Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-02-10
A Tribute to thompson and DE.
m0cracy. .
From The New York Tribune.

mOcTHcy.
From The New York Tribune
The old-fashioned Tennessee Dem
ocrat is singularly earnest person.
He quotes Caesar in the original
Latin, considerably translating it for
the benefit of the unlearned; he is
fluent, rhetorical and intense, and he
believes, or did until recently, that a
Democrat can do no wrong. There's
an uncommonly fine specimen in the
present State Legislature by the
name of Thompson. The legislature
is so divided between two kinds of
Democrats and the Republicans that
no party has a majority. There was
long deadlock on the election Of
United States Senator, which, hav>
ing been broken, was followed by
another on State officers. After
eighteen ballots for secretary of
State two or thee Democrats voted
for the Republican candidate, and
elected him. This so moved the old
gentleman that he broke out in the
following burst of eloquence, pathos,
poetry, denunciation and Latin:
Mr.. President, I am az old man and
have climb the hill o. time, crossed
its apex, and am Fastening down the
western slope. Bug [ have never seen
and never expected to eee the scene
| presented here to-day. [ have heard
OF traitors, but never dreamed taat
there could be a Democratic traitor.
Behold the sickening scene before us.
The genius of Democracy weeps as the
sick ening sight. The Republicans APP
plaud the deserter. I know these Re-
publicsns. They are high strung and
| high toned gentlemen, and while ID "
accept the act they will turn upon he
| traitor as cesar did in the Gallo war
upon the deseIter that came into his
| camp aud exposed the position Of the
| opposing army, and say to them:
"Audio qttod dicis sed contemno deser-
torens." CT hear wbas you say, bat
L despise the traitor ~ The finger Of
scorn is pointing at them now. They
will be laid down in infamy so deep
| that it will faint their blood and be-
| come leprosy in their families. [
vote for Mr.. SnndgFass, whose Dam0c-
| racy is as pure as the limpid streams
that leap from crag to crag among his
native mountains.
Nothing could be finer than this
It is not strange that his audience,
spellbound in awed and reverent
silence at the vigorous denunciation
of the traitors, whose ''infamy'' is to
''taint their blood and become a
leprosy in their families broke into
wild applause at the concluding
tribute to the limpid stream of
Snodgrass' Democracy.
Nor is Thompson the only indig-
nant Tennessee Democrat. Mr.. John
J. Littleton, jr., who is vouched for
as a Irresponsible" man by Senators
elect Jackson, publishes a card, in
which he denounces the persons by
name as shameless traitors" and
says: 'In these acts Of treason they
| have covered themselves with black
infamy for which the honest people
will accept nothing as an atonement
The iron heel of eternal ostracism
should at once be placed upon the
necks of these unprincipled scamps
who would sell out to the enemy fo1
the poor pittance of $3.50 each, sc
that their infamous names may never
more disgrace the legislative rolls.
| To this robust criticism, in accordance
with the custom of the country, he
appends his address, 'for a week yet.
Thereto the correspondent of the
Louisville Courier-Journal, com
menting upon the frivolous excuse Of
the traitors that they had voted fol
Democrat eighteen times, adds his
own definition of the duty of Demo
Gratis. He says: "Why, there are
thousands of Democrats living who
have voted for Democrats nearly
, eighteen hundred times, and vii
continue to vote for them until h
freezes over, and they will slide
down on the ice and vote again, anC
you can count me in on that slide.
1t is hardly necessary to say thai
when it comes to that his party vii
| be in such al overwhelming ma orit,
that it won't make much difference
whether he votes Or not.
But it is all very sad. No wonde,
"the genius of Democracy weeps a
the siokenino Sioht"