Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-03-30
STRANGE RUr True.

Int w AVERY JOuTIldl T6duS Iilc
account given by eyewitness Of
the meeting of Col. Colyar and |
Judge Smith at GAINESVILLE last Sat /
urday week and finds them utterly
incredible. We give his disclaimer
in full:
The special to Sundays American
that, in discussion at GAINESVILLE
Saturday of the State debt question,
'sthe unanimous opinion is that no
politician ever met more thorough
and complete defeat than was sus-
tanned by Colyar to-day at the
hands of Judge G.. G.. Smith, will be
read with a good deal of allowance.
Col. Colyar (by no means man we
desire to endorse, however, is a
fluent speaker and perhaps the best
posted man on the question Of State
finance in the State, and While
Judge Smith is a gentleman worthy
of the highest consideration, those
knowing the forensic ability of the
two gentlemen, when reading the
notice in Sundays American will at
least indulge a smile of incredulity
if not pity for the discernment OF
the author of the notice. And as to
the unanimity of the adoption of
the resolution, submitted as it was
in a one-sided manner, certainly the
American correspondent himself
didn't expect readers to swallow the
statement. Unanimously adopted?
If so what on earth has become of
the Frederic men?
The incredulity of our c0nfrere is
excusible, for, to say the truth, we
were surprised ourselves. The COM
plete collapse of the repudiating
effort made on Saturday week was
so far beyond our own anticipations
that we can only wish that the edi-
tor of the Journal had been here to
be convinced that seeing is believ-
! ing. We assure him that the ac-
count he read in the American is
the simple truth, and we acknoWl-
edge the truth of a good deal that he
says. 1t is true that Col. Colyar
has considerable abilities as a popu-
lar speaker, especially when he adj
dresses himself to popular prejudices
ready made to his hand; and Judge
Smith, while he is always master of
his subject, always clear in his argu-
ment and forcible in its application,
puts forward no special pretensions
as an orator. We will even add that
he was not in good cue for speaking
on the occasion; he had been suffer-
ing from ill health and evidently
spoke under considerable depression
of spirits. Nevertheless the CORES
pondent of the Nashville American
spoke the plain truth when he said
that Colyar sustained a complete de-
feat at his hands. The solution of
the mystery is that the popular
pTejudices to which Col. Colyar
generally speaks were not there,
and, missing them, his occupation
was gone; he had no other resource;
he is either demagogue or nothing,
and the crowd he addressed did not
furnish the element of blind passion
and prejudice, which is the true
material the demagogue loves to
J work on, so he was nowhere.
The result of the low tax agitation
two years ago has deceived many
besides Col. COlyar; to a certain ex-
tent it deceived the best of us. 1t
was never based upon an indiffer-
ence to the credit of the State, but
was wrung from the people by the
great business depression of that
time. Since that the people have,
by economy and industry, been re-
cruiting their exhausted resources
and are willing to make an effort
towards redeeming their credit, and
it is almost the unanimous cOnvic-
ton among them that the very lib
eral compromise offered to them by
the creditors of the State at the last
session of the Legislature ought to
have been accepted. When our
contemporary therefore asks - w nal
on earth has become of the Frederic
menu" the answer is plain and sim
pie: They were there in large num-
bers and were heartily and unani-
mously in favor of the resolutions
which declared that the compromise
ought to have been accepted. 1t is
true that there were some half a
dozen politicians present who at
first made an effort to stem the tor
rent and get up little steam for
Col. Colyar, but long before the close
of the meeting they had given up
the effort as hopeless, and, when the
noes were called for, keeled over
and made no sign.