The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-09-20
NORWOOD TO GORDON.
THE JOINT DEBATE II ON, BUT AT
LONG RANGE

| N-oesSES &OGC1cu OpOu at OOnSlOoT-
able Length-A Rather Spicy Letter
in Answer to Gov. Gordon's Letter
Accepting Mr. Norwood's Challenge
to Joint Debate. Provided the Lat
ter Avows Himself q Candidate for
Senator.
/ Mr.. Norwood came into the city from
Walthourville yesterday. and found Gov.
Gordons letter in answer to his challenge
TO joint debate. The letter has already
been published. 1t was an acceptance of
Mr.. Norwood's challenge, provided Mr..
Norwood would avoW himself candidate
for the Senate. In reply Mr.. Norwood at
once sent Gov. Gordon the following letter
SAVANNAH, Sept 10, 1890.
My Deor Mr. John Boycott Gordon:
Your letter is received. And 80 you boy
colt me by refusing TO debate with me
You are a success in boycotting. You
SANDER me, private citizen, not candi-
date, not interfering with you or your
begging canvass, and then refuse to face
| me before the peoplel Is there any law or
| etiquette that forbids a candidate to debate
with any one except an opposing candi-
datel IL So did not protect my dignity
| In 1850, when candidate for governor, for
discussed with Col r. J. Moses in Albany,
and was 50 indignified as to invite some one
TO discuss with me at every place | spoke,
after Gov. Colquitt quit me at Columbus.
must first avow myself a candidate to be
OF sufficient dignity to receive your
notice.
You say gave you offense by saying
in my interview that II see no sin in it, II
| were to be a candidate. The offlce be-
longs to no one" or you say that l meant
you. was thinking of something else-not
you. But suppose had said the office does
not belong to John B. Gordon, where would
have been the offenses Would that have
reflected on your nonor or character!
Yet this is your only reason for dragging
me into your speeches-and for attempting
to bring me into ridicule and contempt. All
right-minded men feel contempt for DEM
agogue, and all southerners look down on
one who shirked military duty during the
war. You tried to put me In both of those
positions, and your only excuse or apology
| is that you thought l meant you when
said the senatorship belongs to no one. l
had left the whole field to you for your
humiliating, disgusting. begging canvass; |
was neither writing letters nor speaking;
was not In your way; yet you strike at me
| In way that shows a bad heart and a
weak head. You have known for ten years
at least that there was no foundation what
You knew that was in the Georgia legis-
| lature; that, while there and exempt from
military duty, / joined the Chatham Artil-
lery as a private, and while on duty re-
ceived an injury from which 1 did not even
partially recover until 1883, and have not
| yet wholly recovered from.
| You knew that this has been rehashed in
every campaign have been in, and thrown
| aside with disgust even by my opponents
1 Hut won fon0ra v0ur knnWIad1a and cfrika
one not in your way; and one who, during
the heated, fiery, bloody campaign in 1880,
| did not say an unkind word about you,
although the air was ringing with the cry
and the evidence was strong that you had
sold out for price the high commission
| placed in your hands by the psople Of Geor-
gia. And, when | say you have slandered
| me, and ask you to face me, you, the only
| surviving brave man of the late war, who
are Boosting every day from the stump Of
your bravery, take shelter behind my I'M
| willingness to nominate myself a candidate
as you have done. So much for introduction
and explanation. Now for business
| My dear John Boycott, you are the last
man on earth who should attempt to ridi-
Guile any one. This surprises you, 1 know
| You have not the remotest conception of
yourself. know it, your friends know it,
because you are too good-hearted to do
what you 80 often do if your head was
| right. The fault is in your head. That is
your weak spot. and yet you believe it your
strong point. That is always the case with
weak-minded people
Achilles, when dipped in the river to
make him invulnerable, was held by the
heel You were held by the head. Achilles
| softest part was his heel, and through it he
was killed. you know.
You don't know, for instance, that your
business career furnishes material enough
for dozen irst-class farces. You do not
imagine that you are the living, realistic
Mulberry Sellers" of America. 1t is i'm
possible for you to see it, because the mental
defects that lead you to get up so many and
such variety of skin games and South Sea
bubbles utterly disqualify you from seeing
the absurdities and impossibilities which
you swesr are perfectly practicable and
have millions in them" You are a good
fellow, but in business you are child, and
a simple one at that. No not so simple, for
your friends who go into your schemes fare
badly, always, while you do not I do not
mean you swindle them; mean only that
you take care of yourself, but not of them.
l do not intend to review your great
schemes in this letter. I can't write a book
to-day. If / think the subject of sufficient
| Importance to take it up again, will devota
| few hours b the weakness OF your head,
your want of judgment, of capacity for
business. In my opinion you are the best
subject for ridicule in America. Your i'm
plicit faith in all your widest speculations,
your utter Inconsistencies of your own
mental defects, the pomp and dignity YOU
throw into even ''how DIDO" the grandiIo-
quencs with which you demonstrate to a
friend that ''a SOW is worth more than O
cow" as if you were saying $50 help me,
GodW are known by all who know you.
My dear Boycott, don't enter the ring
to fight with ridicule. Stick to the war. II
alone has carried you into big offices four
times-has paid you $4,000. That is, the
good people of Georgia gave you that
much, but you threw down your title to
$4,000 of it in 18S0-deserted them. to
serve railroad for more money.
Your leaning is toward railroads. You
threw away your senatorship to be rail
road lawyer. You next got up a railroad
corporation the Atlanta and Pacific. made
large sum OF money, gambled it of in
Wall street; then got up another railroad in
Florida that emptied the pockets of your
friends. First, railroad lawyer; second,
a railroad promoter; and third, a
railroad president; and fourth, the
farmers best friend. II your Florida
scheme had succeeded you would be
to-day railroad president. fleeing the
farmers. Nothing but your lack of business
Judgment kept you from being that kind of
farmers friend. Nothing but your failure
to be railroad president drove you back 20
Georgia to beg the farmers for the same