The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1910-04-20
What Hath
Tennessee Done?

Governor Malcolm r. Patterson Of
Tennessee displays as much pure UNI
adulterated nerve within the lapse Of
one week as any man who ever filed
the governors chair of great state
Before the first storm OF indignation
over the Cooper pardon had partially
subsidized, Patterson announces mis- can
didacy to succeed himself. The gov
ernor is now serving his second term
OF two years.
Patterson Graves vindication at the
hands of the people whom he outraged,
He asks that his commission TO stamp
the laws which he swears to enforce,
In the mud beneath his despotic feet
be renewed. He says in effect that
the killing Of Carmack was a good
radiance, and he asks that the law
abiding people of his state re-elect him
on such q platform.
The very announcement of Platter
eon is an insult to God-loFing Ten
nesseeans and an assuring stroke on
the brow of the criminal and the thug.
his re-election-and heaven forbid
such a calamity means an
endorsement of vicious despotism and
the trampling down Of genuine de-
moeracy. 1t means that the demon
may stalk at liberty in the corridors
OF Tennessee's capitol while the God
dess of Justice dare not enteri
But we have no fears that this man
win get the endorsement he seeks.
We believe that Tennessee viii rebuke
him by a greater majority than they
elected him over Carmack
On October %, 1908, Just two weeks
prior to his death, Editor Carmack
wrote one of his characteristic edi-
torials ON Murder" What a pity it
is that the same spirit which prompted
this utterance never permeated the
soul Of Governor Patterson!
The editorial in part follows:
Homicide, a contempt for human
life, lenient tolerance of sheer blood
thirtiness, is increasingly a stain upon
our civilization. Is it not a fact to
shock the conscience that there are
more homicides In Nashville or in
Memphis than in the great city of Lon.
don, often more than in the whole of
England? Is it not an indictment of
our civilization? For what purpose is
government except to supplant per.
sonal force and violence with the
peaceful remedies of the law? Let us
take this lesson to our hearts and
learn it well. How many of us can
say that our garments have on them
no stain of this mans blood? Every
man who has encouraged in himself or
others mawhsh tenderness for the
lawless man-killer, directly or indirect.
ly, has shorn the law Of itsterrors and
has his share of guilt. Beneath the
surface of our civilization the oldtime
blood lust of cur ancestors sleeps in
fitful, uneasy slumber. In the hearts
OF thousands OF men fierce passions
are as tigers Gagged, and they only need
for the keeper to turn his back to re
lapse into savagery. Before we car
teach the fierce and violent a whole
some awe of legal justice, we mus
have the great body of our CITIZENSHIP
deeply imbued with the sentiment
that respect for law rather than the
law itself is the corner stone of al
government and the shect-anchor O
all civilization"
This marks the vast difference il
the character of the two men.
The whole country will sympathizt
with poor, outraged Tennessee in he
troubles which necessarily must follow
the opening of her gubernatorial cam
paign. It will not be a contest owe
great issues of state, but rather an
other trial of Carmack's slayers. TIL,
whole fight will be waged about tn,
silent tomb OF the dis-armored knight
and the ashes of the dead will b,
mingled with the mud of the living.
All! may we not ask, What has Ten
nessee done that such curse shoult
befan her?