, Battles, &c. who were
friends to him in his childhood and youth
the Democrat winds up on Mr. Fowler.
The fact is, there did not exist in Raleigh
North Carolina, during The chill ihOOd and
youth of Mr.. Johnson, such cruel and
imperiOus race as Mr. Fowler would have
the world believe Nor has there existed
in Tennessee subsequently, such a race
Of men, nor such state of facts. We
have waited patiently for some other jour
nal to deny and refute these calumnies
against noble race of men who have
passed away, but we are unwilling to wait
longer, and we pronounce them to be,
what every thinking man will inevitably
conclude them to be, demagoguery, moth
ing but demagOgurry. Now what are
the facts? Mr. johnson started exactly
under the same diff culties that ten mil
lions of other poor friendless, fatherless
boys have started, aud are starting on
their careers through life. Not a whit
worse than other taiiors' apprentices, and
every man of sense knows 1t is not such
a terrible, wOetul, deplorable thing to take
the proper steps to learn an honorable
calling, nor Is the subsequent rising to
eminence from a respectable calling
matter of great wonderment, in a free
country. This is the whole matter in a
nutshell, stripped of all fancy, meretri-
cious demagoguery and vapid verbiage.
Andrew johnson was great man because
nature made him so. He would have
been so if he had been the fondled off
spring of wealth. We see no cause for
Juggling in on that solemn occasion a
groundess misrepresentation of state of
society that never has existed either in
North Carolina or Tennessee. His al
fusion to naughty patrician order, and
of Brahminical adherence to caste, is
very weak sort of fancy, and has no other
foundation. Persistent merit will rise to
eminence anywhere and everywhere"
The Democrat thinks there was much
'Mawkish Bosh' in the eulogy.