The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1877-03-15

"cAA-f LA1ChEAOLE AOL4
! and Chitty's Pleadings. He was sOol
( after admitted, and rapidly aseende,
q to front rank among East Teunesse
D lawyers.
In 1853 he settled in Chattanooga
: and has lived there since, winning
, the respect and esteem of wide cir
/ Gle.
; THE WAR.
7 He has always been a Democrat
|; In 1850, 1 believe, he supported
Breekinridge. Up to 1850 he nevel
ran for an office, claiming that law.
! yer-pol1ticians were poor sticks that
! man should be one or the other, and
! ! not try to be both.
, In 1871 be Joined the southern army
as LIEUTENANT Colonel of the Forty
third Infantry. Whether he was q
seeesslonist or not in the early days
! OF the trouble / do not know, but
doubt it, as the great body of the psO-
pie OF Tennessee were opposed to
secession, and were fairly dragged in
To 1t by the action Of the Governor
and the Legislature, in conjunction
with the fire-eaters in the south.
But be cast his lot with his State
when Tennessee seeded, and served
through the war until the bloody
chapter had bloody end. The close
OF the war found him in the pine
woods of North Carolina, with no
money but Confederate, and but little
OF that, and without knowledge
whether he was to be hung or could
practice law.
He describes his depression during
| thlaa nQUd ovfFnr0n 10
form no idea as to the future. He was
separated from bis family. He did
not know that he could ever return
to East Tennessee. As to practieing
law, there was no law to practice.
Everything was in confusion. The
policy of the Government was not de-
fined the late southern soldiers had
no status the officers did not know
but what they were to be tried for
treason and landed on the other shore
in light marching order.
Such was the gloom and uncertain
| ty surrounding them that many an
ex-Confederate has told me that were
it not for his family, he fairly envied
those who reposed in the everlasting
sleep.
Andrew johnson was then Presi-
! dent, aud his historic utterances
about making treason odious and
hanging traitors were not reassuring
to Colonel Key.
He had known Mr.. Johnson in hap
pier days, and when they both pulled
in the same harness in East Tennessee.
He had always supported him-that
is, until the war cast them apart as
wide as the Poles. Up to that event
they had been fast friends.
Thinking the matter over in the
North Carolina woods, where he found
himself when the wreck of the Con-
federaey went TO pieces, he resolved
to write his friend of other days let
ter, and ask IL he was to be hung and
il so, at what time, and il the cere-
mony was to take place in North Car
olina. He depicted his miserable sit
uation truthfully, keeping nothing
back, and asking for advice and infor-
nation.
The President received the letter.
We may suppose that his heart was
touched for his friend of other days,
and that the bitterness engendered by
the war was even then beginning rap
idly to disappear. l sometimes think
that letters like this, from his old
friends stranded in the South, had
much to do with his sudden change of
policy toward that section in 1865. In |
his letter to the President, Colonel |
Key did not ask for q pardon. He |
merely inquired for advice and infor- |
nation. But by return military mail |
there came q free pardon for D. NJ. /
Key from Andrew Johnson, President |
OF the United States.
Colonel Key says he was never be- |
fore so glad to get anything. It was |
unexpected, and all the more welcome |
for that. He now felt that he belong
ed to his family, to whom he is very /
devoted, and that he could go to work |
and make them q living without Gov |
eminent hindrance. That was then |
the height of his ambition. He fully /
accepted the situation, and the line Of
his argument from that day to this |
can be embodied In a few words, |
namely: 1--WE staked all and lost all (; |
the controversy has been settled by /
the highest tribunal known to man; |
there is but one Government and one |
flag, and that is our Government and |
our flag"
SINCE THE WAR.
He returned to Chattanooga and /
commenced the practice of the law |
without a thought ahove providing |
for his family. Shortly afterward he
visited Washington on business, TAX
ing his wife. He took lodgings in
quarters compatible with his purse,
which was not at that time in a very
"inflated" condition. By soma means
the President found him out, and sent ;
an invitation to Mr.. and Mrs. Key TO
dine at the White House. Colonel
Key was q trifle surprised at this,
either party would have been glad to
have hung the other. There was
largely more hanging talked about
than was ever done, however.
The lady Of the house where Cole
mel Key and wife were stopping wss
amazed, not to say ''infiated," to see
her guests go to dine at the White
House. In all her experience in the
clearinghouse business the like of
this never before occurred.
Johnson received his old friends
most cordially, and to the day of his
death was an admirer of Colonel
Key. Could he have appointed his
own successor, the charge might have
fallen where it did.
After the war Northern people be-
gan to settle in Chattanooga, until
now perhaps half the white popula-
ton is of this class. Colonel Keys
attitude toward them as a "nativen
and Southern man, has won their
warmest admiration, and none will
rejoice more heartily at his appoint
nent than his Northern neighbors.
Although Key is Democrat, and
ran as such for Chancellor in 1870, [
and for Congress in 1872, very many
1f the Northern Republicans in Chat
sanooga supported him, to the pro-
'ound astonishment of the native Re-
Dublicans, who could not understand
how they could leave their party
merely to vote for one whom they
the best man on the tick
It. But the intelligent, Independent {
voter, Democrat or Republican, or
neither, is up to just that sort of thing,
% the great good Of the country, be
t said. And the more Of it the better.
HIS AVERSION TO RUNNING FOR ,
OFFICE.
Colonel Key is not an Office seeker.
de is far from it as any man l ever |
Knew. He claims that the Office
Ihould seek the man, and not man I
he Office, and has acted upon it 6
strictly. 1t TODD q great deal of pull I
sad hauling, and applications ''irre- {
Ipective Of party" to get him to be
candidate for the constitutional Con-
Tention in 1859. He did not want it, {
put bis fitness, as q leading lawyer !
and conservative man, was so p2lp- {
able that-he could not avoid the can '
iidacy, and was elected. {
His record in the Convention was
good. He took a liberal and ad- I
Vsnced stand, advocating negro suf- !
rage, negro schools, negro testimony, /
and going to as liberal 4 length in his !
official dealings with the unfortunate I
blacks as any Republican could ask,
BE Is not believer in the capacity OF
The blacks, as body, ever to amount
10 much, but he desires that they
nave q fair trial.
In 1870 he was elected Chancellor of !.
he Third Division by q handsome
majority. The Division is very large;
1t 3 rough guess, should say fifteen !
counties, but he has cleared the dock
nd n, -