Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1894-10-31

ioI oFiuouCo us w uoW no WOulu TeBdTu
the promises made to them through
James G. Jones. When Turney entered
the Senate, the Walker free trade tariff
bill was being agitated, and it could
be seen that the vote on the passage
would be very close. When the vote
was taken in the Senate it was a tie, as
will be remembered and the'bill was
passed with the vote of the Vice Presi-
dent, George M. Dallas. Had Hopkins
l.. Turney kept his promise made to the
Wings of the Tennessee Legislature,
there would have been a majority of
two against the measure; but he had
been coddled by the then occupant of
the White House, who had little trouble
with the aid Of the postoffices in caus-
ing him to speedily forget the promises
he made to secure his own election to
the Senate Eel the nominee of a Dem.
ocratio caucus. When the time came
his promise concerning other measures
were kept in the same way as that in
relation to the tariff.
At the close of Mr.. Folks administra-
ton our hero figured in an act that
gave him great prominence, and which,
resulted in his permanent retirement
for life. AS is always done by a retir.
ing President, Mr.. Polk had issued his
proclamation, converting the Senate in
extraordinary session at noon on the
fourth day of March, 1S49, the purpose
being to act upon nominations made
for Office by his successor. That day,
or soon afterwards Asbury Dickens,
then Secretary of the Senate handed
Hon. John Bell, then one of the Sena-
tors from Tennessee, Il check for some.
thing over a thousand dollars. Mr.. Bell
inquired what it vas for, ''itis due you
as mileage for the present session said
Mr.. Dickens. Mr.. Bell protested that
he had not travelled from his home at
Nashville to attend the session, aaving
simply remained ove at the capitol, at
the end Of the session just closed, and
was therefore not entitled to mileage.
He vas informed that his colleague,
Mr.. Turney, had not only taken a sim
liar check, slightly larger ON account
of constructive mileage, but that he had
demanded it as a right. Nevertheless,
Mr.. Bell, who was a poor man, and who
would have found the check a great re-
lief, persisted in refusing it, saying that
as a lawyer he knew he was not entitled
to constructive mileage under the cir.
cumstances. His colleague kept his
check and used it.
When the vouchers of Mr.. Dickens
for these payments reached the Treas.
ury Department. they were disallowed,
as credits, and he and the sureties on
his official bond were held for the
amount. E~ndeavoring to save himself
from bankruptcy he appealed to Sena-
tors to refund what had wrongfully
been paid to them. Some of them did,
but not so with Turney, who held on to
his and the Secretary who had made
the payment had to stand the loss.
Years afterwards, when Hon. Horace
Maynard was in Congress the two un.
married daughters of Asbury Dickens,
then living in poverty, came to him
and appealed to him with tears in their
eyes, so support with his influence and
vote, a bill for the relief of their fathers
estate on account of wrongful payments
made to United States Seniors, one Of
whom was Hopkins L. Turney, of Ten.
nessee.
AS already stated this act gave him
great prominence, more than any other
act of his whole Senatorial life. This,
with other obnoxious incidents in his
life, narrated in the public press of the
State, at the end of his Senatorial term
caused him to find himself to be q nan
without a party. He was succeeded in
the Senate by Ex-Gov. James C. Jones,
a Wing, but had the Democrats had a
majority in the Legislature Mr.. Turney
would not have been returned to the
Senate. Going into the Democratic
caucus in 1S45 and then boiling and
defeating its nominee, together with an
unpopular record in other respects had
cooked his goose" forever. After
wards he aspired to q seat in the House
of Representatives from his district,
but his ambitions in that respect were
never gratified. He ran for the Legis.
lature and was defeated and thus ended
his public career.
These facts were once published with
full details in Brownlow's Knoxville
Wing, the remembrance of which publ
cation may account for Gov. Turney's
recent effort to picture the late Gov.
Brownlow as a monster 80 hideous that
young Democrats and old one as well
should treat his memory as they would
that of some great, overtowering public
calamity, the contemplation of which
begets and involuntary, patriotic shud-
der KnOYyille .JOurnal