Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-08-20
Plain Tall

New MARKET, Tenn, August II, 49,
Mr.. EDITOR: Tue heather Chinee, with
his child-like smile and aces in his sleeve,
did not more artfully practice deception
than the Houk managers do in their efforts
to conceal the real cause of the growing re-
volt against our drunken, intolerant and
tricky Congressional representative They
seem to think that the average Republican
voter is blind as to the real issue and will
believe any statement, however absurd or
silly, they make in the interest of their mas
ter The organ this week contains a letter
from cambridge, signed by Zone who was
Present" in which the writer pretends to
give facts in relation to our recent county
convention. After keaping up a lot of rub
bish about brains, money, press, emissaries
etc, and giving some very stale personal and
political history, this quasi Houkite charges
that Col. Thornburgh used unfair means in
organizing the convention, and that it be-
came the duty" of two members of the
county committee (both Houk mem to
wv st" the convention from his grasp.
By the same reasoning, in their eagerness
to serve Houk, they would have considered
it the right and duty" to attempt a
wrestling" business if there had not been
five Houk men in the convention. But they
Did not ''wresJ" as much as they would have
'RepubJlcsns in other counties" believe,
and the motive in this deception is on par
with all the clap-trap that has been pub
hshed to hide the truth of the serious di-
Vision" which Goes exist among Repub cans
III this county. That Thornburgh was the
choice o the convention for chairman
(Houk men as well as Rule men voting for
hmm was plainly indicated and so admitted by
the neutrals Ike Mr.. Rogers, who laid down
some parliamentary rules, which the con
vention abb lutely refused to be guided by
MIR. Ihornburgh was not ''wrested" from
the chair ; the business was fairly transacted
and the convention adjourned. There was
no opposition made to the little side show
which the Houk men opened, and their
programme was carried out Just it would
have been If only dozen of their follow
ers were present. Their list of delegates
was prepared in advance, but, sad to relate,
1t is report that majority of them f-.vor
harmonizlng on a new man instead of Pouk.
The boss viii have to look into this matter.
Perhaps simple threat to decapitate few
o. rs leaders here will result in harmonic
Jag the thermometers.
One who was Present" is certainly a
liberal counter He should by all means
EN- CRATE to South Carolina, where such
mathematical talent is in demand and well
rewarded. His state nent that there were
only SO Rule men among the 200 or 500 Re-
publicans present, " so p-eposterous and
shows such q real intent to deceive ''Repub-
licans in other countless" that his entire
letter will be regard ed as the strongest kind
of potash. He could not of course con-
celve that it was magnanimity, not lack of
material that induced the Rule men to
place.a few Houk men on their list of dele
gates 1t is hoped, howeve,, that the Houk
men were moved by similar sincere mo-
i've when they made Rule man chairman
OF then rump convention, but there are
crave poubts about this, and Leonidas must
investigate. Notwithstanding their loud
boasts as to numbers and Influence if NAV
be stated as positive fact that if the lead
ers, who were moved by a mercenarv and
selfish motive, had modestly kept in the
background, the Houk faction would
have been quite deficient in talent to lead in
their unsuccessful forlorn hope
But after all said and done, Mr. Zone who
was Present. what difference does it make
if Rule men or Houk men had majority in
the convention? You know, and we all
known, that the Republicans of Jefferson
County for years past have been growing in
the spirit of independence; that convention
nominees have generally came in at the tail
end of the race, and that the people read
and think and judge the merits of candi-
dates, regardless of convention recommen-
dations. And you may rest assured that
before the corn is all garnered or the hogs
all fattened, the Republican voters will have
Well considered the character and standing
OF the two candidates, and that Caesar will
meet his Brutus-not in the form and man
ner his ancient namesake did. but
III the silent ballots that will