The Forrest City times., 1888-07-14
BARRETT's ANSWER.
ST. FRANCIS Go. ARK,

0u'y VI aOSO'
 ED. TIMES: I see m the New Era another imported letter by Coffey, Fitzpatrick and Nicely from Bolivar, Tenn. If the citi. zcns of Arkansas knew tho charac- ter of the author of these letters as well as 1 do, would not cond G. scend to give them any oonsidera- tion, but in order that they may form some faint idea. I submit the following: When Absalom first grew up he was very promising young man in his own estimation). He concluded he would make a strong limb of the law. He soon concluded that 1t would suit him to be the head of family. so he took unto himself wife. It soon transpired that he did not have the brains, and he was too lazy to work to maintain family-so he fell back on his old pap He lived on pap for quite a while. Finding there was little probability of his
 doing anything where he was well known, his friends concluded 10 send him to Texas, with the hope that something would develop. In this however, they were mistaken, for he soon returned. Whether or not pap sent him rations | cannot say, positively, but th'nk it pos.
 sibIe he did, and also failed to ray the freight, as Absalom took great delight in curslng railroads for quite a while. Absalom tried hard and Tn many ways, to bring him self into notoriety. He finally sue ceeded in getting to be county su- perintendent of public instruction. at salary of one hundred dollars year-whioh, l consider, is prima facie evidence that he is brilliant lawyer. Absalom tells the people that was burned in efiigy. To this l plead guilty, but he does not tell them that 1t was for no other reason than that 1 had organized the republican party and had run closer than usual on the heels of democracy. If that is disgrace l am wiling to carry it on my back as long as live, should it be cen tury. He tells the people that l was put in jail on the testimony of negroes. To this l plead guilty, but he does not tell you that these same gentlemen stole Dishman's hog afterwards and, in consider ation of past services, if they would halloo for democracy they should not be punished. Hence they were daily associates of Absa- lom at democratic headquarters. These I suppose were honored gen. tlemen but Barrett, he says. asso- ciated with low-down negroes
 Absalom tells the people about my voting for the 1903 bill, and also that l promised to take drug which was pronounced by some of the most eminent physicians of Nashville to be 8 deadly poison. Now leave it to a thinking people whether or not such an assertion Is to receive any consideration what ever. Whether or not Absalom was 8 party to the drug transaction I am not prepared to say, but as he treats it so lightly l propose to give 1t as 1t was. and lei the people judge for themselves He was a fast friend and daily associate, at or about that time, with one of the men who was party to the drug transaction. He, with his ilk, were staunch repudlators of that day. When his friends failed in their at tempt at bribery, as he says, they cried out all over the state that Bar rett had been brlbed. He don't tell you that it was men of his own ilk that were the accusers, and that it was in order to save their own necks they did so. He does not tell the people that the Nashville American, q leading democratic or gan, branded that attempt of his friends as being disgrace to the dark ages. He does not tell you that there was thorough investi, gation made, and that tbe evidence showed that there had been an at- tempt made to bribe me, and, upon refusal, was treated in the above named manner. My understand ing is that respectable lawyers generally accept the decision of the proper tribunals as finality. Such has been the course pursued by the profession in Tennessee, with the exception of Absalom, who. pre- sume, wishes the people of Arkan- sas to know that there is such a being yet on the surface. So far as I am concerped, am not only will ling, but anxious, that thorough investigation of my private char acter and political career be made, as Cotfey, Fitzpatrick, Nicely X Go. propose to make that the all-impor- tant issue m this canvass.
 l wish to say to my republican friends throuphout this district,