Birmingham state herald., 1896-01-31
EDITORS LETTER BOX.
States Why He Is for J Johnston.

1 To the State Herald
 AS stated to State Herald reporter 1 when l declined an interview for publi- l cation some days ago on the guberna- l torial question: I felt that I was fixed in my determination to remain out of pol itics, and especially out of print. during i the present campaign. But recent de- l velopments constrain me to forego my 1 personal interest and preference in the
 matter since I now believe it to be IS lit- | tie as any friend of Captain Johnston can do to publicly express himself. and l for fear that I may be misconstrued in
 this I state here that I have not spoken to Captain Johnston in more than two years. He is not patron Of my store and never supported me for office; does not belong to my church, the Methodist
 nor any of my secret orders; never played | in my back yard nor whistled down my I rain barrel, nor loaned me money. This l admit looks strange but it is literally l true. Neither is he the candidate of my l choice on account of his financial views;
 and unlike a speaker in the Seals hall meeting, who said In effect that he op- | posed Captain Johnston because he had | supported him twice, feel that I would l do myself no discredt by saying that I
 now favored his candidacy because of | my support of him on those two occa- l sions. But Of course I have other and more potent reasons for supporting my ! fellow townSman for the high office to which he aspires than this, and if my support of him was based on nothing 1 greater than the mere fact that he Is my fellow townsman would feel called upon to make no apologies for my position. It | is too often the case in the history of po- | lftical parties that after man has spent
 the prime of his life In party work for 1 the sake of principle" only, without the l hope or expectation of reward save the innate knowledge that he has done his pa triotic duty, ne is no longer wanted. If Captain Johnston's career has not 1 been marked at every step since the l da rkest days of carpetbag rule in this state to the present moment by these l unSelfsh motives I confess that I have been msled by democratic newspapers, l by democratic speakers and by what my | own eyes have seen and what my own | ears have heard.
 One object I have in writing this com- | munication is to extend the thanks of all l the Johnston men in Alabama to- the 1 gentleman in the Seals hall" meeting who so untheughtedly reminded us that | Captain Johnston began running about l the same time with Captain Kolb. | We thank him because it will have the l effect of causing all the refecting demo- l crats in this state to draw the proper l comparison at the proper time between | two candidates for the office of governor | before the same democratic conventions, | each imagining or knowing that he had l been defrauded out of his just rights, and | because of which the one it is said, chose | to lead his followers into the enemys | ca mp and to destroy the party which he | regarded as having acted in bad faith; | the other patriotically accepting the yer | dict and lowing gracefully and pleas | antly to the edict of his party, which he l considered greater than himself; buckled l on the armor of democratic warfare and | went valantly to do battle for his sue | ceSSfu opponent and for the pure prin- | ciples of democracy.
 Verify all that is needed to make our l party nvincible in this state Is few | more Johnstons. I truly believe that Captain JohnStons career, especially 1 since his defeats at the hands of his l party. furnishes the most notable and | noble example of patriotic self-sacrifice l for principle to be found in the annals of l democracy. But, alas there is but a l pennys difference between the man who | works and the man who plays, and the
 man who plays gets it-in politics, | Now, MT. Editor. l must bring this l communication to nasty conclusion. Ii l is already much longer than I intended. 1 I deprecate the seeming necessity of l going into print on this subject, but l
 1 feel it to be the duty of Captain John
 | stons friends in this county to speak | out. I have been drawn into 1t against
 my will from sense of justice l am
 l not a politician nor prophet, but I be- | iieve the time has come when democrats
 1
 | all along the line. My reference to Cap
 | tain Kolb above is in no spirit of malice,
 arsa have no apologies to offer for say
 | ing that his lahors in behalf of democra-
 cS entitled him to recognition at the
 i fardS of his party when he asked it. He
 l is not the only one who has been driven
 of by harsh treatment and unjust cri.i-
 1 c!sirs
 | Finally I viii say that read in a book
 ] when was school boy that there was