Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-10-14
A Heroic Han of the People.

While the Readjuster party ol
gans sneer at RUSSELL and ridicul
the efforts of an honest man in be
half OF his State and his party
! Tennessee has not witnessed Il ne
bier sight than the heruic canvas
| he is making. II is something &
appeal to manly men 10 excite ad
miration for heroiSm. Denuncia
ton is nolhing; ridieule is less thar
nothing. The one leaves truth ant
manhood, engaged in the cause D
truth, unscaihed ridicule finds M
! joints for entrance in the armor o
manhood. 1t never touches tha
which is not ridiculous.
Twenty years ago Fussell was /
carpenter boy; leaving his bench fol
the field TO wage war for his State
for four years and to spend another
year, hunted by the 0pprpssor lie
cause his manhood, without regard
10 numbers or consequences, resent
Ell an effort TO make him bend his
free neck beneath a yoke. Given
the alternative of an oath or prison
when he had given his parole, he
carved his way out and preserved
his liberty and manhood and escap.
ed degradation. Such was the met
tie of the man.
Fifteen years ago he was pushing
the jackplane by day and studying
law bynight. For years he has been
making a record as the best attor-
ncy-general in the State, relentless
ly pursuing crime and driving law
breakers to the wall until his is one
of the most orderly circuits in the
State. He has been persistent
advocate of liquor laws because he
saw the necessity for them. He
has advocated them, not rs fanat-
ic, but as a practical man who saw
how much they were needed. Un-
der his enforcement of the four
mile law school houses have grown
up and fatal crossroads have be-
come peaceful, and the "hells' half
acres" becomes sites of school
houses. He was nominated because
of his determened heroism and
pursuit of duty, selected for his de-
termined State Credit convictions
and his devotion to the mainten-
ance of a wise law. He has pursued
his canvass, without bluster, with
out braggaGocio, without numer-
GUS press, the lavish use of the tele-
graph or the expenditure of money.
That party which the liquor in
teresst sought, and which gave
them what they asked, charges that
all this is for bondholders and rail
roads. We find no press growing
up fostered by money, no newspa-
pers Hopping his way, no country
press changing to him. We find no
professions of carriages and no evil
dences of pecuniary activity, dis
plays of posters, lavish use of the
telegraph lines. 1t would seem to
a man up a tree that if the bond
holders are using their money they
are hiding its light under bushel.
This clamor has been raised for
the last ten years. 1t has been so
baseless that none of the accusers
have ever been able to point TO any
indication that the creditors of the
State have ever spent a dollar in
Tennessee. We are not in the
habit OF making charges unless we
can prove them, or we might say
that the only evidences of money
in this canvass lie upon the other
side.
There are those who have a stub
born conviction as to the morality
and wise policy of discharging Obli-
cations, who see in this a moral
question, and of these and now in
he forefront of it, is the gallant
boy and the son of car
Oenter, who raised himself from
he bench by his own native will
md intellect and his own stubborn
and fidelity. With the
anne devotion to the public, he
would not refuse when he was
Isked to perform this service, al
hough he earnestly desired that
should take the place. He
8 quietly and heroically discharg-
ng his duty in manly way,
Which Tenneaseans, who are of
heir fathers heroic mould, must |
.dmire.
They will yet thank Joe Fussell |
nd those who are with him that |
here was manliness and courage |
which was able to rise above mean
such poor ambition as
makes q man say: Personally, |
m for the settlement, but the ma
Ority is against it, and / go with
he majority" A time had to
ONE when, war passion and war
5sues at an end, heroic men had to
INSIST that the idea, of right and
wrong, of morality and Immortality
lad to havea placein Tennessee poll
les; when bold men had to come to
he front and show that even in poll
les men can and will advocate the
light because it is right, even
hOugh party oppose and majority
eclare otherwise.
Those who suppose he has made
his canvass in vain will find out
ow very badly they have been
)oled when they count the votes
n November. What chance, what
ope the liquor interests and their
etermined labor to produce "A com
romise DepOcratic platform, to
iOlate the ideas Of justice as to the
tate debt in order to be sure of a
success which they
expected to result in good to them,
ave left to beat Hawkins is only
/ Mr. Fussell. 1t could be done
ct; it canzyet be done, and who
lore deserving than this heroic
dvocate of truth and morality.
The general is hailed by many,
let in carriages and his praises
)unded by telegraph, and gaIlan-
y shouted aloud. His thin crowds
re magnified and their numbness
nder his eloquence heated seven
I'D for morning readers, and his
called statesman like
nd logical and profound. Hon
rs, adulation and panegyric are
eaped upon the general. Why
lould not the humber, but not
80 gallant soldier have chance?
Why are not his devotion and hero
IN in the cause of morality and
nth and the best interests OF Ten
essee for here and hereafter to be
le more rewarded.
If the man who conquerS himself
greater than he who taketh q city
le man who not only conquers his
Hn natural instinct, which is in
very man, to go with the crowd
I'd to follow his own selfish inter
It's, but also dares TO labor earnestly
Id faithfully against that which
as been the prevailing sentiment
t Tennessee for years, in the inter t.
t-of truth and right, for the tri
nph of virtue and the -inaugura
on of that moral, intellectual and
aterigl progress which will open