Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1878-07-13
Captain Farmers plea for Dem.
ccratic Unity and Discipline"

1t became necessary for US on June
29Ih to reply to letter of Captain
W. W. Farmer, which appeared in
the Eicksburg Herald of June Goth !;
and now it again becomes necs ssary
for Us to reply thereto, in the same
paper of July 2nd. In doing so, We
will try 10 he both as brief and cour-
teOus as we know how, for we neither
desire TO Weary our readers with this
discussion, tie wound Capt. Farmers
feelings or widen the breach that has
been madc in the party by the discus
sion of tie issue that led to this con.
itUvprsy.
Capt. Farmer denies that he "a.
tempted to gire the people of Rich
land any advice on the subject" We
certai:ly understood him as doing So,
as bis communication was addressed
to them. and in it he appealed to them
10 rescind their action in endorsing
the BEACON as the true exponent of
the sentiment of the Democracy of
Hichland parish. He farther says :
IL made no personal attack on the
RICHLAND beacon as Il newspaper,
or its editor rs man or politician. '
While we did not consider it a
personal attack, we did regard it as
an attack on the BEACON as news
paper and its editor as Politician.
We also deny that we intended TO as
sail Capt. Farmer as mnn--Our per-
sonal relations with him have always
been of too pleasant a nature to adj
nit of such thing-we did INTEND,
however, to call in question bis sue
cess as a politician without giving
personal ofiense and we do not be-
leve we have SO offended him.
We reproduce our Warning" of
March 30ih, SO that lit may speak for
itself :" and if it is carefully read, it
will be seen that we inferred that the
Unconstitutional would attempt to
obtain control of the Democratic State
Convention, without the question be
discussed, and thus defeat the wishes
of those who favored a Constitutional
Convention. In other words, we had
been led, by information received
from friends of the measure, to be-
lieve that its opponents would "steal
the march on u.s." and pack the con-
vention with men known to be OPP
posed to the Constitutional COnven-
ton, without it being known to the
advocates Of the measure that the
subject would he preached in the State
Convention. Hence we warned its
advocates to he on the qui rire, aud
not suffer themselves thwarted by
such a coup d'etdt; and we warned
its opponents Of the danger of dis
rupting.the party and endaugering its
defeat by taking such advantage.
Such, at least, was our intention; and
our steadfast adhesion to Democratic
principles and unqualified support of
the tickets of the party in the past
are too weli-knOwn to our readers for
them to presume that we would adj
wise recalcitration under any other
circumstances.
Capt. Farmer says: The editor of
the RICHLAND BEACON owns a news
paper | do not He has the same
advantage over me which one COM
Blatant, armed with a rife, has over
his adversary unarmed." He further
thinks that common fairness re-
quired" that we should have published
his letter when we replied to it, and
that it was Intentionally excluded
from his (our) columns, in order that
the people of Richland, to whom it
was addressed, should not see it,"
The simple fact that be sent his letter
to the Vicksburg Herald, instead of
the BEACON, is answer sufficient to
this. The natural Inference is that,
when be addressed the people of Rich
land through the columns Of the Her.
aid, be believed it would he read by
all of those to whom it was addressed,
or as many of them as he desired
should read 1t. If he wished to reach
all the readers of the BEACON, its col
umns were the proper channel through
which to address them. Our columns
are always open to him or any one
else who wishes to address themselves
to our people on matters Of public in-
terest, and our only reason for not re-
producing his letter was that we had
not sufficient room in our columns, at
the time we answered it.
Capt. Farmer seems 10 think that
our attack Oh him as politician was
and unjustiiied by any,
thing be said. We think it was. He
to the Democrats of Rich.
land to rescind their action il endors-
ing the BEACON, and thus placed him.
self in the position of their political
adviser, and we simply gave him some
OF their reasons for not being willing
to trust him as such; aud we had
them from some Of the people them
selves; they were theirs as well as
ours. While We acknowledge that
we are not The people, we have every
reason TO believe that we have Tins