Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-11-05
POPULITE SPEAKING.
R. Ledbetter the Chief Spell Bin
der of the Occasion.
Some Things He Said and Some Work He
Did While Member of the Leg
islature.

The populites had meeting at tn
court house last night which was at
tended by small crowd, composed
of democrats, a few Third partyite
and a good many negroes. r. Led
better was the principal spell. binde
OF the occasion, aud since he made
the charge in his speech that he haC
been misrepresentrd by the "subsi
died press" the LEAF.CHRoNICLI
takes the liberty OF devoting some o
its space to-day to his utterances
In the outset it may be well to state
that r. Ledbetter can say more com.
mon place things, cram his hands
down ia his pockets deeper and look
wiser than any man living. He be-
gan by telling his audience that he
was not there of his own accord F; he
had been called by the great masses
of laboring men to carry their ban,
ner in the campaign. He was before
them as candidate for Legislative
honors and proposed to talk plainly.
The first dive he made into his reg
ular speech, he told his hearers that
man gained nothing by going to
the Legislature. There was no
II oney in the job, very little honor
and lots of hard work. The way he
discussed the work that fell to his
lot when he represented the counties
OF Stewart and Montgomery in the
Legislature was simply amazing.
No doubt when he got down hard
at it great drops of perspiration
cOursed their way down his honest
cheeks and spattered on the floor.
AS Mr.. Ledbetter dealt only in gen
eralities he left his hearers to guess
what that work was. For their
benefit the LEAF CHRONICLE will
par'iculariZe.
II. Leibeuer was elected Joint rep
resentative from Stewart and Mont
gomery counties in 1878, and was in
the Legislature of 1879. The House
Journal of that session, the official re.
p0ri, shows that his post Office was
Dover. lie introduced one bill, Offer.
ed two amendments, and made five
motions during the entire session.
This is,the nerVe-straining work he
did while he held the office.
The bill introduced by Mr.. Led
better was one to compel guardians
to invest their money in bonds, etc.
The bill passed first reading, that is,
it was read by the clerk when pre-
sented. On motion it was referred
to the Judiciary Committee, and
nothing more was ever heard of it.
One of the five motions made by |
Mr.. Ledbetter, occurred when they
had upa bill to pay judges of elec-
tions one dollar per day for their SER
vices. Mr.. Ledbetter moved to STRIKE
out lone dollar' and insert "fifty |
cents" This was direct blow at the |
boys in the iurrow, for holding elcc-
tions and serving on juries are about
the only pull they get at the public
treasury. Then bill was up to ih
crease the pay ofjurors. Mr.. Ledbet-
ter moved to lay it on the table an
other lick at the farmer. The re
three motions have not beer
looked up, but they were probably t,
adjourn. Now this is the work don,
by r. Ledbetter while a member q
the Legislature. If you doubt it, 60
to the House Journal of 1879 aud see
for yourself.
Mr.. Ledbetter says there is no
money in the office. Let's examine
this point. The same House Journal
quoted above shows that he Was alb
'ert from his seat thirty-two days
Phis means all day, and some of the
lays he was reported present at the
session, but was absent at
the afternoon session. AS the Legis
ature only sits seventy-five days, il
would not be stretching the blanket
% say that Mr.. Ledbetter was absent
laIt the time. Now, the appropri,
alton bill Of that session shows thar
Il. Ledbetter received pay for seven
ytlvo days at the rate of 81 per day,
making his per diem $500. In ad-
lition to this he received $3.50 mile.
,ge for going back and forth between
Nashville and Dover. Thus it will
De seen that the tax payers of Ten.
lessee paid r. LedDetter $336.SO for
lie services rendered above. The
LEAF CHRONICLE believes there is
money in it.
One more assertion made by Mr..
Ledbetter and we leave him. He
in his speech last night that
he men who are managing the Turn.
~ campaign in this county were al
'Sky Blues" on the State debt ques-
ion, and that they are now trying to
dominate the party. The chairman
)f the county executive committee is
always the recognized leader in a
Judge Tyler is the Chair
man of this committee and he was
Bate Democrat, voting for the 5O-3