Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1894-03-28
GILLENWATERS SPEECH
Nominating Walter P. BrOwnlOw for
Congress.

Congress.
We are assembled here today for the
purpose of nominating a candidate for
Congress We must not forget that the
power vested in us is a delegated power,
and the obligation resting upon us is to
SO cast our vote in this convention as
that the vote of each county when cast
shall be responsive to the will of the
majority of the Republican voters in
our respective counties. Not since the
memorable contest in 1864, when the
fate of the American Republic hung on
the re election of Abraham Lincoln, has
the demand on the Republican party
for harmony and unity been so i'm
perative as at the present. As politi-
cal organization the Republican party
has made its impress on every page of
American history from its origin down
to the present time. 1t has been in the
past and is today a grand party. The
utterances of its great leaders, the ac-
complished facts of its efforts as en-
bodied in legislation and the beneficial
results following shine with the lustre
of the most brilliant gems among the
common pebbles of old oceans bed,
and as result recognized by the civil
lied world, the thirty years of Republi-
can supremacy in the National Gov
ernment, are the golden links in the
silver chain of American history. AS
it has been in American politics the
party of the past, the star of its destiny
today stand out in the future becoming
us on to nobler and grander achieve
ments in the great work of lifting hu-
manity up to higher place. We are
now under the cloud of national de-
feat, the first we have ever known. But
the hour of panic is past, there is sill
yer lining to the clouds, in the light of
which the lines are reforming. In No
vember OF 1893 an advance was made
on the outer entrenched positions of
the enemy. Under the leadership of
Mckinley, of Ohio, the man who is the
idol of every home in this broad land !;
when the bread of honest toll is eaten,
and the comforts of the ideal American
home appreciated, and every point as
saulted was carried and the captured
guns OF the enemy trained on their re-
treating columns. And now when in
November next the advance is to be
made all along the line, and leader
is to be chosen to lead the Republicans
of this Congressional District, Hawk
ins County has candidate and l am
commissioned to present his name to
this convention. If you had been on
the streets of Rogersville during the
years of 1866 and 1857, and stepped into
little timer shop by the wayside, you
would have seen, toiling at the bench a
beardless boy. His face was black with
SCOT and dust and his garb bespoke his
poverty. He was a boy thrown out
into the current of busy world, with
out the guiding hand of a father or the
carressing care of mother. If later,
when the days work was done you had
stood on the street and looked into an
upper window of an humble home that
gave our timer boy shelter you would
have seen him burning the midnight
lamp in tireless effort to educate and
fit himself for higher sphere in life.
That boy had our sympathy then and
since he has gone out from amongst US
and cast his lot with others, we have
followed him with just pride because
we have always thought of him as our
timer boy. We have seen him toiling
in the dangerous position of a railroad
engineer, lured thither by the prospect
OF accumulating the needed means to
enable him to attain to something
higher. We have seen him enter the
journalistic field and there win favors
championing the cause of Republican
ism in solid South. We have seen
him honored by his party in being called
to the craftsmanship of the Congress
| ,;on nj Gap, ,,;ftaa Totar u,a baya caar
him honored by the Republican party
of the State in being called to the chair
manship of the State Executive Com
mittee; and again we have seen hin
honored by the Republicans of the State
in being selected as our Representative
in the National Republican Committed
in whose council chambers the nationa
campaigns were planned and under
whose direction greater national victor
les were won. We have seen him honor
ed by the chosen Representatives. of oul
party in Congress in his election to th
position of doorkeeper in the lowe
House. We have seen him honored b,
a Republican Senate in his appoint
ment to responsible position in tina
body, and as a reward of merit reap
pointed six times, and retiring onl.
when the Senate was 40 longer Repub
lican. In all these varied positions ou
timer boy has proved himself worth
the confidence of our people, and it is
pleasure to me to stand here today q
the representative of the Republican
of Hawkins County and put in nomina