There is an interesting sculpture located at the end of the Tennessee State Capital dedicated in memory of Edward Ward Carmack. While he never became as big as Andrew Jackson and James Knox Polk, he was a newpaperman, congressman and senator. A strong promoter of temperance, he was gunned down November 9, 1908 by Robin Cooper, son of a former friend, who Carmack had repeatedly attacked in his newspaper articles.
Carmack’s Pledge to the South
The south is a land that has known
sorrows; It is a land that has
broken the ashen crust and
moistened it with tears; A land
scarred and riven by the powshare
of war and billowed with the graves
of her deat; But a land of legend,
A land of Song, A Land Of Hallowed
and heroic memories.
To that land every drop of my blood,
ever fibre of my being, every pulsation
of my heart, is consecrated forever.
I was born of her womb; I was
nurtured at her breast; and when
my last hour shall come, I pray
God that I may be pillowed upon
her bosom and rocked to sleep
with her tender and encircling
arms.
