[for the Dispatch.]
Sixteenth Congressional District.--we, citizens and soldiers of the Sixteenth Virginia Congressional District, now at Camp Bartow and vicinity, having seen that the 6th of November is the day for the election of our representatives in Congress, and having heard that there is some opposition to Dr. Z. Kidwell's election, now call upon him at once to announce himself as the regularly nominated State-Rights candidate for said district.In organization there is strength; and Dr. Kidwell having been nominated by a full Convention for the district at a time of doubt and danger, and in defence of the very issues and principles which have made us soldiers and refugees; and the district having had the best opportunities to judge of his fidelity and fitness, it would comport badly with our professions of fealty to State-Rights principles to permit his defeat and thus weaken the very cause we have so much at heart, and which we so earnestly desire to build up and maintain.
We called on Dr. Kidwell to become our standard bearer in a time of peril. He responded to the call, and we will not desert him now.
- Davis Toothman,
- Stephen A Morgan,
- Wm L Morgan,
- E H Rex,
- E L Toothman,
- E C Kerr,
- Edw'd L Morgan,
- Felix West,
- A S Straight,
- Jesse Davis,
- Geo Cooper,
- Ezekiel Martin,
- B B Shaver,
- Thos Wright,
- Black burn Davis,
- Laban Exline,
- James Steele, Jr.
- Morgan Jolifle,
- Jonathan Nixon,
- H C Morris,
- F M Asheraft,
- Wm W Arnett,
- Henry Pride,
- John Lewis,
- A H Streight,
- D B Welch,
- Z Anderson,
- Geo C Kerr,
- Wm Kerr,
- Jonathan F Arnett,
- Luke Rider,
- James S Kerr,
- James E Conaway,
- Theodore Davis,
- John J Vincent,
- Wm H Vincent.
To 1st Lieutenant Davis Toothman, and thirty five other Soldiers and Citizens of Camp Bartow and vicinity:
Fellow-Citizens:--Your generous call upon me to announce myself a candidate for Congress from the 16th Congressional District has been received, and as you will see from the annexed card, which I beg you to accept as a reply to your kind letter, your demand has been anticipated by my announcement in the Richmond papers of the 30th of October.
I can but feel truly grateful for this evidence of continued confidence by so many of my fellow-citizens, and to promise by every effort of mine as a candidate, and as a representative if chosen, to continue worthy of the honor done me.
[a card.]
In a few days thereafter I saw the ordinance prohibiting an election for Congress in May and postponing it to a day to be fixed by the Convention. I immediately withdrew from the canvass in behalf of my own claims, promising to resume it when the day of election was fixed by the Convention, but continued my labors in behalf of the State-Rights cause, and the ordinance of the State Convention, up to the close of the day on which the vote was taken on the ordinance of secession.
If an apology be necessary for not having obtruded my name upon you at an earlier day, let it be remembered we are but few in number and I felt assured that those few knew of the action had in the District before we were driven into war and exile. And if an apology is demanded for the appearance of my name at this time, let it be found in the action of the State-Rights party of the District, with every county fully and ably represented, in the principles enunciated by that Convention, and my pledge to the people of the District, and in my desire to vindicate their confidence and my own self-respect. [*]
