726 



TENNESSEE. 



three trains and with Winchesters compelled the 

 train men to take them to Oliver Springs. The 

 convicts were taken out and sent away. 



Up to this time no serious effort appears to have 

 been made to support the local authorities and re- 

 store order. It was expected that the next point 

 of attack would be Coal Creek, where a garrison 

 has been kept for nearly a year, numbering about 

 150 men. In response to appeals for assistance, 

 the Governor ordered the sheriff to take a posse 

 of 500 men from Knoxville, but they were hard 

 to get, on account of widespread sympathy with 

 the miners. On the 18th, the Governor ordered 

 out all the organized militia. The attack was 

 made the same day the militia were ordered out, 

 the 18th. The garrison, in charge of Col. Ander- 

 son, made resistance and repelled the mob. which 

 then sent up a flag of truce and asked for an 

 interview with Col. Anderson. He went out with 

 the flag, and was taken prisoner. He was 

 ordered, under threats of death, to sign a letter 

 to his lieutenant directing the surrender of the 

 stockade and fort. He steadily refused to sign 

 the letter, and was kept all night in the moun- 

 tains, where the miners discussed the policy of 

 hanging him. 



Meantime Gen. Carnes had advanced to Coal 

 Creek with reinforcements from Chattanooga, 

 and on the 19th the miners were routed in a fierce 

 battle. Some were taken prisoners, and the 

 insurgents were notified that unless Col. 

 Anderson was brought back in safety the pris- 

 oners would be put to death. He was finally 

 restored unhurt. Three, at least, of the soldiers 

 were killed in the attack, and it was supposed 

 that several miners fell. One of the worst of 

 the leaders, Bud Lindsay, was captured on the 

 21st by a party of citizens. He begged for his 

 life and offered to give evidence against the 

 other leaders, and on this condition his life was 

 spared. Gen. Carnes proceeded against him and 

 other leaders, under civil warrants, and 200 were 

 under arrest by the 2()th. He took a force on 

 that day and went to Briceville, where the houses 

 of the miners were searched and about 60 prisoners 

 taken. By the 22d, 500 men had been arrested. 



A dispute arose between the State authorities 

 and the lessees as to the rent for the leased con- 

 victs in Nashville after they were sent from the 

 mines. It is quite possible that the system of 

 leasing convicts may be abandoned, as the gen- 

 eral sentiment in the State seems to be that, 

 while the law must be enforced so long as it 

 remains on the statute-books, it would be wiser to 

 do away with it. 



Political. A Governor, ten representatives in 

 Congress, and a legislature that would elect a 

 United States Senator in place of W. B. Bate, 

 were to be chosen on Nov. 8. 



The Democratic Convention for the selection 

 of delegates to the national convention met, May 

 126. The delegates were instructed to vote for 

 Cleveland as long as his name should be before 

 the convention. The platform declared for the 

 autonomy of the States, and economy in govern- 

 mental expenditures ; against the enlargement 

 and concentration of Federal powers, bounties, 

 and subsidies in every form, and "the whole 

 theory and practice of paternalism." It declared 

 the party to be the fast friend of the farmer and 

 the laboring man. It denounced the McKinley 



act, and the reciprocity policy " as a temporizing 

 scheme intended to soothe the people with a 

 measure of partial free trade, delay the downfall 

 of monopoly, and throw a sop to New England." 

 It condemned the " Force bill," and the pension 

 policy, which it characterized as " a part of the 

 general policy of the Government under the 

 Republican rule to drain the South of its wealth 

 and carry it to more favored sections." 

 On the subject of coinage it said : 



We favor a currency of gold, silver, and of paper 

 convertible into coin at the option of the holder, and 

 in such amount as will meet the business necessities 

 of internal trade and commerce among the people ; 

 and we further favor a parity of the two metals as a 

 common unit of value and as a legal tender for the 

 payment of all debts, public and private, as existed 

 under the laws of the United States down to the in- 

 famous and surreptitious demonetization of silver in 

 1873 by the Republican party ; and we further favor 

 the continued coinage of both silver and gold 

 bullion in such manner as that every dollar so 

 coined shall be equal to every other dollar. 



Chief-Justice Peter Turney had been put for- 

 ward for the gubernatorial nomination. The 

 primary elections were largely in his favor, and 

 on Aug. 4 Gov. Buchanan issued an address with- 

 drawing his name from consideration before the 

 nominating convention. The convention met on 

 Aug. 9, and nominated Turney by acclamation. 

 In reference to State affairs, the resolutions called 

 for the reduction of taxation and the retrench- 

 ment of expenses, and declared that labor should 

 not be ' ' under duress from convict labor and its 

 corporate organization " ; and therefore favored 

 the abolition of the penitentiary lease system, 

 and the erection of a prison large enough to hold 

 all the convicts and so constructed as to allow of 

 classification, that the young and those convicted 

 of lesser offenses might be separated from old and 

 hardened criminals. 



On Aug. 10 the city of Memphis was thrown 

 into a state of great excitement by the announce- 

 ment that the Governor had commuted the sen- 

 tence of Col. H. Clay King, who was to have 

 been hanged on the 12th, for the murder of D. H. 

 Poston, and at night a crowd assembled at the 

 most central point in the city and hanged the 

 Governor in effigy. 



On Aug. 15 the Governor announced himself 

 an independent candidate for re-election. 



The People's party had met in June and 

 adopted resolutions and appointed a delegation to 

 Omaha, but postponed naming a candidate for 

 Governor till Aug. 18. The resolutions demanded 

 free coinage and an increase of the volume of the 

 currency to the extent of $50 per capita. It 

 demanded that United States Senators be elected 

 directly by the people. In State matters, the 

 abrogation of the convict lease system was 

 demanded, and it was declared that salaries of all 

 State and county officials should be reduced, and 

 that a tax on the people to pay the railroad debt 

 was unconstitutional. 



At the convention. Aug. 18, the following 

 resolution was adopted : 



Whereas, John P. Buchanan has announced him- 

 self as an independent candidate for Governor upon 

 a platform of principles which are sound and in 

 accord with the reform movement ; therefore, 



Kesolved, That it is the desire of this convention 



