The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1882-11-01
CARD FROM CAPT. HODGES.
HE CAN'T DO AS THE GAZETTE
DOES-SORATCH THE PLAT
FORM-TO BEAT A COR
RUPT DLSFRAN-
CHLSER.
MoRRlsTowN, Oct. %, 1882.

MORRlsTowN, Oct. %, 1882.
To the Editor Of The Morristown Gazette;
When you and | were good Dem
ocrats together, which was not very
long ago, it often happened that
your columns were opened to my
scribblings. In memory of the good
old days, will you allow me now, q
little space, to do as / then did, ex-
press my thnughtsf 1t you will,
you and your correspondent "a"
may comment just as much as you
please.
/ am moved to ask this for the
reason that all along through the
years of the life of The GAZETTE, it
has taught the sound Democratic
doctrine that i have believed and
still believe. l have been for fifteen
years accustomed to look upon THE
GAZETTE as sound to the core in
politics and morals. For years, and
by line upon line, and precept upon
precept here little and there a lit
tie, you have inculcated the doc
trine of pub ic honesty and sound
morals till you with my other good
Democratic tcaching) have got poor
little me rooted and grounded in
that teaching, so much so that had
come to look upon it as the very
foundation-stone of the Democratic
party. / could pick up your files of
1880 and clip from them enough to
fill small volume upon this sub
iect-of sound unanswerable argu-
ment-hurled with crushing force
against Wilson and his miserable
low-tax Reputation heresy.
How forcibly you then ostracised
this dishonoring doctrine, of repudi-
alton, partial or total, was forcibly
shown in November, 1880, when
the vote of Hamblen was counted,
and, as l remember, only a single
vote in the whole county found for
Wilson, and that one known to have
been cast by a Republican.
But it seems you have changed ;
and that along with you large
majority of my lifelong party COM
rades have changed.
Your platform now contains this
forcible language,
go That we tender our eredi-
tors a settlement of the remainder
"of the State debt by paying one
"half the principal and accrued in
"terest by issuing bonds of the State
clearing interest at three per cent
"per annum."
"(5) < We are opposed
to all unequal taxation rpon the
mercantile and manufacturing in
"terest of the State" Everybody
knows this last means the repeal O
the privilege tax on whisky selling.
Now these things were never in {
Democratic platform before. My
favorite, THE GAZETTE, never laugh
these doctrines till about June o.
July, 1882. / concede the right Il
The GAZETTE to change its policy
and its teachings. 4 concede tn,
right to my political comrades will
whom / haye made so many long
pulls, to doff the old harness ant
work in the new. / doubt the WIS
dom of such a course, but | have M
right to say-yes | have,-I have :
right to say that faction of a grea
national party does wrong to 60 OF
after strange God s. to strike blindly
into a new, unblazed path even TO
the sake of little temporary sue
cess. But / will not say it. ] con
cede the right.
But, when | read in THE GAZETTE
and from the pens of such Jesse
lights as the young men of tn
Tribune, whole columns devoted t
attempts to prove that men VIII
I stand where / do, who have neve
changed a hairs breadth upon tn
great doctrines of the party, "hav
gone off to the Radicals, and tax
ing the strength Of the language 70
epithets to apply to such men ii,
J MIR. editor, ! speak the honest trut
when say feel an unutterable dis
gust for their brazen faced want {
consistency, and real heart felt pit
for their shortness of sight, eithe
backward or forward
! do not off with the Boa &c
do / 20 for letting NJ NJ on the tipplel
A nev@- 1ia 10 for these things--m
comrades never did till since Jun
10th, 1882. Before that date v
were all Democrats together VII
ave the true Democrats nowg
]. G. HoBGEs.