Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-11-20


ing can be gained either pro or con by |
a newspaper controversy, and / re-
spectfully submit to the County Judge
that if his opinion is sustained in the /
Courts | will cheerfully acquiesce /
in it.
And now my respects to that most |
and unprovoked attack
upon the Quarterly Court of this coun-
ty. i must confess, sir, after reading
over carefully my letter to the State |
and his reply, for per-
haps the twentieth time, l fail to find |
the hook on which he hangs this grave
charge His Honor, before he can
assume the judicial ermine is required |
to have been engaged for number of |
years in the practice of the law. He !
is required to be a man learned or |
skilled in law, and as such becomes
the legal adviser of the Quarterly |
Court. His Honor was chairman Of
the committee that recommended the |
action by the Court. The County
Judge, as chairman of the committee
appointed to investigate and report on
these old claims, recommended the
Court to authorize him to issue these
warrants. The presumptive inference
of his legal abilities places him prom
inently before the Court as its legal
adviser and in this instance his
opinion given on question of so com
plicated nature as to leave doubts as
to whether it was State, county or
district debt, was concurred in and
endorsed by the Court. Not being
adopts in legal lore, nor required to be
learned in the law as he is, is it not
natural that they should give up their
individual opinions for his? Then
upon whose shoulders rests this re-
sponsibility? Certainly not upon them,
Notwithstanding the efforts of the
County Judge to place it there.
The effort made to array the County
Court against Inc personally in this
most unfortunate and unprovoked at
tack upon me is too fiimsy and trivial
to deserve notice. I'insinuated" no
charge, that the members have. been
frightened into compromise bythreat
of law suit; a careful reading of
my letter will refnte the charge. In
giving to the State Superintendent
correct history Of the matter II was
necessary that / should state clearly
and explicitly the whole condition of
this Indebtedness. Justice to all par
ties demanded it. But this, like all
other charges made against ME in his
Bill of Complaints" is made for a
covert motive. IF the County Court
can be induced to believe them, his
Honor thinks it will be an easy going
thing to carry out the threat so artfully
insinuate6 in his letter, that it will
be hardly reasonable to expect their
cooperation u the school authorities
seize upon euery protect to declare rar
against them" But thank God, the
members Of the Quartely Court cannot,
if they wished to. point to single ac-
ton of mine that sustains this charge.
They are men of too much sense to
comfort clearly defined act of duty
on my part into an attack upon them;
nor will they be willing, | am sure, to
to accept the County Judge clothed in
all his dignity as The Comfy Court.
With the members of the County
Court, without an exception, | have
ever maintained the most friendly re-
lations; my intercourse with them has
been cordially pleasant. Even had it
been otherwise it would be simply re-
diculous to attempt to prejudice them
against Public Schools, because for
sooth they do not like me personally.
If the course which | have taken in
seeking the advice OF the State Super
intendent had offended every citizen
of the county, l should have taken it
all the same, because it was clearly
made my duty to do so. Uuder what
was known as the County System, the
State made certain pledges to the coun-
ty which she failed TO meet And
thus this debt was created. The
county met her portion of the obliga-
ton as promptly as any other obliga-
ton resting on her was ever met.
She has discharged her portion of the
debt created under that system fully,
faithfully and honorably. How any
one can for moment imagine that the
County Court of Montgomery county
is responsible for a cent of that debt
is, to me, mystery. 1t is clearly
State debt. The State has so dckn0tcl-
edged BY ASSUMING 1T. She has
made provision for its payment by re-
storing to the county the same fund
which was before provided and after
ward called in and burned by an act
of the Legislature. The act of the
last Legislature restoring this burned
Tennessee money makes the chairman
of the County Court the auditor of
these old claims.
1t is manlfestIy has duty, not mine,
to examine into the conditions on
which the provision is made, and to
give to the people clear and satisfac-
tory explanation of the whole matter.
From the passage of that act to the
publication of the correspondence by
Col. Tropsdale, not a syllable was ever
published by the Chairman of the
County Court in regard to the means
proposed to be placed in his hands for
the liquidation of this debt. But he
seems rather to have expected that the
County Superintendent who was Isl
lent" because of the perfect security
in which the fund placed under his
watchful care was placed by the pub
lie announcement by the financial
agent of the county that he bad no
control over it. Nay he seems to have
required that he should furnish the
facts aud fgues in the case, for he says,
What that amount is, Mr.. Whitfield |
has never been able to show US" L
respectfully inform his Honor that if
that duty had been placed on him by |
the last Legislature it would have |
been attended to long ago, and if the |
debt had not been paid, the people of
the county would have known why it
had not at least. [ would also res
pectly inform his Honor that | am not
asleep, but wide awake, and that in
this instance Il know the right and |
dare maintain it." That is made my /
duty By law to arrest every attempted
on the school fund of
this county, even if the attempt |
was made by the Governor himself,
and if this be loose talk | have the
nerve and the courage to make 1t good.
Respectfully go
n. l.. WHITFIELD.