Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1876-02-19

GEo. L. SPENCER.-The name that heads
this article is notorious in this section,
and It is to be hoped his infamy will
bring him to grief and drive him, in dis
grace, from the United States Senate
During portion of the war Spencer was
Colonel of the lst Alabama cavalry, com
posed Of so-called Union men, gathered
mainly from the above named State, and
partly from Mississippi and Tennessee
A more graceless set Of scOHndrels were
never banded together to pillage and des-
troy, and their occupation was that Of
robbing inOfensive citizens, burning hOU-
ses, and hanging old men to make them
hand over their money. 1t is not known
that they ever did any honorable service,
and it was only when engaged in some
perfidious robbery that any member of
this doughty horde ever received wound,
or exposed his precious body to danger.
Occasionally some brave old man or Wo-
man, exasperated beyond endurance, and
reckless of the consequences, rather than
suffer further humiliation and insult,
would shoot down one of the marauders
and stain the earth with his blood. They
were the true Goths and Huns of the in
vaders, and their coming into any given
RsjghbOrhood always struck terror into
the hearts of the women and children,
and especially did the former weep in
bitter agony, approaching with wOmanly
delisse1 what might be in store for them.
We do not write these things to reopen
the wounds Of the past, but il is we'll
enough to let the country know who he
is, and where Spencer was during the
war He was fit leader of the body of
men we have described. Cruelty and
eowardice marked his career, aud he was
especially vindictive towards ladies'
During the war lady of the highest re-
spectability, whose house had been burn
ed and all her household goods destroyed,
asked for pass from Spencer through the
Union lines, in order to buy few goods,
articles of clothing, &c. Spencer not on
ly eaValierly refused her, but remarked
that he was in favor of a war of exteTmi-
nation against the Southern people, and
that ladies were particularly obnoxious
to him, because they were generally spies
and carried too mueh underground news.
With such a leader no wonder his men
were ready to perpetrate any deed what
ever, and to blaeken the annals of our
civil war with crimes that the soul shud-
ders to recall, and that must not be re-
peated in the dawn of our centennial
year, when all hearts are leaPing with
sentiments OF genuine national fraterni-
ty, and all hands are outstretched 10
shake hands across the bloody chasm.
Spencer obtained his place by bribery.
This fact a committee of respectable men
from his own State, now in Washington,
propose to prove, and if he is retained, it
will be an act of dishoRor that could be
perpetrated by no other body save the
American Senate. No party but the
present radical party could, or would,
fraternize with hiA, and we are glad to
know that his social standing in Wash
ington is below that of Pinchback, who
is an acknowledged Penitentiary con-
vict, and yet we regard him as more than
| the peer of Geo. =. Spencer. Old Shsks-
pear said, ''the evil that men do lives af-
ter Them" yet sometimes the divine ven
So~iSe OfCi l'hcS anu piaoIS Illeih III tIlls
life. Justice is slow but sure, and We
shall expect to see all such trash and
scum as are persOnated in Spencer, and
which were tossed to the surface on the
upheaving of revolutionary waves, re-
cede and disappear in the settling down
of the elements in their proper channels.
A political gale that failed to knock him
"higher nor kite" would be not worth a