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COMMANDER AT PULASKI 55

Weaver was in reply to charges of cruelty and
oppression directed at him by political oppo-
nents during the campaign of 1892. His speech-
making tour in the South was disturbed by
threats of violence, and he was compelled to
give up his appointments in Georgia where
systematic opposition was encountered. The
basis of this hostility was a revival of sectional
feeling aimed at a political candidate who
threatened to weaken the dominant party con-
trol in the South. Its spirit was shown by the
remark of one of the residents of Pulaski who,
addressing a reporter sent to investigate the
charges, referred to Weaver as that "darned
Yankee Colonel."⁵¹

In a letter addressed to Weaver at the time,
General Dodge declared that " twenty-five or
thirty years after the war they propose to
punish in the South a good soldier, which you
were, for simply obeying orders from a supe-
rior officer; it does not make any difference to
me whether the orders were good or bad or
cruel. It is a very singular thing because a
soldier obeyed an order in the Federal army he
should be denounced in the South where their
orders were far more strict than ours.

"Then, again, it is very singular to me that
Giles County, Tennessee, should object to any
order, because, as you know I commanded there.
I did not force the oath upon any person. I



	COMMANDER AT PULASKI 55 Weaver was in reply to charges of cruelty and oppression directed at him by political oppo- nents during the campaign of 1892. His speech- making tour in the South was disturbed by threats of violence, and he was compelled to give up his appointments in Georgia where systematic opposition was encountered. The basis of this hostility was a revival of sectional feeling aimed at a political candidate who threatened to weaken the dominant party con- trol in the South. Its spirit was shown by the remark of one of the residents of Pulaski who, addressing a reporter sent to investigate the charges, referred to Weaver as that "darned Yankee Colonel."⁵¹ In a letter addressed to Weaver at the time, General Dodge declared that " twenty-five or thirty years after the war they propose to punish in the South a good soldier, which you were, for simply obeying orders from a supe- rior officer; it does not make any difference to me whether the orders were good or bad or cruel. It is a very singular thing because a soldier obeyed an order in the Federal army he should be denounced in the South where their orders were far more strict than ours. "Then, again, it is very singular to me that Giles County, Tennessee, should object to any order, because, as you know I commanded there. I did not force the oath upon any person. I