The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-05-08
AN IMPRESSIVE APPEAL
To the Minds and conscience of an Intelligent
and Liberty-LOVi1S People.
SPEECH OF HON. f. w. CARMACK


paths of toll and hazard, then no man
who credits me with a modicum OF
intelligence can accuse me of base
and unworthy motive. Why have |
put aside every suggestion that my
return to the Senate would be made
smooth and easy If | would only re-
frain from antagonizing this admins
tration? 1t is because | cannot af-
ford to win any Office by consenting
to the prepetuation of conditions
which in my humble judgment must
result in the utter decentralization of
Tennessee politics and the ruin OF
the Democratic party. say to you
that if this administration had full
filled with only tolerable fidelity the
lust expectations of the people l
should never have lifted hand or
voice against it. 1 should have re-
joiced if it had so discharged its OBJ
legations that no man could have de-
manded of me that l make this con-
test.
But it is idle to waste words on
the question of motive. l solemnly
adjure you to put aside every other
consideration and to decide this con-
test upon public issues alone. Let
. JIllS oIuAu Va AoAA W
the record it has made. Let me stand
or fall as l shall succeed or fail In
showing that it does not deserve the
confidence and support OF the people.
THE SECOND TERM PLEA.
my opponents have laid stress on
the fact that in my contest for the
Senate l appealed for the endorse
ment of a second term. l might reply
that this revelation of the virtues of
the second term precedent comes late
in life to my honorable competitor.
| might say that not only did he de-
feat the claim of his competitor for
the endorsement of a second term,
but that he and all the leading spirits
of his administration were united in
a powerful combination to reject my
appeal. | might say that Gov. Patter-
son deserves to be tried not by the
precedent he has violated, but by the
precedent he has made. There is
rule of law that no man shall take
advantage of his own wrong. | once
heard of fellow who had murdered his
own father and mother and who made
an appeal to the sympath1es OF the
Jury on the ground that they should
not be too hard on poor orphan.
Such is the plight in which my hon.
orable competitor comes before you.
He lifts his hands to heaven, reeking
with the blood of his murdered prece-
dent and prays that its ghost may
shield and protect him through all
the perils of this campaign.
"But | will not stoop to any spirit
of retaliation. Whatever Gov. Patter-
son may have done with respect to
this rule or practice, l am here to de-
fend it in his case with as much zeal
as | ever did in my own. | would
not have one jot or one little to pass
from the law; | would not retract one
word that | ever uttered in its be-
half. In every speech | made in that
campaign | said There is no prac-
tice. no rule and no reason that should
restrain you from visiting the full
measure of your condemnation upon
the public servant whom you nave
weighed in the balance and found
wanting. If l have been false to my
duty. if have been faithless to my
trust, if | have violated single plank
in the Democratic platform, or SIN
gle promise I made to the people, let
your Judgment, untempered with mer-
CIV. descend upon me- If Gov. Patter-
son can stand that test, demand Tor
him the endorsement of a reelection.
LET me remind you that it is only
through your chosen representatives
that you have any power in govern
ment; and that power passes out OF
your hands when you fail to exact OF
your representative the utmost tldel-
ity to his public pledge. You may be
lenient with honest error; you may
he charitable to mistakes of Judg-
ment: but no man is fit to deal with
the rights and liberties of freemen
who does not hold sacred and invio-
late the solemn promises with which
he won the confidence Of the people
Whatever other quality he may have
or lack. he must keep the right to be
trusted when he has given his word.
THE JEALOUS REFoRMER OF
TWO YEARS SINCE.
"Gov. Patterson two years ago was
consuming with all the zeal OF
great reformer. He found that under
the rule of the Democratic party lid
ertv had been destroyed, free govern
ment was dead, and the rights of the
neople crushed beneath the wheels or
the machine and the heels OF the po-
litical boss. The chief counts In his
Indictment were not against his Dem
ocratic opponent From the very mo-
mept of its return to power after the
war down to the very moment OF his
own candidacy, the entire record or
tbe Democratic party came under the
blasting anathema Of his bitter
tongue. The Constitutional Conven-
ton of 1870 committed crime
against liberty when 1t placed the Sc
faction of Treasurer, Comptroller and