Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-01-12
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THURSDAY, JANUARY u, 1882.
AN UNSTABLE POLITICIAN.
ooh, wad some power the giftie gle us,
To see ourselves as ithers see Us.

"Oh, wad some power the gIftle 9le US,
To see ourselves as ithers see us"
If Ben Hill were endowed with the
power so fervently prayed for by the
poet Burns, it would indeed free him
from many q blunder and "many
foolish notion" He is an orator with
few equals. He is in some respects
a great man, and in many
others decidedly weak. Few men
so intimately combine the quail
tiles of the crank with
those Of mental superiority as does
the Georgia Senator, His course in
politics is labyrinth of glazing in
consistencies. His reputation is that
of an honest man, but he has so
frequently gone to the very verge Of
open corruption, that he is one of
the wonders Of the age.
Before the war he was a Wing,
and then Union man. But when
the war came up, just at the time
when the Union cause needed n
champion, he deserted it without a
moments warning, aud became
blatant rebel. He was q
member of the Confederate Senate,
and it is said he once had a personal
difficulty with W. l. Yancey, in which
he so severely chastised the great
fire eater that he died from the eff
feet of injuries received. He AFTER
wards plead his distinguished serVi-
ces thus rendered as a reason for
lenient treatment while prisoner in
Fort Lafayette.
After the war it was uncertain for
some time which political party he
would ally himself with. He co.
quoted with the Republicans, but
finally decided that it would
pay him best to go with the Demo
Gratis. Immediately upon making
up his mind to this he became O.
bourbon Democrat of the most
pronounced type, which line Of
policy he pursued until the begin
ming of Hayes Administration, when
he again stepped over the line and it
was thought at one time he would be
an out-and- administration Senator.
But soon he was disappointed in
some OF his applications for patron
age and again he swung back to the
other extreme.
He has been pendulum in poll
tics, swinging from one extreme to
another, never in any one place long
at time, loud and fluent talker,
but erratic and wholly unreliable.
There is not a man In the United
States, SO prominent in politics as he
is and has been, whose tergiversa-
tons would show a course SO serpen-
tine as he has been. He has been
SO tickle, SO evasive, SO vacillating in
politics, that his shifting, winding
and uncertainty has become a part
of his personal nature, so that, al
though we give him credit for try
ing, it is very difficult for him to
speak the truth about anything.
II is remarkable that man with
such a sinuous record will invite at
tention to that record by assailing
others. A few days ago, he made a
furious attack upon DR.. W. I'll. Eel
ton, until recently an Independent
congressman from the State of Geor-
gia. Felton's ofense consists in
having expressed determination to
run as an Independent candidate for
Governor. Hill pours his walls of
abuse upon the devoted head
of this Independent, and attributes TO
him all sorts of unworthy motives.
DR.. FELTON, replies to Hills charges
and insinuations, in column letter