Year: 1872

played until the


GREAT A. j. APPEARED


at the ladies' entrance, and was lifted
into a carriage drawn by four white
horses. Then went up a cheer that
must have been heard all over Nash
vile, and heard, too, by many who
would have preferred that the same
amount of noise should have come
from an earthquake. and seen a crack
open at their feet fifty feet wide and
a thousand feet deep. To the
music of the bands. by the light Of
the torches and the glare of fire rock
cts, the procession moved by circu-
itouS route to the Public Square.
Here stand had been erected at the
southwest corner of the Court House,
and thence Mr.. johnson was taken.
When he mounted the table prepared
for him a cheer arose from the mul
titude that exceeded in strength and
volume any cheer that I ever heard
at public meeting. 1t was a big
thing, reaching up high and spreading
| out wide.


FULLY FIFTEEN THOUSAND PEOPLE
were before him. The entire space
from the court house to the market
house. and into the market house,
was packed, while to the right and
left the crowd extended from the
north side to the south side of the
square. 1t was monster meeting,
such a one as is seldom seen in any
city of the land.


HIS srIECH.


Mr. Johnson spoke about an hour
and half. being frequently inter
rupted by cheers loud and long. He
talked of the Constitution of course.
for no speech of his is complete with
out it. He referred to the decline of
the American Senate. and compared
that august body Of the present day
with what it was in the time Of Clay,
Calhoun and Webster. The Conven-
tiou system generally received his at
tcution as we'll as the particular con-
vcntion that nominated Chcatham.- i
IN the case of the latter convention
he said the people had been sold
AS SHEEP IN TIE SHAMELESS.


This was received with tremendous
applause, a few Cheatharl men trying
to get up a counter yell, but were
ashamed of its fcebleness and wisely
concluded to dry up. | think they
received assistance in the drying up
process from two or three policemen
who went out to interview them. -
But noisy and demonstrtive as the
crowd was, they seemed to have re-
served the greater portion of their
enthusiasm for the close, when Dir.
johnson should announce himself
as
AN INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE
against Cheatham. When he came
to that point he spoke very slowly
and deliberately. as if detirmened
that there should be no misconstruc-
ton. He said that when he left |
home he had not intended to become |
a candidate, but since he bad been
here the pressure upon him to an
nounce himself had been very great.
Still, although not candidate his
enemies had commenced villifying
and abusing him just as much as
though he was one, and he thought it
could be no worse if he actually an
nounced himself. After talking i'll |
this way for some minutes he said |
that he felt as if he had been nOmina-
ted by this great convention of the |
people, this mammoth gathering of
the masses, and that if they insisted |
that he should become their standard |
bearer he would take the flag and |
carry it into every county of the State.
This was received with
THE Widest DEMONSTRATIONS OF |


APPLAUSE


and approval. For full five minutes
the cheering was deafening MIR
Johnson could do nothing but look
over the wild and enthusiastic audi
ence before him until they we're COM
pcl!cd to cease cheering for want Of
breath. lie then resumed, and every
dozen words thereafter he was again
interrupted by applause. He said he
might not address his hearers again
soon, but that he would become their
standard-bearer, and wherever the
thickest of the fight was, there nc
would be found. He closed by saying
that in all his experience he had never
witnessed anything like this, and that
it carried him back to the hotly contcs-
ted campaigns of 1910 aud 1874. 1t
was eleven o'clock when he got back
to his quarters and the vast crowd DIS
solved. The old citizens say that they
have not seen such demonstration in
Nashville in twenty years. 1t re-
minds one of a sort OF


POLITICAL SPONTANEOUS CoMBUs-


TIoN.


Johnson thinks that it is ground
swell, a tidal wave that will sweep
over the State, and bear him in tri-
umph to the halls of Congress. He is
sanguine of victory whether Radical
candidate comes out or not. And his
opinion seems to be shared by major
ity here. He is all powerful before the
people, and when once before the tri-
hunal the man does not walk upon
Tennessee soil who can defeat him.


THE CHEATHAN PARTY


male desperate efforts to keep him off
the track, but TO no purpose. Come
out he would and he did. They now
regret i'm their very bones his defeat
by Cooper, and if that election WAS to
be held over again it would turn out
quite differently. The stone which
the builders rejected then has come
back upon them Ike a hundred pound
bomb shell with a red hot fuse leading
TO fine lot of powder well packed