The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1898-05-06
CARMACK'S
ELOQUENCE.
His Speech Made Before
the House
ANENT HIS CONTESTED ELECTION.
A Powerful Arraignment of Josiah Pat
tersOn and the Methods lie Resorted in
the Election.
ANENT HIS CONTESTED ELECTION.

E. w. Carmack in the House of
Representatives on April %, made
in defense of his retaining his seat
in Congress, which was contested
by Josiah Patterson:
Mr.. SPEAKER: 1t is only as
matter of justice to my constituents
and against my own inclinatian that
[ consume the time of this House.
[ should rather prefer that the
House would proceed with all possi-
BILE swiftness to the final act of this
little drama, aud ring down the cur
tain as quickly as may be on the
closing scene. Whatever may be
the action of this House, it will be
but a trifling incident in the cOun-
try's history, and of no transcendent
even in my own.
While the world stands every day
will have its tomorrow, and | am
not yet so old that | need grieve for
the event of one little hour. If this
term in Congress represented to me,
as possibly it does to another, the
last floating fragment of a ship
wrecked ambition, | might clutch
at it with desperate eagerness and
contemplate its loss with agony of
soul. Such. | am proud to say, is
not my condition.
So far as my individual political
fortunes are involved in this con-
test, If | know my own heart, Mr..
Speaker, | am absolutely indiffer-
ent to the issue. There is another
and higher tribunal which will re-
view these proceedings and sit in
solemn judgment upon your verdict.
If this House shall decide against
my right, to the arbitrament of that
great tribunal | shall make my ap.
peal. 1t is within the power Of this
House, by a mere act of force, to
strip a member of his commission.
1t is not within it's power to take
from him the respect of his neigh
bors, his constituents, his friends. 1t
may, by the same act of force, be.
stow that commission as a gift from
its own hands upon another, hut it
can not bind up with the gift the
esteem and confidence of his people
at home. Applause on the Demo
cratic side.
That is possession, gentlemen of
this House, which it is not yours to
give nor yours to take away. | had
rather lose this seat, having OBJ
taiued it, as | believe, by the hoh.
est, unbOught sutfrages of my coun-
trymen, than to receive it as the
gift of this House, having been de-
MED it by my people at home. Ap-
plause on the Democratic side.
had rather be stripped bare of all
official hOnOrs and go back to the
plain people from whom | sprung
than to barter their respect and con.
fidence for the meretriciOus splen.
dors of passing hour. Renewed
applause | had rather remain for
ever on common level with the
great mass of my cOuntrymen thar
to creep and crawl to some petty
eminence of official power and from
there look down on an outraged ans
indignant people. Applause.
That man, Mr.. Speaker, has liveC
too long who lives to despise the
plain people by whose strong arms
he was lifted up, over whose shoul
ders he has climbed to greatness
who, in his declining years, in tn,
evening of his life, seeks to barte
the honest loyalty of his lifelong
friends for q sordid, selfish, and pre-
carious alliance with bis lifelonl
enemies. Applause on the Demo
cratic side.
Mr.. Speaker, there may be ad
vantages in such situation which
my poor mind can not discern; bu
to me it seems that there is no objec
in this world more to be pitied thar
the man who abandons the friend
of his youth and the home of hi
childhood to become a despised ant
distrusted menial in a stranger
house. Applause on the Demo
cratic side.
If such man have not the hear
of a cOurtier or a slave; If he wa
not born to
Crook the pregnant hinges of the kne
Where thrift may follow fawning;
if his soul be not utterly dead with
in him, there must come a tim
when he will look down with sham
on his present condition and lool
back with longing to the friends h.
has deserted and the people he ha
betrayed. No matter with wha
Brummagem glitter and tinsel pom,
he may be surrounded, the time will
surely come when, like the captiv
Jew amid the splendors of foreigl
land, he will sit down by the water
of Babylon and weep when he re
members Zion. What shall he d
then, Mr. Speaker, when those VIII
have taken him captive require O
him a song? How can he sing tn
Lords song in a strangers land?
Oh, Mr.. Speaker, he must learn t
chant hymns to his conqueror in
foreign speech and babble the prais
es of his master in an alien tongue
Applause But even this is no
all, nor the worst. He must drin
the cup of humiliation to the yer
dregs. He must turn with bitter
ness upon his own country. II
must become the accuseT of his ow
friends; in that last aud loves
depth of his descent, in which nj