Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1876-05-06
ALINE From HENDERSON COUNTY.
A Word Of Endorsement for the Wing and
Tribune.


HENDERSON Co., Tenn, May LIST, 1876.
MEssRs. EpuORs:
Writing for newspapers is not my hsb-
it, but L cannot refrain from commencing
ard endorsing your short, but manly edi-
tolial notice of the admirable and able
letter written by the Hon. Ben Hill TO a
gentleman in Illinois. Your valuable
paper, dong may she waiVe) is about the
first and only, of the many ostensibly
Democratic papers in Tennessee, that has
exhibited that firmness and honest deal
ing with great man, whom fanatics and
demagogues at the North, and shallow
pated editors and politicians at the South,
have attempted to decry and abuse, yea,
sld''der and misrepressRt in an ungenerous
manner.
You but truly impress it, when you
say, show grandly this great man writes,
and how easily he puts TO shame his
slanderers and vilifiers both North and
South" 1 for one, as a native born Ten
esseean and Southern man, as an ex-rebel,
feel thankful to Mr.. Hill for his great
manly effort in the amnesty debate, and
the more so, because, out of the entire
boosted ability of our Southern delegation
in Congress, not one of them had the
manhood, or the brains, to answer Mr..
Blaine, and refute and repel his unwar-
ranted assertions and uprovoked attacks
upon the Southern people through their
former chief; and it was left to Union,
Constitution l01iHg Ben Hill, TO defend us
in his own peculiarly eloquent and forci-
bic style. / thank Ben Hill. l thank
Heaven that the South was heard through
him.
Our Southern delegation up to this
time, have lazily kept their seats, sub
hitting quietly to attacks and repeated
arrangements of the South, never de-
murring to an onslaught or SANDER
And Sirs, some of them never put in an
appearance, except by written speeches
occasionally, which are printed and cir
culated as individual eleetionering dOcu-
ments ut the expense of the Government.
These are the men, who rebuke Mr.. Hill
for a simple act of justice to the South,
and as you aptly, eloquently put it sir,
''Mr. Hill who never felt or uttered a
a disuniOn sentiment in his life, must be
lectured, rebuked and censuIed by a
class of statesmen so-called, whose haste
and stupidity precipitated us into a four
years interrecine war, that imperiled the
very liberties of the people," Yes sir,
rebuked and dictated to by men, who in
the incipiency of the recent war, in the
excited and distempered times of 1861,
roared for secession and disunion, de-
nOuncing such patriots and prophetic,
far-seeing statesmen as Hin and Stephens
of Georgia, and large class of citizens
of Tennessee, as enemies of the South,
ald who, sirs, when the struggle came,
and the storm burst in all its fury, and it
was ascertained, that "war meant fight
ing, and fighting meant to kill, - as soon
as they had fastened the gallant youth
and honest yeomanry of the South by
the obligation of an oath, basely and
cowardly deserted them and sought pla-
ces of security and immunity from yankee
bullets, leaving the gallant patriot SOL
diers TO meet the storm, that their rash
ness, shortsightedness and stupidity had
precipitated. Ben Hill, at the time, in
the most powerful speeches that were
ever made in the Union, foretOld the ap-
preaching conflict, and warned, and con-
jured the South not to provoke THAT
once begun, il would engulf the South
and her institutions in one general, ter
rible destruction. / for one, sirs, though
originally union man, until the war be-
fp1 in no FnNa
army from the beginning of the war un-
til the surrender, and looked eagerly and
eXDectantly, for some of the original
precipitators-for some of the men who
now traduce Ben Hill-in the fight; but,
sirs, notwithstanding their oft repeated
promises to be with us when the battle
ragged and lead us on to glorious victory,
we saw them not. Such men are always
for expediency, and for a while during
the terrible conflict were lost TO view
in secure places, but, as soon as the war
was over, and amnesty proclaimed, we
see these same greedy, cowardly precipi-
tators, again swarming around the body
polite, and proclaiming that they are
true men-faithful opponents of South
ern sentement-and through the public
prints, and otherwise must lecture hon
est, candid, grand old Ben Hill, who is
supremacy the peer of them all. Who,
sirs, gainsays Ben Hills statement of
facts? His arguments are unanswerable.
Ben Hill never delivered a speech in his
life that was or could be answered.
Then why should Southern Editors and
politicians find fault with Ben Hill sim
ply for telling the truth. Has it come TO
this, as he intimates, that the greatest
statesman must necessarily be the great
est liar and public plunderer? Southern
members get their seats as such, and we
expect and demand 20 be honestly de-
Tended in Congress by them. At home,
they denounce federal encroachments,
fraud corruption and extravaganza in the
Government, but in Congress, must whis-
per softly for erpedieHcy.
They are even afraid to circulate Hills