Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-08-01

II 80 INV A'ooCe' oAlLl pOI1dIU III bu6lE
character, and of no earthly interest
to the people of the Second Con
gresslonal District, but we desire
here and now to give him fair warns
ing that he cannot escape in that
way. We have made certain specific
charges, which we are prepared to
prove and which he has not de-
MED. We have others of equal
gravity that will be pres
sented in the course of the canvass.
We donot intend that he shall dodge,
or if he continues to do so. that pee
pie whom he misrepresents shall
know it, and if he hopes to escape
from the record that he has made for
himself, he is laboring under fatal
delusion
We have charged him with desere
ton from his post of duty and draw
ing salary without rendering the
service for which he was chosen;
with hypocricy and deception i'll
pretending to secure the payment Of
claims where is entitled to no credit;
with habitual drunkenness while in
office and at the national capitol, and
conduct disgraceful to himself and
a reprOach to his constituents; with
wilfully lying to his friends about his
beastly habits; with having pro-
cured for himself the payment of a
large aud fraudulent pension claim;
with having aided and abetted in the
defeat of Hon. Horace Maynard, and
with having bitterly opposed the adj
ministration of the lamented Cars
field.
Now, we repeat, if Leonidas
Cesar Houk thinks we a-e
going to allow him, or that the peo-
pie of this Congressional district are
going to permit him to ignore or
eVade these charges, he is greatly
mistaken. Not only are the people
here at home acquainted with his
acts of omission and commission,
but the people abroad are learning
of - :
Chicago and other papers have all
luded to him in such way as to
make him appear ridiculous, if not
stencil in the nostrils of honest men.
and the people of this district are
determined that they will no longer
sacrifice their self~respect by being
represented by such man.
He boasts loudly that he will be
renOminated and reelected, but it
is an empty boast and made for a
purpose. The solid thinking people
of the district have made up their
minds to relieve themselves of the
shame and disgrace of being repre-
sented by man who is absent from
his seat more than six-sevenths of the
time during an entire session of Con
gress, when they know that such alb
sence is caused by beastly intoxica-
ton. As chairman of the CONS
mittee on war claims he has
been i'll position to render
his constituents great service, but he
has neglected his opportunity and
has secured the payment of very
few, if any claims. They are so few
that he neglects to give a list of
them, when passed, and for whose
benefit, when called ON to do SO.
And now, instead of being in his
seat, pushing the payment OF these
claims, he is at home drawing his
salary and struggling against the
tide he has provoked, and trying by
dishonest methods to secure his re-
election. The people have reflected
upon all these things, and
when they see that he makes
no defense, they inevitably con-
clude that he is guilty. The inevita>
BILE result of such conclusion is to
relegate Leonidas Caesar Houk to
private life, where the public interests
will not suffer from his shortcomings
We do not propose to descend to
the low plane where he invites US,
and upon which he is evidently
anxious that we should meet him.
He is an adept at blackguardism, and
is skilled in the arts of buster and
braggadocio. Our purpose is to
deal in facts, plain solid, undeniable
facts, and to appeal to reason and
sense of justice and honesty. We
90 not intend TO mlSrepreSent HOuk
in any particular, but we do
intend that his damaging record
shall be laid bare.
We have something to say in the
selection of the battle-ground, and
we will never consent that it shall be
chosen where the only implements of
warfare available are filth and false>
hood. His public record is public
property, and we expect to make
free use of it. To that record he
will be held, unpleasant as it may be
for him to face and difficult as it may
be for him to defend.