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�" That D----d Brownlow, "
Being a Saucy & Malicious Description
of Fighting Parson
WILLIAM GANNAWAY BROWNLOW,
Knoxville Editor and Stalwart Unionist,
Who Rose from a Confederate j ail to become
One of the Most Famous Personages in the Nation ,
Denounced by his Enemies as Vicious and Harsh ,
Praised by his Friends as Compassionate and Gentle,
The rhododendron
of Southern Appala·
chia, like the mountain
people, developed from
hardy stock. Both have
come to grips with thin
tOpsoil as well u cold win.
ters and W-'m summers. M.,
and plant ere proudJy independ·
ent and evergreen.
�William Gannaway Brownlow ( 1805-1877) photographed circa 1862 by the famous Civil
War photographer Matthew Brady. [The collection of the Library of Congress.)
�"That D----d Brownlow,"
Being a Saucy & Malicious Description
of Fighting Parson
WILLIAM GANNAWAY BROWNLOW,
Knoxville Editor and Stalwart Unionist,
Who Rose from a Confederate Jail to become
One of the Most Famous Personages in the Nation,
Denounced by his Enemies as Vicious and Harsh,
Praised by his Friends as Compassionate and Gentle,
Herewith Revived by STEVE HUMPHREY,
a 20th Century Newpaperman and
Former Associate Editor of
the KNOXVILLE JOURNAL,
Descendant of the WHIG.
APPALACHIAN CONSORTIUM PRESS
Boone, North Carolina 28607
�The Appalachian Consortium was a non-profit educational organization
composed of institutions and agencies located in Southern Appalachia. From
1973 to 2004, its members published pioneering works in Appalachian studies
documenting the history and cultural heritage of the region. The Appalachian
Consortium Press was the first publisher devoted solely to the region and many of
the works it published remain seminal in the field to this day.
With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National
Endowment for the Humanities through the Humanities Open Book Program,
Appalachian State University has published new paperback and open access
digital editions of works from the Appalachian Consortium Press.
www.collections.library.appstate.edu/appconsortiumbooks
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. To view a
copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses.
Original copyright © 1978 by the Appalachian Consortium Press.
ISBN (pbk.: alk. Paper): 978-1-4696-3822-5
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-4696-3824-9
Distributed by the University of North Carolina Press
www.uncpress.org
�This volume is dedicated to
two editors of the Knoxville journal,
noted for their forthrightness and courage,
William Rule and Guy Lincoln Smith.
��CONTENTS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
Editorial Note
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Sire of the Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A Bullet in the Thigh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Success Through Uproar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Three Brawlers of Destiny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Jonesboro Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A Natural Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Crippled Invader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ahead of the Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Busy Pen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Supremacy and Sorrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Party Strings Hang Loosely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Material Parson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1859-1861 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Crushed and Exiled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Profits of Exile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Parson's Advocate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Pains of Reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
New Foes From Old Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Whig Dies Democratic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
vii
Vlll
x
1
28
40
56
70
83
99
113
121
139
150
174
190
218
2 54
278
307
343
367
400
406
�EDITORIAL NOTE
While it is possible to differentiate writers of the Appalachian
character in a number of ways, Dr. Richard Drake, Julian Van-Dusen
Professor of History at Berea College, has noted in a collection of
essays documenting the history of Appalachian America:
Perhaps the first treatment of the Appalachian as a significant and separate
type was presented by a native Appalachian-"Parson" William G. Brownlow, a
Methodist minister, Whig politician and journalist, war-time polemist. Parson
Brownlow's Book was a Civil War best-seller, a bitter anti-Confederate tract
which told of the trials and tribulations of the loyal mountaineers of east Tennessee who held to the Union even in the face of a tyrannical Confederate
occupation. Brownlow's call was to the North to liberate the freedom-loving folk
of the mountains, a call that was finally answered in late 1863. This first 1860
image of the Southern mountaineer, then, was a hard-pressed lover of freedom
who held strongly to the Union.
Such distinctions, whether they be of author or subject, of past or
present, continue to be used today. Let it be noted that Steve Humphrey, like the Parson Brownlow, is a newspaperman, not ajournalist. Humphrey emphatically says of himself:
I am a newspaperman. Among the curmudgeons in the newspaper business
with which I consider myself, a journalist is a creature who wears a belted-back
corduroy coat, high, laced leather boots, carries a rattan cane, and addresses
other human beings as "My dear fellow." It is also true that today newsgathering
and disseminating people of all kinds-radio, television, newspapers and magazines-are called journalists. But to be precise, as well as sniffy, people who work
for newspapers are newspapermen. I am, of course, in a minority.
Vlll
�IX
EDITORIAL NOTE
To preserve Parson Brownlow's style and flavor, little editing has
taken place in the quotations which Steve Humphrey chose for his
manuscript; however, it was necessary, for the sake of quick comprehension in reading the quotations, to slightly alter the punctuation at
times. Too, although footnoting by Mr. Humphrey may not meet
the approval of all critics, they are left in the form which he chose to
employ, and only minor mechanical changes have been made. The
scope of the manuscript covered by the individual footnotes is usually very sweeping, but so Mr. Humphrey consciously designed them.
The Appalachian Consortium presents this book not because of its
agreement or disagreement with the author's or Mr. Brownlow's
philosophy and/or prejudices, but because of the saltiness, vitality,
humor (both intentional and unintentional), and the significance of a
wealth of first-hand information from a man who LIVED during and
reported on a critical period of the United States of America.
January 6, 1978
The Publications Committee
Appalachian Consortium Press
�FOREWORD
This is a narrative of the Whig, a weekly newspaper edited and
published for almost thirty years by William Gannaway (Parson)
Brownlow. It was the first in a line of newspapers now represented
by the Knoxville journal.
Because the Whig was Brownlow and Brownlow was the Whig the
story of one is the story of both. This book in no way is the traditional examination of Brownlow as a historical figure. Historians who
have gone over his record as Reconstruction governor of Tennessee
and United States senator for six years have given him some very bad
marks. Some thawing has appeared in this Arctic front. The man
Brownlow and his skill as a circulation builder have been overlooked.
He was vituperative, abusive, coarse, relentless with his enemies, and
generous with his friends. This has been accepted but not explored.
In some ways and at some times he may have been the meanest man
who ever walked the streets of Knoxville. But he also was compassionate, gentle, hospitable, courteous, and faithful in his domestic
relations. He was such a sure target for those in financial trouble that
during his lifetime he paid thousands of dollars to meet notes he had
endorsed and which the principals had failed to pay.
His writing was warmed by his remarkable understanding of human nature. It also sparkled with his wit. He was an artist with the
skinning knife, sometimes quite crude, but his approach to and treatment of people and events was so unusual that readers looked forward to his newspaper with zest. They knew he would infuriate them
or dissolve them in laughter. His pen alone made him a successful
circulation builder and his newspaper a splendid advertising medium.
It is true that his defense of the institution of slavery built circulation in the South, and his fierce loyalty to the Union brought him his
readers in the North, bringing his newspaper to its largest readership
X
�XI
FOREWORD
in the pre-Civil War years. But he had done very well before that
period.
In the spring of 1969 I was given the task of telling the story of
the Knoxville journal and its ancestry. This was an unfamiliar field.
However, because Parson Brownlow's fascinating human character
and his unusual success as an editor had not been presented before, I
soon knew I must tell his story in a book.
A succeeding work will take the story of the journal and its predecessors to the death of Guy L. Smith in November 1968. Mr. Smith
was for thirty-one years editor of the journal. He had urged the
preparation of the newspaper's history and had taken preliminary
steps in this direction. This account will begin with the career of
William Rule, who learned newspapering under the Parson and who
founded the journal under its present name on February 26, 1885.
In 1898 E. J. Sanford, a wealthy and influential Knoxvillian,
bought both the journal and the Tribune, and merged them into one
morning newspaper. The Tribune had been Democratic, but the journal and Tribune was Republican. The Tribune's name was dropped in
a few years. The purchaser made his son Alfred F. Sanford publisher,
and William Rule was appointed editor, a post that he held until a
short time before his death in 1928. The newspaper encountered
reverses and went into receivership in 19 30. Two years later it was
bought by Roy N. Lotspeich, Knoxville industrialist. He installed
Guy L. Smith of Johnson City as editor.
Since the purchase by Lotspeich the members of his family have
controlled and operated the journal as a Republican newspaper.
Upon the death of Roy N. Lotspeich, his widow, Mrs. Ethel Moore
Lotspeich, became publisher; and her son-in-law, Charles H. Smith,
Jr., moved into an important managerial position. When Mrs. Lotspeich died in 1962, Charles H. Smith, Jr., became publisher. He died
in 1972, and Charles H. Smith, Ill succeeded his father. He occupies
the chief executive post as of this writing.
Many people and institutions have given the author assistance in
the preparation of this book. The McClung Collection of Lawson
McGhee Library afforded its rich store of research material, including
private papers, rare books, and the extensive files of the Whig and
other Knoxville newspapers. At the outset of this research Miss Pollyanna Creekmore, then McClung Collection head and now director of
documents at East Tennessee State University, provided expert and
friendly guidance, and supplied important books for the use of the
author. Also most helpful have been the present head of the collec-
�FOREWORD
XII
tion, Dr. William J. MacArthur, and his gracious staff. Most helpful
also have been John Dobson, head of the University of Tennessee
Special Collections, which contain the voluminous 0. P. Temple
Papers, and the staff of the Andrew Johnson Project, also at the
University of Tennessee. Important material was found in the Division of Archives of the Tennessee State Library in Nashville. Members of the Brownlow family in Knoxville have given special help,
including Mrs. John F. [Jack] Brownlow, widow of the Parson's
grandson; Mr. and Mrs. George T. Fritts; and William G. Brownlow,
IV. Mrs. Fritts is the daughter of Mrs. John F. Brownlow. The library
of the Church Street United Methodist Church also was made available.
Sam Young made important contributions to this book and to the
University of Tennessee Special Collections. He furnished a memorandum made by the late W. T. Kennerly, a Knoxville attorney with
a bent for history, of a conversation with John Bell Brownlow on the
killing of General John H. Morgan, the Confederate cavalry leader, at
Greeneville. He also donated a copy of a letter written by John Bell
Brownlow to A. T. Patterson, President Andrew Johnson's grandson,
which throws more light on the killing of Charles A. Douglas early in
the Civil War.
Some special glimpses of Brownlow were made available through
Dr. William Rule, III, who carried out the wishes of his late brother
F. Gunby Rule, by donating to the McClung Collection the papers of
their grandfather, William Rule.
Much is owed to patient readers, to the late Dr. Stanley J. Folmsbee, formerly head of the University of Tennessee's Department of
History and a specialist in the history of the East Tennessee area; to
Mrs. Lisa Carroll; and especially to Mr. F. A. Ketterson, Jr., chairman
of the Publications Committee of the Appalachian Consortium, who
gave the manuscript extended study and criticism.
Researchers will regret that the complete diary of Parson Brownlow, written while he was in jail at Knoxville and later under guard at
his home, has been forever lost. The custodian of the diary, and of
other Brownlow Papers, a most compassionate person, decided that
it contained observations by the Parson that would reflect upon or
distress descendants of families still living in Knoxville. The original
diary was destroyed.
January 2, 1978
Steve Humphrey
Knoxville, Tennessee.
�'I,El\Jl\JESSEE WIIIG.
"UNA WED by power, unbribed by gain, the people
shall be heard and their
vindicated."
Chapter No.1
THE SIRE OF THE LINE
The basic facts in the early life of William Gannaway Brownlow,
Tennessee's most famous editor, seem simple, bare and uncontrover·
sial. This is in striking contrast to the story of his mature years. Then
his words and deeds wove complicated situations, threaded with
strife, argument and bitterness that were sometimes illuminated with
quaint and unexpected bits of humor and warm flickers of tender·
ness.
Brownlow recorded his birth, boyhood and early manhood sketch·
ily in the Whig, his books and his pamphlets. Biographers, historians
and students have been able to elaborate little beyond what he af·
forded them in these sources. The early details remain sparse.
He was born on August 29, 1805, not far from Wytheville, Virginia, the son of Joseph A. and Catherine Gannaway Brownlow. His
father fought in the War of 1812 and was a schoolmate of Sam
Houston. Five uncles on the
Brownlow side saw military service.
Joseph Brownlow was a Presbyterian and his wife was a Methodist.
The Brownlow family moved to Blountville, Sullivan County, Ten·
nessee, where Joseph Brownlow died when William, the oldest
child, was eleven. His death left the care of five young children to the
mother. She followed her husband to the grave in three months. [ ]
Years later Brownlow wrote: "My father died when I was so
young that I could not have been a judge of his characteristics; but it
has been a source of consolation to me to hear him spoken of by
his old associates and schoolmates [General Sam Houston among
them] as a man of good sense, brave independence, and of sterling
integrity." [2]
The death of my father was a grievous affliction to my mother .... Being
naturally mild and agreeable in her temperament, she was warmly endeared
to a large circle of friends and acquaintance[s]. But their consolation was this,
that while sinking into the cold embrace of death, she was happy in the religion
ofChrist.[3]
1
�2
CHAPTER NO.1
The Brownlow orphans.were farmed out to relatives; William went
to live with an uncle near Wytheville, John Gannaway, "who raised
me up to hard labor, until I was eighteen years old." Seven years on
the farm apparently induced the youth to look for some other way
to make a living for he then "removed to Abingdon, in that State
[Virginia] and served as a regular apprentice to the trade of a housecarpenter." The carpenter was George Winniford, a paternal
uncle. [4]
Two years after Brownlow had started to learn carpentering, his
conversion at a Methodist camp meeting at Sulphur Springs, twenty
miles east of Abingdon, diverted the course of his life from manual
labor. He had a great respect "for professors of religion, and particularly ministers of the gospel," but conversion produced profound
emotions:
There is a concentration of feeling-a glow of fancy-I may say of religious
affection, connected with the recollection of that circumstance, which I delight
to enjoy. It was here I felt the Lord gracious, and was enabled to shout aloud the
wonders of redeeming love. All my anxieties were at an end-all my hopes were
realized-my happiness was complete. From this time I began to feel an increasing desire for the salvation of sinners; and in order, more effectually, to engage
in this work, I returned to Wythe, and spent the ensuing year in going to school
to WILLIAM HORNE, an aimable [sic.] young man and a fine scholar.[S)
Spiritual zeal thus thrust him into the pursuit of learning. Whether
Brownlow first accumulated enough money from carpentering to
devote full time to lessons or he worked and studied at the same time
is not revealed. Since his entire life was one of untiring labor in
which he mixed other pursuits with editing and publishing, it would
have been in character for him to carpenter by day and study under
Horne by candlelight. He must have made rapid progress in his effort
to gain sufficient education to be a circuit rider. The fall of 1826
found him at the second regular session of the Holston Annual Conference at Abingdon, where Bishop Joshua Soule presided. There
Brownlow was "received into the traveling connexion on trial, and
appointed to the Black Mountain Circuit, in North Carolina, under
Goodson McDaniel." [6]
Brownlow's soul was aflame with the love of his Lord, and he
believed intensely in the Methodist Church, but he knew he would
face intense hardships as he rode on horseback from one tiny, isolated congregation to another on his assignment on the eastern slope
�THE SIRE OF THE LINE
3
of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The thought of leaving old friends and
meeting with strangers also distressed him. As an orphan, separated
from his brothers and sisters, he undoubtedly cherished friends more
than those who had enjoyed a full family circle. He wrote, "This was
a most affecting time and will not soon be forgotten. . . . I entered
on the labors of this year with many painful apprehensions." [ 7]
Had he been able to see the future this emotional disturbance
would have been intensified because the work he was entering turned
out to be so turbulent that it was an excellent training ground for his
blazing career as an editor and controversialist. The denominations of
the time were engaged in bitter disputes. The Baptists and Presbyterians were loosely associated to fight the Methodists, viewed as intruders, offering to the independent people of the region the doctrine of free grace, contrasting with the restrictions of predestination
and election placed by the Presbyterians on the route to heaven, and
less dampening than the Baptist requirement of immersion. The Presbyterians were split into Old School and New School factions, but
still vigorous enough to fight among themselves and to wage war
upon the Methodists at the same time. Thus, Christians belabored
each other with doctrinal blows in which they mingled harsh, vulgar
invectives. [8]
The young Parson was moving into a field that would give him the
practical experience needed for his career as a writer and an editor. It
was a crude but effective school for the strident newspapering of the
time, teaching him how to battle extemporaneously with words and
wit, to see the vagaries of human nature laid open, and to gather
acute lessons in the laws of slander and libel.
His immediate difficulties were physical, but his hardy, six-foot
frame of one hundred and seventy-five pounds was adequate in meeting these difficulties. He possessed boundless energy, he worked tirelessly, and when he had moments to spare he sought men who had
some learning-doctors, teachers and lawyers-to learn from them
whatever they could teach him. The traveling gear of horse and rider
was scant: saddle and bridle for the former; saddle bags stuffed with
a few extra garments for the rider, homespun jeans, and the long
Methodist coat, one capacious tail carrying the Bible and a hymnal,
the other a grammar and writing materials. He expected little money;
the salary was limited to $100 annually and he may have collected
half that much. And perils were frequent.
The day after Christmas in his first year he led his horse across the
�4
CHAPTER NO. 1
frozen Cain River, then crossed a ridge, arriving on the other side "so
benumbed with the cold, that I was not only perfectly stupid, but
extremely sleepy." Time did not lessen the perils. Six years later he
swam the swollen Tugaloo River in South Carolina four times, once
barely reaching the bank, and frequently after these experiences
"preached in open meeting houses, with my clothes froze on
me!" [9]
Perhaps these experiences added to his strong distaste for the Baptist practice of immersion, and he may have had them in mind when
he observed that they never sent missionaries to the Arctic, the problem of chopping through several feet of ice to find sufficient water
for the ordinance being almost insoluble. [ 10]
The Parson got firsthand experience in the laws of libel and slander in his third year on the circuit. He was sued for slander in Rhea
County, Tennessee, by a Presbyterian elder over statements made in
a pamphlet. Brownlow did his homework so well, hunting up witnesses and otherwise preparing his defense on a plea of justification,
that when the suit came to trial the elder dismissed the action and
paid the costs. [ 11]
Disaster took its turn with the Parson in the libel field three years
later on the Franklin Circuit in western North Carolina, when a
fire-eating Baptist preacher, the Rev. Humphrey Posey, with a reputation for scourging Methodist ministers, challenged the young circuit
rider "the very next day" after arriving at his charge. The Parson
returned the fire, writing Posey:
But sir, I am constrained to believe that you are so destitute of feeling, so blind
to the beauties of religion, so hacknied [sic.] in crime, and so lost to all sense of
honor and shame, that notwithstanding your faculties still enable you to continue your sordid pursuits, they will not permit you to feel any remorse, or
acknowledge your errors.
Posey prosecuted, and Brownlow was indicted for libel in Macon
County Superior Court at Franklin in October of 1832. The Parson
prepared a defense, again relying on justification, only to find that in
North Carolina it applied only to slander, not to libel. The prosecution also hooked him on another point that his lawyers apparently
had overlooked. It insisted he could not know what was in Posey's
heart, and therefore could not prove the Baptist was inwardly what
Brownlow had written he was. The Parson's lawyer thereupon threw
his client upon the mercy of the court at the spring term of 1833,
�THE SIRE OF THE LINE
5
which fined the defendent $5.00 and taxed him with the costs.
J. R. Siler, a leading citizen and prominent Methodist, paid the
fine and Brownlow met the costs. They were small because only two
prosecution witnesses testified and few of those who appeared for
the defense claimed their fees. But following the trial a number of
other prosecution witnesses proved their attendance. This created
additional costs for Brownlow. On a Sunday morning a few weeks
later a deputy sheriff waited upon the Parson at a church five miles
from the courthouse to collect the extra bill. The next day Brownlow turned over to the officer "an elegant dun mare, saddle, bridle,
saddlebags and umbrella." These items brought $65 .00 at a court
sale. The county received $48.83 and the balance probably went to
the officer for his fee. Brownlow did not mention any recovery on
his part. The story lives that he had learned of the approach of the
officer and his purpose, and thrust his Bible and hymnal into the
hands of women members of his congregation. Siler provided him
with another horse. [ 12 J The Holston Conference found nothing in
the affair for which to censure Brownlow. [13]
The conviction plagued Brownlow for years. His political enemies
reprinted the record of the court with lurid type embellishments in
1845 when he ran unsuccessfully against Andrew Johnson for Congress. [14] When the Whig and the Register fought for survival in
Knoxville, the latter goaded the Parson with an account of the affair.
This led him to carry a full review of the case with this introduction:
We were indicted for libel on a thieving old Baptist preacher in Western [North]
Carolina, and although we have published the whole transaction in two editions
of a pamphlet, in a bound book of 300 pages, and again in the jonesboro Whig,
yet, "a decent regard for the opinions of mankind" induces us to lay the whole
affair before the public, as many of the present generation of newspaper readers
may not have heard the particulars.
Brownlow closed his review with a report, savoring of satisfaction, on
the fates of Posey, court officials and jurors. The Baptist preacher
married a widow for her property, yet died a "wretched and raving
maniac." The judge's life ended in vagabondage, poverty and drunkenness. The attorney general was disgraced. One juror died drunk in
the woods, another went to prison for burglary, and two others fled
the state to dodge indictments. "The remnant of the Jurors, we have
not heard from for several years, but the probability is the Devil has
those of them who have departed this life, while the living ones are
�6
CHAPTER NO. 1
likely in some State prison!" [ 15] Divine wrath pursued mortals who
crossed the Parson, both on earth and in the hereafter.
It did not take long for the circuit preacher to be recognized in the
Holston Conference as a daring controversialist, who responded zestfully to slurs and insults. A "high-toned professor of religion" at
Athens named a dog after Brownlow, but the Holston Conference
conferred elder's orders on him in the fall of 1830. A year later the
conference reproached the Parson for his "style of writing and manner of conducting his opposition to the institutions and proceedings
of other denominations," then stamped him with approval by electing him to attend the church's General Conference to be held at
Philadelphia in May of 1832. He fought a few battles along the way
to the conference as opposition believers challenged him, and he was
with a group of clergymen who called on President Andrew Jackson
in Washington. Brownlow was impressed by Old Hickory's appearance and courtliness, but he commented, "I have long since learned
that it will not do to take men for their looks."
His mischievous bent cropped out after he had preached to the
inmates of a penitentiary in Baltimore. Because his foes had predicted he would wind up as the inmate of such an institution, he
wrote a friend in East Tennessee that he had been in prison, and the
latter, sensing the Parson's purpose, reported the fact without giving
the circumstances. The effects were just what the Parson had intended, for among his enemies "Some of them rejoiced, and others
mourned lest the report should not be true."
He played no important part in the conference, but the instinct of
the reporter welled up in him, and led him to attend the Presbyterian
General Assembly, which was meeting in the same city. He seemed
more pleased than horrified to find the debates there would "for
intemperance of language and wholesale abuse of private character,
absolutely disgrace the lowest porter house, or ale cellar, in the lowest place in the lowest town or city in the lowest country in the
world." [ 16] Brownlow was developing his talent for whaling his
enemies with intemperate abuse.
As much as Brownlow loved the pulpit, public affairs and writing
were tugging at him. He found South Carolina aflame over the issue
of nullification when he was assigned to the Tugaloo Circuit near
Pickens in 1832. The state legislature passed an act to nullify a
national tariff law, and Congress retaliated with authorization for
President Jackson to use all necessary force to uphold the federal
�THE SIRE OF THE LINE
7
government. As a strong believer in federal authority, Brownlow was
filled with double indignation because he found many Presbyterian
and Baptist ministers sermonizing from their pulpits in behalf of
nullification. He was pleased to find that most Methodist divines
avoided thus mixing the affairs of state with spiritual responsibilities. [ 17]
Two years later when the Holston Conference met in Knoxville he
was the author of a book of 300 pages that castigated the Presbyterian Church and aimed a few volleys at the Baptists. As he stood
in Frederick S. Heiskell's print shop he glowed with pride at the
culmination of labor that must have taken him hours of research and
painstaking pushing of a pen. He praised the printer, finding
that the type for its size is very good, and seems to be well distributed over the
page; so that the words are everywhere sufficiently distinct, which is not always
the case with books printed in this country. The paper is good-the ink very
good, and the typographical execution quite respectable. Of course, I think that
the matter is excellent.
Seven years earlier a young storekeeper, a Presbyterian, of course,
had found the young circuit rider, attending his first conference
probably not far from Heiskell's shop, such a grotesque figure in his
long Methodist coat, an old-fashioned hat shading a face that looked
as if it had been hewed out of a walnut log, that he had circulated a
subscription to defray the expense of having Brownlow's picture
taken in order to preserve the features and dress of this curiosity of
the human race. Now this strange appearing creature had written a
book that assaulted the Presbyterian Church and defended Methodism. The Parson found the Presbyterian preachers feeble in their
expositions and deficient in grammar, despite their claim to a highly
educated ministry. The church boldly sought temporal power, and its
doctrines of predestination and foreordination placed upon the
Creator the responsibility for every vile and evil act upon the face of
the earth, rape and murder not excluded. The author was a total
abstainer, but because the Presbyterians dominated the American
Temperance Society the Parson would have none of it. As he contemplated his picture of Presbyterians bent on political control, the
members voting for "an habitual drunkard, a liar, a defrauder, and a
whore-monger," rather than an honest Methodist, he spat out: "0
hypocrisy! thou brat of hell, how I hate thee! You mingle with all
society-but you are particularily fond of temperance societies."
�8
CHAPTER NO.1
Baptists, on the other hand, were so addicted to alcoholic beverages
that they will "church Priest or Levite for the sin of joining the
temperance society!"
Methodism actually was smarting under Presbyterian attacks upon
that church as monarchial because of its highly centralized organization, and Brownlow's book was basically defensive. It also displayed
the Parson's well-developed sense of his importance. He devoted
thirty-eight pages of it to his own life. He also laid out for himself a
course that he followed rather closely in the approaching years of
editing and publishing:
And let my occupation in future life be what it may, God forbid that I ever
should pursue that timid and vascillating [sic.] course of conduct, which evinces
a greater solicitude to please the multitude than to arrive at truth, and to obtain
popular applause at the expense of a good conscience!
The book was not an instant financial success. Brownlow wrote
Heiskell from Abingdon, on May 10, 1836, "We have not been able
to comply with our contract and pay you according to promise. I
need not tell you that I regret this failure-deeply regret it." The
Parson, however, had found a friend to assume responsibility for the
debt. The letter also gives evidence of Brownlow's quickening sense
of news. He sent Heiskell, who also was publishing the Register at
Knoxville, an item about the son of the postmaster at Abingdon
being held for larceny of a bank draft amounting to $890. [18]
Whether Brownlow paid Heiskell something to start the work or the
printer waived all payment until revenue came in from sales was not
revealed. Neither is the number printed available. One copy now is
worth $52.50. [19] This is possibly more than the author made in a
year of preaching.
Preacher and author the Parson was, but at the age of twenty-nine
he lacked a wife. During the conference at Knoxville he was struck
by the number of fellow ministers who had married. This led him to
pen his plaintive soliloquy:
Old bachelor! are you so lost to a sense of the pleasures and enjoyments of a
married life that you can remain contented in a state of "single blessedness,"
while the old and young, the middle aged, and all around you are joining their
hearts and hands in this lawful and scriptural enterprise? But do you excuse
yourself on the ground that no one seems willing to have you? This is by no
means a plausible excuse; for it is well known that every old widow, maid and
girl, in all the country are candidates for matrimony.
�THE SIRE OF THE LINE
9
He had shunned coquetry, he was never engaged and he had never
asked a woman to marry him, "yet I have some good desires ... on
this subject; and I think it quite probable, I shall some day or other
make some amorous advances toward some one." [20]
He found his object within a few months, while visiting in Tennessee from the Scott Circuit in Virginia. He decided he would marry
Miss Eliza O'Brien, and when his sister, Mrs. Nancy Martin, suggested
Eliza might not marry him, the Parson replied: "But she shall marry
me." Brownlow did not see Eliza for a year, but he maneuvered to
get himself placed where he could court her. He asked to be assigned
to the Elizabethton Circuit in Carter County, the home of the
O'Brien family and the iron works it operated. The conference granted his request and the courtship began. Poor and homely though he
was, the preacher had advantages which Mrs. Brownlow described in
later years: "I thought he was smart; everybody said he was talented.
He was talked about more than any young preacher in the conference, and when he preached at Elizabethton he had more people to
hear him than any other preacher. I was influenced by my respect for
his talents; and besides he was so earnest, persistent and eloquent in
his wooing there was no resisting him."[21] The Parson's powerful
voice, his vivid and incisive language and his striking use of hyperbole, moved sixteen-year-old Eliza as she watched him play upon the
heartstrings of the congregation. Her heartstrings responded with
more than religious fervor. Indeed, she was smitten.
The lovers were married on September 11, 1836, at Turkeytown
in Carter County, during a camp meeting. Brownlow performed a
marriage ceremony for another couple during the same day. [22]
Mrs. James O'Brien vigorously objected to the marriage, but in later
years she grew attached to her son-in-law and made her home with
the Brownlows. Father O'Brien not only was agreeable to the union,
but also found a job for the Parson at the ironworks. [2 3]
As a husband, the Parson had to make adjustments. The salary of a
circuit rider was meager and he would have had to be absent from
home for long periods. The Holston Conference "located" Brownlow, a designation that relieved him of any charge but permitted him
to preach when the opportunity presented itself. [24] This left him
free to take the job at the ironworks, purchased by the three O'Brien
brothers-James, Joseph and John; and William Gott, from William
B. Carter of Elizabethton in 1824. The O'Brien brothers "owned
9,000 acres of land and operated the furnace, the Valley Forge, 2
�10
CHAPTER NO.1
bloomeries and a water-driven hammer. With slave labor they produced pig and bar iron until they sold their holdings to Nathaniel G.
Taylor in 1861." [25] Brownlow's job was not a sinecure. He described himself as head clerk and general manager for the partnership. His duties sometimes included the river shipping of iron castings, an experience that taught him something of water transportation. [26]
The Parson had mixed newspaper writing with preaching as early
as 1834, when some of his articles, chiefly noncontroversial, appeared in the New Market Telegraph. After he retired from the circuit
others from his pen appeared in newspapers at Jonesboro and
Elizabethton. These anonymous articles advocated Whig doctrines of
a protective tariff and internal improvements. [27] The pieces attracted the attention of Carter County Whigs. Their new newspaper
at Elizabethton, the Republican and Manufacturers Record, was
floundering, and they were looking for a new editor. Brownlow took
the post under the express conditions that he was to have absolute
control of the editorial columns and that his responsibilities at the
ironworks must come first. The Tennessee Whig was the official
name set out in the contract drawn by T. A. R. Nelson. The contract
called for Mason R. Lyon to be printer and publisher. Mason was also
given authority to execute all business arrangements, including printing and delivery. At the end of the year he would pay Brownlow a
third of the net proceeds. The new editor was not to be a
partner. [28]
Lyon and William Gott had been partners in the publication of the
Republican and Manufacturers Record, which had existed for a year.
This partnership was dissolved. [29] To give Lyon a hand in getting
out the Whig, the contract specified that "he has been furnished by
the owners of the press, who are mutual friends of the parties, with
the free use of the press without charge." The "mutual friends"
probably were Whig Party members who were interested in keeping
the newspaper going. Subscriptions and advertising accounts were to
belong to Lyon. Brownlow and Lyon gave each other $1,000 performance bonds. [30]
Elizabethton was a dismal spot to start a newspaper, even though
it was a county seat. The village consisted of 200 souls living in fifty
houses. Carter County's total population in 1840 was 5,372, of
whom 374 were Negroes. The remaining figure of 4,988 included
811 white illiterates. [ 31] Mail service was wretched. It operated on a
�THE SIRE OF THE LINE
11
weekly basis between Elizabethton and Abingdon, Virginia, and
Jonesboro and Blountville, Tennessee. [ 32] Rural free delivery would
not arrive for another fifty-seven years. Telegraphic services did not
exist. Syndicates that supplied special features, articles and news
pictures had not arrived. News gathering agencies, such as the Associated Press and the United Press International, were unknown.
Drawings and illustration were scarce. Communication was by word
of mouth, letters and newspapers. The latter were clipped freely by
arrangement for information on the outside world. A newspaper
plant and a printer were available at Elizabethton, however, and Whig
sentiment in the area was strong. Yet the Parson expressed misgivings
in the first issue of May 16, 1839:
Finally, no consideration would have induced us, under all the circumstances, to
have embarked in this laborious and responsible business, but an unwillingness to
see the only Whig paper in the District to go down;-and a love of country;-an
innate regard for freedom of thought and action; and a deep rooted opposition
to and hatred of the high handed measure of a corrupt and corrupting administration (Whig, May 16, 1839).
Other influences must have entered into the Parson's decision. The
O'Briens, along with other ironmasters in the region, were in deep
financial trouble;[33] and Brownlow saw that means of livelihood
waning. Preaching did not afford sufficient livelihood to support a
family, as much as he liked the pulpit. It was time to get a foothold
elsewhere. The Parson liked writing and he believed he was good at
it. He knew the power of the preacher over the congregation, and he
saw that the influence of the printed word was more lasting than the
spoken. He knew that what was printed usually was preserved, and
the only limit on the number who read the newspaper was the circulation. Half a century later the Parson's son, John Bell Brownlow,
wrote that his father had found "nothing so congenial to his taste as
journalism. He loved the power it gave him."[34]
The Tennessee Whig's opener was modest. Seven hundred copies
of the five-column, four-page paper were printed, but a month later
the Parson proudly reported all had been sold (Whig, June 13, 1839).
The modern reader finds the first Whig, especially the front page,
very dull, both as to content and typography. The two leading
articles, set in redoubtable old-style Caslon, were clipped from other
Whig newspapers, one of which reported speeches made in the gubernatorial campaign three weeks earlier. Brownlow preceded these
�12
CHAPTER NO. 1
accounts with a caustic comment which reflected his opposition to
james K. Polk, the Democratic nominee, and his enthusiasm for the
Whig standard-bearer, Governor Newton Cannon.
Headings were one-line titles in boldface type but were no larger
than that used in the body of the account. This is in contrast to the
crisp, abbreviated sentences and large type used by modern newspapers, which forcefully convey the central point or major significance of an article. "Candidate Polk's Inconsistency" in the first
Whig might emerge today as
Polk Turns
Back Flip
On Policy
Another Whig story titled "Governor's Race" probably would read
Governor's Race
Gets Up Steam
Nor was any consistent effort made to summarize in the first paragraph, known in newspaper parlance as the "lead," the latest news
and most sensational development reflected in the article.
At the top of Column One the front page announced in black type
that the newspaper was "Edited by W. G. Brownlow" and "Printed
and Published by M. R. Lyon." Beneath were the advertising and
subscription rates. Twelve lines or less of advertising cost $1.00 for
the first insertion and fifty cents for each subsequent one. Subscribers paid $2.50 a year in advance, $3.00 if they waited until the
end of six months, and $3.50 if they paid at the close of the year.
Lyon printed the paper on a hand-operated, flat-bed press and on
an imperial sheet that measured 2 3 by 21 inches. The front and back
pages were printed on one side of the sheet, and pages two and three
on the other side. This process resulted in the latest news usually
being found on the second page. The third page usually carried varying amounts of advertising, depending on the volume of business.
The newspaper's name ran on the front page in 60-point Onyx type,
which was probably cast in a foundry and hand tooled to create an
outline effect. A curiosity was the placing of a period after Whig, a
practice quickly abandoned by Lyon and no longer used. Inside
pages were headed "The Elizabethton Whig" in smaller outline type.
The page one motto was "Life, Liberty And The Pursuit Of Happiness." It was printed in small capitals beneath the rules separating the
name of the newspaper from the line carrying the name of the town,
date, volume and number. This motto came down on July 4, 1839. It
�THE SIRE OF THE LINE
13
gave way to Brownlow's famous paraphrase of Isaiah 58:1: "Cry
Aloud and Spare Not."[35]
Lyon's shop carried two families of type, Caslon and Onyx, in
roman and italic. He used these type faces in advertising and editorial
matter alike, contrary to present practice. Brownlow frequently used
old-style Caslon italic for emphasis. [36] [Newspapers discontinued
the use of Onyx in modern times.]
The launching of the newspaper involved the usual mechanical
troubles and the editor acknowledged that it was necessary for him
to clip from his exchanges and to write his editorials "by the light of
a candle." The customary statement of the purposes and objectives
of the newspaper-the term in vogue for such remarks was "address"-appeared in the first issue and gave two chief reasons: 1) to
fight the threat of a "national despotism," which the editor feared if
Andrew Jackson's choice, Martin Van Buren, should win again in
1840; and 2) to advance the Whig party's interests. To Brownlow this
meant to elect Henry Clay as President. He listed the "cardinal doctrines" of the party as
the right of the People to govern-the right of Instruction [not bush-instruction] -true State Rights and strict construction-a liberal system of Internal
Improvements-an increase of the banking capital of the country-and everything else that is morally and politically right- (Whig, May 16, 1839).
The editor also cast in a borrowed peroration which from time to
time in his career he rephrased to fit other situations:
Proud, happy America! "the land of the free and the home of the brave." Yes,
the asylum of the emigrant-"where the citizen of every clime, and the child of
every creed, roams free and untrammelled as the wild winds of heaven! Baptised
at the fount of liberty in fire and blood,-cold must be the heart that thrills not
at the mention of thy name! When the old world, with all its pride, pomp, and
circumstances, shall be covered with oblivion-when thrones shall have crumbled, and dynasties shall have been forgotten-then [if the people but now do
their duty] will our America, stand amid regal ruin and national desolation,
towering sublime, like the last mountain in the deluge-majestic, proud, immutable, and magnificent, amid blight, ruin and decay-the last remnant of
earth's beauty-the last resting place of liberty, and the light of heaven. [37]
Such soaring passages were not typical of the Parson. He preferred
the incisive, as his advice to a fellow editor on how to deal with an
opponent showed: "Lather him with aqua fortis [nitric acid] and
�14
CHAPTER NO. 1
shave him with a handsaw" (Whig, May 30, 1839).
The campaign of 1839 found the Democrats better organized than
the Whigs and with an excellent campaigner in James K. Polk of
Maury County. [38] He narrowly defeated Governor Cannon by
about 2,500 votes and he cut rather deeply into the Whig strength of
East Tennessee by carrying twelve of the twenty-five counties in the
division. The Democrats gained control of the General Assembly and
elected six of the thirteen United States representatives, a gain of
three. [39] Brownlow took some comfort in the reelection of William
B. Carter to Congress from the First District over Joseph Powell, Jr.,
in a campaign of intense bitterness and hostility. [40]
The parson did what he could to cheer the disheartened East
Tennessee Whigs. He suggested the Democrats had stuffed the ballot
boxes to increase their statewide vote by 19,000 in two years. He
argued that the errors the party had made should be remedied in
order for the Whig forces to be put in the best possible shape for the
forthcoming Presidential race:
True, the Whigs of Tennessee have met with a temporary defeat in the recent
elections of the State; but this, so far from disheartening them, should stimulate
them to embark anew, in their holy crusade against power and corruption. We
have the numerical strength-our State is still Whig, notwithstanding the election
for governor, has resulted favorable to the enemy [sic.). We were without union
among ourselves, relying on our superior strength for success. The enemy were
united-they had the money-they held the offices-and they lied, electioneered,
printed, swore, and travelled for pay-while their bread was given to them, and
their pay was for sure (Whig, August 22, 1839).
A policy that would enhance the party's prospects, Brownlow
firmly suggested, would be to nominate Henry Clay for the Presidency. He posted the Kentuckian's name on the Whig's editorial
page, a position it would occupy often in the years ahead as the
editor's zeal for "Harry of the West" approached idolatry. The Parson was bitterly disappointed when Clay did not win the nomination.
But along with Tennessee Whigs, he accepted the decision with good
grace and an assurance that "never did the Whigs engage in any
contest, with more cheering prospects," and lined up vigorously behind the Whig nominee for President, William Henry Harrison, of
Ohio. [41]
The Whig Party in Tennessee had arisen as a rallying ground for
the powerful opposition which had developed against Andrew Jack-
�THE SIRE OF THE LINE
15
son during his second term as President. Members of the Democratic
Party who had been waiting for an opportunity to knife the "old
hero" included former United States Senator John Williams of Knoxville, United States Representative (later governor) Newton Cannon,
Davy Crockett and Andrew Erwin, a wealthy Bedford Countian. Later
John Bell of Nashville and Hugh Lawson White of Knoxville, two of
Tennessee's statesmen, were found in the Whig ranks. Bell was sometimes credited with having created the Whig Party in the state.
The Whigs humiliated Jackson three times by defeating his candidates for governor, William Carroll and Robert Armstrong, with Newton Cannon in 1835 and 1837; and rebuffing "Old Hickory's" choice
for President, Martin Van Buren, in 1836. Van Buren was elected,
but Tennessee voted for Hugh Lawson White, 35,962 to 26,120 over
Van Buren. Even Jackson's Hermitage precinct went for White, 61 to
20. [42]
His party's vigorous support of a system of internal improvements
held great appeal for Brownlow. It fell upon receptive ground in East
Tennessee where the agriculturally productive valleys, the timbered
mountainsides and ore-supplied industries hungered for greater markets. To reach these markets required transportation by hazardous
water routes or by slow and expensive wagon trains. There was a
great need for the swifter and developing railroads as well as for river
improvement. Jackson and Van Buren opposed these policies.
Because they were out of line with the Parson's political views he
presented them as inferior and evil. Jackson he disposed of in ghoulish fashion when a false report of his death was circulated:
We now allude to it, merely to express our surprise at the little interest it
excited, and the few cold remarks it drew from those who even believed its
truth. No lamentations over 'the greatest and best'-no expressions of sorrow at
the departure of a great man! For our part, when the report first reached us, we
could not rid our mind of the exclamation of the poet:-"Show pity Lord. 0
Lord forgive!" (Whig, December 5, 1839).
In Van Buren he found a double deficiency:
Truly Van Buren is a bastard-a bastard in a two fold point of view. First, he
was shoved into office by Gen. jackson, upon illegitimate principles; and next he
is the illigitimate [sic.] son of Aaron Burr, by whom he was educated for the
practice of the law.
Some Van Buren newspapers, grasping similar ammunition, accused
�16
CHAPTER NO. 1
William Henry Harrison of having had three sons by an Indian squaw
in Michigan. [4 3]
Brownlow found Knoxville a lively center of Whig activity in the
summer of 1839. He was delighted to learn his newspaper and its
vigor were drawing approval, although "the opinion of the people
here is that some of us are going to get killed before August. I reply
that we will die in a righteous cause." Knoxville Whiggery transported the Parson to acclaim it the finest on earth. He recorded this
impression after hearing John Bell and Senator Hugh Lawson White
speak at Knoxville in the fall of 1839. Of Bell he wrote, "Never did I
listen to a man with more pleasure in all my life." [44]
Political developments moved rapidly in late 1839 and early 1840.
The Democratic General Assembly, elected along with Governor Polk
in August, squeezed out of office the state's United States senators,
White and Ephraim Foster. The assembly instructed them to vote for
Van Buren administration proposals. At that time United States senators were elected by the state legislatures and were accustomed to
resign when they could not, with political integrity, follow direction
from the bodies to which they owed their posts.
The Whig ran in full the statements of White and Foster when they
resigned, but printed so little of General Assembly activities that
some subscribers complained. Brownlow retorted that he held the
"majority of brawling Democrats" in the legislature in such contempt that "We, therefore, shall fill our columns with what we think
is most suitable, and those who have been told we are one-sided had
better subscribe for some paper that gives both sides."[45]
While in Knoxville for a party convention in February 1840,
Brownlow reaped benefits from being hanged in effigy. Before the
hanging he had obtained ten subscriptions, and after it twenty-four.
The Knoxville At;gus annoyed him with a report that a Whig delegation had arrived in Knoxville on a Sunday night "whooping and
halloing [sic.] like wild bacchanals," and at the convention engaged
in a "public and wanton debauch." The Parson insisted the Whigs
were well behaved although they did drink "many bottles of excellent wine." The use of the adjective "excellent" to describe the wine
was a substantial concession on the Parson's part, and indicated how
far he would go to defend a Whig gathering. Late in the previous
summer as he rode the stage to Knoxville he had winced because
"still-tubs and still-houses seem to be undergoing thorough repairs!
Mean whiskey and new apple brandy, and modern Democracy, which
�THE SIRE OF THE LINE
17
all go hand in hand, are to overrun the country from this till next
corn-planting time." [46]
Criticism of the Whig delegation's behavior came from the pen of
E. G. Eastman, "imported" from the East to edit the newly established Argus. Editor and newspaper were signals of the Democratic
Party's determination to fight vigorously the East Tennessee Whigs.
The Parson previously had described Eastman as a "bloated drunkard" and in a private letter as "all for peace. He is not very sharp."
But he must have envied Eastman a new $900 press that arrived for
the Argus the following week. [47] Eastman quickly began sneering
at Knoxville Whigs. When the Nashville Banner complimented Colonel W. B. A. Ramsey, brother of the historian James G. M. Ramsey,
upon his retirement from editorship of the Knoxville Register, the
new Democratic editor snapped: "Truth, every word of it; but no
part of it is applicable to his successor."
The target of Eastman's shaft was Thomas W. Humes, one of the
most cultured men in Knoxville. After attending East Tennessee College Humes had studied at Princeton University to be a Presbyterian
minister, then turned to newspapering, and later was rector of St.
John's Episcopal Church. From 1865 until1882 he was president of
East Tennessee University, which, by the time he retired, was the
University of Tennessee. Brownlow shot back at the Argus editor:
When such drunken, stupid, pilgrim-jack-asses, as the nominal Editor of the
Argus at Knoxville, a certain bloated down-cast, red-faced Mr. Eastman, can use
such language as the foregoing, in reference to a gentleman of the raising, education, talents, and acknowledged veracity of Mr. Humes of "The Times," we have
certainly fallen upon evil times.
Humes had been editor of the Times and continued as editor of the
Register when the newspapers were merged. [48]
The denunciation of Eastman demonstrated that the Parson was
developing mightily in a field where eye gouging, knifing, groin kicking and shooting, literal as well as figurative, were not unusual. So
violent had newspapering grown in Tennessee that a British traveler
and author, stopping at Jonesboro in 1839, described editors and
their publications as
the most abusive, unjust, and unprincipled that are anywhere to be found; for
with a few honorable exceptions only, they appear to me to sacrifice truth,
honor, and courtesy, to party-feeling; hesitating at nothing to blacken the char-
�18
CHAPTER NO. 1
acter of a political opponent, though he be of the most pure and spotless
reputation; raking up slander of bygone years, to serve a monetary purpose; and
sparing neither age nor sex, neither the living nor the dead.
In contrast, the Britisher, who attended several East Tennessee political meetings found them to be in direct contrast to the newspaper
instances:
Speaking was sensible, moderate, free from bombast, and much calmer and more
argumentative than election-speeches usually are in England. The rival candidates
were spoken of with the greatest respect, and not a sentence of declamation
[defamation], or a word of vituperation, either of the parties or individuals,
took place ... Audiences were most quiet and orderly that could be imagined, as
much so, indeed, as a congregation hearing a sermon.
The witty pen of Samuel L. Clemens found the East Tennessee newspaper field such an appropriate territory for his satire that he wrote a
piece about it in which pistols and cowhide whips were flourished as
frequently as pens. [49]
The same year that the Britisher set down his observations saw the
beginning of a long and envenomed battle of words, brewed as
United States Representative William B. Carter, a Whig, won a seat in
Congress for the third time by turning back a determined bid by Dr.
Joseph Powell, a Democrat. Both men were from prominent East
Tennessee families. Carter's ancestors were from Virginia, and an
uncle, also named William B. Carter, had been president of the Constitutional Convention of 1834. The congressman had completed
studies for the Presbyterian ministry at Princeton University, but
gave up preaching because of ill health. Powell was the son of a
wealthy doctor of Sullivan County, who also practiced in Carter
County. The father died the year of the campaign. The junior Powell
had raised a company in Carter County that served in the removal of
the Cherokee Indians to Oklahoma, during which he attained the
rank of colonel.
Brownlow and young Landon C. Haynes found themselves on
opposite sides in the campaign. The two men had known each other
as intimates of Thomas A. R. Nelson, Brownlow as a political ally
and personal friend, Haynes as a student reading law under the attorney. The student had been "taken up by the Whigs of this county
[Carter] , while very young, and while he was trying to write himself
into notice, in the newspapers." But while Haynes was studying under Nelson he married Eleanor Powell, daughter of Robert W. Powell
�THE SIRE OF THE LINE
HON. T, A. R. NELSON.
19
Hon. T. A. R. Nelson [From T. M. Humes,
The Loyal Mountaineers of Tennessee,
Knoxville, 1888.]
and the granddaughter of Dr. Powell who died in 1839, two months
before the Whig was started. Haynes then switched parties and
became an ardent advocate of Joseph Powell in his race for Congress.
The Whig dredged up every charge and slur it could against Powell
and drew return fire from Haynes. Brownlow ignored him for
months, but they were such natural opposites that a counter blast
was inevitable. Landon was the son of David Haynes, a wealthy
Carter County farmer, and had made a name for himself as a debater
and a rhetorician at Washington College. He was an aristocrat for his
time and location, and his speech was florid, flowing and expansive.
Brownlow, who was reared in poverty, had labored on the farm and at
the bench of the carpenter. His education was meager, so far as the
classroom entered into it; his speech was unpolished, although blunt
and incisive, and carried something of the flavor of the barnyard and
the mechanic's shop. Both men were bold and in their sharply contrasting backgrounds lay the seeds of natural animus.
The Parson decided in January 1840 to notice Haynes. He recalled
false statements that the youth had made during earlier months, and
he also complained that in a recent political speech Haynes had
denounced
this paper as a lying, slanderous production, and its conductor a "hireling." . ..
He more recently "poetised" us in the Sentinel, connecting us directly, and by
name, with a notorious prostitute, and in addition to all this, he has frequently,
and still does, in conversation, speak disrespectfully of us.
�20
CHAPTER NO. 1
Therefore, I, William G. Brownlow, of the town of Elizabethton, and of
lawful age, pronounce Landon C. Haines [sic.], of the county of Carter and
State of Tennessee, a liar, a puppy and a SCOUNDREL and if he does not call
me to an account for it, the first time he comes to this village, I insist he does
not possess the courage of a Spaniel Dog (Whig, March 26, 1840).
The contest of abuse and insults now raged in full fury. When Haynes
revived and circulated an account of Brownlow's having been convicted of libel in 1833 in Macon County, North Carolina, the editor
ran his side of the story, citing that he had reviewed it himself in a
pamphlet and in a book. He accused his young critic, an aspiring
orator, of having used the productions of others as his own, including
an address of the Rev. Creed Fulton, a Methodist preacher. "And I
am told," the Parson related, "that one of the best speeches he ever
delivered at the Washington College was the one I wrote for him, at
his urgent solicitations, while I travelled this circuit. Indeed, I heard
his friends applaud the speech so highly that I could scarcely repel
the temptation to believe that I was smart, in as much as I had
written it for him!" Landon's father now entered the brawl and
suggested Brownlow was an ingrate for attacking his son, for he had
been fed and entertained at the Haynes home while he was riding the
circuit. The Parson retorted:
Your next allusion is, to the chickens-aye, the several meals of victuals I ate
at your house, several years ago. I would call on you to make out your bill, and I
would pay it, but for the fact that you had pressed me to call, for the purpose of
writing out speeches for your son to deliver at college, to make him a great
man!-I studied and wrote faithfully, and I think, it was as little as you could do,
to give me my victuals while there-I made no other charge (Whig, May 14,
1840).
The war of words had brought violence to the Parson's home
during the 1839 campaign, but he did not reveal it until his foes
accused him of having taken shelter behind his wife and mother-inlaw. He printed the accusation in the Whig. He relished publishing
charges against himself in the belief that his retorts were more destructive than anything his foes could bring against him. Then he told
his side of the story. Joseph Powell, father-in-law of Haynes, had
followed Brownlow to the O'Brien works and attacked him. The
Parson knocked him down with a club. Joseph retreated, vowed
retaliation. Later, Robert Powell and a cousin, Jack Powell, returned
to punish the editor. Robert presented a pistol; Brownlow fired at
�THE SIRE OF THE LINE
21
him once, probably with a pistol and ran for a rifle. "In the meantime ... my mother-in-law came running out, and taking me by the
hand, reminded me of the then situation of my wife in the house,
who she said, was lying prostrate in the house. I went with her into
the house, and this ended the affray." Eliza had borne her first child,
Susan, and was carrying her second, John Bell. [vvvvvvv]
Another tense episode arose after the Whig's first denunciation of
Haynes on January 30, 1840. It was referred to sketchily in the Whig
but was detailed in a confidential letter to T. A. R. Nelson and
carried a directive to "Burn this." Instead, Nelson preserved it, as he
did many letters and papers. The Parson wrote that he had dressed
and shaved to go to a Jonesboro meeting:
but Bob Powell rode out to bring in Landon Haines [sic.] and the understanding
was that I was not to live until today. I therefore declined leaving, as I would
have been branded with cowardice. They came in yesterday-and old Dave swore
publicly that they had come for that purpose, and would not leave until they
had done 'something serious.'
I have been twice through the streets today, and in the houses of Lyon,
Singletary and Daily-and they have seen me but nothing has been yet done ... I
have not seen Landon at all. I understand he is at J o Powell [ 's) prepared for the
attack.
It is said this evening that Brewer, Rockhold and others, have visited Landon
and persuaded him not to notice me! I am glad of this, as I do not wish to fight.
Should they not kill me I will leave for the convention on Thursday next ...
Our town is all commotion. When I am in the street the people get in their
doors to see me killed ....
Since I have moved to town, and it is understood the paper goes on, they
have become desperate towards me. Jo Powell is at the bottom of the whole
business.
Brownlow had separated himself from the iron business before
moving into Elizabethton and devoted full time to editing. He was
not fired upon in the streets, but on the night of March 9, 1840,
while the editor was seated by the fire in his home, two bullets
crashed into the room. Both passed dose to his breast, one lodging in
the chimney and the other in the ceiling. The Parson fired once at
what he believed to be the form of the marauder. The Brownlow
household was disrupted: "Our wife, otherwise afflicted, and having
a sick child," the editor removed to the home of her parents, while
he boarded at the tavern, slept at home, and continued to walk the
�22
CHAPTER NO. 1
streets "if our life pay the forfeit."
The experience enabled Brownlow to shift his ground without
lessening his editorial fire. He notified the younger Haynes:
Sir-As you are strongly suspected for being an assassin-of having aided and
abetted, in the late cowardly attempt to shoot me after night; & as public
opinion has settled down on you, as a party concerned, as at least having a
perfect knowledge of all the preliminaries connected therewith; and as you, in
your late publication, so far from making an effort at defence have passed the
whole matter by in silence, I can have no further controversy with you (Whig,
March 26, 1840).
Thereupon he took out after Landon's father, but always managed to
keep the son in the line of fire. This enabled the Parson to reproach
the father, not only for his behavior, but also for having a son whom
the editor described as being very badly behaved.
The firing upon the Parson's home followed by four days his
publication of an extended defense of his own actions and a scathing
attack upon Landon and the Powell family. He taunted Landon for
failing to chastise the editor "when you came to this village for that
very purpose? ... You poor, pittiful [sic.], contemptible, lying,
sneaking up-start, and cowardly rascal! You offer personal violence
to me! You would sooner stick your head in a forge fire, than to
come in contact with me."
Young Haynes came back with two columns of vituperative defense in the Tennessee Sentinel. He denied Brownlow's charge that
the elder Haynes had requested Brownlow's friends to restrain him
from noticing what the son was saying about him because Landon
"was set on by the d-d Powell's-that they were a d-d thieving
set-and that you done [sic.] all you could to prevent his marriage in
that family." Landon also had dug up the skeleton of an uncle of the
Parson's, Isaac Brownlow, who had died nine years earlier in Lauderdale, Alabama. William G. conceded that Isaac was a bad man, but
suggested the noxious disease of which he had died had been prevalent in the Powell family. Since Landon had been married to
Eleanor Powell only a year the editor's purpose was to drive a wedge
of distrust between the families.
The controversy fell considerably below the gutter. Haynes reflected upon Brownlow's parents, both dead for almost a quarter of a
century. The Parson defended the reputation of his parents with
opinions from those who had known them and countered with some
�23
THE SIRE OF THE LINE
hints and charges about Landon's activities which again linked him as
a conspirator, if not a participant, in the shooting into the Brownlow
home. Brownlow told David Haynes:
And as to the shooting, Davy, your son's own relations, or many of them,
both by father and mother's side, unhesitatingly say they believe he was concerned. His broad, square toed Boots, and the track thereof, which we measured
at Powell's horse rack, compared with the track in my garden (Whig, March 26,
1840).
The Parson also claimed Landon's hasty departure from Elizabethton
the morning following the shooting and conflicting accounts as to
where he was at the time the shots were fired pointed to his connection with the affair.
David Haynes and Brownlow, at a chance meeting on horseback in
mid-April, discussed terminating the quarrel, but the Parson declined
to take back what he had written, and later accused Landon of
having reopened the exchange of insults. A circular issued by young
Haynes went so far as to accuse a Miss O'Brien of having borne a
black baby and the Parson's father of having been a drunkard.
Brownlow gritted his teeth and answered. The Miss O'Brien referred
to by Haynes, he said, was not related to the iron manufacturers, and
while the Parson admitted his father drank liquor it never threw him
off his feet. He demanded: "Has ever any man witnessed such fiendlike ravages among the tombs, as are exhibited in this foul circular,
the production of these Hayneses and Powells?"
A short and ominous line was in this long blast: "Your slander of
my Mother, we will settle at the proper time, and in such a way as
may be deemed proper."[Sl]
CHAPTER I I NOTES
[ 11 Autobiographical material on Brownlow's early life is found in two of his
books, Helps to the Study of Presbyterianism, or an Unsophisticated Exposition of Calvinism, with Hopkinsianism Modifications of Policy, with a
View to a More Easy Interpretation of the Same. To which is Added a
Brief Account of Life and Travels of the Author; Interspersed with Anecdotes, pp. 242-243 (Page 243 is misnumbered 233), (Knoxville, 1834)
hereafter cited as Helps; and Sketches of the Rise, Progress and Decline of
Secession; with a Narrative of Personal Adventures among the Rebels, pp.
�24
[ 2)
[ 3)
[ 4)
[ 5)
[ 6)
[ 7)
CHAPTER NO. 1
16-17 (Cincinnati, 1862), hereafter cited under the binder's title of Parson
Brownlow's Book. Brief references to Brownlow's parents and their background are made in the Whig of March 26, May 14, 1840. Brownlow's
newspaper, the title of which was varied from time to time, contains a
wealth of biographical material on the editor. The titles were Tennessee
Whig, with some inside pages headed "Elizabethton Whig," May 15, 1839,
through May 14, 1840; the Whig, sometimes with inside pages headed
"The Jonesborough Tennessee Whig," Jonesboro, May 20, 1840, through
May 11, 1842, "The Jonesborough Whig and Independent journal," Jonesboro, May 18, 1842, through April 19, 1849; Brownlow's Knoxville Whig
and Independent journal, Knoxville, May 19, 1849, through April 7,
1855, Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, Knoxville, April 14, 1855, through
July 27, 1861, Brownlow's Weekly Whig, August 3, 1861, until suspended,
October 26, 1861, the Tri-Weekly Whig, Knoxville, January 4, 1859,
through August 3, 1861, Brownlow's Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator, Knoxville, November 11, 1863, through February 21, 1866, Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, February 28, 1866, until Brownlow relinquished
complete control of the newspaper, January 1, 1869. A very limited num!>er of the files of the Tri-Weekly Whig, published in 1868, exist, and are in
miscellaneous Knoxville newspaper files, McClung Collection, Lawson
McGhee Library, Knoxville. All other files of the Whig and of the TriWeekly Whig are on microfilm in the McClung Collection. A tart opposition reference says the Tri-Weekly Whig was published only four or five
months in 1868, daily Press and Herald, December 6, 1868. Hereafter all
Brownlow's newspapers will be referred to as the Whig or as the TriWeekly Whig.
Parson Brownlow's Book, p. 16. The quotation used differs slightly in
punctuation and working from that in Helps, p. 242. The reference to
Houston is only in Parson Brownlow's Book.
Ibid., pp. 16-17. The quotation used differs slightly from the account in
Helps, pp. 242-243. (The latter is misnumbered 233) principally in simplified puncutation. The maiden name of the Parson's mother is spelled
Ganaway in Helps, but in Parson Brownlow's Book, and in the Whig, it is
consistently spelled with a double n.
The full names of John Gannaway and George Winniford appear in R. N.
Price, Holston Methodism from Its Origin to the Present Times, (Nashville,
1903-1914), 5 vols., III, p. 315; hereafter cited as Holston Methodism, and
in E. Merton Coulter, William G. Brownlow, Fighting Parson of the Southern Highlands (Knoxville, 1971), p. 4; hereafter cited as Coulter. Brownlow failed to mention the full names in Helps, p. 243, and in Parson
Brownlow's Book, p. 17.
Helps, pp. 243-244.
When Brownlow wrote Helps he termed his education in the common
schools "plain, though regular," but twenty-eight years later he described
it as having been "imperfect and irregular," Helps, p. 244; Parson Brownlow's Book, p. 17.
Helps, p. 244.
�THE SIRE OF THE LINE
25
[ 8] Ibid., pp. 246-248; William Rule, Ed., Standard History of Knoxville, Tennessee (Chicago, 1900), p. 428; hereafter referred to as Rule, Standard
History; Samuel Mayes Arnell, "The Southern Unionist," unpublished
typescript, University of Tennessee Special Collections, pp. 13-14; hereafter referred to as Arnell; Price, Holston Methodism, III, p. 3 38.
[ 9] 0. P. Temple, Notable Men of Tennessee (New York, 1912), p. 281;
hereafter referred to as Temple, Notable Men; Helps, pp. 245, 266; Arnell,
pp. 13-14.
[ 10] W. G. Brownlow, The Great Iron Wheel Examined; or, Its False Spokes
Extracted, and an Exhibition of Elder Graves, Its Builder. In a Series of
Chapters (Nashville, 1856), pp. 2 38-2 39; hereafter referred to as The Great
Iron Wheel Examined.
[11] Helps, p. 249.
[12] Ibid., pp. 259-260, 269-272; Price, Holston Methodism, III, pp. 339-343;
John Patton Archer, Western North Carolina. A History from 1790 to
1913 (Asheville, North Carolina, 1914), pp. 226-227.
[13] Helps, p. 275,; Whig, July 5, 1851.
[14] Tennessee Sentinel, Jonesboro, July 19, 1845.
[15] Whig, July 5, 1851. Brownlow also had reviewed the case less elaborately,
ibid., February 27, 1840. He called Posey "a thieving old Baptist preacher" because he believed Posey had sold for money or services Bibles that
had been sent to him for free distribution.
[ 16] Helps, 256, 25 3, 262-265; Price, Holston Methodism, p. 258.
[ 17] Helps, pp. 266-267, Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 20-2 3.
[18] Helps, pp. 288, 246, 148, 178-182, 211, 103, 106, preface, pp. v-xm;
Price, Holston Methodism, III, pp. 157-160; W. G. Brownlow to Frederick
S. Heiskell, May 10, 1836; Mrs. J. T. Howard Papers, Sherrod Library, East
Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee. Mrs. Howard, of
Bristol, Tennessee, is the granddaughter of Heiskell.
[19] Current value of this volume was supplied by John Dobson, Special Collection librarian, the University of Tennessee.
[20] Helps, pp. 287-288.
[21] Price, Holston Methodism, III, pp. 345-346.
[22] Ibid., III, p. 315; Arnell, p. 43. A compilation of the marriage licenses
issued in Carter County, 1797-1850, by Miss Pollyanna Creekmore, director of documents, Sherrod Library, and formerly McClung Collection
librarian, shows one issued to Hiram 0. Mackin and Sarah K. O'Brien,
solemnized on September 11, 1836, by W. G. Brownlow. Sarah was not of
Eliza's family. See "Genealogical Tables," by Gaines Strother Pendleton,
p. 13, manuscript in University of Tennessee Special Collections.
[23] Price, Holston Methodism, III, p. 346; Arnell, p. 44; Whig, September 28,
1842,0ctober20, 1849.
[24] Price, Holston Methodism, III, p. 309; Coulter, fn p. 34.
[25] See inscription about O'Brien Furnace on a marker erected half a mile east
of Valley Forge on U.S. Highway 19E by the Tennessee Historical Commission, also Tennessee Historical Markers, 5th ed., p. 68.
[26] Whig, August 8, 1839; Brownlow to T. A. R. Nelson, March 23, 1850,
Nelson Papers, McClung Collection. The contract between Mason R. Lyon
and Brownlow for operating the Whig at Elizabethton suggests Brownlow
�26
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]
[33]
[34]
[35]
[36]
[37]
[ 38]
CHAPTER NO. 1
was a partner in the O'Brien operation, Nelson Papers, May 4, 1839. See
also Whig, October 20, 1849.
Helps, p. 279; manuscript sketch of Brownlow by William Rule in files of
The Knoxville journal, and newspaper clippings in William Rule Papers,
McClung Collection. Thomas Emmerson, first mayor of Knoxville and
later publisher of the Washington Republican and Farmer's Record, at
Jonesboro, is credited with having encouraged Brownlow to write on political subjects, after having published some of his articles. Brownlow also
had written articles opposing Andrew Johnson for the Tennessee General
Assembly in 1837, which were printed in Emmerson's paper under the
signature of "Western Virginia," Whig, May 14, 1853; Price, Holston
Methodism, III, p. 319.
Rule Manuscript; Whig, May 16, 1839; Lyon-Brownlow contract, Nelson
Papers. For an examination of Brownlow's first years as an editor see also
"'Cry Aloud and Spare Not'; The Formative Years of Brownlow's Whig,
1837-1841," University of Tennessee Master's Thesis, by Nancy Marlene
Haley, August 1966.
Rule Manuscript, Whig, May 16, 1839.
Lyon-Brownlow contract, Nelson Papers.
Coulter, p. 35; Temple, Notable Men. p. 273. Sixth Census, or, Enumeration of the Inhabitants of the United States, as Corrected by the Department of State, (Washington, 1841) 1840, pp. 264-265; hereafter referred
to as U.S. Sixth Census.
Whig, May 16, December 16, 1839; January 30, 1840. The Whig's first
issue carried a notice asking for bids to carry the mail to Abingdon and
return, weekly.
Ibid., March 26, 1840; Arnell, pp. 44-45.
John Bell Brownlow to 0. P. Temple, June 21, 1892. Temple Papers,
University of Tennessee Special Collections.
The complete verse reads: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a
trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob
their sins." King James Version of the Bible.
Type identification and characteristics were furnished by Walter Amann,
who has been compositor, proof reader, copy reader, makeup editor and
managing editor of the Knoxville journal.
Whig, May 16, 1839. Brownlow used quotation marks around the major
portion of this passage but failed to give the source. He rephrased it for his
inaugural address as governor, in his debate with Abram Pryne on slavery,
and in his largest selling book. Ibid., April 12, 1865; Ought American
Slavery to be Perpetuated~ A Debate between The Rev. W. G. Brownlow
and the Rev. A. Pryne (Philadelphia, 1858), pp. 272-273; Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 26-27.
Stanley J. Folmsbee, Robert E. Corlew, and Enoch L. Mitchell, Tennessee:
A Short History (Knoxville, 1969), pp. 198-199; hereafter referred to as
Folmsbee et al., Short History; Robert H. White, Messages of the Governors (Nashville, 1952-), 7 vols. to date, p. 274, gives Polk 54,012, and
Cannon 51,396, on the basis of official returns from every County but
�THE SIRE OF THE LINE
[39]
[40]
[41]
[42]
[43]
[44]
[45]
[46]
[47]
[ 48]
[49]
[SO]
[51]
27
Shelby, in which instance figures are taken from the Republican Banner of
Nashville, and which give Polk 54,639, Cannon 52,177.
Eric Russel Lacy, Vanquished Volunteers; East Tennessee Sectionalism
from Statehood to Secession (Johnson City, 1965), pp. 112-113; hereafter
cited as Vanquished Volunteers; Whig, August 18, 1841; Folmsbee et al.,
Short History, p. 199.
Whig, June 27, July 11, 25, 30, August 15, 1939.
Ibid., September 5, August 22, 1839.
Folmsbee et al., Short History, pp. 178-179.
Whig, January 30, 1840. The charge of illegitimacy was hinted at in the
memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Herbert S. Parmet and Marie B. Hecht,
Aaron Burr, Portrait of an Ambitious Man (New York, 1967), p. 335. The
bastard charge is unsubstantiated.
Whig, November 14, 1839; Brownlow to Nelson, July 8, 1839. Nelson
Papers.
Folmsbee et al., Short History, pp. 199-201; Whig, December 12, 1839,
January 16, February 13, 1840.
Ibid., February 20, March 5, 1840, August 15, 1839.
Jesse Burt, ed., "Editor Eastman Writes James K. Polk," East Tennessee
Historical Society Publications, No. 39, pp. 103-104; Burt, ed., "Tennessee
Democrats Employ Editor E. G. Eastman, 1846-1849," East Tennessee
Historical Society Publications, No. 38, pp. 83-85; Whig, December 26,
1839; Brownlow to Nelson, June 8, 1839. Nelson Papers.
Whig, February 13, 1840; March U. Rothrock, ed., The French BroadHolston Country (Knoxville, 1940) pp. 431-432; hereafter cited as Rothrock, ed., French Broad-Holston; Rule, ed., Standard History, p. 318.
James Silk Buckingham, The Slave States of America (London, 1842), 2
vols., II, pp. 246-248, 257-261 ;Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), "Journalism
in Tennessee," in Editorial Wild Oats, pp. 11-29.
Temple, Notable Men, pp. 88-89;James W. Bellamy, "The Political Career
of Landon Carter Haynes," ETHS PUBL., No. 28, pp. 102-104; Landon C.
Haynes to Nelson, March 12, 1839, Nelson Papers. Whig, January 30,
February 27, March 5, 26, May 7, 14, 1840. Susan was born July 3, 1838,
at Kingsport, and John Bell in Carter County, October 19, 1839, Pendleton, "Genealogical Tables," p. 13.
Whig, March 5, 1840; Brownlow to Nelson, February 2, 1840. Nelson
Papers. Whig, February 13, March 12, 26, 5, 26, May 5, 26, May 14, 7,
1840.
�"Ccy Aloud- Spare Not."
Chapter No.2
A BULLET IN THE THIGH
In eight months William G. Brownlow proved he was a successful
editor. His predecessor had a circulation of 300 papers. He started
the Whig with 700 papers and during the first year the number of
subscribers reached to between 900 and 1,100. Not only did the
provocative Parson's cutting, colorful prose and his severe treatment
of his foes see him hanged in effigy at Knoxville, but also the Democratic postmaster there, so Brownlow said, became so sensitive to the
heat the Whig generated that he resorted to handing it out "with a
pair of tongs." His original agreement to edit the Whig had been
limited and tentative. He could do it only by candlelight because he
would not abandon his generous father-in-law who had provided him
with a job, and he wasn't sure he could make it as an editor. Now,
the collapsing iron industry could spare him, and he had learned that
newspaper editing suited and delighted his controversial nature. He
moved himself and his family the four miles into Elizabethton to
devote full time to editing and to receive a fixed salary, a basis more
satisfactory than a share of the profits. The newcomer displayed
other unmistakable signs of progress. Lyon took on another printer,
Valentine Garland, new print shop materials were bought, and the
typographical appearance of the paper was improved. [ 1]
The delighted Whigs looked for a broader field in which to pit
their new champion against the Democrats and hit upon Jonesboro,
the county seat of adjoining Washington County. This county had a
population of 11,744, double that of Carter.[2] Because the Parson
drew so much attention from a tiny point like Elizabethton his blasts
could be expected to carry further and wider if released from the
larger Jonesboro with its more central location and better mail facilities. Tom Nelson had led the way in the summer of 18 39. He married Anne Elizabeth Stuart and moved with his bride to
Jonesboro. [ 3]
28
�A BULLET IN THE THIGH
29
Late in the same year Brownlow had decided to cut loose from
Lyon when their contract expired and the decision to move to Jonesboro was made. Lyon was a part-time Baptist preacher; he drank
heavily, and he was behind on payments to the Parson. As a result
Nelson wrote a contract for Brownlow, Garland and Lyon on March
7, 1840. Under this contract Lyon sold the type, cases and his interest in the subscription list of the Whig to Brownlow and Garland
for $5 50.00, but agreed to collect outstanding accounts for the first
year and to pay the Parson for his services as editor for the year.
Lyon wished the two new partners well, in print, and pleaded ill
health for not continuing as publisher. However, Garland had written
Nelson months earlier that the Parson would not edit the Whig
beyond the first year with Lyon as publisher. He wrote that Lyon was
so bitter he would do anything to crush the Jonesboro project. ]
[
At the close of Brownlow's first year as editor it was obvious that
he liked what he was doing and the way he was doing it, as he
reviewed what he had accomplished, and concluded:
Such have been our convictions, aU along that, in every material respect we were
right, we were willing to loose [sic.] our life in defense of our principles and
party ....
A review of a complete file of the Whig, will perhaps conduct any candid and
dispassionate mind, to the conclusion, that in point of severity, and wholesale
abuse of individuals, our paper is without a parallel in the history of the American Press. The existence of this truth, in connexion [sic.] with this bold confession, however, finds an apology, in the fact, that it has been peculiarly our misfortune to have to encounter a most disciplined corps of the most obdurate
sinners and unprincipled scoundrels that ever annoyed any community (Whig,
May 14, 1840).
Scoundrels also infested Washington, D.C., for there President Martin
Van Buren and his party trampled upon the laws and the Constitution, and were corrupt. The Parson turned from the fate that awaited
the wicked upon death to
the man, who is alive to the importance of an eternal state of being, and makes it
the subject of his hopes and fears, as well as of his future enquiries. But, with the
upright man, how calm is the evening of life! With what tranquillity does he lean
his head upon his dying pillow, while the lamp of life gradually dies away in its
socket!
To our numerous patrons, who have so nobly sustained us, and our cause, we
have one word to say, and we are done. That your journey through life may be
�30
CHAPTER NO. 2
as sweet as it is short; that poverty and want may always be a day's march
behind you; that you may be happy and your enemies know it; that while you
travel through life you may live well on the road; and that while you do live you
may live under the guidance of the four greatest and best of Generals-General
Providence, General Peace, General Plenty, and General Satisfaction (Ibid.).
Brownlow's first year, with its shouting controversies and its rich
harvest of subscribers, left him eagerly anticipating the move to
Jonesboro, where he would be "at the very door of the lying Sentinel, to correct its slanders while yet smoking" (Whig, March 19,
1840). He knew that his entry at the Washington County seat was
the equivalent of bursting into a den of angry, spitting wildcats.
Lawson Gifford, the Tennessee Sentinel publisher, was politically
allied with the Haynes and Powell families, and he had social relationships with the former. On September 28, 1842, he married Miss
Mary Taylor Haynes, the daughter of David Haynes. [5]
Gifford seemed bent on stirring up the Whig editor in every way
he could, as though being a Democratic publisher and in the HaynesPowell corner was not sufficient provocation. Just before the Whig
moved to Jonesboro he hired as editor Thomas A. Anderson, son of a
former United States senator, Joseph Anderson, and brother of the
current United States senator, Alexander Outlaw Anderson. Thomas
A. opened up on the Parson in his first issue of the Tennessee Sentinel. Brownlow said he himself was at a loss to understand why his
competitor had flown into such a quick rage; all the Parson had done
was to run a defense printed by another Whig editor, a Mr. Wales
who had been denounced by the Knoxville Argus. It happened that
in making his defense Mr. Wales had found it important to prove that
Anderson once "was so beastly drunk, at a certain still-house near
Rogersville that he could not get on his horse without assistance."
Just how this incident was a part of Mr. Wales' defense was not
explained, nor was it clear which galled Anderson the most, his
reported drunken state or his inability to mount his horse. Anderson
had been a Presbyterian minister, and he had practiced medicine
before taking up the pen. Brownlow said Anderson still doted on
being called "doctor." The Parson, however, who had touched him
up in Helps to the Study of Presbyterianism, recalled that he was
sometimes known as "Lord Hackberry." Now, Brownlow dubbed
Anderson as "the profane swearer, apostate Presbyterian Preacher,
and drunken blackguard who now edits the jonesborough Sentinel!"
Gifford also touched the Parson in a most sensitive spot, ridiculing
�A BULLET IN THE THIGH
31
him before the guests in a New Market tavern by reading the Haynes
circular he had printed and apparently throwing in his own comment.
A man who heard the reading was infuriated at the way "your
mother's [the Parson's mother's] name has been dragged into this
filthy piece, and spoken of in the most disgraceful terms. I was
acquainted with her personally: or partially so at least, from my
infancy almost, and I have yet to hear the first person of respectability say one word against her character." [6]
The Whig editor lost no time in taking an intimate examination of
Gifford:
Point us to a female on the pavements of our streets, arm in arm with Lawson
Gifford, and we will show you a female of suspicious character-or one whose
family is under the weather, because of some thefts or frauds committed by the
heads thereof. . . . We are not anxious to acquire the reputation of a bully;-but
if this scoundrel will publish one slanderous sentence in his paper relative to
either of our parents, who have now been dead upwards of twenty years, we
will, upon sight, thereafter give him such evidence of our cowardice, as will
amount to a practical demonstration of the utter falsehood of the charge. In
relation to us, and every living relative we have, he can and may, publish with
impunity (Whig, May 14, 1840).
The Whig in which Brownlow took after both publisher and editor
of the Tennessee Sentinel was the last he put out under an Elizabethton dateline. On May 6, 1840, he published at Elizabethton, but
under a Jonesboro dateline, a specimen of the new volume. In it he
said that the newspaper in the new location would appear thereafter on Wednesday instead of Saturday. [7] When the second number appeared in Jonesboro it carried one of the biggest stories in the
life of the editor.
On May 14, 1840, Brownlow was seated with a group of men in
front of a store. He rose from his chair, without a word of explanation, and walked down the street. Haynes was walking from the
other direction. The Parson drew his pistol. Haynes stopped, holding
his right hand behind him, a position he had maintained from the
moment the two men were seen approaching each other. Brownlow
three times demanded to know if Haynes was armed. Haynes replied
that he was not, but kept his right hand behind him. Brownlow kept
advancing, Haynes retreating, until they were at close quarters, the
Parson's advance being more rapid than Haynes' backward steps.
Brownlow demanded that Haynes retract what he had said about
Brownlow's mother. Haynes either refused to retract or failed to do
�32
CHAPTER NO. 2
so. Brownlow shifted his pistol to his left hand and moved a sword
cane to his right, with which he began striking Haynes. The latter
then brought out a pistol and fired it. Witnesses differed as to
whether the cane blow by Brownlow and the shot by Haynes were
simultaneous. Three said they were simultaneous, one that Haynes
fired first.
The ball from Haynes' pistol entered the center of the Parson's
thigh, three or four inches below the groin. The men grappled.
Though wounded, the Parson struck Haynes again with the aforesaid cane, fought off the younger man's attempt to take his pistol,
and beat his head with the weapon, holding Haynes with his left
hand as he did so. After the men had been separated witnesses saw
blood dripping from Brownlow's leg. He was helped across the street
to a store and placed on a bed.
One witness reported that when Haynes came out of a store and
before walking up the street, one hand, and perhaps both, were in his
coattails. It was his statement and the impression that the weapon
fired by Haynes was a "pocket rifle," requiring both hands to cock
it, that led to the conclusion by some that Haynes had started his
march up the street prepared to discharge it without delay. Brownlow acknowledged himself the instigator, explaining: [8)
Our motive for approaching Haynes in the way we did was to induce him
either to take back an insinuation against our mother or to render personal
satisfaction for it. Knowing our mother to have been a correct woman in every
respect-to have died a Christian-and to have been in her grave twenty-four
years-no man can or shall assail her character, or disturb her ashes with impunity (Whig, May 20, 1840).
A completely objective determination of what took place is impossible, as only the accounts given by the Whig remain. Files of the
Tennessee Sentinel reporting the fight do not exist, and so far as is
known Haynes left no statement for posterity. The unsworn accounts of the fight published by the Whig were made by four men,
the most extensive being made by Thomas B. Emmerson, son of the
lawyer and publisher, Thomas Emmerson, who had once urged
Brownlow to engage in the newspaper business.
The bullet wound was severe, Brownlow acknowledged, but five
days after the "recountre" he reported he was able "to set [sic.] at
our table and write." He read his exchanges and talked politics with
his friends. Word circulated that he was making threats, but he wrote
that he only awaited events and then would "act just as our inclina-
�A BULLET IN THE THIGH
33
tion may lead us to do." The Whig did not miss an issue. [9)
Brownlow suffered a misery of the flesh, but he also reported that
his enemies gloated, and that a "lady-no, a woman, the wife of a
distinguished Democrat, said to a Whig lady, 'I wish it had gone
through his heart instead of his leg.' "With only a few exceptions
there positively was greater rejoicings, in all the Locofoco ranks of East Tennessee, at the prospect of our death that there could have been in the Church of
God on earth, in Europe and America, upon hearing of the death and burial of
his Satanic Majesty, the Devil! (Whig, May 27, 1840).
The former circuit rider demonstrated what he had said that he
carried weapons but would use them only in his defense, although in
this instance it was for the defense of the reputation of his long dead
mother. [ 10] The vilification he received, the boisterous glee of his
foes at his wound, and the regrets of some that the bullet was not
fatal, enlarged him in the public eye. That publicity probably repaid
him for the physical pain he endured. The "recountre" also was a
splendid curtain raiser for his vigorous campaign in behalf of the
Whig Party nominees for the nation's highest offices, General Taylor
and John Tyler of Virginia. The stories of his boldness and of the
arms he carried may have been the reason that later in the summer he
was able to outthreaten "drunken bullies" at the courthouse door in
Madisonville. [ 11]
The Parson's pen grew bolder. When Editor Anderson belittled
attendance at a big Whig rally at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee,
Brownlow impaled him with an audacious shaft. Anderson's estimate
of the crowd was that "to count them over three times there was
3,000 including boys, negroes [sic.] and PROSTITUTES-WHO
NUMBERED AT LEAST FIVE HUNDRED!!!!" Brownlow quoted
the Tennessee Sentinel's report, then wrote that all the women at the
meeting did not exceed 500, so that the Democratic newspaper had
branded all those there as females of pleasure. He took an even more
daring step, printing the names of many of the wives and daughters
of prominent and respected Whigs who were present, inferring that
Anderson had classed these women as prostitutes. Aware that repercussions would follow, for newspapers at that time rarely published
names of good women, the Parson asserted that all the females at the
rally were "ladies, for such we know them to be, and their friends
will please pardon us for thus using their names" (Whig, October 7,
1840). He could always say, if criticized, that he had done what he
did to protect their names.
�34
CHAPTER NO. 2
When Harrison and Tyler were elected the Parson went wild with
joy. He turned out his newspaper on November 25 and 28, each issue
displaying a front page that was garish, outlandish and vulgar, by
modern standards. He disposed of Anderson, after having written his
name as Thomas Ass Anderson for months, with a brief note that the
Tennessee Sentinel "has not done our case any injury-but it has
made fearful havoc in the ranks of Democracy-it has slain its own
party as efficiently as Sampson did the Philistines and with the same
weapon-the jawbone of an ass." During the campaign the Whig had
run in three issues a five-column account of Anderson's life, and had
proposed to have it printed in book form, embellished with additional details about other Van Buren leaders, including a "minute
account of their stealing of money, pocket-books, negroes [sic] and
goods, burning of barns, using false weights and measures-their
church trials &ri, &ri." But Anderson left town and the Parson saw no
reason to publish the book. [12]
Editors of Democratic newspapers were certain targets of Brownlow's pen, but the Parson had found Anderson most detestable. This
was not only for the reasons previously given but that he was the
brother of Senator Anderson who was elected when Hugh Lawson
White of Knoxville, the revered man, was forced to resign by a
Democratic legislature in early 1840. White died a few months later,
and Brownlow in his obituary notice brought up a very bitter point
with Whigs; as White returned from Washington the Rogersville
Democrats were prepared to treat him ignominiously. Rather than
risk the main street where gibes and insults awaited him, White took
a circuitous route through the outskirts of the town. In time Democrat leaders realized their treatment of White had hurt them, and that
it gave the Whigs effective political ammunition. [ 13]
With the departure of Anderson, Brownlow offered a cautious
truce: "Let us alone and we will let you alone," he told the Tennessee Sentinel, but if the Democratic newspaper started a fight the
Whig would carry on "a war of extermination" (Whig, November 18,
1840). He may have been too busy exulting over the victory of
Harrison and Tyler to concentrate much fire on his enemies. He
changed his page one motto from "Unawed by power, unbribed by
gain, the people shall be heard, and their rights vindicated," to "WE
HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND THEY ARE OURS-Commodore
Perry," the victor's famous report on the outcome of the Battle of
Lake Erie. Brownlow had discarded "Cry aloud and spare not," on
�A BULLET IN THE THIGH
35
moving to Jonesboro, and while he did not gamble he was Whig
enough to chuckle at his fellow partisans having won at least $5,000
in election bets in the area. [ 14]
Landon Haynes took some part in the 1840 campaign; the Parson
gave him a few light touches, but sometime after Anderson resigned
Haynes became editor of the Tennessee Sentinel. [ 15]
The Whig editor began to display skill as a roving reporter when he
spoke for his party's candidates throughout lower East Tennessee
during the 1840 campaign (Whig, September 23, 1840). He was
ripening into a keen observer of the human scene, bringing to his
readers with style, color, verve and tickling satire what he saw. This
skill, as well as his ingenuity, sharpness and force in the delivery of
invective and abuse, made him a great circulation builder. The first
talent has been overshadowed to the point of neglect as writers have
dwelt heavily on his ability and disposition to club, knife and throttle his foes with words. Another characteristic was an aid to his
career; he was a born rover. After a decade as a Methodist circuit
rider he refused, as an editor, to be pinned to a desk. He used every
means of locomotion: horseback, buggy, stage, watercraft, railroads,
and his own sturdy legs. Wherever he went he wrote of it.
An early development of this skill appears when Brownlow was
present in Knoxville at the hanging of a Sevier Countian, George
Long, who had murdered his wife. As a minister Brownlow labored
with the doomed man to the last. In the agonizing moment "Just
before he was hanged, and while sitting on his coffin, in the waggon,
with the rope tied around his neck, we stepped up to him and asked
if he still alleged his innocence-he said he did." The Parson watched
Long bid farewell to his father and "assisted the poor old man in
getting out of the waggon, and in leaving the crowd; after which we
turned our eyes toward Long-saw him rise up off his coffin, and
walk up to the gallows, with an indifference which astonished us
beyond description." A crowd of from 5 ,000 to 8,000 witnessed the
hanging. The editor placed himself on record against public executions and added the hope that "for the honor of their sex, if for no
other reason, we shall never again see as many females assembled
together on such an occasion" (Whig, August 22, 1839).
The inauguration of Harrison as President gave Brownlow an
opportunity to travel and to mix at the nation's highest political level
as the Whigs exulted in victory, and Washington was undergoing the
spasm of a change in administration. He found great improvement in
�36
CHAPTER NO.2
traveling after he reached Raleigh, North Carolina, from Jonesboro, a
stagecoach trip that took two weeks. From Raleigh to Washington he
enjoyed his first ride on a railroad, and after reaching the capital
marveled:
Only think of traveling 360 miles in 36 hours! If I had never seen or heard of a
train of Railroad Cars, propelled by a steam Engine, and were conscious of
having so conducted myself as to warrant the Devil's title to my person, upon
meeting the Engine, I should peacefully surrender!
The Parson was proud to be the guest in the House of Representatives of his friend John Bell, who was to be appointed secretary of
war in a few days, but he was not overawed. The members in session
"reminded me of a Methodist camp meeting, at night, when the
Negroes had taken possession of the altar!"
The editor's first letters dealt chiefly with developments in the
change of administrations, but he did not neglect church going. Although he praised a sermon he heard given by a presiding elder, he
regretted that the "pompous manner, affectation, and seeming vanity
of the speaker, destroyed its good effect upon the congregation." His
Protestant soul was horrified when it was discovered that he and a
friend had taken lodgings in a "Roman Catholic house, and were put
in a room, where there was a little puter [pewter] god." The Parson
was restrained from smashing it, and he at once found other quarters.
He listened to John Quincy Adams argue a case before the United
States Supreme Court, and he met both the outgoing and incoming
Presidents. He reported Harrison was in excellent health, an error on
the Parson's part, for Harrison died in a few weeks. Van Buren he
found displaying a "kingly-courtlike politeness," and an "everlasting,
artificial smile." Yet he credited him with bearing his defeat "like a
Stoic." A fellow boarder of the Parson's was John Tyler of Virginia,
the Vice-President-elect, a "gentleman-easy in his manners-and full
of life and conversation."
A couple of observations must have brought gasps from the Whig's
readers. Brownlow examined the White House minutely and found,
"Some of the rooms, on the second floor, are more filthy, upon my
word, than any Negro kitchen I ever noticed in East Tennessee!" And
on the night of the inaugural ball, "I noticed a number of ladies,
passing out of their doors, into their carriages, and to the scene of
action, and many of them are so very 'hardfavored,' that if I had to
dance with them, I should insist upon dancing with our backs fronting each other!"
�A BULLET IN THE THIGH
37
Invited to attend a dinner of Whig editors he declined, "first,
because it savoured of jacksonism; next, because it intended to suggest to each editor the propriety of keeping secret what everybody
ought to know; and last, though not least, because I dont [sic]
intend to be dictated to, without reserve, or committed in favor of
measures til [sic.] I know what they are to be." This forecast a policy
he often would follow. He was a Whig, but he reserved to himself the
right to decide what was correct Whiggery. He bound himself to Whig
principles, as he saw them, but not to every Whig nominated by the
party if he felt the nominee was out of line with party doctrine.
Before leaving Washington for Baltimore, Philadelphia and New
York, the Parson peeped over a sofa to watch as Senator William
King of Alabama sat writing a challenge to mortal combat which
Senator Henry Clay accepted. The dispute was adjusted without
benefit of firearms. [ 16]
From New York City he sent letters that mixed political observations with comment on the great city and its people, along with
accounts of perplexing situations in which the countryman found
himself. He was forced to ring for a servant when he was unable to
find his way down from the fifth floor of the Howard Hotel, but he
enjoyed the food, described the extensive menu, and detailed:
The way for a back-woodsman to manage on occasions of this kind, is to
throw himself back in his chair and look grave-and to seem to be perfectly at
himself-aye, just in his element! When a servant dashes by me and enquires,
"what will you have, sir"-I look at my "bill of fare" and pronounce the name
of what I want, with such a grace, that I am certain, I am almost taken for a
member of the Diplomatic Corps at Washington! True, I have no idea what I ask
for, and whether the servant brings what I call for, or something altogether
different, I have no means of determining! This is another matter. My business is
to eat what is brought, and to be ready for the next call!
He toured Wall Street, a newspaper office, viewed the city from the
top of a six-story building, walked the length of Broadway, stared at
the "dense forest of masts and rigging" in the harbor, stopped at the
Methodist Book Concern and looked upon that center of political
infamy, Tammany Hall. New Yorkers, he decided, suffer from
all sorts of diseases, mental and corporeal. Among these maladies which I have
noticed most the prevalent, and the most injurious in their effects, are dizzyness,
restlessness at night, obstinate coughs, pains in the joints, bleeding at the nose,
sore eyes, inclination to steal, headache, disposition to lie, vertigo, torpor, dis-
�38
CHAPTER NO. 2
turbed dreams, sleep broken by rioting convulsions occasioned by defeat in
politics, thirst for liquor, palid [sic.] hue, bad taste in the mouth, down looks,
guilty conscience, offensive breath, itching of the head, occasioned by the crawling of legtreasurers, griping of the bowels, swelling of the stomach, nausea,
squesmishness [sic.], leanness, meanness, dejection of films and mums-and in
short, a total want of all that is required to constitute the man. [ 17]
The Parson loved to exaggerate, and here he let himself go for the
benefit of his readers, who could laugh and imagine themselves as
better off than those city people, with all their conveniences. He gave
them a picture of life in the great city that not only filled them with
delight and wonder, but also left them with the impression that they
were just a little bit more fortunate than their city cousins. This he
could do because he had a gift for which an enemy who hated him
intensely would give him full credit two decades later-he understood
human nature as few men do. [ 18]
CHAPTER II NOTES
1) Brownlow gave two sets of figures for this circulation, Whig, November 10,
1841, February 28, 1840, January 30, 23, February 13, 20, 1840.
2) United States Sixth Census, pp. 264-265.
3) Thomas B. Alexander, Thomas A. R. Nelson of East Tennessee (Nashville,
1956), p. 16; hereafter referred to as Alexander, Thomas A. R. Nelson.
[ 4) Valentine Garland to Nelson, December 24, 1839, Nelson Papers. Whig,
November 12, 1841; Frank Merritt, Early History of Carter County,
1760-1861 (Knoxville, 1950), p. 94; Lyon-Garland-Brownlow contract,
March 7, 1840. Nelson Papers.
[ 5) Whig, October 5, 1842; Bellamy, "The Political Career of Landon Carter
Haynes," p. 104.
[ 6) Whig, May 14, 1840; Rothrock, ed., French Broad-Holston, pp. 413-414;
Faye E. McMillen, "A Biographical Sketch of Joseph Anderson
(1757-1837)," ETHS PUBL. No.2, pp. 84-87.
[ 7) Whig, May 7, 1840. Also dated May 6, 1840.
[ 8) Ibid., May 20, 1840.
[ 9) Ibid.
[10) Ibid., May 27, 1840, December 5, 1839, April9, 1840.
[ 11) Folmsbee eta!., Short History, p. 201; Whig, September 2 3, 1840.
[12) Ibid., November 25, 28, November 18, 1840. The three issues on Anderson's life were ibid., August 12, 19, 26, 1840.
[13) Ibid., April16, 1840; Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 200.
�A BULLET IN THE THIGH
39
[14] Whig, November 25, 28, 1840.
[ 15] The first record of Haynes as editor of the Tennessee Sentinel is ibid., May
8, 1841, in a loose file of this newspaper, not on microfilm. McClung
Collection. See also Whig, July 21, 1840.
[16] Ibid., March 10, 31, 24, 1841.
[17] Ibid., March 24, 31, April 7,1841. The meaning of legtreasurers, films and
mums has been lost.
[18] An editorial in the Knoxville Register in early 1862 described Brownlow as
"the best judge of human nature within the bounds of the Southern Confederacy." The Register editor, J. Austin Sperry, was one of the Parson's
bitterest foes. Register files are limited, but it is found in Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 342-345; Temple, Notable Men, p. 351; and in The War of
the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and
Confederate Armies, 130 vols., Series 2, Vol. I, pp. 925-926; hereafter
cited as O.R.
�'J~E~~ESSEI~ '\TIIIf~.
"WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND THEY ARE OURS."Commodore Perry
Chapter No. 3
SUCCESS THROUGH UPROAR
Three months after William G. Brownlow moved the Whig to
Jonesboro, he emerged as both publisher and editor, a remarkable
step for a man who had entered the business field when he did,
uncertain of his ability to succeed in this entirely new work. The
O'Briens and the iron industry had gone down as the Parson and the
Whig made substantial progress. The holdings of the O'Briens were
sold at sheriff's sales or to satisfy judgments, and the Whig's circulation reached 1,600. The Brownlow-Garland partnership was dissolved by "mutual consent," and on August 12, 1840, page one of
the Whig displayed in the first column the legend, "William G.
Brownlow, Editor and Publisher." Valentine Garland may have
found the fury of political campaigns and his position in the line of
fire between the Parson and his enemies too hot for comfort (he
claimed to have been attacked by Landon C. Haynes and a confederate), or he may have been aggravated by Brownlow's frequent trips
to rallies and conventions. He also resorted to the bottle too frequently to suit the bone-dry editor, as this Whig item a few years
later showed:
We are much gratified to find in the Boonsville (Mo.) Register ... a lengthy
article in defense of the temperance cause from the pen of V. GARLAND,
late of "these diggins." Having left here on board of a flat boat, screaming like
a wildcat, and with about six inches [of] "plum liquor" in him, we were not
prepared to hear of him warring against baldface! [1]
The page one makeup of the Whig changed with the Jonesboro
opening. The name of the newspaper as given at the top of the
page was shortened to The Whig in solid black, 60 point Onyx, the
title printed in four columns rather than in six, with columns one
and six brought to the top of the page; thus the heading was islanded
40
�SUCCESS THROUGH UPROAR
41
on three sides with body type. The date line also appeared in heavier
black type: "Jonesborough, Tenn." The name Tennessee Whig was
carried in column one underneath the name of the editor and publisher and just above the subscription and advertising rate. The name
of the newspaper was carried infrequently on the inside pages. Such
inside identification lacked importance since the entire newspaper
was printed on one sheet that was folded to make four pages. [2]
More significant than the changes in the management and makeup
were developments in news policy and reporting. The Parson's dispatches from the many points where he visited and spoke were heavily political, but they were vivid, entertaining and streaked with
humor-at least for the Whigs. At the great Whig convention of 1840
at Nashville, where Brownlow's idol, Henry Clay, spoke so thrillingly
that it left the editor wordless, he condemned Democratic rowdies:
During the speaking last night, on the Square, a gang of these same vermine
[sic.] were passing to and fro, and yelling like savages to attract attention, while
another set, supposed to be their partners, were stealing pocket-books by the
dozen, as they clandestinly [sic.] passed [through] the crowd. [ 3]
More items lacking political flavor began to appear, for example, a
complaint that some "popular literary" works were frivolous. The
editor could see not benefits flowing from reading "such legends and
romances as the following-Blue Beard-jack The Giant Killer- Tom
Thumb-Robin Hood-Goody Two-Shoes-Puss in Boots-Sinbad the
Sailor-Fairy Tales-Robinson Crusaw [sic.]- The Novels of Waverly-." The Parson did not carry his disapproval to the point where he
shut off the merchandising opportunity available through the paid
agency of the newspaper because a few months later the Whig carried
full, two-column advertisements of the novels of Sir Walter Scott,
including the Waverly series, inserted by a Philadelphia publishing
house. [4]
Sabbath violations were outrageous, the Whig complained on February 10, 1841, because while the devout worshipped at the
churches, "the streets are surrendered to the Slaves, and the Free
Negro [sic.] and boys." The civic conscience was quickening, however, in view of a city ordinance passed regulating the use of horses
and other draft animals, forbidding milking on the sidewalk and the
flying of kites. Shooting was confined to the killing of hogs or beef.
A special duty was laid upon the constable: he was to preserve
morals.
�42
CHAPTER NO. 3
The Parson's piquant dispatches from Washington, Philadelphia,
Baltimore and New York, now often ranging far afield from politics,
must have brought a gratifying response, for he kept them up as long
as he had strength to write them. He showed little hesitation in
leaving to foremen the mechanical task of getting out the newspaper.
He wrote a friend years later that he could manage editing almost as
well when absent as present. [5]
Quarrels on the Jonesboro scene, however, which Brownlow must
have counted upon to build circulation, proceeded more lustily if he
was at home, as he was in the summer of 1841, when seats in the
Tennessee General Assembly were at stake. R. W. Powell, with whom
the Parson had had physical and political brushes, was running as a
Democrat for a Senate seat against Elijah Embree, a Whig and the son
of Elihu Embree, iron manufacturer and formerly editor of emancipation newspapers published at Jonesboro. The Parson accused
Powell of having written in earlier years articles hotly criticizing
Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party, which were published in
the Elizabethton Republican. Brownlow relied upon a statement
given to him by William Gott, who along with Mason R. Lyon had
operated the Republican. Gott told Brownlow they could be found
in the Republican's files. The Whig editor sent an emissary to Lyon,
who returned with copies of the newspaper marked in pencil. The
Parson charged Powell with being the author. But Lyon, possibly
still smarting because he had not been included in the move to Jonesboro, cast doubt by stating that he had not positively identified the
pieces marked as being from the pen of Powell, only that they might
have been. Brownlow, already infuriated, was further angered
because Landon Haynes, now editor of the Tennessee Sentinel, had
opened the column of his newspaper to Lyon's retorts to Brownlow.
The Parson retaliated with certificates supporting his side of the
argument, and continued to abuse Lyon until late in the fall. He took
a final slap at Lyon when the latter recieved only 13 out of 900 votes
cast in the 1842 race for County Court Clerk of Carter County.[6]
The Brownlow-Lyon dispute fed the acrimony between the two
editors, now confined to words. The Parson pointed out in the following quotation that the dispute had been blown up during the
1840 presidential campaign:
The public mind ... was deeply absorbed in the politics of the country, so much
so that ... a hearing for the more spiritual truths of the Gospel, could hardly be
had. The people had no ears to hear ought beside the harangues of their partizan
�SUCCESS THROUGH UPROAR
43
[sic.] orators, and the reports of their newspapers. And such was the active and
whole hog part I took in the contest, that I deemed it for the best to attend only
to my paper and the interests of my party. I acted conscientiously, as did others.
I believed that the fate of the country was at stake, on the issue of the late
political contest. And that the warfare of that contest did beget a habit of
universal distrust, and mutual abuse of character, no man will deny, as no good
man and lover of his country does not lament the fact. But whose fault is it?
Certainly not mine. I acted well my part-1 claim to have been as bad as the
worst-but I was not alone in this crusade. Others acted badly-they bid better
than I did, and denied with an effrontery that I am incapable of-this is the
difference (Whig, September 1, 1841).
The Parson made this assessment in August 1841 as he appeared
before a quarterly conference of the Jonesboro Circuit of the
Methodist Church. He expected to be faced with accusations, among
others, that he had neglected his duties as a preacher. He announced
his presence with: "And sir, I am here, but where are my accusers? ... I desire to meet them here, and face to face compare
notes with them, but it seems I am not to enjoy that privilege."
Brownlow rarely was caught at a loss when there was a prospect for
debate; consequently, he supplied the charges he said his enemies
would have made had they been present. He acknowledged in the
following words that he had abused people:
Yes, and others abuse me-l am calumniated-vilified-denounced in season and
out of season ... But I use a severity that they do not resort to. No, they do
not use as many severe epithets as I do, but it is because they cannot just think
of them at the time. They do their best. And I take the will for the deed. But I
deny that I slander my opponents. To slander an individual, or a party, one must
utter in relation to that individual, or party, charges which have no foundation
in truth. I call for the specifications-give me chapter and verse, and I will plead
to them. I ask for something more than rumor. Madam rumor, I am aware, has
long since pronounced me the prince of evil-doers. Who is it that she has not
condemned?
The Parson had brought partisan affairs into his speech because the
Democrats of Jonesboro had sought to destroy him through the
Methodist Church. They had accused him of outrageous abuse of
people, yet the Democratic Tennessee Sentinel "has been slandering
the ministers and members of the Methodist, and of every other
church, who have dared to think differently from itself." Yet, "these
pious brethren, who object to the severity of my paper, patronize the
Sentinel-enjoy its abuse of their brethren-and read its contents
�44
CHAPTER NO.3
with pleasure." The Whig editor had no intention of moderating his
blows, as his enemies demanded. Instead he intended to increase
them because the growing circulation of his newspaper, among subscribers of "respectability, and high moral and intellectual standing,"
comparable to those "of any newspaper in Tennessee or elsewhere"
constituted approval of the way he was running it.
Ruthless enemies, who would spare him from attack only when
they knew he was armed, forced him to
carry Pistols, aye, deadly weapons. Yes, I do, and I intend to do it. I have Pistols
of a superior quality, and I always have them about me. I daily move in the
midst of an unprincipled band of assasins (sic.], bloodhounds, and murderers,
who seek my life, and nothing but my arms, and a belief on their part that I will
use them, prevents them from attacking me. My weapons will hurt no man
unless I am assailed, then, and in that case, I will use them. Last fall, it was
gravely proposed, by a portion of the Democracy of Jonesborough, in a political
caucus, to employ some two or more irresponsible characters to beat the life out
of me, or forsooth, to tar and feather me! Others are carrying and have carried
large Republican Democratic Hickory Clubs, for my benefit, and nothing but a
fear of the consequences has prevented an attack. Under these circumstances I
have been induced to go armed at all times, and I intend to continue this state of
preparation. I am a poor man-all I have consists in and of a Printing Establishment-I have a wife and two small children to support-and to defend my life
against the midnight assults of Locofocosim is a duty I owe to myself and the
Whig Party (Ibid.).
Brownlow held that "the most contemptible trickery of which
Locofocoism has been guilty" was the proposal of certain Presbyterians, and some who were members of no church, to join Methodism, "if I can be got out of it." He finished his defense with a tribute
to the church, laced with some politics: "Infidelity must fall, sound
principles must triumph, modern Democracy must go down, Isreal
[sic.] must prevail." On the vote to aquit or censure, the Parson
won, as he knew he would, 20 to 3 (Ibid.).
The mingling of religion and politics furnished a dramatic scene at
a camp meeting in the summer of 1842, at a place and exact time not
specified. It was early in 1843 before Brownlow wrote that on the
occasion "We opened the door ... as we were directed to do for the
reception of members into the Church-making an argument of some
length in favor of persons attaching themselves to the Church-and
some thirty persons were added therein .... " Among them was one
�SUCCESS THROUGH UPROAR
45
who reached out his hand for the Parson's, who turned from the
supplicant and "left him to the agencies of those whose faith in his
conversion was stronger than ours." [ 11] The penitent whose hand the
Parson rejected was Landon C. Haynes. Brownlow's rigid unforgivingness at the altar must have brought sharp criticism, for the editor
went to some pains on several occasions to justify his rejection of
Haynes' hand. The younger man also made repeated offers of friendship, but Brownlow spurned them, stating:
His friendship for us is like Sampson's sleep; it is intended solely to deprive us of
our locks. It is friendship of the nature of opium-intended to produce a loss of
feeling-to put one off his guard-a presage of death.
Haynes got religion, the Parson observed, in much less time than
most men:
He was thought to be some twelve or fifteen minutes only, in seeking and
finding his Lord. Indeed we thought he had scarcely got upon his knees as a
mourner, till [sic.] he was up, shouting, screaming, and cutting up some of the
tallest shines we had ever seen (Ibid.).
Brownlow professed to have been astounded when Haynes threw his
arms about the neck of W. B. Carter, who he had fought bitterly in
the congressional campaign of 1839, "and confessed to him in the
hearing of an hundred of us, that when he was opposing and abusing
him he was insincere, that he had always liked him, though he was
publicly and privately pretending otherwise" (Ibid.). Haynes originally was a Presbyterian. Brownlow called him "a Presbyterian imposter, as he himself confesses," and reproached his foe for revealing
"confidential conversations" exchanged with Presbyterian ministers. [7] The Parson kept hammering away with his belief that
Haynes' conversion was synthetic, citing that when the young convert did receive grace "it was obtained in about five or ten minutes.
We were standing by, and such screams, such raising [sic.] up and
down, and such a blowing of a long nose, we never witnessed" (Whig,
February 1, 1843). The Whig was reviewing with unbelief Haynes'
conversion until early in 1844 (Whig, February 14, 1844).
After Haynes had joined the Methodist Church, he lost little time
getting into the ministry. He delighted in oratory; he probably saw
that if he obtained a place in the Methodist organization above the
rank of layman he would be better prepared to fight the Parson, now
that all prospects for friendship were removed. This was not lost on
�46
CHAPTER NO. 3
the Whig editor, who grumbled:
He has been in the Methodist Church five months and in the Ministry five weeks;
and he now looks to be put up on Sunday, at all popular meetings, and is really
disappointed and displeased if he is not. Should he "grow in grace," for the next
five months as he has done for the five that are past, by next fall, he will attempt
to supplant our Bishops, and preside at our Annual Conferences!
A shooting brought the controversy to a head in the Methodist
Church. In the selection of arbitrators to settle a dispute over a load
of tin, James H. Jones objected to William H. Crouch because the
latter was "a thick-headed man, and has not sense enough to do his
own business." Crouch did not like this accusation. They got into a
fight, and Crouch was wounded. Brownlow's account of the affair
infuriated Crouch's friends. As citizens lined up on either side, the
dispute took on almost classic characteristics. Jones was a Whig and
a Methodist; Crouch was a Democrat and he and his family "were
enemies of the Methodist Church" (Whig, January 4, 1843). Haynes
pushed into the battle, his partisanship putting him on Crouch's side,
which enabled Brownlow to accuse Haynes of opposing Methodism.
Two Methodist preachers reproached Haynes for getting into the
dispute, telling him, "You had no business" to enter it, that it
involved only Brownlow and the participants in the shooting. The
preachers reported that Haynes said:
"I DID NOT WANT TO COMMENCE OR ENGAGE IN THIS CONTROVERSY
BUT MY PARTY AND FRIENDS HERE WOULD GIVE ME NO PEACE TILL I
AGREED TO DO IT-THEY SAID I MUST DO IT: AND AS I HAVE BEGUN I
WILL HAVE TO GO THROUGH!!!"
The printing of this lame justification in his adversary's newspaper
gored Haynes deeply. He insisted that he had said only that "friends"
had persuaded him into this step and denied that he had mentioned
pressure by Democrats. He faced the Rev. C. W. Harris, the Methodist preacher who had told the story to Brownlow, and accused Harris
of lying. The quarrel now became a sustained uproar. The Whig
devoted almost three pages of its issue of February 1, 184 3, to
Haynes and quoted him as having published this advice to the
Parson:
But I cannot close this letter without admonitions to repentance. I have no
other desires than those for the salvation of your sinblackened and sinpoluted
(sic.] soul as I cannot but believe it to be. I ask you then to repent and turn
from your thousand sins.
�SUCCESS THROUGH UPROAR
47
For though you may live in the follies of wickedness, you cannot, you will
not, die a fool.[8]
The Jonesboro Circuit held its quarterly conference at Earnest's
Chapel on Saturday, February 11, 1843. It unanimously cleared
Harris of the accusation of falsehood brought by Haynes, and then
charged the Tennessee Sentinel editor with falsehood and slander.
Because Haynes pleaded he was not prepared, the trial was delayed.
But while awaiting this hearing he pursued a course of violent hostility toward members of the conference who had voted against him.
He even printed a defiance that stated, "We would like to see any
Conference tum us out of the Methodist Church and leave William G.
Brownlow in! They cannot do it-were it done IT WOULD SHAKE
THE CHURCH INTO ATOMS!" Haynes was convicted by the
quarterly conference at Bethesda on April 29, 1843, and silenced
from preaching, but he found a new issue. The conference had voted
to find Haynes guilty of falsehood and slander, 14 to 10, but on the
question of silencing the members stood 12 to 12 until the presiding
elder, Samuel Patton broke the tie, voting against the Tennessee
Sentinel editor. The silenced minister charged one of the twelve votes
cast against him was illegal, which would not have required Patton to
decide the issue, and which would have left Haynes with his license.
Patton held the vote was legal, and there the matter stood except for
a mass of denunciations and vituperations erupting from both newspapers. Brownlow lost on one point. He claimed the conference had
ejected Haynes from the church. Patton held it did not. [9]
So conflicting were the reports of the two contending newspapers
and their partisans that Methodists from Blountville and Knoxville
called upon the quarterly conference of the Jonesboro Circuit to
provide a clarifying statement from the minutes. The statement supported the Brownlow-Patton position. [ 10]
Fifteen years later, in a strange aftermath, the same conference, on
learning that Haynes still wanted to preach, voted to restore his
license. He never claimed it. Brownlow was in Knoxville then, the
pre-civil War issues were raging and both men probably were too
occupied otherwise to give the revival of an old grudge their attention. [ 11]
A side effect of the controversy was a rehash of the Jonesboro
street fight of May 14, 1840, and the attempted assassination of the
Whig editor at Elizabethton on March 2, 1840. Haynes tossed this
taunt to Brownlow over the Jonesboro fight:
�CHAPTER NO. 3
48
. . .. \..1.,)·..
~·
.
. .·
-~ .
......
. . Q:;
~
.,.·
.,.,..
. i.ANION C.tiiAYNES t
-
....
..
t:.t. AV!!Ut', of !1\'v.h Cd.-. teoe~der. t!=t.tllill •
. . YOUTI1FU1.. CRJJIJNJ.L
· . ·
Dis~as.cd·
l
.H.og_.! l
• • ill lilil,llrpslmin;vroo him a: .
·
1
G!llt. ~~tll'ft.mmli. pc.-.i!N bl~ bla!-tllll Clldt
lalla ~itt .. !be II10IIC7. h• ~~~ J'licl bim.!
Excerpts from one of the more odious ex·
changes between Wm. G. Brownlow and
Landon C. Haynes. The original accusation
was made by Brownlow in the Whig on July
16, 1845 and was repeated again and again.
Haynes' reply appeared in the Tennessee
Sentinel on july 19, 1845.
�SUCCESS THROUGH UPROAR
49
You will recollect, Minister of the Gospel, as you were, and perhaps, with
your license in your pocket, you sneaked upon me, and with the same band
which had often held up the Bible in the pulpit, while you tried to preach, you
drew upon me a five or six barrelled pistol, for the purpose of murdering me.
This terse account is at variance with those of the four witnesses
whose statements were published by the Whig in 1840 and reprinted
in it in 1843, with this comment:
On the occasion alluded to, we offered Haynes an honorable fight-we met him
in open day, face to face, on the main street, and in the most business part of
our touwn (sic.]. We had previously notified him through our paper, that we
would call him to an account, and we expected him to be prepared. We knew
him not to be possessed of one honorable principle-we believed him to have
been guilty of attempting to assassinate us, by being with or aiding and abetting
those who fired on us through a window after night. Notwithstanding all this, we
say we offered him an honorable fight-we met him openly and boldly-asked
him three times if he were not armed, and he as often lied, saying he was
not-when we shifted our pistol out of our right hand into our left, grasping it
around the barrel, and taking the cane we were walking with, into our right
hand. So soon as we did this, and incapacitated ourself to shoot, if we had been
so disposed, this base, truckling, tool of tools, with that cowardice which has
characterised his short, vascilating (sic.] and infamous career, stoled (sic.] out
from behind him a pistol he had cocked, and which he had not only not exhibited but three successive times denied having, and fired on us.
The reopened dispute over the shooting at Elizabethton preceded
an account that spread over five columns of the Whig of February 8,
1843. It produced the first-and only-existing defense against the
accusations of Brownlow in the affair. Rather curiously, the Wbig reprinted it from the Murfreesboro Times of August 29, 1840, over the
signature of Haynes. This defense offered two points: that Brownlow
had staged the shooting and that Haynes had an alibi, furnished in a
statement by H. L. Dulaney, that he was with the young law student
in Brewer's Hotel at the time the shots were fired. The Whig countered this with statements that Haynes was not at the hotel when the
firings were heard but appeared very soon afterward and was "much
agitated" (Whig, February 8, 1843).
The pistol that Brownlow fired that night when he ran out of his
house and took aim at a fleeing form may have found a mark. A
relative of the Powell family was confined to his bed for several
weeks immediately after the shooting. The reason given for his being
�50
CHAPTER NO. 3
bedridden was that during a drunken frolic he had been pitched out a
window and injured. The Whig, however, charged that this relative
had confessed, in a drunken moment, that Brownlow's ball had
wounded him. The Parson reported that upon the death of the relative "gentlemen of standing" examined the corpse and saw a round
scar upon its thigh. He maintained that whoever may have shot at
him, Haynes knew of the plot, even "if he did not directly aid and
abet in the nefarious work." The Parson added this sentence in his
continuing effort to justify his rejection of Haynes' hand at the camp
meeting altar: "And for these and other reasons, we have no confidence in him, and cannot, and will not, whether in or out of the
Church, repose confidence in him, or extend to him the hand of
fellowship."[ 12]
The uproar led Brownlow to disclose in the Whig details of his
arsenal. He owned two pistols, a single-shot, which he carried and for
which he had paid $35.00, and a five-shot, costing $10.00, which he
kept in a drawer at his office. It was patented by N. J. Colt. The
editor had brandished a six-barrel pistol at a hearing in Sullivan
County in the summer of 1842 (Whig, August 31, 1842). This gave
rise to the impression he owned such a weapon, but he denied ownership, and revealed that the one he kept in his office had one barrel,
"yet in the breech part of the instrument, five loads are deposited,
and hence it is called a five-shot pistol." [ 13]
Brownlow's single--shot pocket pistol failed to fire at a critical
moment that summer, and probably spared him from killing a fellow
man in self defense. In reporting on a barbecue for James K. Polk as
the Democrat made his second race for governor, the Whig accused
Fayette McMullens, a state senator from Virginia who spoke at the
Rogersville rally, of having stolen corn. A few days later as Sabbath
preaching was under way at the Reedy Creek Campground, MeMullens and some allies waylaid Brownlow and two companions as,
arm-in-arm, they walked out at the gate. The Whig editor took nine
blows from fists or clubs:
CORN-STEALING FAYETTE, rushed upon us with a stick-struck us in the
back, and again on the back of the head in quick succession-which pitched us
forward on our hands and knees-we instantly sprang to our feet-turned upon
him, and presented at his bosom as good a single barreled Pistol as ever was fired,
well loaded and primed, the cap only exploding! A friend afterwards took the
same pistol, and without doing anything but to put on a new cap, hurried [sic.)
the ball in a log, the pistol firing as clear as a rifle. It is now owing to the veriest
�SUCCESS THROUGH UPROAR
51
accident on earth, that the vile thief, blackguard, and debauched demagogue is
not in eternity.
Principals on both sides were hustled off to a quick trial before a
Sullivan County magistrate, where they were directed to leave their
arms outside. A friend managed to slip Brownlow a weapon, and
when McMullens drew a pistol halfway out of his bosom, the editor
"eased a six barrel pistol out of our pocket, and politely bowed to
him." The Parson was "barely acquitted," and a McMullens, not
otherwise identified, was fined $5.00. Reporting the trial gave
Brownlow an opportunity to probe more deeply into the background
of McMullens, where he found, in addition to larceny, infidelity, and
gambling, that McMullens had cheated on mileage collected as a state
senator [Ibid.].
Nature took a hand in the violence of the summer. A lethal bolt of
lightning struck into a group of worshipers at Nelson's Campgrounds,
near the present site of 1ohnson City, on the night of August 7,
1842. It killed two people and injured possibly a score. The bolt fell
at 10 o'clock on a shelter where five or six hundred worshipers
most of whom were engaged in the exercises ... had taken shelter from the rain.
Nearly this entire assembly felt sensible the shock and so very much so indeed,
that no sooner had the report of the thunderstroke died away in the distance,
than one long, loud, continued scream, was heard in every direction (Whig,
August 10, 1842).
The dead were Miss Mary Taylor, member of a prominent family of
Carter County, and 1ohn Miller of North Carolina. The tragedy
changed the course of Nathaniel G. Taylor's life, so stricken was he
at the death of his sister. He had begun the practice of law, but in the
tide of religious emotion that followed the deaths he delivered a
"surpassingly fervid, impassioned and thrilling religious exhortation."
Soon after this he became a Methodist minister. [ 14]
The catastrophe bred speculation, both pious and irreverent. The
latter view carried a political tinge. The Whig saw the bolt "as emphatically a work of Providence," designed to lead those who were
present to set in order their spiritual houses; it found the benefits of
the religious fire spread by the calamity most impressive:
SIXTY FOUR PERSONS were added to the Church, beside many obtaining a
knowledge of sins forgiven. But only a fiend, and a political one at that, could
account for the bolt as showing Divine disfavor because the campground had
�52
CHAPTER NO. 3
been the scene of a Whig convention two years earlier. An individual who engaged in such speculation "deserves to have his fate chained to the wheels of
damnation, and the car of iniquity, and drawn by two mad bulls through brier
thickets, frog ponds, and log fires" (Whig, August 17, 1842).
The Whig kept a few other balls in the air in the controversies of
the early forties. Brownlow found the Mormons quite dangerous, [ 15] and the Baptists aggravated him into writing a book disputing their doctrines, particularly that immersion is required for
Christian baptism. It was Baptism Examined; Or the True State of
the Case. To which is prefixed a Review of the Assaults of the
Baptist and Pioneer. To which is also Added an Appendix. It was
published at Jonesboro in 1842. [16]
Politically he wrangled with Thomas D. Arnold, a Whig whom he
and Thomas A. R. Nelson fought unsuccessfully as Arnold obtained
the First District congressional seat in 1841. [ 17] He broke with
President Tyler, who became chief executive upon Harrison's death a
month after inauguration. The Whig, embittered by Tyler's veto of
the National Bank Bill and by his failure to fire Democratic officeholders and reward Whigs, called him a "Long-eared Virginia Ass."
The cabinet, including the Parson's favorite, John Bell, but with the
exception of Secretary of State Daniel Webster, resigned when Congress adjourned in the fall of 1841. [18] Perhaps as a memorial to
Harrison the editor carried for a long time on page one, between The
and Whig, an illustration of a log cabin with a coonskin flung upon
the roof and a coon on each side of the structure. The log cabin and
the coon theme had played quite a part in Harrison's presidential
campaign, along with free barbecue and whiskey. The new page-one
device restored the five-column heading. [ 19]
If the Parson lacked human foes there were other animals, and in
the Whig of July 21, 1841, he served notice, "This is emphatically
Dog Town, a town litterally [sic.] overrun with dogs! There cannot
be less than 150 surplus dogs in this place," prowling through
gardens, backyards, smokehouses and kitchens. His expensive pocket
pistol proved inadequate to cope with the animals. Therefore he
loaded a double-barreled shotgun and "in two nights, we were enabled to shoot six." He looked forward to moonlit nights and "then,
no preventing cause, we will make them squat." This was a war he
carried on for years (Whig, July 21, 1841).
In the midst of these varied and extensive wars the Rev. William G.
Brownlow appeared in an almost unbelievable role, the champion of
�SUCCESS THROUGH UPROAR
53
young lovers. He was ready to unite eloping couples even at the risk
of incurring parental displeasure for performing the ceremonies. In
the Whig of March 9, 1842, as spring was beginning to stir, he laid
out this policy:
We have recently married several pair [sic.] of youngsters, who have either come
to us, or sent for us, to perform the ceremony; but in no single instance have we,
(or will we] since we have resided in the county, aided or abetted, directly or
indirectly, by our advice or otherwise, either in carrying on a courtship, or in
assisting the parties to get off. When individuals of respectability call on us to
marry them, we do so, and will continue the practice.
As a general policy he disapproved of runaway marriages, as he did
disobedience of parents by children; but exceptions should be made.
Children of infidels, forbidden to attend church, should disobey. In
the long run parents have better judgment than their young. "Nor
shall we deny the right of parents to even kick up a dust, when a man
of bad habits and morals is like to runaway [sic.] with a daughter."
Yet, all runaway matches should not be condemned, for "in nine
cases out of every ten that occur, the party stealing is at least equal
to the plunder stolen, and one-half of all that have fallen under our
notice, we believe to have been their superior" (Whig, March 9,
1842). Now, enchanted with the role of counselor, the Parson narrowed his advice:
to young ladies, substantial young ladies-not the heartless and false doll of
dress ... never to take a husband for his carriage and his house-for his land and
negroes, or to enter matrimony for the liberty it allows them. In other words,
never marry an ASS-a stupid, beef-headed clown, because his father is wealthy,
or because, forsooth, his industrious habits may have caught the attention of
your parents ... -Sooner "cut dirt" with a substantial young man-a man of
sharply defined feelings, the beaming glances of whose liquid eye, promise something in future, though he may not now have the second shirt to his back.
The advice was extended, but accounts of weddings were terse. They
appeared under one column headings of "Hymenial" or "Married"
and usually gave only the date, the place, the names of the principals,
and the officiating minister. Sometimes he listed the father of the
bride, but never the mother unless she was a widow. When the bridegroom was a printer the Whig often identified him as such. Perhaps
the compositor saw to this as a tribute to the craft. [20]
Compassionate as the Whig editor was toward young couples
�CHAPTER NO. 3
54
yearning to be wed, he did not extend it to young men who treated
lightly or took advantage of pledged young women. In a column
adjoining his advice to the love lorn on March 9, 1842, he bore down
wrathfully upon a defendant found to have seduced a girl and then
violated his promise to marry her. The judgment of $2,225 Brownlow found inadequate: "A young man who will gain the affections of
a respectable young woman, promise her marriage, and upon the
faith of that promise seduce her, and abandon her, deserves to be
kicked out of every decent company he falls into. Nay, more, he
deserves to have his body chopped into pieces, and given to the dogs,
and his soul sent to hell." The Whig not only printed the names of
the litigants but also went a step further to present a fact of some
significance, at least to the editor: "The parties ... are all Democrats" (Whig, March 9, 1842).
Chapter III Notes
[ 1] Whig, August 12, 19, May 20, November 25, 1840, August 6, June 1,
1842. Baldface was a term for whiskey, used as a noun and as an adjective.
[ 2] For example, ibid., September 23, 1840. The name of the town was
spelled jonesborough until some time after the Civil War.
[ 3] Ibid., August 26, September 2, 1840.
[ 4] Ibid., January 20, December 22, 1841, and thereafter.
[ 5] Ibid., February 10, 1841; Brownlow to Temple, September 6, 12, 1859.
Temple Papers.
[ 6] Whig, July 21, 21, August 6, 1841; Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 223;
Whig, November 10, 1841, March 6, 1842.
[ 7] Ibid., January 18, 25, 1843.
[ 8] Ibid., February 1, 1843.
[ 9] Ibid., February 15, 22, May 10, 1843.
[10] Ibid., February 13, 1844.
[11] Ibid., Tri-Weekly Whig, July 5, 12, 23, 30, 1859.
[12] Whig, July 5, 1851, February 8, 1843.
[ 13] Ibid., January 4, February 15, 22, 1843.
[14] Ibid., August 10, 1842; Temple, Notable Men, pp. 198-199; Folmsbee et
al., Short History, pp. 494-396. Nathaniel G. Taylor was the father of two
Tennesseeans who served their state as governor, Robert L. Taylor and
Alfred A. Taylor, Democrat and Republican, respectively, who campaigned against each other in what was known as "The War of the Roses."
A grandson of Nathaniel G. Taylor is United States District Judge Robert
L. Taylor of Knoxville, the son of Alfred A. Taylor. Judge Taylor followed
the political course of his uncle, the Democrat.
�SUCCESS THROUGH UPROAR
55
[ 15] For examples see Whig, January 12, August 17, 1842.
[16] Ibid., May 25, July 20, 1842. The Baptist Banner and Western Pioneer was
published at Louisville, Kentucky, ibid., February 15, 1842. James W.
Patton, author of Unionism and Reconstruction in Tennessee, 1860-1869,
wrote this author that the only copy of the book of which he has any
knowledge is at Duke University.
[17] Whig, May 5, June 30, 1841, September 21, 1842; Temple, Notable Men,
p. 61.
[18] Ibid., August 25, November 24, September 15, 22, 1841.
[19] The altered page appeared in ibid., May 28, 1841. See also Folmsbee et al.,
Short History, p. 201.
[20] For examples see ibid., October 14, 1840: "In Knoxville on the 8th inst.
by Rev. Isaac Lewis, Sterling G. Murphey, printer, of this place, to Miss
Susan E. Atkin, daughter of Widow Emily H. Atkin"; ibid., May 1, 1867:
"Married at the residence of the bride's father, Monday, the 27th of April,
by Rev. Thomas H. Pearne, D.D., Esq., to Miss Mary, daughter of Gov.
w.g. [sic.] Brownlow"; and with a political touch, ibid., September 30,
1840: "In Kingsport, Sullivan County, on Tuesday the 22nd inst. by the
Rev. James McLin, Mr. James Armstrong, of this place, to Miss Margaret
W. Netherland, of Kingsport. All for Harrison, Tyler and reform."
�"Cry aloud-Spare not; show my people their transgressions,
and the house of Jacob their sins."-Scripture
Chapter No. 4
THREE BRAWLERS OF DESTINY
William G. Brownlow entered the 1844 Presidential campaign exhilirated because the Whigs nominated his political idol, Senator
Henry Clay of Kentucky, for President. He had raised Clay's standard
on the editorial page of the Whig in the fall of 1841, soon after he
broke furiously with President Tyler. For months thereafter as he
flogged Tyler he exalted Clay. The Democrats nominated the Tennessee favorite son for President, James K. Polk, whom Brownlow
had fought unsuccessfully in his first year as editor, 1839. But in 1841
and 1843 the Whigs defeated Polk with James G. (Lean Jimmy)
Jones, a rail-like creature with only a moderate knowledge of public
affairs but who possessed an uncanny ability to attract the rural
electorate. When Polk ran against Jones the second time the former
was burdened by the obstructionist record of "The Immortal Thirteen," a group of Democratic senators who blocked the election of
two United States senators. This action left Tennessee unrepresented
for two years rather than let Whigs serve there. They also rejected
important items of Governor Jones' program. Public opinion set in
against the Democrats, a trend the talented Polk could not
reverse. [ 1 ]
But in 1844 Polk's political fortunes boomed nationally as he won
the Democratic nomination for President. The Whig now had a
quiver full of reasons to exalt Clay and to oppose Polk, along with its
record of supporting one and opposing the other. Brownlow produced early in 1844 a book to promote the interests of Clay, the
Whig Party and, of course, the author himself. It was entitled A
Political Register, Setting Forth the Principles of the Whig and Locofoco Parties in the United States, with the Life and Public Service of
Henry Clay. Also an Appendix Personal to the Author; and a General
Index. The book contained 350 pages and apparently sold on a
modest scale, for just before the Civil War the Whig shop offered it
56
�THREE BRAWLERS OF DESTINY
57
for the original price of $1.00 postage paid. Brownlow dedicated the
book to Governor Jones. [2] The Parson campaigned in every direction. He filled the Whig with Clay songs; he was a delegate to the
Baltimore convention where the Whigs nominated Clay. On his way
to Baltimore he made several speeches, including one at Raleigh
where the Register was delighted with "the way he did curry the
Locofocos," and the Standard found his talk "smutty, ultra, insulting and blasphemous." When Brownlow heard Clay speak at Raleigh
on April 13, 1844, it was as if the stars had clasped hands in ecstasy
and danced across applauding heavens. The Kentuckian spoke for
two hours and fifteen minutes, then "closed his able-aye-his
omnipotent Address." [ 3]
The Parson was in a state of exhiliration, for in addition to his zest
in campaigning for Clay he could boast that the circulation of his
newspaper had reached between 2,000 and 3,000, the largest weekly
circulation in the state. He defied his Jonesboro critics to do anything about his policies: "We edit and publish a newspaper for the
benefit of our subscribers, and not for the town of Jonesborough.
The two thousand subscribers to whom we send our paper, beyond
the limits of the county, expect us to give them the news, and in
doing so, to give them the truth, without consulting the wishes of a
few selfish persons in this town." His exuberance led him to announce that when he moved the Whig into quarters formerly
occupied by the Tennessee Sentinel the office was cleansed by fresh
air, the application of lime to the walls and the singing of Clay songs
by the Clay Club. [4] His conviction that his policy of piling invective and colorful abuse on as many adversaries as he could find
was the road to success and grew so strong that in closing his fifth
volume he flung out this tart observation:
We never can consent to conduct a paper that won't say any thing on any
subject calculated to offend any body, provided truth warrant it, and the public
interest require it. Such a tame, quiet and contemptible print is a curse to
any community, an injury to any party, and can never be conducted by the
Editor of this paper (Whig, May 1, 1844).
He boasted of his accuracy as a reporter, and attributed some of the
rapid growth of the Whig to "the confidence the public repose in our
statement of facts." He then proceeded to ice the slice of cake that
he had cut for himself with the statement that in the five years in
which he had been battling political foes, "never, in all that time
�58
CHAPTER NO.4
have we been found to deviate from the truth," a statement to which
his enemies surely took exception. And "severity" having proved
such a boon to circulation, he promised more of it. [5]
The Tennessee Whigs fought so vigorously that they beat Polk in
his home state by 113 votes, but the rest of the nation provided him
with sufficient ballots to defeat Clay by an electoral vote of 170 to
105. Brownlow was crushed, but in the midst of catastrophe his
unquenchable sense of humor flashed out this advice to his fellows
who came to him to learn the outcome:
We reply, once for all, that you are beat, badly beat, and no mistake. And for
those of you who took an active part in the contest, we are really sorry, for
judging from your looks you must feel bad. You had better be neutral in politics, as we are, and when your party meets with defeat, you can bear it as we
do, with good grace.
To be serious, however, we are not of those, who, after meeting with a
Waterloo defeat, tum about and say we expected to be beaten, and had no hope
of success. We have never been worse deceived in our lives. We had no idea of
defeat, but, up to the melancholy hour of hearing from New York, we had every
confidence in the success of our favorite candidate. We now confess, to all the
world, that we have been the worst deceived man who ever gave an opinion
relative to a coming event. We are now so perfectly astounded at the result that
we know not what to·say, or where to begin our remarks.[6]
Brownlow drew some comfort from the Whig vote in Tennessee, in
which the electorate rejected the efforts of Polk and his mentor,
Andrew Jackson, both men of political stature. The fight was bitter
and harsh, for "in every town almost in Tennessee, has Mr. Clay been
hung and burnt in effigy ... Verily, the victory here is greater than
any ever achieved in the civilized world; and the people, in voting as
they have have passed a verdict upon the 10,000 lies perpetrated by
the Locofocos upon the fair name of Mr. Clay." Defeat for Brownlow had been routine. He philosophized: "In five Presidential contests, we have never been on the successful side but once. And in
twenty years, we have never lived but one month under an Administration of our choice." [7]
So sure was Brownlow that Clay would win that early in the year
he had offered his Whig to Democrats on a seven-month basis, the
subscriber to pay the money when, not if, Clay was elected, Two
hundred people accepted this proposal and won. The editor woefully
announced: "They will receive this week, their last number on that
�THREE BRAWLERS OF DESTINY
59
score, along with this, our receipt in full, for their payments, which
have been made through the ballot-box with interest." The Parson,
who never gambled, then was indicted for betting on an election. He
accused Haynes of being behind the true bill. The State Supreme
Court, sitting at Knoxville, advised judges and lawyers that this did
not constitute a law violation, and the charge was wiped out by a
directed verdict. [8]
The pangs of the 1844 defeat seemed to feed the Parson's resolution to carry the Whig banner, no matter how desperate the cause,
for by midsummer of the following year he was the nominee for
Congress. His opponent was the crafty and indomitable Andrew
Johnson who was seeking re-election after serving his first term in the
United States House of Representatives from the First Congressional
District. Johnson was a member of the Tennessee Senate in 1842,
when the General Assembly passed a redistricting bill that changed
the political complexion of the First from Whig to Democrat, shifting the balance in his favor. Johnson was accused of having contrived
to give the district a Democratic majority, [9 1 although his record
shows that he voted against the bill that became law. During this
session he also was one of "The Immortal Thirteen," a point which
Brownlow utilized in his statement of principles at the campaign
opening. [10]
Johnson had demonstrated his skill as a politician in 1843 when he
stood off the aristocratic wing of the party in his district, which had
recoiled at the thought of sending a tailor to Congress, and won the
nomination. [11] The Whigs, disheartened at what gerrymandering
had done to their prospects, failed to nominate. Brownlow, faced
with the prospect of supporting a Democrat or no one, because
Johnson's only adversary was John A. Aiken of Johnson's own
party, engaged in political buffoonery. Much earlier the Parson had
predicted Democrats would carry the district, and expressed the
hope that they would choose Johnson, because he "is mean, corrupt,
selfish, and notoriously reckless," and added, "The leaders of his
party in this district, all hate him, because he is in their way. This is
the true secret of their hate, and for this reason alone, we hope he
will be the nominee." Three weeks later he offered another backhanded reason for supporting Johnson: "Aiken is a much more
genteel man than Johnson, but we want the Locos to have the next
Congress, and to go the whole dog against the interests of the
country. Aiken would not do this, while Johnson would, which
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CHAPTER NO. 4
explains our preference." Next, Brownlow wrote of Johnson: "We
are sorry that we stand committed to his support [sic.], he is such a
notorious demagogue. But what better can we do. Colonel Aiken is
also a Democrat!" The Whig switched to Aiken when Johnson denied
Brownlow's charge, an unsubstantiated one, that a cousin of his,
Madison Johnson, had been hanged at Raleigh, North Carolina, for
murder and robbery. He decided to abandon Johnson, saying, "It is
bad enough to have mean kin, but it is much worse to deny
them."[12]
The Parson's clowning ended with Johnson's election as he ex~
ploded: "God of compassion! What could the people have been
thinking of when they elected this huge mass of corruption to Con~
gress!-this beast in human form, whose violence and rule of passion,
vicious life and unprovided death, alone qualify him to serve as one
of the body guards of Belzebub! [sic.]" (Whig, December 13, 1843).
The reason for Brownlow's race against Johnson two years later
remains obscure. When the Whigs nominated the Parson he published
an extra (Whig, June 25, 1845), containing a statement that was part
clowning, part self-ridicule, but an acceptance, along with an admission that he had said he would never declare for public office:
But the sovereign people having met in their primary assemblies, without my
knowledge or consent, and having declared me to be their candidate, and avowed
their determination to vote for me at all hazards, I am too much of a patriot, too
warmly attached to the interest of my country, to decline serving them, to the
best of my abilities, if elected, as I in all probability will be! (Whig, June 25,
1845, Extra).
He had expected some such honor for years, "And although I have
never complained, yet I will not disguise the fact that I considered
public opinion a little slow in its movements toward me." Election
would add nothing to his character and fame, but "I, will greatly
adorne [sic.] the office of a representative in the American Congress!
The truth is, [think me not egotistic] I am well and favorably
known, from the lakes of Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico, and to
upper Missouri." He might even be nominated for President in 1848
(Ibid.).
Perhaps Brownlow wrote as he did to get attention; perhaps it was
a shaft against the scores of affected, trite, stuffy and pompous
acceptances he had read or heard in his career. He must have sent
laughter rolling across the district, and furthered his reputation-and
�THREE BRAWLERS OF DESTINY
61
circulation-for doing the unpredictable. But his tone was deadly
serious when he issued a statement of his principles ten days later. It
was set in wide measure, some of it in 12-point type, much of it in
blackface. It occupied the front page of the Whig of July 16, 1845,
and spilled over to the next page. He condensed his Whig principles
in a first paragraph, opened up on Johnson's record in Congress, then
touched upon one of the most heated aspects of the campaign,
Brownlow's editorial upon the death of Andrew Jackson, printed
shortly after the editor's nomination (Whig, July 16, 1845]. It opened thus:
After a life of eighty long years, spent in the indulgence of the most bitter
and vindictive passions, which disgrace human nature, and distract the human
mind, the existence of Andrew Jackson terminated, at his residence near Nashville, on Sabbath the 8th inst., at 6 o'clock P.M. We were not prepared to hear of
his death, because for every few weeks in the year, for the last five years, we
have noticed a letter in the paper, from him to "Dear Blair" or some one else, in
which, he would speak at length of his failing health ... each letter seeming to
be the last (Whig, June 16, 1845).
During Jackson's last days he had permitted himself to be surrounded by associates who employed themselves in "stirring the
embers of his dying resentments and depraved vindictiveness which
made his heart, through a long career in life, a volcano of furious and
ungovernable passions!" The Parson considered the elevation of Jackson to the Presidency as "the greatest curse that ever befell this
nation," and laid to his administration all the evils besetting the
country. He closed with this prediction on the destination of the
"mock Hero's" soul:
But he is "gone to a land of deepest shades," and we are willing to take our
leave of him. He has passed out of our hands, into the hands of a just God, who
will deal with him and by him "according to his works." We would not, if even
we could, tum aside the veil of the future, to show his deluded followers, and
blind admirers, what awaits him! (Ibid.).
The Parson's announcement for Congress noted:
The mourning and sighing of Mr. Johnson over an obituary notice of Gen.
Jackson in my paper of the 17th of June, as he reads it to the people, is equalled
only by the lamentations of jeremiah, on a much more important occasion!-I
take back nothing I said in that article, and I said nothing that I did not most
conscientiously believe. I felt nothing on the occasion of hearing that Gen.
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CHAPTER NO. 4
Jackson was dead: neither regret nor satisfaction-neither pleasure nor pain. Had
I said that I regretted his death, or venerated the man, I would have played the
hypocrite; I am too honest and too candid to display the outward badge of a
mourning which is not felt in my heart (Whig, July 16, 1845 ).
Typographically the Whig gave Jackson the printer's salute and
final tribute-the turned rules, dividing the columns of type with
heavy black lines, compared with the standard thin lines (Whig, June
16, 1845). Brownlow's obituary editorial was a singular prelude to a
campaign by a Whig in a Democratic district. If Brownlow designed it
to attract the votes of the many anti-Jackson Democrats, it may have
had the opposite effect, for even in these days of atrocious personal
slurs it must have repelled some Jackson haters. It was probably born
of pure vindictiveness on the Parson's part, for it displayed no softening of his hatred. Aware of this, he reminded his readers that Johnson, on the floor of the Tennessee General Assembly, had denounced
Hugh Lawson White, a Whig Party saint, "'for a traitor,' a 'Federalist,' a 'viper and snake, who went out of this world, striking at
honest men and patriots!'" (Whig, July 16, 1845).
The Parson also found time and space to touch up Landon C.
Haynes, who was running for the state House of Representatives and
who had joined Johnson in condemning Brownlow for this editorial
on Jackson. He described the two as "This pair of villains ... shedding tears over our obituary notice of Gen. Jackson," and he worked
in another reminder of Haynes' youthful anti-} ackson articles. The
ugly tone of the campaign was further reflected in the reason Brownlow gave for not meeting Johnson on the stump, that on the first
time they faced each other the result would be a "personal difficulty." The Parson also directed at Haynes a lurid broadside in the
Whig, set up like an advertisement and run in a column adjoining
space purchased by merchants and tradesmen. It led off with
"Criminal Statistics! Landon C. Haynes," and artfully listed in large
black type these subheadings: "Stealing Corn," "Diseased Hog,"
"Campmeeting Confession," "Drunken Locofoco," "Expelled," and
"Flasehood and Slander." The Parson had some damaging facts in his
presentation, and the dress he gave it was masterfully vile. [ 13]
Haynes snapped back with a similar typographical gem, not as long
but which led off with Brownlow's conviction for libel in North
Carolina. He struck one blow that must have had a shattering effect
on Brownlow. It was a statement from his brother, A. S. Brownlow,
which read:
�THREE BRAWLERS OF DESTINY
63
I hereby certify, that after the difficulty between Col. Haynes and my
brother, Wm. G. Brownlow, in which the latter was wounded by the former, my
rother [sic.]
PRIVATELY
proposed to me that I should, by lying in wait at the forks of the road, 112 mile
East of Jonesboro, in the barrens, beyond widow Stuart's plantation, commit
MURDER
by the assassination of Landon C. Haynes.
A. S. BROWNLOW
Haynes added this brief oration over what he may have regarded as
the Parson's political and newspaper coffin:
Known to be monstrously corrupt, desperately wicked, a pest to society, a
common tattler, a shameless blackguard, an unblushing hypocrite, a deliberate
caluminator, a convicted libeller, we determined that the above libel, and certificate of his brother shall be an eternal answer to any personalities against us or
others by Wm. G. Brownlow.
L. C. HAYNES[14]
The Whig failed to collapse. The editor came back with an extra, the
lead article headed "A CALM ADDRESS, To the candid of all
parties." It was anything but calming in detailing the trail of circumstances that led to the signing of the certificate by the Parson's
brother. Alexander drank heavily and under the influence of alcohol
became quite dangerous. In one of these moments he had cruelly
assaulted R. M. Bishop, a Whig employee. T. A. R. Nelson, the attorney general, called for stiff punishment and the execution by the
defendant of a peace bond. Upon Alexander's promise to behave he
was fined $50.00 and directed to make a $500 bond. Alexander
failed to behave, made threats, was jailed. An arrangement was worked out under which two men went his bond, not that they were
interested in Alexander but that they saw in him an instrument with
which to torpedo the Parson. [ 15] The Whig's version was:
Democrats of this village taking advantage of the relations existing between
Alexander Brownlow and myself, and his unfortunate propensity to indulge in
the use of ardent spirits, first procured him to publish a false certificate againt
[sic.] me, and then kept him in pay to bully me, urging him to shoot me, and
furnishing him with a shot gun for the purpose, as he solemnly swears under
oath, in the hope that by falsehoods and misrepresentations, they might finally
urge him on to imbure [sic.] his hands in a brother's blood, while they would
�64
CHAPTER NO. 4
stand off, and with a fiendish delight and savage maliginity, enjoy the scene!(Whig, August 2, 1845, Extra).
Brownlow produced documents to support his story and came up
with one that was a reporting exploit, a bond behind a bond. This
hitherto secret instrument, signed by fifty-six men, indemnified the
two bondsmen of record for Alexander against having to put up the
$500 if he violated the bond. In this secret list of indemnifiers were
two men who made top pledges of $30.00 each if Alexander failed to
keep the terms. They were Landon C. Haynes and A. Johnson. [ 16]
The Parson then unloaded this fresh blast against his adversary:
ANDREW JOHNSON is my opponent for Congress, and on Monday of the late
Circuit Court, called for me when he had spoken, to come and defend myself,
and had my brother there intoxicated, to assault me with weapons, so soon as I
had appeared ! . . .
I may be murdered in my house in the dead hour of the night-my blood may
be most villainously shed, by those who watch my path by night, or lay in
weight [sic.] at noon day, but with my latest breath, I will expose these corruptions-1 will act upon my motto which is "cry aloud-spare not." And if attacked in day light by many or few, in an open and manly war I promise to fall,
if fall I must, with my feet and face to my foes! And for the support of a poor
and helpless family, I will trust to a kind Providence, and the magnanimity of a
party with whom I have acted long, and for whom I have labored hard.
Alexander made an affidavit that the certificate he had given Haynes
was false, signed when "I was kept continually in liquor and in a
situation to do anything I was called on to do." [ 17]
Johnson went back to Congress and Haynes was elected a state
representative. Brownlow sought consolation in the reflection he had
been beaten by 1,200 votes after a redistricting designed to give the
Democrats a district majority of 2,800. He had announced late, had
never left home, and "had no right to look for anything but defeat."
When the campaign was ended, Johnson gave Brownlow credit for
having made a dent in the often repeated charge that he was an
infidel. Because the believer accepts the existence of Satan along
with God, Johnson vowed he had demonstrated belief in the devil,
for he had actually campaigned against him. The Parson sought consolation in a different direction. He took himself and his family to
the Brush Creek Campground, where he found that out of nineteen preachers, only five were Locofocos. [18]
Three men and two newspapers that summer had fought a battle
�THREE BRAWLERS OF DESTINY
65
of vilification, a field in which all were eminently skilled. Yet out of
this verbal clawing and flinging of sewage emerged no litigation, civil
or criminal. They asked the courts for no redress, no prosecution for
assault, slander or libel. The people were their courts and in this
forum they fought for years.
An attempt to "moderate the Presses of this town [Jonesboro],
and to confine them within certain bounds!" was made in May of
1844, the presidential campaign year. A Vigilance Committee was
organized after the killing of a young saddle maker. The vigilantes
immediately drew Brownlow's fire: "We are advocates of law and
order, and have been waring [sic.] against the bad conduct of citizens
ever since we lived here. But we are for suppressing riots in a lawful
way." He accused the committee of favoring the wealthy and the
influential while terrorizing the poor and unimportant. His indignation flowed more furiously when he heard the vigilantes had developed a plan to gag both newspapers, a scheme in which he said
Haynes had acquiesced. Friends of the Whig immediately got word to
Brownlow that the real reason for such an arrangement was not to
restore peace and order but to silence his newspaper. The editor
moved swiftly:
We issued an Extra this morning after this high handed measure of dictation
was put on foot-informed the public generally, and our friends in particular,
that this was a villainous Locofoco movement-that their own Press was down,
had fought itself out of subscribers, character and influence, and that, now, its
party were [sic.] willing to send it to a "lower deep," if they could but send ours
with it.
Brownlow had also planned to give a further exposure of the plot
from a goods box on the public square, but when he was informed
that the movement had died after his revelation of it he cancelled his
appearance. In a letter to T. A. R. Nelson he revealed more details
than he did in the Whig. He told how the true purpose of the scheme
was conveyed to him and how threats of physical violence were made
to him as he sat in a store after publication of the extra by a lawyer
who "had with him six or eight Loco, cutting sticks with open
knives." [ 19]
Another effort to destroy the Whig followed the searing campaign
of 1845. Brownlow charged that the Democrats had discussed removing his printing equipment and tarring and feathering the editor and
possibly setting fire to him in this condition. The Whig delivered a
�66
CHAPTER NO.4
sermon on the evils of mob law, the low morals of Jonesboro, the
attempt to restrict the freedom of the press, and the increase of
crime, developments for which the Parson held the Democrats were
responsible. The Democrats were distressed because in winning they
had lost their best voices on the local scene. Johnson was going back
to Washington, as they had expected, but the fiery Haynes was leaving his post as editor of the Tennessee Sentinel to go to the legislature. He made his farewell in five and one-half columns of type
which Brownlow described as "consisting mostly of abuse of
us."[20] The faltering Democratic newspaper lasted into June 1846.
The lusty Whig survived. [21]
As December 1845 arrived the Parson felt the sharp teeth of a foe
so powerful that he wrote of it with awe, without a trace of railing:
Truly, the last month of Autumn is gone, and stern old Winter is here! It is a
monster without a head, and cannot think; it has no heart and cannot feel; it
moves but in wrath; it pauses to exult over its work of destruction;-and if for a
moment it stops in its flight, it is to whet its frozen beak on some cold mountainside, for more sanguinary destruction! (Whig, December 10, 1845).
The summer had been hot, campaigners spit hatred against each
other while the sun joined to broil their bodies. But now congealing
cold had settled upon the earth and encompassed all human creatures
with its icy claws, except when they could flee to the warmth of a
fireplace, or sink deep into the softness of a feather bed. However
much the Parson's body may have been chilled as he sat writing in
the drafty print shop, in his heart burned a gentle, worshipful glow,
and the pen that had all but scorched the paper as he consigned his
enemies to hell, scratched out a reverent Christmas editorial, the
nearest to a sermon which has been preserved among his writings:
Tomorrow is Christmas Day. Tomorrow, churches will be crowded, altars
illuminated-and bells will sound joyfully.-Throngs of worshipers in the Greek,
Syrian, Armenian, Roman and English churches will march up to their altars
to-morrow, and, according to the forms of their respective churches, worship the
God in whom they profess to believe, and to whom they expect to give an
account for the deeds done in the body-at least such of them as believe in
rewards and punishments, after death. Meanwhile, another and a still more numerous class of human beings, will on to-morrow, be engaged in serving the Devil
at a rate and after a fashion, that will make Heaven weep, all good men sorrow·
ful and Hell shout for joy!
Eighteen hundred years ago, and upwards, a poor Babe was born in a Stable,
�THREE BRAWLERS OF DESTINY
67
in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and a few lonely Sheperds [sic.] heard heavenly
voices, warbling over the moonlit hills so softly, proclaiming "peace on earth, and
good will towards men." Earth--cold hearted earth, made no response to the
chorus; either from the want of proper feeling, or because it delighted in the entertainment of angels unawares. The former, we should say, because when the HoLY
ONE came among the inhabitants of the earth, they mocked and crucified him.
But now, the stars in their midnight course listen to millions of human voices
and deep organ tones soaring upwards, vainly striving to express the hopes and
aspirations, which that advent concentrated from the past, and prophesied for
the future. From East to West, from Nor [sic] to South, men of every age and
station chant hymns of praise to the despised and crucified Nazariue [sic] and
kneel and worship in honor of his cross. How beautiful is this universal homage
to the Prince of Peace! Now, however little delight a corrupt and darkened world
may take in the mercy of Christ's divine perfections, how small soever the
enjoyment it yields them, to contemplate the untainted glory of Christ; how
insipid the things of salvation may be to an earthly understanding; however this
great theme of redemption may fall upon the heavy ears of a listless world
without making any impression; the Bible tells us that the sinless spirits that
surround Christ's throne, who are transported with all the ecstasy of an overwhelming affection, and lend themselves in rapturous adoration at the shrine of
infinite and unspotted purity; and behold with heavenly fascination that moral
beauty, which throws a softening lustre over the awful grandeur of a crucified
and risen Saviour! Well may adoring millions-aye, myriads, gaze upon this
Redeemer-stretching all their faculties, and bending their eyes toward the
throne, which has the firm pillars of immutability to rest upon, linked with the
fulfillment of Christ's glorious promise to man! This is the divine idea which
distinguishes ours from all other religions. See the wonder working Saviour, who
has strewed the field of immensity with so many worlds, and spread the shelter
of his omnipotence over them-see the everlasting Son, moving from his dwellingplace in heaven, to carry forward this scheme of redemption; through all the
difficulties by which it is encompassed! 0 Christ! Thou are great in counsel!
Thou art the wonderful counseller! [sic.]
Centuries have passed, and through infinite conflict have "ushered in our
brief tomorrow;"-and is there peace and good will among men? Sincere faith in
the words of Christ would soon fulfil [sic.] the prophecy which the angels sung.
But the world persists in its sinful course-the same course which bound the
Saviour [sic.] down to the burthen of this mysterious antonement ....
Those who dare to trust the principles of Christianity have always found
them perfectly safe. They can never prove otherwise. If all nations could but
attain to such high wisdom and faith, they would abjure war and proclaim peace
�CHAPTER NO.4
68
and good will towards all men . . . The world has been deluged with arguments
about war, slavery, democracy, commerce &t., and the wisest product of them
all, is simply an enlightened application of the principles of Christ. His doctrines
are not beautiful abstractions, but living vital truths . . . Like the algebraic x
they stand for the unknown quantity, and if rightly consulted always give the
true answer (Whig, December 24, 1845).
The Parson was a man of many moods.
CHAPTER IV NOTES
[ 1) Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 207; Whig, September 6, 1841; Folmsbee
et al., Short History, pp. 202-205; Whig, February 9, November 16, 1842,
July 3, June 12, May 15, 1844.
[ 2) Ibid., January 17, 1844, March 3, 1860. Copies of the book now bring
from $50.00 to $80.00. Prices were furnished by John Dobson, Special
Collections librarian, University of Tennessee.
[ 3) Whig, April 3, 24, May 1, 8, April 24, 1844.
[ 4) Ibid., May 22, 29, September 4, 1844.
[ 5) Ibid., May 1, 8, 1844.
( 6) Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 208; Whig, November 20, 1844. Early in
the spring Brownlow was convinced that Clay would win, writing, "I never
saw Clay look better than at present. He is better calculated to make votes
before a crowd than any man I ever saw try it," and "The Locofoco Party
are [sic.) perfectly disbanded and they (sic.) acknowledge it. They (sic.) are
a gone party and intend to tell all they [sic.) know on each other, and that is
not a little!" Brownlow to Nelson, April 20, May 13, 1844. Nelson Papers.
[ 7) Whig, November 20, 1844.
[ 8] Ibid., February 14, November 20, 1844, October 1, 29, 1845.
[ 9] Ibid., July 16 extra, June 25, 1845; Temple, Notable Men, pp. 62,
216-217; Acts of Tennessee, 1852, Special Session, Chapter VII, p. 22.
[10) Senate journal, 1842, Special Session, pp. 181-182. The 1842 act reapportioning the congressional districts did not entirely suit the Whigs, but
they accepted it rather than let the state go unredistricted. The Parson
acknowledged that the measure would give the Democrats a 700 majority
in the First District, but his outcry was not strident. Whig, November 2 3,
1842. Johnson was responsible for the legislation, but no reason is offered
as to why he voted against it. LeRoy P. Graf and Ralph Haskins, eds., The
Papers of Andrew johnson, 4 vols. to date, I, xxvi. A contemporary of
Johnson's, who also ran against him, described him as having maneuvered
the redistricting, but does not mention the opposition vote. Notable Men,
pp. 62, 216-217. See also Whig, July 16, 1845; Folmsbee et al., Short
History, p. 204.
[11) Temple, Notable Men, p. 62; Robert W. Winton, Plebian and Patriot (New
�THREE BRAWLERS OF DESTINY
69
York, 1928), p. 42; Whig, April 5, December 18, 1843.
[12) Ibid., April 5, 26, May 3, 10, 1843.
[13] Ibid., July 16, and thereafter through October 1, 1845.
[14) Tennessee Sentinel, July 19, 1845. Newspaper miscellany on microfilm,
McClung Collection. See also newspaper miscellany, not on microfilm,
McClung Collection.
[15) Whig, August 2, 1845, extra.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid., July 5, 1851.
[18) Ibid., August 20, 27, 1845. Temple estimated the First District gerry·
mandering gave the Democrats a majority of 1500. Temple, Notable Men,
p. 378.
[19) Whig, May 29, 1845; Brownlow to Nelson, May 29, 1845, hand delivered
to Nelson at Rogersville. Nelson Papers.
[20) Whig, September 10, 17, October 10,1845.
[21] Lawson and Francis Gifford announced that after "ten years of vigilance
and struggle," the Tennessee Sentinel would be discontinued. Old Hickory,
Jonesboro, June 1, 1846. The Giffords sold their interest to William H.
Smith who operated the newspaper under the name of Old Hickory and
Hickory State Herald before abandoning the field to the Whig. Paul M.
Fink, "The Early Press of Jonesboro," ETHS PURL. No. 10, November
1938, p. 65.
�"Cry aloud-Spare not; show my people their transgressions,
and the house of Jacob their sins."-Scripture
Chapter No. 5
THE JONESBORO YEARS
Parson Brownlow was licking the wounds inflicted by Andrew
Johnson in their congressional race when he came upon an exciting
new controversy, this time in the denominational field. He heard a
debate in Sullivan County between the Rev. Frederick A. Ross, Presbyterian, and the Rev. William H. Rogers, Methodist, upon the argument of Ross that "The doctrine of the Direct Witness of the Spirit,
as taught by the Rev. john Wesley, was false, unscriptural, fanatical,
and of evil or mischievous tendency." The preachers volleyed at each
other from 10:00 a.m. until sundown, and the discussion must have
been stimulating for 2,000 heard the speakers out, and a friend of
Ross' asked Brownlow the cost of having 2,500 copies of the debate
printed (Whig, August 20, 1845).
The Presbyterian Church, alarmed at the growth of Methodism,
had undertaken to counter its spiritual rival by reviving the Calvinistic Magazine, formerly published at Rogersville, Tennessee, but now
issued at Abingdon, Virginia. In Ross they found a competent
spokesman for their cause in pulpit and in print. He was a wealthy
and philanthropic landowner and manufacturer, with a fine education. Ross, along with James King, James McChain, and Isaac Anderson, founder of the seminary at Maryville, were editors, but Ross
carried the burden of the fight against the Methodists. The Presbyterian campaign was a general one, approved by the Tennessee Synod
and justified:
For the previous twelve years, the Methodists had been allowed a clear field to
abuse and misrepresent Presbyterians ... almost nothing had been done, during
this period, to refute these slanders and disabuse the public mind of these representations ... Methodists were still pursuing this course of abuse, misrepresentation and proselytism and were spreading through this region of the country a
vast amount of fanaticism and false religion. I 11
70
�THE JONESBORO YEARS
71
Methodist preachers, their guns already hot, replied at once from
the pulpit, and the church established at Knoxville its own organ, the
Methodist Episcopalian. It was edited by the Rev. Samuel Patton,
Brownlow's friend. [2] The Whig editor could not resist such an inviting controversy, although for his forum he relied solely on the pulpit.
He used his newspaper to announce a list of six appointments at
which he would reply to Ross in a speech of three hours. But, with
the exception of an outline of his position, he promised to keep the
controversy out of the Whig (Whig, December 9, 1846), and made
this uncharacteristic condition:
To the idle statements of certain personal enemies of mine, relative to my
abuse of Mr. Ross and the Presbyterians, I shall pay no sort of attention. Abuse
of Mr. Ross or of the Presbyterian Church is no answer to his grave charges
against the Methodist Church. Beside, I show that Rossism is one thing, and
Presbyterianism another.-I shall introduce my addresses on these several occasions, as I did in September, by stating that Mr. Ross is a gentleman in private
life-an obliging neighbor-a scholar-and a Minister of the first order of talents
in the Church to which he belongs (Ibid.).
The contest grew more heated, a development to be expected with
Brownlow on one side. Neither did Ross contribute to a calm, dispassionate discussion, for while he did not single out individuals for
scurrility, his indictments of the Methodists were harsh and insulting.
He charged them with having copied some of the practices of the
Roman Catholic Church, described the intimate class meetings as
"the swap of sins," and likened them to the confessional. Protestant
Methodists were infuriated at being likened to Roman Catholics, but
Ross went a step further. He hinted at something beneath delicacy as
women at these meetings examined each other of their fleshly temptations. [ 3] His language was colorful, as shown in this passage as he
sized up Roman Catholicism, the Church of England, and the
Methodists:
Old Romanism is too gross as yet for this land, and our people are aroused to
abhor and watch it. High Church Episcopacy is a thing of exclusiveness, and has
no affinities for the people, and will hurt none but the select few, who may rely
upon sacrements [sic.] and genuflections. But this Young Romanism has not the
geegaws, and paint, we see upon the drunken grandmother. Nor has she the oldfashioned headgear, the smirking fan, the stays, the hoops, the satin-spangled
train, and the high-heeled shoes of the Puseyite mother of England. [4]
�72
CHAPTER NO.5
A dozen years earlier in Helps to the Study of Presbyterianism
Brownlow had accused this denomination of grasping for temporal
power. Ross now accused the Methodists of moving in that direction:
Animated by two great controlling principles-the fanatical and the political . ..
the fanatical Methodist acts supremely for Methodism. He is honest; he would
die for Methodism heartily, if the convenient doctrine of falling from grace did
not teach him the folly of dying for his religion. The political Methodist, may be
free from fanaticism. Then he goes just for himself. He may not care a straw for
Methodism. He may be a Methodist to sell a yard of calico, or to buy votes to
make him constable, clerk, sheriff, member of Assembly or Congress. Another
may, however, be very much a Methodist as well as a politician. He will, of
course, be swayed by the one or the other impulse according to expediency.
Now you may see him all for the camp-meeting altar, the groan and the shout.
Now all for the ballot-box, while hugging a voter round the neck at the Whiskey
barrel. (5]
The Parson tried to keep the controversy out of the Whig. He extended his speech to more than four hours and resorted to a separate
publication devoted to Ross, the jonesborough Quarterly Review. In
a few months he shifted it to the jonesborough Monthly Review,
with a promise it would be "less smutty than our Quarterly has
been."[6] The Parson reflected Methodist resentment of Ross' slur
on the sexually exciting nature of the questions posed in the class
meetings of women. He stormed that Ross "represents 'every married
woman and single girl' in the Methodist Church, who attends these
meetings, as liable to be seduced by Methodist Preachers-Class and
Band Leaders." [7]
The injection of a political issue intensified the fight. At Athens in
October 1846 the Synod of the New School Presbyterian Church
officially approved Ross' course and his writings. It also took a
further step that raised hackles on Methodists. It called on the bench
and bar to "unite with the opposition to Methodism to put it down,
and to do it away now, because it is 'dangerous to civil and religious
liberties,' and 'death to all the institutions for which Washington bled
and freemen died.' " The Methodist response was sharp. The quar
terly conference of the Jonesboro Circuit, with Brownlow officiating
as secretary, passed resolutions that defended the church, called on
all Methodists to abstain from communion at the hands of any
preacher who had taken part in the synod's action at Athens, and
demanded the names of lawyers who made donations to "what is
�THE JONESBORO YEARS
73
called the secret fund for putting down Methodism." Thirty-seven
preachers and laymen, who met at the Stone Dam Campground of
the Rheatown Circuit on September 21, 1847, went on record "that
in future we cannot and will not support men for offices of honor
and profit who endorses [sic] Mr. Ross' slanders, or who agree with
him, that the Civil authorities of the country should interpose their
power and influence to put us down." The quarterly conference of
the Greenville Circuit adopted similar resolutions. [8)
Because the quarrel was now on the political level the Parson flung
the Whig into the controversy. He protested that the Methodists had
not followed religious affiliations in their political choices.
But how are matters and things, in those quarters, whence come all these
complaints? Who have charge of all the public Colleges, Academies, and Schools
in the Country? Who force upon these institutions their Presidents and Professors? Who have monopolized all the Common School funds in the Country?Who fill all the Clerkships in the several counties? Who are the Sheriffs? Who are
the Registers and Trustees of the Counties? Generally speaking they are our
Presbyterian friends, placed there with the aid of Methodist votes; when, as all
know, their own friends and brethren were just as capable. If the county is Whig,
Presbyterian Whigs fill the offices. If the county be Democratic Presbyterian
Democrats fill the offices. In either, and every case, it is a Presbyterian triumph!
And now that the Methodists, who are greatly in the majority, propose to divide
the spoils with them, a great hue and cry is raised against them (Whig, November
10, 1847).
By midsummer of 1848 Brownlow had returned to a more normal
role and trained upon Ross this diatribe:
We tell all whom it may concern that he is deficient in all that constitutes
a man, except it be in talents alone, and his are certainly respectable. But what is
he in principle? He is a vituperative and envenomed slanderer. He is a hypocrite
in religion. He is a heartless and dishonest knave, who can now, only be regarded
with feelings of the deepest detestation. A spendthrift, he had brought his family
to the verge of poverty and want. A blackguard, he has become hateful in the
eyes of those who once regarded him as trying to conduct himself prudently. An
adulterer, he has polluted the marriage bed with the refuse of the common stew.
A liar, a coward and a common slanderer, known and recognized as such, here in
Tennessee where he resides [sic I it will soon be esteemed a disgrace to be
thought of as his friend (Whig, June 21, 1848).
The brawling wore wearily to an end. Brownlow published his last
�74
CHAPTER NO. 5
Review in April 1849 and moved on to new controversies in Knoxville. The Calvinistic Magazine made its last appearance in December
1850. Ross was ruined financially. He had lost his large fortune in
unsuccessful manufacturing ventures and was reduced to preaching
for a living. Out of his own funds he had built a brick church at
Kingsport and preached there for thirty years without salary. After
leaving Kingsport he preached for a number of years at Huntsville,
Alabama. [9]
The Whig editor's quarrel with Ross brought a temporary coolness
between Brownlow and his old friend, Thomas A. R. Nelson, who
was an elder in Ross' church. The difference arose over a contribution by Nelson to help finance Ross' pamphlet on the direct witness of the spirit. It was aired in letters published in the Whig, rather
stiff, but moderate for the times, and Brownlow later revealed that
Nelson had written Ross a letter in which he objected to his reflections on Methodist women and girls and his wholesale condemnation
of Methodists. [ 10]
The denominational war had fallen short of being lethal, but on
the battlefields of Mexico, Americans were suffering wounds and
death. The Whig laid the responsibility for the conflict on President
Polk and his pledge to annex Texas. Annexation took place in March
1846 and war began in May. Brownlow charged that Polk had
brought on the war by sending General Zachary Taylor with troops
into disputed territory. Yet he called for unstinted support of military action, once fighting began, because "whether it is a just or an
unjust war, it is the duty of all good citizens, and patriots, to engage
heartily in the defense of their country." The Parson travelled the
countryside urging men to volunteer, but his Protestant soul recoiled
when Roman Catholics were appointed chaplains for some military
units. When a company was raised by Hezekiah Bayless as captain
and William G. Brownlow as first lieutenant, it bore the name of
"Protestant Invincibles." It was tendered to the state with the stipulation it must have no Roman Catholics as its chaplains. This condition barred acceptance of the unit, but the "Invincibles" continued
to function at home. Lieutenant Brownlow made a speech at a drill
muster, and the company paraded in uniform at Jonesboro on July
4, 1846. The editor placed such importance on war news that he
permitted it to crowd out advertisements which he carried in an
extra the following day. [ 11]
Brownlow did not make it to the war front, but a bullet whistled
�THE JONESBORO YEARS
75
near his head in Knoxville as he helped quell a brawl among soldiers
from his area who were waiting for boats to transport them on the
Tennessee River. During the struggle a pistol was fired and the bullet
missed the Parson's head from one to three inches. He accompanied
the two companies to New Orleans and sent back correspondence.
The East Tennesseeans set foot on Mexican soil after the peace treaty
was signed on February 2, 1848.[12]
The Parson had declared himself "ready to sustain our Government in any and every crisis which concerns the integrity of our Soil,
or the honor of our Flag, -no matter who may preside over the
Nation, or however wicked and corrupt may be our rules." But he let
his readers know he believed the war had cost too much in dollars
and in lives. The Whig nominee for governor in 1847, Neill S. (Lean)
Brown attacked Polk's conduct of the war. He defeated the incumbent, Aaron V. (Fat) Brown, who defended the national administration's course. Whigs also gained control of the legislature.
Brownlow chastised the General Assembly, Whig though it was,
for delaying for more than six weeks in the election of a United
States senator and in other business: "I am sorry to say that little else
than drunkeness, profane swearing, lewdness, logrollings and downright corruption has been attended to by a majority of both political
parties." He relented some when John Bell, who had been United
States representative, was elected to the senate. But upon the
assembly's adjournment he found the members had been "reckless,
profligate, and unworthy," and had failed to do anything to establish
"an efficient system of common schools, so much needed and so
ardently desired by all the wise and good."[14]
The 1848 presidential campaign saw Brownlow in one of the most
unusual political positions of his career. Late in the spring of 184 7 he
again had posted Henry Clay's name at the top of his editorial page
as his choice for President, and with a bow to the Mexican war hero
he put up General Zachary Taylor's name for Vice-President. It was
not in Brownlow to desert Clay, although he recognized Taylor's
vote appeal, for a month earlier he had written: "The war was provoked with a view to make a Democratic President, in 1848; but let
it terminate as it may, it has made a Whig President of old Zach
Taylor!" The general had just won the battle of Buena Vista. Brownlow saw a basic objection to Taylor in the general's statement: "I
cannot in any case permit myself to be brought before the people
exclusively by any one of the political parties that now so unfortu-
�76
CHAPTER NO. 5
nately divide our country, as their candidate for office." When
Taylor later defined his position as that of a Whig, Brownlow retorted: "He avows himself a Whig, but he still does not suit us. He
says he is not an ultra but a moderate Whig. We are ultras, and we
want ultra for our candidate." He dropped Taylor's name from his
masthead in the fall of 1847, [ 15] and on the eve of the Whig
National Convention he served notice:
Should GEN. TAYLOR be the standard bearer of the party, we will not support
him, because we have no confidence in the man. Meanwhile, we cannot and will
not favor the election of GENERAL CASS for in doing so, we should lend our
support to principles ruinous to our country, and against which we have fought
all our days ... We shall continue Whig however, and publish a newspaper, in
which we will advocate what we believe to be right, and oppose what we believe
to be wrong (Whig, June 7, 1848).
The Democrats nominated Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan. When the
Whigs nominated Taylor with Millard Fillmore as his running mate,
Brownlow set out one condition under which he would go along: If
we had any assurance that Taylor would die as soon as he is elected,
and Mr. Fillmore would take his place, we would be willing to
support the ticket. As it is we will not. Yet he forecast Taylor's
election. [ 16]
Brownlow had seen death take a hand in the disposition of political affairs. When his favorite, William Henry Harrison, died soon
after taking office as President, he was succeeded by John Tyler,
whom Brownlow detested. When the Parson offered this macabre
condition for the support of the Whig ticket in 1848, he surely had
no premonition that Taylor would die in a little more than a year
after his inauguration and Fillmore would become chief executive.
Yet it turned out that way.
The role Brownlow had assumed brought a flood of letters. He
printed two out of the hundred and one he had received by August,
then set out his position in detail:
We will not array ourselves directly against Gen. Taylor, because he is the
nominee of the party of which we are a humble member, and with which we
have so long acted; because the leaders of that party believe he can be induced to
administer the government on true Whig principles; and because there is associated with him, on the same ticket, one of the very first men in this nation, of
his age and experience, to wit, MILLARD FILLMORE, of New York. We will
not vote for Gen. Taylor, or any set of Electors who will cast their votes for
�THE JONESBORO YEARS
77
him-because he has refused to identify himself with the party to which we
belong; because he has refused to endorse the principles of the party with which
we act-a party, we believe, holding the most orthodox principles of any party in
existence, because we will not be bullied into the support of a candidate who has
attempted to run rough shod over all parties, and last, but not least, because we
will not sanction the trampling under the heel of a military boot, a long and
tried statesman, a patriot, and the champion of our party, who was the choice of
the Whig people, though not of the Whig leaders. We are not in an awkward
position, as some suppose, having committed ourselves in a moment of excitement, by hasty writing. What we have said and done, we have said and done
deliberately (Whig, August 2, 1848).
His decision may not have been hasty but it was undoubtedly caused
by his emotional loyalty to Henry Clay, for he launched into praise
of the Kentuckian, extended and lavish. It was not in Brownlow's
soul to forgive any man for standing in the way of Clay's progress to
higher political station. On the same page of the Whig of August 2,
1848, in which he had set out his determined opposition to supporting Taylor, but in a separate letter, he mourned Clay's loss of the
nomination to Taylor: "But now I give up HENRY CLAY. I dismiss
from my mind the idea of his ever being President of these United
States, and it is like taking my life!" (Ibid.)
Campaign heat melted some of Brownlow's resolution and he
praised his friend T. A. R. Nelson for the speeches he was making as
Whig elector. Brownlow even put in a good word for Andy Johnson
when the former met Nelson at Washington College. There the two
filled "six dreadful hours" with speechmaking. The Whig not only
described Johnson as "eloquent and able ... "but made this further
flattering estimate: "We regard him as the Napoleon of his party, in
East Tennessee, having no equal upon the stump in the Democratic
ranks." He complimented the speakers for a discussion that "was
courteous and manly, free from anecdotes, and everything light and
trifling, creditable to both the gentlemen, and one that the most
refined ladies and gentlemen could have listened to with pleasure and
interest." By the end of the summer he was expressing the hope that
Taylor and Fillmore would be elected and on the eve of the election
he was clamoring for the Whigs to vote for the party ticket even
though "We will not do it." Technically he clung to his commitment
not to vote for Taylor, but he promised to get two Democrats to
vote for Taylor to make up for his disability. He made his usual
contribution of extras and Whig tickets. He was in no wise unhappy
�78
CHAPTER NO. 5
when Taylor and Fillmore were elected. Taylor carried Tennessee
with 64,700 votes to Cass' 58,616, and East Tennessee 20,163 to
13,980. [17]
A lesser political development had given the Whig minor but extended ruffling. Lewis Reneau, a Whig seeking the Second District
congressional seat, obtained indictments for libel in Jefferson and
Blount counties against Brownlow and the editor's Methodist friend,
the Rev. James Cumming; Brownlow had supported Reneau's opposition and had printed an article by Cumming opposing Reneau. When
the trial was held at Dandridge in August 1846, the Circuit Court set
aside the indictment. Reneau appealed to the State Supreme Court.
Brownlow's lawyers, T. A. R. Nelson and Robert J. McKinney, got a
quick hearing before this court, sitting at Knoxville, and the circuit
judge was sustained.
Brownlow expressed bafflement at Reneau's bitterness, which extended over two congressional campaigns: "We supposed we had a
right to prefer one man over another and done so [sic.]." The Parson
praised the three members of the high court for
a most righteous decision, and shows that the Judges, who all agreed, are men of
high legal attainments, have a just sense of propriety, and correct views of
equity. The opinion was delivered by }UDGE TURLEY, and was an able onesuch an one as will show well upon the pages of the court in after ages.-Judge
Turley is an intellectual man and, an impartial judge. This is saying a good deal,
coming as it does from the editor of this paper: but it is true ... His God
intended him to be a Whig, and we hope to hear of his leaving the party with
which he is now associated (Whig, September 30, 1846).
The Parson's lavish praise of Judge William B. Turley represented a
spectacular reversal of opinion on his part. Eighteen months earlier,
in an item headed "A Judicial Beast," he had applauded a Davidson
County Circuit Court clerk for severely clubbing the judge because
the latter had insulted a female relative of the clerk. Brownlow was
doubly furious because an effort had been made to suppress the
story in Nashville. For his part he vowed to "pour hot shot into all
such rascals, irrespective of their stations or politics. True, Turley is a
Locofoco, and this disgraceful act of his is a Democratic measure,
but if he were a Whig we should take him off just the same (Whig,
January 24, 1844).
Because dismissal of the indictment in Blount County was something of a formality after the Supreme Court ruling, Brownlow did
�THE JONESBORO YEARS
79
not remain in the courtroom. W. H. Sneed of Knoxville represented
him, and the Parson went ahead on another of his trips to the Southeast, this time beginning at Asheville. Sneed had agreed, at Nelson's
request, to represent Brownlow at Maryville. But Sneed was under
some apprehension about it, since as the editor probably knew, Mr.
Sneed had stopped the Whig from being delivered at his home in the
name of his wife. The lawyer [Sneed] wrote Nelson that he was
Brownlow's friend, that the editor was entitled to publish the kind of
newspaper his judgment directed, but "The paper is not such a one
as in my opinion a lady ought to be a subscriber to." Although the
Whig had been sent to Mrs. Sneed by Dr. William Hunt of Jonesboro,
the Parson's brother-in-law, the "personal strife ... blended with
politics," in the upper East Tennessee area, repelled Sneed. So he
asked Hunt to cancel the subscription as diplomatically as possible to
avoid angering the Parson. [19] If Brownlow knew of Sneed's aversion to his newspaper, he did not mention it.
Outspoken and defiant as Brownlow was, he sometimes yielded to
the request of friends to use restraint. He honored a request by
Temple that the former not stir up the Democrats when that young
Whig from Greeneville ran against Andrew Johnson for Congress in
1847. Temple sought to capitalize on the dislike many Democrats in
the First District felt for Johnson by conducting a campaign that
would leave the Democrats lulled. Temple wrote Brownlow, "If they
[the Democrats] become alarmed or excited they will rally to the
support of Johnson. If, on the contrary, they think there is no danger they will suffer him to fight for himself and won't care much
whether he is elected or not." The Whig complied and Johnson won
by only 314 votes. [20]
Brownlow gained sufficient newspaper maturity to offer at the
close of the seventh volumn (Whig, May 6, 1846) this evaluation of
the Whig: "We do not suppose, for one moment, that we have discharged in seven long years of angry and protracted political excitement the delicate, difficult and important duties that devolve upon
the conductor of a public journal," a failure for which he accepted
half of the responsibility became of human frailties. The balance of
the blame he laid "Upon the heads of an ALLIED ARMY of personal
and political enemies, who, in vain, sought to out-quarrel and outabuse us," for "our failure to come up to the true moral standard of
editorial duty." This position he held throughout his career, always
claiming that he was opposed by vile, wicked enemies who tried, but
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CHAPTER NO. 5
failed, to overpower him in the exchange of vituperation. And he
gave a further hint of satisfaction with himself as he added: "Although this article is the winding up of a career of personal warfare,
of seven years duration, that career will long stand out in Upper East
Tennessee, dispite [sic] its imperfections, as one of the most remarkable in the history of Tennessee politics." Historians and researchers,
grubbing through the records, will not be disposed to challenge that
statement.
Events of 1847 and 1848 sucked some of the enthusiasm out of
the Parson, and bitterness replaced bounce. In addition to his political struggles with the powerful Democratic group in Jonesboro and
libel sections against him, he also engaged in the furious church
battle with Ross. This involved the labor of producing a second
publication, as well as extended speaking tours. [21] He was indeed
gloomy as he wrote on June 7, 1848, for the beginning of his tenth
volume:
We have no disposition to boast, and if we had, we have nothing to boast
of-beside, few of our readers will feel interested in our individual affairs. Still,
we beg leave to observe, that in the outset, our support was not extravagant-our
entire Press and fixtures were purchased on a credit, and at an extravagant
rate-our paper was laid in upon the "credit system"-and our hands were hired
at extravagant prices. Our share of job work and advertising was valueless, the
county officers in the District being opposed to us, and giving their patronage to
the opposition press. We never had any printing from either the State or General
Government, no one ever contributed a dollar to aid us, except in the way of
subscriptions for a paper. Yet, in the midst of all this, we have struggled on,
paying every year some security debts, and now, tho' hard pressed still, we thank
Providence that we are what we arc, and where we are ...
We have done a great deal of printing for our party in this District in the way
of tickets, hand-bills, notices of political meetings, circulars, extras, &t, without
fee or reward. We have never missed being present at each Whig district and
county convention, attending Mass Meetings in other States, and National Conventions, invariably at our own expense. We have never failed to contribute our
share of all the funds raised in our district, for political and party purposes. Nor
have we ever failed to attend the polls, where there was a National, State, or
county contest, and vote with an open ticket. There are few editors in the
country who can say all this (Whig, June, 1848).
Three weeks later he turned bitterly upon the Whigs of upper East
Tennessee, asserting, "Had the party ... had for an editor a man of
�THE JONESBORO YEARS
81
less energy and perseverance, that [sic.] the editor of this paper,
they would have been in a 'state of orphanage' years ago." Excluding
Nelson and a few others he found:
The Whig leaders of this district are a mean, niggardly selfish pack, who will
oppress an editor for security debts, and even pay their yearly subscriptions in
old claims on insolvent men.
We have printed their notices, tickets, extras, and circulars for ten years,
without fee or reward, and we now intend to do it no longer, on the same terms!
(Whig, june 28, 1848).
The year saw Brownlow's greatest summer and fall of discouragement in that decade. His idol Clay had failed to get the nomination,
he had exhausted himself in the fight against Ross, he had lost subscribers because of the controversy (Whig, June 7, 1848), and for the
first time in his warm friendship with Nelson a coolness had arisen.
His vow to endorse no notes probably was broken upon the first
application for this favor from a friend. As for his refusal to vote for
Taylor he probably regretted it, for he finally was caught up in the
fervor of the campaign and pitched in to help his party in every way
he could, printing bills, circulars and extras, although he stuck by his
word that he would not cast his ballot for Taylor. After all, no
matter how repugnant the party's standard bearer might be, there
was something to be said for beating the Democrats.
On the eve of the presidential election that fall it was not surprising that Brownlow asked himself how he had ever got into newpapering and into the paradoxical situation into which his pen had led
him; yet out of his sense of weariness, exasperation and exaggeration
came this touching bit of inward turning humor:
Young man, if this brief epistle meets your eye, do not become the Editor of
a newspaper, if you have not chosen a profession. Rather than do so, beg-clean
out stables, work in gardens-keep ledgers-attend a saw-mill-take in washingtake up a country school-sell rags-black boots about a decent tavern-carry a
horse mail from one village to another-set up a rope walk-do anything rather
than become the Editor of a newspaper (Whig, November 1, 1848).
�CHAPTER NO. 5
82
CHAPTER V NOTES
[ 1) C. C. Ross, comp., The Story of Rotherwood, from the Autobiography of
Rev. Frederick A. Ross, D.D. (Knoxville, 1923), pp. 34-35, 30-32, 5;
Calvinistic Magazine, new series (Abingdon, 1846), I, No. 7,pp.146-157,
ibid., I, No. 11, p. 292, ibid., No. 1, p. 1.
[ 2) Price, Holston Methodism, III, pp. 158-159, 162.
[ 3) Calvinistic Magazine, new series, I, No.4, p. 116.
[ 4) Ibid., III, No. 10, p. 314.
[ 5) Ibid., IV, No.1, p. 42.
[ 6) Whig, January 27, March 24, June 9, 1847. The first issue of the jonesborough Monthly Review, new series, was for December 1847, II, No. 1,
see p. 1.
[ 7) Ibid., I, No. 1, December 1847, p. 22, ibid., II, No. 2, January 1848, p.
103.
[ 8] Whig, September 29, November 10, October 20, 1847.
[ 9) jonesborough Monthly Review, new series, II, No. 12, p. 380; Calvinistic
Magazine, new series, V, No. 1, p. 384; Ross, The Story of Rotherwood,
pp. 19-20, 32-33.
[10) Alexander, T. A. R. Nelson, p. 34; Temple, Notable Men, p. 179; Whig,
October 6,1847, September 13,1848.
[11) Folmsbee et al., Short History, pp. 211-214; Whig, May 27, June 3, 10,
July 15, June 10, 17, July 8, June 3, 1846.
[12) Ibid., March 29 (also dated March 22), April 5, 12, May 24, June 7, 1849;
Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 214. Marginal notes by John Bell Brownlow state that parents of the young soldiers asked the Parson to go with
the troops as far as New Orleans. Whig, March 29, April 5, 1848.
[13) Ibid., June 17, 1846, June 9, July 7, 1847; Folmsbee et al., Short History,
p. 213; Whig, August 11, 18, September 1, 1847.
[14) November 10, December 1, 1847; Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 210;
Whig, February 23, 1848.
[15) Ibid., May 26, April 21, 1847, March 1, May 10, 1848, November 24,
1847.
[16] Ibid., June 28, 21, August 2, 1848.
[17) Ibid., August 2, September 6, 27, August 16, November 1, October 25,
November 1, 22, 1848.
[18] Ibid., August 26, September 30, August 26, 1846.
[19] Ibid., October 14, 21, 1846; W. H. Sneed to Nelson, April 24, 1846.
Nelson Papers.
[20] Temple to Brownlow, July 18, 1847. Temple Papers. Temple, Notable
Men, pp. 229-230.
[21] Brownlow spoke against Ross at thirty places to an estimated 21,000
persons. Whig, October 6, 1847.
�r1~111~ 'VIIIf~.
"Cry aloud-Spare not; show my people their transgressions,
and the house of Jacob their sins." Willing to Praise;
But not afraid to blame.
Chapter No. 6
A NATURAL EDITOR
The Parson's first decade as a newspaper editor and publisher
showed he had an aptitude for, and a delight in, bold and blistering
quarrels and controversies. It is on this characteristic that most of his
fame, or infamy, rests because it is the side of him that has been
portrayed most thoroughly by writers. But Brownlow was much
more. He was cutting, but he witty; he exaggerated, but he was
not solely gross when he drove a nail into an enemy; he threw in
sparkles of humor that certainly pleased his friends and perhaps
entertained his foes, with frustration as well as anger. The Parson was
read for amusement as well as for his fury, and thereby he got what
every newsman wants to achieve: circulation, the element that gives
the writer influence with the reader, and which enlists the interest of
the advertiser because of the scope of the readership.
Brownlow's political speeches in the summer and fall of 1840
brought the Democrats down on him, and he replied with such
ferocity that the Chattanooga Gazette observed: "The everlasting
Brownlow of the Tennessee Whig is still using the tilt-hammer on the
heads of all unfortunate wights who cross his path." The Parson
dismissed such comment with: "It so happens that wherever I go I
give offence to every thief, mail robber, land pirate and counterfeiter, with whom I meet." Early in the next year he had attracted
attention as far away as New England as the Bay State Democrat
fumed: "There is a huge mass of self-conceit, somewhere out in
Tennessee, by the name of Brown/ow-that is to say, bread unbaked,
who edits a British Federal newspaper, and who annoys society very
much. He is said to be a great drunkard-a savage looking monster
near seven feet high-and he has been a vile Federalist for the last
fifty years." The Whig editor, in a long answer, supplied corrections,
for he was six feet tall, aged 34, and had never been accused of
drinking even by his enemies. [1]
83
�84
CHAPTER NO.6
It delighted him to announce, later in the same year, underneath
the title "Our Greatness-how it increases": "In one week, we
have received as many as seven newspapers, an average of one each
day-in which we were praised and denounced." This led him to the
thought, "We think it not unlikely that we may yet run for the
Presidency." The Parson was poking a little fun at himself, as he did
when he published an issue of the Whig short on news and long on
editorial comment, and explained, "We act upon the principle that it
will never do for an editor to say nothing, even when he has nothing
to say." A few years later, as he watched a locomotive pull a train
over a newly built line into Dalton, Georgia, he chuckled, "When it
first came puffing away over this Rail Road, it was a greater curiosity
here than I am."[2]
Again out of New England, from the pages of the Olive Branch,
published by a Methodist splinter group at Boston, came this enormous lie:
The fighting clergyman of Tennessee was at one time settled near Vicksburg, in
Mississippi. He kept the Bible open on the pulpit by laying a bowie knife across
the leaves, and on the Sabbath, before he pronounced the benediction, he would
read the programme for the horse races on the ensuing week, and inform the
congregation that he was ready to back his favorite horse against whatever bets
they would make! (Whig, September 13, 1843).
The Parson had never been in Mississippi, and he never gambled, but
such accounts, blatantly untrue, showed that his enemies feared him
enough to manufacture about him the worst habits of which they
could think. Some stories, however, paid tributes to his surgical skill
upon his opponents without reflecting on his morals. A Georgia
newspaper offered this recipe for making indelible ink: "Read the
Jonesborough Whig, with gloves on, taking care not to touch it with
the naked hands-then wash the gloves in a tub of water. The water
may be bottled for immediate use."[3]
It was characteristic of the Parson to predict success for his newspaper, but he also wove into these promotion pieces the mischievous
distortions in which he delighted and the humor that bubbled from
his depths. When President Harrison, whom he liked, died soon after
taking office and Tyler, whom he grew to hate, succeeded, Brownlow
came up with this forecast:
To our kind patrons, we can only say that by constant reading, hard study,
and a great deal of writing, we intend this journal-this establishment-to be-
�A NATURAL EDITOR
85
come the centre and soul of a mighty intellectual, moral, political, financial and
religious revolution! For what we may lack in actually accomplishing, it is our
settled purpose to make up in boasting. Therefore, success, with us, is inevitable.
We intend to make Victoria tremble on her throne, Louis Phillippe burst with
grief, John Tyler squat like a fawn in a thicket, and Santa Anna jump like a dog
in high rye! Heaven save the Republic-God prosper the Church-let the people
revere the memory of Harrison-may our Job Work and Advertising custom
increase-and may Satan, with all of his Locofoco coadjutors, speedily take to
their hottest quarters-Amen! (Whig, January 12, 1842).
Brownlow's humor was broad; subtlety would have been wasted
on many of his readers. Even the Democrats must have let out roars
of laughter when he made this defense of a Whig convicted of larceny: "the act of stealing is Democratic. In other words, the Man is
Whig, but the Measure is Democratic (Whig, June 15, 1842).
The editor delighted to make news, especially when he could drive
home a point. As he rode through Washington on his way to Baltimore and Philadelphia in the spring of 1845, following the election
of Polk as President, he seized an opportunity to needle the Democratic office seekers lining the sidewalks:
Being on top of the Omnibus ... I determined to relieve the minds of these
cormorants, and accordingly make proclamation, to this effect: "Gentlemen,
give yourselves no uneasiness about us-we are not after offices-we are a different breed of dogs-and we are going on to Baltimore, having no sort of
business here." To this some fellow on the sidewalk responded-"That is that
d-d Brownlow."-"Yes," said I, "and for one, I shall keep my nose and eyes
closed, till I get through this filthy crowd, that I may neither see nor smell the
stench of Locofocoism (Whig, April16, 1845).
Brownlow was on the longest trip he had made, both in time and
in distance, and it marked the true beginning of his career as a roving
reporter. In charge of a band of forty horses, he left Jonesboro in
March. They were to be sold in southeastern centers but the outcome
was not profitable because the market for these animals was depressed. He wrote from Morganton and Charlotte, North Carolina,
Cheraw and Sumterville, South Carolina, then cut back through
Lumberton and Raleigh, North Carolina, where he caught a train. He
went through Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, and pushed into New England, where he
visited Providence, Rhode Island, and Boston. He was gone three
months. [4]
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CHAPTER NO. 6
Few of Brownlow's readers had the time or the means to travel
extensively. Probably none had his gift for conveying to them what
he saw and heard, vividly, humorously and quaintly, as seen through
the eyes of a native Appalachian. He brought the outside world to
the fertile and frequently travelled valleys and to the more inaccessible ridges and hollows of his land, quite often managing to convey to
his readers that they were better off than the city populations.
A distaste for South Carolinians, implanted when he watched that
state's effort at nullification, probably colored the estimate of her
citizens made on the long 1845 trip:
The real South Carolinian assumes to be a man of much importance-he crosses
streets at an angle no matter how many crosswalks there may be, and in his
Buggy or Sulky-a mode of travelling very much in vogue here-he throws himself back like an English Lord ... he always has his whip in his hand, a cigar in
his mouth, and upon his countenance, an air of great self-importance (Whig,
March 6, 1845).
Months later he was more compassionate as he wrote from Camden,
"They have great need of prayers and religion here; for it is a low,
flat, sickly region and they die off in great numbers" (Ibid., November 11, 1846).
Brownlow was a valiant trencherman. He boasted as he wrote from
a New York hotel where the "meats really melt on one's tongue,"
that "I can eat anything that comes on the table, and I can eat a
good deal of it!" He put on a false front of dignity in ordering from
the French menu, pretending to be familiar with that language (Whig,
April 30, 1845).
Traveling afforded some unpleasant experiences, such as one he
encountered in a town "Somewhere in Southwestern Virginia":
Sleepy and tired, retiring to a fine room well furnished, with a magnificent bed,
a Turkey carpet, looking-glass, wash stand, pitcher and clean towel, hair-brush,
&t., &t.; and lo! upon blowing out the candle, and laying our carcass down to
rest, we were instantly covered with bed-bugs, varying in size from something
less than a grain of corn, to a mustard seed (Whig, May 5, 1847).
The incident so upset the Parson that he wrote an editorial about it
instead of including it in his correspondence. And in an unusually
delicate treatment for him he did not locate the town or identify the
hotel. Sympathy, as well as laughter must have greeted his account of
having torn his pants on a fence at Camden, South Carolina, and
�A NATURAL EDITOR
87
having to remain in bed until repairs were made. [5] Many of the
Parson's readers, like the Parson himself, had only one pair of
trousers fit for a traveling outfit.
Brownlow's tour of New England produced a singular observation
from him, advocate of slavery and foe of abolition that: he was. As he
looked at the thriving industries of the region, all operated by free
labor, he concluded that "slavery as it exists in the South and West is
a curse instead of a blessing (Whig, April 30, 1845).
A year later as he paused in wonder at the Harbor of Charleston,
South Carolina, he described the masts of the sailing ships there as
resembling a forest, he collected $600 for friends at home, he boasted that he was so widely known that he could prove his identity
anywhere in the United States, and he marvelled at the sight of
droves of hogs being driven to market, 6,000 alone from Jefferson
County in East Tennessee. [6]
Back in Jonesboro after his long trip, the Parson offered single
men some pointed suggestions in selecting a wife: "Lay hold of the
girl with her sleeves rolled up-the one with her ears laid back-her
eyes wide open with a broom in her hand, or standing half bent over
a washing tub-and not the one with a novel in her hand and a box of
snuff, turning up her nose at her betters" (Whig). Months later he
found, "The young ladies have a strange walk nowadays to what they
used to have. Each one flirts as if a flea were biting her on each hip."
The Parson must have aimed this rebuke at certain maidens. He was
too observant not to have noticed this characteristic earlier. He mellowed on dancing; he found it more foolish than sinful. When church
officers in Jonesboro discussed bearing down on members who indulged in the pastime, he offered the realistic opinion: "Tho' we
believe it is wrong in members of the Church-we are against that,
simply on the ground that there will not be enough left to constitute
the Scriptural requisition of 'two or three' gathered together in the
name of the Lord."[7]
The editor's indignation at the public mistreatment of a wife by a
husband is understandable, but the interposition of his caustic comment below an advertisement terminating support would be most
startling today. Perhaps it was a bold step when Brownlow printed
this:
NOTICE
I hereby forwarn [sic] all persons from trading with my wife, Charlotte
Bacon, or giving her credit on my account. She has left my bed and board,
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CHAPTER NO. 6
without any just or reasonable cause, and I am determined not to pay any debt,
or debts, she may contract.
I have a good house for her, and plenty to live upon, and she has no reason to
absent herself, as she has done, for some three or four months, maliciously and
voluntairy [sic) , and without just or sufficient cause,
JONATHAN BACON
Note by the Editor!-We publish the foregoing for Mr. Bacon, as an advertisement and for his money, who came with it to our office three different times.
We are not to be understood as endorsing it, or approving it. The friends of his
wife will not trouble him with supporting her, and she will not attempt to run
him in debt, as he very well knows, and as far as malice is concerned, we have
seen none, except in this advertisemen[t) (Whig, November 29, 1848).
Some personal knowledge of the Bacon domestic issues must have
entered into the Parson's objections to the advertisement, as the
editor's note indicated. A year earlier he had run, without comment,
a notice by a husband refusing to pay the debts of his wife "by
reason of her having had a child six weeks and four days after our
marriage, which she says is not mine."
An outrage against a beast and against its owner, a Baptist
preacher, brought down forked lightning from the Whig upon miscreants who broke into a stable and shaved the tail of the minister's
horse. Brownlow's judgment was, "If hell were raked with a fine
tooth comb it is exceedingly doubtful whether any such material
could be found there as inhabit this village; and should the devil seek
a substitute for hell Jonesboro would qualify."[8]
Yet when a slave convicted of murder was hanged in Jonesboro, he
did not appear to be revolted in reporting a macabre battle over the
cadaver. The Parson did not go to the hanging, although 3,000 to
5,000 persons did. He stood in his front yard and watched as the
doomed man was taken from the jail. The prisoner wore a long,
white shroud and sat upon his coffin as he was taken to the place of
execution. An armed guard of 200 men surrounded him. Witnesses
told the Parson that the prisoner "often smiled and was careful to
wipe the mud off his shroud, that might chance to light upon it, and
gracefully gather the folds of it around his knees!" The battle over
the body did not strike him as grisly, judging from his account:
After hanging some thirty minutes, his body was cut down-placed in a coffin
for burial, and interred on the spot. As soon as the Clergy who had officiated on
the ground, and the greater part of the crowd had left, a regular scramble came
�A NATURAL EDITOR
89
off, among the Physicians from different towns and their representatives, as to
who should have his body. Several fights ensued, and among the rest, a party of
Negroes who were there, his relatives and others, tried their hands. The ]onesborough boys, as usual, triumphed, and now have the body of Dave in a Dissecting Room, and are working on it scientifically! [9]
Life in the little county seat was by present standards primitive
and brutal. When a Whig convention was held near Jonesboro in the
fall of 1840, a public-spirited citizen leased a ten-acre field and offered it to those who wanted a place to sleep. No other facilities were
mentioned. They could have the ground. When Brownlow came
home from a seven-week trip that included his attendance as a delegate at the Whig convention in Baltimore he was alarmed to find five
of the ten members of his household ill. A few days later he predicted much illness for the summer of 1844, if "the notorious Ponds,
at the upper and lower ends of town, are not drained off, as they
should be; and if the dead hogs and other filth are not taken out of
the Creek, and the back streets and stables."[ 10] The winter scene
described by the Parson was even more depressing:
Our town is located on a sink bole, surrounded by hills, making our location
admirably adapted to the collection of all the filth pouring in from the surrounding hills, and nothing is wanted for our complete inundation with nastiness, but
the closing up of the gap below the town where the spring branch breaks
through the hills! Until recently, we havt exhibited more mud and filth in our
streets, than any other little town could boast of in this end of the State-wintering our cows under our porches, and emptying our slop buckets into our front
streets! At one time in December, there were but about 3 fords, or crossing
places, on main street; but our citizens have nobly commenced the work of
cleaning our streets, and upon a scale worthy of their just importance. They have
much of the filth in piles on main street, which seem destined to stand as a
lasting ornament to the place-a blessing to the community, and a monument of
liberality and enlightened views of the town authorities! (Whig, February 7,
1844).
Jonesboro authorities later required Brownlow to move a stable and
manure pen he had maintained on a back street. He acknowledged
the officials were acting properly, but he questioned whether the
regulation would be enforced as to others. He also reported a high
mortality among his cows; four had been poisoned, one recovered,
during a five-year period (Whig, February 2, 1846). Many families
kept a cow for milk.
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CHAPTER NO. 6
Brownlow tried several business ventures while at Jonesboro. All
were unprofitable, and finally he announced his withdrawal from all
outside projects to give his entire attention to his newspaper and the
Whig Party. A friend wrote later that these ventures ended "always
with disaster. Incompetent or dishonest associates or agents got the
better of him every time. The truth is, he was too liberal, too unsuspecting, too negligent of details for a successful business
man." [11]
The Whig, however, thrived. Advertising volume reached almost
fifty per cent of the newspaper's space. And late in 1845 Brownlow
trumpeted that the Whig was "the only newspaper published in
Tennessee east of Knoxville," again at the beginning of the year 1847
that the "circulation of this paper is now so great and its readers so
numerous-not only in Tennessee but in other states-that it has
become the interest of many to get their advertisements into these
columns," and again a few months later that the Whig had such a
circulation "in point of numbers and intelligence, that has not been
enjoyed by any country paper of the same age, situated in so remote
and mountainous region of the country." [ 12]
This was promotion, which is assumed to contain boasts, and the
Parson always kept his talent for exaggeration in good order. The
Audit Bureau of Circulation had not been created; hence there was
no professional check on his claims, but he had proved he was a
successful newspaper editor, and sometimes publisher.
The Parson was no stranger to the difficulties involved in newspaper publication. Collections and deliveries presented constant
annoyances. The Whig management offered incentives for cash or
early payments by setting the subscription price at $2.50 annually if
paid in advance, $3.00 if paid at the end of three months, and $3.50
if paid at the close of the year. The subscription rate was cut to
$2.00 annually when the Whig and the job shop were combined early
in 1845, with Byers taking over business management. Byers sold his
interest to the Parson early in 184 7, but the subscription price remained the same for years. [ 13] Brownlow chastised delinquents by
printing their names under the heading "Black Knights." Payment
was taken in almost any form. When the Whig sent a wagon into
Carter and Johnson counties in 184 7 it offered to take iron castings
and food for man and beast, "whiskey and brandy always excepted!" [ 14]
Collection of legal advertising accounts, which made up a consider-
�A NATURAL EDITOR
91
able amount of the revenue, grew quite difficult. Publishers throughout the state adopted a rule not to accept it unless paid in advance or
complete responsibility for payment given. Brownlow had so many
outstanding accounts of this kind in 1841 that he announced that if
all were met he could pay every debt and buy a good house and
office on the main street of Jonesboro. [ 15]
Most of the Whig's subscribers must have received their copies by
mail. If only a few of the Parson's many complaints were justified
the postal system must have been wretched. He carried an ingrained
prejudice against postmasters because they were more often appointed by Democratic administrations than by Whigs. Since Brownlow
was the political foe of these postmasters, some of them may have
felt it appropriate to look after the Whig with less zeal than in
handling Democratic newspapers. Mail deliveries were vital to publications, and Brownlow's constant hammering on the point is understandable. He complained not only of failures, late deliveries and
mutilated papers in the summer of 1840 but also reported that "some
of our correspondents say that the Sentinel reaches their offices
regularly but the Whig does not." When Newbern, Virginia, subscribers reported irregular deliveries, the Parson recommended that they
"talk firce [sic] to the Post Master ... with fists drawn and they will
soon perceive a change." He also charged that the Post Office Department had notified the mail contractors operating between Jonesboro
and Blountville not to carry the Whig. A possible explanation for this
was that the mail bags would not hold the more numerous Whigs,
while they would those of the fewer Sentinels. The next spring, in a
notice to postmasters at Blountville and Knoxville, Brownlow charged
that the bags would not hold his newspaper and as a result delivery
was delayed at least a week, while the Sentinels were carried to their
destinations on time. The nettled Whig editor pointed out that he
was paying $800 annually for newspaper and letter postage. [16] The
rates for newspaper postage were lowered in 1845, and revised upward slightly in 1847. [ 17] Complaints of inferior service continued.
The mail to Russellville was left in a stream overnight and the newspapers ruined, the Whig complained in the summer of 1847, and also
that the mail was transported in uncovered carts. Early in 1848 the
Parson announced that in his nine years as an editor he had never
known "more corruption to exist among the post-masters and mail
carriers than at present." Whigs were thrown out of the mails,
destroyed, or delivered late, and it took from two to four weeks for
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CHAPTER NO. 6
the newspaper to be delivered at Parrottsville, forty-five miles distant, although a horse mail went directly to the town from Jonesboro. [18]
Brownlow restlessly changed the page one makeup. He shifted
from six columns to five on his third volume; a year later he inserted
beneath The Jonesborough Whig, but in smaller type, An Independent journal. As he launched his eighth volume, the Mexican War was
raging, creating a greater demand for news, and he promised better
newsprint and type. Transportation of paper brought problems.
Early in 1848 he missed an issue while a wagon waited in Knoxville
to load newsprint, and at the close of the year he suspended the
Christmas issue because he didn't have the paper, observing that the
hands would enjoy the long holiday. Newsprint costs, amounting to
$1,100 during his first year at Jonesboro, were a substantial expense. [19]
Aside from the editor's worries over the business operation and his
political foes, he encountered a segment of the human race that waits
upon almost every publication, versifiers and poets. They left him
worn and angry, but not frustrated. He not only proclaimed he was
"sick and tired of their worthless effusions," but that if in saying so
he had given offense "we have accomplished our object, provided we
get rid of all such, in all time to come." His wrath was fuelled by the
submission of a poem as an original work that turned out to have
been written by Lord Byron, the famous English poet. He was equally firm, if not as brittle, in a declaration of policy on the publication
of death notices, pronounced early in the Jonesboro era with the
lament: "When the death of an individual is published, unless he is
written up into the third heavens, and declared to have been sinless
and undefiled in life, loud complaints are made." He therefore announced that if the friends of the deceased would write out, or
otherwise furnish details, "We will give the desired blast," but "to sit
down and write a man to heaven when we have every reason to
believe he is in hell, just to please his friends, is rather a tedious
business." [20]
Editors often feel the same way today, but they do not so express
themselves. No Parson Brownlows are editing newspapers now.
These were the usual problems of any newspaper, but Brownlow
did not follow the normal course of an editor; therefore, it was not
surprising that what befell him next, which arose from the boiling
religious and political controversies of the day, should breeed the
�A NATURAL EDITOR
93
most critical physical violence he would meet. In his struggle with
Ross, the Parson had gone to pains to demonstrate that Presbyterians, rather than Methodists, as Ross had argued, were bent on
political domination. After he surveyed the national scene he narrowed his point to Washington County, where he lit upon John Ryland,
calling him
a Presbyterian Democrat, who had made a little fortune out of the public offices, and who had solemnly pledged himself, at the last election for Circuit
Court clerk, that he never would trouble the people again, if they would elect
him; he is again a candidate for that office (Whig, November 10, 1847).
Running against Ryland were a Methodist Whig and a Methodist
Democrat. Ryland was humiliated for he came out third. Bitterness
on the Ryland side was compounded when the Whig identified John
Ryland, son of the former county official, as a deserter from a Washington County company at Jalappa, Mexico. Brownlow based this on
a letter from Captain John T. O'Brien. Ryland's unhappiness was
intensified when the report of his desertion reached the postmaster
at Knoxville, thus preventing his drawing wages. Young Ryland
thereupon vented his wrath upon the Parson noisily. In the fall of
1848, armed and shouting, he posted himself at the fence in front of
the Brownlow residence between ten and eleven o'clock at night. He
invited the editor to come out and fight. He bawled accusations
against Brownlow. He cursed him for having helped in the defeat of
his father for the clerkship, for having "slandered the most pure and
evangelical minister of the gospel the world ever knew," and for
having meddled in his courtship. Brownlow printed two columns in
the Whig about the disturbance. On the subject of Ryland's courtship
the editor wrote, "We believed any young lady that wanted him,
with a knowledge of his character, and brilliant exploits, ought to be
encouraged to marry him--and that whoever got him, would get a
liar, a scoundrel, a coward, and a Deserter from the United States
Army!" Ryland made three shouting appearances before the Brownlow home on the public square of Jonesboro that night. The last trip
brought the Parson out of bed, who took down a "double barreled
gun, well loaded with buck shot, cocked it, and went at him when he
swiftly retreated." The editor's last paragraph in the account sounded his usual warning: "He never can, and never shall, with impunity,
make another attack upon us, in public or private, by day or by
night, in word or in deed, when we are present." [21] Brownlow was
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CHAPTER NO. 6
wrong, if the identification of his next assailant was correct.
The blow fell on a Sunday night, April 2, 1849, as Brownlow in
company with two Methodist presiding elders, walked home from
church. A form slipped out of an alley between two stables and
struck the Parson on the head. The preachers, T. K. Catlett and C. D.
Smith, gave a statement that they did not know the assailant, but
that they saw him fleeing with a stick or club in his hand and that a
Negro identified him as John Ryland, Jr. Brownlow's account, published in the Whig on April19, 1849, acknowledged that Ryland had
denied making the assault, but he also reported that two white boys
had identified Ryland as the assailant. Brownlow saw no one and was
left unconscious. He was unaware of what had happened or how he
reached his home, one hundred and fifty yards distant. The editor
was confined to his home for fifteen days before he was able to write
his story of the attack, and then did so "without the knowledge or
consent of my physician." However much his head may have ached,
he remembered that he was a newspaperman. The story was entitled
to more than routine display. He broke away from the usual one-line
head with this screamer:
ATTEMPTED MURDER BY AN AS
SASS IN, A SCOUNDREL, AND A
COWARD, IN THE PERSON OF
JOHN RYLAND, JR.
He further dramatized the story by leading it with a few lines from
Shakespeare. The Parson attributed his being alive to a strong beaver
hat he was wearing-one which broke the force of the blow. He told
the Whig's readers that he would resort to neither the courts nor
violence, that he was competent to look after his own affairs, and
that as soon as he recovered he would move himself, his family and
his hands to Knoxville, where he had previously announced he was
taking the Whig (Whig, April19, 1849). This was his message:
I can assure him that I shall institute no suit against him. I have seen too much
of the "glorious uncertainty of the Law," and of the acts and doings of corrupt
jurors to trouble them with the settlement of my personal difficulties.
Some reports have gone out touching messages I should have sent to this
candidate for the honors of the gallows. I have sent him no message-I have none
to send. I have made no threats-! have none to make. I have advised with no
man-1 shall not consult any man. I am of age-l am in my right mind-1 am
competent to attend to my own business. [22)
�A NATURAL EDITOR
95
William Rule, who in later years was long associated with Brownlow in the newspaper business, recalled that when he first saw the
editor in early 1850 the latter observed, in commenting on reported
threats by Ryland to kill him, "I would rather run some risk of losing
my own life than to take that of a fellow being however vile he might
be or however justifiable I might be, under the law, in so
doing."[23]
Whether Ryland was guilty or not, he failed to bring any action
for libel, despite the punishment that the Whig gave him. When Ryland died in Dallas, Texas, in 1852, the Parson disposed of him
crisply: "Thus sinks to a grave of ignominy the dastard, who it is
believed to have crept upon us from a dark alley, in the darkness of
the night, and inflicted a blow, upon the back of our head, from the
effects of which we have suffered for several years." A decade later,
in reviewing some of his difficulties, Brownlow expressed the conviction that Ryland had gone to hell, "and there I propose to leave him
for the present." The Parson reserved to himself, however, the right
to designate the course Ryland's soul took after death, because when
John Bell Brownlow, junior editor of the Whig, found occasion in
1867, to repeat that Ryland had gone to perdition, the Parson reproached his son. The junior editor, in reporting the death of Elder
Catlett, who was walking with Brownlow the night of the assault,
also wrote that the Parson had announced Ryland had gone to
hell. [24]
The effects of the clubbing have been given wide interpretation. R.
N. Price, Methodist historian and a friend of Brownlow's, believed
the fracture had seriously affected the Parson's health "to the day of
his death," and "doubtless shortened his life." He did not mention,
however, mental incapacity. 0. P. Temple, who knew Brownlow
more intimately than anyone who wrote about him, neglected the
Jonesboro assault in his extended sketch of his friend, with the exception of this general statement: "Although stealthily waylaid and
assailed by would-be assassins in the dark, or from behind, four or
five times with deadly intent, and more than once with nearly fatal
effect, he never attempted to punish the miserable cowards, much
less retaliate on them." He maintained that when Brownlow served a
six-year term in the United States Senate that although "His body
was enfeebled ... his intellect still glowed with all the fire and
energy of 1861." Temple's opinion was "By his confinement in the
crowded and loathsome prison [the Knoxville jail where he was held
�96
CHAPTER NO.6
by the Confederacy] and his exposure in his wanderings, his wonderful constitution was broken down, his nervous system was destroyed
and he became prematurely old and an invalid for the rest of his
life." The Knoxville Register, in a moment of fury while battling for
its life with the Whig, snarled at a Methodist publication which had
condemned ministers for active participation in politics: "You
should be careful how you throw brickbats. Don't you know that a
slight lick on the head of one whose brain has been 'addled' will
throw him into fits." E. Merton Coulter, in his biography of Brownlow, took the position that the blow impaired the Parson's mental
and physical health. He concluded, "Certainly as time went on, he
became more reckless as his power increased; perhaps it was not due
entirely to his natur2l bent-his assailant's club left permanent marks
and impressions on his skull." A year after the attack Rule found
that Brownlow still suffered from the effects. Much later-the Parson
had a habit of revealing more and more details as time passed-he
acknowledged that he was "Under the care of a physician for more
than one month, and a portion of that time I did not know my
friends and neighbors." He also revealed that the blow cracked his
skull from the point of impact to his forehead. His recovery was
slow, for he was "Sorely afflicted the t:ntire summer, and were [sic.]
not half a man, in point of physical strength."
Certainly Brownlow's power increased. The pages of the Whig reveal many long, furious fights in which he employed to the fullest his
talent for castigating without mercy those who crossed or opposed
him. The pre-Civil War times and events were traumatic for Brownlow because of his emotional devotion to the Union and to his newspaper. The first split and the second he abandoned through fear and
economic necessity.
If Brownlow's mental machinery went awry, two of his newspaper
contemporaries failed to see it that way.]. Austin Sperry, editor of
the Knoxville Register, astounded and dismayed when Brownlow was
released by Confederate authorities in 1862, paid him an extraordinary compliment for his keen understanding of human nature,
his skill in maneuvering and his diplomacy. When Brownlow was
governor, George Prentice, editor of the Louisville journal, sometimes his friend but at that time his foe, considered the Brownlow
administration in Tennessee so evil that he clamored: " 'Tis a pity for
him that he isn't insane, for it would be the only excuse, utter
mental imbecility excepted, for the disgrace he is inflicting upon the
�A NATURAL EDITOR
97
State in which he dwells." [25] Both editorials contained exaggerations, but evil as the writers saw Brownlow, they did not suggest any
lack of competency; if anything, he had too much to suit them.
CHAPTER VI NOTES
[ 1]
[ 2]
[ 3]
[ 4]
[ 5]
[ 6]
[ 7]
[ 8]
[ 9]
[10]
[ 11]
[ 12]
[ 13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
Whig, September 9, 1840, January 6, 1841.
Ibid., September 17, 1841, November 23, 1842, January 5, 1848.
Ibid., April19, 1843.
Ibid., February 2, 26, March 5, 12, 26, April 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, 1845.
Ibid., May 5, 1847, November 11, 1846.
Ibid., November 11, 25, 1846.
Ibid., May 21, 1845, June 16, January 6, 1847.
Ibid., November 3, 1847, September 3, 1845.
Ibid., November 29, 1848. See also ibid., November 22, 1848.
Ibid., October 7, 1840, November 3, 1847, June 12, 1844.
Brown and his friend, the Rev. C. W. C. Harris operated the Wool Hat store
in Jonesboro, ibid., June 19, 1844; the former had a vague connection
with Clem, Harris, Hunt and Company, another mercantile house which ran
the first full page advertisement in the Whig, March 5, 1845; Temple,
Notable Men, p. 274.
The Tennessee Sentinel was discontinued and other newspapers appeared
intermittently in Jonesboro. Whig, December 10, 1845; Fink, "The Early
Press of Jonesboro," ETI-IS PUBL. No. 10, p. 68; Whig, December 10,
1845, January 20, May 12, 1847.
Subscription and advertising rates were carried on page one. Brownlow cut
the original $2.50 annual rate, if paid in advance, to $2.00, ibid., February
5, 1845, February 24, 1847.
Ibid., January 19, 1842, January 6, 1847.
Ibid., July 1, 1846, December 8, 1841.
Ibid., June 24, July 29, September 23, 1840, May 19, 1841.
Ibid., March 26, 1846, April28, 1847.
Ibid., July 28, 1847, January 19, 1848.
Ibid., May 28, 1841, May 18, 1842, May 13, 1846, March 15, December
13, 1848, May 28, 1841.
Ibid., December 24, 1845, December 1, 1841.
Ibid., March 8, June 7, 1848, October 4, 1848.
Ibid., Arpil 19, 1849. Alex Williams to "Dear Sir," April14, 1839. Nelson
Papers.
Memorandum on Rule's first look at Brownlow. Rule Papers.
Whig, October 2,1852, October 27,1862. John Bell Brownlow marginal
note, ibid., March 13, 1867.
Price, Holston Methodism, III, p. 239; Temple, Notable Men, pp. 280,
341, 314; Register, March 20, 1851; Coulter, p. 43; Whig, October 27,
1860, July 5, 1851; Register, quoted in Parson Brownlow's Book, pp.
342-345; Temple, Notable Men, p. 351, O.R. Series 2, I, pp. 925-926;
White, Messages, V, p. 661, quoting Louisville journal, May 14, 1868.
�~ IZ/~~'75'
11/f ~~~ (
f
(!(,
r /I 1
Cr-r .-
This much more sophisticated portrait of the Parson came from the frontispiece of Parson
Brownlow's Book. Uournal Staff Photograph by Hugh Lunsford.]
�'I,III~ '\TIIIf~.
"Truth is omnipotent, and public justice certain."
Chapter No. 7
THE CRIPPLED INVADER
William G. Brownlow arrived on the Knoxville newspaper scene as
an invader, and crippled though he was, he was received with all the
power that could be raised against his invasion. He was warned that
he faced a fight for survival with the Register, but with characteristic
boldness he had retorted that his publication would triumph. Brownlow knew Knoxville well. He had seen it when he was a young and
gawky preacher, he had made boat trips to it down the Holston River
for the O'Briens, and as an editor and party leader he had been
drawn to it because it was a vigorous center for Whiggery. He liked
Knoxville for its bustle as a transportation hub and for its business
advantages. (1] He anticipated a tough fight, but he had thrived on
frequent and deadly struggles. At Jonesboro he had reached the top
by surmounting one uproar after another, and the only way he could
climb higher would be to scale a bigger mountain. Knoxville was that
mountain.
The Whig had been successful as a newspaper. But its editor had
taken severe financial losses because of his inability to turn down
applicants for his signature as a note endorser. Before he left Jonesboro he had paid thousands of dollars for borrowers whose paper he
had endorsed, but who had failed to pay and left him to make up the
loss. [2] Perhaps he wanted to leave the scene where he had, in a
most painful way, found that some members of the human race
cannot be trusted to carry out their financial pledges. Primarily,
though, the inviting vistas of Knoxville must have drawn him more
than the disappointments of Jonesboro pushed him. He set out the
advantages in a prospectus published in the Whig at Jonesboro.
The undersigned goes to Knoxville, because that is an eligible position, afford·
ing the necessary mail facilities, and because he believes that he can be more
useful to his party, and to the country at large; and last, though not least,
because he thinks he can advance his own pecuniary interests, now at the
99
�100
CHAPTER NO. 7
bottom of the wheel of fortune (Whig, February 5, 1849).
As Brownlow penned this piece on his removal to Knoxville he
must have felt assurance that he had laid his plans well. He had sold
his printing press, type and fixtures and taken notes in exchange. In
Washington he had arranged with Senator John Bell and United
States Representative Meredith Gentry to go security on his own
note. This note, with the two members of Congress as endorsers, and
the paper he had taken in the sale of his Jonesboro plant he gave in
Philadelphia for the purchase of the printing equipment. He arranged
for the shipment of these goods and materials to Knoxville by way of
Charleston and Chattanooga. When they reached Knoxville they were
to be stored until the Parson arrived to start his newspaper. The
shipments were in the names of Bell and Gentry. [3]
When Brownlow came back through Washington in March 1849,
after arranging the purchases in Philadelphia, he fell into an almost
fatal blunder, a mistake that grew out of his tendency to place complete confidence in men he believed to be his friends. He not only
unfolded his plans to retiring United States Representative John H.
Crozier, but also entrusted to him some of the arrangements to be
made when the shipment arrived in Knoxville. He gave Crozier the
bills for the goods and authorized him to see that they were stored in
the commission house of the congressman's brothers-in-law, James
and Walter Williams. [4] According to the Parson, Crozier duped him
outrageously. In time it turned out that the retiring congressman and
the Williams brothers were part of a combine which set about to fight
the Whig with their money, their influence and a consolidated newspaper. Crozier was able to give the group the details of Brownlow's
plans.
The Parson's announcement that he was moving to Knoxville,
supplemented by the information Crozier had, brought significant
developments. The Register, the most venerable weekly in East Tennessee and staunchly Whig, had lost ground. Competition had arisen
in a second Whig newspaper, the Tribune, edited by James C. Walker
and John Miller McKee, who had started it in the spring of 1846. The
Moses brothers, James C. and John L., sold the Register to McKee,
who consolidated it with the Tribune, but retained the Register's
name alone, probably because of its age and reputation. Five outstanding and powerful Whigs gave the Register financial muscle. They
secured a $6,000 loan for McKee. Among the five was John H.
Crozier. The others were William G. Swan, a prominent lawyer;
�TH E CRIPPLED JNV ADER
101
Thomas W. Humes, once President of the University of Tennessee.
James W. Campbell, clerk of the State Supreme Court and of the
United States District Court ; W. H. Sneed, another outstanding lawyer; and Thomas W. Humes, a former Register editor and rector of
St. John's Episcopal Church. [5] Thus, while Brownlow lay in bed at
Jonesboro, semiconscious from the blow on his skull, his Knoxville
enemies took advantage of Crozier's information and the Jonesboro
assailant's blow. Years later, while reviewing the events that took
place after he had trusted Crozier to look after his shipment to
Knoxville, the Parson gave this summary of the obstacles thrown in
his way :
I stated all this to Crozier [the arrangement], and informed him that I had
written the same by him to his relatives. He promised to see to it, professed great
friendship; and it was not until after he had returned and the goods arrived that I
learned he was insincere, a vile hypocrite, and a dirty, mean, deceitful and
hateful little scoundrel! He came home- went to work against me-arrayed his
two brothers-in-Jaw against me, and sought by the most disreputable means to
defeat me in every respect (Whig, October 27, 1860).
The Parson then, returned to Jonesboro, was struck on the head and
left half-conscious:
�102
CHAPTER NO. 7
While I lay in this condition, my goods arrived in Knoxville-the Williams [sic.]
acting in concert with and under the influence of this deceitful, malicious, and
utterly unprincipled scoundrel, refused them house-room, and they were thrown
out upon the bank. They advised the Captain of the Steamboat to return them
again to Chattanooga, and to sell them there for double freight. While, however,
the Captain was preparing to sell them here, a friend of mine from Carter
County, James W. Nelson, whose remains rest in a grave in this vicinity, chanced
to be here on business, and stepped forward and paid the charges, amounting in
all, to some Seventy Dollars-Nelson and other friends procured an office for me
on Gay Street where Rawlins now has a Hardware Store, and there deposited my
goods.[6]
Brownlow reached Knoxville on May 1, 1849. Eighteen days later,
on May 19, 1849, he produced his first number of Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. He was proud of that issue, not only because he had
surmounted his physical illness and the obstacles placed in the way
of getting the mechanical plant going, but also because it was an
excellent product. Even the Register, eyeing the newcomer with
hostility, complimented it as to size and typography. But it viewed
the Whig's content disdainfully: "We had intended, upon the perusal
of its columns, to reply to some of the things which they contain,
but after some reflection, have concluded not to do so, as everybody
knows Brownlow." [7 J
The Whig editor, in characteristic fashion, had opened fire immediately. His awareness of Crozier's duplicity and other steps taken to
oppose him steamed up his combative disposition. When McKee
boasted that the reorganized Register had a circulation of 3,000,
Brownlow needled back that this figure was melting because many
subscribers were dropping the Register and taking the Whig. He put it
thus:
Nor have we sought, directly or indirectly, to induce any man to quit the
Register and take our paper. They come voluntarily and declare that they have
been "sold to the Dutch"-handed over, soul and body, to the "tender mercies"
of an organized Company of Capitalists, who have purchased the Register, and
placed at its head, the anti-railroad patriots of the late Tribune! (Whig, May 19,
1849).
The Tribune had achieved a reputation of outright opposition to the
construction of the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad from
Dalton, Georgia, to Knoxville, and while its name had disappeared
the editor now was at the helm of the Register.
�THE CRIPPLED INVADER
103
Defiance was a characteristic of the Parson, and it burst out with
this notice in his first Knoxville issue:
To such as have generously informed us, second handed, that we will not be
permitted to do here, as we did in Jonesborough, and that for any abuse of them
or their friends, we will be shot down in the street, we have only to say let them
abuse us, either through the city papers, or in the private circle, and we will
teach them, in terms not to be misunderstood, that they have mistaken their
man. We may not satisfy them that we are a man of richly stored intellect-of
vigorous eloquence-of earnest devotion to truth-and of superiority to all selfish
views-but we will convince them of our incapability of fear (Ibid.).
Before leaving Jonesboro Brownlow had charted a course designed
to gain the support of rank and file readers, especially the rural ones.
In a statement in the Whig, accompanying the prospectus of his
forthcoming newspaper in Knoxville he asserted:
We have no right to expect the patronage of Knoxville, as the different wings
of the Whig party there and of the religious factions have their papers and are
committed to them respectively. These papers, moreover, can be managed by
them, as they long have been-while our press will utterly refuse to wear the
color of any clique. We shall rely upon the real People, in all the counties of East
Tennessee-not on the leaders of parties and cliques in the towns and villages for
our support (Whig, February 5, 1849).
He caught up this theme in his first issue at Knoxville, pointing out
the benefits of competition:
We shall go for all kinds of business being thrown open to free and full competition, and for all classes and conditions of men having restored to them those
equal rights which a certain system of favoritism has been the means of filching
from them. For strenuously asserting such views and maintaining such principles,
those whose selfishness will likely suffer may regard us as laboring under mental
derangement. But if this be lunacy, it is at all events such lunacy as will be
passed for sound and excellent sense in the judgment of the patriotic and intelligent masses of both parties (Whig, May 19, 1849).
Two months later he wrote more bluntly:
The People are against all monopolies-so are we. The people are for Railroads
and a liberal system of Internal Improvements generally-so are we, for the latter
because needed so much, and for the former, because they are demanded by the
masses and are their dues ....
A House-Carpenter, by trade, and a poor man by birth and by raising, our
�104
CHAPTER NO. 7
Above: the home of William G. Brownlow on East Cumberland Avenue in Knoxville (right
in the picture) was taken with the camera facing west, stationed at a point about 400 feet
west of the Coliseum-Auditorium . [McClung Collection, Lawson McGhee Library, University
of Tennessee.]
At top right: this photograph of the west side of Brownlow's home looking east on East
Cumberland was taken in 192 3 by the late Russell Harrison, an artist with the Capper Engraving Co. [McClung Collection, Lawson McGhee Library, Knoxville .)
At bottom right: Parson Brownlow's massive walnut bed was used for many years, certainly
during the Civil War when he was a prisoner under guard at his home. A top piece about 18
inches high and containing another carving has been lost. The bed, thought to resemble the
Lincoln bed in the White House, is now in the home of Mrs. John F. Brownlow, widow of
the Parson's grandson. [Journal Staff Photograph by Hugh Lunsford.)
�THE CRIPPLED INVADER
105
�106
CHAPTER NO. 7
sympathies are with the Mechanics, Farmers and laboring classes. We neither
wish to pull down the rich, nor bolster them up by partial laws, beneficial to
them alone, and injurious to all besides. All we desire is ... that the property of
the rich may be placed on the same footing with the labors of the poor.-The
scrub aristocracy of Knoxville, whose pride we have rather wounded of late,
have recently held us up through the columns of the Register as a man making
fun of poor men and as the enemy of Mechanics! An orphan boy, in the adjoining State of Virginia-raised and schooled by a charitable Uncle-serving a regular
apprenticeship to the Carpenter's trade-having always been poor-and being still
poor-it is highly becoming in us to make sport of poor folks and mechanics!
The idea is so absurd that it needs no contradiction (Whig, july 28, 1849).
The Register maintained only briefly its policy of ignoring Brownlow. By midsummer it described the Whig as "a vile and licentious
newspaper," and called the Parson the "black mail editor." It
accused him of trying to threaten merchants and a bank with reprisals for failure to advertise, and of writing some of the letters he
attributed to correspondents. [8]
The controversy edged over into the religious field as Brownlow
charged McKee and the Register with hostility toward the Methodist
Church. This was not a surprising development because upon coming
to Knoxville the Whig editor had obtained the contract to print the
Methodist Episcopalian, edited by his old friend, Sam Patton. Brownlow and Patton stated that the Whig shop had obtained the contract
by underbidding the previous printer. An unidentified contributor
viciously attacked Patton in the Register. Patton demanded the contributor's name from McKee. The Register editor refused to divulge
it and snatched up for a target this statement by Patton in replying
to a charge that Brownlow exercised a large hand in the Episcopalian's policy: "W. G. Brownlow has never written one line for the
paper we edit, since it came to his office, and probably he never
will-we have never taken one article from the columns of the Whig,
and probably we never will." [9] McKee, with considerable imagination and some gleeful, malicious humor, presented this as "Brownlow
Condemned by His Church," with this elaboration:
But it is a religious phenomenon when one minister of the Gospel considers it
due to his own reputation, and the moral and religious sentiments of his subscribers and the community, to ostracize from his paper the writings of another
minister of the Gospel of his own church of twenty years standing, and who
professes to possess more piety and honesty than any of his companions ....
�THE CRIPPLED INVADER
107
The judgment pronounced upon him from the bosom of his own Church, will
meet with a hearty response . . . . A wholesale and retail dealer in falsehood and
slander, his vanity and love of notoriety has [sic.) spurred him on to hunt up his 1
1
victims with the keen scent, and to pursue them with the ferocity and cruelty of
the bloodhound. Always the assailant, never the first assailed, in order to minister to the morbid and vicious appetites of those who do not consider the evils
he inflicts upon society, or some of them would turn from him in disgust, he has
plunged his poisonous fangs into numberless females, and with the most insatiable cruelty, held them up to the glaring gaze of the world, until some of them
have fled from his presence broken-hearted-bereft of reason, and lain themselves down to die the most pitiable objects of anguish and despair!
The same issue of the Register that construed Patton's statement
as a condemnation by his church also blazoned "The Black Mail
Editor Presented By A Grand Jury!" in reporting that the Whig
editor had been indicted for conducting a lottery. [ 10] Brownlow
had printed an advertisement of a lottery by an eastern firm, but
apparently he had no interest in the outcome, and the charge against
him was dismissed in Anderson County Circuit Court. Before the
charge was dismissed Brownlow had accused the Register of having
carried similar advertisements and reported that two of its financial
backers, Humes and Campbell, each had bought $5.00 tickets in a
lottery. [ 11] He soared into print with this offer:
We propose to Mr. Humes that he can have his church organ taken in [to jail],
and we will carry with us a Methodist Hymn Book, and the best pair of lungs in
Knoxville; and like Paul and Silas, we will make the Prison walls resound with
criminal melody at the hour of midnight! Nay, more, if we don't sing and play
the prison doors open, why then let us serve out our lawful time! (Whig,
December 1, 1849).
This shaft, tinged with Brownlow's sarcastic humor, was the first he
had sent against Humes. Earlier in the war with the Register and its
backers he had written that he did not associate Humes and Sneed
with the hot fire the older newspaper was concentrating upon the
newcomer. The Parson seemed to be a little unsure where Campbell stood and directed most of his wrath against Crozier and McKee,
with a portion for Swan. Perhaps Brownlow's deference to Humes
lay in the fact that he owed the rector for a note of undesignated
amount that the Parson probably contracted before the move to
Knoxville. Humes had sent the note to T. A. R. Nelson at Jonesboro
for collection and in the fall of 1849 asked for its return in order to
�108
CHAPTER NO. 7
make arrangements for payment or additional security.[12] The Parson appears nowhere to have mentioned the obligation.
The controversy took on a sinister cast shortly before the close of
1849. Brownlow accused his enemies of a bold plot to seize by force
his office "and to destroy our presses, type and fixtures." Weapons
had been collected and stored in a law office on Gay Street, and the
assault was planned for a time when the Parson was away from the
plant. The plot was leaked, however. Several of Brownlow's friends,
heavily armed, stationed themselves in front of the Whig office.
Upon the editor's return he and a guard of friends remained in the
office for several days artd nights to repel the attack. It never came.
The Register brushed off the story as something concocted by
Brownlow to enlist sympathy. The Parson threatened to lay evidence
of the plot before the grand jury and invited Swan to sue over the
accusations made in the Whig, but no legal action of any sort followed. In later years Brownlow accused Crozier of having stirred up
the lottery indictment and the plot to destroy the newspaper plant.
Crozier's law office was the place used as a depository for the collected arms, Brownlow claimed. At the time Brownlow reported the plot
he did not identify Crozier by name. [ 13]
It became obvious early in 1850 that after months of ruthless,
furious and envenomed newspaper warfare with words, influence,
trickery and probably an attempted destruction of Brownlow's newspaper plant, the Whig was firmly established in Knoxville. Perhaps a
formal announcement by the Register that it intended to ignore
Brownlow because he was "UNWORTHY OF NOTICE" constituted
such an admission. The Parson so construed it in these triumphant
passages:
Not wishing to be outdone by them (the Register owners and editors] in courtesy, however, we take our leave of them, one and all, in this our New Year's
Address. We take leave of them because they have retired from the field in
disgust, and not because we have discovered they are unworthy of notice. We
deem the "Joint Stock" party altogether worthy of our notice, and pledge
ourselves to the public, that whenever they meddle in our affairs, either publicly
or privately, we will notice them again, as we have been doing, regardless of
consequence (Whig, January 12, 1850).
The Whig editor boasted that his subscription list had gone up as the
Register's had gone down, in spite of the fact that the "vanity,
aristocracy, fictitious capital, and pretended decency of Knoxville is
�THE CRIPPLED INVADER
109
against us, and we desire them to continue their opposition." He
thanked
the PEOPLE of EAST TENNESSEE, for our success, and for a subscription list
superior to any in this division of our State. The People have sympathized with
us in our struggle against Merchants, Banks, Universities, Cliques, and corrupt
money-holders-and it is the People that have written out our subscription list
(Ibid.).
Whig policies that had worked at Jonesboro also proved successful
at Knoxville. The Parson opposed the rich and powerful, championed
the farmer and workman, and strove for mass circulation. This forced
the advertisers to recognize the value of his wide readership, and
thereby, he escaped local domination. His fearlessness let him select
any target, and his confidence that he was among the best in fighting
and writing, as it seemed to be required of most editors, led him to
believe he could command readership. It did. He achieved this strong
position a year and a half after entering Knoxville uninvited. Temple
told of his having held a "consultation on the advisability of moving
with his paper to this larger town," in Knoxville in the spring of
1849, but does not suggest he was urged to do so. He was, as mentioned before, warned to stay away. The Parson acted upon his own
conviction and counted himself as the Whig's major resource. The
blow on the head at Jonesboro failed to stop him, although it left
him close to being an invalid for months. He acknowledged this two
years later. He conceded, "We were sorely afflicted the entire
summer and were not half a man in point of physical strengthalthough we said nothing about it and claimed nothing from that
consideration." [ 14]
As Brownlow opened his second volume in Knoxville, he must
have been in high spirits as he published this summation of the
Register and its backers:
We know whom we have to meet, and we know how to meet them. Restrained by
no principle, moral or religious, by no feelings of humanity, by no mercy for an
intended victim-and destitute of everything like manly courage-the vile men
who are most active in their opposition to us here would consumate [sic.] their
wicked design with the torch of an incendiary, or under the more [sic.] black
and disgraceful flag of the midnight assassin. In the hollow concaves [sic.] of
secret malice, these wanton and fiendish instruments of the Prince of Darkness
regularly convene for our benefit; and the infinitely infernal council held at
Pandemonium, where all the devils meet in 'committee of the whole' to plot
�110
CHAPTER NO. 7
treason against the God of the Universe, afford a more perfect exhibition of the
malice of hell, than is displayed by these miscreants (Whig, May 2 5, 1850).
The Register fought back with everything upon which it could lay
its hand. It reversed its old position of not noticing Brownlow. It
revived the old story that Brownlow had been whipped for stealing
jewelry in Nashville, reveled in reporting that the Parson submitted
to the libel charge in North Carolina brought by Humphrey Posey,
and republished the story of the Whig's war with Landon C. Haynes
and the Tennessee Sentinel, in which the editor's drunken brother,
A. S. Brownlow, had accused him of trying to get him to assassinate
Haynes. As already mentioned, A. S. Brownlow repudiated this statement as having been made when drunk. The Parson had been through
these charges before and he reprinted his answers, with numerous
certificates and thundering accusations. The Whig boldly pronounced
McKee to have been caught as a thief years earlier in upper East
Tennessee. It even relied on its old foe, Haynes, to support the
charge. Brownlow also shifted his fire against the opposition, concentrating on Swan and Campbell rather than on Crozier. He also
identified Campbell as the author of articles published by the
Register attacking Sam Patton; and he hinted he might alter his mild
treatment of Humes. [ 15]
The controversy reached such a pitch late in 1849 that a town
meeting was called to reduce the fury. It failed. Materially the Whig
prospered, in both circulation and advertising volume. The Parson's
confidence that he was on top was reflected in his resumption of his
travels and editorial correspondence that he had neglected during the
early stages of the Knoxville newspaper war. [ 16]
Late in 1854, a few months after a devastating cholera epidemic,
the Register collapsed. McKee assigned his interest to W. C. Kain,
member of a prominent Knoxville family, who attempted to keep
the publication going and to sell it as an operating business. This
failed, and the Register was sold at public auction on January 1,
185 5. The assets brought $2,000, which the Parson graciously estimated was about their value. He rubbed a final application of salt
into the five underwriters by holding that McKee had outsmarted
them by pocketing a political slush fund, running up large and unpaid bills at the stores, and meeting the wages of his help in personal
notes. He complimented McKee because he not only made money,
but he "pocketed it and left his friends and creditors to pay for the
roast." McKee, however, lost his house and moved to Nashville. [ 17]
�THE CRIPPLED INVADER
111
The fallout from the struggle and the collapse of the Register was
extensive. The original backers of the investment lost heavily. James
W. Campbell, clerk of the State Supreme Court and of the United
States District Court, had been directed to quit writing for the Register and was fired from the other clerkship by United States District
Judge West Humphreys. Judge Humphreys replaced Campbell with a
Colonel Cummings, but whether the judge's action was taken because
of Campbell's attacks upon Patton and Brownlow was not apparent.
The Register bitterly resented Campbell's discharge (Whig, May 14,
185 3).
CHAPTER VII NOTES
[ 1) Marginal note by John Bell Brownlow, Whig, May 19, 1849. In 184 7 Knox
County voted 2,126 for the Whig nominee for governor, 573 for the
Democratic nominee; in 1848 it cast 2,140 votes for General Zachary
Taylor, the Whig nominee for President, and 439 for Senator Lewis Cass,
the Democratic nominee. Ibid., November 22, 1848. See also ibid.,
October 18, May 20, 1840.
2) Marginal note by John Bell Brownlow, ibid., May 19, 1849; Arnell, p. 128;
Whig, October 27, 1860.
[ 3) Ibid., Brownlow to Nelson, March 19, 1849. Nelson Papers.
[ 4) Temple, Notable Men, pp. 274, 335; Whig, October 27, 1860. It is unfortunate that no records are available giving Crozier's response to Brownlow's charges. He was too bold and too skillful a lawyer not to have
offered a strong defense.
[ 5) Rule, ed., Standard History, pp. 318, 316, 328; Whig, August 25, 1849.
Sketches of four of the trust deed signers appear in Rothrock, ed., French
Broad-Holston, Crozier, pp. 404-405, Swan, pp. 493-495, Sneed, pp. 487,
488, Humes, pp. 431-432. Detail on Campbell is in the Whig, August 23,
1851, February 12, June 11, 1853.
[ 6) Ibid., October 27, 1860; receipt given to James W. Nelson, in Knoxville,
April 17, 1849, by H. A. M. White, cashier of the Union Bank. James W.
Nelson was in the Brownlow home at Elizabethton the night the editor
was fired upon. John Bell Brownlow marginal note, Whig, February 8,
1843.
[ 7) Ibid., October 27, 1860; Register, May 30, 1849.
[ 8) Ibid., July 25, 1849; Whig, September 8, 1849.
[ 9) Ibid., August 25, June 2, November 10, 24, 1849.
[10) Register, December 1, 1849.
[11) Whig, March 16, 23, 1850, December 1, 1849.
[12) For example, ibid., August 25, 1849; Thomas W. Humes to Nelson,
November 17, 1849. Nelson Papers.
�112
CHAPTER NO.7
[ 13] Whig, December 15, 1849, printed on one sheet of paper, four columns to
each side; ibid., December 19, 1849, quoting Register, December 22,
1849, Whig, December 15, 29, 1849, March 6, 1858, October 27, 1860.
[14] Ibid., January 12, 1850. Temple, Notable Men, pp. 274, 346.
[15] Whig, July 5, August 23, July 5, August 23, June 21, July 5, August 23,
1851.
[16] Ibid., December 22, 1849, March 9, 1850; for editorial correspondence see
October 18, 25, November 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, December 6, 20, 27, 1851,
January 10, 17, 31, February 7, 1852,March 19,26,April2,0ctober15,
29, November 5, 1853.
[17] Register, September 1, 1854, November 25, 1854, February 21, 1855;
Rothrock, ed., French Broad-Holston, p. 348; Whig, January 6, 1855;
Rule, ed., Standard History, p. 316.
�TilE WIIIG.
"Independent in all Things-Neutral in Nothing."
Chapter No. 8
AHEAD OF THE TIMES
Parson Brownlow could deliver smashing blows, but he also knew
how to select vulnerable targets. Upon his arrival in Knoxville he
assailed the Register, as lukewarm, if not actually opposed to the
building of the railroad line from Dalton, Georgia, to Knoxville. The
Parson had always warmly embraced the Whig Party doctrine calling
for a system of internal improvements, and now he riddled his opposition as taking a stand that went against its own party. As mentioned before, McKee had been an editor of the Tribune when that
newspaper had fought railroads. The Register adopted the line that
its critical, or lukewarm, stand on the Dalton line was for the benefit
of the public and helpful to the project because it pointed out mistakes that could be corrected. [ 1]
The Parson, however, charged the Register with repudiating fundamental Whig Party policy and with opposing the public's demand for
better transportation facilities. He made the Whig stand out by carrying far more railroad news than did the Register. In the course of this
policy Brownlow conveyed the impression that McKee was a figurehead and was forced to publish as his own articles written by his
financial backers. The nettled McKee retorted that he was solely
responsible for the Register's editorial position. With considerable
sarcasm and exaggeration Brownlow construed McKee's reply as a
challenge to a duel which he said he could not accept because McKee
had so many masters he would have to fight six men, not one. [2]
These policies, added to the Whig's defiance of the powerful and
the wealthy and its espousal of the interests of the farmer and the
laborer, brought what Brownlow wanted, mass circulation. The first
Whig published in Knoxville claimed a circulation of 2,000, a calculated and gross exaggeration designed to meet the Register's boast of
3,000. For at the close of the first volume on May 18, 1850, Brownlow admitted that the Whig had something more than 1,000 at the
113
�114
CHAPTER NO. 8
outset, and increased it to more than 2,000 only during the year. At
that time he proudly wrote, "The circulation has penetrated into
every state in the Union and has reached almost every class of readers, being taken by all parties, political and religious." [ 3]
The Whig's first quarters in Knoxville were crowded and inadequate but his mechanical equipment was new and up-to-date. He
bought two Washington presses, one at least of the cylinder type
rather than the flatbed utilized at Elizabethton and Jonesboro type
and other print shop equipment. Into the "one-story frame building
on Gay Street, 45 by 18 feet, one square north of the business part
of the city, standing 'solitary and alone' without the advantage of a
lot," which Nelson had obtained for him when he rescued the equipment, Brownlow crowded his two presses, stands, cases and ten
hands.
The original rental was $50.00 a year, but early in 1850 it was
doubled. The Parson offered his note for $100, but additional
security was demanded. Brownlow rounded up fourteen cosigners.
The note, dated January 25, 1850, was given to Barkley McGhee,
"guardian of the minor heirs of A. R. Humes, deceased." This Humes
was a brother of Rector Humes, one of the Register's underwriters
who only a few months earlier had been pressing for the collection of
a note signed by Brownlow. The Parson absolved McGhee of any
spitefulness. He said the pressure came from "a certain unholy alliance in Knoxville and is but another link in the great chain of
opposition to us." [4] The editor solved his rent problem by constructing his own building on the lot where his residence stood on
East Cumberland Avenue. In less than a year he had moved his plant
and office into it, thereby escaping from "a miserable old rat harbor
and shelter for dead pigs," as well as excessive rent. [5] The new
location also freed him from
all obligations to a hateful scrub aristocracy who govern the city under the name
of the "corporate authorities" of this place. We are without the limits of the
corporation-we are residing in that part of the city-ancient and venerableknown as "hardscrabble" upon premises where we cannot be disturbed and
where no pious pretenders, no religious fraud or priestly cunning can double the
price of rent on us (Whig, December 14, 1850).
The Parson got around to gouging his spurs into Rector Humes. The
identification was clear, if not by name. He must have taken care of
the note Humes held.
�AHEAD OF THE TIMES
115
The ten hands, headed by Brownlow's experienced foreman John
W. O'Brien from Jonesboro, made Brownlow's partner upon the
Knoxville move, found the work of composition increasing. By early
1850 the Whig was carrying eleven columns of advertising out of the
newspaper's twenty-four. A year later, with more than two pages of
advertising, Brownlow estimated one issue contained more than $200
of revenue from that source. The Whigs won a smashing victory in
Tennessee in August 1851. They elected William Campbell governor
and won majorities in both houses of the General Assembly. Sweet as
this news was the Parson weighed political victory against the advantages of advertising revenue and came up with this conclusion:
"Owing to a large supply of new advertisements this week, which
must be inserted, we can publish but little of election news."[6]
The Parson's sole selling point for advertising was circulation. He
followed a policy that would drive modern newspapers with their
large sales and promotion staffs frantic; he permitted no solicitation of
advertising. The advertiser had to feel the pull of the Whig's circulation, and Brownlow warned them to see that their own copy was
properly prepared; his staff could not undertake this chore. Once an
advertiser walked into the Whig office, however, he was warmly
treated, and sometimes favored with puffs. This policy appeared to
get out of hand and the Parson avowed on Christmas Day 1852 that
he would run no more of them for free. This rule probably wilted
as did his repeated pledges to sign no more notes, for the puffs
reappeared. [7]
Brownlow produced his first Knoxville Whig with six columns;
before long he shifted to seven, then to eight. He introduced a much
smaller body type which he announced would permit the newspaper
to carry more advertising and news in the same space as previously.
Despite these steps, advertisements soon began to encroach upon the
editorial page space, usually on page two. The Parson also adopted a
tougher subscription policy, one he described as the "Pay-Down
System." He had required that out-of-state subscriptions be accompanied by the $2.00 annual charge. He now extended it to all subscribers. Even advertisers felt this rule: cash was required with the
advertisements to be inserted, exceptions being made for Knoxville
merchants and those placing legal notices. [8]
Brownlow and his original Knoxville partner, John W. O'Brien,
parted company late in 1852. O'Brien went to Loudon to publish the
�116
CHAPTER NO. 8
Free Press. The Parson announced in a few days that "having disposed of my office two weeks ago to a good printer who pays me in
services, I shall now give my whole attention to the editorial management," but he mentioned no names, and on the front page the usual
legend of ownership and management read "William G. Brownlow,
Editor and Proprietor." Just before the close of 185 3 the editor
announced that "W. G. O'Brien, who has acted as foreman in our
office for some time," was being sent out to collect delinquent
accounts. [9]
The details of management are obscure for eight months because
the files of the Whig from January 28 to October 7, 1854, are missing. The resumed files show W. G. O'Brien and H. K. Lathim as
publishers and proprietors, and as the Register expired significant
changes were forecast. The publishers and Brownlow announced the
Whig would be printed "on a new power press, with new type and an
entire dress of new materials." Brownlow would remain as editor,
but "a new and competent gentleman, who comes into the concern,
will take charge of the local and advertising columns, and the entire
business department. [ 10]
The announcements that followed suggested that the changes to
be made required financing and experience more extensive than was
possessed by O'Brien and Lathim. Three Kinsloe brothers-W. A. and
E. P. B. of Philadelphia, and J. B. G.-the last already in the printing
business in Knoxville, joined forces and began publication of the
Whig, the Register, the Presbyterian Witness and the Southern
journal of Medical and Physical Sciences, along with which business
was a bindery. J. B. G. became the Register publisher with Hardin P.
Shannon as editor. E. P. B. purchased the subscription list, advertising custom and good will or the Whig, and retained "its old, fearless, independent and successful editor, Dr. Brownlow," who had
"exclusive control of the editorial columns."
Brownlow's contract was with William Augustus Kinsloe, who
agreed to pay the Parson $2,000 for the newspaper's good will,
patronage, subscription and advertising properties. Payment was to
be made in installments: $500 on April 1, 1855, $500 on or before
October 1, 1855, and $1,000 on or before April 1, 1856. The sale
did not "include any portion of the materials now belonging to said
Whig office, nor any debts due said office for advertising or job
work," up to the contract date of February 5, 1855.
The Kinsloes obviously continued to use the Whig plant in East
�AHEAD OF THE TIMES
117
Knoxville until their new equipment was installed in a Gay Street
building. [ 11] Brownlow made his headquarters in his "sanctum in
East Knoxville," and advertised his old equipment for sale.
He was glad to shed the burden of publishing and devote himself
to the happier task of writing. He had gone through a long and arduous struggle with the Register; he had beat off an attempt to unionize his workmen, which was started in 1851 and collapsed early in
1852, and which he claimed was instigated by McKee and the Register; and he had remained in Knoxville during the cholera epidemic
in 1854, helping as he could the few hundred people remaining after
thousands fled. [ 12] He permitted himself this congratulation:
This is an arrangement I have long desired to complete, so as to secure for the
paper its publication after a style, alike creditable to its Proprietors, and
becoming the growing interest of our City; and next, so as to give my entire time
to its editorial management, that I may make it, as I believe I can and will do,
second to no Journal in the South and West.
I will remain the sole editor of the paper-the judge of what goes into its
columns-the owner of its exchange list, and, as should be the case under the
circumstances, I will be alone responsible for what appears in its columns of an
offensive character. I am not insensible to the responsibility of this position, but
I have assumed it of choice, and without any hesitancy (Whig, February 10,
1855).
The Kin sloes cleaned up the front page of the Whig, which Brownlow had cluttered with rules, two mottoes and the double title of the
newspaper. Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, in reduced but clean sharp
72-point, letter spaced type, was all that remained at the top of the
page, even the words An Independent journal being swept aside. The
new body type was Old Style Caslon 4 71, condensed so that it gave
7.2 more characters to the line than that previously used. This represented a substantial gain in wordage when applied to a 32-column
newspaper. Also introduced was a column rule with a slightly wider
base so that more white space appeared between the columns of
body type. The Whig's appearance was more professional, and the
additional space available for news and advertising was considerable.
The Parson estimated that the new dress "requires about three times
the amount of copy" previously needed. It also was the first time
that the word "copy," now in general use in print shops, newspapers
and other places preparing materials for reproduction, was used by
Brownlow. [13]
The arrangement for a separate, or joint, company to assume
�118
CHAPTER NO. 8
responsibility for the mechanical, advertising, business and circulation operations of two competing newspapers, while each publication
retained its editorial identity, was far in advance of its time. In recent
years such developments have taken place in many major cities, as
dailies, faced with crushing costs, resorted to such organizations to
stave off financial ruin. The competing newspapers engaging in such
arrangements today often represent opposite political views, and
have different hours of publication, as morning and afternoon. The
Whig and the Register, although distinctively flavored by the writing
of the respective editors, Brownlow and John M. Fleming, were both
based on Whiggery. They supported the American or Knox-Nothing
Party, something of a refuge for many former Whigs as that party
disintegrated. The only major difference was that the Register came
out on Thursday, the Whig on Saturday. While in Nashville Brownlow sent Fleming an item for publication in the Register that he
believed would be harmful to the candidacy of Democrat Andrew
Johnson, who was running for a second term as governor. The Parson
had weighed against the rule that one newspaper never helps another
get news the importance of getting the story to injure Johnson in the
first newspaper published. He was willing to sacrifice an item for the
Whig in order to damage Johnson at the earliest moment. The Whig
also republished from the Register an article seeking to justify the
use of smaller type in advertisements, a point in which they had a
common interest. [ 14 J
The Kinsloes also picked up type from both newspapers to fill the
columns of the American Campaigner, an American Party propaganda sheet which reached a circulation of 12,000, and in the fall of
1856 prior to the national election the Whig reported 6,000 subscribers. Late in 1854 the Parson reported it required two men hand
operating the press to run off 2,500 Whigs. The partnership solved its
much larger circulation by installing a steam engine that had been
manufactured in Knoxville. [15]
Brownlow found another outlet for his energies in the Sons of
Temperance, a secret organization founded in 1842 and chartered in
Tennessee in 1848. The Parson was a confirmed foe of alcoholic
beverages, and the order also offered him opportunities to travel and
to speak. The Sons sported fancy and colorful regalia; white, red and
blue collars to distinguish the divisions; with "rosettes of blue, white
and red ribbons." The Whig gave extensive coverage to the organization's activities. [ 16]
�119
AHEAD OF THE TIMES
Opposition to the order sometimes arose in church circles. Brownlow debated the question with a Baptist preacher from Dandridge
who "avowed that he made liquor, that he drank it, and that he
loved it," at the Sulphur Spring Campground in Jefferson County.
Brownlow routed the Baptist, according to the Whig's account. The
Sons were present in force and in regalia, and after six hours of
debate the members of the order, led by a band, "marched around
the encampment." The audience was so large the Parson described it
as "a sea of heads, spread out before us." [ 17] Regardless of who
made the greatest impression as a debater [and Brownlow was most
adept at this kind of encounter] , the editor-preacher had dramatized
his appearance and built his name and that of his newspaper more
firmly into the minds of hundreds.
CHAPTER VIII NOTES
[ 1] Whig, May 19, June 2, 1849; Register, May 30, July 25, 1849. Green was
not a success in this project. Rothrock, ed., French Broad-Holston, p. 106.
[ 2] Wbig, June 2, 16, July 7, 1849. For examples of railroad coverage see
ibid., May 19, June 2, 16 and thereafter; ibid., July 28, 1849.
[ 3] Ibid., May 19, 1849, May 18, 1850.
[ 4] Ibid., October 27, 1860, February 2, 1850; Rothrock, ed., French BroadHolston, p. 471; Whig, February 2,1850.
[ 5] Ibid., November 30, December 14, 1850.
[ 6] Ibid., February 2, May 19, February 5, March 9, 1850; February 15,
August 23, 1851; Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 230; Whig, August 23,
1851.
[ 7] Ibid., May 19, 1849, December 25, 1852, February 26, April2, 1853.
[ 8] Ibid., May 19, November 24, 1849, October 1, 1853, January 1, 1854.
[ 9] Ibid., September 11, October 2, 1852, June 2, December 24, 1853.
[ 10 I One issue for the period of the missing files appears in a microfilm miscellany, ibid., September 30, 1854. McClung Collection. O'Brien and
Lathim appear as partners after the lapse of files, ibid., September 7,
December 30, 1854.
[11] Ibid., March 14, 1855; Register, February 21, 1855; Whig, February 10,
1855; Ben Harris McClary, Ed., "The Sale of Brownlow's Knoxville Whig;
An 'Article of Agreement between William Augustus Kinsloe and William
G. Brownlow,'" ETHS PUBL. No. 35, pp. 96-99; hereafter cited as
McClary.
[12] Whig, April 7, March 18, 1855, July 26, August 9, 16, September 6, 1851,
January 10, 1852, October 11, November 4, September 30 (this issue is in
newspaper miscellany, not on microfilm. McClung Collection) 1854.
�120
CHAPTER NO. 8
[13] For examples of old and new front pages see ibid., March 24, May 5, 1855,
for the Parson's estimate of copy required, May 5, 1855.
[14] Register, June 21, 1855; Whig, April 21, 1855, April12, 1856.
[15] Ibid., April 12, 1856, October 4, 1856, December 23, 30, 1854, June 9,
1855.
[16] Ibid., September 14, October 12, November 23, 30, 1850, January 11,
1851, and thereafter for years, September 27, 1851.
[17] Ibid., June 14, 21, 1851.
�"Put None on Guard but Americans."
Chapter No. 9
THE BUSY PEN
The voice was William G. Brownlow's first instrument for reaching
and influencing people. He directed it principally at Methodist and
camp meeting congregations. But soon he saw that the printed word
was both more lasting and carried further in the controversies into
which he naturally gravitated. Today no written record of his sermons remains. But the printed accounts of his struggles on political
and religious issues, written by his hand, were contained in nine
books, eight of which may be found, several pamphlets, a publication
in his quarrel with the Rev. Frederick Ross, first quarterly and then
monthly, and the files of the Whig, for which he wrote for more than
twenty-eight years. He was, however, proud of his powerful voice
and he used it unsparingly[l] until it failed him just when he had
relied upon it to serve him in a forum of national importance on one
of the great issues of the day. He abjectly wrote to his opponent in
the debate to be held in Philadelphia, in September 1858, on "Ought
American Slavery to be Perpetuated?" that his voice had failed him,
and he asked for a postponement. The Rev. Abram Pryne, prepared
to take the negative side, declined, and the Parson was forced to hear
his arguments spoken by a reader. [2] Brownlow's pen never failed
him. It scratched on for years.
The young preacher dashed off his first pamphlet, entitled
"Address to the Hiwasseans, on the Subject of Sabbath Schools," in
1830, and two years later two more. He opposed the South Carolina
nullification movement in the first, and defended himself for the
libel conviction which Humphrey Posey obtained against him in the
second. [ 3] His first book, Helps to the Study of Presbyterianism,
already mentioned, took some licks at the Baptists, and in 1842 he
gave this denomination the benefit of a full scale work of 229 pages.
Brownlow started it as a series of articles in the Whig, incorporating
them into a book. [4]
121
�122
CHAPTER NO. 9
The Parson's first full length book on national affairs was a campaign document designed to help the candidacy of Henry Clay for
President. He published it at Jonesboro.[5] A banner year was 1856,
in terms of quantity production. The Parson turned out two volumes. One arose from another controversy between Methodists and
Baptists, and the second was a mixture of political and religious
issues. The arrangement with the Kinsloes freed him from business
management of the Whig and gave him greater opportunity to write.
The Parson produced The Great Iron Wheel Examined: or its False
Spokes Extracted, and an Exhibition of Elder Graves, its Builder, in a
Series of Chapters. [6] The Rev. J. R. Graves, pastor of a large Baptist church in Nashville and editor of the Tennessee Baptist, published in that city, had written The Great Iron Wheel; or Republicanism Backwards and Christianity Reversed [Nashville, 1856]. The
book was a collection of letters that first appeared in the Tennessee
Baptist. Graves addressed them to Methodist Bishop Joshua Soule,
who lived in the Nashville area. The Baptist clergyman portrayed the
Methodist church organization as monarchial, with its leaders resembling the outer edge of a great iron wheel, while turning inside it
were thousands of small wheels representing lesser pastors and members. The Methodists themselves used the illustration to describe
favorably their church organization. Graves called attention to the
lack of freedom which the inner wheels enjoyed, in contrast to the
Baptist principle of self-government by the individual churches.
Graves also described Methodism as "the popery of Protestantism,"
and told the church: "According to your own frank admissions,
your Mother is the Episcopal Church, and this church is called by
Christ a harlot and an abomination, and your Grandmother is the
Church of Rome-the great whore and mother of harlots .... " [7]
Bishop Soule, who had preached since he was seventeen and had
now reached his seventy-fourth year, ignored the letters, but other
Methodists felt an answer was necessary. Among them was the Parson. In later years he revealed that he wrote the reply to Graves at
the solicitation of agents for the Methodist Publishing House in Nashville. [8] It was such a splendid opportunity to engage in a church
controversy on a broad scale that the Parson probably relished it.
Some sentiment may have entered into his decision, for it was at a
Holston Conference at Abingdon, Virginia, in 1826, presided over by
Bishop Soule, that Brownlow received his first appointment to a
Methodist Circuit.
�THE BUSY PEN
123
Harsh as Graves had been in his diatribe against the Methodist
Church, he had not resorted to insulting personalities. The Parson
maintained no such delicacy. He ridiculed and castigated in characteristic fashion. At one point he accused Graves of telling twenty-five
falsehoods in twelve pages. The book was a commercial success for in
1862, when a new edition was published, it was reported that
100,000 copies of the first had been sold. Brownlow disclaimed having made any profit out of the book, although it had paid the agents,
Stevenson & Evans, reasonably. He was mortified when a South
Carolinian inquired by letter if he and Graves had conspired to create
the controversy in order to stimulate the sale of the book. The
Parson denied having entered into such a dastardly deal, and also
vindicated Graves from any such "infamy."[9]
Close upon the heels of this book, Brownlow brought out Americanism Contrasted with Foreignism, Romanism and Bogus Democracy, in the Light of Reason, History and Scripture; in which
Certain Demagogues, in Tennessee and elsewhere, Are Shown Up in
their True Colors [Nashville, 1856], hereafter referred to as Americanism Contrasted. In announcing that it was ready for sale, the
author correctly described it as "Our Book for the Campaign." The
major portion of its 200 pages consisted of a polemic against the
Roman Catholic Church and the Democratic Party and accused them
of a political alliance. Brownlow expanded the work with a number
of editorials from the Whig and a bitter speech he made against
Andrew Johnson in Nashville after the latter's reelection as governor
in 1855. The Parson, having cast his lot with the American Party,
supported Millard Fillmore in his forlorn 1856 race against Democrat
James Buchanan and Republican John C. Fremont. Buchanan won,
and the Democrats carried Tennessee by a majority of almost
7 ,500. {10]
Graves had been preparing another blast against the Methodists
even as he wrote the first book. It was The Little Iron Wheel, a
Declaration of Christian Rights and Articles, Showing the Despotism
of Episcopal Methodism [Nashville 1856], by H. D. Bascomb, D.D.
Bascomb, formerly a Methodist bishop, had written a critical piece
on the tight control at the top of the Methodist organization and
sympathized with fellow preachers who had called for more republicanism. Graves picked up Bascomb's work and applied it to his own
"Notes of Application and Illustration." He also found room to include the well-frayed story of Brownlow's submission on a charge of
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libel in the Humphrey-Posey case, and of A. S. Brownlow's repudiated affidavit that the Parson had tried to get him to murder Landon
Haynes. Graves did not mention the repudiation. [ 11]
Brownlow got out a final book in the controversy, The "Little
Iron Wheel" Enlarged; or Elder Graves, its Builder, Daguerreotyped,
by way of an Appendix. To which are Added Some Personal Explanations [Nashville, 1857]. Much of the book was given over to
villification of Graves, but the Parson also included his defense in the
Posey and A. S. Brownlow affairs, and tacked on a "sermon" on
slavery he had delivered at the opening of the Southern Commercial
Convention at Knoxville the same year as the book was published.
Thus padded, the book contained 137 pages, but as in Graves' second
work they were sized much smaller than the first two works by the
combatting authors. [12] Brownlow must not have viewed this work
with much satisfaction, for he neglected to mention it in the files
that are available, much less to promote it, in the Whig.
All traces of a book on temperance and a defense of the Sons of
Temperance which Brownlow wrote in 1850 seem to have disappeared. It consisted of 112 pages in twenty-six chapters, but the author
did not print its title and copies of it are not available. [ 13] Two
more books lay in the Parson's future. One he would co-author with
his opponent, the Rev. Abram Pryne. It would be an account of the
debate on salvery in Philadelphia. The other would be his most famous, his story of the events leading up to the Civil War, his closing
of the Whig, his imprisonment, release and triumphant and profitable
tour of the North. But they belong to the later era when the crisis
intensified and exploded into conflict.
The prevailing historical view of the Parson presents him as a
whirling dervish of hatred, dedicated to the evil art of denouncing,
and constantly on the search for new and more lurid controversies.
His books and a first look at his newspaper support this impression.
His friend 0. P. Temple wrote of the Jonesboro Whig under the
Parson's direction: "There was not in the United States such another
volcano as this paper became, constantly muttering, seething and
boiling. Woe to the man on whom this storm bursts." [ 14]
But the Parson had a talent, somewhat lost to history, that of a
roving reporter. He displayed it first in depth as he attended the
inauguration of William Henry Harrison in 1841, and later went on
to the great cities of the East. As he roved the Southeast and East in
the years that followed, he satirized and caricatured his fellow man.
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His moods ranged from the amused to the somber, his eye falling at
one moment on foodstuff, then on whiskey, and from it to church
edifices and their congregations. The Parson compressed great variety
into his dispatches. He wrote from Chattanooga in the spring of 1851
of bustling business, new manufacturing plants, the price of bacon,
corn and flour, and wound up with two criticisms. The Parson
thought that townspeople were getting too much whiskey to drink,
judging from the barrels at the landing, and while the Methodists had
"a large and commodious house of worship," the Presbyterians,
"who have means and influence, worship God in an old rat harbor
and dirt pen of which they individually ought to be ashamed. They
live in fine houses-they sell goods in comfortable houses, but they
worship God in the verriest [sic.] hog pen in the place."[lS] The
Parson hoped that his criticism would stir the Presbyterians to do
something about their church structure. He also was distressed on his
first visit to Augusta, Georgia, to find there Tennessee bacon "badly
cured and badly smoked" and Tennessee butter so carelessly packed
it was soiled with dirt. [16] He sent home information for farmers
and shippers, and in Savannah he spoke on the development of trade
relations between Knoxville and the coastal city. When he spoke he
competed with a singer and the British author, William Makepeace
Thackeray, then lecturing in the United States. [ 17]
The sessions of the Tennessee General Assembly attracted Brownlow to Nashville, but the hews he sent home extended beyond legislative and political affairs. A speech he made on temperance "took
tolerably well," but he was bored with a Methodist preacher who
spoke at McKendree Church and
complained of being unwell, which was fortunate for the congregation, judging
from the length of his sermon. Had he been well, he might have been preaching
until now! In this truth-filled universe, where all the important principles in
nature and in morals are at the fingers end of any hearer, there is no reasonable
excuse for a preacher to obtrude a long discourse upon a congregation-especially a city congregation, accustomed to hear two and three sermons each
Sabbath. Preachers ought to have pity upon their hearers, and not persecute
them until they are forced to stay at home! (Whig, November 22, 1851).
The Parson gave considerably more space-and surprising respect-to
a discourse by a Roman Catholic priest delivered the same afternoon.
He toured the Cumberland River wharf to report on cargoes and
prices. The weather was cold, the mercury hovering a few degrees
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above zero, [ 18] but tempers were steaming as
F. K. Zollicoffer and John L. Marling, editors of the Banner and Union, each
with two or more friends, were on the Square, loaded down to the guards, with
implements-not of husbandry, but of uncivil warfare, when the city authorities
arrested both parties, and bound them over to the peace, in bonds of $5,000
each. The cause was crimination and recrimination, in their editorials. The
parties are understood to be game (Whig, January 31, 1852).
Among the doctors, also, denunciations were being offered in the
newspapers and in handbills, and challenges were being written. No
one was killed but hostility was strong. The Parson assured his readers, "I take no part in these contests but look quietly on (Ibid.).
On the train to Memphis in the spring of 1857 he exchanged
frothy chaff with Isham G. Harris, who was running for governor on
the Democratic ticket. In Somerville, where he visited a relative, he
denounced the Agricultural Bank of Brownsville as a wildcat operation, then turned full circle on the human race and praised "jim
Findlay, the polite and accomplished Barber, a gentleman of color,
alike opposed to Sagnichtism and Black Republicanism ... in waiting
on me at my room."[19]
The Parson rated himself as a trencherman of the highest order,
and in 1851 when Dr. Jeptha Fowlkes, his friend and fellow editor,
entertained him in Memphis, he marvelled at the menu offered by
the U.S. Hotel:
only think of soup, roast beef, boiled mutton with sauce, good sallad [sic.),
ham, and vegetables, green peas, buffalo-tongue, rice blance mange [sic.], jelly,
and custards, nice puddings, nuts of every kind, strawberries and cream, and ice
water to cool off on! Had it not been that these are cholera times, I should have
gone it stronger than I did (Whig, May 31, 1851).
Brownlow was in Memphis to deliver an address on the evils of
intemperance-in alcoholic beverages. A few days later at Holly
Springs, Mississippi, he encountered a breakfast so revolting he
moaned:
But what had we? A plate of rancid butter, beautifully mixed with dirt, to make
it palatable-some crude and indigestible fat meat-some eggs so old as to be all
of a color inside, the White having turned yellow-some coffee, supposed to have
been made of rye or chestnuts-some bread with streaks of dirt running diagonally through pones, the latter resembling in form and scent, the dirty negro wench
at the head of the table, dishing out the coffee! With the most penitent humility,
�THE BUSY PEN
127
I closed my eyes upon all terrestial objects, and forced a little of this matter into
my unoffending stomach (Whig, June 7, 1851).
Sometimes the Parson gorged himself. At Huntsville, Alabama, in
1857, he "partook of the finest dinner I have sat down to in twelve
months. I have not fully recovered from the effect of the founder
yet."[20] Six years earlier, while staying at a Nashville boarding
house, he remained indoors one Sunday because he was "absolutely
unwell, from eating too much." The Parson and five boarders, all
sleeping in one room with three beds, stretched themselves out and
bellowed this praise of the landlord's fare:
Oh, carve me another slice,
Oh! help me to more gravy still,
There's nought so sure as something nice
To conquer care, or grief to kill.
"I always loved a bit of beef,
When youth and bliss, and hope were mine,
And now it gives my heart relief,
In sorrow's darksome hour to dine"
(Whig, December 13, 1851).
Pretty women, as well as food, caught the Parson's fancy. When Miss
Julia Dean appeared at the Adelphi Theater in Romeo and juliet and
The Duke's Wages, he proclaimed her "one among the prettiest
women in America," and as she crossed a muddy street in Nashville,
"The grace with which she raised her petticoat, and the manner in
which its ample folds did undulate, would have charmed John Randolph, a woman hater." [21]
Brownlow found New Orleans so large that he could see but little
of it in a week. This he learned when he went there early in 1858 to
open a lecture series sponsored by the Mercantile Library Association, a fund-raising operation. He described its churches, hotels,
markets, theaters, cemeteries, harbor and rail facilities, but strangely
for a city renowned as a gastronomic center, he did not mention his
experiences at table (Whig, January 30, 1858). The darling of the
Parson's eye among Southern cities was Memphis, and in her attractions, especially her feminine ones, he revelled, as he stopped on the
first leg of a tour in the spring of 1858. Even some of the Memphis
disadvantages attracted his attention:
The streets of Memphis are in a worse condition than any streets I ever
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CHAPTER NO. 9
beheld. The mud is deeper, softer, filthier, meaner, and more universally diffused
over the city, than any mud, in any civilized town on this continent.... They
have no paved streets here, and no materials with which to pave streets ... .
The Irish, known as "the chain gang," are profitably employed in opening out
crossing places for each square, on the principal streets. These fill up during the
day and night, and are to reopen every morning. It has changed my opinions in
part, as to the necessity of a foreign population here. They are useful here, and
seem to be answering the end of their creation. They commit offenses-are
cast into the City Prison-and then made to work out their fines and costs at
50 cents per day; [sic.] in shoveling up mud in the streets. Now, if they could be
kept in this kind of employment, and not allowed to control the elections of the
country, I am not opposed to an increase of our foreign population!
Yesterday was a beautiful day over head, and despite the mud, the ladies were
out, in crowds, with fascinating symmetry of form, rustling silks, ruddy cheeks,
flowing tresses, and expanded hoops!-Hoops are not adapted to mud, or the
mud is not adapted to hoops. They sweep over too wide a space and drag too
much mud after them. I stood still on the side walks and gazed in profound
astonishment at the pit-a-pat glide of the damsels in slippers, as bewitching as the
skip of a fawn, holding up hoops and all in front, to the knees, exhibiting well
turned andes [sic.], while all in the rear was dragging heavily in the mud!
Slippers, like crepe shawls, should yield to the season, and the ladies, to a man,
especially in Memphis, should wear boots .... The rough tramp of boots, on the
pavement, concealing legs and andes [sic.], would atone for the bounding swell
in crinoline! (Whig, March 20, 1858).
The Parson left this entrancing subject, probably with great reluctance, to report on markets and finances. He mentioned that flour
ground in Knoxville was being used in Memphis and giving great
satisfaction (Ibid.). But he soon turned to the luxurious appointments of the recently opened Gayoso House, where he was staying.
His dispatch dripped with praise of it. He described it as "the finest
hotel South of the Potomac." He reported that the building, halls
and rooms were exceptional in size and
its furniture is magnificent, and its carpeting rich and costly, The bedsteads are
all of mahogany and rosewood; the matrasses [sic.] are of superior quality, with
springs, and the bed clothes and linen corresponding. The chairs are of mahogany, with spring bottoms. The washstands and bureaus are adorned with Italian
marble tops! while damask curtains, guilded [sic.] cornices, and silken tassels
adorn the windows .... The house is lighted up with gas, from gas works in the
back yard, belonging exclusively to the house. In each room is a beautiful
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129
chandelier, with from three to six burners, according to the size of the room;
and each hall, or large passage, is lighted up by a half dozen of these chandeliers.
The dining room is richly ornamented and furnished, and is much the largest I
have ever seen-it is even fifteen feet longer than that of the St. Nicholas in New
York. No less than eight large chandeliers, lighted with gas, throw a flood of
golden light upon the six tables of vast length, loaded with shining silver
plate[s], dazzling cut glass, superb white dishes ... (Ibid.).
While the Parson was staying at the Gayoso a festival and ball were
held to celebrate the opening. Apparently this event fell on Thursday
night, prayer meeting night perhaps, for the editor attended a religious service. When he returned to the hotel at 10:00 p.m. he found
the flower and chivalry of five states-Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Kentucky-dancing with gay and glittering
abandon, a thousand strong. The scene captivated Brownlow's eyes
and pen, and he wrote this ecstatic review:
I entered the ball room, and occupied the music stand for two hours, where I
could scrutinize all that was passing, learn something of human nature, and gaze
upon the fair daughters of the South, robed in costly attire, with forms and
faces, making even a married man forget that he had a family, and so fascinating
him as to make him "wish I were a boy again."-They were all ladies of the first
class, whose splendid dresses, ease and grace of manners, made them "the observed of all observers." The style of dress is new, indicating a pure and cultivated taste, greatly admired, and producing a bewitching effect upon gentlemen!
Full and flowing robes are the go now-dazzling colors, such as pink, pure
white, velvet jets, blue and dove-colored satins, striped and plaid silks, with
numerous heavy flowers, each supporting a figured lace flounce, with Scotch
plaid velvet, or ribbon bows in the back and front; and up the sides of some,
velvet and ribbon lozenges rose in pyramids, while the sleeves were ornamented
with puffs, frills and fringes! costly and beautiful necklaces, bracelets, earrings,
breast pins; and wreathes upon the brow, and other descriptions of ornaments,
turned all eyes to the ladies.!
Now I wish to say that I believe in hoops, and for two hours, from the most
favorable standpoint, in this unequaled ball room, I tested their beauty and
advantages, with the aid of eight brilliant chandeliers. Observe, ladies. I say
hoops, using the plural number. Shame on your clumsy, single hoop, made of a
hickory pole, or an oak split, which many of our ladies in our small towns use,
wearing them about opposite the knee, showing its entire and rough shape
through a flimsy skirt, dragging the dress down by its weight to the shape of a
cone, while the twelve or fourteen inches of the dress below the hoop, tucks
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under, and flaps in and out, as the weight of mud, or the force of the wind may
require!
The hoops used on this great occasion are the hoops for me. They are made
of rattan, whalebone, and brass, extending from the waist to the feet, only two
or three inches apart, gradually increasing in size, as they fall downward, with
that graceful swell that gives to the dress the airy contour of the handsomely
inflated balloon, preserving the lovely mien touching circumference that never
fails to captivate a gentleman of modesty and good taste, such as I claim to be!
These hoops make a skirt look uniformly graceful, as I can bear witness, and
when the outer dress is raised a few inches by the lady, as she glides around in
the dance, the flounces, needlework, and lace on the petticoat show to great
advantage ....
I am no advocate of dancing, and never tried the exercise in my life, but I
could not resist the temptation to look on at this scene, for largely upwards of
one hour. My "vulgar curiosity" was satisfied, however, in seeing fifty fellows
with long beards, goatees, and huge whiskers, playing the waltz or polka, with as
many charming ladies. "He quadrilles-she polkas," was the exclamation! One
feature of the waltzing got me. It was to see a young fellow dressed and perfumed within an inch of his life, squeezing a lady tight around the waist, with
one arm, and with the other, as they mingled with, and cross[ed] each other in
pairs, in the dance, gently lifting her dress, and she occasionally raising it higher,
all, however, to keep it off the floor, and the lady leaning up to him like a sick
kitten to a hot brick-bat! In those squeezing quadrilles, I noticed the hoops were
rather in the way! (Ibid.).
The Parson retired at midnight, but he was told the dancing continued until daylight. The conduct of the crowd drew from him this
compliment: "Though one thousand ladies and gentlemen were present, none were drunk, none were rude-all was order, and gentlemanly propriety. It was, out and out, a display of brilliant enjoyment, the like of which is seen only in a lifetime!" The gawky,
ill-garmented young preacher, so grotesque that he had once been
made sport of on the streets of Knoxville, had come a long way.
Before Brownlow left Memphis he attended the funeral of the
Rev. William C. Ross, the presiding elder of the Memphis District.
Mingled with the Parson's somber observations on the death of his
fellow preacher was more of his philosophy that life is to be enjoyed:
"He was one of my sort of men. He put on no long face-he exhibited no sour godliness-he was cheerful, possessing a fine flow of
spirits, and yet dignified and religious." [22]
The editor's coverage of the Memphis ball must have set tongues
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131
wagging up every hollow in East Tennessee. It probably generated
some whoops from the compositors in the Whig shop as they set his
copy. He had found much to condemn and little to commend in the
East Tennessee social scene, where the planter aristocracy existed
only on a small scale. Six years before he wrote the Memphis letters,
he had loosed indignation against men who spat tobacco juice and
women who dipped snuff during church services. He had taken off
on the men first, then turned to the other sex with:
Dipping! Ladies dipping! Oh! ecstatic bliss, to have the pleasure of sitting for
hours with a snuff bottle in one's lap, enervating the system, destroying the
constitution by a practice alike profitless and disgusting. We conceive the practice of using the snuff box and brush, in Church by ladies as rediculous [sic.) as
that of chewing tobacco by gentlemen (Whig, june 19, 1852).
The Parson gave a spicy, racy touch to a report on the opening of
the General Conference of the Methodist Church, South, at Nashville
in May 1858. He covered the religious and historical aspect of the
gathering, paid a high tribute to the presiding bishop, Joshua Soule,
found him in excellent health for one who had been ministering since
1799, reviewed the legislative and spiritual affairs of the conference
(Whig, May 15, 1858), and then produced an account which must
have raised eyebrows and brought gasps across the South. He heard
the Rev. P. P. Neely of the Alabama Conference preach a sermon at
famous McKendree Church that for "beauty, rhetoric and eloquence
was fully equal to my highest expectations." The chmch was filled to
capacity and Brownlow admitted he had gone out of "sheer curiosity" because Neely, in 1819, had brought scandal on his head by
being found by police
on Water Street, in the yard of one of the houses of ill fame, at a late hour of the
night, in conversation with the inmates of the dwelling. He had gone among
them, as he said, in company with a Local Preacher, in disguise, with a view to
see something of human nature in that line of business. He was then tried in
Church and acquitted and was not believed to have had any criminal intentions.
I do not believe he intended anything wicked, but it certainly was the most
imprudent act I ever know a Minister guilty of, who had a decent wife, as he
had. It has crippled him from that day to this, and he will never survive it....
The most remarkable feature of the case was the crowd of ladies in attendance, both young and old. I was there the previous night, and heard an eloquent
sermon by a Georgian, but there were not half as many ladies present. The
curiosity of women is far greater than that of men. The ladies were of the first
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CHAPTER NO. 9
respectability, and perfectly familiar with the outlines of the case; they were
attracted to the spot by a desire to see and hear the man who had been arrested
on the notorious Water Street under the circumstances detailed (Whig, May 15,
1858).
This form of curiosity, the Parson observed, was not unusual, for in
Washington women frequently asked to have pointed out a Mormon
in the House of Representatives who had twelve wives, "supposing
him to present some extra appearance over and above the man who
seems to be content with living with one woman!" Should Brigham
Young have an appointment in Nashville, Brownlow predicted, the
public square could not "contain the ladies who would attend, and
ladies of respectability at that." Brownlow, having scolded the
women for their strong curiosity in unusual domestic affairs, then
showered them with compliments on their physical charms:
I have never seen so many beautiful, elegant and lovely women together on any
occasion. I have gazed upon them as they have gracefully glided by me on the
pavements-as they have ascended and descended the several flights in the steps
in the capitol-as they have been seated in the galleries and at church, and still
the wonder grew that so much silk and so many hoops could encircle the angelic
forms of so many lovely and beautiful women! All I regret is that skirtdom is
still expanding, and the fashions in vogue are still increasing the distance be·
tween man and woman! At one moment I feel like exclaiming, "Oh, that I were
a boy again!" The next moment I feel indignant at hoops and feel willing to join
a regiment of good men in a vigorous assault upon the ratine, whalebone, cords,
brass and steel -that have put asunder what God hath said ought to be joined
together! Only think of the display on our streets, in the State capitol, at
church, and in the parlor, of the grand, graceful and undulating skirts, looming
up all around one, fascinating, charming, and swinging to and fro, like so many
things of life! Talk about the grandeur of a first class steamer or a train of cars
propelled by steam! Give me a train of hooped skirts, under the folds of which
are so many living, breathing locomotives, standing five feet ten inches in slip·
pers, fired up by the blood of warm hearts, and puffing and blowing with love,
kind words and winning smiles, and I will show you a sight that would run a
young man crazy, raise a dead bachelor to life, and make an old widow commit
suicide!
I cannot trust myself upon this glorious theme; I must desist or go crazy
(Whig, May 15, 1858).
The Parson had picked up much about writing since he had woodenly soliloquized a quarter of a century earlier in Helps to the Study
�THE BUSY PEN
133
of Presbyterianism that he yearned for a wife, and had "some good
desires"-he also had caught on to some biological facts.
The Whig's readers were accustomed to find the editor bitter and
raging in one column, and compassionate and gentle in the next, but
when the 1854 cholera epidemic was subsiding he underwent an
experience-and told about it in print-that revealed a complexity
uncommon to most members of the human race. Brownlow stayed
and published "slips" that reported deaths for the few hundreds
remaining in Knoxville. The Whig reported sixty-six deaths but possibly a hundred died, among them Colonel John McClellan, a brother
of General George B. McClellan, who at that time was supervising
work on the Tennessee River at the foot of Gay Street. [ 2 5] One
undertaker filled orders for seventy-two coffins in six weeks. Some
died in scenes of squalor and filth. [2 3] So great was the need for
medical care that James H. Sawyers, who was studying medicine,
turned doctor overnight and plunged into practice. He married the
Parson's daughter, Susan Brownlow, three years later.[24] Early in
September a committee of six doctors announced there was "no
further cause for alarm" (Whig, September 30, 1854).
Brownlow surely was spent, emotionally and physically, but a new
experience faced him. It was an accusation that he had printed a false
account of the habits of a barkeeper who died of the cholera. The
Parson expected his enemies to call him a liar, but this challenge to
his reputation for truth and veracity invoked no denunciation of his
accuser. His defense, however, opened the windows of his nature and
revealed three sides of this complex man. He wrote his defense in a
letter to Miss Sallie Vanmeter, sister of the barkeeper and a resident
of Lynchburg, Virginia. Miss Vanmeter had objected to certain statements in the Whig's obituary of her brother (Whig, November 4,
1854). The Parson's letter to her, which he published in a prominent
position in his newspaper, began
I have been shown a portion of a letter you addressed to Mr. Helms, our post
master, in reference to the death of your lamented brother, and especially the
brief notice I took of his death through the columns of the "Whig," of which I
am the editor. I would address you a private letter, but you request me to
correct, through the same medium, the erroneous impression I have left on the
public mind, as to his habits and morals, and to request the Lynchburg Virginian
to copy my correction, as that journal had copied my statement. You speak of
letters you have received from the Rev. Mr. Humes, Rev. Mr. Park, of Rogersville, and others satisfying you that I was misinformed as to your brother's
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CHAPTER NO. 9
habits, or words to this effects, as I quote from memory.
The only remark I ever made about your brother was in the Whig-Extra for
Sept. 4th, and the same with the other Extras was transferred to our regular
issues of the 16th of September. Here they are:
"Mr. Van Meeter, the bar keeper at the Mansion House, was taken on
Saturday morning, and died in 10 hours. He was a constant drinker of ardent
spirits. We saw and conversed with him the day before, and he was alarmed to a
fearful extent, in anticipation of having the disease."
Now, in my hurried reports of the ravages of Cholera in this city, when I was
publishing the only slips that appeared, I endeavored to account for the deaths of
those who had been called off, by briefly, but frankly setting forth their habits
of life. I was not actuated by any hostility towards any one person, of the sixty
whose deaths I reported.-And I may say, without subjecting myself to the
charge of egotism, that but few men in the place, during the prevalence of this
dreadful scourge, labored more faithfully to relieve the sick, and especially the
needy, in every possible way, than I did.
In my peregrinations through this City, during the three weeks the epidemic
prevailed, I often met with Mr. Humes, and I testify freely to his faithfulness as a
Pastor, as I do to the diligence of the other Pastors of Churches, Presbyterians,
Methodist and Baptist. Mr. Humes was especially kind to your brother, in his
efforts to pour the consolations of the Gospel into his ears. Mr. Helms, who now
has the control of his temporal matters, was one of his intimate friends. Mr.
Helms and myself are on opposite sides in politics here, but I know him well,
and pronounce him an honest man and a gentleman. He will conduct the affairs
of your brother's estate to your entire satisfaction. It is due to him that I state
to you, as I now do, that he has no knowledge of my writing this letter, until it
meets his eye in print, on the morning of its date.
So far as your brother was concerned I always entertained kind feelings
toward him. He was personally respectful, and especially accommodating to me,
in matters of stage travelling, and whatever business I might have about the
Hotel. I will further add, for your consolation, that he was attentive to his
business-he was honest-he was esteemed by all who knew him-he had no
enemies here; he gave every necessary evidence of having been well raised-and
his untimely death was regretted by our citizens. He was cared for in his sickness, and handsomely buried in our Cemetery, in the family burying ground of
Mr. Helms. Here I might close my remarks, and for your sake, and for the sake
of your aged and afflicted parents, I would gladly do so, but justice to myself, to
you, and to all concerned, requires me to be a little more explicit. If you please
and I say it with the most tender emotions, justice to myself, requires that I
should now give the dark side of this picutre.
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135
I state, as you will observe, that your brother "WAS A CONSTANT DRINKER OF ARDENT SPIRITS." This I am sorry to inform you is strictly true, and I
cannot admit it to be an error of mine, much less can I attempt its correction, if
by correction is ment (sic.] taking it back. I never intended to convey the idea
that your brother was a drunkard, or that he was at any time so influenced by
liquor, as to be incapable of business. I intended to say, and I hope my numerous readers so understand me, that the deceased was constantly in the habit of
drinking ardent spirits, as many of the most highminded, honorable and liberal
gentlemen of the country are. Your brother drank prudently, and in moderation,
but constantly, and it was growing [illegible but possibly "on him"] at the time
of his death. There was an Orderly Grocery kept in the basement story of the
Hotel, and on the same floor on which your brother kept the stage office, with
all that variety of liquors usually kept in such establishments. Previous to his
going into the Hotel he was a Clerk in a Wholesale Liquor House, owned by a
Mr. Campbell (Ibid.).
The editor had now made a case for his veracity, but since he also
was a Methodist preacher, he had some pointed observations to make
to the anguished Miss Vanmeter on the fate of her brother's soul.
The harsh and flinty theologian penned these relentless convictions:
Whether or not, your brother attained to a saving knowledge of Gospel truth
before his death, about which it is natural you should express such great anxiety,
I am unable to inform you. He was a profane swearer, and but seldom, if ever,
attended Church. I have heard one man say that he thinks he once saw him at
the Episcopal Church. Others who knew him well, say that they never saw him
at Church. I never did. I am thus frank with you, because I think it is wrong to
create false and unfounded hopes of the future happiness of the dead, merely to
relieve the anxieties of their living relatives. Mr. Park, of Rogersville, resides 7 5
miles from here, and if he was here during the prevalence of the Cholera, I have
met with no one who saw him. Mr. Humes was here, and acted the part of a
faithful Pastor and was kind in his attention to your brother. I called in to your
brother's room, just after Mr. Humes had left him and had prayed with and for
him, at his request, made previous to that visit. I found him so far gone, as not
to be capable of conversation on any subject. Indeed he was dying.
I have but little confidence in a death bed repentance. In other words, I am
not one of those who looks upon the hardy tree of Repentance as the sickly
growth of a few hours. During the last 25 years, I have read the Bible through 25
times, besides Commentaries, and other The,ological works; and if I have any just
conceptions of the nature of Gospel repentance, it is a godly sorrow wrought in
the heart of a sinful person, by the word and Spirit of God, whereby, from a
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CHAPTER NO. 9
sense of his sins, as being offensive to God, murderous to Christ, and defiling to
his own soul; and from an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, be, with
hatred of all known sins-the whole catalogue of the inward and outward iniquities of his past life-turns from them to God, as his only Saviour and Lord!
However, God for the display of his power and mercy, might instantaneously
convict and convert Paul; yet this is not his way of working in the nineteenth
century .... I will venture to say that in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred,
justification, or a preparation to meet death, follows a course of reflection,
study, repentance and prayer (Ibid.).
Yet as the Parson wrote this chilling message, something was thawing
in his soul. Perhaps it came home to him forcefully that a minister
also has a responsibility to bring to the bereaved all the consolation
within his power. Abruptly his manner changed and he wrote these
gentle, touching lines:
But while I have given you my views of a death bed repentance:-and while I
affirm that it is a very poor dependance, I pretend not to say that your brother
did not mournfully and happily find redemption in the blood of the Lamb. I
trust such was the case-that he had followed the gilded pleasures of this poor
world, long enough to learn the genuine character of their insignificance and that
in his dying moments he found an enchanted bower in the paradise of God.
Assure your aged parents from me that I have intended them and their
surviving children no injury whatever-and that no gentleman who has addressed
them or you a letter on this painful subject would be at more trouble to do them
an act of kindness than I would. Say to your parents especially that tho' I am a
stranger to them personally, I hope they may live to enjoy many of the comforts
of life, and that ultimately, in the grave!-aye, in the grave, themselves and their
daughter, whose frank and well written letter I am now replying to, may find a
calm and welcome retreat in the cares and vicisitudes (sic.] of this life!
Very Respectfully &t
W. G. BROWNLOW,
Editor of the Knoxville Whig. [25]
�THE BUSY PEN
137
CHAPTER IX NOTES
[ 1) Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 18, 406; Whig, December 3, 1845, July 28,
1860; Portrait and Biography of Parson Brown, The Tennessee Patriot,
Together with His Last Editorial in the Knoxville Whig; also His Recent
Speeches, Rehearsing his Experiences with Secession, and His Prison Life,
[Indianapolis, 1862, also published with slight variation in title, Cincinnati, 1862), p. 16; hereafter referred to as Portrait and Biography.
[ 2) Ought American Slavery to be Perpetuated? A Debate between Rev. W. G.
Brownlow and Rev. A. Pryne, held at Philadelphia, September 1858 [Philadelphia, 1858), pp. 15-16; hereafter referred to as Ought American
Slavery to be Perpetuated?
[ 3) Helps, p. 257; Parson Brownlow's Book, p. 21; Whig, July 5, August 23,
1851.
[ 4) The series ran in the Whig from June 1 to July 20, 1842; for examples of
chapters and prospectus, ibid., February 9, 16, July 6, 20, August 17,
1842. The book was sold for fifty cents bound, twenty-five cents in pamphlet.
[ 5) Brownlow began printing the Political Register early in 1844. It contained
350 pages and was sold for $1.00. Whig, March 15, November 11, 1843.
[ 6) This book was produced in the middle of March, 1856, on the heels of
Graves' work. It contained 331 pages, although the Parson promoted it as
having almost 400. Whig, May 24, 1856.
[ 7) Graves, The Great Iron Wheel, pp. 169, 33.
[ 8) Price, Holston Methodism, III, pp. 219-220; Whig, November 24, 1860.
[ 9) The Great Iron Wheel Examined, p. 243;Parson Brownlow's Book, p. 459;
Whig, May 24, 1856, November 24, 1860.
[10) The book was sold for seventy-five cents. Ibid., July 19, 1856;Americanism Contrasted, p. 6; Whig, October 27, 1855, February 2, 1856; Folmsbee et al., Short History, pp. 237-238; Whig, November 15, 1856.
[11) The book contained 321 pages. Graves, The Little Iron Wheel, p. 83 and
introduction.
[ 12) The Methodist Publishing House produced these two works, but its name
does not appear as publisher. Each carries only "Nashville, Tenn.: published for the author."
[13) Whig, December 28, 1850, January 4, February 8, 1851. It sold for
twenty-five cents.
[14) Temple, Notable Men, p. 274.
[15) Whig, March 26, 1845, November 11, 1846.
[16) Ibid., June 7, 1851, April2, 1853.
[17) Ibid., March 26, April16, 1853.
[18) Ibid., November 22,1851, January 10, 31, 1852.
[19) Ibid., May 23, 1857. Sag nicht, translated from the German, means "say
nothing." It was a nickname for the Democratic Party. John Bell Brownlow marginal note, December 1, 1855. The American Party also was
known as the Know-Nothing Party.
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CHAPTER NO. 9
[20] Whig, December 19, 1857. Brownlow used the verb founder, usually meaning overeating by livestock, as a noun.
[21] Ibid., December 13, 1851; F. Garvin Davenport, Cultural Life in Nashville
on the Eve of the Civil War (Chaper Hill, 1941), p. 121.
[22} Ibid., March 20, 1858. Cost of the Gayoso building was put at $300,000,
the furnishing at $85,000. Ibid., january 16, 1858.
[23} Ibid., October 28, 1854; Rule, ed., Standard History, pp. 526-528; Register, September 1, 1854. A slip was a sheet of reduced size. For example,
a Whig slip published December 15, 1849, consisted of two pages of four
columns each, compared with the standard four pages of seven columns
each. None of the slips issued during the epidemic are available. See Whig,
November 4, 1854. Twenty-four burials of cholera victims, three of them
blacks, are listed in a record book of Gray Cemetery for 1851-1867.
Special Collections, University of Tennessee.
[24] Whig, September 5, 1854. This issue is in miscellaneous newspaper files,
not on microfilm, McClung Collection, ibid., June 5, 1858; Rule, ed.,
Standard History, pp. 526-528. The marriage was solemnized on October
20, 1857, and was carried in the Register, October 22, 1857. The item
could not be found in the Whig.
[25] Whig, November 4, 1854. The barkeeper's name is spelled both Van Meeter and Vanmeter. "Grocery" was a colloquialism for a saloon or liquor
shop. Brownlow mentions sixty deaths in the letter, but earlier he had put
the deaths at sixty-six. Ibid., September 30, 1854. This Whig is on microfilm in a newspaper miscellany. McClung Collection.
�Chapter No. 10
"Put None on Guard but Americans."
SUPREMACY AND SORROW
The Kinsloes were good at the printing craft. They gave the Whig
and the Register attractive new dress and their entries emerged handsomely from the competition held at the State Fair in Nashville in
1855. The Whig proudly reported: "This office took the premium of
a Ten Dollar Silver Cup for the finest specimens of Fancy job Printing. And the Book Bindery connected with this office would have
taken the premium of two large Books, had not the judged desired,
and properly too, to distribute their gifts and encourage other offices
likewise."
But W. A. Kinsloe was unable to leave Philadelphia and move to
Knoxville, as he had planned. A half interest in the business was
offered for sale. The announcement offer listed the investment at
$21,000 and suggested that any prospective purchaser should have
$5,000. The Kinsloes were printing the Whig, Register and Presbyterian Witness. The Soutbern journal of Medical and Physical Sciences had disappeared. Included in the investment were power and
hand presses, good will, subscription lists, bank accounts, real estate
and a steam engine. The Kinsloe notice put the annual revenues from
job work and binding at $6,000, from advertising at $7,000, and
listed the subscribers to the three publications at 6,500. [ 1] It did
not itemize the circulation of the three.
Kinsloe & Brother in Knoxville consisted of E. P. B. and J. B. G.
Kinsloe. E. P. B. was the Wbig publisher, J. B. G. occupied the same
post at the Register. [2] Charles A. Rice bought the half interest
offered for sale and the operating partners became Kinsloe & Rice.
The partnership name appeared as publisher in both newspapers. [ 3]
It was not made clear if one or both of the Kinsloes were in the end
of the partnership bearing their name. After the spring of 1856
when E. P. B. accompanied the Parson on a trip to Washington and
Philadelphia, he disappeared (Whig, February 23, 1956). Kinsloe &
139
�140
CHAPTER NO. 10
Rice offered the Register for sale (Whig, June 25, 1857) and through
some unexplained arrangement Rice became Register publisher. He
fired the dilatory and convivial Fleming as editor. [4] In the meantime J. B. G. Kinsloe had become foreman in the Register shop
(Register, April 15, 1858). The Kinsloe & Rice partnership appeared
again. It offered the Whig plant for sale (Whig, February 14, 1857).
Early in 1859 Rice sold the Register to a group headed by Postmaster J. F. J. Lewis. They made the Register Democratic. Later
James W. Newman became editor and C. W. Charlton, Methodist
minister and agriculturist, appeared as owner. [5]
Brownlow's prediction that if it came to a lethal struggle between
the two Whig newspapers in Knoxville his would survive had been
substantiated. He was the sole voice of the party in Knoxville and the
most significant and powerful in East Tennessee. He also moved back
into complete ownership and operation. The exact date when Rice
sold him back the Whig is obscured by the lack of the newspaper's
files for the last six months of 1858. A light caning attempted against
Kinsloe and Rice by W. G. Swan may have contributed to the departure of the two from the publishing field. Swan had been offended
by a sharp piece the Parson had written about him. [ 6] Kinsloe and
Rice may have decided that publishing a newspaper edited by Brownlow involved occupational hazards from which they desired to
escape.
T.he Parson celebrated his return to publishing by bringing out the
Tri-Weekly Whig, the first issue appearing on January 4, 1859. "The
Weekly Whig is a self sustaining institution, and derives its support
from all the States South of the Potomac," he wrote in the salutary
of this number. "The Tri-Weekly is an experiment, and must rely for
its patronage mostly upon this city and those cities interested in the
trade and commerce of East Tennessee." He started the new enterprise, he wrote, not because he expected it to pay but to benefit
businessmen and to meet the needs of the growing city. The TriWeekly Whig appeared Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. He published the final issue of the week concurrently with the older newspaper.
Brownlow printed the Tri-Weekly on pages of a smaller size, five
columns to the page and in larger body type, much of it in 10-point.
The annual subscription rate was $5 .00, with reductions for clubs of
three, five, seven and ten copies. Content of the Whig and the TriWeekly was to be identical. The weekly Whig was to be "made up of
the reading matter of the three Tri-weeklies, intended for more dis-
�SUPREMACY AND SORROW
141
tant subscribers." Because the weekly paper was being printed in
smaller type and of a narrower column width, the work of typesetting had been doubled.
Brownlow appeared in high spirits as he resumed full control. He
thrust aside all job work, he exulted in the volume of letters he was
getting, the largest of any post office user, and he described the
increase of subscribers as the largest he had known in twenty-one
years of publishing. On February 1, 1859, he cut off five hundred
subscribers who were in arrears and listed $365.06 as the receipts in
one week from subscriptions, press work and advertising.
He tartly warned his foes that the Whig's circulation outside Tennessee was sufficient to sustain it without an advertisement or subscriber in the state. And he sent a less than subtle message to merchants with an advisory that he and his hands employed in the plant
were spending $10.00 to $20.00 for every dollar received from
Knoxville. [7] He was making the solid point with merchants that as
a result of his widespread and extensive circulation and the advertising given him from distant customers he was bringing money into
Knoxville which was being spent there.
The Parson hired the experienced J. B. G. Kinsloe as his foreman.
Apparently Kinsloe had recovered from the indignity of Swan's light
caning. He moved his plant into quarters at the rear of 0. P. Temple's
law office at the southeast corner of Gay Street and Hill Avenue, but
continued to do his work at the office he had built adjacent to his
home on East Cumberland Avenue. In the spring of 1859 he revealed
that because of illness he had not been in the printing office "until
this week, since the first of December."[8]
Brownlow took a revolutionary step, concurrently with the publication of the Tri-Weekly, by contracting for telegraphic dispatches
three times a week. They brought the latest news from New York,
Liverpool, Washington, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore and
other points. A week's dispatches filled more than a column in the
weekly newspaper. [9]
The editor gave the impression that his spirits were high, but he
admitted as the summer of 1859 was dosing:
The shattered condition of our health-the enfeebled state of our systemworn down by inordinate attention to business-long residence in townexcessive mental anxiety-we find ourselves to be an exhausted and sighing
invalid, attended by an insupportable sense of weariness and lassitude; and as
such we go to the mountains of Virignia to seek a panacea in the delightful and
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CHAPTER NO. 10
refreshing baths and other uses of their curative waters. In a word, we are
afflicted with a nameless but wide-spread tribe of infirmities, embraced in the
general term debility .... While we desire to live for the benefit of our family,
we have no wish to gratify a numerous class of human being, by giving up to die!
(Whig, August 27, 1859).
If the Parson's health was shattered his pen fingers were agile and his
sense of humor and powers of observation were working well, for
from the watering places he fired back a volume of scintillating dispatches. It was on this occasion he wrote Temple that he could edit
his newspaper almost as well as if he were horne. [ 10]
Brownlow had undertaken some strenuous travels later in 1857
and during the first part of 1858, in addition to his editorial duties.
He spoke in Huntsville, Marion, Auburn and Mobile, Alabama; West
Point, Mississippi; New Orleans, Louisiana; and at LaGrange,
Georgia. At Montgomery he addressed the two houses of the Alabama legislature, and in Memphis he plugged hard for the sale of
stock in the proposed Southern Pacific Railroad, even on the heels of
the financial panic of 1857.[11] At horne he engaged in a nettlesome
fight over the election of a Circuit Court judge, and saw his candidate
defeated by one backed by the expiring Register. Fleming prodded
Brownlow, who was also in the midst of one of his frequent wars on
dogs, with this item: "The complete returns of the judicial election
reached Knoxville on Saturday. We understand that on Saturday
night the editor of the Whig shot four dogs. We fear our neighbor was
in a bad humor."[12]
Litigation piled up. Brownlow was indicted for slander in two
counties, was sued for damages involving the same controversy, and
brought the first lawsuit in his life in an attempt to collect something
for the depositors of a failed Knoxville bank. Politics threaded
through all of these court actions. They were involved, long and
acrid.
The first encounter arose over the close cooperation between
Brownlow and Fleming in supporting the American Party. Martin
Patterson, editor of the Eagle, a Democratic paper at Kingston,
accused Fleming of being Brownlow's tool. The Knoxville editors
reacted, each in his own way. Brownlow branded Patterson as a horse
thief and a perjurer; Fleming found Patterson in Knoxville and kicked him into the side of a cow that was serenely passing in front of
the Coleman Hotel on Gay Street. Patterson must have felt that what
Brownlow printed against him was more painful than the boot Flern-
�SUPREMACY AND SORROW
143
ing gave him, for he confined his court actions to the Parson. Patterson and Brownlow were in and out of the courts of Knox and Roane
counties for three years. After two mistrials in Knox the criminal
charge against the Parson was dismissed upon motion of the assistant
attorney general. In Roane County a jury acquitted him. Mistrials
were declared twice in the Knox County civil suit, and apparently
there the controversy ended [ 13] so far as Patterson was concerned.
The second instance of litigation arose over the suspension of the
Bank of East Tennessee at Knoxville late in 1856 on the eve of the
financial panic. Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey and Major Thomas C. Lyon,
directors of the bank, were appointed trustees to handle the affairs
of the crippled institution. Swashbuckling William Montgomery
Churchwell, president of the bank, conveyed to the trustees not only
the assets of the bank but also his personal real estate. "The bank is
broke and the loss is no inconsiderable one," the Whig soon announced. It also reported that the institution's assets were bringing
from fifteen to twenty cents on the dollar. Brownlow received so
many inquiries about the bank that he undertook to accept the issues
from holders, at their own risk, attempt to recover thirty cents on
the dollar, and failing this, to return the bank notes. The Parson grew
suspicious that Churchwell had used the bank for his own profit. The
failure of the trustees to impart information on what was happening
heightened his fears. So he, along with George W. Ross of Athens
filed a Chancery Court suit that charged Churchwell with reckless
management. The action sought judgment for the holders of the
issues and demanded an accounting. The Parson and his co-plaintiff
brought this suit against the trustees, Ramsey and Lyon. Holders of
the issues poured their paper into Brownlow, and early in 1859 he
held $50,000 of them, all entered in the lawsuit. [ 14]
Brownlow's first role as the instigator of litigation opened up a
mad scramble of realignments and intensified old animosities. During
the Jonesboro era, the Parson's opinion of Dr. Ramsey had been very
low. When commenting on Ramsey's forthcoming history of the
state Brownlow had described him as "very vain and equally credulous." But after three years in Knoxville, Brownlow conceded he
had been misled. And when Ramsey's famous Annals of Tennessee to
the End of the Eighteenth Century appeared he described it as "a
work of great merit and marked ability" and added that a "copy of it
ought to be owned by every family in the State." The Whig also
listed places where the book could be bought. Now, in 1860, Ramsey
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CHAPTER NO. 10
again became Brownlow's constant target, in the courts and in the
Whig's columns.
His accusations against Churchwell, charging him with having plundered the bank, was another reversal. In 1851 and 185 3 he had
supported Churchwell in successful races for Congress, even though
he was a Democrat. Brownlow had backed him because of his bitterness against the Whig Party in the district. He claimed a Whig faction
had stacked a convention at Clinton in 1851 so that it nominated
Horace Maynard instead of the editor's friend, 0. P. Temple. An
animosity that grew hotter, if such were possible, was that between
Brownlow and John H. Crozier, who had fought him in the Patterson
lawsuits. Crozier now appeared against him as counsel for the bank
trustees. The Parson scorned Crozier as a "renegade" because he had
switched to the Democratic Party in the Presidential campaign of
1856.[15]
The Crozier quarrel had deep roots that dated back to the former
congressman's having duped Brownlow when the Parson moved to
Knoxville. Crozier had a talent for infuriating the Parson. During an
argument in one of the Patterson libel trials he sank a shaft rather
deep in Brownlow. He charged the Parson with having given editorial
support to the ruined Bank of East Tennessee. Crozier had facts, if
not complete truth on his side, and he was aware that some of the
jurors before whom he laid his argument had suffered in the bank's
suspension. Brownlow had praised Churchwell's management of the
bank in 185 3, and wrote that great demand existed for its issues.
Whether Crozier, in his speech to the jury, alluded to this approval in
the Whig or to one appearing in the newspaper in December 1856,
which expressed confidence in Trustees Ramsey and Lyon, is not
clear. In the latter instance the Whig called for "forbearance and
charity" on the part of the public. Brownlow chose to accept the
meaning as applying to the second incident. This puff had appeared
in the Whig while the Parson was absent from the city. It came as the
result of pressure by bank officials upon the man that Brownlow had
left in charge. The Parson quickly corrected it, and assumed a position hostile to the trustees. Brownlow probably flinched at having to
admit his newspaper had been hoodwinked into giving help to the
floundering bank, but it was the only recourse by which he could
disown authorship of the editorial (Tri-Weekly Whig, February 8,
1859).
The controversy dragged on for years. The Parson's accusations in
�SUPREMACY AND SORROW
145
his newspaper were far more racy than the bill of particulars drawn
by his lawyers. The Parson accused Churchwell of having pocketed
$102,000 of the bank's funds and then setting up an office on Wall
Street. Obviously, he did not know that Churchwell had established
his mistress, Miriam F. Follin, an actress whose stage name was
Minnie Montez, in a house he had purchased at 37 Seventh Street,
New York.[16] Brownlow was not the man to keep silent about
such a development, had he known of it.
He won a decisive victory when Chancellor Seth J. W. Lucky of
Knox County held that the complainants, with claims amounting to
$100,000. were entitled to recover from the bank and the trustees;
that the trustees had no right to prefer creditors in distributing assets
from the $125,000 of real estate which Churchwell had deeded to
them; that the complainants were bona fide holders of the bank
notes and entitled to recovery in full, regardless of the price under
which they had last been sold; and that the clerk and master was to sell
the remaining assets of the bank. Churchwell's deed of real estate to
the trustees had specified that certain creditors were to be preferred
in liquidating these assets, and the trustees had sought to carry out
this provision. Brownlow had vigorously contested on this point, and
it was gratifying to him that the chancellor had held that this preference was invalid. This compensated him somewhat for the court's
finding that the trustees had been guilty of neither fraud nor negligence. The defendants appealed (Whig, January 28, 1860).
The State Supreme Court affirmed the opinion of the chancellor,
with modifications. The ruling left the way open for the Knox
County clerk and master to conduct an accounting and to sell the
assets of the bank. The high court, in a brief aside, suggested that
Churchwell's management of the bank was something more than
irregular, for:
The record discloses a vast number of facts; some of which are startling in
their character; but most of them refer to the management of the bank prior to
the assignments; and therefore have but little to do with the determination of
the questions under review in this court.
But since the courts move slowly and because men's minds were
aflame with the issues soon to explode in the Civil War, delay followed delay as investors stayed out of the real estate market. The result
was that the winding up of the bank's affairs stagnated during the
war. [17]
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CHAPTER NO. 10
The filing and prosecution of the lawsuit was a sound and legitimate newspaper exploit. It put the Whig in the role of successful
advocate for the many victims of the collapse. Brownlow reported
after the Supreme Court opinion that he represented claims of 600
persons holding $50,000 of the bank's issues. He had shown that the
Whig and its editor could fight successfully against powerful interests
in the financial as well as in the religious and political fields. The
Parson credited the bank group with having hired seven attorneys,
and T. A. R. Nelson charged that Churchwell had hired "almost
every prominent lawyer there [Knoxville] of both political parties
(Whig, February 4, 1860).
The Parson had a personal stake of $4,000 in the litigation, represented by issues he had taken for debts, and with these he tried to
purchase some of the real estate held by the trustees. His offers,
made both directly and indirectly, were rejected. If in suing he was
motivated in part by pique, he made no effort to conceal it for after
having won the suit he wrote:
As they [the trustees] would neither redeem these issues with money or sell
property for them to us, while they were selling to others, we thought we would
bring them to terms, and we accordingly instituted this suit ....
The Trustees supposed, we imagine, that no one would dare sue them, and no
lawyer would dare take fees against them. If such was their supposition, their
minds have been disabused in this particular! (Whig, October 20, 1860).
Brownlow had another cause to be jubilant. His newspaper was
approaching the peak of its pre-Civil War influence and prosperity. In
the mid-summer of 1860 he bought $600 of a new and smaller type,
enabling him to give readers a third more editorial matter, while
condensing advertisements, which had been filling twenty of the
thirty-two columns in the Whig. He announced a weekly circulation
of 9,000 that grew at the rate of 350 a week. He was printing more
copies than the combined circulation of the other nine political
newspapers in East Tennessee. Six weeks later he placed the Whig's
circulation at 11,000. Brownlow's annual income from the Whig may
have reached $10,000 at this period. [18]
The same year that saw the Parson's triumphs also produced a
family tragedy that must have drained him emotionally. His son,
John Bell Brownlow, a senior at Emory and Henry College, killed a
fellow student, James W. Reese, a Georgian. The killing occurred
after Reese, a much larger youth, had knocked the Knoxvillian to the
�SUPREMACY AND SORROW
147
muddy ground. Brownlow seized a chestnut stick from a woodpile
and struck Reese on the head as other students were attempting to
restrain Reese. The assailant, who was helped from the scene, died a
few hours later. Young Brownlow went home immediately, then
returned to Virginia and surrendered to authorities at Abingdon. At
the time of the encounter on February 22, 1860, the Parson was in
Nashville attending a convention of the Constitutional Union
Party, [ 19] but on arriving home he published a brief account of the
affair. He wound it up with the observation:
As he is not, and never was, a quarrelsome young man, and in morals will compare favorably with the better class of young men at Colleges, I respectfully
suggest to newspaper Editors and their correspondents, the great injustice of
visiting upon him, the political or personal sins of the father, over whom he has
never exercised any control! (Whig, March 3, 1860).
The Parson's foes seized upon the killing with ferocious glee and
distortions. An example was the Morristown Intelligencer whose
account provoked the Whig into retorting:
This is a religious paper, and is edited by three Methodist Preachers, two of
whom are presiding elders, and the other is a professor in a Female College. In
the latest issue of the paper there is an editorial upon the "increase of crime" in
the country, in which the late affray at Emory & Henry College is given of the
evidence of this increase-the parties are named, and the case is declared to be a
case of murder. The writer is a free man, and has a right to take any side in a
controversy he may choose, while many will doubt the propriety of an article
just in advance of the trial which fixes the character of the "crime" and consequently the punishment (Ibid.).
Father Brownlow spared no expense to see that John Bell was well
represented by counsel and that coverage was complete and objective
when trial was held in Washington County Circuit Court at Abingdon. Young Brownlow had seven Virginia lawyers and one from
Tennessee, John S. Brien of Nashville. Five of the lawyers argued the
case over a period of nine hours, after three days of testimony in
which forty-eight witnesses were heard. The substance of the testimony, taken down by "an able and experienced criminal lawyer,"
occupied thirteen columns of the Whig of April 21, 1860. A jury that
was out only a few minutes acquitted John Bell. The jurors obviously
decided that the defendant had acted justifiably in self defense
(Whig, April 21, 1860).
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CHAPTER NO. 10
The aftermath was curious. The Whig printed two accounts of the
trial taken from democratic newspapers, both extremely favorable to
Brownlow and son. They had been printed in the Atlanta Confederacy and the Knoxville Register. George W. Bradfield, a Democrat
with whom Brownlow was on friendly, even cordial terms, edited the
latter paper. The Register's report of young Brownlow's acquittal
found that the news
sent a thrill of joy through our whole community. The course pursued by
himself and father, from the beginning to the end of this sad affair, has met with
universal approval of our citizens irrespective of parties. They had our sympathy
in their day of trial and grief, our warmest admiration in respecting the laws and
meeting the responsibility, and we fully share their joy at his triumphant acquittal. ...
The testimony showed that the deceased was greatly the overmatch of
Brownlow in strength, that he had first assailed Brownlow in words, and had
afterwards stricken [sic.] the first blow in the affray that led to his death, had
crushed Brownlow to the earth, and when pulled away, made a second assault
upon him; and that Brownlow seized a stick from a woodpile, and with it
inflicted a blow on the head of his assailant not regarded as serious by the
medical gentlemen called in, but which resulted in his death after 17 hours.
The whole testimony allowed of but one inference as to Brownlow's intent
when he struck the blow, and that was to punish and repel the battery upon
himself, yet impending and already severe-and not to take the life of the assailant.
It is ironical that out of the Brownlow family which fought furiously in political campaigns for years, the only one who struck a
lethal blow over the outcome of an election was young John Belland this in the instance of the election of officers of a collegiate
literary society. [20]
CHAPTER X NOTES
[
[
[
[
[
1)
2]
3]
4]
5]
Whig October 20; McClary, p. 97.
Whig, March 24, 1855; Register, February 21, 1855.
Whig, January 12, 1856; Register, January 10,1856.
Ibid., June 10, 17, 1858.
Tri-Weekly Whig, January 13, 25, July 23, 1859. For Charlton background see Rothrock, ed., French Broad-Holston, pp. 394-396.
�SUPREMACY AND SORROW
149
[ 6) The gap in the files of the weekly Whig extends from July 31, 1858, to
August 6, 1859. It is partially filled by numbers of the Tri-Weekly Whig,
January 4, 1859, until resumption of the weekly files. Whig, March 28,
April4, 1857; Register, March 26, 1857.
[ 7] Tri-Weekly Whig, January 4, 6, 8, February 10, 1859. The price of the TriWeekly Whig was cut to $3.00 annually. Whig, August 13, 1859. TriWeekly Whig, January 6, 15, 25, February 10, March 31, 1859.
[ 8) Ibid., April 7, 1859; Whig, February 18, 1860; Williams Knoxville Directory, City Guide, and Business Mirror for 1859-1860 [Knoxville, 1859), p.
79; Tri-Weekly Whig, April 7, 1859.
[ 9) Ibid., January 4, 1859. The dispatches for the three issues of the TriWeekly Whig were consolidated in the Weekly.
[10) Whig, September 3, 10, 17, 24, October 8, 15, 1859.
[11) Ibid., December 19, 1857, January 9, 16, 30, February 13, January 9,
1858.
[12) Ibid., August 8, 22, 29; Register, August 27, 1857.
[13) Whig, April 26, May 3, 17, 1856; Register, April 24, 1856; Whig, November 14, 1857, February 20, 27, March 6, June 26, July 3, 10, 1858;
Tri-Weekly Whig, March 12, 1859.
[14) The history of the bank's suspension and the litigation that followed is
spread over the pages of the Parson's newspapers in great detail, Whig,
December 20, January 3, February 25, 1857, February 13, April17, 1858,
January 7, 28, February 4, October 13, 1860. The suit by Brownlow and
Ross was filed August 1858, a period for which files of the Whig cannot be
found. February 8, 1859. A complete history of the law suit, with the
exception of the court findings, and including the petitions of the litigants,
and Brownlow's observations and summary in the Tri-Weekly Whig,
February 8, 10, 12, 15, March 1, 1859.
[15) Whig, June 6, 1844, August 18, December 4, 1852, April 2, August 13,
1853, January 7, 28, 1860, August 2, 1856.
[16) Whig, January 28, 1860, December 10, 1859; Ruth Osborne Turner, "The
Public Career of William Montgomery Churchwell," thesis, University of
Tennessee, 1954, pp. 52-59; Madeline B. Stern, Purple Passage, the Life of
Mrs. Frank Leslie [Norman, Oklahoma, 1953), pp. 1, 23-24, 212n.
[17) The clerk and master advertised the bank property twice, without getting
results. Whig, November 17, 1860, April13, 1861.
[18) Ibid., July 14, August 25, 1860.
[19) Ibid., March 3, 31, 1860.
[20) Ibid., May 5, 1860. Testimony of L. S. King, ibid., April21, 1860.
�Chapter No. 11
"Put None on Guard but Americans."
PARTY STRINGS HANG LOOSELY
Parson Brownlow had established himself as a man devoted to
freedom of speech and action before he came to Knoxville. But in
1852, with the Whig firmly rooted, he issued a manifesto that surpassed all those of the past. It signalled greater independence, politically and economically, than ever. In opening his fourth volume in
Knoxville, and his forteenth in all, he recalled:
For the last three years we have lived in Knoxville, and have had to endure
the degraded impotence of despised poverty-we have agonized in excessive toil
and heart-rending grief, amidst an organized and villainous opposition few men
have ever had to encounter in this end of the State-contending with men who
have sought to immure our person within the mouldy walls of loathsome county
dungeons;-men, who, by letter-writing, and electioneering in person, sought to
deprive us of patronage, at home and abroad, and thus force us to grope at
noon-day, along the sterile path of starvation;-men who bought claims upon us,
and forced their collection, and sought by every possible means to destroy our
credit in business;-and in addition to all this, armed themselves with clubs, and
deadly weapons, to maim, bruise and destroy our body, and were only prevented
from the accomplishment of these hellish purposes, by an innate cowardice,
alike ridiculous and disgraceful! ...
With those who sought to break us down, but failed in the attempt, we desire
no compromise: we have placed our mark upon them; and until their groaning
ghosts fill all hell with wailings, and heaven rings jubilee in our behalf, and loud
hosannahs on our tongue fill the eternal regions, we intend to hold these men in
remembrance! ... In politics we shall be WHIG, supporting men only, in whom
we have confidence. Party strings hang very loosly [sic.] upon our shoulders
(Whig, June 19, 1852).
In truth the Parson laid his pen to party snarls like Alexander the
Great whittled the Gordian knot. He served notice that he would not
support General Winfield Scott, the Mexican War commander, if the
150
�PARTY STRINGS HANG LOOSELY
151
Whig Party nominated him. He did not believe in elevating military
heroes to public offices, he distrusted the Northern leaders supporting Scott, and he feared the general's election "would widen and
deepen the gulf between the North and South-which Heaven knows
is almost impassible now" (Whig, March 20, 1852).
A smoldering bitterness against James G. (Lean Jimmy) Jones, the
former governor, had been fanned into extreme heat by Jones' defeat
of T. A. R. Nelson for the United States Senate seat a few months
earlier. The coveted post was almost within Nelson's grasp in the
early balloting, but four members of the East Tennessee delegation
forsook him. Their defection brought a stinging reproach from
twelve East Tennessee Whigs. Brownlow was hurt to see his friend
Nelson lose, but he was infuriated because Jones defeated him. The
former governor had become the editor's enemy over a question of
Brownlow's veracity. The Parson had bottled his resentment. Now,
eight years later, he pulled the cork from the bottle of his bitterness
and let it spew forth in a furious issue of the Whig.
The issue had arisen when Jones denied having told a story to the
effect that Andrew Jackson had insisted upon the expulsion of a
widow from the Hermitage Presbyterian Church. The Parson had
repeated it, Jackson heard of it, demanded that Jones confirm or
deny the story, and Jones said he hadn't told it. Because Whig leaders
feared an open row between Brownlow and Jones would hurt party
interests, the Parson let the issue rest. Now, Brownlow said, he had
"writhed in spirit long enough under the insulting taunts of Jones,
and his friends, saying "that our long silence had been owing to
having no defense to make, and to consciousness of having lied," so,
"duty to ourself and to our innocent and helpless children requires
us to satisfy the world that we are a man of truth and that Jones is a
liar-and we have done it."
The Whig issue, which the Parson blazoned on page one as "A
paper worth preserving," recounted the entire story, along with a
number of statements supporting Brownlow's account of Jones telling the tale on Jackson. This newspaper also carried a long article on
the manipulations by Jones and the venality of some Whigs in the
election for senator. Brownlow anticipated he would be charged with
party disloyalty, but he was "a Whig from principle, and not from
interest." And "like a true man, as we are and ever have been, we will
continue the work of unmasking rascals, irrespective of their party
association, or of their position in society, and all too regardless of
consequences" (Whig, March 6, 1852).
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CHAPTER NO. 11
Scott was nominated (Whig, June 26, 1852) and Jones campaigned
across the state for the Whig Presidential nominee. The Parson's raging animosity reached a point very close to violence when the senator
filled a speaking appointment at Knoxville on September 11, 1852.
Brownlow expected Jones to single him out and repeat his accusations of the editor's falsity. He had prepared himself by selecting
"eight friends [four Whigs and four Democrats], who were well armed and would have seen us [receive] fair play 'at all hazards and to
the last extremity,' " and having on hand
facts, documents and living witnesses, on the ground, to have paid him back with
compound interest; and in retaliating, we intended taking up the public and
private calendar of his numerous exploits, and making just such a showing, as he
would depricate [sic.] having brought out, to the end of his sinful career. We say
this in no spirit of boasting, but because the facts were known to more than one
hundred men of that ground (Whig, September 18, 1852).
The possibility for bloodshed was high, had the issue of veracity
been raised. The Parson estimated that from one hundred to two
hundred men present were armed. Jones contented himself with a
generalization that he had been subjected to slander and abuse. Because he did not identify Brownlow as one of those responsible, the
editor did not challenge him and sought no rejoinder. But in the
Whig he related the affair in detail, giving the names of a number of
prominent men he said would have supported his position (Ibid.).
The Whig editor was not isolated in his refusal to support Scott. A
National Union Convention, held at Philadelphia on August 1, nominated Daniel Webster for President. The enfeebled statesman, however, died on October 24. Brownlow, who was the Second District
elector for the ticket, pleaded for votes for the Webster electors. The
response, however, must have been insignificant, for he printed only
scant election returns. But he reasserted his Whiggery, he gloried in
the overwhelming defeat of Scott by Franklin Pierce, the Democrat
nominee, and he posted on the editorial page immediately the name
of Fillmore as his choice for President in 1856.[1]
The death of Webster sent the Parson into mourning for the
second time in the summer of 1852. When Henry Clay died on June
28 the Whig sighed: "When the mortal remains of Henry Clay were
consigned to the tomb, the territories of the dead, on the continent
of America, were never honored with richer spoils." As Clay died the
signals were flying that the party he had helped found was split to
�PARTY STRINGS HANG LOOSELY
153
the point where disintegration was certain. Clay had sensed it, and
Brownlow forecast a North-South split. Scott had carried Tennessee,
but it was by less than 2,000 votes. It was the last time the Whigs
won Tennessee in a Presidential election. [2)
Brownlow's course brought hot fire from Scott Whigs. Among
them was his old enemy of the 1841 First District congressional race,
Thomas D. Arnold, who won the seat over the Whig's bitter opposition. When Arnold spoke before the Scott Club in Knoxville, Brownlow was granted a rejoinder and opened with: "I appear before you
to-night, in reply to the long and bitter tirade of abuse, blackguardism, and falsehoods, just uttered by the low-flung, low-bred demagogue and calumniator who has just taken his seat." The tone having
been set Brownlow went ahead with his speech, and liked it so well
that he printed it in the Whig in two-column measure and published
it in a pamphlet. Indications cropped out months later that Brownlow had agreed with Scott Club leaders to leave national issues alone
and confine himself to Arnold. This he did. [3]
In a second speech, this time at the Knox County Courthouse on
October 28, 1852, he defended himself against an accusation that he
had been bribed by the Democrats to play the independent role. His
accusers said he had used the money to pay for a piano and to lift
the mortgage on his Cumberland Avenue residence. Brownlow
reported that a friend had bought the piano for him in Philadelphia;
$100 had been paid down and a balance of $200 remained. The
piano was for a Brownlow daughter who was taking music lessons,
probably Susan, who was fourteen. The residence had been owned
by the Methodist Church, which gave it the name of the "Parsonage." The house had been put up for sale in Chancery Court, and a
friend of Brownlow's had bid it in for him. The family occupied it on
May 2, 1849. The Parson had been making the payments, borrowing
money for the purpose. [4]
In 1851 Knox County was in the Third Congressional District, but
was shifted into the Second District by the next legislature. Brownlow took little part in the 1851 race except to hold the Register
clique responsible for the failure of the party to deliver for Anderson
the usual Whig majority. The Parson had a sound, if not partisan
reason for supporting Churchwell, who won. The Democrat had
proved himself an internal improvement advocate by backing vigorously a bill that provided a $50,000 federal appropriation for navigation work on the Tennessee River. Brownlow was one of five com-
�154
CHAPTER NO. 11
missioners appointed by the Fillmore administration to supervise this
work under the general direction of Colonel John McClellan.
Churchwell and Horace Maynard carried out the 185 3 contest on a
level that produced a fist fight between the candidates in Overton
County. The Whig upbraided Maynard for having taken a drink and
danced a few steps at a party frolic, and a rash of articles charged
Maynard with having written, several years earlier, a number of
pieces under the pen name of Zadok Jones. These pieces reflected
disdain for the ordinary run of the human race. Years later Temple
recalled that Churchwell made "use of money and other means not
to be commended." [5]
Tom Arnold also ran for the state senate that year. He gave the
Whig and its editor "a terrible share of his wrath" in his opener at
Newport on June 11 (Whig, June 25, 1852). Brownlow waited for
Arnold to campaign in the lower part of the district, then dogged
him through Blount and Sevier counties. He spit out such challenges
as this one at Sevierville:
Gentlemen-this man Arnold, as usual, has his spurs on, and has made his
arrangements to deliver a lying and abusive harrangue [sic.] of three or four
hours and cut out, neither allowing me or his competitors time to say anything. I
have attended his appointments, in Blount and Sevier, upon his invitation. He has
stated in my absence that I am afraid to meet him in day light [sic.], and when I
am not surrounded by a Locofoco mob. I have met [him] at Louisville and
Maryville, and when he had a huge knife in his bosom, a pistol in his pocket, and
a spear cane in his hand as he now has, and I denounced him, as I do now, as a
LIAR, a SCOUNDREL, and a COWARD, having no honor, no principle, and no
resentment, unless it be in a contest with his wife, a clever, but broken-hearted
woman, who has been whipped and abused by him on more occasions than one,
as I shall prove today, if he will allow me a showing, and if this can't be had, I
shall retire to the grove in front of this Church and do it at once (Whig, july 2 3,
1852).
In his opener Arnold had denounced the Sevier County "Regulators," a vigilante organization that had flogged a number of miscreants, hanged nine and driven twenty-one outside the county. But
in the lower counties Arnold found much popular sentiment for the
vigilantes and he denied having denounced them, a point upon which
Brownlow seized. The Parson had resented bitterly a vigilante movement at Jonesboro in 1845 which threatened to burn his plant and tar
and feather the editor, but in the Sevier County movement he found
great merit. [6]
�PARTY STRINGS HANG LOOSELY
155
The Brownlow piano was purchased in Philadelphia in 1852 for a daughter taking music
lessons. Brownlow was accused of taking the instrument as a bribe from the Democrats. In
the picture is Mrs. George T. Fritts, great-granddaughter of the Parson. Uournal Staff Photograph by Hugh Lunsford.]
Brownlow's furious activity in the Second District congressional
race and in Arnold's campaign somewhat overshadowed the gubernatorial contest between Gustavus A. Henry, Whig, and Andrew
Johnson in the Whig's columns. The results were mixed. Johnson
won by more than 2,000 votes; the Whigs retained a majority in the
House of Representatives. They elected five of the ten congressmen.
Democrat Churchwell made the last successful race for his party in
the Second Congressional District, and Dr. Benjamin Bell, Democrat,
defeated Arnold. [7] Brownlow had spun his political wheels in
opposite directions and emerged with considerable success. He backed the Whig nominee for governor, a Democrat for Congress, and he
had blocked Arnold's election from a Whig district. Brownlow also
boasted of a new press, "the largest ever brought to East Tennessee."
He installed new and smaller type and enlarged sheet on which the
newspaper was printed. [8]
He made an extended defense of his Whiggery; in order to meet
�156
CHAPTER NO. 11
the charges he had deserted the party. He traced his party pedigree
back to su:e:eort of Hugh Lawson White for President in 1836 andreviewed his battles as a partisan and editor of the Whig. He wrote, not
to conciliate his enemies, but, "to set ourselves right with our own
friends in the Whig ranks and to guard them against the falsehoods of
our enemies." He warned against the perils of division among the
Whig members of the General Assembly as they faced the election of
a United States senator. Bell's six-year term was nearing an end. As
for the Parson, he performed a remarkable acrobatic political feat.
He supported Nelson because of friendship, qualifications and the
tradition that East Tennessee was entitled to the seat, a precedent
which Brownlow had rejected six years earlier in order to support
Bell. Now, in a mys~ifying performance, he exalted the tradition,
supported Nelson, and lavished praise on Bell, whom he had been
berating furiously a few months before. And he correctly predicted
Bell would regain his seat. [9]
Brownlow had washed away his long interlude of bitterness against
Bell a few months earlier, without explanation. The editor commented as the senator stopped at the Mansion House on his way to Montvale Springs in Blount County:
His dignified deportment and politeness, which are uniform, is accompanied
by a self-possession which belongs to great minds. We regard him as the greatest
man now in the United States Senate of either political party (Whig, May 28,
1853).
Bell and Gentry, as mentioned before, had financed the purchase
of two presses and other materials for Brownlow's Knoxville opening, at a cost of $900. Brownlow was to be given patronage to enable
him to pay the note. Brownlow had paid $7,000 in security debts
before leaving Jonesboro and had raised $1,000 from the sale of his
print shop equipment there.
Two years later the congressmen remained unpaid, and at Knoxville creditors were threatening legal proceedings to collect a note for
$800. The Parson had gone security on this note for his former
associate, Valentine Garland, and Garland had failed to pay, throwing the responsibility upon Brownlow. T. W. Humes, one of the
Register's backers, and Joe King, also of Knoxville, had bought the
note and given it to Lawyer Sneed, also a Register underwriter, for
collection. The Parson worked out an involved arrangement to meet
this peril. Sam Patton, editor of the Methodist Episcopalian for
�PARTY STRINGS HANG LOOSELY
157
which the Whig shop did the printing, paid Humes' share of the note,
the Parson to pay Patton in printing. Brownlow attempted to meet
King's claim with another note, but a bank refused even to discount
it. The Parson worked out of this corner by assigning to King a
payment of $400 due the Whig in Washington for government printing which Bell and Gentry apparently had got for Brownlow's newspaper. This was money that Bell and Gentry had expected to receive
as payment of the note they had endorsed for Brownlow, and when
they learned it had been diverted to King they were furious. Gentry
wrote me [Brownlow] a letter, reflecting on me, as either wanting in honesty
or veracity in that I had used funds in Washington for one object which I bad
promised to devote to another. I therefore determined that I would raise the
money and relive [sic.] Bell and Gentry, or I would sacrifice my office and all I
have for the nine hundred and interest.
The Parson went to Memphis and obtained a promise he would be
lent money for this purpose, probably by his old friend and fellow
editor, Dr. Jeptha Fowlkes. In bitter mood he suggested to Nelson he
was on the point of leaving the party, although
I suppose there is no man living, as far removed from Democra,:y as I am in my
feelings and sentiments; and certain as I am that I will be one of the last men on
earth to go over to Democracy, but I have been badly treated by the Whigs, and
I intend to pay them back, if I can, in some way or another.[lO]
When Brownlow wrote this letter to Nelson more than a year had
elapsed without the Parson getting any of the expected patronage
from Washington. He had stormed at Bell, "The general government
has printing to do in this place amounting to more than one thousand dollars, but this will be given to the Register with a view to buy
up its support for those Tennessee Whigs whose election to Congress,
and to the United States Senate, it has hitherto opposed" (Whig,
February 2, 1850). J. R. Hobbie, first assistant postmaster general,
tendered the Whig $315 in advertising in January of 1850, which
Brownlow rejected as an insignificant crumb. The rejection led to
reports that the editor had threatened the administration by letter
that he would join the opposition party if he was not given substantial contracts. To counteract this, the editor published Hobbie's
letter submitting the business and his fiery return of it (Whig, August
17, 1850). His answer to Hobbie had been delayed because
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CHAPTER NO. 11
We have had high waters here for six or eight weeks, and your carts and mail·
riders make it a business not to cross any stream if it has rained the previous
night, or if the water is so muddy they cannot see the bottom by moonlight.
(Ibid.).
As for Hobbie, Brownlow regarded him "as a corrupt, and overbearing Locofoco, who ought to be dismissed from office forthwith."
The Parson's tone was that of a mistreated Whig, but still a Whig
(Ibid.).
Bell had started early in 1850 trying to get patronage for the Whig
and had obtained promises from several departments. He also wrote
Nelson that he was trying to get office or employment for Brownlow
"which will lift him above the pursuit of his creditors." The Parson,
meanwhile, urged Nelson to put more pressure on Bell and Gentry.
Brownlow described them as controlling the Taylor administration.
A bill was pending in Congress to appropriate $20,000 for improvement of the river from Knoxville to Decatur, Alabama. Brownlow
wanted one of the two top jobs provided for in the measure. [ 11]
This did not materialize and more than a year later Bell was imploring Nelson to advise him how to stop the Whig's fire upon him. [12]
When President Taylor died on july 9, 1850, and Fillmore succeeded
to the presidency, the Whig began to display government advertising.
How it came about was not explained, but Brownlow let his readers
know Bell was not responsible. The Parson criticized the senator for
giving indifferent support to the appointment of Solomon D. Jacobs
of Knoxville, who succeeded Hobbie in 1851 as first assistant postmaster general (Whig, April26, 1851) and he announced:
As to Mr. Bell we have not written him a letter in fifteen months, nor have we
received one from him. We have no correspondence with him and intend to have
none. For the last fifteen years we have been his advocate and friend-we have
supported and defended him through evil and good report, and even incurring
thereby the displeasure of some prominent men in the state. For all this "labor
of love" he has treated us with cold indifference, not to say downright ingratitude, just as others who knew him better than we did told us he would do. We
have quit him-not hastily or under the influence of passion-but after the most
mature deliberation and after a fair and full trial of his merits. We never again
expect to conduct a paper which will directly or indirectly advance his interests.
Our influence, however, is but limited, and he can get along in this world
without us. If he cannot, and is forced to retire to the shades of private life, the
State will sustain no serious injury (Ibid.).
�PARTY STRINGS HANG LOOSELY
159
Gentry attempted mediation and urged Brownlow to be more considerate of Bell. An understanding that the Parson went in for exaggeration, rather than moderation, in all things, and especially in
describing his own fury, moved Gentry to intercede. The Whig printed Gentry's letter under the pen name of "Amicus" with a note,
"We give this letter more out of regard to the writer than the gentleman written about. There is no man in the District of Columbia for
whom we entertain as much respect as we do for the writer of this
letter." But Brownlow did not suggest that the latter would alter his
course. Years later Oliver P. Temple identified the author as Gentry,
and added a sentence which the Whig did not print: "Now if I were
in Mr. Bell's place, I should write to you and tell you to go to
h-1."[13]
The Parson did change. He swung full circle. And in the course of
it he suffered utter chagrin. He flew high before he fell. It looked as
if he was on top of the world when he boasted:
No one holds a mortgage upon our pen or conscience-WE ARE FREE. Our
paper is now PERMANENTLY established, with a circulation larger than any
other Weekly political paper in the State, and with more subscribers than all the
political papers in Knoxville put together! Ours is the only Printing Office in
Knoxville, situated on its own premises, and not required to pay house rent. And
upon enquiry of journeymen Printers, of the Merchants and Mechanics of the
city, and Farmers and Paper-Makers of the country, it will be ascertained, beyond contradiction that our office pays its debts! Nay, it will be ascertained,
that we owe less, by one half, than any other newspaper establishment in Knoxville! (Whig, june 19, 1852).
This sounded like Brownlow's moment of triumph and he must
have believed it was. John W. O'Brien, Brownlow's partner, was leaving or had left for Washington, where he was to collect money,
probably for government printing. Brownlow sent a letter to him
through United States Representative A. G. Watkins of the Second
District, directing O'Brien to pay Bell and Gentry all he collected
above that amount necessary for his return. The Parson trusted his
friends and business associates to the point of carelessness. When
O'Brien came home Brownlow asked him if he had "received my
letter through Watkins? He said, 'I did-allright.' "The editor did not
ask him pointedly if he had paid Bell and Gentry, and after a time he
began to have misgivings. By September he learned that O'Brien had
pocketed $1,000 and had not paid the members of Congress. The
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CHAPTER NO. 11
partnership was dissolved on September 11, 1852, and it was announced that O'Brien was to start the Free Press at Loudon. The
Parson told his readers, "We part with our old associate, in peace and
on kind terms," which was not the case, and he wrote Bell an abject,
apologetic letter, outlining what had happened. "I state these important facts to let you and Gentry know that I had not used the money
for other purposes, and that I have not received one dollar of it and
never expect to." The Parson had not forgotten Gentry's reproach
when the congressman learned the editor had diverted to Joe King
money he had expected to get. In his distress Brownlow shed his
arrogance so far as to plead with Bell to help him get a job as a river
commissioner under a bill just passed, or failing that, one with the
port of entry office to be opened in Knoxville. [ 14 J
Desperate, humble and uncertain as Brownlow was about his material prospects in 1852, he has displayed a slender, wry conviction two
years earlier that he expected much more agreeable returns after
death. He fell ill at Abingdon, Virginia, where he had gone to attend
the Holston Conference, and his condition had worsened so much
that his death was anticipated. Bishop William Capers, concerned
about the state of the Parson's soul, visited his bedside, prayed with
him as to his spiritual state. The Parson later said he was so ill he
could not recall his answer but that his friends had credited him with
saying: "Well, Bishop, if I had my life to live over again I could
improve it in many respects and would try to do so. However, if the
books have been properly kept in the other world, there is a small
balance in my favor."[15)
The Parson presented himself to his readers in a variety of roles:
editor, lecturer, preacher, traveler and commentator, but he also was
worth watching for his changing relations with men for the foe of
one day might be the friend of the next, as well as the reverse. The
times also produced a shattering of old political alignments, as men
hestitated, or sought new standards. He had been enraged and embittered at Bell for what he believed was political ingratitude. He had
been crushed when Gentry suggested he was guilty of double-dealing,
and he had treated Sneed with polite hositility because the lawyer
was one of the men who had helped finance the Register. But by the
middle of the 1850s he was warmly and virogously espousing the
political interests of all three. The divisions between the North and
the South were shattering to Democrats and Whigs, fatally to the
latter. Men groped for new political structures or simply traded
�PARTY STRINGS HANG LOOSELY
161
parties. James G. Jones, Crozier and Swan turned Democrats. Bell
and Gentry leaned toward the American Party but stopped short of
declaring allegiance. Brownlow, Nelson, Temple and Sneed became
outright Americans. [16]
Bell's name went up on the Whig's editorial page as its choice for
President late in 1854, but the Tennessee senator declined to attend
the American convention in 1856. He received little or no consideration and the nomination went to Fillmore. [ 17 I Gentry ran for governor against Johnson in 185 5, in response to leaders and newspapers
throughout the state who were determined to provide opposition.
The fragmentation of the Whigs and the dissident Democrats
opposed to Johnson presented such a conglomeration that no political umbrella was broad enough to cover this motley group and no
convention was held. Brownlow, active in the Sons of Temperance,
insisted that the candidate he would support must favor submitting
to the people the issue of a "Prohibitory Liquor Law." When he
came out for Gentry, he assured his readers this man would meet this
requirement, but he also knew his choice would carry a ragged banner in such a cause. Gentry was a heavy drinker. The Parson met this
difficulty with some neat prose and an awkward straddle:
Now, although CoL Gentry is not a member of any Temperance Society and his
practice for years past has been at war with total abstinence principles, still, for
an outsider, he concedes a great deal. And those who know the man, know him
to be one of the most bold, fearless, frank and reliable men in the State; and
whatever he pledges himself to do, he will do it though it defeat him in the
election. [18]
Gentry had made an outstanding reputation as an orator, in Congress
and out, but while he was accomplished and eloquent, in view of his
style and gentility, he could not cope with Johnson's facility with
the sledgehammer and dung fork. The governor attacked the KnowNothing (American) Party for its secrecy, placed it on a level with
some contemporary outlaws known as the Murrell gang and termed it
reptilian in its repulsiveness. Gentry refused to reply in kind, despite
urging from Brownlow and Temple. His failure to do so was construed as unwillingness to support the party that was trying to elect
him. Johnson won by more than 2,000 votes but the Know-Nothings
elected six of the ten congressmen and took control of the General
Assembly.[19]
The Parson, as a zealot of the American Party, fought Roman
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CHAPTER NO. 11
Catholicism and foreignism. But in support of Sneed, the American
candidate for congress, he went stoutly to the defense of a Catholic
who had come to this country from Ireland. Sneed, Brownlow said,
had been charged
with subscribing money to import Catholics to this country! Now for the facts,
as they are, and as we know them to exist.
Old Neddy Lavender, aged about 60 years, has been in this country eight
years, from Ireland, and is a naturalized citizen. He wishes to bring his wife, an
old lady, to this country. Calling upon Sneed, among others, for a small charity,
he [Sneed] gave him TEN DOLLARS. The old man is the Sexton at Grey
Cemetery, employed by the stockholders, by the year, to keep the grounds, trim
the trees, and dig all the graves, under the same moderate salary. The old man
stood his ground throughout the cholera, and dug one or more graves every day.
We assisted him in easing down into their graves different persons, hot and dry as
was the weather, and gloomy as were the prospects all around! Had the old man
called upon us, we would have contributed something, as little as we desire the
increase of foreigners in our country. The old man has been a member of the
Order of Sons of Temperance for several years and is perfectly harmless. His
poor old wife will not vote in this country, or raise up voters. Helping to bury
Sneed's little children, as he did, Sneed could have not done less than subscribe
and pay $10 to the fund. It is a small affair, when rightly understood, and will
only be used in a desperate cause (Whig, July 21, 1855).
The Parson performed a redoubtable flip in his opinion of Sam
Houston. In 1845 the Whig had accused Houston, as president of the
Republic of Texas, of playing a double game. Brownlow said that
Houston represented to President Jackson that he favored annexation to the United States, and to the British that he was against it.
When Houston was in Tennessee later in the same summer, Brownlow was more abusive. He recommended that every door in the state
should be closed to him. Before the close of the year Brownlow
wrote: "We have looked upon Houston for years as one of the most
corrupt, despised, wicked, selfish, sordid and disgusting blackguards
on earth"; but, he added, those characteristics qualified him very
well as a Democratic officeholder. Texas, in the meanwhile, was
admitted to the Union, and Houston was elected senator from the
new state. The Whig reported, "Senator Sam Houston recently passed down the river by Memphis, on his return to Texas, about drunk
enough to make an eloquent Temperance speech." In reporting him
as a reject of the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore in
�PARTY STRINGS HANG LOOSELY
SAMtTF.T. JlOFST0N.
163
Samuel Houston [From Benson J. Lossing,
Pictorial History of the Civil War in the
United States of America, Hartford, 1877.)
1848, [20] in the choice of a presidential nominee, the Parson tidied
his faults into this bundle:
This old "Military Chieftan" [sic.] who abdicated the Government of Tennessee-divorced himself from a decent wife-united his fortunes with an Indian
Squaw-undertook to carry out old Burr's scheme against Mexico-fought, bled
and died at the battle of San Jacinto-liberated Santa Anna when a prisoner-and
came back to the Hermitage to let the "Greatest and Best" die in his arms was
run over by the baggage wagons, when the first engagement took place, and has
not been heard from since. He spoke long and loud through New England for the
nomination, but oh! the ingratitude of his countrymen (Whig, June 7, 1848).
Brownlow faced about completely when Houston, staying at the
Mansion House in Knoxville, condemned the proposed Southern
Convention scheduled at Nashville and declared, "Every d--d rascal
who attends that convention ough~ to be hung [sic.] with ad--d great
rough halter." The Parson, like Houston, saw in this convention the
seeds of disunion. Thereafter he was the Parson's bosom comrade. He
saluted him with a headline "Three Cheers for Gen. Houston," in
reporting his speech in Washington affirming his loyalty to the
United States and threatening military warfare from the South
against those who favored secession. Brownlow apparently had met
Houston when the latter paused in Knoxville during a visit with his
sister, Mrs. William Wallace of Maryville. How they buried the scorching vituperation the Parson once had piled upon Houston was not
disclosed, but Brownlow later was on record as saying the Texan had
spoken very highly of the editor's father. Houston knew him as a
schoolmate in Rockbridge County, Virginia. [21]
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CHAPTER NO. 11
Brownlow continued to lavish praise and friendliness on Houston.
As the Texas senator paused in Nashville on his way to Washington
the editor observed, "With a fur cap, a three-cornered cloak, and
large whiskers, he steps about like a boy. I think I can see in San
Jacinto about as much of availability as is to be found in any of the
prominent men of the day." A few weeks later as the Parson spent
considerable time in Washington with the senator he reported,
"Houston looks well and is behaving well." On the senator's last visit
to the Whig editor in Knoxville, Houston impressed John Bell Brownlow because the senator was wearing yellowish corduroy pants, a
black velvet vest and something resembling a sailor jacket. [22]
In this strange period when old enmities were transformed into
friendships, Brownlow was reconciled with Dr. Joe Powell, a former
state senator from the First District. Powell was an associate and
relative of Landon C. Haynes in his earlier feud with the Parson. In
1856 Powell wrote the Whig editor from California, where he was the
enrolling clerk of the legislature, a cordial letter inquiring as to the
state of political affairs. Overlooking the lurid accusations they earlier had exchanged, Powell and the Parson apparently forgave each
other everything (Whig, May 24, 1856).
When Dr. Isaac Anderson of Maryville, a Presbyterian leader and
educator, died in 1857, Brownlow effected something like a postmortem reconciliation with the preacher he had ridiculed and fought
in Helps to the Study of Presbyterianism more than thirty years
earlier. Of Anderson, dead, he wrote: "He was a useful man, spending his time and his talents in preaching and teaching. We have heard
him frequently. While he was a strong preacher, he was the best and
most powerful exhorter in the Presbyterian ministry in East Tennessee. His voice was powerful, and his manner was earnest, zealous
and unostentatious, and all together made him able and successful." [2 3]
The Parson even laid aside his animosity to Horace Maynard. In
1857 he supported Maynard in the latter's successful race for Congress. One of his justifications was that most of the Whigs who had
fought Temple and nominated Maynard in 185 3 had gone over to the
Democrats. He even suggested Maynard as a candidate for governor. [24]
Animosity between Brownlow and Governor Johnson, however,
flourished, as they fed it with the coarsest exchanges. The times were
not ripe for their interests to be joined and they roared at each other
�PARTY STRINGS HANG LOOSELY
165
from newspaper and stump. When Johnson defeated Gentry in 185 5,
the former made a victory speech in front of the Coleman House in
Knoxville. It so infuriated the Parson that a few weeks later he
delivered from the square in front of the capitol in Nashville one of
the most searing attacks of his career. His review of Johnson's speech
began:
Gov. Johnson said this new party of self-styled Americans professed to have
organized with a view to purify and reform the old political parties. A beautiful
set, said he, to reform! The Order of Know Nothings was composed of the worst
men in the Whig and Democratic parties. As a sample of these men, he pointed
out Andrew ]. Donelson by name, exclaiming as often as twice, who is Andrew
J. Donelson? He is a soured, office-seeking, disappointed politician, who has
been kicked out of the Democratic Party. To illustrate his view more fully, he
told the crowd to imagine a large gang of Counterfeiters out there!-and an
equally large gang of Horse-thieves out yonder! Take from these two companies
the worst men in their ranks, for a third party of these, and you have a representation of this Know Nothing party (Whig, October 27, 1855).
Johnson was so arrogant, Brownlow said, that when a member of the
audience challenged one of his statements the speaker retorted that
he had "heard the hissing of an adder, or a goose."
Brownlow appraised jointly his old foe, E. G. Eastman, editor of
the former Knoxville Argus and now of the Nashville Union and
American, along with the governor. He described Eastman as a former abolitionist from Massachusetts brought to Tennessee as a hireling
to write party propaganda:
He is a poor Devil, as void of truth and honor as he has shown himself to be of
courage and resentment. He edits a low, dirty, scurrilous sheet; and like his
master, Gov. Johnson, never could elevate himself above the level of a common
blackguard. No epithet is too low, too degrading, or disgraceful to be applied to
the members of the American party, by either of these Billingsgate graduates.
Decent men shun coming in contact with either of them, as they would avoid a
night cart, or other vehicle of filth. As some fish thrive only in dirty water, so
the Nashville Union and American would not exist a week out of the atmosphere
of slang and vituperation. A fit organ this for all who arrange themselves under
the dark and piratical flag of Andrew Johnson and his progressive Democracy. I
am the more specific, in reference to Eastman, because I understand he is in this
assembly! (Ibid.).
The Parson recalled some of Johnson's characterizations of the
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CHAPTER NO. 11
35,000 to 40,000 Know-Nothings in the state, employed during his
campaign:
In his Murfreesborough speech, he asserted that "the Devil, his Satanic Majesty,
presides over all the secret conclaves" held by the Know Nothings, and that
"they are the allies of the Prince of Darkness." I quote from his printed speeches
from memory, but it will be found I quote correcdy. In that same speech, he
asserts that all Know Nothings are "bound by terrible oaths to fix and carry a lie
in their mouths!" In his Manchester speech, I believe it was, he called all members of the new party "Hyenas," and "huge reptiles, upon whose neck and feet
of honest men ought to be placed." And in this same speech he says he "would
as soon be found in a clan of John A. Murrell's men as in a Know Nothing
Council. ... "
On every stump in Tennessee, he held me up as the "High Priest of the
Order," representing Col. Gentry as my candidate. Since I came to Middle Tennessee, I have been informed that he pointed to the fancied fact that I was the
head of the Order, as an evidence of its utter lack of respectability (Ibid.).
Before going to Nashville for his tirade Brownlow sought to set
Donelson against the governor by writing him of Johnson's insults.
The result was, Brownlow told his audience, that Donelson, former
secretary to President Jackson and his nephew by marriage, went to
Nashville, where he "was seen walking these streets with a large and
homely stick in his hand, looking grim, as any gentleman would do
under the circumstances." However, Brownlow said, the governor
"ingloriously lied out of what he had said .... I, therefore, pronounce your Governor, here upon his own dunghill, an UNMITIGATED LIAR AND CALUMNIATOR, and a VILLAINOUS
cowARD, wanting the nerve to stand up to his abuse of better men
than he himself!" The Parson must have felt he had done a complete
job on Johnson-with a proper flick at Eastman-for he made the
same speech at Clarksville and Shelbyville and printed it twice in the
Whig. He expressed surprise that Johnson had denied the statements
about Donelson and offered to produce "one hundred respectable
gentlemen in Knoxville," who would swear the governor made them.
Although the Parson in his Nashville speech set Donelson right as to
the governor's insults the latter did not return to Nashville and flog
the man Brownlow said had defamed him. [25]
Greater fame, if not political fortune, awaited Donelson. The Tennessee delegation to the Philadelphia convention of the KnowNothing Party successfully pressed his suit. He was nominated for
�PARTY STRINGS HANG LOOSELY
167
vice-president, along with Millard Fillmore for chief executive. The
Parson, a delegate and chairman of the Credentials Committee,
championed the cause of Southern manhood when a dispute arose
with the Ohio group over a platform plank. The New York Times
reported: "Parson Brownlow of Tennessee said he could lick any five
of the Ohio delegation, and that five of the Tennessee delegation
could kick the Ohio delegation all around the hall." The validity of
the Parson's assertion was not tested, for the Times added: "All soon
became quiet again."[26]
The Parson's zeal and energy in behalf of the American candidates
seemed to have no limit. He published in 1856 the two books previously mentioned, he poured out campaign editorials, and he took
to the stump in behalf of Fillmore and Donelson. He regretted that
he could not meet all the requests for speeches because he was horseless and buggyless, and therefore restricted to appointments where
the trains ran. He attained something like a state of rapture during
the big American Party rally at Knoxville, billed for Thursday,
September 4, 1856, but which broadened to run from Tuesday
through Friday. The event drew from 20,000 to 30,000 people from
the thirty counties of East Tennessee who lined the roads with their
camps, poured from trains, marched in processions, heard interminable speeches mixed with the roar of cannon from Old Methodist
Hill, slept out of doors after all the beds in the city were filled-the
Parson admonished those who feared they might take cold under
such circumstances to "lay up the gaps" -and sometimes reveled
until2:00 and 3:00 a.m.[27]
The election returns startled Brownlow. Democrat James Buchanan not only swept the nation to become President, but also carried
Tennessee by the largest majority any party had attained in a presidential race since 1840, nearly 7 ,500. Republican John C. Fremont
ran a respectable second, although his vote in Tennessee was insignificant. Fillmore carried one state, Maryland. The reeling remnant of
the Whig Party had received its death blow. "We are whipped oututterly vanquished-demolished-thrown far into the shade of retirement!" the editor moaned as he saw another voyage up familiar Salt
River: "one we have been navigating for eighteen years, going up
every other year and returning as often ... This trip we aim to go
higher up, than we have ever done before." The Parson could look
with a wry smile on his personal misfortune, but for his friends and
for the nation he was alarmed. He had seen how "The strong darkly-
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CHAPTER NO. 11
rolling tide of fanaticism passed over the Northern portion of the
Union-the fierce, hot fires of Disunion swept over the South,-and
the result is that the dark, piratical flag of Anti-Americanism, Locofocoism, now floats in triumph." Yet, he held that the nation's will
had been "legally and constitutionally" expressed and that each citizen should accept this decision. For Brownlow "Our remedy for the
evils of this character is the ballot box, and we will not consent to
resort to any other." The returns had brought him to the conclusion,
"The great body of the Northern people are utterly and irreconciliably opposed to Negro Slavery, as it exists in the South, and that
they will not favor its extension, if indeed they will tolerate its
existence where it is." He had a few deeply prophetic words for
Tennessee: "In the day of the Union's greatest trouble and peril, not
far distant, she will vindicate her right to the proud name she bears."
The Parson trimmed his business sails by cutting from $1.00 to
fifty cents the price on two hundred copies of Americanism Contrasted with Foreignism, Romanism and Bogus Democracy remaining
in his shop. He did not report if this stimulated sales. Celebrating
Democrats had their casualty. Fuller Ryan, ramming the charge into
a cannon on Old Methodist Hill, which was being fired in the jubilation over Buchanan's election, was killed by a premature explosion. [28]
The Know-Nothing Party made its final effort in a state race in
1857. It ran Robert Hatton of Lebanon against the democratic
choice, the able Isham G. Harris of Memphis. Brownlow unloaded his
usual diatribes against the Democratic Party and promoted Hatton. [29] But he liked and respected Harris, and described him as
a man of talents and experience, an able debater, a thorough gentleman, and a
man of unblemished private character. His good character and the knightly and
courteous demeanor with which he demeans himself toward an opponent are so
unlike what Democracy has been accustomed to in the State for several years
past that we are not sure it will be acceptable to a large portion of his party
(Whig, May 16, 1857).
Harris defeated Hatton by 11,371 votes, and the Democrats took
control of the General Assembly. [ 30] This dismayed Brownlow to
the point of wavering on his political course, but he managed this
denunciation of the opposition:
We recognize in the ranks of the Democratic party thousands of high-minded
men, ardent patriots, and true lovers of their country; but before we fall into the
�PARTY STRINGS HANG LOOSELY
169
support of what we believe to be the reckless and ruinous party-the low flung
humbuggery, and villainous designs of this self-styled "National Democratic
Party," we would see that unwashed, unterrified, uncombed, uncircumcised, and
unregenerate organization as far down in Hell as a Forge-hammer would fall in a
thousand years! Let none suppose that this language is too strong, without
considering to what sort of organization it is applied. We apply it to the Foreign
Catholic, Pauper-loving, Anti-American, Wet nurse Democracy, who, differing
among themselves, widely and materially on every question of national policy
before the country, nevertheless agree, affiliate, and fraternize in elections for
the sake of the spoils-with all the parties, of all colors, and from all claims, and
of all religions, embracing in fraternal hug, all the odds and ends of God's
creation! (Whig, August 29, 1857).
Brownlow's bitterness was compounded when the legislature
elected the retiring Governor Johnson to the United States Senate to
succeed James C. Jones. [31] Brownlow's hatred and contempt of
these men he displayed by giving them the newspaperman's ultimate
measure of unimportance, a final paragraph in a brief report of legislative actions, placed below even the election of doorkeepers, that
snapped:
The election of United States Senator was gone into, on Thursday, and resulted in the election of A. johnson, the Democratic papers easing the conscience of jones, by eulogizing his patriotic course, and thanking him for the aid
he had rendered them in two fierce contests! (Whig, October 17, 1857).
Another blow fell on the Parson when the Democratic majority in
the legislature, pressing its advantage, voted to send A. 0. P. Nicholson of Maury County to the United States Senate when John Bell's
term would expire two years later.
The campaign of 1859 found the remnants of the Whig and
Know-Nothing parties, with a scattering of dissident Democrats,
organized under the forlorn banner of "Opposition." They nominated John Netherland of Rogersville to compete against the unanimous choice of the Democrats, the tried incumbent, Isham G.
Harris. Netherland had served in both houses of the legislature and
was Whig elector for the state at large in 1848. He was a competent
speaker, renowned as a jury lawyer and a man of striking appearance.
But he was not as diligent as Harris in preparing for the campaign and
seems to have depended more upon wit than detailed information.
The Whig supported Netherland vigorously, although Brownlow had
reasons for disliking him politically. He held Netherland responsible
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CHAPTER NO. 11
forT. A. R. Nelson's failure to be elected to the United States Senate
in 18 51, and he believed Netherland was part of a Hawkins County
clique which traded with Andrew Johnson in order to get Netherland
elected to the legislature. [ 32]
If the Whig lacked its usual enthusiasm for party candidates during
the campaign, it also may have been because Brownlow was busy in a
number of other controversies that required his close attention. He
battled in the courts the trustees of the defunct Bank of East Tennessee. He beat down a spate of civil and criminal libel cases brought
by Martin Patterson, the former editor of the Democratic Eagle at
Kingston. And he gave his friend Nelson every help he could in the
First District congressional race where the Jonesboro lawyer would
defeat his former law student and the Parson's old enemy, Landon C.
Haynes. Another of the Whig's old foes, E. G. Eastman, editor of the
Nashville Union and American, gored deeply into the flesh of the
Netherland organization with harsh satire on its failure to come up
with anything better for a party name than "Opposition." [ 33]
Brownlow mastheaded his candidates under the banner of "Whig and
American ticket," and he struck lusty blows for Horace Maynard,
who was running for reelection to Congress on this slate. The Whig
found much to approve in Maynard, for he caned the editor of the
now Democratic Register, James W. Newman, and he was running
against James Crozier Ramsey, son of Dr. James G. M. Ramsey, the
historian, who had drawn the Parson's fire as one of the trustees of
the Bank of East Tennessee. [ 34]
The Whig showed garish enthusiasm over the election of seven out
of the ten members of Congress, including Nelson and Maynard. The
editor did not seem to suffer severely over the defeat of Netherland,
conditioned by Governor Harris' majority falling more than 3 ,000
below the 11,000 of two years earlier. Nelson won by only 100, but
in a district that had been sending a Democrat to Congress, and
Maynard's majority was 1 ,400. The "Opposition" celebrated in front
of the Lamar House in Knoxville-Maynard, Nelson, Netherland and
even Bell holding forth to the crowd. [ 35] The Parson, a week earlier
at the same spot, speaking briefly because of his afflicted throat, had
announced:
I can only speak for myself, and for myself I say most unhesitatingly that I shall
fight this Democracy until I die. They may call me a Black Republican, an ally
of the North, or what not; I am against the thieving party in power. And if the
Opposition shall nominate The Devil Himself With Horns and Tail on, I will take
�PARTY STRINGS HANG LOOSELY
171
him as a choice of evils, against any of the corrupt, insincere and plundering
leaders of this self styled Democratic party (Whig, August 13, 1859).
The Parson's sulfurous period to the campaign was in striking contrast to the manner in which the races had been conducted. "Politeness and courtesy" characterized the Nelson-Haynes debates. The
sometimes belligerent Maynard's only act of violence was to cane
Editor Newman. Netherland and Harris seem to have done no more
than to lift a forefinger at each other. Brownlow also racked up
personal political triumphs. He was elected an alderman from the
Second Ward of the newly established municipality of East Knoxville, in 1856 and 1857.[36]
CHAPTER XI NOTES
[ 1] Whig, July 24, August 14, October 30, November 13, 1852. See also
Claude Moore Fuess, Daniel Webster (Boston, 1930), 2 Vols., II, p. 351.
Hereafter referred to as Fuess.
L 2] Whig, July 3, 1852; Fuess, II, p. 209; Whig, November 13, 1852; Folmsbee
et al., Short History, pp. 231-232.
[ 3] Whig, September 24, 1852, January 1, 1853.
[ 4] Ibid., November 13, 1852; reminiscent article by John Bell Brownlow,
Knoxville Tribune, August 18, 1896.
[ 5] Acts of Tennessee, 1851-1852 (Nashville, 1852), p. 293; Whig, June 6, July
9, 23, 30, June 26, 1852. For biographies of Maynard and Temple, respectively, see Rothrock, ed., French Broad-Holston, pp. 453·454, 496·497;
Turner, "The Public Career of William Montgomery Churchwell," pp.
21-23, 25-26; Temple, Notable Men, p. 138.
[ 6] Whig, May 21, 28, 1853.
[ 7] White, Messages, IV, pp. 519·522; Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 233;
Rule, ed., Standard History, pp. 320-321; Whig, August 6, 13, 27, September 3, October 15, 1853.
[ 8) Ibid., August 20, October 1, 1853.
[ 9] Ibid., September 17, 24,November5, 1853;JosephH.Parks,}ohnBellof
Tennessee (Baton Rouge, 1950), pp. 211·215. Hereafter referred to as
Parks.
[10) Brownlow to Nelson, May 30, 1851. Nelson Papers.
[11] Bell to Nelson, February 25, 1850, Brownlow to Nelson, March 23, 1850.
Nelson Papers.
[12] Bell to Nelson, May 5, 1851. Nelson Papers.
[13] Whig, July 19, 1851 (The page is incorrectly dated July 5, 1851); Temple,
Notable Men, p. 236.
[14] Brownlow to Bell, September 7, 1852. Polk-Yeatman collection, Manu·
�172
[15)
[16)
[17)
[18)
[19)
[20)
[21)
[22)
[23)
[24)
[25)
[26)
[27)
[28)
[29)
[30)
[31)
[32)
[33)
CHAPTER NO. 11
script Division, Tennessee State Library and Archives. Whig, September
11, 1852.
Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 14-15; Rule, ed., Standard History, pp.
326-327.
Parks, 302-307, 311-312; Folmsbee et al., Short History, pp. 233-245;
Alexander, T. A. R. Nelson, pp. 54-55; Whig, November 4, 25, December
30, 1854, April 7, May 1, July 10, August 31, 1856.
Ibid., October 14,1854, March 1, 1856;Parks, p. 307.
Whig, October 28, December 2, 16, 1854; see also Temple, Notable Men,
p. 242.
Whig, May 5, July 21, 1855; Temple, Notable Men, pp. 234-235, 383-385;
Folmsbee et al., Short History, pp. 235-236; Temple, Notable Men, p. 389;
Whig, November 3, 1855.
Ibid., April 9, 1845. For background see Folmsbee eta/., Short History,
pp. 189-190, 211; Whig, July 16, September 16, 1845, September 16,
1846.
Ibid., April 13, August 31, June 29, April 13, 1850; Parson Brownlow's
Book, p. 16.
Whig, January 12, February 23, 1856; John Bell Brownlow's letter, Knoxville Tribune, August 16, 1896.
Whig, February 7, 1857; Rothrock, ed., French Broad-Holston, pp.
367-368.
Whig, May 30, August 22, January 17, 1857.
Quotations are from ibid., October 27, 1855. Some italics were omitted in
the second printing, ibid., February 9, 1856. The Murrell gang, led by
John A. Murrell, killed and robbed in Mississippi and Arkansas until Murrell was captured, convicted and imprisoned. Temple, Notable Men, fn p.
385.
Folmsbee et al., Short History, pp. 237-238; Whig, March 1, 1856; quoted
in the Knoxville Register, September 11, 1856.
Whig, April 12, May 24, August 2, September 6, 13, 1856; Register, September 11, 1856.
Whig, November 8, 15, 1856; Parks, pp. 311-313; Folmsbee et al., Short
History, p. 238; Alexander, Thomas A. R. Nelson, p. 59. There is an error
in subtraction in Buchanan's majority in the Whig, July 4, 1857. See also
ibid., August 29, 1857, November 15, 18, 1856.
Folmsbee et al., Short History, pp. 238-239; White, Messages, V, p. 15;
Whig, March 21, April25, May 2, 16, June 27, 1857.
White, Messages, V, p. 22; Folmsbee et a/., Short History, pp. 238-239;
Whig, August 22, 29, 1857.
Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 239; White, Messages, V, pp. 24-25;
Whig, November 7, 1957.
White, Messages, V, pp. 90-92; Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 239. In re
missing files see Chapter X, fn 4. Temple, Notable Men, pp. 159-161;
Whig, November 1, 22, 1851; John Bell Brownlow marginal comment,
ibid., September 15, 1857, August 16, 1851.
White, Messages, V, pp. 92-93, quoting Nashville Union and American.
�PARTY STRINGS HANG LOOSELY
173
[34] Tri-Weekly Whig, April 7, July 12, 21, August 6, July 23, 26, 1859. John
Bell Brownlow marginal note, Whig, August 13, 1859.
[ 3 5] I bid. The political complexion of the First Congressional District was subjected to redistricting in 1852 by the addition of Jefferson, Hancock and
Sevier counties to give it a Whig majority and to end Andrew Johnson's
domination. White, Messages, IV. p. 457-458. The shifting of party lines
also produced personal political changes. A. G. Watkins, as a Whig, had
represented the Second Congressional District for two terms, from March
4, 1849, to March 3, 1853. The redistricting placed Watkins, who lived at
Panther Springs in Jefferson County, in the First District, where he ran unsuccessfully in 185 3. Switching to the Democratic Party, Watkins was elected to the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Congresses, March 4, 1855 to
March 3,1859. Hedeclinedtorunin 1858.ActsofTennessee, 1851-1852
(Nashville, 1852), p. 293; Biographical Directory of the American Congress, (Washington, 1961), pp. 152, 156,163, 168,1781-1782;Alexander,
Thomas A. R. Nelson, pp. 61-62. Watkins' career also can be traced
through the Whig, August 16, 1851, August 11, 1855, August 22, 1857.
[36] Alexander, Thomas A. R. Nelson, p. 60; Temple, Notable Men, p. 168;
White, Messages, V. p. 96; Whig, March 15, 1856, March 21, 1857.
�"Put None on Guard but Americans."
Chapter No. 12
THE MATERIAL PARSON
The first issue of the Tennessee Whig at Elizabethton in the spring
of 1839 described itself as a "political journal," a needless explanation since the substance demonstrated that (Whig, May 16, 1839).
Editor Brownlow soon expanded into the field of religious controversy, [ 1] and then a third element began to worm its way into
the newspaper -items dealing with economic facts of life.
Brownlow had learned early in life that food, lodging and clothing
must be paid for in toil, whether it was in the field of the farmer, at
the bench of the carpenter, or in the pulpit of the preacher. As
already mentioned he suffered the acute pain of material loss when a
deputy sheriff levied on him to pay the costs in a libel conviction.
The deputy seized a handsome mare, saddle and accoutrements, this
depletion leaving the circuit rider unhorsed. To sustain his bride,
Eliza, he left off regular preaching and took a job managing the
O'Brien iron works in Carter County. After he had agreed to edit the
Whig, he did so by candlelight and labored for the O'Briens during
the day. At first he followed a policy of not going near the printing
office at Elizabethton (Whig, July 15, 1841), but after six months he
moved to town and worked in the atmosphere of the primitive plant.
Sitting there, however occupied he may have been with writing, he
could not miss a new insight into the lives of farmers, tradesmen,
artificers, lawyers and bankers. He could feel closely the pulse of
subscribers and advertisers. In time this awareness was conveyed into
the columns of the Whig.
The early issues of the Whig reflected the Parson was concerned
principally with the political and social scene, as it did also in his first
visit to the East in 1841. But soon items began to appear in his
newspaper that showed a recognition of the material needs in the
daily lives of the people. He wrote on the state of farming, the
conditions of the crops and market prospects. Finally he supplied
174
�THE MATERIAL PARSON
175
some detailed stat1st1cs on the economic and professional life of
Jonesboro. These he wrote with a satirical pen, which nevertheless
threw light on the entire life of the town. Jonesboro had four doctors, four lawyers, three churches, two female schools, ten stores,
five saddlers, five blacksmiths, three "boss house carpenters," four
shoe and boot shops, a book bindery, two printing plants, three
cabinetmaking shops, one hatter, a carriage and wagon maker, a silversmith shop, three taverns, two saloons and three cake bakers. The
town received mail three times a week from the east, the west, and
the Carolinas, and by three weekly horse mails. [2] The conditions of
the stage routes, wagon roads, and water courses were vital to the
editor because by them alone came the newspapers and letters that
afforded news of the outside world, as well as necessary supplies,
ink, paper, type, forms, stands and presses. Self-sustaining as such
towns as Jonesboro were, as Brownlow's statistics showed, many
products came from Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Charleston. Because merchants bought many of their supplies from these
large centers, the wholesale houses there were advertising customers
of the Whig, especially as its circulation grew.
The editor's frugal nature peeped through an approving item he
wrote that President Benjamin Harrison went to market daily before
sunrise with his basket on his arm (Whig, April 14, 1841). He was
ambitious to make money, although he was unsuccessful outside of
the newspaper field. These experiences, always unsuccessful, as mentioned before, probably impressed him with the importance of commercial news, for he began to season his dispatches from the cities
and regions he visited with more of these items. He reported and
compared prices, wrote of the progress of manufacturing and railroad
building, stared in wonder at the forest of masts in Charleston Harbor, and noted that the New World was supplying the old with
foodstuffs. When he encountered large droves of swine from East
Tennessee headed for the Southeast markets along the roads near
Yorktown, South Carolina, he jotted down that 6,000 of them were
from Jefferson County.[3] But, if in practice he recognized the importance of business news, in philosophy he minimized it, as his
annual message to his readers after seven years of editing and publishing shows:
We shall advocate Whig Principles-which is but another name for implicit
adherence to both state and national constitutions-the only means of preserving
law and order-and security to public liberty and private rights. Whig principles
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CHAPTER NO. 12
teach liberty and equality to all and every free citizen of the United States. A
recognition of no other distinction than that of virtue and vice; the improvement
of all by the means of education; and elevation of the poor and laboring classes,
by keeping open the channels of wealth to all, by encouraging and sustaining
industry and enterprize [sic.] and the discountenancing of idleness and vice,
mobs, and rebellion. This Whiggery, and this is our creed (Whig, May 13, 1846).
A little more than a year later he gave extensive space to a report on
the imports and exports of Washington County. Included was a statement that a railroad would stimulate the county's commerce, inspire
more manufacturing and utilization of raw products, bring in capital
and population and provide outside markets for hay, oats, potatoes
and lumber. Brownlow made no editorial comment on this report,
but in the meetings and debates of the time on whether to press for
macadamized roads, railroads or river improvements in upper East
Tennessee, he leaned toward the water routes. He was familiar with
the Holston River because he had traveled it often while shipping
iron castings for the O'Briens to Knoxville. [4]
The Parson received most instructive, though painful, lessons in
the use of economic weapons from the group of wealthy and influential men who backed the Register in the newspaper war that
erupted when Brownlow brought his Whig to Knoxville in the spring
of 1849. These men sought to intimidate advertisers. They procured
criminal and civil litigation against him, engineered the raising of his
rent, bought up unpaid notes on which he remained as security and
pressed for collection, and they may have been involved in a plot to
destroy his printing office. But when all these tricks and devices had
failed, he had learned, as he had in a lesser degree at Jonesboro, that
a newspaper which gives its readers sparkling, vigorous material can
command circulation, and with circulation advertising and influence
followed.
Unlike most of today's newspapers which seek circulation in a
tight, concentrated market to interest retail merchants, Brownlow
sought subscribers wherever he could get them within the nation. He
asserted at Jonesboro and at Knoxville that he could operate without
local support. He always played to rural people and to workmenmechanics was the term for them then. In his maiden issue at Knoxville he offered to take the farmer's wood or grain for subscriptions,
and as for mechanics he would exchange his work for theirs. Giving
the market price for flour, he added: "Our publishing these facts will
not be very acceptable to our citizens and speculators, but we can't
�THE MATERIAL PARSON
177
help that. We go for the people and the farming interests and we will
give them the true state of the market, offend whom we may." He
drew the line more sharply by characterizing his opposition as the
"scrub aristocracy." [5]
One of the finest examples of the Parson's turning an event designed for his downfall into a victory occurred at Clinton, where he
had been called for trial on a charge of advertising a lottery. The
spectacle of seeing a preacher-editor on trial for a gross material
offense, both illegal and immoral, brought a large crowd of the curious. The case was thrown out, and the delighted Parson eagerly
responded to cries for a speech. But instead of devoting himself
exclusively to a hymn of triumph, he shrewdly delivered a mouthwatering speech on the economic resources of Anderson County and
how they could be utilized to bring prosperity to its people. He
reminded his hearers of his vigorous support of internal improvements, and he dangled before them the rich prospects for markets
which would be available upon completion of the railroad projects
being pressed toward Knoxville from two directions. He envisioned
the flow of farm products from the lush Powell River valley, dwelt
on the availability of water power for manufacturing and called for
improved roads and mail routes from Cumberland Gap to Knoxville
by way of Jacksboro and Clinton. Time proved this to be a logical
travel and communication route. The Parson, of course, was not
quite the seer to foresee Norris Dam and the rail and highway routes
that have followed the course he traced. Either from vanity, or a
desire to gloat over his enemies, or realizing that he had made a
lasting impression with the speech, he printed it in full (Whig, March
23, 1850).
The Whig was in favor of the material progress of the region, but it
also was arrayed against the men of money and means in Knoxville.
So Brownlow offered as appropriate this message before the end of
his first year:
A young man, whose father was a hard working mechanic, either has a moderate
fortune left to him, or he marries a few thousand dollars-and forthwith he puts
on airs, and assumes an importance, perfectly disgusting to all who are acquainted with the circumstances of his "rise and progress" in the world. Such young
men regard as beneath their dignity the vocation of their parents ....We have
even met with some who looked upon the vocation of a humble mechanic, as
beneath the dignity of a gentleman, foregoing [sic.), meanwhile, that the taint of
the father attaches to the son! ...
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CHAPTER NO. 12
There are many young men in our towns and villages [and some young ladies,
too!] who seem to be proud of the wealth of their parents-while their own
reputations would be soiled by associating with the sons of mechanics. In their
strange infatuation, it never occurs to them that their fathers made all their
property by down-right stealing, cheating and lying-while their grandfathers
were sold at public auction, in our seaports, to pay their passage across the
ocean! See the number of young men in our country, who, endowed with
scarcely common sense and no sort of love for genuine republicanism, resort to
the study of the learned professions, such as Law and Medicine, while every
mark about them declares, in terms which cannot be misunderstood, that the
God of nature intended them for bricklayers [,] house carpenters and black
smiths! Many of these ought now to abandon their professions for the more
profitable and equally honorable fields of labor .... God deliver us from the
bastard arristocracy [sic.] of our little villages, and Cod-fish aristocracy of our
larger towns!
The course charted, Brownlow tied himself even more closely to
the hardworking, humble people with this declaration:
One of us a Printer by profession and the other a House Carpenter by occupation, we were satisfied then, as we are now, to be ranked with that hardy class of
men, who eat their bread and meat, and wear their garments, whether coarse or
fine, by the sweat of their brow and are content with the avails that industry
affords its votaries .... " (Whig, June 29, 1850).
He lectured even more vigorously and extensively upon this theme as
he began his fourteenth year of running a newspaper. Brownlow had
detested aristocracy all his life and had "warred upon it, from the
pulpit and the press, for a quarter of a century past .... " And while
he ridiculed what he described as its airs and pretensions, he chided
the working people because they had accepted this class line of
separation:
By a false law of honor, and an equally false principle of society, the dignity
of indolence, and the respectability of ~;p/endid poverty, command both admiration and homage; while the equally imaginary degradation of labor, whether
upon the farm or in the line of the manufacturer, has excited contempt! In no
town in all the South-west is this more true than in the town of Knoxville. And
the industrial classes are themselves responsible for the disgraceful error; they
suffer it to exist-not alone without rebuke, but they connive at, and assent to
it. They creap [sic.] after men of rank and bow submissively to their inferiors in
all that should ennoble human nature. They lend themselves as the willing instru-
�THE MATERIAL PARSON
179
ments, of base and unprincipled men, who have acquired some property, by a
species of pilfering that they would scorn to stoop to!
God forbid that we should array ourselves against the necessary and sincere
courtesies of social intercourse .... Far be it from us, likewise, to array the poor
against the rich-though few of the latter are to be found in our midst! But we
would have the true men of our country-the sources of our wealth and prosperity-the better class of society know and properly estimate their true value
(Whig, June 19, 1852).
In the years at Jonesboro Brownlow had brought into the Whig
columns an increasing number of items on market prices at home and
abroad, the condition of crops and the importance of means of transportation to carry the products of East Tennessee to the outside. He
made a telling point in his last year in this town by reporting that
representatives of a Georgia company had sent buyers into East Tennessee. They had purchased 10,000 bushels of wheat and shipped it
by water to the terminus of a rail line in Georgia. He offered the
illustration to prod Virginia interests into moving more rapidly on a
line from that state into Tennessee. After he moved to Knoxville his
interest in railroad building appeared to grow, although he never
overlooked transportation by water. When he went to Nashville in
the fall of 1851 to support Thomas A. R. Nelson for the United
States Senate seat he wound up lobbying for the railroad interests.
He was delighted that the General Assembly had voted $8,000,000 in
state loans to railroad companies. In a short time officials of the East
Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, which projected from a junction at
the Virginia line with roads leading to the Northeast seaboard, and
heads of the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad, which was to
connect with roads leading to the South Atlantic coast, met in Knoxville to select the site for the junction of their routes. They chose a
place half a mile north of the existing business district, where the
Southern Railway lines now run. Trains on the southern line were
running between Loudon, Tennessee, and Dalton, Georgia, the following year. This opened direct connections between Loudon and
the seaports of Savannah and Charleston. The first train reached
Knoxville on June 22, 185 5. Track laying eastward by the East Tennessee and Virginia was started July 4, 1855, destined to connect
with Bristol, also the terminus of the Virginia and Tennessee road.
Still in the talking and promotional stages were the Rabun Gap road
and the Knoxville and Kentucky company. The former was never
completed and the latter was completed after the Civil War, after
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CHAPTER NO. 12
many shifts and starts and reorganizations. [7]
River traffic continued to thrill and engaged the Parson. When a
flood tide brought product-laden craft from farther up the state to
Knoxville in May 1856, he counted 300 boats lined up along the
river bank at Knoxville. Their cargoes of corn, wheat, oats, flour,
bacon, salt, iron, casting and lumber were valued at $300,000. Prices
went down under the impact of this volume.
Brownlow's appreciation of the importance of commercial and
business news grew swiftly after his arrival in Knoxville. He wrote of
crops and markets as he found them in the region or wherever he
went, and he introduced a "Commercial" column with quotations on
grain, flour, meat, fruit, vegetables, cotton, molasses, lard, rice, sugar
and feathers, from New Orleans, Charleston, Augusta, Chattanooga,
Macon, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Nashville.
He also carried a column of railroad news as well as separate items.
His crop reporting grew more extensive and sometimes covered several southern states.
The Whig sometimes carried outbursts that it could operate without Knoxville circulation, which might have been taken to mean he
disliked Knoxville. Actually, he was deeply concerned for the city's
progress, as the trend of his editorial policy showed. He performed as
a traveling chamber of commerce for Knoxville as he crisscrossed the
South and Southeast. He devoted a lecture in Savannah to the advantages of trade with East Tennessee. He grew lyrical over the advantages of Knoxville as he poured out this praise of his home:
We will soon have the Railroad Cars coming in and going out of our city
daily, with freights and passengers, connecting us at once, by steam, with
Charleston, Savannah, Augusta, Mobile, Nashville, New Orleans, St. Louis, Louisville and Cincinnati. In a very short time thereafter, we shall have a first-class
Railroad completed, connecting us with Lynchburg, Richmond, Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York & Boston, this being the greatest thoroughfare on
the American Continent. It will then require half a dozen of the largest class
Hotels to accomodate even transient customers, saying nothing about regular
boarders attached to numerous business houses. Knoxville is the centre of East
Tennessee, both east and west, or north and south-aye, it is the Metropolis of a
territory of some thirty counties, a rich and fertile country, abounding in rich
iron ore, coal, salt, hydraulic lime, marble, valuable timber, and other choice
materials for manufacturing purposes. Add to these excellencies, a salubrious
climate, fine air, and the best water that ever our God sent forth from the hills
and vallies [sic.] " to nourish and invigorate his creatures." Add still to these
�THE MATERIAL PARSON
181
charms the fact that the entire territory of East Tennessee presents to the eye of
the paralized [sic.] beholder, a surface of country, not only fertile in the
highest degree, but picturesque and beautiful beyond conception. Is it any
wonder that we thus calculate on the growth of our already flourishing town?
Certainly not....
Our honest opinion is that there is not a more interesting locality, or delight·
ful city in the Union, all things considered, than this aforesaid Knoxville, and
hence we are here for life! We have now lived in this world almost a half a
century, and in that time, ... we have met with no locality that holds out more
inviting inducements to population, wealth, enterprise, industry and talents
(Whig, April 30, 185 3 ).
The Parson also forecast the day when he would be editing Brownlow's Daily Whig (Ibid.). He missed on that prophecy.
Knoxville was once chiefly a depository for agricultural products,
but was now moving into such industries as sawmills, flour mills,
foundries, planing mills and machine shops that utilized the new
steam power. Before 185 3 ended, Brownlow urged that the city
should get into wider fields of manufacturing. "The time is coming,"
he wrote, "when all the woolen and cotton goods, hats, shoes, edgetools and farming impliments [sic.] now manufactured in New England and other parts of the world will be manufactured in our midst.
We can command the wool and leather now, and the iron and coal,
and we have the cotton with far less freight on it than we have at the
North" (Whig, December 24, 1855).
The cholera epidemic of 1854 brought Knoxville to an economic
standstill. But when it was ended and business began to be resumed
Editor Brownlow mounted a horse for a survey of the town and
found what he described as a surprising amount of building. It was an
obvious attempt to encourage the citizens who were depressed by the
tightness of money as well as by the scourge of the epidemic. He
came back with another boosting editorial-a Christmas message-in
which he acknowledged that the fears of economic decay had arisen.
But again he cited an increase in business houses and manufacturing
plants. The Parson reminded his subscribers that Knoxville had
grown from the 2,000 population it had when he began publishing
there in 1849 to between 5,000 and 6,000. But in a separate piece he
accused the citizens of permitting a low state of morals to exist; he
described the municipal government as being laggard, the schools as
inadequate and juvenile crime as on the increase. He charged the
county with permitting bridges across First Creek to reach such a
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CHAPTER NO. 12
state of repair that they were not fit to be used by "a sheepkilling dog,
a runaway negro, or a returning convict from the penitentiary."[9]
Christmas of 185 5 found the Parson in delighted mood regarding
the material progress of Knoxville:
A spirit of enterprise is manifested every where; not only do we see it in the
number of buildings that are going up, but we also see it in the neat and well
designed Business Houses of huge dimensions, the principal ones being on Gay
Street. Go where you will, within or without the limits of our Corporation, and
new houses are being erected-old ones repaired, or enlarged-while all is activity, stir and enterprise-attracting the notice of the traveler, and drawing from
him some words of commendation and praise!
Besides the many evidences of business activity, such as the lighting up of our
city with Gas, the cutting down and paving of our streets-all will bear testimony
to the fact that the completion of the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad to
this place, the rapid extension of the Tennessee and Virginia Railroad ... has
infused new life into every grade of business .... And what a change is perceivable in the advanced price of real estate, such as town lots and lands! So much
has our Railroad enhanced the value of lands in East Tennessee that we consider
that the Road does not owe the stockholders one dollar of dividends, upon a fair
and just settlement! (Whig, December 29, 1855).
Again, as in 1854, the Parson found that the material prosperity and
a high state of morality did not go hand in hand, for he saw many of
the people of Knoxville galloping headlong to perdition. He had
observed the holiday by remaining at home for three days, except to
deliver a temperance lecture at a Negro church. As for many of the
other residents•:
Instead of meeting to pray and praise, and to send up offerings of gratitude to
God, for that great sacrifice on Calvary, we have, too many of us, attended
candy-pullings, frolics, card-tables and cock-pits, where liquor has been abundant, and the name of God has been shamefully blasphemed-Others have hung
around Groceries, drank and swore, fought and stabbed their fellowmen-sent
some, certainly, to Hell, and increased their own chances for the infernal pit, at
no distant day! (Ibid.).
Even if hell awaited the sinners, the material future looked glowing. The municipal corporation had extended its limits northward to
take in the railroad junction, car shops and Gray Cemetery. A few
weeks later the Whig reported that a steam-powered sawmill at the
mouth of First Creek was cutting 6,000 to 8,000 feet of lumber
�THE MATERIAL PARSON
183
daily. The operator was a Democrat but "the cleverest kind of a
fellow," and there was agitation for a bridge across the Tennessee
River-still called the Holston at that time. [ 10] Then the panic of
1857 struck. The times grew so hard that John Fleming of the Register suggested that merchants would find it a simple step to suspend
business for Thanksgiving, "that matter having been pretty well
attended to already." Brownlow drew this picture in the spring of
1858:
Our once growing city, at present, is almost as dull as if the cholera had
arrived, and done its work! There is scarcely any business doing. The spring
season is about winding up with the dealers in Dry Goods, and but little is doing
by other merchants, while the employment of all is to sit at their doors, smoke
cigars, read newspapers or complain to passers-by of hard times! And the
newspapers which they read are as void of news as those who read them are of
customers.
We are sorry that we cannot say our city is on a stand-it is evidently going
down hill, for the present. There are very few houses in a course of erection.
Many of our mechanics are out of employment, or have but little to do, and
cannot get money for what they execute. Money is scarce and daily becoming
more difficult to command. Collections are being pressed through officers, and
great sacrifices of property must follow .... We are sorry to make so gloomy a
representation of affairs as this to the public, but this is the light in which we
view the state of things here. If anyone will show us the bright side of the
picture, we will dwell upon that, at least for a time, for we delight to speak of
the prosperity of our city, and of the success of her business men and
houses ....
What are we to do? Let us dress plainer and cheaper. Let us eat less idle
bread, and make what we do eat. Let us get out of debt and then stay out(Whig, May 22, 1858).
The Whig, like other businesses, must have suffered from decreased revenues.
Brownlow also had been required to pay debts for others on
whose notes he had gone security, a predicament in which he found
himself several times in his life. He made his usual meaningless vow
that he would never again endorse for anyone. His outlook grew so
gloomy that upon a trip to a Sons of Temperance meeting in Bristol
he recommended burning the decaying villages of Kingsport and
Blountville. Yet, he saw correctly that Bristol, Knoxville and Chattanooga would be the major cities of East Tennessee. [12] He could
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CHAPTER NO. 12
not foresee Johnson City for it did not exist. The doleful prospects,
however, forced him to scour everywhere for business and economic
news. This drove him into an expansion of such items that the Whig
lost some of its political cast. The issue of November 14, 1857,
carried on page 2, where the cream of the news was printed, nineteen
items dealing with business, industrial and financial subjects. The
topics ranged from reports on the money markets of Paris and London to riots and disorders arising from the panic, and from the
market for Tennessee bonds to the price of sugar and molasses. The
river was rising and the tide would bring salt boats from upstate;
provisions were high, producing protests in the larger centers, but
produce prices in Knoxville were declining (Whig, November 14,
1857). It was a significant development in newspaper reporting, a
turning from the narrow scope of politics, government and religion,
with now and then a fist fight or a duel between editors, into the
broad and diverse field of business, finance and markets.
The winter of 1857-58 was mild, but the warm weather did not
prove to be a boon. In the spring the Parson reported that the ice
crop, usually stored in underground caches for summer use, was so
scant that "We must all go it next summer on spring and cistern
water, and mean whiskey as we find it!" But the Yankee North and
the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad rescued Knoxville. Ice was
shipped from Boston by way of Savannah, arriving from that port
after thirty-three hours. The Parson trilled, "We are fast approaching
that bright destiny which has heretofore lived only in the vision of an
inflated imagination. May we not soon expect to realize the fact that
ours is the great central metropolis of this once remote and mountain
bound region known as the "Switzerland of America."[13] He did
not mention the price of ice.
When the East Tennessee and Virginia line was completed on May
14, 1858, linking the tracks between Knoxville and Bristol, the celebration was widespread. Knoxville, the junction of two major railroads, was on a great route stretching from the eastern cities of New
York, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore to Memphis. Travel time
from New York to Memphis was cut to three days and nine hours.
Brownlow dwelt on the scenery passengers on this route would enjoy
and began to promote the resort advantages of the East Tennessee
area, especially the mineral springs.
But his zeal for almost every railroad projected and his devotion to
a friend led him into an embarassing situation. Dr. Jeptha Fowlkes,
�THE MATERIAL PARSON
185
the Memphis editor and plantation owner who had bailed Brownlow
out of a tight corner with a loan several years earlier, was a heavy
investor in the projected Southern Pacific Railroad, from New Orleans westward. The Whig editor became an enthusiastic agent for the
sale of stock in the road, but its operations became involved and
suspect, and Fowlkes took over as president to straighten out its
affairs. When the cloud fell over the company Brownlow quit selling
the stock, but even the then friendly Register, while absolving the
Parson of any taint, suggested that "the evidences of a gigantic fraud
are now almost irresistible." Brownlow obviously believed the operation was meritorious. [14]
Brownlow's personal hand in affairs was reflected in the character
of his reporting in the big railroad events of 185 5 and 1858. His
coverage of the arrival of the first train in Knoxville was skimpy. This
was probably the result of a snub by those in charge of the combined
celebration of July 4, a jubilee over the anniversary of American
independence and the railroad's transportation opening. Brownlow's
name does not appear on any committee, although he published a list
of these dignitaries. So he published only a barebones account of the
preparations. He was vigorously engaged in 185 5 in supporting
Meredith Gentry's unsuccessful race against Governor Johnson, who
was seeking reelection, and in advancing the campaign of W. H.
Sneed for Congress; but he would have been pleased-in fact probably expected-to be designated for some part in the arrangements
and the festivities. [ 15 J That the Parson felt he had been snubbed
was indicated in this tart and bitter summary of the event:
In everything but numbers our national festival was a failure. We had an
immense concourse of people here-we had good order-no accident occurred
whatever-and to the honor of the grocery-keepers they closed up their doors.
But we lacked organization-all was confusion ... There was a Brass Band,
and that performed well enough. The trains of cars came and went, according to
notices given, and the whistles of the engines blew fiercely. The natives collected
from every quarter, and gazed on the sight with profound astonishment! The
citizens were liberal, and entertained the people with becoming hospitality. But
out and out, the thing was rather a humbug! (Whig, July 7, 1855).
The railroad celebration at Greeneville three years later drew the
Parson's approval in every respect. He was on the Joint Central Committee from Knox County, and 0. P. Temple, a Green County native,
was chairman. He promoted the occasion enthusiastically and report-
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CHAPTER NO. 12
ed it with gusto. He found it to be "a grand affair, and all, too, that
the friends of the enterprise could have desired." The crowd was
estimated at 8,000 to 10,000, and the table was 1,800 feet long. It
required 7,000 feet of plank, yet all was covered with linen cloth. He
praised Greene County for the way the event was carried out and
predicted that the "great day ... will long be remembered by thousands." Temple would write up a long list of speakers. It must have
been a big day for John Fleming, Register editor, failed to get his
account back to the office, and Charles A. Rice, publisher, wrote the
story with a rather sharp explanation that he had to fill in for his
writer. [ 16]
Knoxville's business life must have been stimulated by the coming
of the railroad, for Brownlow came out with the Tri-Weekly Whig on
the advent of 1859. He recalled that when he had arrived a decade
earlier:
Knoxville was a small and inconsiderable place with a population of about two
thousand souls-with no Railroads, no Turnpikes-and no means of getting merchandise to or from the place, but such as were offered by a few, small stemwheel boats, running about six months in the year. Town property was down at
a low rate-real estate was at ruinous prices in all the surrounding country-there
was nothing to give encouragement to enterprise, and but little stimulus to
commerce (Tri-Weekly Whig, January 4, 1859).
Some men of means and influence had contributed to the considerable growth of Knoxville, including increasing wholesale trade and
the establishment of several manufacturing plants. Now that business
was reviving as the panic's inroads were lessening, "Our capitalists
and business men, must not remain idle, or fold their arms and
remain quiet." They should resume activity. The Tri-Weekly Whig
would be a lever in this work and could perform the task of meeting
the "increasing wants of our thriving population." As mentioned
before, the Parson said Tri-Weekly Whig would make little more than
expenses for a time. The editor's published reasons for starting the
new paper had substance but other factors probably entered into his
decision. Rice sold the Register and it passed into Democratic hands.
If the Democrats revitalized the Register they might restore its discarded semiweekly issues. So the Parson may have decided to get
into the field first. [ 17]
Indications appeared that business was beginning to revive. This
the editor noted in the first tri-weekly issue, but farmers were getting
�THE MATERIAL PARSON
187
low prices for their products, and the prediction was that they would
drop more [Whig, July 31,1859). The Parson's health was declining,
however, and after the election of August 1859 he printed this
notice:
The shattered condition of our health-the enfeebled state of our systemworn down by inordinate attention to business-long residence in town-excessive mental anxiety-we fmd ourselves to be an exhausted and sighing invalid,
attended by an insupportable sense of weariness and lassitude; and as such, we
go to the mountains of Virginia, to seek a panacea in the delightful and refreshing baths, and other uses of their curative waters.
He was not entirely debilitated, for he kept a steady stream of spicy,
chatty and gossipy dispatches flowing from the resorts. But frothy
and amusing as his writings were, he was filled with deep concerns,
aside from that over his own health, as he wrote Temple:
My greatest concern in life is to raise and educate my children, and to this
point I am directing my attention. John will graduate next June, when I wish
him at once to read law with you. James will graduate in two years more, when I
desire him either to read Law or Medicine, as he may be inclined. I wish neither
of them to meddle in politics.
My next greatest concern in life is for the growth and prosperity of Knoxville.
The town is going down-everything is getting flat-and the prospects ahead are
all gloomy. If something is not done to push those cross Roads to completion,
and to get up manufacturing establishments there, it is a doomed place ....
There is too much of selfishness, too much of a desire to speculate and
swindle, and too little of public spirit in Knoxville. Wallace and others go in
clans, and seek to monopolize all that is on hand, or like to come up. [ 18]
Brownlow expanded on this theme in an editorial he wrote while
at one of the resorts, but without using any names. He rehashed his
argument that the city must have manufacturing plants for growth;
that prices of building lots and materials were so high they discouraged construction; that banks were demanding exorbitant rates;
and that the remedy lay in pressing for completion of the long rail
route from Charleston, through Kentucky, to Cincinnati: [ 19]
The one on the South will give us an outlet to a great commercial mart, and a
heavy increase of travel; the one on the North will bring inexhaustible banks of
rich ore and beds of superior coal to our doors, and build up foundries and
Machine shops, and all manner of Iron manufactories. Unless this is done, we are
a used up people, and our town is a doomed one, where dog-fennel and sour-
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CHAPTER NO. 12
dock will take the place of paved streets and elegant side-walks.
He restated his theme, a month later, urging that Knoxville should
put up $50,000 of bonds to help build the Kentucky road, with little
East Knoxville adding $25,000 for this purpose, although privately
he was not hopeful about the second amount.[20]
The Parson reported his visit to the springs improved his general
health (Whig, October 15, 1859), but the editor and his beloved
Knoxville were destined for the shattering experiences of intense
political strife, wretched divisiveness and war.
CHAPTER XII NOTES
[ 1] Elements of religious controversy appear in Brownlow's quarrels with
Landon C. Haynes, but they generally involved internal affairs of the
Methodist Church. The major interdenominational dispute that appeared in
the Whig was with the Rev. Frederick A. Ross in 1846. See also Brownlow's complaint that Roman Catholicism triumped in the 1844 election of
George M. Dallas as vice president. Whig, December 4, 1844.
[ 2] Ibid., March 18, April 7, 1841, May 18, July 6, 1842.
[ 3] Ibid., April23, 30, 1845, November 4, 18, 25, 1846.
[ 4] Ibid., July 7, May 26, July 7, 21, September 29, 1847, January 19, 1842.
[ 5] Ibid., May 19, June 16, 1849.
[ 6] For examples of the increase of commercial items see ibid., May 8, 1842,
March 12, April 23, 30, 1845, October 14, November 4, 18, 25, 1846,
September 29, November 10, December 27, 1847, January 24, 1849.
[ 7] Ibid., February 7, 1852. Brownlow agreed to make a temperance speech in
Lynchburg, Virginia, but announced that he would "wind up on the railroad," ibid., February 28, 1849. Seven years later when the Tennessee
General Assembly was considering railroad legislation he proclaimed, "I
am the friend of each and every Company railroad in the State," ibid.,
January 12, 1856, March 27, July 24, 1852; Rothrock, ed., French BroadHolston, pp. 106, 110-112, 228-232. An early mention of the route north
from Knoxville and of the Cincinnati to Charleston and Savannah line is in
the Whig, January 10, 1852 and thereafter with frequency, e.g., October 2,
13, 1852, December 16, 1854, July 9, 1856, April 18, 1857, October 8,
1859.
[ 8] Ibid., May 17, 1856. The Parson's growing interest in commerce, industry
and crops may be traced through ibid., November 27, December 25, 1852,
January 1, 1853, May 5, 1855, February 18, 1860, April2, 16, 30, 1853.
For the Savannah speech see ibid., March 26, 1853.
[ 9] Ibid., October 21, December 30, 1854.
�THE MATERIAL PARSON
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
189
Ibid., December 29, 1855, March 15, April12, 1856.
Register, November 26, 1857.
Whig, April25, May 2, 1857.
Ibid., March 6, April17, 1858.
Ibid., May 8, 22, 1858; Register, May 20, 1858; Rothrock, ed., French
Broad-Holston, pp. 108-109; Folmsbee et al., Short History, pp. 262-263;
Register, December 10, 1857. Brownlow's efforts in behalf of the Southern Pacific were spread over several years. Wbig, January 1 7, May 16,
1857, March 20, May 29, June 6, July 3, 24, 1858, Tri-Weekly Whig,
January 4, February 10, 12, July 3, 1859, Whig, July 17, 1860. Seventyfive years later the Parson's stock selling was held up for critical examination by Vernon M. Queener before the East Tennessee Historical Society,
meeting at Maryville. Queener recalled that in May 1859 Brownlow had
sold to Blount Countians 300 shares of Southern Pacific stock which
proved to be worthless. Queener was an ardent Democrat, and he did not
hold Brownlow in high esteem as an editor. His Maryville address was
based upon his thesis, University of Tennessee, 1930, and summarized in
"William G. Brownlow as an Editor," ETHS PUBL. No.4, pp. 67-82.
Whig, May 26, June 30, July 7, 1855.
Ibid., April17, June 12, 1858; Register, June 10, 1858.
Tri-Weekly Whig, January 4, 1859; Register, June 25, 1857. The Register
was printing a semiweekly and weekly when Brownlow moved to Knoxville. Whig, January 5, 1850.
The springs Brownlow visited are now in the Monroe County area of West
Virginia. Ibid., September 10, 17, 24, October 1, 8, 1859; Brownlow to
Temple, September 6, 1859. Temple Papers. The Wallace referred to probably was Campbell Wallace of Knoxville, president of the East Tennessee
and Georgia Railroad, when it was completed to Knoxville. Rothrock, ed.,
French Broad-Holston, p. 106.
Whig, September 3, 1859.
Ibid., October 3, 1859, Brownlow to Temple, September 12, 1859.
Temple Papers.
�"To the Union, the Constitution, and the Laws."
Chapter No. 13
1859-1861
The rest at the resorts of Virginia restored the Parson's vigor but
left him still suffering from bronchitis and hoarseness. These conditions were painful and limited his expression to the pen, except for
brief conversations. When a "valued friend" from the South, who
happened to be in New York, learned of the editor's condition he
recommended the surgery of Dr. Horace Green in the metropolis and
paid the expense of trip and treatment. Brownlow's reason for explaining these personal facts was: "I do not travel for pleasure and
have no money to spend that way." Dr. Green's treatments took
place before the eyes of waiting patients. The Parson found that
while some of the spectacles were unnerving he was impressed with
the skill of the surgeon and his assistant. When Brownlow's turn
came Dr. Green sliced off a "sort of fungus growth" three inches
long, in the region of the epiglottis. The doctor worked so swiftly
that the patient felt no pain until soreness set in. Brownlow required
daily cauterization with nitrate of silver for several days but the
doctor permitted the Parson to return to his hotel room. Lover of
good food that he was, he found that the greatest misery following
the operation was to sit down to a table "groaning under the weight
of everything palatable" and yet be unable to swallow (Whig,
November 26, 1859).
The after effects of the operation confined Brownlow to his hotel
room for a few days. Everywhere he went on his trip he found one
"great agitating topic of conversation." John Brown, an angry man
from the furious fighting between the free soil and pro-slavery forces
in Kansas believed he had a messianic mission to free slaves. He and
his tiny army captured and held briefly the United States arsenal at
Harper's Ferry before they were overcome by the Marines and imprisoned. The New York preachers infuriated the Parson with their
190
�1859-1861
191
sermons on Thanksgiving Day eulogizing Brown who was doomed to
hang on December 2. The Parson said:
The gospel these hypocrites preach is a gospel of rifles, of revolvers, of pikes, of
fire, murder, insurrection, and aU the horrors of civil war. They do not scruple to
proclaim old Brown, though a horse thief and a murderer, a saint and a hero.
Several of these pious divines pointed to Brown's hanging tomorrow week, as the
sign and symbol in our politics, that the Cross of Christ is in our religion (Whig,
December 3, 1859).
The Parson, in company with a Baptist preacher from Canton,
Georgia, went to Brooklyn to hear one of the most famous clergymen of his day, Henry Ward Beecher. He found Beecher's prayers for
slaveholders, slaves and the doomed survivors of Brown's ban utterly
abhorrent; yet he was deeply impressed:
I came to the conclusion that he was not a bad hearted man; and crazy as he is,
on the subject of slavery, those of our friends in the South who are fortunate
enough to get to heaven, need not be astonished to find HENRY WARD
BEECHER there! ... He is a rapid speaker, but for one hour he held the large
audience spellbound. I was amazed at the novelty of his position, and his utter
contempt for anything like system! I was charmed by his eloquence, originality
of thought, wit, sarcasm and the vehemence with which he uttered his sentiment. And in turn, I was disgusted with the infidel tendency of some of his
doctrines (Ibid.).
In previous years the Parson had atrociously abused the clergyman's
sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, for her
position on slavery and for the book she wrote. [ 1]
Brownlow had been sickened when he witnessed the hanging of a
wife murderer in Knoxville in 1839. But he wanted to see Brown
meet his doom and made his plans to be at Charleston for the execution. The curious swarmed in such throngs and the security measures
were so tight that he gave up seeing "old Ossawattamie [sic.] pull
hemp without footfold, or rather cotton, for a gentleman in Alexandria has furnished the jailor with a new cotton cord to hang
Brown, the product of slave labor." Yet the reports of the doomed
man's last hours led him to admire Brown's calmness and courage as
he awaited the scaffold, and he rated him "as game a man as ever
lived." Free from derangement, he was "in intellect and courage, ... the superior of four-fifths of the men in Congress .... He
has no hopes of any pardon, or even rescue, and really contemplates
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CHAPTER NO. 13
the gallows that awaits him with the philosophy of a Socrates" (Whig,
December 10, 1859).
The execution of Brown held special interest for the Parson and
the people of the Knoxville area, for the free soil guerrilla leader and
his men had murdered three members of a family with a Knox
County background. James Pleasant Doyle, who had left Knox
County in 1845, wound up on a homestead in what was then Lykins
County, Kansas, near Osawatomie. Brown and his men took Doyle
and his two sons, William, twenty-two, and Drury, twenty, from the
home, hacked and shot them to death, and left their bodies nearby.
Brown spared John C. Doyle, fourteen, upon the pleas of his mother,
Mrs. Mahala Doyle. The remaining Doyles moved to Chattanooga,
and when Brown was hanged, according to a statement given by
John, "I had permission from Governor Wise to hang him, but failed
to get there on account of a landslide between Morristown and
Bristol." Mrs. Doyle also wrote that her son was anxious to see
Brown hanged. The Doyles were not slaveowners and the father came
from a Knox County area that was rigidly Unionist. But in Kansas
the Tennesseeans followed their natural inclination to side with the
southern view in the cleavage that bloodied Kansas, and to Brown
that meant they deserved destruction. Embittered, John served in the
Confederate army from June 1861 until May 1865. [2]
The closing days of 1859 had brought a bristling forecast. A New
Yorker was summarily brought before a meeting of citizens at the
Knox County Courthouse on the accusation of being an abolitionist.
John Crozier Ramsey, lawyer and one of the city's fire-eating southerners, recommended hanging. But the moderates prevailed and the
New Yorker, a nursery salesman, was given three days to wind up his
business and leave town. A dispute between James Park, pastor of
the First Presbyterian Church and a moderate, and Postmaster C. W.
Charlton, a Methodist minister and an extremist, reached the point
where their supporters drew weapons. Friends restored peace (Whig,
December 24, 1859).
Brownlow wrote in jubilant mood from Nashville when the Constitutional Union Convention of the state voted to support John Bell
for the Presidency (Whig, March 3, 1860). Bell came close to being
his idol, although a lesser one than Henry Clay. The party also had
shed its ignoble designation of opposition. Brownlow's harrowing
experience of seeing his son, named for John Bell, tried for murder,
must have sucked some of the bounce out of him, but his son was
exonerated. His usual ebullience returned and he was an enthusiastic
�1859-1861
193
delegate to the national convention that nominated Bell for President
with Edward Everett of Massachusetts as his running mate. The platform was a gem of brevity: "The Constitution, the Union and the
Execution of the Laws."[3] Brownlow paused in Washington on the
way home and heard Senator Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, defend
"Squatter Sovereignty" and denounce Senator Jefferson Davis of
Mississippi, who opposed it. Since this represented the wedge that
was splitting the Democratic Party, the Parson relished it and he
described how Douglas demolished Davis:
Douglas spoke three hours and five minutes . . . . The speech was an able one,
both powerful and convincing, for as a debater, I doubt whether he has a
superior in American public life. In the private circle, he is vulgar, profane,
drunken and low flung. On the floor of the Senate, he is wanting in dignity,
speaks to the galleries and the crowd around him, in the true style of a demogogue. But he sways the people, and inspires both friends and foes with admiration for his abilities. I think I never heard such an effort, and I have heard all
who speak of it say the same. He literally ruined the Democratic party, and
made the Senate Caucus who adopted Davis' resolution condemning Squatter
Sovereignty, look like a gang of stupid Asses . .. (Whig, May 26, 1860).
Brownlow also released this evaluation of Buchanan's Administration:
Corruption, foul and loathsome, wicked and damning, swarms around the White
House, in all the Departments, and around the Capitol, daring the gaze and defying
the power of outraged constituencies; legislation is bought and sold. Members of
the House, in violation of their oaths and honor, have sold their oaths and honor,
have sold their votes to carry through the English Lecompton Bill, a favored
Administration measure, for a given price, receiving as high as $10,000 for a vote!
Senators stagger in the Chamber, from drunkenness, and swear profanely while in
session, talking to one another-a disgrace to the Nation and to the State which sent
them here. Members of the Cabinet are partners in large contracts, and are engaged
in swindling the Government out of millions of dollars. The corrupted villain at the
head of the Government is using the people's money to bribe a set of equally
corrupt newspaper editors, to defend his villainy and thefts. Better for us, as a
people, and for our posterity, better for our peace at home, and our character
abroad, that the Congress of the United States should meet but once in ten
years, than that the Government should be disgraced by such Senators (Ibid.).
The Democrats tried to meet as a unified party, then fractured. The
southern wing nominated John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky and the
�194
CHAPTER NO. 13
northern wing nominated Senator Douglas of Illinois. The new,
northern-based Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln of
Illinois.
Brownlow and his old Whig comrade, Tom Nelson, believed their
Constitutional Union ticket offered a standard to which northern
and southern conservatives could rally. They felt that sectionalism
hung over all the other aspirants. [4]
Before the campaign reached full fury, the Parson compared his
throat with Douglas', the Illinois senator having gone to Dr. Green in
New York for treatment:
Our friends are sorry for us, and Douglas' friends are sorry for him, but there is
this difference between us. Ours stood the "wear and tare" [sic.] of time, and
the warring elements, for 3 3 years, because we advocated truth, and the best
interests of Church and State. Douglas caved in with the labors of 23 years, and
what passed through his throat, coming out, would have burned and blistered a
throat of brass. What has passed down was sufficient to have burned out his
swallow and windpipe, and to have carried away the root of his tongue (Whig,
June 23, 1860).
The Whig went into the campaign in high gear with new body type
and a circulation which jumped from 9,000 to 11,000 in a month.
Nelson and Temple stumped for Bell. The Parson's throat kept him
campaigning only with his pen,[5] until John H. Crozier, Breckenridge supporter, speaking in front of the Lamar House during the
week of the East Tennessee Division Fair, sized up the editor as
"meaner than Judas, as going over to the Abolitionists and as a
dastard and a coward." This, Brownlow decided, was an insult that
required notice and an answer. He had posters printed in large type
and armed with a bucket of paste and a brush, he put them up on
Cumberland and Main Streets and in the business part of Gay Street.
They served notice that he would answer Crozier on the night of
October 17, 1860. He had given his version of Crozier's pedigree
before. This time he amplified it and asserted that he had thwarted
the lawyers' ambition to obtain the Whig nomination for governor in
1853. Further, he had rebuffed a proposal, when Nelson and Jones
were fighting for the United States Senate post in 1852, for a WhigDemocratic deal to elect Crozier. He accused Crozier of nurturing an
ambition to be a general "in the great Southern Army that is to pull
down his government," [6] and he made this evaluation of his personal
character:
�1859-1861
195
He [Crozier] told the crowd that I would not attack anyone; that I would fill a
coward's grave! It is folly for me to attempt to prove here to-night by words that
I am brave. I really can't say whether I am a man of courage or a coward! No
man has tried my pluck in Knoxville! ... If this little scoundrel, who is barking
at my heels, desires to know ... let him make the experiment! I will not say that
I fear no man in Knoxville. There is one man in Knoxville, I confess before God
and this audience, I do fear, nay, I dread him-that man is John H. Crozier. I do
not fear that he will meet me face to face and make an open manly attack upon
me. Never! But I fear that, as mean and stingy as he is, he will shell out one
hundred dollars to some irresponsible vagabond and assassin to shoot or stab me
in the dark, or at the dead hour of night, apply a torch to my house and bum it
down over my head. This is the pluck of the man, and before God I confess that
I fear him (Ibid.).
Ridicule was one of the Parson's most frequently used weapons, and
he trained it on Crozier, hinting that he made his wife take in sewing,
starved his Negroes, made butter from the milk of his cow, and gave
a "fashionable entertainment," in blackberry time, serving them the
wild growing fruit to be had for the picking. Miraculously, the editor's voice held out for forty minutes. Crozier had made his speech
three times and the Parson carried his tirade in the 10,000 copies of
the Whig (Whig, October 27, 1860). Brownlow probably brought on
Crozier's attack by criticizing and abusing him for having opposed
John Bell in his campaign for President that year (Whig, September
29, 1860). It is unfortunate that Crozier's position in his quarrels
with the Parson is not to be found in existing records, a fact which
makes objective evaluation impossible.
The Parson's throat had been inadequate a month earlier in a
confrontation with William L. Yancey of Montgomery, Alabama.
Yancey's violent views on secession included a program that he predicted would "precipitate the Cotton States into a revolution." He
came to Knoxville on behalf of Breckenridge in the course of a long
speaking tour. A friendly account had Yancey arriving in Knoxville
under escort of her citizens after what amounted to a "triumphal
procession," from Kingston, Georgia. The Whig reported that Yancey
was met at the railroad station "with two carriages and a music
wagon and was escorted to the Lamar House by a very small crowd,
three-fourths of whom were Bell and Everett men attracted by the
fame of the distinguished visitor."
When Yancey spoke from a stand erected underneath a large oak
�196
CHAPTER NO. 13
in the northwest section of the city, a note was sent to him that
propounded this question: "If Lincoln should be elected would you
consider that a sufficient cause for dissolving the Union, or would
you be resisting his inauguration?" The note was signed by Brownlow, Samuel R. Rodgers, 0. P. Temple, John M. Fleming and William
R. Rodgers, M. D. Yancey called the men to the stand and asked
them if they supported Bell's position on slavery. Temple replied
that he did, stipulating that Bell's words should be given their full
meaning rather than lifted out of context. The three other men
echoed Temple[7] but Brownlow elaborated with:
Yes, I endorse all Bell has said and I will go further than he has gone. I am
one of the numerous party at the South who will, if even Lincoln shall be
elected under the forms of our Constitution, and by the authority of law,
without committing any other offense than being elected, force the vile Disunionists and Secessionists of the South, to pass over our dead bodies, on their
march to Washington to break up this government! (Whig, September 29, 1860).
Yancey's biographer found the encounter an "amusing document,"
yet he furnished the most inflammatory version available of the reply
as given by the extremist from Alabama:
If my state resists I shall go with her and if I meet this gendeman (pointing to
Brownlow) marshaled with his bayonet to oppose us, I will plunge mine to the
hilt through and through his heart, feel no compunction for the act, but thank
God my country has been freed of such a foe. [8]
The exchange brought tension to the audience but if there was any
pistol cocking it was not reported. The incident plagued Brownlow.
Yancey, by quizzing his questioners, had kept the initiative, and his
bold, extreme reply to the Parson probably delighted the Breckenridge partisans in the audience. Temple barely alluded to the affair.
Brownlow's inability to speak must have left him very unhappy.
Curiously, the Whig's first account failed to carry Yancey's threat to
bayonet Brownlow if the former met the latter in martial conflict. A
week later Brownlow mentioned it in this backhanded fashion:
Wonder if he thought we in Knoxville were such fools as to imagine that he, the
redoubtable Yancey, would secede alone if Lincoln were elected, and expecting
him to come along by Knoxville, marching with his flag or his bayonet, whisding
his own march and commanding no body but his own gallant body, to prevent
the inauguration of a President? If he did, he is a far greater fool than he
mistook his audience to be. If we never get a bayonet plunged into us till the
valiant Yancey does it on such a march as that, we are sure to die some other
death (Whig, September 29, 1860).
�1859-1861
197
William L. Yancey (From Benson J. Lossing,
Pictorial History of the Civil W<1r in the
United States of America, Hartford, 1877.]
That the Parson felt he had been put at a disadvantage with Yancey
is indicated by the way he pounced upon him in the Whig following
the encounter, an obvious attempt to recover lost ground. The Whig
of September 29, 1860, carried on two pages items with a dozen
scathing allusions to the Alabamian. Aside from the editor's personal
chagrin, he may have decided Yancey was a choice whipping
boy, for two incidents in connection with his Knoxville appearance
damaged the outsider. Senator Andrew Johnson, who knew East
Tennessee voters as well as any man, refused to be drawn into a
meeting with Yancey, although both supported Breckenridge. Johnson, who passed through Knoxville the day Yancey spoke, said he
was too extreme for most Tennesseeans. Yancey also made the mistake of assuming that he spoke to an audience of aristocrats,[9] a
point upon which Brownlow seized with this comment:
He [Yancey] stated that white women at the North stand over the wash tub and
cook-that· white men black boots and drive carriages, and perform all other
menial services-while at the South, where we were more elevated, we make
negroes [sic.] perform these degrading duties! This was a most unfortunate hit
for this latitude. It might do in South Alabama, or in the wealthy portions of the
Cotton States. But every tenth man he was speaking to did not own a negro
[sic.] ; while the wives and daughters of all who heard him, wash, cook and milk
cows, without ever suspecting that they were performing menial services! ...
No wonder that Gov. Johnson said Yancey was a bad egg, and declined associating with him in a public debate! (Whig, September 22, 1860).
The heat and the turbulence were maddening. When the Rev.
Anthony Bewley, a native of East Tennessee and once a member of
the Holston Conference, was hanged in Texas for being an abolitionist, he drew no sympathy from the Whig editor. Instead "he had
no business there, meddling with the domestic institutions of the
country. And great as is our respect for the friends and relatives of
Mr. Bewley, we must be permitted to say that the people of Texas
served him right. If he had been our brother, we should say he ought
to have been hung [sic.]."
Henry S. Foote, former governor of Mississippi, in denouncing
Yancey and his extreme policy, told a crowd on the public square in
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CHAPTER NO. 13
Nashville that "the ropes were already manufactured with which
such infamous traitors as Yancey and his associates in Disunion were
to be hung [sic.]!" (Whig, November 3, 1860).
Parson Brownlow, a fighter for temperance if ever there was one,
was taken to task by the Rev. R. M. Hunt, a Lutheran preacher, in a
seven-hour debate in Burke County, North Carolina. The Lutheran,
taking the negative side in a temperance debate, charged, "William G.
Brownlow is a low-down drunkard, and after all he has written about
Temperance, during the cholera epidemic of 1844, in Nashville, when
all the other Ministers fled, he remained and danced the streets from
morning till [sic.] night, with three sheets in the wind and the other
fluttering" (Whig, October 6, 1860). This was a wretched untruth. As
mentioned earlier, the Parson had remained in Knoxville in 1854, not
1844, and not in Nashville. He performed great services as hundreds
fled, and there is no likelihood he ever danced, in the streets or on a
wood floor. The pressures of the times seemed to throw men grotesquely out of joint, in their actions and in their words.
Ardently and vigorously as Brownlow campaigned for Bell, he
indicated that the election of Lincoln would not be a surprise. As the
returns came in it did not overwhelm him to report: "The telegraphic
dispatches announce-what we have expected-that Abraham Lincoln
has carried all the Northwestern and New England states, and he is
consequently elected President by the people." Bell carried his state
by less than 5,000 votes with Middle Tennessee going substantially
for Breckenridge. The unofficial returns gave:
Bell
East Tennessee
Middle Tennessee
West Tennessee
Totals
Breckenridge
Douglas
22,320
29,006
18,384
18,904
34,452
11,697
1,659
2,187
7,548
69,710
65,053
11,394[10]
Brownlow drew a little comfort from the fact that East Tennessee
had clung to the old Whig line, Knox County, for example, giving
Bell 2,471, Breckenridge 839 and Douglas 128. But neither the scant
satisfaction to be obtained from these figures, nor the dismay at
Bell's failure as a national candidate (he ran fourth) could save him
from the consuming fear that his country was in peril. It was not a
new conviction. He had been filled with it early in 1858 when he had
written from Mobile to his friend Temple: "The truth is, there is but
little talked of here, but a dissolution of the Union, and all parties
�1859-1861
199
are for it. It is so in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama,
where I have been. The tendency of things is that way." A few days
later he spoke to a joint session of the House and Senate of the
Alabama legislature, devoting two hours and fifteen minutes to discussing "the question of the North and South." The speech must not
have been received with enthusiasm, for Brownlow did not mention
the response of the legislators. Had he been greeted with approval or
outright bitterness he would have mentioned it. [ 11] Neither would
it have been in character for him to neglect his love for the Union.
Now, sensing that extremists would use Lincoln's election to press
their demands for quick secession, he laid aside the role of the
polemicist, the architect of hyperbole and epithet, and addressed one
of the most temperate pleas of his career to "Reasonable Men in the
South," at a time when "passion and reason" were locked in
struggle:
We are not so vain as to suppose that what we can say will stay the tide of
passion in certain quarters in the South, and bring back the impetuous wanderers, to consider facts and principles. Yet, the task of trying even those of our
countrymen ought not to be shrunk from by conservative and patriotic men of
the South, whose Southern birth and raising, and long service in behalf of the
Union, and the maintenance of the laws, may be urged as a reason why they are
at least entitled to a patient and respectful hearing. It is an ungracious and
thankless task to exhort the LEADERS of the Breckenridge party in South
Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, Alabama and Mississippi to calmness, or to a
patriotic reconsideration of the perilous position to which, under the apprehensions engendered by the election of a Northern Sectional President, they are
plunging under the impulses of passion ....
Mr. Lincoln himself is no doubt a patriotic man, and a sincere lover of his
country. He is today, what he has always been, AN OLD CLAY WHIG, differing
in no respect-not even upon the subject of Slavery-from the Sage of Ashland.
The great objection with us to his election is the sectional idea upon which he
was run, the character of the partisans, who supported him and will, it is to be
feared, to some extent control his administration. But Lincoln is chosen President, and whether with or without the consent and participation of the South
will be, and ought to be, inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1861. True, as the
lights before us indicate, we should say that Lincoln has not received more than
one-third to two-fifths of the aggregate vote of the nation. Neither did
Buchanan, and yet he, like Lincoln, has been elected by divisions among his
opponents. Lincoln, then, has been chosed legally and constitutionally, without
either fraud or violence, simply by the suffrages of an enormous majority of the
�200
CHAPTER NO. 13
people of the North, who have actually given him more Electoral votes than
Buchanan received, who was permitted quietly to take his seat. Against the
manner of his election, nothing can be urged. It is true, as we have before stated,
he was a sectional candidate; and it is equally true that, with trifling exceptions
in Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, he received no Southern votes.
But, do the Constitution or the Laws of our land require a man to receive
Southern votes before he can be inaugurated President? Do they compel a candidate to receive votes in every State before he shall be declared our Chief Magistrate? Certainly not! Thus there is no just ground for resistance or revolutionary
movement on that score.
But the argument of Secessionists is that the administration of a Black
Republican President must necessarily be of an aggressive character towards the
South, and that the Slave States should forestall such iniquitous policy by withdrawing from the Union. Nay, the election of a man to the Presidency, by a
party known to be opposed to slavery, and who heretofore have never been
successful in such a contest, is alleged to be a just cause for secession. This view
of the subject is so fallacious, and so extremely shallow, that it ought not to
mislead anyone. The argument is that the South is exposed to all the wiles and
infamy of an abolition government-an argument we cannot accept as legitimate
in fact or reason. Did Lincoln receive the suffrages of the North under a pledge
that if elected, he would disregard his oath of office, violate the Constitution,
and subvert the Union? Certainly not, for had he given that pledge, the day his
election was announced, the entire South would have been united in carrying
out a most thorough and determined revolution, and thousands of true men at
the North would have joined us! But, now that Lincoln is elected, will he
execute the purposes of abolitionism? This he cannot do under the solemn oath
to be administered at his inauguration. And who will say that he intends taking
that oath with treason in his heart, and perjury on his tongue? We have no right
to judge of Lincoln by anything but his acts, and these can only be appreciated
after his inauguration. He knows very well that he cannot violate the Constitution in any serious particular, without rendering the dissolution of the Union
necessary on the part of the South, and thereby involving the North in alarming
trouble and certain ruin ....
But, the attempt to break up the Union, before awaiting a single overt act, or
even the manifestation of the purpose of the President elect, would be wicked,
treacherous, unjustifiable, unprecedented and without the shadow of an excuse.
And then again, disunion is not a remedy for any evil in the government, real or
imaginary; and it is an uncertain and perilous remedy to be resorted to only in
the last extremity, and as a refuge from wrongs more intolerable than the desperate remedy by which they are sought to be relieved. What the people of the
�HO:-;". JOH;.{ BAXT ER.
Hon. C. F. Trigg. [From T. M. Humes,
The Loyal Mountaineers of Tennessee,
Knoxville, 1888.]
""~"""· .to.,:P I!
A.
cooP>: "
Isham G. Harris [From Benson J. Lossing,
Pictorial History of the Civil War in the
United States of America, Hartford, 1877.]
Hon. John Baxter. [From T. M. Humes,
The Loyal Mountaineers of Tennessee,
Knoxville, 1888.]
H ON. C. F. Tlll GG.
General Joseph A. Cooper. [From W. R.
Carter, History of the First Regiment of
Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry in the Great
War of the Rebellion, with the Armies of
the Ohio and Cumberland, under Generals
Morgan, Rosecrans, Thomas, Stanley and
Wilson , Knoxville, 1902.]
""'" •· """'
�Interview of W. H. H. Self with his daughter in Knoxville Jail. [From Parson Brownlow$ Book . )
Execution of Jacob Harmon and his son Henry. [From Parson Brownlow's Book.)
C. A. Haun parting from his Family before his Execution. [From Parson Brow11low's Book.)
�Parson Brownlow entering the Knoxville Jail. [From Parson Brownlow's Book.]
Charles S. Douglas shot by the Rebels while sitting at his window in Gay Street, Knoxville.
[From Parson Brownlow's Book.)
The County Jail at Knoxville. Brownlow
was confined on the lower floor. In the upper story were two immense iron cages, into
which the worst criminals were put, and in
these some of the most obnoxious Loyalists
were confined. Out of this loathsome place
several were taken to the gallows. The jail
was a block and a half west of the Courthouse and was where the First Baptist Church
stands today. [From Benson J. Lossing,
Pictorial History of the Civil War in the
United States of America, Hartford, 1877.)
THE COGN':'Y .JAIL AT KNOXVILLE.I
�Brigadier General Turner Ashby, Jackson's
dashing cavalry leader. He was long on daring,
but short on discipline. [Drawing from
Harper's Weekly reproduced in Civil War
Times lllustrated, Vol. XV, Number 7,
November 1976.]
Colonel James P. Brownlow. Both Brownlow
boys were cavalry officers. [From W. R.
Carter, History of the First Regiment of
Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry in the Great
War of the Rebelliou, with the Armies of
the Ohio and Cumberland, under Generals
Morgan, Rosecrans, Thomas, Stanley and
Wilson, Knoxville, 1902.]
KNOXVILLE WDlG OFFICE.
Knoxville Whig Office [From Benson J.
Lossing, Pictorial History of the Civil War
in the United States of America, Hartford, 1877 .]
�Judah P. Benjamin [From Benson J. Lossing,
Pictorial History of the Civil War in the
United States of America, Hartford, 1877.)
Below: letter to Benjamin from Brownlow
[From Parson Brownlow's Book.)
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�Upper left : an early engraving of Brownlow made from a daguerrotype. Upper right: note
the extensive retouching on the same engraving.
This stained portrait of the Parson once hung
in the old State Library in the Tennessee
State House. The stain was made from tobacco juice spurted upon it by old Confederates.
When the new library was built, there wasn't
enough room to hang many portraits and the
Parson was stored in the basement. Some
years ago the portrait was sent to St. Louis
for cleaning and the stain was removed.
[Tennessee State Library.)
�John Bell Brownlow, probably taken in his
forties. Uoumal Staff Photograph by Hugh
Lunsford from an original owned by Mrs.
John F. Brownlow.)
0. P. Temple. Uoumal Staff Photograph
by Hugh Lunsford.)
Steve Humphrey in the museum of the University of Tennessee's Mechanical Engineering
Department examines the steam engine used by the Parson in printing Brownlow's Knoxville
Whig. Manufactured in Knoxville in 1855, the engine was used during the Civil War to drive
machinery converting squirrel rifles into army muskets and later to run machinery in Georgia
stamping buttons for Confederate uniforms. After the war it was recovered and resumed its
original use in printing the Parson's newspaper. It has since undergone a number of repairs
and uses. Uoumal Staff Photograph by Lin Hudson.)
�William G. Brownlow, IV taken in Knoxville September 17, 1974. The Henry rifle
he is holding was presented to Parson Brownlow in 1865 by the New Haven Arms Co.
The rifle probably has never been fired.
Detail of the same rifle. Uournal Staff
Photographs by Hugh Lunsford.)
�1859-1861
201
Southern States should do, may be summed up in a single word. PAUSE! Let the
entire South, united with the thousands of conservative men North, bury their
feuds, make common cause, and in 1864, the National Constitutional men of the
country, North, South, East and West will overthrow the Sectionalists and restore the Government to a better condition than it has been in for a quarter of a
century. The night is dark, we confess, and troubled, but there are gleams of
light along the line of the horizon. Lincoln is President; but he is nothing more.
We trust that he contemplates no mischief, but if he does, he can do none. The
Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court will hold him in
check, and stand by the Constitution, and the rights of all sections. Here, then, is
our hope, and here is the platform that all conservative men should occupy, and
time and reflection will, anon, inspire a sober second thought in quarters where,
at the moment, the blind impluses of passion bear sway (Whig, November 24,
1860).
The spirit of calmness and tolerance and the appeal to reason that
infused this editorial the Parson did not extend to President Buchanan
and his final message. Brownlow printed the half of it that he considered was sufficient for the Whig's readers and then condemned it
with: "God be praised that its imbecile and corrupt author is never to
issue another Annual Message to Congress" (Whig, December 15,
1860). The editor also was carrying on a crackling war of words with
infuriated Southern extremists who wrote in to cancel their subscriptions. His answers were so harsh and cutting that it must have
required an intrepid soul to accompany a notice of cancellation with
criticism of Whig policy. The extremists accused Brownlow of
treason and libel and threatened him with lashings, tar and feathers,
and death. As a loyal Unionist and a confirmed believer in the institution of slavery, he was under fire from two directions-and he
returned volley for volley. On the Northern front he had reopened
his battle with Pryne. From that quarter he was under attack from an
abolitionist, while in the South the advocates of slavery charged him
with being an abolitionist. Yet his stand on these issues brought him
support from both sections of the nation. John Bell Brownlow
reported that the Whig's circulation doubled after the Presidential
campaign of 1860. John Bell and Temple have placed the Whig's top
circulation at 14,000, but no objective count is, or was, available. [ 12] Brownlow's forceful, imaginative, hyperbolic style had
made the newspaper most readable for years, but at the zenith of its
circulation much of its popularity rested upon the sizzling contribution it made to the fury of the times.
�202
CHAPTER NO. 13
Extreme haste showed through the action of Governor Harris in
calling a special session of the General Assembly to meet on January
7, 1861. He greeted it on the first day with a message suggesting that
the only course for Tennessee would be to go along with the states
already moving into a confederacy. The legislators acted swiftly.
They enacted a provision on January 19 for a referendum to be held
on February 9. The provision submitted two questions to the electorate: should a convention be held to determine whether Tennessee
should stay in or get out of the Union, and should it elect delegates
in the event of convention approval. The convention, if approved,
was to meet in Nashville on Febraury 2 5. [ 13]
The electorate was in an agitated state. The Parson was hanged in
effigy at Eufala, Alabama. Secessionists, infuriated because Senator
Johnson spoke boldly against them, hanged or burned him in effigy
in Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville. The Parson, finding his old foe
aligned with him in the common cause, applauded with "Lay on
Andy." At the same time the Whig warned Republicans that the
Union men of the South would not submit to the implementation of
the party's platform on slavery as adopted at Chicago. Brownlow also
raised the possibility that East Tennessee would seek separate statehood and take in portions of Virginia and North Carolina. His voice
recovered sufficiently for him to join a band of loyal stump speakers
that included 0. P. Temple, John Baxter, C. F. Trigg and John Fleming. Temple, Baxter and Trigg were Union candidates for the convention.
The Stars and Stripes was unfurled by the loyalists, and "A tall
and magnificent Liberty Pole was raised by the Union men ... on
the corner of Gay and Main streets ... and such a shout went up as
has not been heard in these parts in many a long day!" Another flag
was raised at Luke Wilde's brickyard on Temperance Hill in East
Knoxville. Brownlow assisted at the ceremony. The Whig reported
that farmers and mechanics were demanding that business houses
indicate their position by flying the flag of the United States if they
were loyal, and some other banner if they were not Union men. A
hardy secessionist in what was then the Ninth Civil District offered
to head a company into Knoxville to hang Brownlow. The Parson
suggested that his foes should come the following Monday, for
"There will be a Mass Meeting of the party [Union] here on that day
and the hanging of the 'notorious Brownlow,' will add greatly to the
interest of the occasion." The Parson was not hanged but the meet-
�1859-1861
203
ing stirred up so much enthusiasm that two more Union flags went
up, one at municipal headquarters in East Knoxville and the other at
a livery stable_ [ 14]
The state went 69,67 5 to 57,798 against holding a secession convention; 88,803 votes were cast for Union delegates and 27,749 for
disunion representatives. It is possible some Union men voted for the
convention but against delegates favoring secession. West Tennessee
favored the convention, Middle Tennessee was evenly split and East
Tennessee reported very large majorities against it. The Whig, gloating over the one-sided vote in Knox County, 3,15 8 against the convention and 391 for it, gigged the secessionists by printing some of
their names, including that of the lone East Knoxville disunionist.
Temple, cut to the quick because one Sevier Countian balloted
against him, explained it on the grounds he had offended the man
while examining him as a witness. [ 15]
Lincoln's inaugural address, a month after the Tennessee election,
brought this high praise from Brownlow:
We endorse the entire Address, as one of the best papers of the kind we have
ever seen, and we commend it for its temperance and conservatism .... It is,
out and out, a Union address, worthy of the approbation of every Union and
Conservative man South, as well as the North. Had it been delivered by Jackson,
Polk or Breckenridge, even the Cotton States would have declared it to be the
height of political perfection. And we unhesitatingly affirm, that if Lincoln's
Inaugural is a true indication of the character of his coming Administration, all
good and true men may congratulate themselves upon his election to the Presidency . . . . Let us, then, of the Border States, patiently await the developments
of the new Administration. We may be much better off under it than under the
late profligate Administration of Buchanan-we can't be worsted by four years
of Republican misrule (Whig, March 9, 1861).
In the false calm between the February referendum and the seizure of Fort Sumter by the already seceded South Carolina, Brownlow burst out with an announcement for governor, a step that
remains puzzling. It was unsolicited, made because of "a tardiness on
the part of aspiring men in the State to declare themselves ... and as
the people seem a little slow in moving in that direction," and with
this explanation:
I am frank to confess that I desire the position on account of its honor, and
as a means of rebuking my numerous Southern caluminators, who are unrelenting
in their abusive war upon me because of my Union sentiments, and of my
�204
CHAPTER NO. 13
opposition to their treason. I shall, of course, if elected, hope to serve the
interests of the people, of the whole State, irrespective of parties. But not being
rich, I would like to hold the office for two years, for the sake of the THREE
THOUSAND DOLLARS PER ANNUM. Candor requires these avowals (Whig,
March 23, 1861).
Perhaps Brownlow thought that through this medium he could gain
more widespread attention for the cause of Unionism. Perhaps he
believed he could ride into office on what appeared to be a great tide
of loyalty for the central government as demonstrated in the February vote, for his seventeen-point platform was essentially a plea for
the preservation of the Union. He must have held no serious intention to make the race because a few weeks later he would not permit
his name to be submitted to a convention, although he maintained
the position of an independent candidate. He wound up supporting
with some reluctance William H. Polk, brother of the late President,
who was smothered under a tremendous majority for Governor
Harris. The vote was 75,300 to 43,495. [16]
The second vote on the question of seceding intervened after the
editor announced for governor. It overshadowed all other issues and
threw the East Tennessee loyalists into one of the most determined
campaigns in the history of the region. The fall of Fort Sumter and
Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers brought swift changes in Middle
and West Tennessee sentiment. Governor Harris quickly called the
legislature into session and the members responded to his appeal by
calling another election for June 8. This time the question was put
bluntly: Separation or No Separation. The act that put this question
to the electorate was itself a separation document, and placed the
General Assembly as well as the governor on the side of secession. On
May 7, the day after enactment of the legislation for a June 8 referendum, the legislature entered into a military compact with the other
states of the Confederacy. Negotiations had been carried out by
commissioners appointed by the governor even before the passage of
the referendum act. Much of the legislation at this time was passed
behind closed doors, a fact that Brownlow did not neglect. [ 17]
This time the campaign brought into operation, in addition to the
band of Unionists who had fought successfully in February, an extraordinary team from the halls of Congress: Senator Andrew Johnson,
Democrat, and Representative T. A. R. Nelson, an old line Whig.
They stumped East Tennessee energetically, fearlessly and ably.
Johnson's forthright stand for the Union had brought Brownlow
�1859-1861
205
around to a position of admiration for his old enemy-except for
some bitterness that Lincoln had placed Tennessee patronage in the
hands of Johnson and Emerson Ethridge-and he needed no move
from Nelson to applaud and support his course. Johnson received a
taste of southern venom at Lynchburg, Virginia, on his way home
from Washington. A mob hooted and hissed him as he went from one
railroad station to another, and one man boarded the train and
attempted to pull the senator's nose. This indignity led Johnson to
display his revolver, whereupon the car was emptied rapidly. [ 18]
The Unionists of Middle and West Tennessee lost heart, either from
intimidation or despair. Public sentiment in these divisions of the
state was enthusiastically behind the governor and the legislature.
Troops were being raised on every hand, and a little group of men
who once had been stalwart Unionists issued a statement at Nashville
that must have shocked East Tennessee. It commended Governor
Harris for his defiant refusal of President Lincoln's call for volunteers, condemned the President's policy, deplored secession and advocated a neutral position for Tennessee. The governor had abandoned neutrality already. Among the signers was John Bell. A few
days later he abandoned neutrality. [ 19]
The defection of the Nashville group had little effect on East
Tennessee sentiment. The Unionists campaigned with fervor and fearlessness, for Confederate troops were moving through the area by
train and other units for the Southern army were being organized
and drilled in Knoxville and elsewhere. [20] Alabama soldiers, while
passing through Knoxville, attempted to pull down the Stars and
Stripes in Luke Wilde's brickyard. They desisted when Miss Lucy
Wilde grasped the flag rope and defied them, and her brother appeared on the scene with a shotgun loaded with buckshot. When the
train carrying the several hundred troops pulled through East Knoxville, a number of rifles were fired at the brickyard. The act evoked
this comment from the Whig: "This was a gallant charge upon a gang
of unarmed women and children, and it was the first instance of bad
conduct upon the part of many troops passing through here. If these
were some of the flower of the Alabama youth, God in his mercy
save East Tennessee from being visited by the 'rag, tag and bobtail' of
their population." As thousands of Confederates passed through the
town, enemies of the Parson haunted the trains and encouraged the
men to "call and groan for Brownlow." Some were incited to the
point where they brandished revolvers (Whig, May 11, 1861).
�206
CHAPTER NO. 13
Bloodshed on Gay Street was averted on April27, 1861, as Johnson spoke from a stand. A Monroe County brass band first tried to
drown out the senator. Then "two military companies, with drums
and Secession flags flying started toward the Union meeting." Two
Confederates, Colonel David H. Cummings and Joseph A. Mabry,
"acted the part of gentlemen, and through their influence, and active
exertions, they silenced the Band, and kept the men from advancing
upon the Union crowd," where many men were armed. The Parson
was quite sure some firebrands had been urged on the band and the
companies. At the time of the near confrontation he had leaped
upon a chair and warned the audience that the "interruption was the
work of Secessionists, and that they were instigated by SCOUNDRELS and VILLAINS residing in Knoxville." Nelson also spoke
and Brownlow acclaimed the Congressmen for having given "Two
Noble Speeches."[21]
The following week two men died as the result of a quarrel between Charles S. Douglass, an outspoken Unionist, and Captain G. W.
(Wash) Morgan, with Confederate troops stationed at Knoxville. The
quarrel arose at a flag raising at the corner of Gay and Main streets.
Partisans of Morgan, angered at what Douglass said, fired nine shots
at the latter. One bullet inflicted a minor wound in Douglass' neck,
but another killed an unoffending countryman at the door of a store.
Douglass, apparently a storekeeper, obtained a gun at his place of
business. Morgan returned to camp where soldiers prepared to march
back to the town, armed. Knoxville citizens persuaded them to desist. The following day, according to Union accounts, Confederate
soldiers entered the Lamar House by the "Ladies Entrance," and
from the hotel fired across Gay Street, killing Douglass as he sat in a
window, his wife beside him. No prosecution followed. Brownlow
said that the Rev. Mr. Humes, "was proscribed for daring to attend
the funeral and officiate, at the request of the widow." Humes credited Colonel David Cummings, Confederate officer from Sevier
County, who had helped avert the near collision of the previous
week, with having "relieved the occasion [the funeral] of its reproach in the eyes of unfriendly observers, by magnanimously joining on horseback the officiating minister in leading the sad procession." [22]
Nelson and Johnson were of different political metal, but they had
fused into a forceful and effective weapon for Unionism. Their contrasts were striking, outside of politics. Both were bold but where
�1859-1861
207
Johnson was coarse, artful and of meager literary skill, Nelson was
precise in language as well as in courtesy, elegant in his rhetoric and
skillful in composing rhyming couplets, as well as in the drawing of
legal papers. Each, in his own way, was a superb speaker on the
stump. Nelson exerted the widest influence because he had long been
a leader and laborer in Whig affairs in a region predominantly Whig;
Johnson could talk the Democratic line to his partisans, an area
where persuasion was sorely needed for the tendency of the party
members was to accept the hotly secessionist party doctrine out of
Nashville. Nelson's words fell on sympathetic ears; his task was to
stiffen resolution. Johnson's work was more difficult. In most cases
he sought to overturn long-held convictions. [2 3]
Back in the Whig office at Knoxville, where Brownlow had adjusted his mind and his pen to praise the efforts of an old enemy as well
as those of a long and cherished friend, the editor believed he had
discovered a plot to murder Johnson. The exhausting schedule of the
two top speakers for the Union had carried them across East Tennessee and as far west on the Cumberland Plateau as Jamestown. Their
last engagement was at Kingston, forty miles from Knoxville on June
7, the day before the election. Young John Bell Brownlow picked up
a report that two or three men had left Knoxville for Kingston for
the purpose of stirring up Confederate soldiers to kill Johnson as the
senator rode the train from Loudon to Knoxville. It had been established that a troop train carrying 2,000 soldiers would arrive in
Knoxville on June 8. Parson Brownlow dispatched his son to Kingston in a horse-drawn buggy, armed with a Sharp's rifle and two
revolvers, and with another youth as companion. Years later John
Bell Brownlow wrote this account:
We got to Kingston while Johnson was speaking. Trigg & Nelson had already
spoken. A stand was erected in a fine grove. Nelson was sound asleep in the
stand on the floor of which was a big tin bucket of whiskey punch. Nelson had
had too much of it & Johnson had all he could bear & talk. After the speaking
Nelson, Johnson & C. F. Trigg were about to start immediately for Loudon in a
carryal [sic.]. Nelson was so tight he had to be assisted into the vehicle. Nelson &
Trigg went to Loudon that night-7th of June & next morning went on to
Knoxville & on the train were two thousand rebel soldiers. I told Johnson, in the
presence of Trigg, that I had brought a buggy to take him to Knoxville because
2000 rebel soldiers would be on the train next morning & I believed they would
assassinate him. He swore "he was not afraid, said he owned $12,000 in the
stock of that Rail Road & he would be d--d if he would be driven from it by
�208
CHAPTER NO. 13
the traitors of the Cotton States." But on reflecting a moment he concluded he
would go with me & we travelled all night getting to Knoxville about 6 or 7
A.M., June 8th. After Breakfast Johnson crossed the river & went in buggy to
Greeneville & thence as fast as he could to Barbourville, Ky.
Young Brownlow did not reveal whether his father and Johnson met
or where the senator ate breakfast, but he added this comment:
I believe it possible Johnson would have been assassinated if he had not gone to
Knoxville in the buggy & I now believe it would have been best for the South &
country if he had been and best for his own fame. [24]
Nelson and Johnson earlier had experienced obstructions and
perils. More than forty citizens of Democratic Sullivan County had
petitioned the two not to speak at Blountville. These people feared
violence after the home of a Union man had been burned. Their
difficulties were compounded when they spoke at Jonesboro early in
May. Because County Court was in session they were forced to speak
in the street. Nelson was heard with some order, but Johnson was
"greeted with cheers and groans .... But owing to the unfavorable
weather, the crowd having to stand up, together with the noise made
by the drilling of volunteers, the banging of a couple of drums and
the squeaking of a fife or two-it was impossible to hear with the
satisfaction that attends good order." When Johnson tried again to
speak he was interrupted by galloping horses and yelling men and
rainfall. He finished his speech in the courthouse basement. [25]
More than half a century later John Bell Brownlow, in a letter to
Andrew Patterson, grandson of Andrew Johnson, threw fresh light
on the reported attempt to kill Johnson, and linked one of the
plotters to the murder of Douglass. John Bell wrote that after the
rescue of Johnson from the soldiers he learned "that two citizens of
Knoxville ... had gone to Loudon for the express purpose of inciting
soldiers to assault Johnson." One of the men, a lieutenant in the
Confederate army at the time and later a lieutenant colonel, John
Bell wrote, "was utterly unprincipled and later was partici [sic.]
criminis in the murder of Charles S. Douglas, a Johnson Democrat
and Union man of Knoxville." John Bell added, "The disloyal hated
Johnson far more bitterly than Nelson or Trigg and while the latter
two could travel on that train without being assaulted it might have
been different with Johnson." The implication is that the soldiers
considered Johnson, a Democrat, as an outright turncoat. [26]
A clash between Confederate soldiers on a passing train and a great
�1859-1861
209
Union mass meeting at Strawberry Plains on May 5, 1861, produced
gunfire from both sides. A. S. Meek, owner of the land where the
Unionists met and through which the train passed, said the shooting
began after a Confederate threw a rock at him and another, or the
same one, fired a revolver at him. Temple, who along with Representative Horace Maynard and John Fleming was to speak, said bullets whistled above the stand where they waited. Armed Unionists
(and there must have been many of them) returned the fire. The
Confederates apparently were well protected by the boxcars in which
they were being transported, and they must have aimed above the
heads of the crowd, which included women and children. The Unionists threatened to tear up the tracks but were dissuaded by cooler
counsel among the leaders. No one was hit, but the shooting must
have heated up the oratory that followed, if anything was needed to
that end.
The Register, ardently secessionist, reported: "There was an outrage perpetrated, but it was by the armed adherents of Brownlow,
who waylaid a train and without any sufficient provocation fired
with rifles and guns nearly a hundred shots at the unarmed volunteers." The Register also charged that the first shot was fired by the
Unionists "waiting near the railroad with guns cocked and pointed,
for the purpose of provoking a disturbance with the passing troops."
This account was not documented, as the Whig's had been, and listed
no names of informants. In a later issue the Register carried an
account signed by D. S. Latham, a North Carolinian teaching at
Strawberry Plains High School, which was in line with the newspaper's anti-Unionist version of the affair. [27]
The election of June 8 was marked by calm, in contrast to the
fury of the campaign. The outcome was complete disaster for the
Union cause. The state went overwhelmingly for separation. The
vote:
East Tennessee
Middle Tennessee
West Tennessee
Military Camps
Totals
For Separation
14,780
58,265
29,127
2,741
104,913
Against Separation
32,923
8,198
6,117
0
47,238[28]
The Whig praised Knox County for having "gloriously breasted the
storm" by voting 3,196 against separation. Two versions of the number of ballots cast by residents in favor of separation exist. Historians
�210
CHAPTER NO. 13
have assumed Knoxville citizens voted for separation, 777 to 377,
which was the total given by the Register and was obviously incorporated into the official returns which reported the Knox County
vote as 3,196 against separation and 1,216 for. Brownlow, however,
reported that the vote in Knoxville, which consisted of three precincts, Courthouse, Market House and East Knoxville, was 372
against separation and 325 for, with this explanation: "We have not
named, in this calculation, the votes of 462 troops at a special precinct, as we do not know where they hail from and do not consider
votes from other counties legal, although authorized by our late
mobocratic legislature." Brownlow refused to carry these 462 votes
into the county total, as did 0. P. Temple in his East Tennessee and
the Civil War. Temple did not mention the soldier vote in Knoxville.
The Register, unlike the Whig, gave separately the vote of the three
city precincts and listed East Knoxville as having gone 462 to 5 for
separation. [29] This was the Parson's precinct and the report may
have represented a mischievous and malicious plot to humiliate him.
This would not have been surprising, because the editor had unmercifully gigged the secessionists for their small vote in February. The
secessionists had complete control of the election machinery in June
and were in position to have engaged in just such a manipulation by
letting the East Tennessee Regiment, drilling at Camp Cummings, the
Fair Grounds site, vote in East Knoxville where Brownlow did. [ 30]
The Parson must have been terribly hacked, for he never again referred to the humiliation.
Brownlow had given a pledge, and he said when he made it that he
was speaking for the Union men of East Tennessee: "If the State,
through her citizens, at the ballot-box, shall vote to Secede, Union
men, however opposed to it, will bow to the will of the majority
with the best grace they can. But if fraud is practiced at the ballotbox, and the Union men are intimidated and kept from the polls, the
Union men of East Tennessee will rebel, and take the consequences,
if they are even death and utter ruin!" (Whig, May 25, 1861). With
the election lost, the editor vigorously resorted to the qualification in
his statement and penned this defiance:
The election is over, and the fell spirit of Secession, and its accompanying
outrageous tyranny, in Middle and West Tennessee, have forced these portions of
the State out of the Union ....
The election in Middle and West Tennessee has been a perfect farce. There
was the show-an empty show-of a popular vote upon the ordinance of seces-
�1859-1861
211
sion, when the military forces stationed at important points, intimidated timid
men, and, themselves voted, in and out of the state, in violation of the Constitution, and of every law enacted in pursuance thereof. The Union leaders of
Middle and West Tennessee, from considerations of cowardice, bowed before the
storm of anarchy, and either sealing their lips in disgrace, or with the polluting
offer of spoils, derived from offices and contracts, gave in their adhesion to the
heresy of Secession. The Press, as a general thing, knocked under to the storm of
jacobinism and anarchy, and for a consideration in hand paid, gave in their
adhesion to the tyranny established over the souls of the people. We sincerely
mourn for Tennessee. A majority of her citizens are opposed to Secession, but
they have been over-run by an insulting minority-they have been tricked, cheated, duped, swindled, lied and betrayed out of their rights and liberties (Whig,
June 15, 1861).
The Parson made a swift foray into sarcasm. He conceded, "It is folly
for us to fight longer, and therefore we shall devote our columns to
the publication of Literary, Agricultural and Miscellaneous matter,
including the current War news of the day." Then, in one of his
disconcerting and unpredictable reversals of mood, he wrote in deadly earnestness:
In doing this, we take back nothing we have said against Secession and a Southem Confederacy and in favor of the Government of the United States. Nor do
we abandon a single principle we have advocated in connection with this great
question. We are opposed to a Northern Republic, a Southern Confederacy, a
Central Government and a Northwestern Empire. We are not for thirty-four
nations, but only one nation-one great, grand and glorious, free and independent nation, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Gulf to the
Lakes. Hence we shall die in opposition to Secession, and in favor of the Union,
and even a war intended to perpetuate it inviolate (Ibid.).
Nelson shared Brownlow's belief that Middle and West Tennessee
Unionists had been intimidated, their views suppressed and falsehood
and illegality resorted to by the legislature and its secessionist leadership. He found in the Greeneville Convention, held on June 17-20, a
means by which to express his convictions. The convention had
arisen because a group meeting at Knoxville decided that in the event
the state voted for separation provision should be made for an organization to express the views of East Tennessee. [ 31]
After the first session of the convention, held at Knoxville on May
30-31, the Parson praised the speeches of Nelson and Johnson, and in
another of the remarkable reversals Brownlow gave warm approval to
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CHAPTER NO. 13
a fiery Union speech by Thomas D. Arnold at whom Brownlow had
often cast his most elaborate personal villification. Arnold's effort,
the Whig reported, was "well received by the Convention and he was
listened to with a degree of attention that any man might esteem as a
compliment. We have been hearing the General, off and on from a
quarter of a century, and we considered he was making the best
speech of his life (Whig, June 1, 1861).
Discretion, rather than violence, now marked movements of some
of the loyalists. Johnson, whose status after the June 8 election
became that of an official of a warring government, slipped out of
East Tennessee into Kentucky by way of Cumberland Gap, and
therefore missed the Greeneville Convention. Brownlow traveled by
horse and buggy to Bull's Gap, instead of taking the train from
Knoxville to Greeneville. He had charged that a plot was under way
to create an uproar if the convention met at Knoxville, and to shoot
the leaders. Therefore, Nelson had selected Greeneville for the meeting. Both sides were arming. As the Parson drove through Sevier and
Jefferson counties, he saw two companies of Unionists drilling. Resistance was high in the countryside. [ 32]
Resistance was strong at Greeneville, also, and the boldest, angriest
and most articulate spirit was the convention's president, T. A. R.
Nelson. He drafted a burning "Declaration of Grievances" and a set
of resolutions breathing independence of the balance of the state and
petitioning the legislature to grant East Tennessee separate statehood. Moderates succeeded in cooling some of the more heated language, but the hot spirit of defiance remained. It was incorporated
into the memorial prepared by the commissioners appointed for this
purpose, Temple, John Netherland of Hawkins and James P.
McDowell of Greene, and presented to the assembly. There it had no
possibility of acceptance by the inflamed secessionist legislators. A
committee's recommended rejection of the request was anything but
harsh, yet it carried a superior, almost contemptuous tone. The committee said it was not satisfied that the memorial represented the
sentiment of East Tennesseeans, that the balance of the state was
unaware of the desire of the memorialists and consequently the legislators and constituents of Middle and West Tennessee were out of
communication on the subject. They further stated that the question
should be left to the succeeding assembly members who would come
"fresh from the people." A gesture of conciliation was made in the
final paragraph of the report in the expression of a hope that irrita-
�1859-1861
213
tion between sections of the state would soon be removed and that
the divisions would fall solidly into unity. [ 3 3] That was a vain hope.
The petition continued to be ignored.
Union sentiment had one more opportunity to play a political
hand. This was in the election of August 1, 1861, when members of
Congress and state officials were elected. Also submitted to the electorate was the question of a Confederate state constitution. The
strictures upon the East Tennessee loyalists were tighter than on
June 8 when troops were encamped in or moving through the area.
In August the muzzles of Confederate rifles were only a few feet
from the ballot boxes, for units were stationed in such loyal counties
as Claiborne, Campbell, Morgan and Roane. Brownlow described
East Tennessee as occupied territory. The people wanted the old
Government, but faced with hostile military power, they submitted
to the new with such grace as they could summon, permitted the
Confederate flag to "float unmolested" and took down the Stars and
Stripes "to avoid further annoyance." He expected help from the
North but until that development he advised: "Let the thousands of
Union men in East Tennessee, who belong to the 'Home Guards' drill
regularly, keep up their organizations, and hold themselves in readiness to strike for their independence, and to defend their right whenever called upon, and driven to that dread alternative!" This did not
sound like submission, and it is not surprising that East Tennessee
secessionists were clamoring for forces to put down the rebellion. [ 34]
Governor Harris was reelected and the Confederate constitution
was ratified, but East Tennessee clung to and expressed its Union
convictions. The voting was conducted under the auspices of a Confederate state, in fact if not technically in law, but in the first four
congressional districts of the state Union men were elected. They had
no intention of going to Richmond, and they were aware that their
determination to serve in the Congress of the United States, although
elected from districts in a seceded state subjected them to arrest in
the Confederacy. These loaylists were Nelson, Maynard, George W.
Bridges of the Third, and Andrew ]. Clements of the Fourth. All
escaped and served at Washington except Nelson, who was captured
on August 4, by a band of thirty Confederate horsemen in the southwest corner of Virginia, only a few miles from Kentucky, where he
would have been safe from arrest. As president of the Greeneville
Convention Nelson had called another meeting to be held at Kings-
�214
CHAPTER NO. 13
ton on August 31, 1861. Because he was in Confederate custody and
because the South was tightening its hold on East Tennessee this
meeting was not held.
The legislature elected was overwhelmingly for the South, and the
East Tennessee delegation, largely Unionist, was helpless and stultified because the members were required to swear allegiance to the
Confederacy before they could take their seats. [ 35 J The alternative
for these men was to leave their districts unrepresented.
Lonely hours settled upon the Whig editor. The outcome of the
June election was depressing in itself, but out of the campaign had
come a melancholy personal incident. John Bell came to East Tennessee apparently believing that in his new role as rebel, rather than
Unionist, he could influence some of his old friends to soften or drop
their fierce loyalty to the Washington government. A small crowd
heard him at the courthouse, and Brownlow treated his talk with
deference marked by regret to find his old friend tarnished by an
ignominious position. After Bell spoke he met some old friends in
Temple's office. Among them was the Parson. The occasion was
delicate, awkward and even tremulous. Bell made it more so by
observing that none of his old friends had gone to hear him speak.
This aroused the Whig editor to respond that their absence was deliberate because "We did not wish to witness the spectacle of your being
surrounded by your enemies, who a few months ago were denouncing you as a traitor. We did not want to hear these men shouting for
you and see you in such a position." The editor then broke into a
tirade against secession, to which Bell made no reply. But, Temple
recalled, "no one uttered a word of censure or an unkind remark
about him [Bell] personally." They parted in sadness, and Bell's
biographer wrote that his defection from a Unionist position set the
sun of his "influence and public service."[36]
The August aftermath brought heavier burdens on Brownlow. Nelson was in custody. Maynard had escaped but his voice in Washington reached his constituents feebly, strained by such passage as it
could make through the Confederate lines. The rousing voices of the
courageous band of stump speakers were silenced by fear of Confederate military authority and personal reprisal. The ballot box issues
were gone. Only Brownlow was left with a voice, and the Whig and
its readership were being decimated by the blockade and the malicious efforts of mail clerks and postmasters who feared no prosecution if they destroyed or mislaid the Parson's newspaper. Confed-
�1859-1861
215
erate authorities had no time, if they had the inclination, to police
the postal system to enforce the delivery of a newspaper whose
editor denounced the South. That put him in the role of traitor, so
far as those loyal to the government at Richmond were concerned.
And angry hands were reaching for the throat of the Whig, eager to
throttle it into silence.
CHAPTER XIII NOTES
[ 1) Brownlow accused Mrs. Stowe of being a "deliberate liar," of writing
"shameful and unmitigated falsehoods," in Uncle Tom's Cabin, and of
being considerably less than virtuous during a Paris trip. Whig, February 5,
12, October 29, 1853.
[ 2) Ibid., November 19, December 31, 1859; Mrs. Mattie Turnley, "Survivor
of a John Brown Family Raid," Tennessee Historical Magazine, Vol. 7
(October, 1921, Nashville), pp. 231-232; Stephen B. Oates, To Purge This
Land with Blood (New York, 1970), pp. 119, 122-123, 134-135, 143,
344-345. The Doyle family has been influential in Knox County Republican politics for years, many of its members living in the area south of the
Tennessee River, a Republican stronghold. A. E. (Ebb) Doyle was county
register from 192 2 to 19 30, and Miss Mildred Doyle was county school
superintendent from 1946 to 1976.
[ 3) Whig, May 19, 26, June 9, 1860; Parks, pp. 351-355.
[ 4) Whig, June 30, August 25, September 1, 1860; Alexander, Thomas A. R.
Nelson, pp. 67-68.
[ 5) Whig, July 14, August 25, July 28, September 1, 29, October 6, 1860.
[ 6) Ibid., October 27, 1860.
[ 7) Ibid., September 22, 29, 1860; Humes, The Loyal Mountaineers, pp.
81-85; John W. Du Bose, Life and Times of William Lowndes Yancey,
2 vols. (Birmingham, 1892), II, pp. 494-496, hereafter referred to as Du
Bose; Whig, October 13, 1860. Temple, who was present and participated
in the encounter with Yancey made only a vague reference to it in his two
books dealing with the times.
[ 8) DuBose, II, pp. 494-496; Humes, The Loyal Mountaineers, p. 84.
[ 9) Whig, September 29, 1860.
[10) Ibid., October 6, 13, November 10; Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 316,
citing the Nashville Patriot, November 26, 1860. A slightly different figure
is given in White, Messages, V, p. 270.
[ 11) Whig, November 10, 1860. Other examples of the editor's deep concern
for the nation's future may be found in ibid., November 17, 1860,
Brownlow to Temple, January 26, 1858. Temple Papers. Whig, February
13, 1858. The Parson admitted during his northern speaking tour in 1862
that his reception at Montgomery was chilly. Ibid., February 6, 1864.
�216
CHAPTER NO. 13
[12] Ibid., December 15, 1860, February 16, June 29, 1861; Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 37-48, 65-74, 75-80. Examples of letters written to Pryne,
Whig, January 14, February 25, May 12, November 10, 1860. John Bell
Brownlow use the 14,000 circulation figure on the margin of a copy of
Temple, Notable Men, in the McClung Collection, p. 42. Temple obviously
got his figure from John Bell Brownlow, with whom he carried on an
extensive correspondence. Temple Papers, passim. See also Temple, Notable Men, p. 276.
[13] Folmsbee et al., Short History, pp. 317-318; Whig, January 19, 1861;
White, Messages, V, pp. 254-2 71; Acts of Tennessee, First Extra Session,
1861 (Nashville, 1861), pp. 15-17; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil
War, p. 170.
[14] Whig, December 24, 1859, January 28, 1860, quoting Rochester (New
York) Advertiser, Whig January 5, 19, 26, February 2, 9, 2, 9, 1861.
[15] White, Messages, V, p. 272; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, p.
176; Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 319; Whig, February 16, 1861;
Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp. 176-177.
[16] Whig, April 27, May 11, July 13, 20, 1861; Folmsbee et al., Short History,
pp. 325-326.
[17] Ibid., pp. 320-321; White, Messages, V, pp. 278-294; Folmsbee et al.,
Short History, pp. 319-321; White, Messages, V, pp. 287-288; Whig, May
4, 11, 1861.
[18] Alexander, T. A. R. Nelson, pp. 75-78; Whig, April 27, May 4, 25, 4,
April 6, 1861.
[19] Ibid., April27, 1861; Parks, pp. 397-399; White, Messages, V, p 273.
[20] Register, May 2, 24, 1861; Whig, May 4, 1861; Temple, East Tennessee
and the Civil War, pp. 186-188; Humes, The Loyal Mountaineers, pp.
100-102.
[21] Whig, May 4, 1861; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp.
185-187, Notable Men, pp. 399-401; Alexander, T. A. R. Nelson, pp.
75-77.
[22] Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 278-279, illustration p. 192; Humes, The
Loyal Mountaineers, pp. 100-101, appendix, p. 347; Whig, May 11, 18,
1861; Weekly Register, May 16, 1861; Daily Register, May 23, June 6,
1861.
[23] Temple, Notable Men, pp. 399-400, 451-467, 167, 172; Alexander, T. A.
R. Nelson, pp. 75-77.
[24] Ibid., p. 79; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp. 197-198;
Alexander, T. A. R. Nelson, pp. 7 5-77; John Bell Brownlow to Temple,
August 14, 1893. Temple Papers. Whig, June 1, 1861.
[25] Clipping from Jonesborough Express, May 10, 1861, Scrapbook No. 13,
Nelson Papers. Alexander, T. A. R. Nelson, p. 77; Patton, Unionism and
Reconstruction in Tennessee, 1860-1869 (Gloucester, 1966), p. 53, hereafter referred to as Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction.
[26] John Bell Brownlow to Andrew Patterson, May 12, 1915. John Bell
�1859-1861
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]
(33]
[34]
[35]
[36]
[37]
217
Brownlow Papers. University of Tennessee Special Collections. Particeps
criminis means an accomplice.
Whig, June 1, 1861; clippings from Tri-Weekly Whig, June 6, 1861; Scrapbook No. 13, p. 100. Nelson Papers. Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil
War, pp. 192-195; Register clipping, June 1, 1861, Scrapbook No. 13, pp.
100-101. Nelson Papers.
Whig, June 15, 1861; Register, June 11, 1861; Folmsbee et al., Short
History, p. 322.
Whig, June 15, 1861; Rothrock, ed., French Broad-Holston, p. 129; Register, June 11, 1861; White, Messages, V, p. 304; Whig, June 15, 1861;
Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, p. 199. Brownlow later acknowledged that the official vote for separation in Knox County was
1,226, and he listed the military vote, camp by camp, but with no mention
of Camp Cummings at Knoxville, which further suggests that its vote was
incorporated into the Knoxville returns. Parson Brownlow's Book, pp.
221-223.
Register, May 2, 16, 1861.
Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, p. 341; Alexander, T. A. R.
Nelson, p. 78; White, Messages, V, p. 311.
Whig, June 22, 29, 1861; Alexander, T. A. R. Nelson, pp. 84-85.
Ibid., pp. 85-87; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp. 343-360,
appendix, pp. 565-571; Whig, June 29, July 6, 13, 1861; White, Messages,
V, pp. 314-315; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp. 360-361.
Brownlow pointed up the strange, dual character of the election: "By the
law of Tennessee in full force, unrepealed (Code section 825) the people
on that day are to choose Representatives to the Congress of the United
States. By the proclamation of Isham G. Harris, the Governor, they are at
the same time to choose Representatives to the Congress of the Confederate States. Between the two, Tennessee will be well represented! Of
course the Secessionists will vote for candidates to represent them in the
Confederate Congress; and the Union men will vote for candidates to
represent them in the Congress of the United States. " Whig, July 13, 1861;
O.R., SerieslV, 1, LandonC. Haynes to Confederate Secretary of War L. P.
Walker, July 6, 1861, L. Polk to President Davis, July 9, 1861, William G.
Swan to President Davis, July 11, 1861, pp. 346-347.
White, Messages, V, pp. 330-332; Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 326;
Alexander, T. A. R. Nelson, pp. 88-89; Whig, August 10, 1861. See oath
required of members of the assembly, ibid., October 26, 1861. See also
Fleming's dilemma, Temple, Notable Men, p. 119; Whig, July 20, August
10, 24, 1861.
Ibid., June 15, 1861; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp.
2 33-2 3 5; Parks, pp. 402-405.
Whig, March 3, May 4, June 6, 29, July 13, 27, August 3, 10, 1861.
�Brownlow's Knoxville Whig,
and Rebel Ventilator.
"To the Union, the Constitution, and the Laws."
Chapter No. 14
CRUSHED AND EXILED
Brownlow acknowledged immediately after the election of August
1, 1861 that the Whig was in serious trouble. The voters reelected
Isham G. Harris governor and adopted the constitution of the Confederate States. The Parson dropped the Tri-Weekly Whig and sharply
reduced the total content of the weekly by cutting it from eight
columns to five and increasing the size of the body type.
But owing to the falling off of advertisements, the amount of reading matter will
not be diminished in equal ratio. This necessity arises from the diminished
income of the office, growing out of the stagnation of business generally, the
blockade, cutting off Northern advertising, the discontinuance of the mails, and
the wholesale robbery of my letters, while the expenses of my business are
increased (Whig, August 3, 1861).
Advertising revenue, from North and South, was down, and many
newspapers were increasing their subscription rates as well as issuing
half sheets. Brownlow estimated his weekly losses at from $20.00 to
$40.00, but he vowed he would try to "weather this storm" even
though temporary suspension might become necessary, for:
At this most critical period in the affairs of the country, let us keep under way a
Union paper, that will dare to publish other than Secession accounts of what is
transpiring.
I only ask that the expenses of publication be met, and that I get my meat
and bread. I am willing to labor in the cause without one dollar in the way of
profits. I ask no favor of Secession-I expect none-they may continue their
proscriptive course toward me-and I shall alike scorn it and their vile principles
(Ibid.).
Fortune, however, granted the Parson a favor. Brigadier General
Felix K. Zollicoffer, the former Nashville editor who had got his
218
�CRUSHED AND EXILED
219
newspaper training in Knoxville and who had been a fellow Whig,
was directed to take charge of the military district of East Tennessee.
He took over the post late in July. [ 1] The general prepared a firm,
yet conciliatory statement in which he recognized two sources of
alarm to the Confederacy and sought to remove them:
Can there be recreant sons of Tennessee who would strike at their brothers while
thus struggling for Southern honor and independence? Or who would invite the
enemy over the border to inaugurate war and desolation among our own fair
fields? There can be but few such. If any, it were better for their memory had
they perished before such dishonor (Whig, August 10, 1861).
Zollicoffer's statement reflected the concern, even alarm, of Confederate civil authorities. Influential citizens such as Landon C. Haynes
and William G. Swan of Knoxville, were clamoring for Southern
troops to offset the threatening militancy of the Unionists. The rugged terrain of the area afforded coves and mountain tops where some
loyalists were known to be training, while others were slipping along
the ridges and passes into Kentucky to join the Union army. Amid
this, reports persisted that Northern forces were about to invade East
Tennessee. [2] An ardent Unionist who lived through the period suggests that at the time of the Greeneville Convention, when Southern
troops were passing through the town, the delegates were unmolested
because "the Secessionists of East Tennessee were at that time in
greater fear of the Union men than the latter were of them." [ 3]
Zollicoffer wanted his statement to obtain the widest distribution
and as a newspaperman he knew the Whig would reach and influence
more East Tennessee readers than any other medium. He probably
reached an understanding with the Parson, for the Whig of August
10, 1861, carried the notice, "We publish, at the request of Gen.
Zollicoffer, his address to the people of East Tennessee, his command embracing this division of the state. It is our only hope of
getting this issue of our paper before the public. The mercenaries of
the Confederacy in charge of the Post Office and mails probably will
let this paper pass in order to circulate this address." Brownlow
knew, or guessed, that word went out through Confederate channels
to see that this issue of the Whig went to each destination without
fail. The Parson got into this issue returns from Knox and other East
Tennessee counties showing that the Unionists had expressed their
loyalty at the ballot box on August 1 by electing Nelson, Maynard
and Bridges to the United States House of Representatives. He
�220
CHAPTER
NO. 14
sought to arouse their ire by reporting the arrest of Nelson and his
being taken in custody to Richmond, where "when they cast into
their filthy city prison, THOMAS A. R. NELSON, they will have
more brains, patriotism, honor and chivalry, in their Prison, than can
be found in their Rump Congress!" (Whig, August 10, 1861). He
explained why the Whig was not being delivered and why it was
operating at a loss:
Our exchange papers are kept back and not allowed to come to Knoxville. Our
letters are broken open and robbed, in all directions, and our newspaper packages are laid aside or destroyed .... At Cumberland Gap, or the office near
there, we are informed upon reliable authority, there is a large pile of letters,
to say nothing of papers addressed to us, which Secessionists will not allow to
come forward. These letters no doubt, mostly from Kentucky, contain several
hundred dollars for subscriptions. At Bristol, we are informed, our paper is
thrown aside, and not allowed to go further East (Ibid.).
The editor predicted the Whig had only a short time to live. Either
it would be suppressed on orders from Richmond or local mobs
would destroy his plant and office. Then his pen scratched out these
words designed to arouse greater Union bitterness:
Leading men of the Union party, of unblemished character, must be rudely
seized by an armed band of men, to gratify the malice of leading Secessionists in
Knoxville, torne [sic.] from their families and rushed off upon the cars to
Richmond, and there thrown into a loathsome prison! The only Press they have
must be muzzled, its batteries silenced, and its readers and friends required to
take the false statements of Secession papers for the news of the day! Large
bodies of armed men must be thrown into our country, and put in possession of
all the principal towns and thoroughfares of the country, but no wrongs are to
be inflicted upon the people of East Tennessee, nor are they to be deprived of
any of their rights!
Can all this mean anything less than a declaration of war against East Tennessee? Is it not opening the ball, and inviting bloodshed in East Tennessee? What
the effect of all this will be, we are wholly unable to say. It will either depress
the Union forces of this end of the State, and cause them to cower like dogs, or
it will make them frantic in defense of their gallant leaders, down-trodden because of their principles, and arouse a thirst for vengeance and brave deeds! What
Union leader, after all this, can any longer meet his friends and urge them to
peace, and moderation, as we know they have been doing?
So far as we are concerned, we can suspend our publication, in obedience to
the dictates of tyranny and intolerance-we will yield to the demands of an
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armed mob-turn over to them our office and what litde property we havedeprive ourselves and a helpless family of small children the necessary means of
support-and beg our bread from door to door among the Union men who are
able to give-but we shall refuse, most obstinately refuse, to the day of our death
to think or speak favorably of such a Confederacy as this .... And whether our
humble voice is hushed in death-whether our press is muzzled by the spirit of
intolerance at Richmond ... we beg all who may come after us and our paper to
credit no Secession falsehood that may represent us as having changed our
principles from those of exalted devotion to the old AMERICAN UNION, and
of undying hostility to those who would perpetrate its dissolution (Ibid.).
General Zollicoffer's earnest but more formal appeal to East Tennesseeans to submit with good grace to the Confederate government
made the front page-perhaps this was part of the bargain-or the
Parson may have decided its presence there would help insure delivery of the Whig. But Brownlow's flaming declaration on page two
must have offset much of the effect sought by the general (Whig,
August 10, 1861). Yet events upon the battlefield and in the government circles at Richmond lent strength to the efforts to restore
order, if not peace, to East Tennessee. The defeat of the Union
forces at Bull Run depressed Brownlow and Nelson, and the considerate and deferential treatment given the latter at Richmond-he
was not cast into a "loathsome prison" but was permitted liberty
under parole-had its effect on both men. [4] Nelson, on the third
attempt, framed a letter that President Jefferson Davis found acceptable and granted his release. Upon his arrival in East Tennessee Nelson made an extended statement that was a marvel of ingenuity in
deferring to the Confederacy, under which he was forced to live if he
remained in East Tennessee, without approving of it. [ 5] The intensely secessionist Register, with some justification, found Nelson's skillful exposition "modeled after the style of Mark Antony's speech in
Shakespeare's Play, or, to quote a distinguished East Tennessee
orator-'it is sorter so and sorter not so, but a little more sorter not
so than so.' " [ 6] Brownlow had executed a less subtle shifting of
position by announcing that he had expected Nelson's release, as the
result of efforts of two of his friends who had gone to Richmond,
John Baxter, the Knoxville lawyer who was easing into something of
a secessionist, and Dr. Jeptha Fowlkes of Memphis, a peace commissioner of the state government to East Tennessee. Both of these men
had met Nelson at Abingdon as he was being taken to Richmond in
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CHAPTER NO. 14
custody. The editor also noted that Nelson had "committed no
offense."[7]
Brownlow's editorial policy also shifted toward a much more moderate course regarding leaders of the Confederacy. But he did not
relent in his denunciations of the Knoxville secessionists, for he
blamed them for stirring up bitterness and clamoring for troops to
be stationed in the area in order to avenge personal differences. The
Federal government had a responsibility to put down rebellion, but
the East Tennessee Union men were against an invasion of the area
by the North and had not applied to Washington for arms, men or
money. They had even considered a mission to the North's capitol to
present their views. Brownlow even said that the reports of "large
numbers" of Unionists slipping through the mountain passes into
Kentucky to join the Northern army were exaggerated. He suggested,
in a neat bid for some rebel nods and chuckles, that East Tennessee
would never be invaded until the Union armies fought better along
the Potomac, and that if these forces, with their overwhelming resources, failed to subdue the South, "the only Government then
remaining in America, entitled to respect, will be that of the Southern Confederacy. And Union Men, will fall into its support whatever
contempt they may have for those who control it, and originated this
Rebellion." The devotion of East Tennessee loyalists was to the government, not to Lincoln, he argued, and had they not "been so
grossly misrepresented by Secession leaders, so shamefully abused,
tyranized [sic.] over and then threatened, as they have been by the
base, corrupt and cowardly leaders, such as control matters in Knoxville, and other towns, there would be at this time less of bitterness
among them, and more of a disposition to harmonize with the other
portions of the State." The Union leaders, so unjustly accused, had
in fact tried to calm the citizenry, he argued (Whig, August 17,
1861).
The Parson's tongue must have made his cheek protrude as he
wrote this editorial. He obviously designed it to lull the Confederacy
into removing some of the troops from the area, a step that would
further infuriate Knoxville Secession leaders, who had been demanding them for protection. Nelson's abdication from a position of
Union leadership to one of neutrality provided a splendid backdrop
against which to lay this new and amazing position of the Whig, even
though it appeared in print a week before the lawyer's statement.
The Parson praised Zollicoffer as "a man of fine sense, of great
firmness of character and of true courage; and like all men of this
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cast, our citizens will find him generous and reasonable-not disposed
to oppress anyone because he may have the power to do so, and is
really desirous of avoiding any collision with the people of East
Tennessee" (Ibid.). Zollicoffer's policy of conciliation appeared to be
working. He expressed in a formal order carried by the Whig, gratification "at the preservation of peace, and the rapidly increasing evidence of confidence and good will among the people of East Tennessee." He called upon those under his command to exert "scrupulous
regard for the personal and property rights of all the inhabitants. No
word or act will be tolerated to alarm or irritate those who though
heretofore advocating Federal Union now acquiesce in the decision
of the State and submit to the authority of the Government of the
Confederate States." Fowlkes stopped in Knoxville and drew praise,
not only for helping in the release of Nelson, but for having "done
more, perhaps, than any other man, toward restoring peace in this
end of the state." When reports got out that rebellion was being
threatened in Union circles, seventeen men, among them such known
and staunch loyalists as John Baxter, 0. P. Temple, Brownlow, Connally F. Trigg, John M. Fleming and R. H. Hodsden, counselled in an
open letter to Zollicoffer against armed revolt. They assured the
general that if troops were required elsewhere he need have no fear
that their removal from the East Tennessee area would result in
disorder. The general replied that with this assurance he would retain
no more troops than necessary to maintain "the peace and safety of
the community." [8]
The course of Brownlow and the other Union leaders at this time
was a shrewd one. They were old Whigs and they had been partisan
comrades of Zollicoffer for many campaigns. The secession leaders in
Knoxville were mostly Democrats who undoubtedly viewed the rapprochement with alarm and bitterness. J. A. Sperry, editor of the
Register, a militant secessionist and Democrat, was unable to conceal
his anger at the situation and the frequency with which secessionists
from other parts of the state called upon Brownlow and engaged in
extended conversations with him. The Parson needled this sensitive
nerve in Sperry by recalling the remark of Henry A. Wise, former
governor of Virginia, that old Clay Whigs "knoweth each other by
the instincts of gentleman," a form of response which the Parson was
sure would lead none of them to Sperry's office. The Register editor
had the reputation of being "a base and cowardly liar, a drunken and
degraded scoundrel, and the mere eat's paw of meaner men than
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CHAPTER NO. 14
himself."[9] Brownlow, who probably glowed at the effect of the
wedge he was driving between the Zollicoffer command and the
Knoxville Secession leaders, laid on this further lick:
The Government of the Confederate States at Richmond has suffered in this
quarter, by being viewed through this Register and those associated with it. This
ought not to be. A distinction should be kept up between the Government and
the base men who represent it here and constitute the Sperry Clique. The Confederate Authorities at Richmond have become elevated in my estimation, since
I have been informed by gentlemen, directly from there, that they wholly disapprove the base forgery in Knoxville of/etters in the name of Senator johnson,
with a view to injure him upon a false issue, and so steal money from others!
And whenever the Confederate Authorities shall lay aside such depraved villains
as hang upon their skirts here, they draw to their standard a better class of men
(Whig, August 24, 1861).
The forgery mentioned had been reported by the Whig in mid-July.
The Parson published letters signed Andrew Johnson and addressed
to Amos Lawrence, a wealthy Bostonian known to be a contributor
to free state causes. Lawrence had a deep feeling for the border state
Unionists and a high regard for Johnson's loyalty. When he received a
letter signed "Andrew Johnson," and asking for funds to support
East Tennessee loyalists he responded with a draft for $1,000 enclosed to Johnson, and sent to Knoxville as the senator was campaigning against secession in the June 8 referendum. A second letter
to Lawrence, carrying Johnson's name, said the signer was afraid to
cash the draft, but that $5,000 to $10,000 in "New England currency" would be safe. Lawrence's letter and draft found their way
into the hands of Governor Harris and were published in the Richmond Enquirer. Johnson obtained from Lawrence copies of the
letters bearing his name. He denounced them as forgeries and said he
was many miles distant from Knoxville, campaigning, when they
were mailed from that post office. The purpose of the letters, the
senator said, was to injure him and the cause of the Tennessee Unionists. The Confederates, also, could have made use of the money,
Johnson laid the forgeries and trickery on the Knoxville postmaster,
C. W. Charlton. He did not mention Charlton by name.
Brownlow also charged the forgery against the Knoxville post
office. He noted that the Register, "edited and published in the buildings where the post-office was kept during this diplomatic and financial correspondence, and familiar with the turpitude of the whole
affair, nevertheless, paraded the correspondence before its readers as a
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225
wonderful discovery, and as evidence of Johnson's corruption and
Abolitionism." But he first accused W. G. Swan, Confederate congressman, one of his old enemies, of having forged Johnson's
name.[10]
When the Union army seized the archives of the Tennessee Confederate government at Augusta, Georgia, three years later, letters
from Charlton to the then Governor Harris were found. They revealed that Charlton had been opening Brownlow's mail and forwarding it to the governor, along with the postmaster's alarmed reports on
the strength of union sentiment in the area. Charlton acknowledged
he had forged the letters to Lawrence "to reach their purposes and
plans at the North," and he was vexed with Dr. Jeptha Fowlkes of
Memphis for bringing the Lawrence letter to Brownlow. Charlton's
conscience may have twinged him for he wrote Harris: "I am the
guilty man, if there be guilt in it." Charlton had resigned as postmaster under the Lincoln administration early in the spring, but he
must have continued to operate the office, apparently on the theory
that he was running it as an agency of the Confederate government,
even before Tennessee voted for separation. [ 11]
Fowlkes was one of the secession leaders among the old Whigs
who tried to get Brownlow to cast his lot with the South. In furnishing the Parson with the Lawrence letter, he may have been trying to
show that the central Confederate government could be trusted and
lacked the deep hostility that existed against the Whig and its editor
on the part of the Knoxville leaders. From the outcries of the Register, the Knoxville clique was fully aware of the efforts of Fowlkes
and others and was enraged by it. The Whig, delighted at the anger
being generated among its old foes, took notice of reports that
Brownlow had turned secessionist, denied the charge, and restated its
Union loyalty. But the editor acknowledged that his side had been
overpowered in Tennessee, first at the ballot box and next by the
South's army, and hence he had retired to a "position of neutrality."
Because East Tennessee had failed to set itself up as a separate state
and the Lincoln Administration had not come to the rescue of the
region, the opportunity to resist had been lost. In this unusual role as
a neutralist, Brownlow wrote: "So far as I am individually concerned, I will not be a party to any mad scheme of Rebellion, gotten
up at this late day, or to any insane attempt to invade this end of the
State with Federal troops." The enraged Register, in an article
Brownlow described as aimed at Zollicoffer and Brigadier General W.
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CHAPTER NO. 14
R. Caswell, counselled "the hanging of Union men, and protests
against showing any quarters [sic.] to the leaders in East Tennessee."
The Register acknowledged it was being so harsh it was keeping
Union men from coming "into line gracefully ... ,"but
We are willing to accord to men the most unlimited time to wheel into line,
provided they do not obtrude themselves before the people as candidates for
their confidence until they have at least given some earnest of the sincerity and
permanence of their conversion. But for the friends of Brownlow to ask time for
him to change front, and to put on the Southern garb gradually, as if he would
be in danger of taking cold by throwing off his extreme Northern vestments,
excites our risibility. The fact is patent to every observer, that while he means to
keep his promise to the [word illegible], and to keep under his Lincolnism, it is
ever in his heart, as it ever has been. [ 12]
However stoutly the Parson needled his enemies he surely underwent inner turmoil and torment. Before the June election he had
revealed he was under pressure to switch to the South. Family, as
well as friends, may have tried to influence him to change course, for
after the Parson's departure to the North the Register charged:
It is a notorious fact in this city that Brownlow's children repeatedly declared
here that they had done all in their power and used every exertion to induce him
to espouse the cause of the South. A gentleman who was Brownlow's intimate
friend and the adviser of his family in his absence has asserted upon our streets
that he knew the fact that he would have advocated the Southern cause had it
not been for the attacks[?] of the Knoxville Register.
R. N. Price, the gentle Methodist historian and friend of Brownlow,
wrote years later that the Whig editor was on the point of "renouncing the Union and aligning himself with the leading politicians of the
South." But the Parson tore up an editorial that he had written to
this purpose when the Register "pre-announced it with ridicule and
as an impugnment of the motives of the man." Baxter, who probably
was the "intimate friend and adviser" mentioned by the Register,
years later in the Reconstruction period when he fell into a furious
personal and political controversy with Browi)low, accused the latter
of having "in substance said that he had made up his mind to abandon the Federal cause and support the Confederacy, and that as soon
as he could, with due respect to public opinion, he would change his
position. Baxter claimed that he had heard him say this in his own
home, in the presence of Fowlkes and John S. Sanborn, a Mississip-
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227
pian. Fowlkes, meanwhile, had died and Sanborn was unavailable.
Brownlow not only denied Baxter's charge but also produced a letter
which he said he had displayed at that time asserting he would not
change. Included also was testimony of a witness who was in the
next room and heard him say: "I will die at the end of a rope before
I will support the Southern Confederacy." The charges made by the
Register and by Baxter were born of hatred and bitterness, but the
Parson had earlier acknowledged that he had been under a terrible
strain in 1861.[13] When he resumed publication of the Whig in
1863 he wrote:
When the Rebellion was inaugurated, there were thousands among us, who were
half inclined to regard the attempt to quell the outbreak as hopeless, and who
were more than half inclined to end the war by conceding the independence of
the bogus Confederacy, although they knew it had originated in, and was based
upon the GREAT SOUTHERN PLATFORM of falsehood, perjury, and treachery (Whig, November 11, 1863).
Brownlow's close friend and contemporary, Temple, declared that
the Parson never wavered in his devotion to the Union, but he was
silent on the struggle the editor underwent. [ 14]
Brownlow accepted, with surprising restraint, the arrest and temporary imprisonment of his oldest son, John Bell, for having in his
possession Hinton Helper's The Impending Crisis. The author was a
former slavery advocate who had turned abolitionist. The Parson
described the work as "mischievous" but hardly in the class with
other incendiary documents and works in his library, such as the
Constitution of the United States, the Declaration of Independence
and "five copies of the Holy Bible." It turned out that the book had
been lent to John Bell by William G. McAdoo, a secessionist. The
military authorities had arrested the youth, but Confederate Judge
West Humphreys released him. The editor, in branding as false reports that both father and son had been arrested, complimented
Zollicoffer for having thrown two hundred troops into the city to
guard the Whig office, patrol the town and close liquor shops when
threats were made to demolish the newspaper building. As mayor of
East Knoxville, Brownlow also commended the prompt action taken
by officers when he complained that cavalrymen were riding their
mounts upon the board sidewalks. [ 15]
Newspapers throughout the South operated under great difficulties. One estimate was that four hundred had suspended and
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CHAPTER NO. 14
twelve hundred had reduced their size. Because the Whig was the
only newspaper in the South that spoke against the Confederacy, it
faced the resentment and reprisals of those handling the mails. The
Confederate postmaster general assumed a hands-off position so far
as the Whig was concerned. He left the responsibility for the distribution of its 7,500 copies in the hands of hostile state officials. Brownlow also was told by Fowlkes that the Whig would be suppressed.
The Parson admitted he was meeting more trouble in operating on
his reduced scale than when he was printing a tri-weekly as well as a
weekly. To get in all the cash he could, he sent out young William
Rule, who was employed in the Whig office and was destined for a
significant future in the Knoxville newspaper field, to collect
accounts. He protested to Postmaster Charlton that his newspaper
was not being delivered in Union, Blount, Roane, Anderson and
Sevier counties, while the Register was reaching its subscribers with
regularity. This situation, Charlton replied, "is certainly remarkable ... for thus far, I have tried to do my whole duty in properly
distributing your paper." The editor also fired off to the Confederate
postmaster general a list of points at which his newspaper was not
distributed and cited the service to Sevier County as being so bad
that citizens were sending a courier to Knoxville to pick up the
Whig.[16]
A discouraging development was Baxter's decision to run for the
Confederate Congress. Brownlow, in a labored editorial, explained
that although Baxter once had held staunch Union convictions, he
had reached the conclusion that the North could not win and that
East Tennessee's logical course lay with the South. He gave this
justification for the lawyer's candidacy: "In view of these considerations, and the fact that in his opinion the Union was dissolved, and
that he could do nothing to arrest the result, he deemed it a duty to
yield, and did so, and from that period till [sic.] the present has
favored the idea of doing all he could to give a sound, constitutional,
and healthy direction to the new Government, and to bring the war
to a speedy and satisfactory conclusion .... "He stopped short of endorsing Baxter, although he considered him preferable to W. G.
Swan, who was elected. [ 17]
East Tennessee was not at peace, whatever efforts leaders on both
sides may have been making. Twenty-five persons were arrested in
McMinn County, twenty of whom were released by Judge Humphreys. Among them was a Methodist preacher, the Rev. William H.
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229
Duggan, who was accused of praying for the United States Government. Some Confederate volunteers made a foray into Unionist
Sevier County. They arrested five men, but were overtaken by a
larger force of Union men and forced to kneel in the mud and beg
for mercy. The offenders were reproved by military authorities, but
these events indicated that the resentment on both sides needed only
a spark to set off blows and bloody reprisals. [ 18]
Brownlow was hemmed in by the obstructions placed on the distribution of his newspaper, cramped by reduced revenue, and confronted by hostile civil and military authorities and deepening social
ostracism. So he resorted to a weapon that cut agonizingly into the
pride of the Secessionists; he taunted them for the failure of prominent men and their sons to enter military service. [ 19] Perhaps the
most incisive and mocking editorial he ever wrote was headed "To
Arms! To Arms! Ye Braves!" and continued:
Come Tennesseeans, ye who are the advocates of Southern Rights, for Seperation [sic.], and for Disunion-ye who have lost your rights, and feel willing to
uphold the glorious flag of the South, in opposition to the Hessians arrayed
under the Despot Lincoln, come to your country's rescue! Our gallant Governor,
who led off in this State, in the praiseworthy object of breaking up the old
rickety Government in the hands of the Black Republicans, calls for 30,000
Volunteers, in addition to the 55,000 already in the field. Shall we have them? If
they do not volunteer, we shall have our State disgraced by a draft, and then we
must go under compulsion. Come, gentlemen, many of you promised that
"when it becomes necessary" you will tum out. That time has come, and the
necessity is upon us. Let us show our faith by our works. We have talked long
and loud about fighting the Union-shriekers, and the vandal hoards [sic.] under
the Despot, Lincoln! Now we have an opening. Some of us have even said we
were willing for our sons to tum out and fight Union men. We have a chance at a
terrible array of Unionists in Kentucky-let us volunteer, and Gen. Sidney Johnson will either lead us on to victory, or something else! Come, ye braves, turn
out, and let the world see that you are in earnest in making war upon the
enemies of the South! Many of you have made big speeches in favor of the war.
Not a few of you have sought to sell the army supplies. And thousands of you
are willing to stoop to fill the offices for the salaries they pay, and you have
been so patriotic as to try to get your sons and other relations into offices. Some
of you have hired yourselves out as spies, understrappers, and tools, in the
glorious cause, at two to four dollars per day! Come, now, enter the ranks, as
there is more honor in serving as a private. Come, gentlemen, do come, we insist,
and enter the army as volunteers. You will feel bad when drafted, and pointed
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CHAPTER NO. 14
out as one who had to be driven into the service of your country! Let these
Union traitors submit to the draft, but let us who are true Southern men volunteer. Any of us are willing to be judges, Attornies [sic.], Clerks, Senators, Congressmen, and campfollowers for pay when out of danger, but who of us are willing to shoulder our knapsacks and muskets, and meet the Hessians? Come, gentlemen, the eyes of the people are upon you, and they want to see if you will pitch
in. This is a good opening! (Whig, October 12, 1861).
A week later he printed another scathing editorial under the heading "Who Will Volunteer?" but this time suggesting the wealthy and
influential avoided military service, although they "are in comfortable circumstances, and could leave their families enough to live on.
Not so with the poor laborers and mechanics they are urging to turn
out.-Their wives and children, during a hard winter, would be
obliged to suffer." The Parson's taunts were on target, for Dr. J. G.
M. Ramsey, one of Knoxville's most belligerent Secessionists, wrote
President Jefferson Davis at Richmond, early in November, that the
volunteering spirit was very low. [20]
When Brownlow printed his last issue of the Whig, October 26,
1861, he ran again and on the front page those two trenchant editorials, citing them as examples of "treasonable articles" for which
he had been told he was to be indicted in Nashville. Dr. R. H.
Hodsden, Sevier County representative then in Nashville, sent
Temple the following note:
I have just learned from Judge Briant [sic.], this morning, that in addition to
Brownlow, Col. Trigg, Col. jno [.] Williams and yourself, are to be indicted in
federal court here, this week, for Treason. I have barely time to write this much.
Yours Truly
R. H. Hodsden
judge Brian [sic.] told me about it in confidence-Thornburg will be released
today.
R.H.H.
The "Judge Briant" or "Judge Brian" probably was JohnS. Brien, a
former chancellor and Nashville lawyer. Brien, originally a Whig and
a Unionist, had followed John Bell's lead in the election on the
question of separation. The indictments were not returned, and
Judge Humphreys freed Dr. John M. Thornburg, who had been
arrested in Knoxville and taken to Nashville.[21]
Suddenly, two weeks after he had published the first of the two
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taunting editorials, some of the fire went out of the Parson's pen. In
a depressed farewell piece, he acknowledged that he was forced to
suspend the Whig. He was crushed. The labor of more than twenty
years in which he had brought the Whig to the point where it was a
money maker, its influence wide and with the largest circulation of
any weekly in the South, now counted for nothing. Its end had been
brought about without any formal order of suspension from the
Confederate government. He was beset by enemies who had silenced
his voice and now sought his liberty and his life. Dispiritedly he
wrote, "I am prepared to lie, in solitary confinement, until I waste
away because of imprisonment, or die from old age. Stimulated by a
consciousness of innocent uprightness, I will submit to imprisonment
for life, or die at the end of a rope, before I will make any humiliat~
ing concession to any power on earth!" [22] Then, after his resignation to what he saw as a wretched fate, he wrote with approval of his
course:
I have committed no offense-I have not shouldered arms against the Confed·
erate Government, or the State, or encouraged others to do so-l have dis·
couraged Rebellion, publicly and privately-I have not assumed a hostile attitude
toward the Civil or Military authorities of this new Government. But I have
committed grave, and I really fear unpardonable offenses. I have refused to make
war upon the Government of the United States; I have refused to publish to the
world, false and exaggerated accounts, of the several engagements had between
the contending armies; I have refused to write out and publish false versions of
the origin of this war, and of the breaking up of the best Government the world
ever knew; and all this I will continue to do, if it cost me my life. Nay, when I
agree to do such things, may a righteous God palsey [sic.) my right arm, and
may the earth open and close in upon me forever!
The real object of my arrest and contemplated imprisonment is to dry up,
break down, silence, and destroy the last and only Union paper left in the eleven
seceded States, and thereby to keep from the people of East Tennessee, the facts
which are daily transpiring in the country.... It is not enough that my paper
has been denied a circulation through the ordinary channels of conveyance in
the country, but it must be discontinued altogether, or its Editor must write and
select only such articles as meet the approval of a pack of scoundrels in Knox·
ville, when their superiors in all the qualities that adorn human nature, are in the
Penitentiary of our State! (Whig, October 26, 1861).
In an uncharacteristic moment of self aggrandizement he likened
himself to John Rogers dying at the stake for his principles. In less
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agomzmg days the Parson had built himself up to an exaggerated
stature, only to deflate this creature with a shaft of humor. There
was no humor lying about at this juncture; he was more than sixty
years old and "life has lost some of its energy." He turned to his
subscribers and assured them that if the opportunity came he would
make up the loss to those who had made advance payments. He
forecast for the people days of "wanton" and "outrageous wrongs"
but from which their traditional resolution would rescue them. As
for himself, "Exchanging with proud satisfaction, the editorial chair,
and the sweet endearments of home, for a cell in the prison, or the
lot of an exile, I have the honor to be,&c.,
WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW
Editor of the Knoxville Whig (Ibid., Oct. 24, 1861).
Brownlow's editorials on the tardiness of Southern youth to enlist
and the tendency of the wealthy to hold back while urging the men
of less means to join the armed services cut deeply. Temple wrote
that it produced a "cry of rage" against the editor. His family entreated him to leave Knoxville. His presence imperilled their safety.
He tried to reach Kentucky by the mountain passes along the border
of the two states. The Parson turned back when he was warned they
were closely guarded by Confederate forces. This effort he made two
or three days after he issued the final Whig. This act showed that he
was aware of the peril to himself and to his family as long as he
stayed in Knoxville. He remained home briefly, then, "Mounting an
old iron-gray horse" on November 4 or 5, 1861, and accompanied by
an old friend and Methodist preacher, James Cumming, he set out for
Blount and Sevier counties. His justification or pretext was that he
intended to collect accounts owed him. Some he collected. [23]
While the Parson was absent from home a new and frightening peril
to the Confederacy in East Tennessee and north Alabama burst. It
shattered what rapproachement, uneasy at that, that might have been
building between Unionists and Secessionists.
An elaborate and daring scheme had been conceived, developed
and approved during the summer and fall of 1861. The plan called
for the burning of nine vital railroad bridges on the lines that connected Virginia with the central and western South. The architect of
the plan was the Rev. William B. Carter. He had been educated for
the Presbyterian ministry at Princeton but gave up preaching because
of his health. He managed the extensive farming interests of his
wealthy family in Carter County. He was a man of striking appear-
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233
ance. Legend puts a strain of the blood of Pocahontas in the famous
Carter and Taylor families of East Tennessee. He was one of the
firebrands who lined up with T. A. R. Nelson at the Greeneville
Convention in the summer of 1861. Soon after the meeting Carter
worked his way to the North and laid his plan before President
Lincoln, Secretary of State William H. Seward and General George B.
McClellan. He persuaded them of the plan's feasibility, obtained
funds for the project, and received assurance of a supporting military
operation. The East Tennessee preacher-farmer, who had turned
saboteur, then went over his plan with Brigadier-Generals William T.
Sherman and George H. Thomas in Kentucky. He then slipped back
into East Tennessee to complete arrangements with his agents. He
proceeded without any further communication from the two generals, and he was unaware that Sherman had decided the East Tennessee operation which was to coincide with or follow the railroad
disruption was impossible. Carter's men went ahead and burned the
bridges across the Holston, at what is now Bluff City, across Lick
Creek near Greeneville, the Hiwassee at Charleston, and two across
Chickamauga Creek near Chattanooga. An attempt to burn the
bridge across the Holston at Strawberry Plains was one of four failures.[24]
The Confederate military in the area was chagrined because the
efforts to restore order by conciliation had failed, and because the
exploit, while not entirely unanticipated, caught officers off guard.
Zollicoffer, who had been specifically directed to keep the railroads
open, was not unaware of the peril. He had written Governor Beriah
Magoffin of Kentucky, "For weeks l have known that the Federal
commander at Hoskins' Cross-Roads in Kentucky was threatening
the invasion of East Tennessee, and ruthlessly urging our people to
destroy their own railroad bridges." [25] It is doubtful that the general anticipated anything on the coordinated scale that followed.
When he had moved north to Cumberland Ford and was preparing to
advance farther into Kentucky, he had left an inadequate force, very
short on weapons, at Knoxville, "and at the various railroad bridges
the unorganized Fourth East Tennessee Regiment, totally unarmed." [26] Fury and panic replaced whatever apprehension the
Confederate leadership may have felt before the bridge burning. Railroad officials, fearful of further destruction, demanded help to make
repairs and to provide protection from sabotage. [27] Colonel W. B.
Wood, also a Methodist minister, who commanded the post at Knox-
�234
CHAPTER NO. 14.
ville, forwarded reports to Adjutant General S. Cooper that Union
men were organized into fighting units near Strawberry Plains and in
Sevier and Hamilton counties and at Watauga bridge.[28] Zollicoffer
sent a regiment to Knoxville, and other Confederate forces were
moved from West Tennessee, Alabama and North Carolina. [29]
Colonel S. A. M. Wood, commanding the Alabama troops, reported
upon arriving in Chattanooga: "All in confusion; a general panic;
everybody running up and down, and adding to the general alarm,"
and sized up Brigadier General W. H. Carroll, commanding troops
arriving from Memphis, in this tart appraisal: "He has been drunk not
less than five years. He is stupid but easily controlled." [30]
Zollicoffer was completely disillusioned. He ordered Colonel
Wood at Knoxville to disarm all Unionists, seize the leaders and hold
them as prisoners. His bitterness at what he considered outright
deceit led him to tell Wood: "The leniency shown them has been
unavailing. They have acted with base duplicity, and should no longer be trusted."[31] Wood advised Confederate Secretary of War
Judah Benjamin on November 20, 1861, that the rebellion had been
put down in some counties and would be suppressed in the balance
in two weeks. Among prisoners taken in the general roundup of
Unionists was Judge David T. Patterson, Senator Johnson's son-inlaw, and State Senator Samuel Pickens of Sevier County. The prisoners deserved hanging but Wood wrote:
There is such a gentle spirit of conciliation in the South, and especially here,
that I have no idea that one of them will receive a sentence at the hands of any
jury impaneled to try them ....
I have to request, at least, that the prisoners I have taken be held, if not as
traitors, as prisoners of war. To release them is ruinous; to convict them before a
court at this time-next to an impossibility; but if they are kept in prison for six
months it will have a good effect.[32]
The East Tennessee Unionists, excited and thrilled by the bridge
destruction, engaged in some mobilization in Carter, Sevier, Greene
and Hamilton counties. But they were dispersed quickly by Confederate forces. The alarm spread by the reports of their organization
was in excess of their significance. [ 3 3]
Parson Brownlow would have been suspected of having a hand in
the plot to burn the bridges had he been in Knoxville at the time.
But his absence increased the convictions of his foes, if they needed
it, that he was a conspirator. He preached in Sevierville on Sunday
�CRUSHED AND EXILED
235
and Wood sent a squad of soldiers from Knoxville to arrest him. A
little band of Unionists-0. P. Temple, C. F. Trigg, E.]. Sanford and
John Baxter-met at Baxter's home on West Main Avenue, probably
at the urging of Mrs. Brownlow. They decided to send young William
Rule to warn the Parson. Rule had worked for the Whig since 1860,
and he was a native of the Knox County area through which he must
pass before entering Sevier County. Rule was rowed across the river
that night. Martial law had been declared in Knoxville, and he would
have been required to take the Confederate oath of loyalty to have
been passed by the military. He obtained a horse and galloped part of
the way that night. The next day, as he rode through Sevier County,
he saw hundreds of armed men. They were frequently father and
son, ready with their hunting rifles and shotguns to repel any Southern soldiers attempting to arrest Brownlow or any others suspected
of taking part in the bridge burning. That day Rule reached Brownlow at the home of Valentine Mattox in Wear's Cove. He told the
editor that the Confederate cavalrymen were understood to have
orders to shoot him in sight. Rule "found Mr. Brownlow cool, free
from anything like excitement and seemingly perfectly indifferent to
the threats being made against him." He also "disavowed any knowledge of the plan to burn the bridges."[34]
The cold and rugged mountains offered a refuge for men marked
for arrest by the Confederates. The little party that climbed to a
haven above the east fork of the Little River included "members of
the legislature, preachers and planters," Brownlow wrote of his refugee companions.
As the Unionists struggled up the stream's gorge a quite different
caravan set out from Knoxville to meet the rumored assaults of
Sevier countians a second time against the bridge at Strawberry
Plains. The bridge defenders included two hundred infantrymen, a
company of cavalry, and a motley force of one hundred citizens.
Among these last marched John Baxter, at whose home a few nights
earlier the arrangements were made to warn Brownlow of his peril.
Now, in an astonishing turnabout, Baxter marched with his doublebarrelled shotgun on his shoulder, a militiaman for the Confederacy.
The bridge and the mountain hiding place were thirty or forty miles
apart. Home guards kept watch in a cove below the refuge, friends
brought provisions for them, and one of the refugees killed a bear.
Secluded as the Parson and his comrades were, their general location
seemed to be known and they decided to separate into pairs. Brown-
�CHAPTER NO. 14
236
low and the Rev. W. T. Dowell went to a house six miles from
Knoxville, and there began to negotiate with the Confederate military authorities. [ 35]
The events that followed produced a tangle of facts, personalities
and negotiations, interwoven with bitterness, hostility and intrigue,
through which the Parson threaded his way with a combination of
guile, craftiness and defiance. He assured Brigadier General Carroll,
by letter, that he had left Knoxville because his presence invited
insults and threats to the very door of his home. He went on to say
that his family believed his absence would lessen this torment, that
he had no part in the bridge burning and that he had kept his pledge
to Zollicoffer to "counsel peace." He declared himself "ready and
willing to stand a trial upon these or other points before any civil
tribunal; but "I protest being turned over to any infuriated mob of
armed men filled with prejudices by my bitterest enemies." [ 36 J
Carroll forwarded a copy of Brownlow's letter to Benjamin and the
same day sent this message to the Parson:
Head-Quarters, Knoxville, Nov. 28, 1861.
REV.DR.BROWNLOW:-
It is my business here to afford protection to all citizens who are loyal to the
Confederate States; and I shall use all force at my command to that end. You
may be fully assured that you will meet with no personal violence by returning
to your home; and, if you can establish what you say in your letter of the 22nd
instant, you shall have every opportunity to do so before the civil tribunal, if it
is necessary,-PROVIDED YOU HAVE COMMITTED NO ACT THAT WILL
MAKE IT NECESSARY FOR THE MILITARY LAW TO TAKE COGNI·
ZANCE.
I desire that every loyal citizen, regardless of former political opinions, shall
be fully protected in all his rights and privileges; and to accomplish which I shall
bend all my energies, and have no doubt I shall be successful.
Respectfully ,&t.,
Wm. H. Carroll
Brig.-Gen. Com[37]
The Parson prepared another letter to Carroll, dated December 4,
1861, in which he enclosed an affidavit bearing his name and that of
two Methodist ministers, James Cumming and W. T. Dowell, "that
we had no knowledge whatsoever of any purpose or plot, on the part
of any persons or party, to burn the bridges: had we been apprized
of such a movement, we should have protested against it as an out-
�CRUSHED AND EXILED
237
rage." Brownlow, who had been gone from home a month, also
protested the seizure of his printing plant by Carroll for the altera~
tion of arms. He expressed fear that the general's letter did not give
him protection, for "If you mean by loyalty faithfulness and fidelity,
I can scarcely hope for protection. I am loyal to the Government of
the United States, and that is the only Government I consider as
having an existence in this country." The letter was not delivered as
other events intervened. [38]
Baxter, in another shift, laid aside his shotgun and took up for the
Parson the role he had played in getting Nelson out of Confederate
custody and into a neutral position. He was making a definite play to
obtain influence at Richmond. Whatever underlying motives Baxter
may have had, he produced some results in Brownlow's behalf. In
November 1861 Baxter was in Richmond and obtained an interview
with President Davis and Secretary of War Benjamin. He urged a
more moderate policy toward the East Tennesseeans who were favor~
ing the North. In this meeting he also grasped the opportunity to ask
for a passport for Brownlow. The following day Benjamin supplied
Baxter with a note to Major General George D. Crittenden at Cum~
berland Gap. Benjamin expressed a firm desire to get Brownlow out
of the South and authorized Crittenden to issue the passport "if you
are willing to let him pass."
Crittenden was willing, for when Brownlow and Baxter presented
him with Benjamin's note, he authorized a pass into Kentucky for
Brownlow under military escort. At this stage of the negotiations the
Parson had made two grave mistakes: he obtained permission to leave
Knoxville on December 7 instead of December 6, as Crittenden had
suggested. This gave his enemies time, if they needed it, to get out a
warrant against him. He also assumed Crittenden would insulate him
against arrest by the civil authorities. How Brownlow could accept
these assumptions is difficult to understand, for he had written
Carroll that he was prepared to stand trial "before any civil tri~
bunal." Carroll reiterated this line of agreement in his reply. The
general wrote that if Brownlow could establish his innocence of any
action against the Confederacy "you shall have every opportunity to
do so before the civil tribunal if necessary." When Crittenden succeeded Carroll in command at Knoxville he told John Bell Brown~
low, acting for his father, that if the Parson returned to his home "he
must submit to the civil authorities." Crittenden knew that the civil
officials were going to arrest the editor. In fact, he seems to have
�238
CHAPTER NO. 14
given leave to Confederate Commissioner R. B. Reynolds to issue the
warrant and a pledge that he would not interfere in this procedure. If
both sides were playing a cat-and-mouse game, the Parson became
the mouse. Just before sundown on December 6 he was arrested on a
warrant issued by Reynolds, upon the oath of Confederate Attorney
J. C. Ramsey, son of the historian, and charged with treason
against the Confederate States by then and there within said district of Tennessee and since the 8th day of June last publishing a weekly and tri-weekly paper
known as Brownlow's Whig; said paper had a large circulation in said district and
also circulated in the United States and contained weekly divers of editorials
written by the said Brownlow which said editorials were treasonable against the
Confederate States of America, and did then and there commit treason and
prompt others to commit treason; by speech as well as publication did as aforesaid commit treason and did give aid and comfort to the United States, both of
said Governments being in a state of war with each other. [ 39]
Brownlow fired off this sharp note to Crittenden that he penned
while in the custody of the marshal but apparently before he was
jailed:
KNOXVILLE, December 6, 1861.
Major-General CRITTENDEN:
I am now under an arrest upon a warrant signed by Messrs. Reynolds and
Ramsey upon a charge of treason founded upon sundry articles published in the
Knoxville Whig since June last. I am here upon your invitation and promise of
passports; and claiming your protection as I do, I shall await your early response.
Very respectfully,
W. G. BROWNLOW
The following day an aide to the general replied that "in view of all
the facts of the case ... he [Crittenden] does not consider that you
are here upon his invitation in such manner as to claim his protection
from an investigation by the civil authorities of the charges against
you which he clearly understood from yourself and your friends you
would not seek to avoid." [40]
When jail doors closed behind the Parson, he must have regretted
his sweeping assurance, given while free, that he had no dread of civil
prosecution. For now, as a prisoner and subjected to these authorities the prospect was gloomy indeed. It was made even more grim
when he was denied $100,000 bail proferred by his friend
Temple. [41] Ramsey supplied an account of the background and
�CRUSHED AND EXILED
239
arrest to Benjamin. It suggests that an important aspect of the motive
in jailing Brownlow was to appease the clamor from Southerners,
soldiers and civilians, not only for punishment but to prevent his
being sent North. Demands expressing these sentiments were sent to
President Davis by Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey, and by Confederate Congressmen Swan and William H. Tibbs. Prosecutor Ramsey indicated
that he had limited proof. But he argued that the case deserved
investigation and he submitted as his best thought that the military
should have sent the Parson to a military prison, where hundreds of
other Unionists had been confined. Brownlow, in his account of the
arrest, accused Ramsey of having relied upon a Whig editorial of May
25, 1861. Brownlow had printed it before Tennessee voted to secede.
The editorial could not have constituted treason against either the
state or the Confederacy, because on that date Tennessee was a part
of the United States. [42]
That editorial had reported a conspiracy was under way for the
arrest, after the June election, of Johnson, Baxter, Temple, Trigg,
Nelson, Maynard and George W. Bridges. The last three were elected
to the United States Congress. These men, the editorial predicted,
would be taken to Montgomery, Alabama,
and either punished for Treason, or held as hostages, to guarantee the quiet
surrender of the Union men of East Tennessee! The thousands of Union men of
East Tennessee, devoted to the principle, and to the right and privileges of those
who fall unto the hands of these conspirators, will be expected to avenge their
wrongs! Let the Railroad on which citizens of Tennessee are conveyed to Montgomery in irons, be eternally and hopelessly destroyed.
Confederate officials read into Brownlow's broad suggestion a link to
the bridge burning. They overlooked several other forms of reprisal
he had suggested. Had Ramsey known then what was printed in one
of Temple's books thirty-eight years later he would have had a
damaging bit of circumstantial evidence. The Sevier County men who
had attempted to burn the Strawberry Plains bridge, and failed because their matches had been misplaced or lost, fled to a refuge in
the Great Smoky Mountains. They selected the same gorge to which
Brownlow and other refugees repaired. The inaccessability of the
retreat probably attracted both groups, but the fact that they had
joined would have given Ramsey's case more substance. Brownlow
surely realized this and was motivated by it to leave and take his
chances with officialdom. [43 J
�240
CHAPTER NO. 14
Brownlow's biographer wrote that "he was no bridge-burner."
Neither was he the first to mention railroad destruction. Nelson had
suggested it several weeks earlier. The Register had chided him for
this at the time of the Strawberry Plains encounter between Unionist
civilians and Confederate soldiers on a troop train.[44] Nelson had
been silenced. Brownlow remained a roaring nuisance, for when he
galloped into the mountains the search emphasized his importance
as an enemy of the South and as a living, vociferous symbol for the
Unionists. While Southerners in East Tennessee wanted Brownlow
punished, Secretary Benjamin in Richmond preferred to have him
removed to the North. Benjamin expressed this view at the beginning
of correspondence with Confederate military officials at Knoxville
and confirmed it when he reviewed the facts.
This difference of opinion helped the Parson in overcoming to
some extent the blunder he had made in declaring himself ready to
submit to civil prosecution. The editor's enemies, eager for his punishment, pounced on this opening with the warrant for his arrest. In
turn, the arrest left Benjamin aghast. In his note sent by Baxter to
Crittenden he took no cognizance of civil prosecution, in fact, had
not anticipated such a development. When Crittenden replaced Carroll at Knoxville he inherited a complex situation, Carroll's correspondence with Brownlow and Benjamin's note. Had Crittenden
been more familiar with the Knoxville background he might have
steered a less inflammatory course. As it was, he followed Benjamin's
direction and notified Brownlow he could have a passport. But at the
same time he knew civil officials were planning to arrest the editor,
and interposed no objection. The chagrined Benjamin called upon
Ramsey for an account of the circumstances leading to Brownlow's
arrest, and then sharply demanded his release by civil author·
ities. [45] While Benjamin was reviewing Ramsey's report, the Parson
demonstrated that the walls and bars of the Knoxville jail had not
rendered him inarticulate. He fired off this trenchant, biting note:
Knoxville Jail, Dec. 16, 1861
Hon J.P. Benjamin
You authorized Gen. Crittenden to give me pasports [sic.], and an escort to
send me into the old Government, and he invited me here for that purpose. But
a third rate County Court Lawyer, acting as your Confederate Attorney, took
me out of his hands and cast me into this prison. I am anxious to learn which is
your highest authority, the Secretary of War, a Major General, or a dirty little
drunken Attorney, such as]. C. Ramsey is!
�CRUSHED AND EXILED
241
You are reported to have said to a gentleman in Richmond that, I am a bad
man, dangerous to the Confederacy, and that you desire me out of it. Just give
me my pasports [sic.], and I will do for your Confederacy, more than the Devil
has ever done, I will quit the country!
I am, etc,
W. G. Brownlow[46]
Benjamin's letter to Ramsey did not mention Brownlow's cutting
message. He concerned himself entirely with getting his government
out of a possible implication of breach of faith with the Parson. The
secretary had acted upon Baxter's representation that Brownlow was
safely concealed from Confederate officials, but was willing to surrender upon promise of safe delivery to the North. The other side of
the picture, Benjamin wrote, was:
If Brownlow had been in our hands we might not have accepted the proposition
but deeming it better to have him as an open enemy on the other side of the line
than a secret enemy within the lines authority was given to General Crittenden
to assure him of protection across the border if he came to Knoxville.
It was not in our power nor that of anyone else to prevent his being taken by
process of law .... This has been done, however, and it is only regretted in one
point of view-that is, color is given to the suspicion that Brownlow has been
entrapped and has given himself up under promise of protection which has not
been firmly kept . . . . Better that even the most dangerous enemy, however
criminal, should escape than that the honor and good faith of the Government
should be impugned or even suspected. [ 47]
Benjamin's sensitiveness on the subject of Brownlow's arrest did
not extend to the bridge burners. He demanded that they be caught,
hanged and their cadavers left suspended near the railroads so that
passengers might see and profit. Brownlow was told, while in jail at
Knoxville, that the bodies of Jacob M. Hensie and Henry Fry were
left where train passengers could, and did, strike them with their
canes. He vowed, as he wrote in his prison diary, that he would
have an illustration drawn of this brutal scene. It appeared later,
that while the bodies were in view of passengers passing through
Greeneville, they were too distant for blows. Three others were
hanged at Knoxville, C. A. Haun and a father and son, Jacob and
Henry Harmon. [48]
Hanging those found guilty by drumhead court-martial did not
satisfy Benjamin's zeal for punishment. He ordered the following
steps to be taken against the men still held as traitors, but who could
�242
CHAPTER NO. 14
not be proved to have been bridge burners:
All such as have not been so engaged as bridge burners are to be treated as
prisoners of war and sent with an armed guard to Tuscaloosa, Ala., there to be
kept imprisoned at the depot selected by the Government for prisoners of war.
Wherever you can discover that arms are concealed by these traitors you will
send out detachments, search for and seize the arms. In no case is one of the
men known to have been up in arms against the Government to be released on
any pledge or oath of allegiance. The time for such measures is past. They are all
to be held as prisoners of war and held in jail until the end of the war. [49]
The Confederacy had placed Colonel Danville Leadbetter in charge
of protecting the railroads of East Tennessee. He went at his task
with ferocious zeal. Leadbetter, a Maine native, was educated at the
United States Military Academy at West Point, but had turned militantly Southern after marrying "a refined lady of the South." When
Fry and Hensie were hanged at Greeneville, he wrote, "The execution of the bridge-burners is producing the happiest effect." He pursued Unionists with such relentlessness that farmhouses were
emptied of males, while "The women in some cases were greatly
alarmed throwing themselves on the ground and wailing like savages.
Indeed the population is savage." He ordered the horses of Union
men and provisions to be impressed with payment only to those who
became loyal to the South. This course was to be followed "until
quiet shall be restored to these distracted counties, and they can rely
upon it that no prisoner will be pardoned as long as Union men
remain in arms." The colonel concluded that the people generally
were being treated "with great kindness."
Benjamin's policies were sending a stream of prisoners to Knoxville and beyond. Brigadier General Carroll reported on December
11, 1861, that a total of 15 0 prisoners remained at Knoxville after
forty-eight had been sent to Tuscaloosa. When Colonel Leadbetter
arrived and took command in Knoxville on January 7, 1862, he
found 130 prisoners, with the number increasing. He coped with this
situation by dissolving the court-martial, applying his harsh Greeneville policies and asking for more prisoners to be accepted at Tuscaloosa. Benjamin, on November 30, 1861, directed the military at
Knoxville to ignore writs of habeas corpus issued by the civil courts.
Meanwhile Confederate Attorney Ramsey, on November 25, 1861,
plaintively inquired why he wasn't getting any of the action in the
prosecution of the bridge-burners. The secretary, plainly unimpressed
�CRUSHED AND EXILED
243
with the attorney, snapped back with: "I am very glad to hear of the
action of the military authorities and hope to hear they have hung
[sic.] every bridge-burner at the end of the burned bridge." [50]
Lawyer Temple watched with alarm and mystification "long lines
of wasted Union men, many of them three score and ten years of
age, and some only mere boys, being driven through our streets on
their way to the cars which were to carry them to Tuscaloosa."
Brownlow, in the jail less than a block from Temple's office, also
watched. His fears and gnawing bitterness were fed by the sights he
saw and the news filtering into the jail from the lips of prisoners
constantly being thrown into its stench and filth. In Powell Valley
cavalry captured between 400 and 500 young men from Jefferson
County who were fleeing north to escape conscription by the Confederacy. The soldiers marched them to the jail at Knoxville and then
took them by rail to prison. "They were driven across the creeks and
past the springs without being allowed to drink, on their long and
hurried march of nearly fifty miles, then confined all night without
food and drink," until they resorted to lapping water from puddles,
the Parson wrote a short time later. [51]
Ramsey dismissed the civil charge against Brownlow, at Benjamin's
insistence, but this failed to bring freedom to the Parson. Captain G.
H. Monsarrat, commanding the Knoxville post, sent him back to jail
as a necessary measure "for his own safety and in order that the
public peace might not be violated. I infer from your letter to the
district attorney that Brownlow is entitled to a safe-conduct beyond
our lines and with reference to this I await your further instructions.
It was two months before the Confederate bureaucracy ground out
the order by Benjamin to escort the Parson to the North. [52] The
secretary was running the South's war machine and nettlesome as
Brownlow was he had other decisions to make.
According to a number of sources [see 53] , the harsh policies and
the reprisals that followed the bridge burnings intensified the anguish
and suffering of the Unionists. "It is a fact which no one could
dispute that a heritage of hatred for the Confederate element was
burned into the hearts of the East Tennesseeans, a heritage which
Parson Brownlow was to capitalize to the fullest extent," his modern
biographer has concluded. It has been estimated that from 2,000 to
3, 0 00 ''non-combatant, unarmed Union people in thirty-one
counties" were shot, hanged or slaughtered "in cold blood," in addition to the "despoilment of personal property." A Unionist who
�244
CHAPTER NO. 14
remained in Knoxville during the war, thus described the repressive
steps taken after the bridge burnings:
In the whole history of the war nothing can be found so blind, so infatuated,
so absolutely devoid of wisdom and statesmanship, as the conduct of those who
dictated the policy of the Confederate authorities toward the Union people of
East Tennessee . . . .But madness ruled the hour. Folly held its high carnival.
Personal and political animosity were in the saddle .... And all this was done
under the advice of home leaders. It was not the work of Mr. President Davis,
nor the Confederate authorities.
Inside the jail where Brownlow found 150 inmates, the fears and
uncertainties of the imprisoned men were intensified by the wretched conditions in which they were forced to exist. So crowded were
the quarters that men had to take turns sleeping and standing. The
space would not accommodate, stretched out or huddled, all of the
prisoners. Two tubs, sawed from one barrel, were the only toilet
facilities and these often overflowed. Water was brought in by a
bucket dipped in a hogshead in which the guards washed their hands
and faces. Water carriers for the prison were required to dip from the
river at a point downstream from a Confederate army abbatoir. The
slaughterers, who processed pork for the soldiers dumped offal and
refuse into the stream. The room on the second floor where Brownlow was held was about ten feet square and contained no item of
furniture until the brigade surgeon, who drew the Parson's commendation, obtained rude benches and tables. The jail food was
wretched but Brownlow ate well. One of his sons brought him meals
from his home. He shared the food with the ill and the elderly,
among whom were two Baptist preachers, both more than seventy
years old. One had prayed from his pulpit for the President of the
United States; the other had cheered as men on horseback bearing
the Stars and Stripes had passed his home. The Parson attributed the
Confederate decision to let ample food supplies to be sent from his
home to a hope that it would save the South expense, and that the
inmates who shared the editor's basket would "eat him out of house
and home." Soldiers jailed for drunkeness were tossed into the room
with the political prisoners. This created uproars, and guards sometimes taunted the Unionists by "accidentally" firing into the room.
The Parson's old foe, bronchitis, beset him.[53]
Fear gripped the prisoners constantly for they had no intimation
of the fate awaiting them. Three times the death cart, carrying upon
�CRUSHED AND EXILED
245
it the coffins for the convicted bridge-burners, rolled to the jail door.
The victims were called out for their ride to the gallows, sometimes
with brief warnings of their fate. Jacob Harmon went through the
torture of seeing his son, Thomas, hanged before he was taken to the
gallows, on December 17, 1861. Others were marched away to die in
Confederate prisons, or as a result of their imprisonment. Among
those imprisoned was Dr. William Hunt, who had married Mrs.
Brownlow's only sister. Few were tried. Some Confederate citizens
and officers protested vainly against this vicious policy.[54]
Brownlow concluded he would be hanged and prepared a gallows
speech for such a development. If the Parson's expectation was born
of a hallucination, as his biographer suggests, his mental disorder was
on target with the facts. On the outside his bitterest foes met in
Ramsey's office and discussed three ways to dispose of him: outright
hanging, release him to Confederate soldiers who would kill him, or
imprisonment in some state farther south. Joe Mabry, a Secessionist
but Brownlow's friend, who had helped talk down the Gay Street
confrontation between Monroe County troops and Unionists earlier
in 1861, sat in on these meetings. He objected to the designs against
the Parson and in court testimony later revealed the plot. The conspirators included Ramsey and Reynolds, both civil officials, and
Crozier and Sneed, both men of wealth and influence in the Confederacy. Intent was there if success did not follow. Perhaps these
enemies of the Parson were, as he charged, behind the incitement of
a mob threatening to lynch him early in 1862 after he had been
removed from the jail to his home because of his health. W. A. Camp,
who as a major in the Confederate army had charge of the guard
around Brownlow's home while the editor was under house arrest,
deposed in a suit brought against Mabry in Knox County Circuit
Court after the war, that Mississippi troops threatened to mob and
hang the Parson. Camp kept a guard of one hundred men convenient
to the residence, while Mabry, mounted on his horse, mixed with the
mob for more than an hour until it subsided. Mabry also urged a
railroad official to move the Mississippians out of town as rapidly as
possible. The Parson also charged that he came within one vote of
being sentenced to death by a drumhead court-martial, but no corroborative evidence has been found. [55]
While the Parson's foes on the outside schemed to take his life, he
played a role in saving from the gallows Harrison Self, who was
convicted of participation in the burning of the Lick Creek bridge in
�246
CHAPTER NO. 14
Greene County. The day set for the execution, December 27, 1861,
authorities permitted Elizabeth Self to see her father. Brownlow and
the other prisoners wept as they watched the farewell embrace. At the
daughter's request Brownlow wrote for her a pleading telegram to
President Davis. Two hours before the time set for the execution Davis
wired a commutation of the death sentence. Whatever part his daughter's plea played in this extension of mercy remains uncertain. The
members of the court-martial who had found Self guilty had unanimously recommended clemency. A. T. Bledsoe, chief of the Bureau of
War at Richmond, who reviewed the testimony, decided that Self
should not be hanged. Brownlow's telegram probably got most of the
credit for the commutation, which followed quickly upon the heels of
the wire. The Parson told what he had done in Parson Brownlow's
Book. He did not mention the plea for clemency made by members
of the court-martial; perhaps he did not know of it. Temple, however,
writing many years later, reported the merciful position taken by the
officers who heard the testimony, and by twenty-five other persons,
private citizens and members of the armed forces, but "All proved unavailing," until the daughter's message. Brownlow owed Self a favor.
A few hours earlier the doomed man had refused to purchase his life
by making a statement that he had been instigated and paid to engage
in the bridge burning by Brownlow, Trigg, Baxter and Temple. [56]
Imprisonment broke the Parson's health to the point where, upon
advice of his personal physician, authorities removed him to his
home under guard. But nothing daunted his spirit. He seemed to
thrive upon defiance, whether he was in jail or under house arrest,
for he even contemplated an attempt to escape. His course differed
from that of his friend Nelson. The latter had resorted to his expertise as a lawyer to avoid prison and prepared a statement, reflecting great ingenuity, cunning and skill, something resembling the plea
of nolo contendere. Without acknowledging guilt he pledged to offer
no resistance to the Confederacy, a device that got him his liberty
but at the price of silence. Brownlow never was silenced. He rejected
the proposal of General Carroll to obtain his freedom by pledging
allegiance to the Confederacy with the assertion, "I would lie here
until I died with old age before I would take such an oath." Carroll's
suggestion was made on December 14, 1861, and an accompanying
incident must have cut the Parson deeply. It was the harsh comment
of John Baxter, his lawyer and a man he believed to be his friend.
When Brownlow refused to take Carroll's offer Baxter snapped:
�CRUSHED AND EXILED
247
"Damn him, let him lie there."[57] Baxter's angry burst may have
been born of his exasperation at his client's refusal to accept the
arrangement. Baxter may have worked hard to persuade Confederate
officials to agree to the deal, and for the Parson to have rejected it
must have offended his pragmatic mind. Or, Baxter may have believed he could achieve favor with the Confederates by this reproach
to the Parson. He also acted upon impulse. What the impulse was we
cannot be certain.
The relationships of the men had been close, even intricate. While
Baxter was in Richmond, and probably currying favor with the
authorities there, he obtained Benjamin's approval for a passport.
The day before Carroll wrote to Benjamin that he had seized Brownlow's printing plant for the use of the Confederacy the Parson conveyed the entire property, real estate, building, engine presses, print
shop equipment and furniture, to Baxter. The contract (it was not
described as a deed) was recorded on November 26, 1861. Baxter
paid Brownlow $5,000 "in currency bankable at Knoxville." Out of
this Baxter was to pay $1,200 plus interest on a note held by Phillip
Shetterly against the property. Baxter also was security on the
note. [58]
As a going concern the Whig property was worth much more than
$5,000, but since publication had been suspended and the military
had seized the entire property its value was greatly diminished.
Captain Monsarrat, commander of the Knoxville post, issued the
order to remove Brownlow from the jail to his home at the close of
1861. His action drew the Parson's commendation. The former editor's physical surroundings were now much more comfortable but he
was irritated by his guards. He charged that they were rude, demanding, insolent and destructive of household furniture. Colonel Robert
Vance, Monsarrat's successor, gave the Parson and his household
some relief and Brownlow dubbed him "a gentleman of character."
The Parson was ready to travel north on February 27, 1862. But he
was doubly apprehensive when Captain Monsarrat, again in charge,
told him that Brigadier General John H. Winder, in charge of the
defense of Richmond, had called for the Parson to be delivered to
him. Brownlow protested to Benjamin on February 27 that he wanted to go out by way of the Cumberland Mountains. The secretary
granted the request and added "or any safe road." On March 3
Monsarrat sent the Parson on the way to Nashville. Joe Mabry
showed up again. Brownlow credited him with having exerted his
�248
CHAPTER NO. 14
influence to get railroad routing in the direction of Nashville. Brownlow was treated with such deference that he was permitted to select
the officers in charge of ten soldiers to escort him. He chose Colonel
Casey H. Young, who had protested against the harsh treatment of
East Tennessee Unionists, and Lieutenant John W. O'Brien, a cousin
of Mrs. Brownlow's. The Parson's sons, John Bell and James Patton,
and Samuel H. Rodgers, a lawyer friend made up the civilians in the
party.[59] Deference gave way to antagonism along the route. Confederate soldiers on furlough attempted to rush the passenger car in
which the Brownlow party was traveling, and military commanders
created delays until it was March 15, 1862, before the group entered
the federal lines. At the sight of swarming blue uniforms, Rodgers
recalled, the Parson's wrinkles seemed to disappear and he exclaimed: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will
toward all men, except a few hell-born and hell-bound rebels in
Knoxville."
The former refugee from Confederate wrath, who had endured the
horrors and hardships of the Knoxville jail and feared the possibility
that he would be hanged, now moved swiftly into another world.
There he met warm and welcoming handshakes, unstinted admiration, cordiality and the polite and deferential reception of General D.
C. Buell, commander of "ninety thousand men here, and more arriving every day." A lady sent a bouquet to his hotel room and pressed
hy officers and civilians he made a speech, despite the soreness of his
throat.
Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman, moving relentlessly south, had transformed Nashville, reluctant as most of its citizens were to be under Union domination. Governor Harris and the
members of the legislature had fled in haste. When the House adjourned sine die, in Memphis, the maker of the motion must have
been cackling with delight inwardly. He was Dr. R. H. Hodsden, the
redoubtable old Unionist from Sevier County, who had warned
Temple and Brownlow that indictments were being prepared against
them in Nashville, and who in turn was arrested but was released on
orders from Judge Humphreys.[60]
Old friends greeted Brownlow, among them Horace Maynard,
Emerson Ethridge and Connally F. Trigg. So did an old and bitter
enemy, Andrew Johnson, now military governor of Tennessee. The
exiled editor and the governor, who for a quarter of a century had
dredged the language for invectives to hurl against each other, now
�CRUSHED AND EXILED
249
found themselves, by the fortunes and exigencies of war, comrades.
They met and embraced, physically and politically. A chronicler of
the times has written that they "wept like women,"[16] If they
shed tears upon each other's necks it watered their friendship for
only a few years.
CHAPTER NOTES
[ 1] Whig, August 10, 17, 1861; Register, August 3, 1861; Humes, The Loyal
Mountaineers, pp.122-123;0. R., I, 4, pp. 374-375.
[ 2] Ibid., pp. 364-366, 372-376. The great exodus of Union men from East
Tennessee began early in August 1861. Temple, East Tennessee and the
Civil War, p. 368.
[ 3) Ibid., p. 357.
[ 4] Whig, August 17, 24, 1861; Alexander, T. A. R. Nelson, p. 92.
[ 5) Ibid., pp. 90-93; Whig, August 24, 1861.
[ 6] Register, August 23, 1861.
[ 7] Whig, August 17, 24; Alexander, T. A. R. Nelson, pp. 9D-91.
[ 8) Whig, August 24, September 21, 1861.
[ 9) Ibid., August 24, 1861; Register, August 23, 1861.
[10) Whig, July 13, 17; Barry A. Crouch, "The Merchant and the Senator: an
Attempt to Save East Tennessee for the Union," ETHS PUBL., No. 46, pp.
53-72, hereafter referred to as Crouch; Whig, July 13, 27, 1861;Parson
Brownlow's Book, pp. 122-133; Humes, The Loyal Mountaineers, pp.
129-131.
[111 Whig, June 28, 1865, March 13, 1867. Charlton resigned as United States
postmaster in March, Register, March 7, 1861.
[121 Whig, August 24, September 7, 1861; Register, August 23, 1861.
[13] Whig, May 11, 1861; Register, May 20, 1862; Price, Holston Methodism,
III, pp. 323-324; Whig, May 15, 1867.
[141 Temple, Notable Men, p. 203.
[15) Whig, September 7, 14, 1861.
[16) Ibid., September 14, 1861, quoting Nashville Banner of Peace; Whig,
August 24, 1861, May 15, 1867, September 21, July 31, August 24,
September 28, 1861.
[17] Ibid., September 28, October 10, 1861; Temple, Notable Men, p. 71;
White, Messages, V, p. 356.
[18] Whig, September 28, October 12, 1861; Parson Brownlow's Book, pp.
135-36, illustration opposite p. 144.
[19) Whig, August 3, September 7, 1861.
[20) Ibid., October 19, 1861, 0. R .. , 1, IV, pp. 511-512.
[21) R. H. Hodsden to Temple, October 23, 1861. Temple Papers. Temple, East
Tennessee and the Civil War, p. 369; Whig, October 26, 1861.
�250
CHAPTER NO. 14
[22] Ibid. See also Temple, Notable Men, pp. 305-308; Parson Brownlow's
Book, pp. 249-255.
[23] Ibid., p. 415; Temple, Notable Men, 305, 308-309; Parson Brownlow's
Book, pp. 280, 416.
[24] Accounts of Carter's background, his trips to Washington, into Kentucky
and into East Tennessee for the purpose of carrying out the bridge burning
are found in Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp. 370-385;
Temple, Notable Men, pp. 88-93, 309-310; 0. R .. , I, 4, p. 284, Adjutant
General L. Thomas to Brigadier General W. T. Sherman, with enclosure,
October 10, 1861, pp. 299-300; Brigadier General 0. M. Mitchel to Brigadier General George H. Thomas, October 10, 1861, pp. 301-302; Sherman
to George H. Thomas, October 12, 1861, pp. 305-306; L. Thomas to
Secretary of War Simon Cameron, October 21, 1861, pp. 313-314; W. B.
Carter to George H. Thomas, October 22, 1861, p. 317, October 27, 1861,
p. 320; George H. Thomas to Brigadier General A. Schoepf, October 29,
1861, p. 323; Sherman to George H. Thomas, October 31, 1861, pp.
324-325; George H. Thomas to Sherman, November 5, 1861, pp. 338-339;
Major General George B. McClellan to Brigadier D. C. Buell, November 7,
1861, p. 342; Sherman to George H. Thomas, November 12, 1861; pp.
353-354.
[25] Ibid., Zollicoffer to Governor Magoffin, September 14, 1861, p. 195; ibid.,
II, 1, Landon C. Haynes to Confederate Secretary of War L. P. Walker,
July 6, 1861, p. 824.
[26] Ibid., I, 4, Zollicoffer to Lieutenant Colonel Mackall, assistant adjutant
general, Nashville, September 28, 1861, pp. 424-425.
[27] Ibid., John R. Branner, president of the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, to Secretary of War Benjamin, November 9, 1861, p. 231; RO [sic.]
L. Owen, president of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, to Benjamin,
November 11, 1861, pp. 235-236;]. W. Lewis, superintendent of the East
Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, to President Jefferson Davis, November
11, 1861, p. 235; Colonel W. B. Wood to Adjutant General S. Cooper,
November 11, 1861, p. 236.
[28] Ibid., Wood to Cooper, November 11, 1861, pp. 236-237; Branner to
Benjamin, November 13, 1861, p. 243; Zollicoffer to Cooper, November
14, 1861, p. 243; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp. 388-389;
Parson Brownlow's Book, p. 259.
[29] Ibid., pp. 259-260; 0. R .. , I, 4, pp. 240-241, 559.
[30] Ibid., Major General Braxton Bragg to Benjamin, November 17, 1861,
enclosure Colonel S. A. M. Wood, commanding Seventh Regiment Alabama Volunteers, to Bragg, November 17, 1861, pp. 248-250. Carroll was
the son of William Carroll who had enjoyed a distinguished military and
political career, serving six years as governor. Temple, East Tennessee and
the Civil War, p. 396; Folmsbee eta/., Short History, pp. 138-139, 142,
163-164, 184-185. The son had a reputation for being dissolute. Humes,
The Loyal Mountaineers, p. 147; Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 304-305.
(31] 0. R., I, 4, Zollicoffer to Wood, November 12, 1861, p. 242; Temple, East
Tennessee and the Civil War, p. 390; Parson Brownlow's Book, pp.
261-262.
�CRUSHED AND EXILED
251
[32] 0. R., I, 4, Wood to Benjamin, November 20, 1861, pp. 250-251.
[ 3 3] Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp. 385-387. A Union company
was organized in Greene County prior to the bridge burning. T. H. Reeve
to Rule, February 5, 1887. Rule Papers.
[34] Sketches by William Rule, Rule Papers. Temple, Notable Men, p. 310;
Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 280-281; 0. R., I, 4, Wood to S. Cooper,
November 11, 1861, pp. 236-237.
[35) Parson Brownlow's Book, p. 281; Temple, Notable Men, p. 72; Whig,
August 29, 1866, May 15, 1867. Baxter's changing role is mystifying
unless it is accepted that he was a brazen opportunist. He was a militant
Unionist; he helped extricate Nelson from Confederate custody; he
marched like a zealous Confederate to the Strawberry Plains bridge after
the false report Unionists were preparing to attack it again, and then
appears as Brownlow's friend and attorney, getting Brownlow a passport
to the North. In the Reconstruction period when Brownlow was governor
he lashed Baxter with some of the harshest charges he made in his career.
He accused Baxter of trying to ingratiate himself with the Confederate
government, trying to get a commission as a brigadier general and giving
Confederate Senator Louis T. Wigfall of Texas a $300 saddle horse. Baxter
published one issue of a Knoxville newspaper supporting the South, he
entered into a law partnership with Confederate Senator Landon C.
Haynes, and the Parson said that correspondence found in Haynes' office
when Federal troops took over Knoxville revealed that Baxter had proposed to bribe northern newspapers to favor the Confederacy, if given
$500,000 for the purpose. See later chapters for details.
[36) The letter to Carroll is from Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 282-283. Slightly longer is the same letter in 0. R., II, i, pp. 902-903. Variations frequently appear between the communications in Parson Brownlow's Book
and Official Records, which may be attributed to the extreme haste with
which the Parson wrote, or from lack of copies, the author relying on his
memory. Punctuation in Official Records also is sparse compared with the
Parson's generous use of it.
[37) Parson Brownlow's Book, p. 284; 0. R., II, 1, pp. 903-904.
[38] Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 284-286, 288; 0. R., II, 1, Carroll to Benjamin, November 26, 1861, p. 903. The affidavit, but not the letter,
appears in ibid., p. 905.
[39) Ibid., II, 1, Baxter to Benjamin, November 30, 1861, p. 904; ibid., en·
closure A, Benjamin to Crittenden, November 20, 1861, pp. 921-922.
There is an error here because it is out of the question for Benjamin to
have written to Crittenden authorizing a passport for Brownlow ten days
before Davis and Benjamin met with Baxter. Ibid., Crittenden to Benjamin, December 13, 1861, pp. 908-909; Parson Brownlow's Book, pp.
294-296. See also 0. R., II, 1, warrant against Brownlow, p. 922.
[40) 0. R., II, 1, Brownlow to Crittenden, December 6, 1861, p. 922; ibid.,
Harry I. Thornton, Aide-de-Camp, to Brownlow, December 7, 1861, p.
923. The items cited are enclosures D and E in ibid., Brownlow to President Davis, without date but marked "Entered 'Received january 2,
1862,' "pp. 919-923.
�252
CHAPTER NO. 14
[41] Parson Brownlow's Book, p. 296; Temple, Notable Men, p. 313.
[42] 0. R., II, 1, Ramsey to Benjamin, December 7, 1861, pp. 907-908; ibid.,
Swan to Davis, ]. G. M. Ramsey and William H. Tibbs to Davis, December
7, 1861, pp. 905-907; Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 298-299.
[43] Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp. 382-384.
[44] Coulter, p. 169; Alexander, T. A. R. Nelson, p. 77; Whig, June 15, 1861,
quoting Register.
[45] 0. R., II, 1, Benjamin to Ramsey, December 22,1861, pp. 916-917.
[46] A reproduction of the letter is in Parson Brownlow's Book, between pp.
318-319. A slightly different version is on p. 318; also with more correction in 0. R., II, 1, p. 910.
[47] Ibid., Benjamin to Ramsey, December 22, 1861, pp. 916-917.
[48] Ibid., Benjamin to Wood, November 25, 1861, p. 848;Parson Brownlow's
Book, pp. 269-270 (picture between pp. 301-302); Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp. 393-394, 399.
[49] 0. R., II, 1, Benjamin to Wood, November 25,1861, p. 848.
]50] Ibid., ]no. Withers, assistant adjutant general, Special Orders, No. 216,
November 11, 1861, p. 841; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, p.
394; Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 420-421; 0. R., II, 1, Leadbetter to
General S. Cooper, November 28, 1861, p. 849, Leadbetter to Benjamin,
November 30, 1861, p. 851, Leadbetter to "The Citizens of East Tennessee," proclamation, November 30, 1861, pp. 851-852, Leadbetter to S.
Cooper, December 8, 1861, pp. 852-853, Carroll to Benjamin, December
11, 1861, pp. 854-855, Leadbetter to S. Cooper, January 7, 1862, p. 869,
Benjamin to Captain R. F. Looney, November 30, 1861, p. 851, Ramsey
to Benjamin, November 25, 1861, p. 848, Benjamin to Ramsey, November
25, 1861, p. 849.
[51] Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, p. 392; Parson Brownlow's
Book, pp. 309-321; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp.
424-425; Parson Brownlow's Book, p. 453. For additional accounts of the
Parson's experiences and the persecution of Unionists see Whig, March 5,
1864, January 9, September 13, December 27, 1865, February 7, August
1, December 19, 1866, Aprill, July 15, 1868.
[52] 0. R., II, 1, Monsarrat, approved by Leadbetter, to Benjamin, December
27, 1861, p. 917, Monsarrat to Benjamin, December 29, 1861, p. 919,
Benjamin to Monsarrat, March 1, 1862, p. 928.
[53] Coulter, pp. 174-175; Humes, The Loyal Mountaineers, p. 307, appendix,
p. 392; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp. 421-422; Parson
Brownlow's Book, pp. 305-307, 417-422; Whig, September 13, 1865;
Temple Notable Men, p. 313; the Parson's testimony before Congressional
Investigating Committee, 0. R., I, 16, pt. 1, p. 674; Parson Brownlow's
Book, pp. 305-307, 325, 418; Whig, February 7, 1866;Parson Brownlow's
Book, pp. 325-326, 321, 320.
[54] Ibid., pp. 312-313, 319; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp.
392-396; 0. R., II, 1, Carroll to Benjamin, December 11, 1861, p. 854;
Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 313-314, 317; Temple, East Tennessee and
the Civil War, pp. 404-408, 413-420; 0. R., II, 1, J. ]. Craig to Benjamin,
�CRUSHED AND EXILED
[55)
[56)
[57)
[58]
[59)
[60)
[61)
253
January 3, 1861, pp. 923-924, H. C. Young to D. M. Currin, December 19,
1861, pp. 857-858, Robertson Topp to Robert Josselyn, Esq., October 26,
1861, p. 834, H. R. Austin to President Davis, marked "Received War
Department, December 28, 1861 ", p. 869.
Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 330-337; Coulter, p. 192; Whig, February 7,
November 7, 1866, September 25, 1867. Temple believed Brownlow was
marked for assassination. Notable Men, p. 308; Whig, February 7, 1866.
Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 326-328; Temple, East Tennessee and the
Civil War, pp. 397-398, 0. R., II, 1, account of Self's trial, pp. 858-859;
Whig, February 7, 1866.
Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 337-338; Temple, Notable Men, p. 314;
Whig, May 15, 1867.
W. G. Brownlow (by attorney) to John Baxter, Knox County Deed Book,
A3, p. 171; Green, Bench and Bar, pp. 58-59.
Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 337-338; 0. R., II, 1, Brownlow to Vance,
February 15, 1862, pp. 926-928; Parson Brownlow's Book, p. 361; 0. R.,
II, 1, Brownlow to Benjamin, February 27, 1862, p. 928; Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 367-368; 0. R., II, 1, Benjamin to Monsarrat, March 1,
1862, p. 928, Monsarrat to Benjamin, March 3, 1862, p. 928; Whig, May
15, 1867; Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 370-371; Temple, Notable Men,
pp. 314-315; Whig, February 7, 1866. See Young's appeal for kinder treatment of East Tennesseeans, 0. R., II, 1, pp. 857-858; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, p. 414.
Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 371-377, 380; Temple, Notable Men, pp.
315-316; Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 380-393; Folmsbee et al., Short
History, pp. 331-333; White, Messages, V, p. 372; House journal, ThirtyFourth General Assembly, comp., Tennessee Historical Commission (Nashville, 1957), p. 479.
Temple, Notable Men, p. 316; Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 381-384.
�Brownlow's Knoxville Whig,
and Rebel Ventilator.
"The union of lakes-the union of lands-The union of
states none can sever-The union of hearts-the union of
hands-And the flag of the Union forever."
Chapter No. 15
THE PROFITS OF EXILE
Exhilaration and excitement surrounded the Parson from the
moment the surprised and admiring Union soldiers greeted him five
miles south of Nashville. He reveled in the company of old friends
and responded as well as his shattered voice would permit to the
clamors for speeches. He was warmed by the officers who pressed to
meet him, he was flattered by an interview with Major General Don
Carlos Buell, whose troops were pouring south from Nashville, and
he basked in the serenades from regimental bands. Amidst this adulation and freedom the Parson's store of indignation swelled. He
trained a fiery batch of it on preachers who cast their lot with the
South, especially if they were Methodists. Yet, he was deeply comforted to learn that Bishop Soule, who had given him his first circuit
riding assignment, remained at the age of eighty and living near Nashville, "a staunch advocate of the Union and of the Constitution of his
country." Most gratifying of all was the opportunity to denounce
before appreciative audiences the hideous, evil men of the Confederacy, especially those who had been his bitterest foes in Knoxville.
When he spoke at Fort Donelson, where the arms and legs of the
battle's victims still protruded from the shallow graves, he presented
this snapping synopsis of life in East Tennessee:
I am just from the land of oppression, where there are no constitutional guards
left for the protection of the rights of the citizens-where they have abolished
the habeas corpus, provided county dungeons for Union men, the sweets of
which I have tasted; where they have instituted lettres de cachet, violated the
mails, disarmed communities and individuals, quartered drunken troops on private families, hung [sic.] men for not being Secessionists, shot down others in
their fields for adhering to the Stars and Stripes, muzzled the press, silenced free
speech, debauched the pulpit, tortured women and children, and brought into
service, at two to four dollars per day, a pensioned band of depraved spies and
informers. [1]
254
�THE PROFITS OF EXILE
255
Yet, as the Parson enjoyed liberty of speech and of movement as
well as the enveloping limelight, he must have felt a gnawing fear for
the safety of his family. He indicated as much in assuring the troops
he would return to his home when they repossessed the land. His
accounts written at the time ignore, perhaps for reasons of security,
any mention of the departure of his sons or the routes they took
from Nashville. James P., the younger son, quickly headed for Cumberland Gap where with other men he helped organize a company
that became a unit in the First Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, U.S.A.
This unit was also called the First East Tennessee Cavalry Regiment. [2 J John Bell, now the family guardian, was back in Knoxville
before many days. He had already been entrusted with looking after
the interests of the family when the Parson had fled into the mountains. During the negotiations for a passport he accompanied ] ohn
Baxter in visits to military officials. He had supported Baxter's statement to these officials that the lawyer had bought the Whig plant.
General Carroll confided to Benjamin that he not only believed the
sale was not genuine but that Baxter's loyalty to the Confederacy
was not to be trusted. Yet the sale was genuine and some of the
Parson's bitterness at the loss of his plant may be laid to his resentment at being forced to sell the mortgaged property to Baxter for
what he considered half its worth. [ 3J
The path of restoration for the Parson, however, lay to the north
and there he hastened. He arrived in Cincinnati on March 27. The
hero-starved North embraced him, feted him, besought him for
speeches and replenished his finances. Book publishers wooed him,
and he accepted the offer of George W. Childs of Philadelphia. This
agreement led to the publication of Parson Brownlow's Book.
Brownlow began his speaking tour in Cincinnati on April4, 1862,
in Pike's Opera House. Three hundred and seventy-two children sang
his praises. The president of the Chamber of Commerce, Joseph C.
Butler, introduced him, and two other dignitaries, General S. F.
Carey and Lieutenant-Governor John F. Fisk of Kentucky, rounded
off the evening with speeches. The packed house brought the Parson
receipts of $1,125. This auspicious night initiated a train of events
that made Brownlow the man of the hour, more publicized than
generals and was highly remunerated financially. His voice seemed to
improve with every speech. The editor's flamboyance with facts, his
acid treatment of his foes and his colorful and incisive prose delighted the Northerners. He told them what they wanted to hear about
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CHAPTER NO. 15
the South even more expressively than they could imagine it. Yet he
gave his audiences large doses of candor. He approved of Andrew
Johnson as military governor of Tennessee, but he acknowledged
having fought him "perseveringly, systematically and terribly for a
quarter of a century in Tennessee." Brownlow came from a line of
slaveholders and he had been robbed by the Confederate cavalry on a
Sabbath, of "a valuable boy ... worth about one thousand dollars."
The anti-slavery agitators of the North he said, were as appropriate
candidates for the gallows as the disunionists of the South. Yet if the
preservation of the Union was narrowed to the issue of slavery or its
prohibition, then, said the Parson, slavery would have to go. The
South, he conceded, had held the advantage of the North in political
offices and favorable legislation, yet had brought on the conflict
deliberately. And he furnished chilling accounts of what he saw and
endured in the jail at Knoxville. [4] Always a Unionist, Brownlow
went back to the days when South Carolina had threatened nullification and was stopped dead by Andrew Jackson. Tracing his loyalty, he said he had abused and castigated Jackson, alive and as a
corpse, although Brownlow credited him with the proper course in
stifling nullification. Now he gave old Hickory this rousing tribute:
I would have resurrected him, if I could have done so, two years ago, and placed
him in the chair disgraced by that mockery of a man, Buchanan, and had him to
crush out this rebellion. Jackson was a true patriot, and a lover of his country,
and a Union man; and if he had been living when this rebellion broke out, he
would have hanged the leaders and prevented this unnatural war.[5)
Brownlow wound up the first leg of his lecture tour at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, April 18. He had delivered his
speech and been received with official honors and acclaim in Indianapolis, Chicago, Columbus, Pittsburg, Altoona and Harrisburg. Governors sought him out and were pleased to introduce him. The Ohio
legislature met in joint session to hear him. He rode in the cab of a
locomotive across the Allegheny Mountains. [6] If he had a rival in
splendor it was the aurora borealis.
The Parson declined an invitation from President Lincoln to visit
the White House. He gave as his reason the necessity to hasten work
on his book, but it is also possible he was vexed with Lincoln for not
sending troops to the rescue of the East Tennessee loyalists. [7] He
took refuge in the home of Robert E. Peterson at Crosswicks, New
Jersey, and there he wrote, clipped and pasted together the hodge-
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podge that the abbreviating binders labelled Parson Brownlow's
Book. Haste was important for the book to be placed before the
eager northern market that had been stimulated by the wide and
worshipful attention Brownlow was getting from newspapers, magazines and the platform. The author penned some of the chapters.
Others consisted of strings of editorials he had written at the approach of war and before he suspended the Whig, his jail diary and
his personal memoirs. Illustrative of the devices employed to hurry
the manuscript was the Parson's use of his speech as it was carried in
the Cincinnati Gazette rather than to set it down himself. He completed the writing in May, two months after he had left home. By
September an estimated 100,000 copies had been sold. [8]
The Parson's flaming rhetoric at Cincinnati had the effect of driving his family out of Knoxville and into his arms at Crosswicks. His
old foe from the litigation over the collapsed Bank of East Tennessee, W. M. Churchwell, was now a colonel and provost-marshal in
Knoxville. He interpreted Brownlow's speech to mean that the Confederacy was holding Mrs. Brownlow and her family as "hostages for
the good behavior" of the Parson. Churchwell gave Mrs. Brownlow
and her family thirty-six hours to leave. Mrs. Brownlow protested she
needed more time, was granted an extension, and left Knoxville on
April 25. John Bell Brownlow; her daughters-Miss Mary Brownlow
and Mrs. Sue C. Sawyers; and her grandchild-Mrs. Sawyers' sonaccompanied her. They were out of the Confederacy by the last of
April. Churchwell ordered Mrs. Horace Maynard and her family out
at the same time. The Confederates required the Brownlows and the
Maynards to pay their transportation to Norfolk and Fortress
Monroe. Behind all this was Confederate rage at a statement the
Parson had made in his Cincinnati speech but which he did not
mention in Parson Brownlow's Book. John Bell Brownlow, thirty
years later, wrote that when he went to the office of the Confederate
commander in Knoxville, General E. Kirby Smith, to protest against
the expulsion, the general showed him a copy of the Cincinnati
Gazette reporting the speech. The newspaper quoted the Parson as
saying, "A rebel has but two rights, a right to be hanged and a right
to be d-d." It also reported the exiled editor was very severe on
graduates of the United States Military Academy who went with the
South. Kirby avowed, "The family of no man shall stay within my
lines who would make such a speech." [9]
John Bell was soon in Cincinnati, and may have helped his father
during the speaking tour and in preparing Parson Brownlow's Book,
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CHAPTER NO. 15
for he did not enter military service until August 1863. [10]
When the Parson completed the manuscript for his book he returned to the demanding and lucrative lecture circuit. He was in New
York for ten days, beginning May 13. There he picked up from $1,200
to $2,500 a speech, along with subscriptions to the Whig, upon its resumption. He spent a week in Boston and then moved on to North
Bridgewater, Salem and Lowell, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine;
Dover, New Hampshire; Roxbury, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode
Island; Norwich and Hartford, Connecticut; Springfield, Amherst and
Worcester, Massachusetts; and finally back to Philadelphia. He next
visited seven cities in New York State, returned to Philadelphia, and
in September headed for Michigan and Illinois. This tour included
county fairs, the Michigan Republican State Convention in Detroit,
and a huge Republican rally in Chicago. He closed out his speaking
labors at Monmouth, Illinois, on November 3.
The Parson's participation in these partisan affairs put him down
as having lost all dread of being called a "Black Republican." Although he may have been vexed with Lincoln for not having sent
troops to the rescue of East Tennessee Unionists, he was now aligned
in support of the Washington administration. He had not come completely around to a position acknowledging that slavery as an institution was dead, but he was approaching it. He had told his Cincinnati
audience that in the last analysis, if he had to choose between the
preservation of the Union and slavery, the Union must come first,
but he added this suggestion:
Let the Federal Government now guarantee to all loyal men in seceded States
the right and title to their property, including negroes [sic.] , and protect them
in the enjoyment of the same; but let the title held by rebels seeking to destroy
the Government be annihilated, both as to negroes [sic.] and all other property.
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation must have caught Brownlow
by surprise; for at the Kent County Fair at Grand Rapids, Michigan,
on October 7, 1862, while speaking to an audience of 10,000 persons
he endorsed it "As a military measure ... but in no other sense." He
saw it as a sop to abolitionists and as utter unenforceable. He held,
"The rebellion must first be put down before the government has
any power to put down slavery in the rebellious states. Till the
rebellion is crushed by the sword it is idle to talk of what is to be
done with slavery. Let us do one thing at a time." [11]
The removal of the Brownlow family from Knoxville failed to blot
out its members, especially the head of the house, as news items for
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their old neighbors. The Register and its editor, Sperry, had always
found the Parson wicked and malignant, but fascinatingly so, an
almost hypnotic evil. This tendency was reflected in the famous
editorial in the Register that extolled Brownlow's skill in obtaining
his release to the North. It took off with:
We do not desire to be understood as attaching undue or extravagant importance to the discharge of Brownlow from the custody of the Confederate authorities. The writer of this has known this individual for years. He is, in few words,
a diplomat of the first water. Brownlow rarely undertakes anything unless he
sees his way entirely through the millstone. He covers over his really profound
knowledge of human nature with an appearance of eccentricity and extravagance. If any of our readers indulge the idea that Brownlow is not 'smart' in the
full acceptation [acceptance] of the term, they should abolish the delusion at
once and forever. Crafty, cunning, generous to his particular friends, benevolent
and charitable to their faults, ungrateful and implacable to his enemies, we
cannot refrain from saying that he is the best judge of human nature within the
bounds of the Southern Confederacy.
In procuring from the Confederate authorities a safe-conduct to a point within the Hessian lines, he has exhibited the most consumate skill ....
Brownlow! God forbid that we should unnecessarily magnify the importance
of the name; but there are facts connected with the character of the man which
a just and discriminating public would condemn in us did we not give them due
notice.
In brief, Brownlow has preached at every church and school-house, made
stump-speeches at every cross road, and knows every man, woman and child, and
their fathers and grandfathers before them, in East Tennessee. As a Methodist
circuit-rider, a political stump-speaker, a temperance orator, and the editor of a
newspaper, he has been equally successful in our division of the state.
Let him but reach the confines of Kentucky, with his knowledge of the
geography and the population of East Tennessee, and our section will soon feel
the effect of his hard blows. From among his old partisan and religious sectarian
parasites he will find men who will obey him with the fanatical alacrity of those
who followed Peter the Hermit in the First Crusade. We repeat again, let us not
underrate Brownlow. [ 12]
Everyone who knew Sperry, or who read his newspaper, was aware
of his hot hatred for the Parson, and most of them knew he spoke
for a group of influential secessionists in Knoxville who wanted the
former Whig editor hanged or sent to a remote and secure prison in
the Deep South. The chagrin of these men was intensified because
Brownlow had eluded the fate they desired for him by the decision
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CHAPTER NO. 15
of the military on their own side. It was more humiliating and frustrating than if President Lincoln had marched a Union army into
East Tennessee and snatched up Brownlow. Sperry held up the Confederate officials and officers to scorn and ignominy, but in doing it
he paid Brownlow one of the greatest tributes ever set in type. The
Register continued to follow the blazing trail of the Parson across the
North. It castigated and denounced him, but never subjected him to
neglect. It reported his profits and described him as "the grand attraction of the 4th of July celebration at the Fair Grounds at Louisville." It gloated when Confederate prisoners hissed the Parson when
he attempted to speak to a group. It denounced him, along with
Andrew Johnson, for approving Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, and noted that he was recommending extermination of the
South's population. It had him swooping into Washington like a
vulture after carrion, as leading a regiment of blacks into East Tennessee, and finally upon hearing of the suicide of Abram Pryne it
granted him this capsuled detestation:
It is not surprising that Pryne has left the world in disgust. Brownlow's infamy
so far transcended his own that he has "curled up and quit." The one was false
only to his God, the other to both God and his country. Pryne had become a
lunatic, Brownlow was born morally insane.
The anger of the Register against "our tender-hearted military"
had burst out earlier in 1862 when the editor protested that too
much tolerance had been shown to those loyal to the old government. He flared out with:
Unionism here has never felt the heel of proscription. The exact opposite is the
truth. In the entire length and breadth of the Confederate States, East Tennessee
is the only place where Toryism or, if that term be too harsh to the delicate ears
of those for whom we particularly write-Unionism, has been tolerated.
The liberty of the press and the freedom of speech were enjoyed here in their
most unbridled license and wanton abuse. There was in all the South but one
paper that advocated the maintenance of the old government and the overthrow
of the new. That sheet was, thrice a week, under the very guns of the Southern
army, published in Knoxville. Unmolested, it assaulted in every possible form of
falsehood, popular sophistry, detraction and vulgar slander, our government, its
officials and friends, until, from sheer exhaustion, it could no longer insert an
untruth, pervert a fact, blacken a character or insert a fang into a sensibility. If
this infamous sheet had been published in Memphis ... ; or in Nashville ... ; its
office would have been demolished, and its editor, perhaps, ridden upon a rail,
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instead of being escorted, by a guard of honor, brim{ull of intelligence, to the
enemy ... East Tennessee was the paradise to tories-the only spot in all the
South where Union men were allowed free discussion.[13]
The Daily Southern Chronicle, which appeared in Knoxville on
June 28, 1863, and which lasted only a few months, ridiculed rather
than belabored the Parson. It printed a captured letter of Brownlow
to his wife, dated July 6, 186 3. It was seized by troops of the
Confederate cavalry leader, General John H. Morgan, in a northern
raid. Brownlow had written it at Nashville, where he was assistant
special agent for the United States Treasury Department. The Chronicle published it on August 4, 1863, a month before Union forces
moved into Knoxville. The letter conveyed a warning to Mrs. Sue
(Susan) Sawyers, widowed daughter of the Brownlows, not to permit
the attentions of a Union officer, named Reece. Sue, the mother of a
son, was a redoubtable soul. She had defied, with rifle or pistol,
Confederate soldiers who had threatened to tear down the Stars and
Stripes floating at the Brownlow home on East Cumberland Avenue.
A couple of pamphlets had been written about her exploits and she
had travelled with her father on his speaking tour of the North.
Nevertheless, she was a member of the Parson's household, then
living at Covington, Kentucky, and he held her to be under his
dominion and control. He warned her (through her mother) that the
suitor was no good:
Gen. Burnside will muster him out of service in disgrace. He has made an ass out
of himself; he is a petty tyrant, full of self-conceit, and has no common sense.
Say to Sue, for me, that she must not be seen walking with him or conversing
with him. And she must receive nothing from him, in letters, or presents. She
must either go with me or him-she can't go with both, and he will end up his
career in disgrace and bankruptcy and will be so published in the army records. I
know what I am talking about.
The same letter also revealed the Parson's efforts to see that his
children were well garmented. Father Brownlow laid down dress
goods, as well as the law for Sue and the other children. He wrote:
The silk I bought for the girls, I will describe to you. For Sue and Mary,
plaids with stripes of red, brown and green. For Fannie, 9 yards of checks, white
and blue, like apron check, very pretty. Sue's piece has 15% yards-Mary's 1S
yards. They are good and handsome, and I get them for less than one dollar per
yard. For the little Tads I have a bolt of brilliants and a bolt of linnen [sic.] with
black stripes.
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CHAPTER NO. 15
Sue bore up very well under the stricture on her suitor. In less than
three years she married Dr. Daniel T. Boynton, who practiced medicine from the Parson's home after the marriage.[14]
The Chronicle's jibe at Brownlow and his family may have
afforded the Knoxville secessionists one of their last pleasant moments of the summer. Union armies were moving southward toward
East Tennessee, and soon after the middle of August Confederate
authorities started moving supplies and troops south. Most outspoken southern sympathizers took the same direction. Knoxville
suffered a strange hiatus. With troops and officers gone the city was
left without governmental authority, and "A vague and yet terrible
sense of insecurity and uncertainty filled the minds of all." Then, on
a sunny afternoon, September 1, 1863, a brigade 0f cavalry commanded by Colonel John W. Foster, galloped up Gay Street from the
north. It concentrated about the Lamar Hotel and occupied the city.
Two days later General Ambrose Burnside made his formal
entry. [15]
Brownlow's Knoxville Whig reappeared on Nove;nber 11, 1863. It
brandished the additional title of and Rebel Ventilator, a capsuled
declaration of the Parson's program for his foes. The Union army
brought the Brownlow and Maynard families to Knoxville from the
Cincinnati area and provided the Parson with substantial help in
getting the Whig going. It supplied him with $1,500 cash, five wagons
to haul paper and printing supplies from Cincinnati, and probably
with a printing press. Brigadier General James G. Spears seized a
press, type and other equipment at Alexandria, a small town in
Middle Tennessee, and ordered the material sent to Knoxville for
Brownlow. The Parson did not, as might have been expected, take
over the printing office and equipment of either the Register or the
Chronicle. That of the former was sold through an order of the
United States District Court, and Treasury Department aides working
under Brownlow auctioned off what apparently was the property of
the latter. The Whig resumed operations at its old stand, after necessary renovation, with a hand operated press. Brownlow published a
duplicate newspaper at Cincinnati for northern subscribers, of whom
there were from 15,000 to 20,000. The Knoxville circulation was
limited, for regular mails did not exist and subscribers were required
to get their Whigs at the Knoxville post office or at the Whig
shop. [16]
Ventilation was a rather mild term for Brownlow's ferocity
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against the secessionists remammg in the area. He recalled in his
opening address that he had predicted: "the South will be whipped
and driven in disgrace back into the Union, and made to yield to the
laws and constitution of the United States." He also recalled his
prediction that the heaviest blows of the North would fall upon the
Border States, who were pressed into the conflict by the more insulated sisters of the Deep South. He did not linger on these points
because "The past is with the reader, and we have only to speak of
the present and of what is to come." Thus looking ahead the Parson
recommended that while the government and the military authorities
should
deal in the most liberal spirit toward the deluded masses, and for the patriotic
who were conscripted, we urge the punishment of intelligent traitors, and insist
that the halter should be summoned to do its appropriate work among the
leaders! ...
The guerrilla warfare which the rebels delight in and threaten Union men
with cannot long be maintained when once the war is ended, or when rebel
soldiers are driven from a State. Self-preservation will lead good men everywhere
to unite with the Government in closing it out. No mercy will be shown to such
thieves and assassins, if they continue their ravages, when their armies have laid
down their arms. They have no claims under the laws of warfare; they are out of
the pale of their protection, placed there by their own reckless violation of those
laws. This picking off of men here and there, and these guerilla raids upon
families and villages, where murder and plunder are the only motives, and not in
any sense the furtherance of the objects of war, should be punished with death,
without even the forms of a trial. Let no such men be taken as prisoners. Let a
stern vengeance be taken upon every guerrilla that falls into our hands .... (Whig
November 11, 1863).
Only a shade less evil than guerillas, in the Parson's book, were
clergymen who had promoted the rebellion:
They have aided in the work of devastating the country; they have contributed
to fill the land with mourning; they have caused tears of tens of thousands of
widows to flow; they have done their full part, in handing down to posterity an
army of orphan children; they have aided materially in filling thousands of
graves with the best citizens of the country, North and South; and fearful to
relate, they have mainly contributed to send thousands to hell, who might have
been redeemed by the blood of Christ, but for this war!
He endorsed President Lincoln's policies in full, with a reservation:
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CHAPTER NO. 15
"The Federal Government has been too lenient, and too slow to
punish rebels, and to crush out this most abominable, wicked and
uncalled for rebellion." He favored what he described as "mediation"
with "cannon and the sword" to the point of subjugation or extermination. Only loyal men, he wrote, "are to be heard in the casting
up of accounts of men who have done the amount of mischief these
leading rebels have!" He offered to his enemies, provided they were
honorable, "decent respect" and forgiveness "provided they have
not been the persecutors of Union men."
Brownlow now swung full circle on the subject of slavery, an
institution he had once argued enjoyed divine approval. It was gone,
abolished by the war. He wrote that the masses of Southern people
had never favored it, but opposed emancipation "because of the
repugnance of negroes to labor, and of the demoralized state of
society that must follow." This was a bold step for the slave-holding
Parson. Fifteen years earlier he had noted without a trace of compassion, "The contents of the vaults of the Rogersville Bank passed
through here [Knoxville] this week in the shape of 170 negroes,"
[sic.] on their way to the Mississippi market. The Parson was indignant because the bank had loaned money to slave traders who were
his political enemies. He manifestated no compassion for the human
creatures being marched along Gay Street as property, like a herd of
cattle or a drove of hogs. [ 17]
The evidence that Brownlow owned slaves just before the Civil
War is conclusive, although the Knox County tax records of the
period do not reflect such ownership. It is conceivable that the property assessor found reasons, best known to himself and to the Parson,
to favor the latter in making his returns. Brownlow asserted his
ownership in Parson Brownlow's Book. He mentioned specifically a
Negro boy carried away by the Confederate cavalry, and listed the
slave's value at $1,000. The widow of John F. (Jack) Brownlow, the
Parson's grandson, recalled two Negro women in the household of
the editor's widow who had been slaves. Felix A. Reeves, who read
law along with John Bell and James P. Brownlow, just before the
war, listed the Parson with Andrew Johnson and Horace Maynard as
slave owners.[18]
The Parson had ventilated the rebels with only two issues of his
reestablished Whig when he was forced into a move that must have
chagrined him. Along with other prominent Unionists he fled north
to escape possible capture by the South. On September 19 the Con-
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federates soundly defeated the Union army under General WilliamS.
Rosecrans at the Battle of Chickamauga. General James S. Longstreet
was dispatched with a Confederate force to dislodge Burnside at
Knoxville. Union officers were uncertain they could hold Knoxville
and they advised a group of loyalists to leave.
After a lapse of six weeks Brownlow resumed publication on J anuary 9, 1864. He missed the Battle of Fort Sanders, and he almost
ignored it in the Whig. It was fought on November 29, 1863. When
his newspaper finally reported it as a Union victory it was in its
edition of January 30, 1864. He ran "A Rebel Account" taken from
the Augusta Constitutionalist.
The Unionists who fled with the Parson included 0. P. Temple,
Thomas A. R. Nelson, John M. Fleming and M. M. Miller of Knoxville, and John Netherland and Absolom Kyle of Rogersville. Brownlow must have been deeply hacked on the ignominious journey. During a stop at Clinton a patriotic matron, who was unable to believe
that the party was on the run, who did not recognize the Parson in
the darkness, taunted them with: "I expect the next thing I hear will
be that old Billy Brownlow is running, too." The editor counselled
immediate departure from the scene. The Whig offered this justification for the flight:
True, when the seige set in, and the prospect was that the rebels would take the
place, we made it convenient to pass beyond the Ohio River.
We are not aware that we are especially timid, but we are certainly not brave
enough to want to encounter one of the lousy, filthy and cold prisons of the
South. We are not brave enough to seek to live on their diet, or to hang on one
of their trees (Whig, January 9, 1869).
The Parson had been in prison once. He did not care to risk a return.
Compassion moved Brownlow on that northern trip as he watched
thousands of loyalists flee from Longstreet's army. They struggled on
foot, on horseback or by any conveyance they could find, through
the difficult defiles of the Cumberland Mountains to find a refuge in
Kentucky. To some he opened his purse. Yet the trip produced
economic benefits for him. While he was in Cincinnati Brownlow was
granted, as assistant special agent for the Treasury Department,
authorization for release to Knoxville retailers of more than
$100,000 worth of goods. Among those granted permits was the
Parson's good friend, 0. P. Temple, who reciprocated by advertising
his store in the Whig, and by inserting in his card as an attorney,
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CHAPTER NO. 15
"Reference-W. G. Brownlow." [19]
The Parson's power in the area occupied by the Union forces was
sweeping. He was the hero of the North and the fierce foe of the
secessionists. He had a complete understanding of the people, the
geography and the economic and cultural facts of life. These qualifications undoubtedly gave him the keen and respectful ear of the
military officers. As editor of the Whig he could condemn or praise
with powerful effect. As treasury agent he held the sole authority to
grant permits to trade, a power he thus summarized:
To regulate the sale of goods, seize all goods smuggled into East Tennessee
without regular permits, and to seize and confiscate all the goods, wares and
merchandize [sic.] -the loose and perishable property left by rebels who have
abandoned their homes and gone with the rebel army for protection (Ibid.).
Early in 1864 Brownlow's power was extended to include "All
houses, tenements, lands and plantations, excepting such as may be
required for military purposes, which may have been or may be
deserted." [20]
Bitterness, threats and demands for vindication and vengeance
flowed from the pen of the Parson. Longstreet's ragged and often
barefoot forces retreated slowly into upper East Tennessee, but made
occasional forays into such Union counties as Blount and Sevier.
Because of this the Knoxville secessionists, who still hoped for a
resurgence by the Confederate general, failed to display the submissiveness that Brownlow considered appropriate. He found them "insolent." Spirited Confederate women, who refused to assume the
garment of repentance, irritated him. He taunted some of them because they were living on "the patronage of the Lincoln army" by
running boarding houses that catered to "Yankee officers and soldiers." The Whig raged at atrocities reported against Union men and
families above and below Knoxville. [21] Loyalists who attempted to
intercede for those so accused drew the editor's fire:
And yet, when those imps of Hell are arrested, Union men come forward,
impose upon the authorities, and procure their release. God forbid that we
should ever to be found endorsing for one of these scoundrels, or those baser
villains on our streets, who exult over their deeds of carnage, and are daily
smuggling letters through our lines to the enemy!
The Knoxville Register, which was published briefly at Atlanta and
which apparently based its report on information from friends in
Knoxville, wrote:
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The ferocity of Brownlow is fearful. ... He evidently deems himself master of
the situation and expects to reign a lordly potentate in East Tennessee ...
Brownlow ... declared he not only was in favor of arming every negro in the
South but that he would tum loose wild beasts to prey upon the population of
the country.[22]
Prejudiced as Sperry was, his appraisal had some justification. Brownlow, as Treasury agent, not only followed rigidly the orders that
trade permits should be granted only to loyal citizens, but also had a
finger in the extension of loans and credits. He was a director of the
First National Bank that was established in the summer of 1864 with
a capital of $100,000. The bank directorate included such staunch
Unionists as Perez Dickinson, Samuel R. Rodgers, 0. P. Temple, S. P.
Carter and William Heiskell, one of Brownlow's Treasury aides. The
requirement that only loyal persons should be granted trade permits
undoubtedly stimulated the signing of loyalty oaths during the winter of 1864. Some of these signers, Brownlow told his readers, took
the oath with mental reservations and planned to do all they could to
aid the South regardless of their sworn pledges. [23]
Brownlow adopted with cold fury, a policy which he said the
rebels had promulgated when they were in control in East Tennessee:
only one side could live in the area. Now that Union men were in
control "Their persecutors would do well to leave." He named,
among others, W. H. Sneed, William G. Swan, John H. Crozier, C. W.
Charlton, Editor Sperry and Landon Haynes. He declared that they
could never live in East Tennessee: "Indeed, we regard Union men
who have suffered at their hands, and because of their counsels, as
justified in shooting them down on sight, before or after the war
terminates ... "When Ephraim Dodd, a Texan, was hanged as a spy
after a court-martial held at Knoxville, Brownlow envisaged a rich
field for the gallows. He delivered this opinion:
There are at least 25 citizens of Knoxville, resident spies, who ought to hang,
one by one. As the work has commenced, let it go on! ... until compensation is
had, in part, for the hundreds of cold-blooded murders perpetrated in East
Tennessee.
When protests were made that Dodd's sentence was harsh,[24] the
Parson retorted that the protestors had been unmoved by compassion at the hangings of Fry, Hensie and the Harmons:
When Union men were shot down in the woods, put in irons, and sent by
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CHAPTER NO. 15
hundreds to Southern prisons, while their families were insulted and plundered,
these infernal hypocrites said it was all right! They are now seeing the other side
of the picture. Let us crowd the traitors, thieves, and assassins, and make them
cry out, in the bitterness of their sufferings, "That mercy we to others show,
that mercy show to us" (Whig, January 16, 1864).
Confederate troops which were reported to have violated the rules of
war or had committed outright atrocities, drew this denunciation:
Had we our wish, we would throw hell wide open, and place all such beastlike officers and men upon an inclined plane, at an angle of forty-five degrees,
grease the plane with hog's lard six inches thick, with a wicket at the bottom,
and send them, as one stream of traitors, robbers and assassins, into the hottest
part of the infernal regions.
The Parson also offered this merciless recommendation for "The
Spring Campaign" of 1864 by Union forces:
Let us have a half million of fresh troops, and let us start the plough-share of
ruin into the Cotton States, sub-soiling as we go, and letting the first dash of the
plough be over the handle in the "sacred soil of the South."- Lay these Cotton
States waste; make a howling wilderness of the cotton, rice and grain growing
plantations of the South;-starve out, and drive out the population; and introduce honest laborers, who are loyal, and will answer the end for which they were
created (Whig, February 20, 1864). [24]
The conscription of Union men into the Confederate army created
the most intense bitterness among the loyalists. The task of conscription often was assigned to Union men. Some acted from duress and
others at the request of neighbors who believed it preferable to have
the hateful work done by a considerate friend than by a dreaded
enemy.[25] Brownlow divided these Unionists into those who
were mild and kind in the discharge of their odious office .... It was their
misfortune to be appointed. To refuse to accept was to defy the rebel government and probably bring ruin on his head who dared to do it.
But there was a different class of enrolling officers, who forced that law with
the most heartless cruelty. There were men who delighted in surprising Union
families in the dead hours of the night, and forcing the father, husband or son
away from home with the point of the bayonet, and in many cases tied or
handcuffed. Some of them accompanied these with wanton insults, and with
mockery of the cries and anguish of the wife and children. Often the conscript
was shot down in the presence of his family. He was always abused and insulted.
�THE PROFITS OF EXILE
269
He was worse than a slave after he was put in the army-he was treated as a dog.
Now, we say, let justice be done. These traitors have had their day; now we
have ours. Let everyone who voluntarily aided in this infamous system of forcing
Union men to fight against their government be made to atone for it in his purse
and property. They have boasted that all the wealth of the South was on their
side.-Then it is time the wealth was changing hands. Strip them a little, by a few
judgments for damages, and perhaps they won't feel quite so aristocratic.... It
is well that there should be a change of property. The peace of the country
hereafter demands that those who inaugurated this hellish war should be curtailed of their majestic proportions, and forced into poverty and obscurity. After
their terrible crimes, if they are permitted to live, even in poverty and obscurity,
they may thank God for the mercy and unmerited forbearance extended to
them. It will be an act of pure clemency (Whig, March 5, 1864).
The sufferings of the East Tennessee Unionists had been intense.
The East Tennessee Relief Association was organized at Knoxville
early in February 1864. Dr. Thomas W. Humes was president. A
petition to President Lincoln from the association drew this picture
of the plight of the Unionists during the two years of Confederate
occupation:
Union citizens were disarmed-arrested without warrant, and for alleged military
offenses, imprisoned at the pleasure of petty military tyrants in violation of all
law-forced to take oaths against their consciences and in derogation of their
allegiance to the United States-taxed with illegal costs to support corrupt officials-the property seized for public and individual uses. Their fields were laid
waste; in some instances, houses were burned over the heads of families as a
punishment for their loyalty, and in other instances, not a few, men patriotically
sealed their devotion to their country with their life-blood, either butchered by a
lawless soldiery or officially murdered by a military court.
Nathaniel G. Taylor, a wealthy citizen of upper East Tennessee
who became a Methodist minister after his sister, Miss Mary Taylor,
was killed by a bolt of lightning at a camp meeting, aided by Edward
Everett and other influential men of New England, engaged in raising
funds. Their efforts brought $250,000 to the aid of the impoverished
region. Brownlow was on the committee that signed the petition to
the President, along with Humes as chairman, William Heiskell, John
Baxter, 0. P. Temple and John Fleming.[26] But for the Parson's
personal contribution on the horrors of occupation for the columns
of the Whig he required more horrendous language. He used the
letter of Secretary Benjamin to Colonel W. B. Wood, commander at
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CHAPTER NO. 15
Knoxville, as a starting point to describe the punishment to be given
East Tennessee prisoners of war:
It will be seen that BENJAMIN divides the Union population into two classes:
First, those who participated in the bridge burning, and all these were to be bung
[sic.] on the spot. Second, those who had not so participated in the bridge burning; and all those were to be held as prisoners of war and sent with an armed guard
to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Now, if history can produce any act of tyranny more
atrocious and revolting than this, we cannot recall it. Over thirty thousand men
were doomed by this imperial tyrant to hanging or imprisonment (Whig, March
5, 1964).
The hanging of Jacob and Henry Harmon brought a special sense of
horror to Brownlow. He mentioned it twice in his book and expanded on it in the Whig, recalling:
The father, an old man, was forced to sit upon his coffin and witness the hanging
of his son. The rope broke, and a second time the half lifeless son made that
fearful leap through the trap door of the scaffold ....
To all the conclusive and irresistible arguments used by the defendants' counsel, showing that the court had no jurisdiction in the case and therefore could
not punish, the only answer was the ukase of Benjamin. He had ordered them
hung [sic.] , and therefore they must be!. . .Finally they ceased to try at all.
All who were suspected were arrested, thrown into jail, held until they had
collected a drove of one or two hundred, and then marched off to Tuscaloosa.
Hundreds, yes, thousands, were thus sent away without charge, without a trial,
without proof, upon the bare suspicion of being Union men .... Need we recall
the fact that four hundred and fifty men, many of them mere boys, who were
fleeing to Kentucky to escape the ruthless persecutions at home, were overtaken
by Ashby and his murderers, and caught, and all sent in a body, with one or two
exceptions to the charnel houses of the South? Their crime was that they sought
the protection of the stars and stripes.-And who that saw will ever forget the
sight witnessed, as that body of men were marched under guard through the
streets of Knoxville, when one by one they would stealthily stoop and with the
hand scoop up the filthy water from the streets to allay their burning thirst?
They were DRIVEN across the creeks and past the springs without being allowed
to drink, on their long and hurried march of near fifty miles, then confined all
night without food or drink.-No wonder then, that as they set forward on their
gloomy march to their Southern houses of death, they stooped and lapped up
the slimy water. And will anyone who saw ever forget-(ougbt any one ever to
forget?)-the infernal joy that gleamed in the countenance of Ashby[27] as he
rode and pranced at the head of these four hundred and fifty men, on a sum-
�THE PROFITS OF EXILE
271
mer's day, and as he looked upon their bare heads, their sore and bleeding feet,
their parched lips, their famished forms and their tremblimg limbs? Others who
looked idly on, although at the time they grew sick at heart, and perchance
dropped a tear, may forget, but those injured patriots will never forget or for-
give.
Well and faithfully was the stern edict of the Jewish Nero, to kill and imprison, kept and obeyed. Zollicoffer, Carroll, Woods and Leadbetter gladly
obeyed it. The army and all its followers everywhere willingly obeyed it. The
court martial, with the fiendish Campbell [28] as Judge Advocate, with extreme
joy obeyed it. The Confederate Court, with the madman Humphreys on the
bench, and the imbecile Ramsey, at the bar, earnestly obeyed it. The Knoxville
Register joyfully [oh how joyfully!] obeyed it and daily cried and begged for
more blood. Heiskell, Swan and Tibbs in Congress, obeyed, and demanded of
Nero a new ukase and fresh victims. Sneed, Crozier, Wallace, McAdoo, and some
who daily walk our streets, obeyed and shouted for a hecatomb upon the altar.
Harris and his Legislature obeyed, and snuffed the air for the sweet odor of fresh
blood. And everywhere, throughout the State, the hell-hounds of the rebellion
whined, and cried, and howled for blood.-And day by day was the fresh pure
blood of innocent patriots lapped up by the inmates of the infernal kennel, and
still they whined, and snarled, and whetted their fangs for more. And as each
fresh victim fell, they leaped, and snarled, and howled, and yelled afresh, and
grew more insatiate for blood. And as these demons grew drunken with blood,
they serenely smiled, and talked complacently in the legislative halls, in the
council chamber, in the camp and in the pulpit, on the bench and at the bar, on
the streets and in the press, by the fireside, at the gallows, and in their houses of
death, of their forbearance and lenity, and of the magnanimity and clemency of
their great government (Ibid.).
This magnificent example of the Parson's ability to overlay some
solid facts with lurid hyperbole was written while he was under
intense strain. He was editing his newspaper, carrying on his Treasury
job, and he was the target of hundreds who sought his influence or
his advice in the shifting times. As a stern but doting father he must
have had constantly on his mind the fearful risks his two sons were
taking as they led their cavalry units against the enemy. They were
"frequently in the East Tennessee area where as sons of the Whig
editor they surely were marked men for the enemy." [29]
Yet, in the midst of this life and death struggle, Brownlow's sardonic wit flashed through an exchange of letters with Sam Wallace.
The latter was a Blount Countian who had fled South and left a
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CHAPTER NO. 15
young and charming wife at home. Wallace's letter, written from
Augusta, Georgia, on September 21, 1864, set the tone of the correspondence:
W. G. Brownlow, D.D.-DEAR SIR: I have heard that in your issue of the
lOth of August, you have a letter from me to my wife, said to have been
captured. I have not seen the paper, but suppose the letter is correctly reported,
and as there may be others via "underground" that might fall into your hands, I
will say, if it suits you as well, leave off many items that an old man would be
likely to write his young wife; but anything that is contraband, why "ventilate,"
of course.
I have quit writing letters and turned my attention to writing the history of
Guberdom.
I have further heard that Mrs. Wallace is a tenant of yours. She is a mighty
clever woman, and I hope your terms will be liberal.
You will please send her word I am well and doing well, eating sweet potatoes
and gubers, and fighting mosquitoes by way of exercise.
With due respect,
Sam Wallace
P.S.-I would be glad [if] you would make old Abe quit his "foolishness," as
I want to go home (Ibid., October 26, 1864).
The editor replied in a letter dated October 21, 1864, that he had
omitted, in the Whig, all intimate expressions and detail Wallace had
written, then offered these observations:
It is true that Mrs. Wallace is a tenant of the Federal Government-not of
mine-though I am the agent of that Government, and rent to her, almost upon
her own terms, the fine farm you so foolishly abandoned. She had called to see
me, and I believe you when you say "she is a mighty clever woman"-nay, she is
a lady, and I treated her as such.
As she doubtless sees every issue of my paper, I will have no occasion to send
her word that you were well at the date of your letter.
You desire me to "make old Abe quit his foolishness, so as to enable you to
get home." Make your bad man, Jeff Davis, "quit his foolishness," and cease
fighting against a Government that will eventually crush him and all who are in
arms against it, and you will soon be able to come home. I think you have seen
enough of the destruction of life and property in the "Sunny South," to agree
with me that it was the perfection of "foolishness" for the South to have
plunged into this war. If you have not made that discovery hold on through
another season, "eating sweet potatoes and gubers, and fighting mosquitoes,"
and you will yet make the discovery.
�THE PROFITS OF EXILE
273
That you have, yourself, been guilty of greater "foolishness" than old Abe
has, I think you are prepared to admit. It was the very climax of folly in you,
living in comfort, to join a set of the worst men that ever God permitted to live,
in a villainous war upon a Government that never did you any harm but had
protected you, and secured to you, life, liberty and property-even the peacable
[sic.] possession of the everlasting nigger. But to run from "a young wife," of great
personal beauty and domestic charms, was a degree of madness that no one but a
deluded secessionist could be guilty of! For this folly you deserve to be annoyed
by mosquitoes, bed-bugs, seed-ticks and Confederate lice, in your down-lyings
and your uprisings, at least during the war. And sweet potatoes and gubers are
too good for a rebel.
Hoping to hear from you again, I am very truly, &c.,
W. G. Brownlow (Ibid.).
Even the editor's closest friends must have been astonished when
he endorsed the consumption of a barrel of confiscated "rebel whiskey" by a regiment of newly organized "Citizen soldiers." Brownlow
not only approved of the treat but added that "if the regiment had
got drunk and hung [sic.] all the rebels in Knoxville who are giving
the enemy information and inviting those raids into the country that
would have met with our sanction also." General Joseph Wheeler had
just raided East Tennessee with his cavalry units and caused some
consternation. [ 30]
But the glory and the glitter had gone out of Confederate arms. In
the fall of 1864 General U. S. Grant took command at Chattanooga
and General Sherman reinforced him with troops from Mississippi.
By the close of November the Union soldiers under this new command drove the Confederates from Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Grant was called to Virginia and given command of all the
northern forces. Sherman, left at Chattanooga, prepared for the
campaign of 1865 which would see the capture of Atlanta and his
march to the sea. Generals Nathan Bedford Forrest, John H. Morgan,
and Joe Wheeler made brilliant and harassing raids into Tennessee
with their cavalry units, but they produced no change in the declining fortunes of the South. Longstreet pulled out of East Tennessee
and joined Lee in Virginia. [ 31]
The arrival of Burnside and his army had precipitated a huge celebration in Knoxville by the loyalists. The celebration was dimmed
temporarily during the siege of Knoxville, but revived after the Battle
of Fort Sanders. Gradually the old routines of the community began
to take shape and activity, with some new developments. Brownlow
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CHAPTER NO. 15
led the field. He filed suits for damages against "the villainous leaders
in the rebel ranks," and beckoned to others to follow this course.
They did. Prices shot up and agitation was renewed to resume work
on the barely started Knoxville and Kentucky railroad. The Whig
called for hotel accommodations. The Federal army bridged the Tennessee River. County elections were held and Union candidates won.
A "Liberty Pole," eighty feet tall, was brought from South Knoxville, and the same flag which had earlier flown defiance to the South
and which had been carefully preserved, was raised again. A brass
band played and Governor Andrew Johnson spoke. The Lamar and
Franklin houses prepared to reopen. The military began directing the
cleaning of rubbish from the town. The courts began to grind out
orders for publication and notices of attachments and sales, profitable grist for the Whig's advertising columns. By September 1864
abundant crops began to appear despite the scarcity of laborers and
horses. Vacant houses were unavailable. The fledgling First National
Bank, in business five months, declared a dividend of five
percent.[32]
The military struggles on Tennessee soil were nearly ended. Political conflict waited in the wings.
CHAPTER XV NOTES
[ 1) Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 380-394, 396-399.
[ 2) Tennesseeans in the Civil War, a Military History of Confederate and
Union Units Available with Rosters of Personnel, Civil War Centennial
Commission (Nashville, 1965), 2 vols., pt. 1, p. 318; R. W. Carter, History
of the First Regiment of Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry in the Great War of
the Rebellion, with the Armies of the Ohio under Generals Morgan, Rosecrans, Thomas, Stanley and Wilson, 1862-1865 (Knoxville, 1902) pp.
19-20; hereafter referred to as Carter.
[ 3] 0. R., II, 1, W. M. Churchwell to Major H. L. Clay, Apri\23, 1862, p. 930;
ibid., Clay to Lieutenant Joseph H. Speed, April 24, 1862, p. 930; ibid.,
pass issued by Churchwell, April 25, 1862, p. 931.
[ 4) Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 399-400; Coulter, pp. 213-235; "The Public
Speaking Career of William Gannaway (Parson) Brownlow," dissertation
by Royal Forrest Conklin, University of Ohio, 1967 pp. 195, 162-174;
hereafter referred to as Conklin; Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 400-425.
Brownlow may have made more than $60,000 from the sale of his book,
Coulter, VIII, introduction by James W. Patton. In a letter to this writer
on December 9, 1971, Patton was unable to fix a specific authority for the
�THE PROFITS OF EXILE
[ 5]
[ 6]
[ 7]
[ 8]
[ 9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
275
statement of the Parson's profit from the sale of the book, but wrote that
when he was engaged in research in 1934 for Unionism and Reconstruction in Tennessee, 1860-1869, he talked to three of the Parson's grandchildren and William Rule. He suggests his information came from them.
Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 409-410,411-414,412-413,417-422.
Ibid., pp. 409-411. See also Brownlow's speech at Grand Rapids, Michigan,
on October 7, 1863. Whig., February 6, 1864.
Conklin, pp. 167-169; Coulter, pp. 216-221;Parson Brownlow's Book, pp.
425-442.
Coulter, p. 22 3; Parson Brownlow's Book, pp. 45 3-454.
Ibid., p. 444; Temple, Notable Men, p. 317; Coulter, pp. 234,239.
0. R., II, 1, Churchwell to Mrs. W. G. Brownlow, April21, 1862, p. 929;
ibid., Mrs. Eliza Brownlow to Churchwell, April 21, 1862, p. 929; John
Bell Brownlow to Temple, February 16, 1892. Temple Papers; 0. R., II, 1,
Clay to Speed, April 24, 1862, pp. 930-931; ibid., Churchwell pass, April
25, 1862, p. 931, ibid., A. T. Bledsoe, Assistant Secretary of War, to Major
General Benjamin Huger, April 28, 1862, p. 931; Parson Brownlow's
Book, pp. 446-452; Whig, February 7, 1866; John Bell Brownlow to
Temple, February 16, 1892. Temple Papers.
John Bell Brownlow to Temple, January 24, 1891, Temple Papers; Tennesseeans in the Civil war, pp. 2, 342-343.
Conklin, pp. 168-174; Coulter, pp. 223-234; Parson Brownlow's Book, p.
413; Whig, February 6, 1864.
The editorial appeared while Brownlow was under house arrest. Parson
Brownlow's Book, pp. 342-345. It must have appeared prior to January 3,
1862, for a copy of it was enclosed in a letter written on that date; J. J.
Craig to Benjamin, January 3, 1861, but incorrectly dated because it enclosed other items from the Register dated December 7, 13; 0. R., II, 1,
pp. 923-926.
Register, May 20, June 22, April 22, October 1, November 22, 1862,
January 3, April 26, 1863, October 16, 1862, March 12, 1862.
Daily Southern Chronicle, August 4, 1863; 0. R., I, 23, pt. 2, p. 524;
Frank Moore, Comp., The Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events
with Documents, Narratives, Illustrative Incidents, Poetry Etc. (New York,
1861-1868), I, p. 109; Major W. D. Reynolds, Miss Martha [sic.] Brownlow; or, The Heroine of Tennessee (Philadelphia, 1863). A copy is in the
McClung Collection. The Philadelphia publisher also got out a German
version under the title Miss Maude (sic.] Brownlow order Die Heiden von
Tennessee. Sue married Dr. Boynton on January 17, 1866. Roscoe
d'Armand and Virginia d'Armand, Knox County Marriage Records,
1792-1900 (Knoxville, 1970), p. 99. See also Zelia Armstrong (comp.),
Notable Southern Families, 5 vols. (Chattanooga, 1918) I, p. 43; Whig,
October 17, 1866.
Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp. 471-475.
Whig, November 11, 1863; 0. R., I, 30, pt. 3,SecretaryofWarEdwinM.
Stanton toW. G. Brownlow, Esq., September 19, 1863, p. 745. Women of
the Brownlow family had been living in Covington, Kentucky. Whig,
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CHAPTER NO. 15
[17] Ibid., November 11, 1863. A marginal note by John Bell Brownlow mentions his father's opposition to the Hawkins County slave traders. Ibid.,
October 27, 1849.
[18] Parson Brownlow's Book, preface, 7, and 358, 413414. That the Brownlow family had two domestic slaves, Rhoda and Curtis, was told this writer
by Mrs. John F. (Jack) Brownlow, widow of the Parson's grandson, in an
interview at her Knoxville home on April 27, 1972. Mrs. Brownlow came
to Knoxville as a bride, lived with her husband in the home of his father,
John Bell Brownlow, for eleven years, and Mrs. Eliza Brownlow, the
Parson's widow. She was told that the two slaves remained in the Brownlow household after they were freed. A young student, who lived in the
Brownlow home while reading law just prior to the Civil War, described
the editor as a slave owner. Felix A. Reeve, "East Tennessee in the War of
the Rebellion," a pamphlet containing a speech delivered on December 3,
1902, at a stated meeting of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the
United States, commandery of the District of Columbia, War Papers. A
copy of this pamphlet is in the files of the Western Reserve Historical
Society, Cleveland, Ohio. A fellow townsman described the Parson as a
slaveholder. Samuel Heiskell, Andrew jackson and Early Tennessee History,
[Nashville, 1920-1921), 3 vols. III, p. 212.
[19] Humes, The Loyal Mountaineers, pp. 245-246; Temple, Notable Men, p.
282; Whig, January 9, 1864.
[20] When Brownlow returned to Knoxville he retained his post as an assistant
United States Treasury agent which office he had filled at Nashville (see
fn. 13). Whig, November 11, 18, 1863, January 9, 16, February 20, 1864,
and thereafter. See also Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 342; Whig, April
16, 1864.
[21] Seymour, p. 13; Whig, January 16, February 6, 29, August 24, November
18, January 16, August 17, 1864, November 11, 1863, January 9, 1864,
November 11, 1863, January 11, 25, 1865.
[22] Register, October 23, 1863. The Register was published in Atlanta until it
was suspended in the spring of 1864. Whig, April 30, 1864.
[23] See "Treasury Regulations," ibid., January 9, 1864, June 4, October 2,
November 5, January 30, 1864.
[24] Ibid., January 9, 1864. Intercession for Dodd, originally a Kentuckian, was
made by members of the Masonic order. Humes, The Loyal Mountaineers,
pp. 289-292; Whig, January 16, 30, February 20, 1864.
[25] Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, p. 429; Humes, The Loyal
Mountaineers, pp. 165-167; Whig, March 5, 1864; James Welch Patton,
Unionism and Reconstruction in Tennessee, 1860-1869 (Chapel Hill,
North Carolina, 1934), p. 60; hereafter referred to as Unionism andReconstruction.
[26] For organization of the East Tennessee Relief Association and the petition
to Lincoln, see Whig, February 13, 1864; Humes, The Loyal Mountaineers,
pp. 301-303, 307-308, 313-392; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War,
pp. 408-410. "Determining to hold the region at all costs, the Confederates inaugurated a reign of terror. Vigilance committees prowled over the
country, armed to the teeth, arresting men on suspicion of hostility to the
�THE PROFITS OF EXILE
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]
277
new government, and shooting down others ... A civil and guerilla war was
thus begun, the horrors of which almost defy description." Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, p. 63.
Captain H. M. Ashby was in command of the Confederate cavalry which
captured the Unionists attempting to flee to Kentucky. In the fight in
Campbell County, Ashby reported killing thirty and wounding an equal
number, then marching the survivors to Knoxville, where most of them
were sent to southern prisons. 0. R., II, 1, p. 860; Humes, The Loyal
Mountaineers, pp. 165-166; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp.
424-42 5; Whig, March 5, 1864.
T. J. Campbell was judge-advocate of the court-martial convened at Knoxville to try men for the bridge burning. 0. R., X, 5, pt. 1, pp. 649-650.
"While the editor wrote all the editorials for this paper, he faithfully
discharged the onerous duties as agent of the Treasury Department, personally supervised the work of reorganizing & building up the loyal
Methodist Church, made many Republican speeches of which no notice
was taken in this paper for want of space & was visited by many loyal
people all over East Tenn. of all sexes. His labors were prodigious." Marginal note by John Bell Brownlow, Whig, September 21, 1864.
Ibid., August 26, 31, 1864.
Folmsbee et al., Short History, pp. 337-339; Whig, April 31, 1864.
Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp. 475-482; Whig, January 9,
1864, March 1, 1865, July 2, February 13, September 7, 1864, February
11, 1865, May 14, March 5, April 9, March 12, April16, May 23, June 4,
July 23, 1864 and thereafter. See also November 5, 1864.
�Brownlow's Knoxville Whig,
and Rebel Ventilator.
"The union of lakes-the union of lands-The union of
states none can sever-The union of hearts-the union of
hands-And the flag of the Union forever."
Chapter No. 16
THE PARSON'S ADVOCATE
At the prompting of President Lincoln, Governor Johnson made
futile attempts to restore civil government in Tennessee in 1863 and
early in 1864. He then hit upon the device of reconvening the Greeneville Convention of 1861. This body reassembled in Knoxville on
April12, 1864, and fell into such disagreement that after four days it
adjourned without taking action on either of two sets of resolutions
offered. The discussions, however, forecast the direction political
lines would take. 0. P. Temple noted, "The old leaders of the
Greeneville Convention, such as Nelson, Baxter, Spears, Heiskell and
Fleming found themselves confronted by a new set of men who to a
large extent belonged to the army, and who had imbibed by suffering
and persecution, feelings quite unlike those of the men who had
neither suffered nor entered the army." This latter group and Parson
Brownlow made common cause. [ 1]
On the heels of the convention's failure a mass meeting was held in
Knoxville. Johnson engineered it and was billed as the chief speaker.
The meeting adopted a resolution requesting the governor to call a
constitutional convention. The delegates would be required to be
loyal men and pledged to the abolition of slavery. Another resolution
praised President Lincoln and Johnson and endorsed their administrations, and another demanded the complete subjugation of the
South. Some neat political footwork preceded the meeting. Johnson
had the resolutions drawn, but since they lauded him, it would have
been most indelicate for them to have been presented bearing his
name. The governor took them to his old foe, Brownlow. The Parson
278
�THE PARSON'S ADVOCATE
279
found them satisfactory and agreed to offer them under his name.
But because the Parson's voice was inadequate, he enlisted his friend
Temple to read them. Temple did, but made an objection to the plan
calling for a constitutional convention. He preferred that this task be
performed by a legislature. Johnson, in his speech, found great merit
in the "Brownlow" resolutions and reiterated his position that "treason must be made odious, and traitors be punished and impoverished." The Whig closed this circuitous operation by describing the
resolutions as "having been offered to the meeting by the editor of
this paper." The newspaper also complimented the governor on his
speech.[2)
This temporary Brownlow-Johnson axis again operated successfully at the Union Party Convention held in Baltimore in June. Tennessee won admission of its delegates after a sharp fight that arose
over whether the state was in or out of the Union. Convention delegates learned that Parson Brownlow was in the hall on the night of
June 7 and prevailed upon him to speak. He urged them not to
commit the error of regarding Tennessee as a state in rebellion because "We don't recognize it [secession) in Tennessee. We deny that
we are out. We deny that we have been out." As an additional
inducement to seat the Tennessee delegation, he indicated that the
state would nominate Andrew Johnson for Vice-President. When
Johnson was nominated as Lincoln's running mate, the Whig paid
tribute to him "as a man who stood firm in the defense of his
country when his old party associates South were going over to the
enemy." [3]
Johnson was determined that the ticket on which he was running
with Lincoln should carry Tennessee. He had a record of winning
which he wanted to maintain, and the stakes were the highest in his
career. In East Tennessee Brownlow battled furiously for the Union
Party ticket. But many of the old Whig and Unionist leaders of the
area, possibly a majority, refused to support Lincoln. Instead they
swung in behind the Democratic nominee, General George B. McClellan, who favored an immediate peace. But McClellan supporters
were disfranchised. A Radical State Convention (also known as the
Union State Convention) recommended a stiff test oath, which Johnson may have devised. The governor embodied this requirement in a
proclamation which directed voters to swear that they would "cordially oppose all armistices or negotiations for peace with rebels in
arms." Immediate peace was what the Democratic platform had
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CHAPTER NO. 16
pledged. Ten Tennesseeans petitioned Lincoln to set aside the test
oath, but he found no reason to interfere. The Whig published the
President's letter in full, and noted, "Mr. Lincoln is good on a reply,
and had given this self-constituted Tennessee Committee the sort of a
reply they merited." The Whig also reported that the names ofT. A.
R. Nelson and A. Blizzard on the petition were not authorized. Lincoln's reply left the McClellan supporters helpless and they withdrew
their electors. [4]
The Lincoln-] ohnson ticket, with the opposition destroyed, carried the state. But Congress held that Tennessee was in rebellion and
refused to recognize the vote. The returns, while conclusive, were
scarcely gratifying to the Radical Unionists, for they were extremely
light. Reliable reports as to the exact vote are not to be found. The
Whig reported early returns showing that ten East Tennessee counties
had cast 10,279 ballots, all for Lincoln and Johnson. A week later
the paper reported that 40,000 votes had been counted at Nashville,
half of them from East Tennessee. Succeeding issues of the Whig
failed to carry supporting figures, which suggests that if additional
returns were available they did not justify the previous claims. Thousands of East Tennessee loyalists were in the Union army and unable
to vote, and parts of the state remained a battleground. Fighting
continued in upper East Tennessee and General Hood moved north
into Middle Tennessee. These conditions were unfavorable for a
normal vote, even without the stricture of disfranchisement. [5]
The dust of the campaign had barely begun to settle when the
Whig carried a call for a preliminary conve.1tion to be held at Nashville on December 19, "to form a ticket to run for a Constitutional
Convention by the loyal men of the State, the Governor designating
the day for the election by proclamation after the preliminary Convention makes out the ticket." The call also invited Middle and West
Tennessee to "act in concert" by getting up their delegates. Three
men from Knox and one each from Greene and Roane counties were
on the "Executive Committee for East Tennessee," which issued the
call. The committee based its authority on "the heavy loyal vote cast
in Tennessee which shows the sentiments of the people and their
desire to put down the rebellion and restore Civil Government."
Tennessee's interests also suffered because the state lacked the two
senators and eight representatives in the United States Congress
which readmission would give it. This was a point of urgency (Whig,
�THE PARSON'S ADVOCATE
281
November 16, 1864). The mass meeting of loyal men in Knoxville
had asked the governor to call such a convention and the maneuvering by the "Executive Committee" seems to have come down channels from him, especially since the governor's son-in-law, David T.
Patterson, was a member of the group that issued the call. Patterson
was a former circuit judge who had suffered a brief arrest by the
Confederate military during its occupation of East Tennessee. The
chairman was Samuel R. Rodgers, Temple's law partner. Rodgers had
accompanied the Parson to Nashville when the editor was escorted
out of the Confederacy in 1862. Rodgers also had signed the call for
the Knoxville-Greeneville conventions, assemblies also summoned to
deal with critical public conditions as their justification for existence.
R. K. Byrd, a Roane County farmer and slaveholder, also was a
member of the Greeneville Convention. He fled North in 1861,
organized the First Tennessee Infantry and as its colonel led the
regiment in a number of engagements. Perez Dickinson was a staunch
Unionist of New England birth who had accumulated wealth in the
mercantile business in Knoxville. When he was indicted by the Confederate Court in Knoxville on a charge of treasonable conduct, he
had been North on business. Judge West Humphreys had released
him under $10,000 bond to guarantee good behavior. Dickinson had
rejected an offer to obtain his release without bond if he would take
the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. Brownlow's name was in
third place on the committee, but he was elevated to the chairmanship when the same five men reconstituted themselves into a group
requesting the loyal men of East Tennessee to meet in Knoxville on
December 5 to select delegates to the state convention. [6]
The East Tennessee Convention represented the bulk of the Union
vote in the state, and it put up Brownlow as a candidate for governor. Chairman Rodgers, in his official account of the proceedings,
said the Parson told the delegates, "If chosen for that office, he
would use the whole power of the state to rid East Tennessee of all
rebel thieves and robbers, and took his seat amid prolonged applause." The warm response to Brownlow's pledge was reported in an
issue of the Whig that carried several stories of atrocities by Confederate soldiers and guerillas, including the killing of forty-one Union
men in Polk County (Whig, December 7, 1864).
The advance of General John B. Hood's Confederate army into
Middle Tennessee delayed the meeting in Nashville. Two battles were
fought before the session was possible. Franklin, fought on Novem-
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CHAPTER NO. 16
ber 30, saw Union General John M. Schofield retreating to Nashville,
but Hood was hurt by many casualties. He remained outside Nashville until General George H. Thomas moved upon him with a much
larger force and decisively defeated him in the Battle of Nashville,
fought on December 15 and 16. The delegates then met in the capital
on January 9, 1865, and debated furiously the question of the convention's power. On the sixth and final day, the convention nominated and approved unanimously Brownlow. [7] The Parson dashed
off a three-paragraph acceptance that included a pledge:
And God being my helper, if you will send up to Nashville, on the first Monday
of April, a Legislature that will re-organize the State Militia, and enact other
necessary laws, I will put an end to this infernal system of guerilla warfare and
private and public robbery, if we have to shoot and hang all concerned, in East,
Middle and West Tennessee (Whig, January 25, 1865).
The convention's arrogation of power went far beyond the announced and expected task of preparing a slate of delegates. This
development Brownlow had not anticipated until he arrived in Nashville. On the eve of the meeting in Knoxville he still saw the assembly
as functioning to elect delegates, "who, if chosen by the people, are
to amend the Constitution of the State, perhaps elect a governor,
besides other civil officers." He recommended swift action "so as to
avert any effort to remand our state into a territorial condition. This
may be done by the Congress about to meet, and in that event, our
civil organization may be set back several years."
Historical writers, including Temple, who was a delegate, insist
that the body was a mass meeting, and acted far in excess of whatever authority it had, certainly of that outlined in the call. It resolved
itself into a political convention by nominating Brownlow, and into a
constitutional convention by preparing amendments to the basic
charter. One would abolish slavery and another offered a "schedule"
to repeal the legislative acts which took Tennessee out of the Union
and into the Confederacy. The proposed constitutional amendments
and the repeal of the legislative acts, a curious combination in itself,
were to be submitted to the electorate on February 22. The election
of governor and members of the General Assembly was recommended to be held on March 4. The six-day session produced some marvels
of shortcuts. Johnson often is given responsibility for them, but
Brownlow acquiesced in them. [ 8] He explained, after conceding that
the delegates had gone far afield from the purpose stated in the call:
�THE PARSON'S ADVOCATE
283
I expected that [the preparation of a ticket for a constitutional convention)
would be the work of this Convention; but the call was only suggested as those
who called it had no authority to say what the Convention should or should not
do. But the best legal minds on this floor have admitted that to agree upon the
amendments here is just as lawful as to agree upon them in a Convention hereafter elected. This is the shortest cut, and the most direct route to the port we
are aiming for .... What we do here is to be passed upon by the people at the
ballot-box ... and if not acceptable to them it will be rejected, leaving us just
where we started (Ibid.).
The Parson, in pragmatic mood, warned that a constitutional convention would cost between $75,000 and $100,000. The state treasury
had been stripped when Confederate state officials fled from Nashville. The cupboard was bare (Ibid.).
The convention sealed the outcome of the February 22 referendum by imposing another strict oath (only men of unconditional
loyalty were excused). It required voters to sign their ballots and
mark them for "Ratification" or "Rejection." Fewer than one hundred men had the hardihood to record themselves against the proposal, and it carried by 25,000 or 26,000 votes. This fulfilled President Lincoln's requirement that a state must cast one-tenth of what
it did in 1860 to qualify for recognition from Washington. Armed
with this authority, Johnson proclaimed that the election of a governor and members of the legislature would be held on March 4.
Brownlow's election was assured since he had no opposition on the
ballot and the legislative slate was carefully tailored. The convention
nominated most of the men for the seats, half of them members of
that body. In East Tennessee the committee which had started the
ball rolling filled in the names for some counties. [9] The vote,
ridiculously one-sided, was short of a triumph, for Brownlow received 3,000 or 4,000 less than had been cast on February 22. The
franchise was limited, but in both elections arrangements were made
for Tennessee soldiers in the Union army to cast ballots, and 1,328
of them encamped near Knoxville went on record for the Parson and
the legislative slate. Confederates made efforts to break up the election at some places. At Greeneville, on February 22, the Fourth
Tennessee Infantry (U.S.) repelled a band of 250, but at Rutledge
cavalry carried off the ballot box. On the day of the second election
some polls in McMinn County failed to open because of the fear of
guerilla raids.
The House and Senate canvasses of the vote, as reported by Secre-
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CHAPTER NO. 16
tary of State E. H. East, found 23,222 for Brownlow and 35 writeins. Yet the official canvass listed returns from only forty-four counties, less than half of those in the state. Among the missing counties
were a number in East Tennessee where a substantial vote for Brownlow and the slate could have been expected. Among the missing
counties were Blount, Greene, Carter, Sullivan, Unicoi, Washington,
Hawkins and Hancock. Secretary East certified that he had examined
the returns and found a full contingent of legislators had been
elected, including a number of counties where no vote for governor
was reported. No county-by-county list of returns for the legislative
slate was reported in the canvass. The election of senators and representatives from counties where no vote was reported was certified
because all were running at large, and were voted in by ballots cast
outside their districts. [10]
Brownlow must have been plied with incorrect information on
what returns from throughout the state were showing. Two weeks
after the ratification election he predicted that the total would run
close to 60,000 and would be even greater in the election for governor and members of the General Assembly. He must have regretted
this exaggeration when the correct results were known. Perhaps, with
everyone knowing he would be governor, favor seekers were trying to
ingratiate themselves by telling him what he wanted to hear (Whig,
March 8, 1865).
The Parson's election required new arrangements for the operation
of the Whig. The Parson, john Bell Brownlow, and T. Haws set up a
three-way partnership. Haws looked after the business end of the
newspaper. The responsibility of editing fell upon the son. [ 11] The
father, in a nostalgic announcement, pledged himself to continue
writing about state affairs, "and shall not consider it beneath the
dignity of a governor to correspond weekly for a paper of such large
circulation, and of such principles, hopes and aims." He reviewed
briefly his rugged and exciting career, then turned
to those we have long advised, and acted with, many of whom we may never
again see in this life, we take this occasion to say, the consciousness of duty weU
performed, the complacent rememberance [sic.] of good deeds done, and of
high moral achievments [sic.] won, should encourage, comfort, gratify. But the
ghost of misspent hours, all hideous grinning, rise to terrify you through life, and
reproach your [you) for not having moved more rapidly and to more purpose.
So says
The Old Editor (Whig, March 29, 1865).
�THE PARSON'S ADVOCATE
285
Underneath Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, on page one, in the first
column, the line of type that for years had read "W. G. Brownlow,
Editor" was pulled by the printer and replaced by "Published by
Brownlow, Haws & Co." (Whig, February 15, 1865).
John Bell Brownlow was a busy young man. He was lieutenant
colonel of the Ninth Tennessee Cavalry (U.S.); he was editor of the
Whig; and he also stepped into his father's shoes as assistant special
agent of the Treasury Department for East Tennessee. He wound up
this labor early in 1866. It probably required the influence of the
governor-elect to get the military to permit John Bell to hold two
other jobs while still in the service. Obviously such arrangements
were made, for the son was not mustered out until September 11,
1865, more than five months after he had taken over the two outside
posts. The Parson had complained frequently that newspaper production costs were increasing, but he equipped the Whig plant until
Brownlow, Haws & Co. boasted of having three modern presses, and
an old one, all driven by steam and with "the best job office ever
opened in East Tennessee." Mails were opening and postmasters were
moving into their offices. [12] John Bell Brownlow and the Whig
were ready to take over the role of the Parson's advocate.
The Whig of April12, 1865, under the direction of the new editor,
presented pages reflecting the unity and vigor of the Nashville-Knoxville connection. The governor reported the events of April 5, including his inaugural address in full. The Whig also published accounts of
the day's ceremonies taken from three Nashville newspapers. One
reporter described the governor as "an old man, palsied in limbs, but
vigorous in intellect, and filled with stern determination." Brownlow's pen was not palsied, however, for he sent back a rather complete account of the organization of the legislature and some special
touches on his inauguration. This ceremony, he wrote, came off
"before the most [sic. ] large and brilliant assemblage I ever saw in
the Capitol-consisting of the civil and military population.-There
were three Major Generals, five Brigadier Generals, each with his staff
in full uniform .... My voice was fortunately good, and I was distinctly heard by the entire assembly." An auspicious addition to the
fluttering flags and brass band was "the roar of cannon in honor of
the fall of Richmond and Petersburg." The news of General Lee's
surrender occupied the foot of the first column on page two below
the accounts of the inauguration.
Cannon that heralded the Union victories also boomed in Knox-
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CHAPTER NO. 16
ville that Monday night. [ 13] John Bell Brownlow wrote with triumphant pen that in compliance with a military order the next day:
All the public offices and buildings were brilliantly illuminated, and for several
hours Knoxville did not hide her light under a bushel. The Franklin house, and
most of the private residences in the city were all ablaze and presented a goodly
sight. One thing struck us particularly as a sign of the coming good times, and
that was the sharing of many of our citizens, who have always sympathized with
the rebellion, in these manifestations of joy over the downfall of Richmond.
May their blazing candles prove the types of the relighting of the fires of true
patriotism in their breasts (Whig, April12, 1865).
If these Southern sympathizers had expected that the war's end
would bring also a cessation of bitterness and reprisals, they were
soon disillusioned. The wires from Nashville brought word of the
enactment of restrictive legislation against them, and at home they
felt distrust and hatred from their neighbors to a point that Knoxville soon became untenable for many of them. Lieutenant William
Rule, on his way to be mustered out at Nashville, heard in Cincinnati
the reports of the Union triumph, and thought happily of peace and
home. But for many on the other side, it did not bring peace. Six
months later, again employed by the Whig, Rule made his final entry
in his well-worn notebooks on his Civil War experiences: "We have
heard it from reliable authority that there are three hundred families
making preparations to leave Knoxville for a more congenial climate." [ 14]
John Bell Brownlow was well and signally qualified to step into his
father's chair as the avenging spirit dedicated to the punishment of
Confederates who had gone with the South voluntarily, and who
showed no signs of penitence for their acts as secessionists. Turbulence had touched John Bell from the embryonic stage onward.
While Eliza was carrying the child and the Parson was putting in his
first year as an editor the mother was prostrated with fear and grief
when Jack and Robert Powell rode to the O'Brien Iron Works for the
purpose of physically punishing Brownlow because of his political
opposition. The young editor fought back. Shots were fired. But he
broke off and entered the house when his mother-in-law entreated
him to comfort his wife. As John Bell neared the age of ten, an
assailant cracked his father's son with a club. The family's alarm at
this misfortune just as the editor was preparing to move his newspaper to Knoxville must have made a deep impression on the boy. In
�THE PARSON'S ADVOCATE
287
1860 he killed a taunting and bullying fellow student at Emory and
Henry College. As lieutenant of the Ninth Volunteer Cavalry (Union)
Regiment he led his troops in dashing and bloody expeditions.
He had soaked up politics almost from birth, in the Parson's
household, and he had tagged along with his father to visit Tom
Nelson when the lawyer came to Knoxville to argue cases before the
sessions of the Tennessee Supreme Court. In Nelson's room at the
Mansion House the inevitable course of conversation was politics.
Important men of the times-preachers, politicians and soldiersstreamed through the hospitable Brownlow residence at what was
then 213 Cumberland Street. The large frame house, which stood
above the east bank of First Creek, more than a block west of the
present Civic Auditorium and Coliseum, constantly received visitors.
They ranged from Methodist bishops to soldier-statesmen such as the
Tennessee-Texan, flamboyant Sam Houston. Senator John Bell, one
of the state's great leaders, and a man of national renown, once
persuaded his young namesake to bring him French brandy from a
Gay Street drug store to relieve his thirst in the Parson's spiritless
house. He also learned at the family altar how preachers mingled
politics and religion. A revered Methodist preacher, and a Democrat, while visiting at the Brownlow home was invited by the Parson
to lead in the nightly worship. When the visitor prayed he petitioned
for the election of James K. Polk, a Democrat, as President. Brownlow interrupted with: "May the Lord forbid." Unabashed, the visitor
broadened his plea, asking the Almighty to remove Brownlow's Whiggery. At this the Parson interrupted: "May the good Lord forbid."
In 1855 young John Bell was thrilled by the eloquence of the
famous Whig congressman and orator, Meredith P. Gentry. His introduction to extended political stump speaking came in 1861. He
traveled with 0. P. Temple, elector for John Bell, the forlorn hope
of the southern Unionists in the fateful year when Lincoln was
elected President. As was the custom Temple stumped the Second
District, and the listening and watching youth was impressed with
the ability of his father's close friend. He found himself loathing,
perhaps it was an intensification of an established dislike, John
Crozier Ramsey, a member of the illustrious Democratic family of
Knoxville. When Temple spoke at Blaine's Cross Roads one of the
listeners was R. Barnwell Rhett. The South Carolina secessionist and
his daughter were staying at a nearby resort. Ramsey escorted them.
John Bell feared that Miss Rhett would get the impression that East
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CHAPTER NO. 16
Tennesseeans were rude, ill-mannered and repulsive, because Ramsey
"spit tobacco juice all over his shirt front," and "changed his shirts as
often as once in two weeks and bathed as often as once a month."
John Bell's recollection of Ramsey was written thirty-four years
later. [15] It may have been tinged with bitterness for as Confederate
district attorney Ramsey had signed the treason warrant against Parson Brownlow that resulted in his arrest and imprisonment.
Young Brownlow's experiences continued to broaden. He was
made lieutenant colonel of the Ninth Tennessee Cavalry Regiment in
1863 and was "cultivated" by Military Governor Johnson. The governor and the young officer, in 1863 and 1864, cozily drank whiskey
from Johnson's demijohn after the state's chief executive had locked
his office for the day. They talked politics as they drank, the governor "partaking very freely, myself sparingly." Flattered as the officer
was by this attention he realized that Johnson had some purpose in
these meetings. Years later he observed that the governor may have
expected that the Brownlows would be useful to him in his political
career after the war.
By September 1864 John Bell was truly a soldier. He spent hours
in the saddle, often with no food, and slept on the ground with one
blanket for warmth. As commanding officer of the Ninth he was
proud of his men for the resolute way that they faced their first fire
in the counties northeast of Knoxville. He had in full measure the
Brownlow trait of helping his friends by every means. In reply to a
plea by 0. P. Temple he arranged to impress teams, drivers and
wagons of farmers on the side of the Confederacy to haul 6,000
pounds of the lawyer's tobacco from his farm near Bull's Gap to the
railroad for shipment to Knoxville. He justified this operation with:
At all events I will get the property out without it costing you anything. You
have done a great deal for Uncle Sam and there is no reason why he should not
do something for you ....
Nothing can be made for our cause by attempting to conciliate rebels. The
only way to restore peace is to kill and subjugate them.
Their wagons, mules, horses, corn, oats and every aspect of property should
be made subservient to the convenience and interests of loyal men.
John had inherited his father's tendency to speak and write more
harshly than he would have acted, but he was also filled with an
accumulation of bitterness. The treatment of his father, his family,
and the thousands of Union men who had been persecuted by Con-
�THE PARSON'S ADVOCATE
289
federate authorities and Confederate c1t1zens created this feeling.
John wrote this callous report of the events surrounding the killing
of the Confederate cavalry leader, General John Hunt Morgan, in a
surprise attack by Union forces at Greeneville on September 4, 1864:
At Greeneville, Morgan's force was at least 1,600, I think more; our force was
less. Notwithstanding this we routed them completely, and I had the pleasure of
seeing the lifeless carcass of their fallen chief.
In ten minutes after he was killed, I met a sergeant with his body thrown over
the neck of his horse, with his head and face covered with blood. I pointed the
men of the 9th to the corpse, assuring them it was the veritable John Morgan.
They made the welkin ring with shouts of applause.
Lieutenant Colonel Brownlow saved for himself a souvenir of Morgan's death: "a large wooden pipe, with a splendid plaster of paris
picture of Morgan on it that was found in the room where the
Confederate general slept his last night. [ 16]
About 1912 John Bell Brownlow told a highly respected Knoxville
lawyer that his regiment and two others were stationed at Bull's Gap
with "their principal duty ... to occupy enough East Tennessee territory to enable the November election to be held and give the electoral vote of Tennessee to Lincoln and Johnson." The troops at
Bull's Gap were under the command of Colonel Alvin C. Gillem, who
had been acting adjutant general under Military Governor Johnson.
The governor had urged President Lincoln to promote Gillem to
brigadier general. The President complied but the Senate Military
Affairs Committee held up on recommending confirmation. Gillem
had never commanded troops and several hundred other colonels
who had seen combat service were favored for promotion.
A fourteen-year-old country boy, carrying home a sack of meal
from a mill, was deprived of his food by Confederate cavalrymen on
the afternoon of September 3, 1864. The boy heard the Confederates say they were going to stay in Greeneville that night. He
reported this fact to Gillem at Bull's Gap, and the colonel called a
council of his officers. They favored a surprise attack at daybreak.
Gillem didn't but he yielded to the view of his officers. Brownlow
led the attacking column; Gillem was at the rear. The Unionists
learned that Morgan was staying at the home of Mrs. Catherine
Williams on the main street of Greeneville. After Morgan was killed
Gillem rode up and Brownlow gave him the details. Using the telegraph office at Bull's Gap Gillem sent the following message to
Governor Johnson:
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CHAPTER NO. 16
Last night while at headquarters at Bull's Gap I received information that
General John H. Morgan and his command was at Greeneville. I made a forced
march, starting at midnight, surprised Morgan and his command at daylight, have
scattered his troops and they are fleeing toward Jonesboro. We killed General
Morgan and have possession of his body.
Johnson relayed the message immediately to Washington and the
next day the Senate committee reported favorably on Gillem's promotion. It was confirmed at once by the Senate. [ 17]
Early in May 1865 the Whig published an issue that was the embodiment of Brownlow fury. Father and son, with assistance from
the now President Johnson, all contributed to it. Johnson proclaimed
that the assassination of Lincoln was the result of a plot engineered
by Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederacy, and anumber of other men. He offered rewards totalling $335,000 for the
arrest of these suspects. The Tennessee General Assembly directed
Governor Brownlow to offer a reward of $5,000 for the "apprehension and delivery" of Isham G. Harris, Tennessee's governor before and during the state's secession,[18] and Brownlow elaborated
on the resolution with:
The aforesaid refugee from justice, without the authority of law, and in
violation of all law, human and Divine, was the chief instrument in thrusting
upon Tennessee this terrible rebellion, and its inumerable [sic.] evils; a rebellion
which has stormed the very citadel of order, every defense of virtue, every sanctuary of right, and every abode of decency. When those villainous but frantic
efforts were astonishing mankind with her success, as much as appaling [sic.]
them with their atrocity; when the fairest portion of this great Commonwealth
had been made hideous by the triumphs of this arch-traitor and his corrupt and
treasonable associates, and their prelusive orgies had profaned our churches, like
dastards they ingloriously fled, upon the approach of the national flag of beauty
and glory, carrying with them to the heart of treason the funds and other
valuables of this State .... Said Harris has been periodically visiting the border
counties of this State, issuing bogus proclamations, and collecting revenue, falsely pretending to be the Governor of Tennessee.
This culprit Harris is about five feet ten inches high, weights [sic.] about one
hundred and forty-five pounds, and is about fifty-five years of age. His complexion is sallow-his eyes are dark and penetrating-a perfect index to the heart of a
traitor-with the scowl and frown of a demon resting upon his brow. The study
of mischief, and the practice of crime, have brought upon him premature baldness and grey beard. With brazen-faced impudence, he talks loudly and boasting-
�THE PARSON'S ADVOCATE
291
ly about the overthrow of the Yankee army, and entertains no doubt but the
South will achieve her independence. He chews tobacco rapidly, and is inordinately fond of liquor. In his moral structure he is an unscrupulous man-steeped
to the nose and chin in personal and political profligacy-now about lost to all
sense of humor and shame-with a heart reckless of social duty and fatally bent
upon mischief.
If captured he will be found lurking in the rebel strongholds of Mississippi,
Alabama, or Georgia, and in female society, alleging with the sheep-faced modesty of a virtuous man, that it is not a wholesome state of public sentiment, or
of taste, that forbids an indiscriminate mixing together of married man and
women. If captured the fugitive must be delivered to me alive, to the end that
justice may be done upon him here, upon the theatre of his former villainous
deeds! (Whig, May 10, 1865).
Young John's contribution to this inflammatory page of the Whig
was a suggestion that returning East Tennesseeans, who had been
militant secessionists, should not be permitted to return to their old
homes to live. He cited the example of Robert C. West, a former
slave dealer. West had accumulated wealth in his field, and according
to John Bell, observed with "much pleasure" the hanging of Union
men near Knoxville, and had "knocked down and cruelly beat with a
club Isham Alley, a feeble man, sixty-five years of age." West fled
before the Union forces arrived in Knoxville, but had returned.
Alley, taking his turn, assaulted his tormentor with such vigor that he
cracked West's skull. To those who demanded the prosecution of
Alley, the Whig replied that it approved of his course in assaulting
West, predicted that he would never see the penitentiary, and hinted
that there were a number of men in the area "who have no more
right to live here than Jeff Davis." The young editor's second target
was Robert M. Barton, a former Circuit Court judge who also had
been a member of the 1861 legislature. John held that that body was
responsible for "widows and orphans ... being dispersed throughout
East Tennessee." The Whig recalled that the judge "openly declared
that Union men should not be permitted to live in East Tennessee,"
and had approved extreme punishment of the loyalists, including
their killing. John Bell stamped the editorial with this suggestion to
his old troopers:
A few days since Judge Barton returned to his home in Jefferson County, in
the midst of a loyal community, nearly every young man of which served under
us in the gallant 9th Tennessee Cavalry. If be is permitted to live within the
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CHAPTER NO. 16
territory of the United States, there ought to be a general amnesty to traitors.
There is not a penitentiary in the United States that does not contain better men
than Judge Barton (Ibid.).
The Brownlow legislature faced a task unique in the history of the
state. It had to rebuild the political, economic, and social structure
from the ruins left by war. The executive, legislative, and judicial
functions of the state had fallen into chaos except for such caretaking measures as had been taken by Military Governor Johnson. The
state treasury arid records were gone, carried off when the Harris
administration and the General Assembly of 1861 had fled from
Nashville. Communication and transportation had been disrupted.
These facilities had been used by the military forces. Fields had been
torn and ravaged by the conflicting armies, provisions seized, and
stock driven off or confiscated. Financial institutions had been crippled or ruined. Many citizens, especially the old, the women, and the
children, were left helpless and destitute. Churches had entered into
the fray with ministers taking sides and congregations dividing,
especially in East Tennessee. Because classroom doors had been
closed for four years, large numbers of a generation moving toward
adulthood were in a state bordering on illiteracy. The unshackled
slaves groped in unfamiliar freedom for which they had not been
prepared. They were puzzled and confused, anchorless unless they
worked out a new arrangement with their old masters. The white
population of East Tennessee was racked by divisions and hatreds,
the fruits of occupation by both Confederate and Union armies with
the accompanying advantages taken by civilians for reprisal and gain.
In this rugged, mountainous region of the state not only were secessionists and Unionists filled with hatred toward each other, but the
loyalists also were split. The Radicals demanded retribution, proscription, and vengeance. The Conservatives proposed tolerance to
those who had gone with the South, and the restoration of their
former right and privileges. [ 19]
The composition of the Brownlow legislature represented the
power that had been seized by the Radicals. Its members were overwhelmingly from the ranks of the old Whig Party. They were loyalists; a majority were farmers or planters, and fifteen were lawyers,
eight of whom were in the Senate. Six of the legislators had become
refugees during the war because of their Union convictions, eight had
suffered imprisonment by the Confederates, and twenty-three had
seen military service. Very few of these men were seasoned legis-
�THE PARSON'S ADVOCATE
293
lators. Yet they included some men of considerable talent, although
they sorely lacked the professionalism of the prewar assemblies. The
substantial leavening of men who had served in the Union army or
who had been imprisoned or arrested, showed that here was a group
of men inclined to view with hostility any move to conciliate secessionists. [20] The assassination of President Lincoln by john Wilkes
Booth on April 15, 1865, could only have inflamed this hostility.
The members of the assembly condemned those responsible for the
deed and laid emphasis on the martyred President's "humanity,"[21] a theme upon which the Whig elaborated:
We believe that history will pronounce Mr. Lincoln to have been an eminently
honest and merciful man. No expression of harshness, or of personal ill-feeling,
can be found in all his voluminous public writings. How marked the contrast
with the writings of Mr. Davis, or even of General Lee. The messages of Davis
abounded in falsehoods and malignant slanders. It is true Mr. Lincoln sometimes
exercised powers that, in time of peace, would have been of doubtful constitutionality. But he did so on all occasions to preserve the Government, and not to
destroy it. We justify him in nearly all he did. There was nothing of the tyrant or
usurper about him. As a man and as a ruler he was generous, merciful, conscientious, and forgiving, almost to a fault. It is reported that he had already
prepared a proclamation offering amnesty to all rebels. Whether the rebels will
have cause to rejoice over or mourn his untimely end will be seen in the future
(Whig, April 19, 1865).
The President's death produced a large amount of news in the Whig,
along with the traditional turning of the printers' rules to bordering
the columns with heavy, black lines. Ironically, the Whig's first reference to Lincoln, an oblique one which did not mention his name,
was a delighted comment by the Parson in 1846: "Our old Locofoco
brother, Parson Peter Cartwright, was beaten by a Whig for Congress,
in Illinois, by 1,500 votes." The Whig was Lincoln. [22]
Several bills of an intensely spiteful nature were introduced in the
assembly but failed to pass. One would have prohibited returning
Confederates from wearing their uniforms, possibly the only clothing
they had. Another would have stripped ministers who had been
secessionists of some of their traditional privileges in the performance of rites, such as marriages. None of these had the support of the
governor or of his newspaper. Brownlow's recommendations in the
field of law enforcement, however, were followed with the enactment of measures providing capital punishment for guerillas, robbers,
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CHAPTER NO. 16
armed prowlers, horse thieves, housebreakers, burglars, and house
and bridge burners. Sheriffs were given additional power to maintain
posses, which could consist only of men of established loyalty. [23]
The bill upon which the Radicals and the governor placed the most
importance, and which was fought vigorously in the House before it
was enacted, stripped almost all of the returned Confederate soldiers
and southern sympathizers of the franchise. The only exceptions
were of Union men who had been conscripted. It also eliminated
many Conservative Unionists. The measure, in disfranchising Confederates, also built what was considered a base for the continuation of
Radical power. The governor expressed pleasure at the passage of
the franchise measure, but he was distressed because representatives
from Hawkins, Hancock, Cocke, Knox, Monroe, Hamilton, and
McMinn counties voted against it. Among these was Speaker William
Heiskell, who had been one of Brownlow's Treasury Department
aides. In his enthusiasm to report the passage of the bill and to
condemn East Tennessee representatives who voted against it, John
Bell published two separate roll calls, one immediately below the
other, with different tallies. The young editor meant to eliminate one
item, but somewhere along the lines the purpose was not accomplished. [24] This type of error still appears in modern newspapers,
much to the chagrin of executives.
The governor had other triumphs to celebrate. Near Augusta,
Georgia, the Union army had captured archives of the Confederate
legislature and $600,000 in state funds. When the captured property
was returned to Nashville, Brownlow and his secretary of state, Andrew
J. Fletcher, proudly rode from the railroad depot to the capitol on the
wagon carrying these items. On one of the boxes of archives sat "the
plainly but decorously garbed Governor, holding a gold-headed cane,
and looking placidly on the caskets of coin which were his footstool." The seizure also included the letters which exposed the
treachery of C. W. Charlton, the postmaster at Knoxville, who had
intercepted and read Brownlow's mail preceding Tennessee's secession (Whig, June 7, 1865).
An editorial feat by the Whig was the publication of a letter from
"A Candid Rebel," J. C. Gallaher, a former Knoxvillian who became
a major in the Confederate army, lost an arm at Vicksburg, was
captured and later exchanged. The letter, addressed to Governor
Brownlow, expressed indignation at secession leaders who had urged
their countrymen into war, but remained at home, holding civil
�THE PARSON'S ADVOCATE
295
office and obtaining contracts[25] by which
they might swindle soldiers and soldiers' families, and even rob the infant Government of its swaddling clothes .... 'Twas they who declared that if the South
seceded, Union men could not live in East Tennessee. And it was they who first
bowed obsequiously [sic.] to Federal masters, and now, sycophants like, ask to
be taken into full Federal communion. And in great agony do they writhe under
the disfranchisement of the Legislature. I think myself, that, the Union party,
and the Legislature particularly (if it is their purpose to conciliate and reconcile
the discordant elements, and establish that harmony which once did and ought
exist) might, to facilitate these ends, have with profit acted with more magnimity [sic.]. But an act most just in all its bearings, and under the circumstances, could not have been conceived of. I, sir, for one, together with all other
Southern men of Tennessee, if we had succeeded, would have favored the passage of such laws that would have forever precluded from citizenship men who
left their homes and took up arms against us. And I cannot reprobate in others
what I would have considered just in myself (Whig, June 28, 1865).
Major Gallaher's position was an isolated one but it lent point to the
Whig's policy. The great mass of secessionists wanted to recover the
franchise in the state which four years earlier had tried, with force of
arms, to detach itself from the United States. Strong voices, although
in the minority, spoke for them in the assembly, especially in the
House. There a determined, but unsuccessful effort was made to
enact only moderate restrictions on the exercise of the franchise by
former Confederates. Opposing this common position of the Conservative Unionists and the defeated Secessionists were the Radical
Unionists, headed by the governor. Thus were the lines drawn in one
of Tennessee's bitterest political struggles. At the voter level the
Radicals were a minority, when compared with the unrestored Secessionists and the Conservatives. They may have been outnumbered by
the latter. [26] But the Radicals held the political power of the state
government, and they did not propose to release it, a condition
almost the invariable rule in public affairs.
The first test came on August 3, 1865, with the election of eight
members to the United States Congress. At stake was the validity of
the franchise law, of public opinion of the Brownlow administration,
and the position on loyalty of the congressmen to be elected. If the
delegation lacked men of unquestioned Unionism their seating might
be in jeopardy. The legislature had elected Joseph Smith Fowler and
Patterson of Greene County to the United States Senate. The latter
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CHAPTER NO. 16
was the son-in-law of President Johnson.[27]
Some Conservatives were reported to be planning to ignore the
new constitution and elect a new governor and legislature under the
constitution of 1834. This would permit all white citizens twentyone years of age to vote. The report of this move brought quick
denunciation from the Parson, who had returned to Knoxville and
was writing editorials under the signature of the "Senior Editor."
Such a step, the governor wrote, would produce "armed rebellion,
civil war, personal violence, and a general disturbance of the peace."
Further, any such effort "will be treated as rebellion." Brownlow
also resorted to one of his traditional positions. He praised the country people for their loyalty and described the towns as centers for
rebellious talk. He also revived the story of the firing from a train
load of Confederate soldiers on a Union meeting at Strawberry Plains
in 1861. [28] By proclamation he called attention to the rigid provisions of the franchise law and demanded that civil authorities
"arrest and bring to justice all persons who, under the pretense of
being candidates for Congress, or other office, are traveling over the
State denouncing and nullifying the constitution and the laws of the
land, and spreading sedition and a spirit of rebellion." He supplemented the proclamation with an "Address to the People of Tennessee," in which he charged that even "disfranchised rebels" were being
elected to office, and launched into a defense of the "validity and
constitutionality" 'of the state government. The military forces of the
United States, he wrote, had won the war on the battlefield, but
Washington had placed a civilian, Andrew Johnson, in the governor's
seat. When the war was ended the governor, acting under authority
from the United States, had shaped and fostered the new state constitution. This the federal government had full right to do, and the
convention which adopted the basic charter for the state a few
months earlier "was the initiatory means chosen by the National
Administration through its civil agent." Perhaps the constitution was
dictated, [29] Brownlow acknowledged:
Certain it was forced upon the rebelhous [sic.) majority of the State. So was the
authority of the United States forced upon them, and at the point of the
bayonet, and just so the nation had a right to force upon them a republican form
of Government, for nothing but force is recognized by the ....
Finally, it is said that the law is harsh and wanting in magnanimity. By law,
the crime of the disfranchised is treason, and the punishment death and confiscation of property. All this is waved [sic.] and it is said to be cruel to refuse them
�THE PARSON'S ADVOCATE
297
the privilege of voting for a few years. Magnanimity requires that they should go
to the ballot box and with bloody hands deposit their ballots, and by force of
numbers seize the reigns of the government they have tried to destroyelevate their baffled leaders to power-renew their persecutions of Union men,
and at last have the victory in the State (Ibid., july 19, 1865).
The election returns disconcerted the Brownlow organization.
Only three unquestionable Radicals were elected. They were Horace
Maynard of the Second District, W. B. Stokes of the Third and Isaac
Hawkins of the Sixth. Hawkins' position was not entirely clear because he had not expressed it in detail. Nathaniel G. Taylor, elected
from the First, was somewhere between a lukewarm Radical and a
moderate Conservative. He was not a Brownlow man, for the Parson
had criticized him sharply when his name was mentioned for the
United States Senate in opposition to Maynard. The Parson accused
Taylor of having made a substantial profit in funds raised for the
destitute of East Tennessee, and of having gone over to the South in
1862. In the remaining four districts men of Conservative bent were
elected. Dorsey B. Thomas defeated Samuel R. Arnell, Radical leader
in the lower house of the Brownlow assembly, who had sponsored
and pressed to passage the franchise law. The vote was Thomas,
2,805; Arnell, 2,350. On the basis of reports furnished to the governor on his demand there was some evidence of misunderstanding or
outright violation of the law in the district. He threw out the votes of
five counties. This made Arnell the winner, 1,546 to 521. Brownlow's policy was inconsistent. In some counties where reports were
inadequate or violations were cited he accepted the returns, in others
he did not; in another where violations were reported he let the vote
stand, as he also did in some counties which made no reports. Inconsistent or not, the governor accomplished the practical purpose of
giving a faithful, demonstrated Radical a certification of election
that entitled him to a seat in the United States Congress. This gave
the Radicals four members of their party in the delegation that
sought admission to Congress. Taylor turned out to be a Conservative. [ 30}
The Parson returned to Knoxville late in the summer of 1865 to
find East Tennessee plagued by threats and violence. Black Union
soldiers had killed two white cavalrymen of East Tennessee units.
One of the victims was from the Ninth, John Bell's old regiment
(Whig, August 30, 1865). The Whig deplored
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CHAPTER NO. 16
any war upon the colored troops because they are in uniform with guns on their
shoulders .... But we are opposed to the freedom with which they use their
bayonets and level their muskets at white men (Ibid.).
Former Confederates complained bitterly that they were not being
given equal protection under the law. A threatening letter signed
"Many Rebels" had been sent to Circuit Judge E. T. Hall, Attorney
General David K. Young, and Sheriff Marcus D. Bearden, all Unionists. [ 31] Unless the one-sided state of law enforcement was corrected, the signers warned:
We, many so-called rebels, will take the law into our own hands, and avenge the
outrages committed upon our friends, by dealing summarily with the perpetrators and officials ....
We are hunted down and driven from our homes, not by the authorities, but
by the vulgar, cowardly and unprincipled men who never placed themselves in
danger where other men had an equal chance, and you have never tried to
suppress it, but we will suppress it, if we have to suppress their worthless lives
(Whig, September 13, 1865).
The governor, in the role of "Senior Editor," responded in characteristic style. He had just returned from Greeneville where he had visited the oak where Fry and Hensie were hanged
upon a false and groundless charge of bridge burning. They were buried in a
common grave just under the tree. And it is that class of murderers, hanging such
men, and leaving their widows and orphans to mourn the loss of that we are now
called upon to treat with leniency! (Whig, August 30, 1865).
In an adjoining column the editor acknowledged many complaints of
personal intimidation, torture and death, especially in East Tennessee. They were lodged chiefly by "Union men and rebels whose
relatives are the sufferers." Indiscriminate flogging should be stopped
and disputes taken to the courts, the Parson advised:
Quiet and peaceable rebels, who never oppressed loyal men, never persecuted
them, and never participated in their arrest and imprisonment, and who are
behaving themselves, ought to be let alone, and even protected. Rebel soldiers
and citizens, who have taken the oath, and are living up to it, trying to obey the
laws and make good citizens, ought not to be disturbed, and are entitled to
protection. Rebels during the rebellion, who were kind to loyal men and their
families-and there were many such in East Tennessee-rebels who actually
assisted loyal men to escape from the conscript officers, and treated their fam-
�THE PARSON'S ADVOCATE
299
ilies kindly in their absence, should not be ill-treated for simply having been in
the rebellion (Ibid.).
This editorial, entitled "Shooting and Hanging Men," then launched
into a description of several classes of rebels for whom the Parson
could ask no favors. He included the men responsible for the conscript laws which led thousands to flee across the Cumberland Mountains, the military officers who pursued and captured them, and
treated them harshly; those who sat on court-martials; the Confederates who flogged and beat Union men; those who strung up loyalist
women in an effort to wring from them information of their husbands, brothers and sons; and those who confiscated provisions of
the farmers and burned their homes or buildings; informers who
pointed out loyal men and were the instruments through which they
were sent to prison and sometimes to their deaths; and the applauding spectators at the hanging of Union men. Brownlow could have
expanded this gruesome category, but having paused he added significantly:
The natural protectors of these families have, in part, returned after having
served in the Union army for three years, and they know the guilty parties. Does
anyone in his sober senses suppose they can escape killing, or such a beating as
will disable them for life? If they are acting under this delusion, their erroneous
notions will be corrected by the development of time!
To these "active leading rebels and bad men" in East Tennessee the
editor offered blunt advice: go elsewhere. He suggested moderation,
if not silence, for those who had been complaining of their treatment. The Knoxville Brownlows, father and son, had been threatened with assassination, as had Judge Hall, Attorney General Young
and Sheriff Bearden, along with other leading Unionists. If the rebellious element wanted another war, "they can have it, and have it to
their heart's content." The legislature had given sheriffs additional
power to swear in posses, and Adjutant General James P. Brownlow,
at the order of the governor, was in Washington applying for arms for
the state. Federal forces were leaving Tennessee, and the state was
expected to look after its own affairs. So far as the governor-editor
was concerned "no threats from any quarter can intimidate me, or
cause me to join in the outcry against what is maliciously styled an
'East Tennessee Mob.' "
The Parson decided it was an appropriate time to publish a copy
of the warrant upon which he was arrested in 1861, and to condemn
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CHAPTER NO. 16
as outrageous the plans of some returning Confederates to try to
regain through the courts their confiscated properties. He also favored reverse litigation, such as the action in which the heirs of Sam
Pickens, former state senator from Sevier County, had obtained judgment for $10,000 against W. H. Sneed, John H. Crozier and R. B.
Reynolds, the latter Confederate Court commissioner, for persecution and death of Pickens in prison. As Pickens was being marched
away to prison, according to the Parson, Sneed snarled that the
punishment was inadequate, "God d-n him, he ought to be hung
[sic.] and quartered., Brownlow had obtained judgment for $25,000
in Circuit Court against the same three men, and he urged more suits
of this nature. [32]
A stickler for fine points in classifying violence, the governor drew
a distinction "between men who are resenting injuries done to them
and their families, and bands of robbers who seek to live without
work." He had plenty of material to sort, but most of it went into
one basket. A justice of the peace near Bristol, while acting in his
official capacity, had been beaten by a band of "Virginia rebels." In
Blount County Union men had the upper hand and were using it. To
them he suggested that rebels who were the target of what he called
justified retribution for their "high-handed" course when Confederate units were scouring the country, should leave and "stay away
until these men who were driven out of the country, and had their
families all robbed, die of old age." He loosed a shaft at rebel
women. He blamed them for creating moral decay as well as rebellion, and summed up with: "The devil is unchained and the women
are taking advantage of his 'loose reign.' "
Murder, compounded by a lynching, erupted at the Knox County
Courthouse, as the Brownlows crowded the pages of the Whig with
tirades. The killing arose from a grudge between a Union and a
Confederate soldier, Will Hall of the Second Tennessee Cavalry (U.S.)
and Abner Baker, who had served three years in the Confederate
forces. Hall, a nephew of Judge E. T. Hall, apparently was bitter at
Baker because the latter had once drawn a pistol on him to halt a
dispute that the Unionist was having with a secessionist. An encounter occurred at the clerk's office. As they met, Hall must have
believed he saw Baker draw his revolver. Hall broke his cane upon
Baker, the two grappled and the southerner put a bullet through
Hall's head. Baker was arrested immediately and jailed. Authorities,
including Judge Hall, urged calm. Their pleas were unavailing, for
�THE PARSON'S ADVOCATE
301
that night a thousand or more men stormed the jail and hanged
Baker to a tree in the jail yard. Sheriff Bearden and the jailer, the
only officers available to resist the mob, were powerless. Brownlow,
in his capacity as governor, called on the sheriff to double his guard,
and acknowledged criticism with this bristling observation:
There are those in town, who are perfectly shocked at these outrages, and are
asking why the Governor does not interfere? The Governor is here and regrets
that men who served in the rebel army for more than three years, are parading
the streets loaded down to the guards with revolvers, swearing they have been
overpowered but not convinced! The Governor regrets that Union men are shot
down by them, and that their friends in tum, are hanging them in violation of
law. The Governor is as powerless as any other citizen, in all such cases. The
Governor is not so much horrified as many others. He was shocked four years
ago when innocent Union men were taken from his side, out of the jail, two at a
time, and hung [sic.] by the other party, and the she-devils threw up their white
handkerchiefs in approbation! The Governor may have been a little used to
scenes of this kind, and not feel as deeply as he ought on this solemn occasion.[33]
Supporters of the Confederacy, and perhaps some others, found
double reason to be horrified over the lynching. The victim's father,
Dr. James Harvey Baker, was killed by Union raiders on June 19,
1863. The accounts, as usual, were conflicting. The secessionist newspaper in Knoxville, the Southern Chronicle, described the "Murder
of Dr. H. Baker by the renegades and Yankees in their late raid," as
"the assassination of this high-toned and chivalrous gentleman," as
"one of the most cold-blooded and diabolical acts that has come to
our knowledge during the war." The Whig reported that Dr. Baker
and other rebels fired on the federal troops, drawing return fire that
killed the doctor. The killing took place at the Baker home on Kingston Pike west of Knoxville. [ 34]
The outcry against the lynching must have been strong and persistent for the Whig in its second issue after the hanging carried an
uncharacteristic proposal to "look at both sides of the question."
The newspaper repeated its opposition to mob law, but reviewed
again the severe treatment of Union men in jail four years earlier, but
with this repetitive barb:
The leading rebels could have prevented all this, and liberated these men, but
believing their punishment just, they refused to turn a hand in their favor.
Their love of civil law was not then as great as it is now.
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The governor and his newspaper thus outlined their position that
enforcement of what the Confederates considered law and order
under their administration was bogus. Brownlow held that the
South's government was an illegal one, an outlaw organization, and
to defy it or to burn its bridges did not constitute a violation of law
but was a demonstration of supreme loyalty. All repression of Union
supporters and sympathizers was illegal as well as unjust. He threaded
this theme with more accounts of the brutal treatment of Union men
crowded into the squalid jail at Knoxville and of tortures and whippings outside. Five times the editorial recounted separate acts of
repression and punishment. At the conclusion of each, Brownlow
hammered down with a sentence that Confederate officials then had
lacked the keen sense of justice that now moved them. He touched
upon an incident that was gall to him, the efforts of his captors to
persuade doomed men to purchase their lives by falsely stating that
he and other Union leaders had had a hand in the bridge burning. He
capped this recital of an old agony with this fourth chorus:
All this could have been prevented by the leading rebels of East Tennessee, but
they were not then afflicted with a sense of justice, or they had not fallen in love
with the law and courts of this country (Whig, September 13, 1865).
The Whig put the responsibility for law enforcement upon local
officials. This could mean only that local sentiment would determine
the course of justice, a concept that would vary considerably between the mountain counties of East Tennessee and the planter
dominated areas of Middle and West Tennessee. The editor recognized this in the following forecast of trouble under two-way justice:
Rebel juries will not give Union men justice, nor will they convict rebel outlaws
for any offense, no matter what the testimony may be. Letters come to the
Executive Department at Nashville every day, complaining that no relief can be had
for Union men from rebel juries. Poor women whose husbands were imprisoned
and murdered are told by lawyers that the war is now over, and old matters
must not be revived. In Middle and West Tennessee the rebels are in the majority,
and they have the money and property to enable them to pay out, and they will
do it, from the indications we have. Not so in East Tennessee-the Union men are
the controlling power, and they do not intend it shall be otherwise. They will
not suffer any class of men on earth to run over them, or deprive them of their
rights. They have learned by the rebellion what confidence to place in rebels, and
in future they will not only assert a "higher law" when imposed upon, but in the
language of the Bible they "will be a law unto themselves" (Whig, September 20,
1865).
�THE PARSON'S ADVOCATE
303
As Tennessee was racked by Reconstruction pains, the Whig
chronicled the death of William L. Yancey of Montgomery, Alabama.
Yancey had met Brownlow and other Unionists in a confrontation in
1860 on the issue of loyalty to the Union. Yancey, who served in the
Confederate Congress, had turned upon President Davis, and in a
violent argument with another member was knocked across a desk
and suffered injuries that led to his death a year later. The Whig
printed an account of his death, noted that the news of the fight in
the Confederate Congress had been kept secret for months, but did
so without a word of reproach or condemnation for Yancey's course
(Whig, October 4, 1865). The Whig was too busy with living foes to
spend time on dead ones, as it had years earlier when Andrew Jackson died.
CHAPTER XVI NOTES
[
[
[
[
1] An attempt to hold a state election in the fall of 1863 was disrupted by
the defeat of General Rosecrans at Chattanooga, and another effort calling
for the election of county officers on March 5, 1864, resulted in disorder
and confusion in most counties. Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp.
37-42; Coulter, pp. 258-259; White, Messages, V, pp. 377-383. Knox
County elected a full slate of Union Officials, but the vote was less than
half that usually cast. Whig, March 12, 1864; Temple, Notable Men, p.
407; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, p. 45; Coulter, p. 259; Whig,
April23, 1864.
2] Temple, Notable Men, pp. 407-409; John Bell Brownlow to Temple,
March 9, 1891, Temple Papers; Whig, April23, 1864.
3) Ibid., June 11, 18, 25, 1864; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp.
45-46.
4) Temple, Notable Men, pp. 165, 408; Alexander, Thomas A. R. Nelson, p.
115; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, p. 46; Whig, August 17, 24,
31, September 21, 28, October 12, 26, November 5, 1864; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp. 46-47; Temple, Notable Men, pp. 413-414;
White, Messages, V, pp. 384-386; Alexander, Thomas A. R. Nelson, p. 117;
Whig, November 5, 1864.
5) Folmbsee, eta!., Short History, p. 345; White, Messages, V, p. 386; Patton,
Unionism and Reconstruction, p. 48. The reported vote in these counties
was Knox, 2,537; Anderson, 760; Bradley, 1,024; Campbell, 649; Roane,
900; McMinn, 1,000; Greene, 800; Sevier, 1,174; Blount, 1,225; and
Morgan, 250, round figures suggesting these were estimates. Whig, November 11, 13, 16, 23, 30, 1864; Folmsbee, et al., Short History, p. 338.
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[ 6] Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, p. 403; Parson Brownlow's
Book, p. 270; 0. R., II, 1, Wood to Benjamin, November 20, 1861, Benjamin to Wood, November 25, 1861, pp. 845, 847-848; Temple, Notable
Men, pp. 19, 53; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp. 340-341;
Temple, Notable Men, pp. 79-80, 114-115; Parson Brownlow's Book, pp.
139-140; Whig, November 16, 1864.
[ 7] Ibid., December 7, 1864; Folmsbee et al., Short History, pp. 338-339;
Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp. 48-49; Whig, December 30,
1864, January 25, 1865.
[ 8] Temple wrote that the method employed to get Tennessee back as a state
in the union was "the most irregular that could have been chosen," and
that "the instrument adopted was always a source of discontent to many
loyal people of the state." He criticized Johnson for his part in taking the
short cuts but did not censure Brownlow for acquiescing in them. Temple,
Notable Men, pp. 409-411. See also Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction,
p. 49; Alexander, T. A. R. Nelson, pp. 118-119; Folmsbee, et al., Short
History, pp. 346-347; White, Messages, V, pp. 386-389.
[ 9] Whig, january 25, 1865. The vote is given as 28,865 to 67 in White,
Messages, V, p. 389, and as 25,293 to 48 in a much earlier work. Charles
A. Miller, The Official and Political Manual of the State of Tennessee
(Nashville, 1890), p. 48; White, Messages, V, p. 369; Alexander, T. A. R.
Nelson, p. 120, 119; Whig, February 15, 22, 1865.
[10] Ibid., March 1, 8, 15, 1865; House journal of the First Session of the
General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, 1865 (Nashville, 1866), pp.
15-16. House and Senate journals do not give numbers for this session
which is generally known as the "Brownlow Legislature." Names of the
members are given in White, Messages, V, pp. 432-436; House journal,
1865, pp. 228-229, and Senate journal, 1865, pp. 195-196; Whig, March
1, 15, 1865; House journal, Brownlow Legislature, pp. 3-5, 15-16.
[11] Whig, February 15, 22, March 1, 8, 15, 29, 1865. The partnership included
W. G. Brownlow, john Bell Brownlow and Tilghman Haws. The son's role
as a partner was implied but not spelled out until the partnership was
limited to the elder Brownlow and Haws. Ibid., February 20, 1867.
[12] Ibid., May 17, 1865; Tennesseeans in the Civil War, p. 343. The cost of
labor and newsprint doubled after publication of the Whig was resumed,
the weekly bill for the latter reaching $240. But the Parson purchased a
new steam-operated press, and by the following August his advertising
volume required sixteen of the Whig's twenty-four columns. The telegraphic bills were so high that the editor paid for them from his pocket,
rather than from newspaper revenues. The price of newsprint went from
$8.00 a ream to $11.00 in five months, and the Whig raised the old annual
subscription rate of $2.00 to $3.00, early in 1865. Whig, May 13, june 4,
August 24, October 12, 1864, February 1, july 5, 12, 19, 1865.
[13] Ibid., April 12, 1865. Major General George H. Thomas headed the military group.
[14] Entries for April 10, 27, December 3, 1865, in the Civil War diary of
Lieutenant William Rule, adjutant of the Sixth Tennessee Infantry,
�THE PARSON'S ADVOCATE
[151
[16]
[17]
[18)
[19]
[20]
[21)
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
[271
305
unclassified. Rule Papers. Father Abram Ryan, Roman Catholic priest and
militant secessionist, wrote from Knoxville that the town "is worse in
scenes of blood and violence than ever Nashville was. Scarcely a day passes
that is not signalized by some murder or other crime .... All decent
people are leaving as rapidly as they can. No one can live here safe and
secure that does not swear by Brownlow." Ryan to Mr. and Mrs. McCrissy, Clarksville, August 12, 1865. Manuscript Division Tennessee State
Library and Archives.
John Bell Brownlow to Temple, January 31, 1894, February 5, 1891.
Temple Papers. Letter from John Bell Brownlow to Knoxville Tribune,
August 16, 1896. Unclassified memorandum. Rule Papers. John Bell
Brownlow to Temple, January 24, 1891. Temple Papers. Temple, Notable
Men, pp.17-18, fn 17.
John Bell Brownlow to Temple, February 16, 1892. Temple Papers. Ibid.,
September 9, 1864 (two letters), September 18, 1864.
Memorandum prepared by W. T. Kennerly, Knoxville lawyer with a bent
for history, after an interview with John Bell Brownlow. Special Collections, University of Tennessee. A member of the Seventh Ohio Volunteer
Cavalry, writing from Knoxville, noted, "There is a son of Brownlow here
who is a Lieut. Co. of the Ninth East Tenn. Cavalry. He takes pains to
inform every one that Parson Brownlow is his father." Landon Crabb to
"My Dear Mother," October 15, 1863. Letter personal property of this
writer.
Governor Brownlow's Message to the legislature. Whig, May 10, 1865;
Alexander, Political Reconstruction, pp. 72-73.
Ibid., pp. 44-66; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp. 71-74,95-96,
100-101; Humes, The Loyal Mountaineers, pp. 301-331; Temple, Notable
Men, p. 323; Folmsbee et al., Short History, pp. 352-353.
Thumbnail sketches of members of the Senate and House were first published in the Nashville Times and then in the Whig, April 12, 26, 1865. For
appraisals of assembly members see Alexander, Political Reconstruction,
pp. 69-71; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp. 88-89; Folmsbee et
al., Short History, p. 363; White, Messages, V, p. 398.
Whig, April19, 26, 1865.
Ibid., April 19, 1865. Marginal note by John Bell Brownlow, ibid., September 16, 1846.
Alexander, Political Reconstruction, p. 73; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp. 92-93; White, Messages, V, pp. 427-429.
Alexander, Political Reconstruction, pp. 7 3-76; Patton, Unionism andReconstruction, pp. 97·102; White, Messages, V, pp. 428-438; Whig, June 7,
1865.
Ibid., June 28, 1865. For Gallaher's service record see Tennesseeans in the
Civil War, I, pp. 302-303, II, p. 164.
Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp. 97-101; Alexander, Political
Reconstruction, pp. 74-75; White, Messages, V, pp. 430-435.
Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, p. 107, 204; Alexander, Political
Reconstruction, pp. 76-77; Whig, May 10, 1865.
�306
CHAPTER NO. 16
[28] Ibid., June 28, July 12, 18, June 28, July 5, 1865; Patton, Unionism and
Reconstruction, pp. 109-110.
[29] Whig, July 12, 1865. Brownlow was dubbed "Old Proc" because of the
many proclamations he issued. White, Messages, V, fn p. 444. The Parson
did not mention that as military governor of Tennessee, Johnson held the
rank of brigadier general.
[ 30] Alexander, Political Reconstruction, pp. 79-92; Patton, Unionism andReconstruction, pp. 110-114; White, Messages, V, pp. 450-451. See Brownlow's statement on throwing out the votes, Whig, November 29, 1865; his
denunciation of Taylor, ibid., March 16, 1865.
[ 31] Reference to the threatening letter is in ibid., August 30, 1865, the text
was printed, ibid., September 13, 1865.
[32] Ibid., August 30, 1865. Horace Foster of Blount County was awarded
judgment for $25,000 against eight men whom he accused of instigating
the seizure of his farm products, shooting him and forcing him to walk
bleeding through a creek in water up to his armpits. Ibid., March 1, 1865.
[ 33] Ibid., September 6, 1865. The editorial on the killing of Hall and the
hanging of Baker, although referring to the governor in the third person,
undoubtedly was written by the Parson.
[34] Katherine Baker Johnson, typewritten manuscipt, comp., "Odds and Ends
of Family History," (1944) two vols., V, 1, pp. 54, 58, McClung Collection; Southern Chronicle, June 28, 1863; Whig, November 11, 1863.
�Brownlow's Knoxville Whig
"Yielding up the other cheek/Dropping humbly
on the knees; Closing lips when dared to speak/Will
not do in times like these."
Chapter No. 17
THE PAINS OF RECONSTRUCTION
The first General Assembly of Tennessee under Governor Brownlow dealt only with the most pressing matters. When the adjourned
session met at Nashville on October 2, 1865, the governor submitted
a comprehensive message. He recommended legislation to: 1) stimulate immigration from Germany, Switzerland and the northern states
to help in the rebuilding of Tennessee. 2) A thorough investigation of
the defunct Bank of Tennessee and vigorous efforts to collect its
assets. A total of $446,719.20 in gold and silver had been recovered
and invested in United States bonds that yielded annual interest of
$45,135.25. 3) The replenishing of the gutted school fund by any
further resources to be found. 4) Development of ways and means to
meet state debt payments of $1,213,719.66, and of interest on the
railroad bonds amounting to $3,768,509. 5) Ways to help the railroads complete the work of renovation, now well under way. 6)
Financing of repairs on the state-owned Hermitage, neglected during
the war. 7) Investigation of the state penal system and facilities. 8)
Relief for tax-burdened owners of real estate to avoid its concentration in the hands of a "monied aristocracy." 9) A confiscatory tax
on alcoholic beverages. [ 1]
The governor's greatest concern was what to do about the freed
slaves, a subject that raised emotional as well as economic and political problems. The Parson's complete turnabout on the slavery issue
was a rending experience for him. He changed from being a vociferous advocate of slavery to the rejection of this view, if such was
307
�308
CHAPTER NO. 17
necessary to save the Union. Finally, he accepted and endorsed
emancipation. When he had made this complete reversal, he denounced slavery as the curse of the southern states and said that the
South's obsession with it was the underlying cause of secession. A
personal experience probably entered into his thinking. He revealed
it as he wrote an extended piece, "The Negro Question Again." This
piece was a denunciation of the freed slaves who were flocking into
the towns as idle, insolent, averse to work, and expecting the Government to provide for their needs. He said black soldiers not only
lacked discipline but displayed great arrogance toward white people.
This had reached such an extent that in East Tennessee, where a
majority of the population viewed blacks with dislike and distaste, a
collision was building. [2] Some time earlier, the governor recalled,
two black soldiers
in full uniform ... upon a narrow sidewalk in this city [Knoxville] knocked the
writer of this article into the gutter, throwing him upon his hands and knees. He
was trying to get out of their way, and they saw it, but being feeble and leaning
upon a staff, he moved too slow [sic. ] for their idea of progress. I made no
complaint, but concluded that these colored ruffians had not learned to respect
the uniform of the army, and I went my way, not rejoicing-but feeling ... that
I was worsted by the outcome, which I had not brought about but sought to
prevent. Soldiers and officers, wearing the Federal uniform ought all to be
gentlemen ... but the only two colored soldiers I ever encountered did not prove
to be of that stripe. I have no wish to try them again-I might light upon others
less refined who would run me through with the bayonet! (Whig, September 27,
1845).
Throughout the years the Parson had shown callousness and contempt for the black man as a race. [3J Surely this mortifying experience was in his mind as he wrestled with the question of extending
the franchise to this suddenly liberated and uneducated race. The
returning soldiers he disposed of quickly. The young and deluded
should be pardoned generously and freely upon their showing genuine reassumption of loyalty. "Guilty rebels" should be required to
wait five or ten years before being permitted to vote, while the
original conspirators and leaders were entitled to "neither mercy nor
forbearance." The stimulation of immigration, he predicted, would
provide a class of substantial citizens and would offer
a far more safe and rational process of regenerating the South than any sudden
and compulsory admission of the blacks to the ballot box ... The indiscriminate
�THE PAINS OF RECONSTRUCTION
309
grant of the right of suffrage to the colored population would increase the evils
that keep the South depressed, and exasperate those who, under other circumstances, would become devoted friends of the Government and accept the
emancipation of the slaves as an event not at all offensive.
The Parson's mind roved restlessly on the subject of the blacks and
the vote. A realistic, political approach weighed heavily in his thinking. Two senators-elect and eight representatives awaited admission
at the door of the United States Congress. Failure on the part of
Tennessee to grant the black man the right to vote might weigh the
scales against the admission of the Tennessee delegation. The governor wanted these men seated, for it would add to the prestige and
influence of the state. Its congressmen would be placed where they
would have a voice in the affairs of the nation and where they could
speak directly to Washington on the needs of Tennessee and their
constituents. Yet Brownlow could not shake free of some of his old
beliefs and convictions, and this forced him to conclude:
I am free to admit that, for the present, we have done enough for the negro, [sic.]
and although negro voting cannot suit my natural prejudices of caste, there is a
class of them I would be willing to see vote at once. A large class, ignorant, docile,
easily led by designing men, and not safely trusted with political power, I am not
willing to see at the ballot-box; but as even these have been faithful among the
faithless, if rebels are to be restored to the right of the elective franchise, I would
say let us no longer deny these political rights to the slaves. In my judgment a
loyal negro is more eminently entitled to suffrage than a disloyal white man.
The black man would get the franchise eventually, Brownlow saw,
but "the time has not come when the ballot box should be turned
over to the emancipated slaves of this state, and the thousands who
would rush into Tennessee from the Cotton States on this account."
It would be well, the governor concluded, to delay granting the
ballot to the black until he has been emancipated from "ignorance
and poverty, social and political disfranchisement." The legislature
should move slowly, because immediate action would leave the great
mass of freed slaves open to influence by secessionists "to vote
against the Government." Only when the black proved his worthiness
would Tennessee extend to him the ballot. Yet the governor was
free to confess that if it became necessary to enfranchise the blacks,
in order to keep control of the country out of the hands of rebels
and traitors, "I am for the measure." Blacks were now persons and
no longer property. Therefore Brownlow advocated giving them the
�310
CHAPTER NO. 17
right to testify in court, without reservation. But Brownlow held that
the black was not the equal of the white, and the best solution to the
problem involved in the two races attempting to live together would
be to separate them. The blacks should be granted their own nation
in some spot like Texas or Mexico after the removal of all the
Caucasians. [4]
Historians still offer varying evaluation of this message. One, who
has been accused of strong bias, found it a "cross between a political
harangue and a Thanksgiving sermon. Inasmuch as the Parson was at
present a politician and formerly a Methodist minister, possibly he
possessed qualifications in each field." Another, more objective,
while failing to praise it in substance, described it as "lengthy and
detailed, writen in a relatively quiet tone." Brownlow had spent long
hours over it in his study at Knoxville and probably thought well of
it. His son John published in the Whig high compliments of it taken
from friendly newspapers, notably the Cincinnati Gazette. The
Gazette printed most of the text which must have tickled the Parson's fancy as he read:
Such is the peculiar style of the writer that this message will be found very
entertaining reading, even to those not specially interested in the topics discussed. Many of the comparisons and illustrations are in the Governor's richest
vein (Whig, October 11, 1865).
The Gazette had sound financial reason to applaud the message. It
had invested one hundred dollars to have the material parts of the
governor's production telegraphed to Cincinnati, and found the
money well spent. It sold 8,000 extra copies of the issue carrying it.
The Parson's piquant language, however, was lost upon the South's
newspapers, which the Whig charged, "by common consent, agreed
to attack him from every point of the compass." The General Assembly, out of deference to the governor, or because it was impressed by the message, ordered 15,000 copies printed in English and
5,000 in German. The Parson had found that immigrants from this
northern European country were uniformly for the Union. [5]
The assembly had lost some of its most talented members. Brownlow had appointed two of his senators to the bench. His old friend,
Samuel R. Rodgers, he appointed to be chancellor of the Eighth
Judicial Circuit, and R. R. Butler of Johnson County he named judge
of the First Judicial Circuit. The Parson displayed vigor in getting the
courts moving. By February 1866 he had appointed a majority of all
�THE PAINS OF RECONSTRUCTION
311
the judicial officers in the state, and thereby drew some criticism for
not having called elections for this purpose. The Whig dismissed the
critics with two observations: 1) the governor had no intention of
yielding to the pleas of "copperheads" and let rebels be elected to
the bench, and 2) the legislature had rejected a number of petitions
calling for elections to be held. [6]
Whether it was from a lack of leadership or a reluctance to grapple
with the issues, the legislature moved slowly. The Senate passed, ten
to nine, a bill to permit persons of African and Indian descent to
testify in court. The aversion of many East Tennesseeans toward the
blacks threatened to block passage of the bill in the House. To counteract this sentiment the governor issued a statement "To The East
Tennessee Loyalists," in which he asserted the measure was basically
right. It would end the need for the Freedmen's Bureau, where to
many whites, the scales appeared to be tipped in favor of the black
man, and it would cut two ways. It would gratify the blacks and
head off more drastic steps by Congress, possibly granting the franchise to freedmen. The strategy worked. The House passed the bill
on January 26, 1866. [7]
The legislature enacted some important legislation. But in the
House a "little Rebellion" erupted when an attempt was made to
tighten the restrictions on voters. Some members filibustered. Four
spoke for a total of thirteen hours against the measure, while proponents occupied two hours. Several absented themselves and other
resigned. It was impossible to get a quorum and legislative business
was effectively stalled. The Whig described the minority as displaying
"the true rebel spirit," and Speaker William Heiskell, who opposed
the bill, and gray-haired James Muilins, who sponsored it, called on
the Almighty to damn each other. Heiskell reinforced his appeal by
hurling the gavel at Mullins. No one was hit. Because legislative
action was halted, Governor Brownlow called a special election for
March 31 to fill the vacancies created by resignations. [8] Adding to
the intensity of the times, and certainly with political calculation,
the Conservatives called a convention to be held in Nashville on
Washington's birthday. Among the listed purposes was one to further
the state's restoration to the Union and to approve President Johnson's reconstruction policy that now drew Democratic support.
Representative Maynard, who was invited to attend, sent a letter. In
it he cautiously approved, in general, Johnson's course, but also restated his own Radical views. Representative Stokes, who spoke after
�312
CHAPTER NO. 17
the convention had adjourned, blistered it in a fashion the Whig
relished. [9] The paper printed this report from a Nashville correspondent:
Look at this Convention! They had made a McClellan man President-they
opened their exercises with prayer by a rebel preacher who had been sent
through the lines by Gen. Rosecrans-they appointed a man Secretary who had
cast the vote of a Congressional District for Jeff Davis and Stephens! They had
no stars and stripes in their convention-they made no mention of the martyred
Lincoln-they made no allusion to the United States Army and Navy-they
passed no eulogy upon Gen. Thomas for saving this city-they had no good
words to utter in favor of the brave officers and soldiers who saved the Union!
And yet, said Stokes, this professes to be a loyal Union Convention. True, they
adopted resolutions censuring the majority [Radical] in Congress-they hissed
General Joseph A. Cooper when he attempted to speak, although he was one of
the gallant defenders to Nashville but little more than a year ago! They endorsed
Andrew Johnson, and they clapped and shouted his veto of the Bureau bill, but
it was not because they loved Johnson, but because they rejoiced over the
prospect of a quarrel between him and Congress, and the party that elected him
(Whig, March 7, 1866).
Stokes referred to a fusion of political forces that was under way,
a merger of the Conservative Unionists and the disfranchised Confederates. They would be a formidable power if combined, and an overwhelming one if the Confederates gained more access to the ballot
box. This added to the governor's anxiety to put on the books a
franchise law that would enable him to keep the state government in
Radical hands.
The Radical Congress and the President were headed for intense
struggle on the issue of reconstruction. It was inevitable in Tennessee
that the Conservatives and Democrats would support the President,
and that the Brownlow administration would line up with Congress. [ 10] Early in 1866 the Parson served notice that he could go
along with Johnson only if he adhered to his policy as military
governor, and if he still stood on the Baltimore convention which
nominated Lincoln and Johnson. He told the German Union League
at Knoxville on March 24 that Johnson had gone back to the Democratic Party, the party that was responsible for secession and the war.
Thus, they were separated. The resumption of roles as antagonists by
these two men who earlier had fought long and furiously must have
seemed more natural to both than the common path into which they
�THE PAINS OF RECONSTRUCTION
313
were thrown by their allegiance to the Union. The Parson remained
respectful toward Johnson in a speech at the Knox County Courthouse on April 2. [ 11] It had been only four months since John Bell
Brownlow had written from Washington:
The simon-pure men of East Tennessee have in Andrew Johnson a steadfast
friend .... the health of the President was never better than now. Long may be
live to administer our glorious government on the principle of justice and universal freedom (Whig, November 29, 1865).
Skillful politician that Johnson was, he had flattered young Brownlow. He had received him immediately upon arrival at the White
House, and talked with him at some length. Nor could the impressionable stripling editor refrain from gloating in print at his reception, and casually recalled that he had been very close to Johnson
when the latter was military governor (Ibid.).
The Whig, without explanation, dropped from underneath its
name on the front page "And Rebel Ventilator." The change permitted a few more inches of space for the newspaper's thriving advertising custom (Whig, February 28, 1866). It continued to ventilate
rebels.
At this seething moment in Tennessee affairs the Whig printed a
letter that was an obvious hoax, but in substance and execution was
an example of political surgery. Its style, and its skill in cutting in
several directions, suggested that it was the Parson's handiwork. The
letter was addressed to "John Webb," described as a former Confederate colonel, and the signature telegraphed its phoniness: "C.
Seshon, Late Gen. C.S.A., now M.C. elect." The first part of the
letter was designed to infuriate Southerners, scare Unionists from
linking with Democrats, and suggest to Johnson the error of his
ways.[12] It recommended this course for Southern men:
Remember then, Colonel, first and foremost, that we are all "Johnson men."
I know you hate old Johnson as you do the devil. But I tell you I believe we can
get him (not the devil but Johnson) to carry out our plans .... This is the
Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. I always believed the Lord was on
the side of the Confederacy. We all tell Johnson that we are completely reconstructed and thoroughly loyal. We have thrown dust in his eyes completely, and
the old fool is as blind as a bat to our schemes. Never, therefore, allow yourself
to say one word against Johnson. Praise him to the skies, and in the same breath
curse the Radicals to the devil. This takes well with Johnson.
In the next place, always pretend to be intensely loyal, and enthusiasically
�314
CHAPTER NO. 17
devoted to the Constitution. Don't mind the inconsistency of a rebel Colonel,
who tried to overthrow the Constitution, now worshipping it as the decalogue of
politics. Consistency to the winds. Swear that you are glad the war is ended; and
that you are in favor of the "Constitution as it is and the Union as it was." ...
Say that you are in favor of the Constitutional Amendment, and that you are
glad the negroes [sic.] are free. (But the moment we get into power, the moment
our state is reconstructed, we will, you know, pass laws to suit ourselves on the
negro subject, and we'll attend to those poor Union whites, too.) (Whig, April 4,
1866).
This last whiplash by the phony general's ghostwriter was a reminder
to the East Tennessee mountaineers that in the event of a Confederate-manipulated Conservative victory they would be in line for
punishment because of their adherence to the Union. It was made
clear that it would be best for them to smother their prejudice
against the blacks, and accept the Radical line of granting them
benefits. The writer approached the theme of Negro equality from
another direction. He urged constant denunciation of it and spared
no exaggeration of what it might do:
The ends will justify the means. If we can only keep alive this prejudice against
the negro [sic.] and make the whites believe the Radicals are in favor of social
negro equality, we are safe, and the good old Confederacy will rise out of her ashes
more glorious than ever. God speed the day! How fortunate for us that these
Union people are such ignorant fools as to believe all we say about these Radicals and negro equality.
Editors were to be duped or bribed to follow the lines suggested by
the writer. Some Union editors could be bought very cheaply. Religious newspapers should be included. Congress remained an obstacle
and must be treated with contempt. The campaign was summarized
in this paragraph:
But praise Johnson, curse Congress, denounce the negro, [sic.] eulogize the Constitution, and leave nothing undone to unite the South upon another war, and
divide Union men .... The rebel debt will yet be paid, we will get compensation
for our slaves, and keep them as slaves afterwards; and as for these poor, contemptible, ignorant White Union men, when we get in power again, they will
find the terrors and sufferings of the late war a paradise compared with what our
wrath will heap on their heads. We will smile on them and give them our hands,
until we get their votes, but then may the devil speedily get them! (Ibid.).
A much more potent force than this sarcasm-laden letter had been
�THE PAINS OF RECONSTRUCTION
315
set in motion a few weeks earlier, revival of the separate statehood
movement. It was started because "The conduct of the rebels of
Middle and West Tennessee, in their course toward Union men and
the Federal Government is increasing the desire to be separated from
them .... " The Whig also tossed off the observation, "Taking the
ballot from a rebel has the effect of extracting the sting from a bee.
It renders him powerless for mischief." In developing the move to
split East Tennessee from the rest of the state, the Whig quoted from
the Nashville Banner. It described it as "a vile organ of treason,"
edited by a pair of rebels who thus sized up Unionists:
BUT IN HONEST TRUTH, THE MAJORITY OF THE SO-CALLED UNION
OR LOYAL MEN OF THE SOUTH WERE THE MEREST TRASH THAT
COULD BE COLLECTED IN A CIVILIZED COMMUNITY, OF NO PERSONAL CREDIT OR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY.
The Whig quoted this diatribe to turn East Tennesseeans against
the men who had stood with the Conservatives on the franchise bill.
Nothing can be found to indicate this purpose was accomplished. It
does reflect the bitterness and contempt certain segments of Middle
Tennessee felt for East Tennessee.
The Whig vigorously pressed the movement for a separate state. It
printed an extended article from a correspondent on the advantages
of separation. At a Union meeting held at the Knox County Courthouse that was addressed by Brownlow and others one of the resolutions spelled out the purpose of the statehood movement:
Rather than to submit to the domination of traitors, in the event of the defeat
of the Franchise Bill now before the Legislature of the State, we are in favor of
the formation of a new state, to be composed of the Eastern Division of this
State, to be called the STATE OF EAST TENNESSEE.
An East Tennessee Convention that met at Knoxville on May 3 and 4
appointed a committee to memorialize the legislature to grant the
separation. The Senate, goaded by this pressure, passed the franchise
bill the first day of the convention at Knoxville. The agitation for
separate statehood subsided. [ 13]
It remains a curiosity of East Tennessee politics that one of the
spirited speeches for separation made at the convention was by
Thomas A. R. Nelson. As a leader of the Greeneville Convention of
1861 he was firmly on record in favor of separate statehood. But in
1866 he was furthering the cause of the Radicals and of Brownlow,
�316
CHAPTER NO. 17
with whom he no longer acted and against whom he soon would be
in vigorous opposition. Nelson knew the real purpose of the meeting.
He was on the Resolutions Committee which spelled it out in the
recommendations it submitted. He made an "eloquent and impressive" speech and he was appointed to a "Central Committee" for
East Tennessee to keep the movement alive, if needed. [14] The
need, of course, was removed.
The results of the March 31 election must have been disturbing
and nettlesome to Brownlow, although the Whig found "treason has
been routed in Tennessee." Twelve of the men who had resigned
were returned, and two were replaced by other Conservatives. Four
Radicals were elected, two of whom replaced Conservatives. A bitter
pill for the Whig was the reelection of Pleasant Williams from Carter
by seventeen votes. This happened after one opponent retired and
another entered late. Williams had supported the first franchise bill,
but he fought the second one. He told his constituents that it would
deprive some men who had served under duress in the Confederate
army of the vote and enfranchise blacks who had served in the Union
army. This was a sensitive point in East Tennessee.
When the members-elect appeared in Nashville to claim their seats
the House declined to seat fifteen Conservatives, but approved three
Radicals. A quorum was declared present, and the house passed the
franchise bill on April12, by a vote of 41 to 15. Williams presented a
separate case. He had absented himself on some of the votes before
the special election, and his name appeared as one of the signers of a
statement by twenty-one members that they were resigning. Williams
had asked for a leave of absence, but when his name appeared on the
list of the twenty-one the governor declared his seat vacant and
called for a special election in Carter County, along with the
others. [ 15]
Williams had served in the Union cavalry for eighteen months
before being honorably discharged for disability. He displayed vindictiveness early in the first legislative session by introducing a bill to
punish ministers who had sided with the South by stripping them of
their immunity from poll tax payments and serving in the militia and
denying them the privilege of performing marriage ceremonies. The
House killed the bill. It did not appear in the Senate. The House
members, however, must have liked Williams. After the franchise bill
was passed the House adopted a resolution restoring him to membership and stipulating "that his seat has never been vacant." He also
�THE PAINS OF RECONSTRUCTION
317
was granted permission to have the journal show that if he had been
seated his vote on the franchise measure would have been negative. [16]
Passage of the franchise law gave the Radicals tremendous political
muscle for the next election. It perpetually disfranchised all persons
who had borne arms voluntarily for the Confederacy; all who had
sought or voluntarily accepted any office or attempted to exercise
the functions of an office under the authority of the Confederacy;
and all who had supported any government, power or authority
against the United States. Complete authority was given the governor
to appoint county registration commissioners. County Court clerks
had formerly performed this function. The Conservatives had made a
clean sweep of county offices in Middle and West Tennessee in the
last election. The Radicals were not about to let Conservatives control voter registration, especially in these areas, where Radicals already were at a great disadvantage. As a clincher, Brownlow could
remove his own commissioners, if they did not suit him. The Whig
found the measure magnanimous, with the disabilities "imposed
upon rebels ... very moderate. They should be thankful if allowed
to live in this state and follow the usual avocations of life." [ 17]
The Whig was annoyed by the militant stand taken against the
franchise bill by three East Tennessee legislators. They were Heiskell
and Williams in the House and Senator Beriah Frazier. The latter was
elected from Knox and Roane counties when Speaker Rodgers accepted the appointment as chancellor. Early in the first session
Brownlow had written a Knoxville friend, "Col. Heiskell is clear over
on the Copperhead side, and is governed by letters he receives from
your city." [ 18] Yet animosity never appeared in the personal relations of the governor and Heiskell. When the speaker took leave of
absence from the House the Whig gave him this friendly salute:
When he left Nashville ... he was on terms of personal cordiality with every
Radical member of the House even including Mullins, at whom he threw his
mallet. But for the instances in which party prejudices get [got] the better of his
reason, he would have made an unexceptionable presiding officer (Whig, August
21, 1867).
Heiskell defended his course as correct because he was elected from
the state at large. He believed that he should reflect the overwhelming statewide sentiment for the Conservatives, rather than the Radical majority in Knox County. [ 19] Senator Frazier, who fought the
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Radical program from the moment he took his seat, offered a different line of reasoning. He conceded that the bill to permit blacks to
testify in court had merit, but
I know the sentiments of my constituents, and am well assured that such a law
would startle the whole community. The Union masses of East Tennessee accepted abolition, not because they loved slavery less, but their country more. As
to their love for the negro [sic.) , I believe no portion of the State has such deep
and settled prejudice against him as they have. And I for one am not ready to
disregard those prejudices.
The Whig now carried on a constant war against Frazier. It accused
him of having given the impression during the campaign that he was a
Radical, but when seated, "he voted and acted generally in favor of
the rebels, and against the Union Party and the interests of those
who elected him." Whatever statements Williams made to justify his
position do not appear in the Whig. It did not neglect him, however.
It continued to castigate him. [20]
East Tennessee's prejudice against blacks, bluntly noted by Senator Frazier, flared into the lynching of a Union soldier in Knoxville
early in 1866. The black soldier was guarding a door during an army
surplus sale. He fired upon and killed a respected and popular Grainger County farmer, Calvin M. Dyer, who had been a lieutenant colonel of the First Tennessee Cavalry (U.S.) In company with other
men, Dyer was entering a door to pay for purchases when the guard
killed him. No justification for the killing appeared. An officer ordered the soldier to his quarters under guard, but he escaped, apparently with the connivance of his custodians. The town was jammed
with several hundred former Union soldiers, many of whom had
served under Dyer. When they learned that another officer was
attempting to spirit the guard to Chattanooga they formed into a
mob and frightened the officer into helping search out the fugitive.
The soldier attempted to run when found and was wounded by
gunfire; when the mob sought to hang him, he struggled so furiously
that he broke the rope. A second noose was found and he was
hanged in front of the office of the Freedmen's Bureau.
As editor of the Whig, John Bell Brownlow was in a difficult and
delicate situation. The hanging of the soldier in front of the Freedmen's Bureau office reflected the strong prejudice of East Tennesseeans against blacks. It fell at a time when the Brownlow forces in
the legislature were fighting strenuously to place black men on an
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equal footing with white men in litigation. The young editor and the
Whig were committed to the administration's course, but John also
suffered intense sorrow and indignation over Dyer's death. He had
known Dyer intimately, and when Colonel James P. Brownlow was
hit in the hips by a Confederate bullet near Nashville, Dyer assumed
command of the regiment, "and most gallantly did he bear himself."
John cautiously worked his way through an account of the hanging
and deplored the choice of the site for the lynching. The spot, he
reasoned, was selected because the vengeful former soldiers believed
the bureau officers were trying to get the black out of Knoxville, and
did not constitute an insult against the Government. The editor concluded his article with this adroit and expedient phrasing:
A more atrocious murder [of Dyer] was never committed in Tennessee, and no
event has caused more excitement in Knoxville than the tragedy referred to.
While no circumstances can make lynch law defensible, if there ever was a case in
which it was excusable, this is the case. [21)
Brownlow and the Tennessee Radicals had moved the state away
from slavery and granted the blacks more advantages than they had
ever known. This was done in the face of furious but impotent
opposition. But the Congressional Radicals wanted more from Tennessee. They knew that President Johnson wanted his home state
restored to the Union, and they proposed to make him pay a price
for it. Since Johnson was opposed to granting suffrage to the Negro,
the Radical majority saw a way to stuff the Fourteenth Amendment
down his throat. They also knew that this was an operation the
governor of Tennessee would relish. They made ratification of the
amendment a condition of Tennessee's restoration.
The governor called the Tennessee legislature to meet on July 4,
1866, to act upon the amendment. However the governor may have
felt in again reversing himself on the question of suffrage for the
blacks, he could point to equal inconsistency on the part of the
President. Johnson was now traveling along a path that led back to
the Democratic Party, a course lined with applauding former Confederates. The times were chaotic, and altered or reversed positions
were almost the rule. The Whig found the Memphis Argus showering
praise upon Johnson in 1866 and recalled that in 1861, under the
same editors, it had printed this diatribe: "We should like to see
Anderew Johnson's lying tongue torn from his foul mouth, and his
miserable carcass thrown out to poison mad dogs with, or hung upon
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a gibbet as high as Haman, to fed [feed] the carrion buzzards."
Editor G. E. Grisham of the Jonesboro Union Flag, who had been a
captain in the Union army, stopped at a Bristol hotel and found a
notification
by fifteen members of the reconstructed admirers of "My Policy" that he would
be allowed two hours to leave in! He fortified himself and gave notice that the
first man who approached him should go upon the double quick to some other
country. The consequence was that fourteen out of the fifteen backed down,
and the remaining young man did not feel called upon to remove Grisham from
the place!
When the Jonesboro editor reached home he met a demand with
which he could not cope so successfully, the Whig reported:
Captain Grisham, of Jonesborough, has been turned out of the post office at
that place because he dared to believe "My Policy" was wrong, and Congress was
right in its course. If men expect to hold Federal offices in Tennessee, they must
subscribe to the infaliability [sic.] of the President, and the superiority of rebels
over Union men.[22]
When the legislature met, the opposltlon made some ineffective
moves in the Senate. One of them, by Frazier of Knox and Roane
counties, was a concession to East Tennessee's prejudice against
blacks. It went directly in the face of the will of Congress. It proposed to reverse the very purpose of the amendment by denying the
blacks the right to vote and forbidding them to sit on juries or to
intermarry with whites. Frazier lost, and the amendment was ratified, 14 to 6. The Whig accused Frazier of having attempted to "keep
Tennessee out of the Union." It neglected the prejudicial aspect of
the senator's move. The stand the Whig took was more palatable to
its readers than an assault on Frazier for trying to withhold full
citizenship from the black man. House foes of the bill again resorted
to absenteeism and for several days kept the body impotent for lack
of the quorum of fifty-six. The ensuing uproar was described as a
"mass meeting of political maniacs." General George H. Thomas considered the level of excitement so high he feared an effort would be
made to "break up the legislature." The Radicals knew they had the
votes for ratification if they could get a quorum, and after six days
of frustration, they directed Speaker Heiskell to issue warrants for
eight bolters. The deputies of Sergeant at arms William Heydt arrested Pleasant Williams at his remote home in Carter County and A. J.
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321
Martin at Jackson and brought them to the capitol. There they were
held under guard in a room that adjoined the House of Representatives.
A quorum was ruled present and weird parliamentary maneuvers
followed. One of the points debated by the legislators was whether
the representatives in custody, who frequently peeped through a
door to watch proceedings, were on the floor. The Radicals held that
the two men were present, and won their point by numbers. When
the amendment was ratified, 43 to 11, Speaker Heiskell ruled a quorum was not present because, in his opinion, Williams and Martin
were not on the floor. The decision of the chair was appealed. This
brought the following discussion, as reported by the Nashville Press
and Times: "Mr. Arnell said that Mr. Martin was then present, but
refusing to vote, whereupon Mr. Martin indignantly responed [sic.]
that he wasn't present at all.
"The House looked as incredulous as doubting Thomas, as
they ... beheld the 'wery identical indiwidual' who had denied the
doctrine of the 'real presence.' " The House reversed the speaker. It
held that a quorum was present when the vote was taken. It acted
none too quickly. Soon a posse of twenty-five men acting under the
Davidson County sheriff, who was carrying out orders of Judge
Thomas N. Frazier of the Criminal Court, released the two representatives from custody. The posse arrested Heydt and took him
before Judge Frazier, who fined him $10.00. Judge Frazier, brother
of Senator Frazier, subsequently was impeached, convicted, removed
from office, and disfranchised. A later legislature removed these disabilities.
Ratification put the Parson in jubilant mood. He had defeated the
President in the struggle. He had aligned himself firmly with the
Radicals in Congress. And he had placed the state in a position to be
received again into the Union, and her representatives to receive full
standing as congressmen. He fired off several telegrams of notification, among them this famous one:
Nashville, July 19, 1866. John W. Forney, Clerk of the Senate, Washington,
D.C. A battle fought and won. We carried the constitutional amendment in the
House. Vote-43 to 11, two of A. Johnson's tools refusing to vote. My compliments to the 'dead dog' in the White House. W. G. Brownlow. [23]
Congress gave final approval to the delegation on July 2 3. The
Senate paused for a brief inquiry into Patterson's tenure as judge of a
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CHAPTER NO. 17
Confederate court, a step that had required him to take the Confederate oath of allegiance. However, his loyalty to the Union was
widely known. He had served as a judge while Tennessee was in the
United States, and under Confederate occupation he was taken into
custody and threatened with prison. It was apparent he had served as
judge under the Richmond government in order to be helpful to the
people of his circuit who were overwhelmingly for the Union. They
probably would have fared much worse under a diehard southerner.
The Whig and the governor apparently accepted this view, for Patterson escaped the terrible rain of invective the Brownlows were throwing at his father-in-law in the White House. [24] They accused the
President of stirring up the "bolters" in a
fierce contest of loyalty and principle against patronage, corruption and treachery
most foul, backed by an apostate President, who has placed himself in the
shoes of Jeff Davis, striving to bring on another rebellion ....
It has now come to light, on authority from Washington, that Andrew Johnson has laid his plans for superseding Gov. Brownlow, by the appointment of
Gordon Grainger, as Military Governor, so soon as the constitutional amendments were defeated. Part of the plot was to use judge Frazier's decision against
the House .... Let him appoint a Military Governor, if he dare. His impeachment in Congress will follow this usurpation, and a disgraceful expulsion will
follow .... Let him rant and rave; he can't intimidate Union men in or out of
Tennessee. He has no party, he has no strength, and he commands only the
respect of rebels and rebel sympathizers (Whig, July 25, 1866).
The old Brownlow-] ohnson animosity raged with renewed vigor
and from higher ground than before, for the former was governor
and the latter was President. The Parson listed and condemned Johnson's moves in turning away from the Radicals and moving back into
the Democratic Party, and forming ties with former rebels as well as
with Conservative Unionists. He displayed resentment over Johnson's
denial of troops to "protect the legislature and its legal officers from
mob violence" at the July session of the General Assembly, when the
Fourteenth Amendment was ratified. He accused Johnson of plotting
with the "traitors at the North, and the rebels of the South, to
involve this country in another bloody war," and predicted that "the
first blow will be struck in Tennessee" (Whig, August 22, 1866).
The Parson drew considerable attention at the ten-state Loyalist
Convention of 1866, at Philadelphia. The convention was a prelude
to the fight the Radicals were to make in the off-year election to
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increase their power in Congress. He was cheered and he made a brief
speech. In it he recommended that if war did break out, the rebel
population should be decimated, its property confiscated, and sold
to men "who will honor this glorious banner." He gave his pledge to
accompany Radical groups preparing to follow Johnson in his campaign for members of Congress friendly to his reconstruction policy.
He kept his pledge, although a reporter found him
so thin and stooping, that I am filled with awe, as seeing something that belongs
to the grave, every time I look at him .... The man is worn out and broken
down. He is able to walk but a few steps, and sits up less than half the day. Will,
unconquerable will, is all that keeps him from death .... Hopelessly shattered in
body, he is as stout and fierce in mind as ever. [2 5)
Yet the Parson sent back several dispatches to the Whig and made a
few speeches. At Erie, however, he fainted, took several days of rest,
and went on to Chicago. There, at the home of Lieutenant Governor
Bross, he watched a dramatic partisan parade:
From this vantage point, Brownlow resembled an oriental ruler reviewing his
subjects. As each unit of the procession passed, it stopped to salute the patriarch. Even President Johnson had not experienced such honor on his "swing
around the circle." That evening a crowd gathered before the Tremont House
and called for a speech from Brownlow. He accommodated the crowd by reiterating the remarks he had delivered throughout the campaign.
The governor returned to Nashville on October 13, after having spent
two months on a campaign trail that included the midwestern states,
New York, New England, and New Jersey. [26]
A Knoxville citizen who wrote to the Nashville Banner that Johnson stood high with the city's voters, needled the Parson with an
accompanying statement that the Whig's circulation was below its
level prior to the Civil War. This, the editor acknowledged, was true,
because East Tennessee and its people had been impoverished by the
conflict, schools suspended, homes, churches and schools burned,
wives widowed, children orphaned, and men killed or disabled. All
newspapers "which existed before the war do much less business now
than formerly," the Whig reported, but it was still self-sustaining:
Had we supported Johnson we could have received Government advertising and
money out of the secret service fund as the several Johnson papers in Tennessee
have done, including the dirty little Commercial of this city. Nay! more, the hat
would have been passed around, among rich rebels for our benefit. Besides this
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we could now have had high position in the "Bread and Butter Brigade" of
Andrew Johnson. Three times, during the months of October, December and
January, the President, unsolicited, cordially invited us to accept office under
him (Whig, October 24, 1866).
The Radicals won in the nation and in Tennessee. They returned
to Congress with a majority of more than two-thirds, and in Tennessee captured enough seats in by-elections to assure a full quorum of
Radicals. The second adjourned session of the General Assembly
met in Nashville on November 5, 1866, and received an extensive
message from the governor ten days later. He revealed an inner struggle on the question of extending suffrage to the black, but he was
ready "to act in harmony with the great body of the loyal people of
the Union." He failed, however, to make an outright recommendation for giving the vote to blacks. When the assembly failed to move
on the issue he submitted an additional message, early in 1867, in
which he expressed the hope the legislature "will not close its present
session without the passage of a bill granting suffrage to all loyal
males, properly qualified by age and citizenship." [27]
The Whig offered a far more tart justification of Brownlow's
change in position on blacks voting:
There is not one man in the United States in every hundred who occupies the
position on the everlasting negro [sic.] question that he did before the war. The
great social and political revolution through which the country has passed has
entirely changed the relations of the races in the South and North, and as a
matter of necessity men must change with the progress of inexorable and uncontrollable events (Whig, November 14, 1866).
Brownlow wanted to follow the course of the northern loyalists,
who believed that the South should give the blacks the vote, but he
was still faced with the inner conflict of his instilled prejudice against
the black race. Necessity, shown by arithmetical logic, prevailed, as
this analysis in the Whig revealed:
In Tennessee there are forty thousand loyal black men, sixty-five thousand
loyal white men, and EIGHTY THOUSAND of the rebel camp whose faces are
white. Because of the difficulty of enforcing the franchise law in Middle and
West Tennessee, where the rebels are in the majority, there is great danger that
the state will pass under the control of Isham G. Harris and the minions of Jeff
Davis.-There is no truly loyal man who would not desire to avert this calamity.
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This we are agreed upon. Then let us agree as to the manner by which we shall
escape rebel tyranny and the rebel rule (Whig, December 19, 1866).
The threat of rebel seizure of the state government had been mentioned frequently by the Whig, sometimes obliquely. But in Governor Brownlow's message to the legislature on November 15, 1866, he
spelled out his fears and asked for authorization to create a state
militia, "subject to the call of the Executive, to suppress insurrection
or protect the ballot-box." Whether the governor sincerely believed
rebellion was being plotted, or viewed a militia as a helpful adjunct
to continuing the Radical Party in power, he got what he asked. The
assembly enacted a law authorizing a "State Guard." [28]
Pressure for the passage of the State Guard bill mounted after the
assassination of Senator Almon Case near his home in Obion County
on January 24, 1867, by a young man he had previously helped. Dr.
Case had served as a surgeon in a Tennessee Union regiment, was
present at the Fort Pillow massacre, and had testified before a committee investigating the killing of black soldiers by the Confederates.
The Whig charged that his murder was "an invention to get the
Senate below a quorum. By assassinating two more senators they can
prevent the passage of any law at the present session." The senator's
death followed by three or four months the murder of his sixteenyear-old son. A letter from Obion County to another member of the
legislature described the senator's assassin as Frank Ferris, a guerrilla
who had slain another Unionist on the public square of Troy a few
hours earlier. [29]
The Republican State Convention (the term Radical was appearing
less frequently) met at Nashville on February 22, 1867. It nominated
Brownlow for governor, a step so cut and dried that the designation
of the Parson for this office was only an item in the long report of
the Resolutions Committee, rather than a separate motion. The enfeebled governor made a brief acceptance speech. He confessed to
inability to carry on a canvass. A few days later he was at home in
Knoxville recovering from a bilious attack. [30] The Whig, meanwhile, geared itself for a spirited campaign. It cut its annual subscription rate to $2.00 and appealed for 5,000 more subscribers:
We are entering upon a four month's campaign, which for bitterness, fierce and
terrible work, has never been equalled in Tennessee. The State will be flooded
with speakers on both sides, and every inch of ground will be contested. And
why? Because a governor is to be elected, eight Congressmen are to be chosen, as
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CHAPTER NO. 17
well as all members of the General Assembly. The contests in these elections will
be between the friends and the enemies of the Union-between Patriots and
Traitors-and one party or the other goes under in Tennessee the first Thursday
in August next (Whig, March 6, 1867)!
The Whig's prediction of a heated and violent campaign was correct. The disfranchised Confederates viewed with fury the prospect
of being forced to stand aside while the men they had formerly
enslaved were invited, even urged, to vote for Radical candidates.
Blacks were given the patronizing help of Brownlow's appointees to
registration and election posts, and protected by the bristling rifles of
the governor's State Guards. A forecast of the tension that would
develop between Radical and Conservative appeared in a Whig report
of a Conservative meeting at Athens, in lower East Tennessee. The
newspaper quoted a speaker as saying:
If Governor Brownlow dare to call out any portion of the militia, the people
(meaning the Johnsonites) would rise and wrench their arms from their hands
and exterminate them, and he ... [the speaker] advised them to do so.
This fiery statement, reminiscent of Yancey's threat of bayoneting
the Parson's breast in his 1861 speech at Knoxville, brought an equally explosive reply from the Whig:
Follow the advise [sic.] of the lawyers and politicians who counsel you to
rebellion, as they did in 1861, and who, in the next war as in the past, will take
special care to keep (if they can?) their precious carcasses out of harm's way. We
repeat, follow their advise [sic.] if you desire; do it if you DARE and Hell will
contain so many of you the devil will have difficulty in finding enough muster
rolls to regularly classify you in companies and regiments. Gov. Brownlow does
not come before you as a suppliant, offering compromises and beseeching you to
abstain from rebellion. HE DARES YOU TO ENGAGE IN IT .[31]
Both parties sought the vote of the newly enfranchised black man.
The Radical Republicans held the edge, for their party was responsible for the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment and state
legislation giving the blacks the vote. The party also had a mighty
weapon in the Union League, a highly partisan organization which
was started in the North in 1862 and moved into Tennessee in 1864.
It organized across the state, and when the blacks were enfranchised,
it began a vigorous campaign to enlist their vote. The league elaborated its rituals and ceremonies to attract the credulous and easily
influenced former slaves. The Conservatives, in nominating Emerson
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Etheridge, of Dresden for governor undoubtedly counted on his
reputation as an excellent campaigner. But Etheridge was handicapped by publicity given a statement he was accused of having made
in 1865:
The negroes [sic.] are no more free than they were four years ago, and if any one
goes about the country telling them thatthey are, shoot him: and these negro [sic.]
troops, commanded by low and degraded white men, going through the country,
ought to be shot down.
The Radical newspapers of Nashville carried the story of the statement consistently. There it was expected to have an adverse effect on
Conservatives trying to woo black votes. In East Tennessee, where
the white population viewed the blacks with distaste, the Whig made
no spectacular display of the statement. Horace Maynard, one of the
Radical speakers stumping the state for the incapacitated governor,
said Etheridge was acquitted by a military court of having made this
and other alleged disloyal statements. Major General George H.
Thomas, however, disapproved the findings of the military commission, but said it would not be reconvened because the "present
state of society in West Tennessee does not require that further
action should be taken in this case, or further restraint be placed
upon the accused." [32]
The Conservative leaders made efforts to head off the application
of the franchise law, resorting to legal opinions from private lawyers.
In Knoxville, when a citizen asked if the law applied in a city election John M. Fleming, a Conservative, said it was "unconstitutional
and ought to be so held by every judicial officer." Fleming went
further and said that in the city election the judges on the precinct
boards had authority to pass upon the legality of the act. Thomas A.
R. Nelson, John Baxter, who had parted company with the Parson
and was fighting him venomously, and George Brown, a former circuit judge who had been elected over the Parson's opposition, concurred in Fleming's opinion. The Whig expressed amazement that an
attorney as astute as Nelson should be found in such a role, observed
that the lower courts had held both for and against the law, and
reported that in the Knoxville election the four-lawyer opinion had
generally been disregarded. In midsummer John C. Gaut, chairman of
the Conservative Party's Central Committee, took a much more drastic step. Gaut advised county courts to appoint the election judges.
He held that this power was vested in registration commissioners
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CHAPTER NO. 17
only if county courts failed to act. Gaut did not question the validity
of the act, because by this time it had been upheld by the State
Supreme Court. But he said that when the law was construed with
other sections of the code, it authorized registration commissioners
to make the appointmeds only when the county courts failed to act.
The governor proclaimed that this construction was "false and
rebellious." He ordered the county courts "not to act upon the
advice of this committee of seditionists," and directed General
Joseph A. Cooper of Knoxville, in command of the State Guard, "to
enforce the Franchise Law in its letter and spirit, without regard to
the threats of seditionists." The Whig pithily warned that the governor intend to carry out his enforcement pledge, and "If to do so it
becomes necessary that there shall be violence and bloodshed, so be
it." Five days later Brownlow issued an even more drastic proclamation and ordered the State Guard to arrest Gaut or his agents if they
were found advocating the policy outlined in the opinion. The Conservative must have backed down after he learned of the Parson's
warning, for on the day the first proclamation appeared he advised
the Davidson County Court to obey the governor. This the court
voted to do, 22 to 15.[3]
The tremendous power of the Brownlow forces insured their success in the election. The charges of Baxter, who could not vote,
Etheridge's splendid oratory, the smoldering wrath of the frustrated
former Confederates, the reports spread of the governor's impending
death, and the revelation of an unauthorized transfer by State Treasurer R. L. Stanford of $518,250 of state school funds from his office
to a Memphis bank, his acknowledgement, resignation, and suicide
were ineffectual against the Brownlow machine and its built-in advantages. The Republicans elected the eight congressmen, all of the
state senators, and all but three state representatives. [ 34]
The overwhelming victory brought some editorial variations in the
Whig. Etheridge had portrayed the Radical Party members as "paying
no taxes, riding poor horses, wearing dirty shirts, and having no use
for soap .... It turns out that a man's vote with a dirty shirt counts
as much as the vote of the purse-proud aristocrat." Brownlow had
always been a stickler for personal cleanliness, but now he predicted,
"The common laborers of the country, who wear dirty shirts, intend
to rule." He had for years pictured himself as the champion of the
workingman and the farmer, but to applaud the "dirty shirt" crowd
was a departure, even though it applied to politics rather than per-
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329
sonal grooming (Whig, August 7, 1867). The Whig's approach to the
blacks, whose votes had swelled the Radical majorities, underwent
spectacular change. It extolled them for industry and viewed the
plight of the blacks with this eloquent bit of compassion:
The history of the world furnished no nobler example of honesty, industry and
good conduct than the negro [sic.] has afforded, when we reflect upon the hundreds of years he has been in chains and slavery, degraded to the level of the
brute, sold as cattle in the market, torn by cruel laws from his wife and child,
deprived of the God-ordained rites of marriage, robbed of the fruits of his toil
and that of his ancestors for hundreds of years, and then turned upon the cold
charities of a selfish world, without a dollar for a shelter to protect him from the
storm (Ibid.).
Political expediency had produced this reversal.
The Whig reported, with obvious pleasure, that Brownlow had
defeated Etheridge, by 1,540 to 802, in President Johnson's home
county of Greene. It gave a nostalgic but embittered touch to a
three-county rally at Bull's Gap, where the Parson spoke briefly and
recalled that in the crowd were members of the Self and Harmon
families, some of whom had been the governor's jail mates at Knoxville. Two Harmons were led out of this jail before the Parson's eyes
and taken to the gallows. So sharp and intense had been the division
in Greene County that in a race for constable six weeks earlier the
contestants had lined up for Brownlow or Johnson. Brownlow's man
won by twenty-six votes.
Disturbances were reported at Franklin and Rogersville during the
campaign. Two or more men were killed and several were wounded.
A pitched battle at Rogersville, that broke out after Maynard and
Etheridge spoke separately, led the Whig's correspondent to send this
wire from Greeneville:
Two men seriously wounded and one man by name of J. York killed, and one
mule killed and several horses wounded. Did not learn the names of the wounded, or who it was that shot. They estimate about 150 shots were fired in the crowd.
The Conservatives were first to fire. Everything very quiet this A.M ....
R.G.
LATER
The fight occurred by the rebels firing at the niggers as they were marching
from the speaking, and I understand made them run in every direction, and loose
[sic.] some of their colors.
Election day was quiet everywhere. [35]
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When the results were known Tennessee seethed with hatred. The
Radicals were in control and stronger than ever. Their leaders were
committed to a policy of imposing a double penalty on former Confederates: denial of the franchise and extension of it to the former
slaves. It is difficult to estimate which stung the most. The Radicals
viewed the former Confederates as men who had turned traitor to
the United States, had sought to secede by bloodshed and devastation, and could not be permitted to resume their former citizenship
as though nothing had taken place but an innocuous interlude. The
men who had gone with the South wanted back what they had lost.
Hostile armies had whipsawed the people of the state and their
properties. In secessionist Middle and West Tennessee Union forces
took over in 1862. In Unionist East Tennessee the Confederacy had
exercised military rule, often ruthlessly, from June 1861 until September 1863, when Federal troops arrived in Knoxville.
Samuel G. Heiskell, the son of a Unionist who turned against
Brownlow and became a Conservative and who in his own right
attained prominence in the Democratic Party, wrote in 1920 that
the Parson as governor was
bitter, but everybody was bitter in that vast contest of war .... In Eastern
Tennessee, occupied as it was successively by the Confederate and Union armies,
there was infinite bitterness, followed by reprisal on both sides, and with Brownlow's terrific denunciation of disunion men, it has always been a wonder to me
he was not killed a hundred times. [36)
A general impression probably existed at the conclusion of the
Parson's first term that he would retire from public office at the
close of his tenure in two years. A hint of this lay in the Whig
announcement soon after the 1867 victory that new quarters for the
plant and office were to be built on the West side of Gay Street a few
doors north of Clinch Avenue. The Tri-Weekly Whig also was to be
resumed. This impression was heightened by the extremely feeble
appearance the governor made at his inauguration. It seemed reasonable to assume that he would drop the burdens of public office and
return to Knoxville to resume general direction of his beloved newspaper.
When Brownlow appeared before the General Assembly to make
his inaugural address, he entered the chamber supported by two
members, and looked "emaciated, pale and feeble." He sank into an
arm chair and heard his speech read by his secretary. In this brief
�THE PAINS OF RECONSTRUCTION
331
address he implored the members of the legislature to spare him as
many burdens as possible, because of "the feeble state of my
health." But the Parson was a man of surprises. Six days later, on
October 15, 1867, he asked the legislature to elect him to the United
States Senate for the term beginning on March 4, 1869, when the
seat held by Senator Patterson would become vacant. The governor
commented that while he was not as "robust" as in former years, he
expected to stage a recovery because the prospects for a peaceful
administration were much greater than previously. The truth as to
the Parson's health, John Bell Brownlow wrote in 1892, was that
when he was elected senator "he was sick in bed and in worse health
than he had ever [been] before or than he had for years afterward."
But tottering as he was on the edge of the grave, Brownlow won on
the second day of balloting, defeating United States Representative
William B. Stokes, 63 to 39. [37] Brownlow had many months remaining to serve as governor before he assumed his seat in the United
States Senate. They were not peaceful, as he had suggested in his
inaugural address. They were tumultuous and terrifying.
In the struggle that followed the former Confederates came up
with a new, effective and frightening weapon, the masked, hooded,
and horseback-riding Ku Klux Klan. The order had started in Pulaski,
Tennessee, in December 1865, by half a dozen former soldiers of the
South who were looking for entertainment. Its mystery, secrecy, and
grotesque regalia and forms of communication offered such a powerful weapon to intimidate the ignorant and gullible former slaves that
it was seized upon by the former Confederates. It reorganized at the
Maxwell House in Nashville, in April 1867, in complete secrecy
under the nose of the Brownlow administration. It soon became
powerful in Middle and West Tennessee, where white men had long
dominated the blacks and understood very well how to play upon
their fears and superstitions. [38]
Brownlow denounced the Klan bands as "roving organizations of
marauders and outlaws," who terrorized "several counties in Middle
and West Tennessee" in the spring of 1868. The Whig's columns
began to be filled with reports of Klan outrages. Many of the accounts were clipped from the Nashville Press and Times, the outspoken Radical newspaper at the capital. The Memphis Post contributed to the exposure of the Klan, and printed what purported to
be its constitution. It described the regalia which had been seized in a
raid in which a score of men were arrested as members of the order.
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CHAPTER NO. 17
The Whig obtained from the New York Tribune and reproduced
copies of Klan handbills that portrayed the garish symbols employed
by the organization.
The split in the old Union ranks was reflected in the contrasting
policies of the Whig and the Conservative Knoxville Daily Press and
Herald. One of the editors of the daily was John Fleming, former
editor of the Register, who had once been Brownlow's collaborator
in the Whig Party and a notable spokesman for the Union in 1861.
The Press and Herald denounced the Governor a_s
a poor, palsied old man, trembling upon the verge of the grave, for which his
long life of violence and envenomed personal warfare has poorly prepared a man
who has been on every side of every question that has ever been discussed
amony [among] the people, always managing to leave an unpopular cause just
when its fortunes were failing, and bespattering his opponents always with the
filth and billingsgate which his own vile nature so readily propagates.
The Press and Herald did not limit its warfare to name calling. It set
its course firmly against the black race and mocked at reports that
the Klan existed. In announcing a meeting at the Knox County
Courthouse in preparation for the forthcoming Democratic National
Convention, the Press and Herald asserted it was for "White men of
Knox County, who believe that white men and not negroes [sic.], are
the proper persons to direct the government of affairs in this state."
By midsummer the newspaper threw out a challenge:
If a war of races is to be inaugurated by the Governor of Tennessee, the White
people of the state will not shirk from the responsibility of the contest ....
self-preservation is the first law of Nature. The White men of Tennessee are not
all dead yet.[39]
The Klan grew slowly at first. It was regarded as "a manifestation
of boyish exuberance of trivial importance." But early in 1868, after
it had received widespread newspaper display, it began to achieve
social and political power. It grew bolder. It issued manifestos and
threats. Its members paraded on horseback with beast and rider
grotesquely costumed to prevent identification as well as to terrify.
Bands of Klansmen engaged in pitched battles with defiant blacks
and stubborn sheriffs. At Columbia the confessed killer of a dentist
was taken from jail by Klansmen and hanged. A white man, friendly
with blacks, was murdered on the streets of Franklin after a black
man had been hanged for the rape of a white woman. In Memphis,
�THE PAINS OF RECONSTRUCTION
333
mounted, robed, and hooded Klansmen rode up to police headquarters, confronted lined-up police, and challenged the officers to
arrest them and collect the reward Governor Brownlow had offered.
Both sets of men were armed and the police chief wisely told the
Klansmen: "You can go on."
The disfranchised Confederates found in the Klan an instrument
with which to exert tremendous influence on the gullible, the superstitious, and the fearful. They frequently accomplished their purpose
by threats and intimidation without the necessity of direct physical
violence. The voteless Klansmen thus found a way to keep the blacks
from utilizing the ballot. The order's most successful operations were
in Middle and West Tennessee, where Conservative domination of
county offices gave the hooded bands almost certain assurance that
they would not be prosecuted by local officials. In its essence the
Klan was the reply of frustrated, voteless men to the restrictions
imposed upon them by the Brownlow administration. Denied the
ballot, for reasons which they considered unjust, and willing to use
violence to recover it, they resorted to a mystic hoodlumism to keep
the despised blacks from exercising theirs.
Governor Brownlow's response was to propose new and more restrictive measures. U.S. Representative S. R. Arnell, who owed his
office to the Parson, provided the governor with the occasion for
calling a special session of the legislature. Arnell wired that in June
1868 the Klan had searched for him on a train, "pistols and rope in
hand," near his Columbia home. The governor appealed to General
Thomas at Louisville for more regular troops. Some were already
stationed in Tennessee. Thomas replied that the state had sufficient
authority to cope with the situation. When the assembly met,
alarmed Conservatives attempted conciliation. Thirteen former generals of the Confederate army, including Nathan Bedford Forrest, the
head of the Ku Klux Klan, petitioned the legislature to adopt measures to remove all citizenship disabilities as a way to "heal all the
wounds of our State." The generals disclaimed being behind any
effort to overthrow the state government and predicted that the
creation of a state militia would bring on additional strife. This suggestion contained in itself the hint of a threat. The Whig called the
proposal insincere. It reported that three days after the presentation
of the petition, William A. Quarles, one of the signers, made a vicious, insulting attack upon the governor and General Thomas and
hinted at reprisals. [40] The Whig continued to carry columns of
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CHAPTER NO. 17
vituperation against the former Confederates, the Klan, and Conservatives.
The failure of the United States Senate to sustain the impeachment of President Johnson on May 26, 1868, had left the Brownlows
in a most unhappy mood, especially since the newspaper had predicted that Senator Fowler from Tennessee would vote to sustain. It was
taken for granted that Senator Patterson would not vote against his
father-in-law, but Fowler had led the Radicals to believe he would go
along with them. The Whig, in castigating Fowler, cited a number of
instances in which he had declared in favor of sustaining impeachment, and added, "And yet, Mr. Fowler's most inexplicable vote
saved the President from conviction" (Whig, May 20, 1868).
The legislature created a Joint Military Affairs Committee which
found that bands of armed men were terrorizing blacks and some
whites with hangings, shooting, whippings, ejection from their
homes, and violations of females. It recommended laws to enable the
governor to cope with the conditions. Brownlow got his laws. One
authorized him to create a state militia. The other branded the Klan
as an outlaw organization and imposed severe penalties for membership in it or association with its members, and provided penalties for
officials who failed to take action against it.
The members of the assembly must have been aware that assembling a militia force would be difficult, for they authorized a committee of three, one from each grand division of the state, to lay
before President Johnson an appeal for regular troops to restore
order in Tennessee. Enforcement by local authorities in Middle and
West Tennessee had failed. Not one offense in a long list of depredations had resulted in a conviction:
And so long as public opinion remains as it is, none will be, especially in the
counties where the order [the Klan] is numerous. No person dare prosecute, for
if he should his life will be endangered thereby. People are apprehensive, should
they prosecute, that they would be murdered by the Klan. Indeed, they tell the
people upon whom they inflict violence that if they should know any of them
and disclose it, they will be killed. With this state of alarm and apprehension, no
one will prosecute. Hence the civil authorities are powerless.
The committee suggested that federal troops in the rebellious
counties would be more effective in restoring calm than state militia.
The former would be better trained to deal with "riots or insurrections," and "they would have no local personal likes or dislikes to
�THE PAINS OF RECONSTRUCTION
335
influence them to commit wrongs on peaceful citizens, nor be subject themselves, after discharge from service, to wrongs and outrages
for having been in the State Military service." The committee carried
its point. It wired the governor from Washington on September 12,
1868:
Mission accomplished. The President wiD sustain the civil authorities. Orders
issued to department Commander [Thomas], to sustain and aid the civil author·
ities, and sufficient force will be furnished to accomplish such purpose.
Wm. H. Wisener
Thos. A. Hamilton
J. H. Agee
In accordance with the agreement a regiment was sent to Tennessee. It was distributed throughout the west and middle divisions
where Klan activities had been boldest, and the state militia was not
organized that year. Some historians hold the view that the state
military service failed to attract members because of unpleasant experiences during the operation of the previous State Guard. [41]
The Radicals were determined to keep full control of the election,
and the positioning of federal troops was credited with having helped
the party vote. Yet, as these repressive measures were taken, the
legislature and the governor offered a tiny ray of conciliation. The
assembly members, in calling of the governor to suppress violence by
organizing the State Guard, wrote into the joint resolution a stipulation: "If the peace and quiet of the State is maintained, and all the
laws obeyed and enforced, said law will remain a dead letter on the
Statute book, and not a man will be called out." The governor expressed the hope in his proclamation twice that it would not be
necessary to call up troops for duty, and in a bow to white supremacists he pledged that black troops would be used in the field only as a
last resort. Otherwise they would be kept in Nashville as reserves. [42]
Klan terrorism showed few signs of abating and actually may have
been on the increase. The order was quite active at the polls in the
effort to intimidate blacks from voting. The result was that, although
the Radicals carried the State for General Grant and Schuyler Colfax
of Indiana for President and Vice-President, the party lost strength in
Middle and West Tennessee. Quiet was restored after the election, an
indication that the Klan had achieved its purpose, despite the presence of federal troops in twenty-one counties. [4 31
�336
CHAPTER NO. 17
One of the most daring and grisly crimes of the Klan surfaced in
February 1869. A detective, Seymour Barmore, who operated on the
spectacular side, had been hired by the governor to infiltrate the
Klan. The order worked in such secrecy that little was known of its
internal affairs and organization. Barmore's first attempt was thwarted by the Klan. He was removed from a train by Klan members near
Columbia and warned that if he persisted in trying to learn the
secrets of the order he would die. Barmore was a man more given to
audacity than discretion, and two nights later he headed for Pulaksi,
on a freight train. Donning Klan regalia he got into a den meeting at
Pulaski, caught a passenger train bound for Nashville, but again the
order was tipped. The Whig of January 20, 1869, carried this terse
bulletin:
Nashville, January 12-Detective Barmore, of this city, whilst returning from
a business trip to Pulaski, was taken from a train on the Nashville and Decatur
Railroad at 3 o'clock this morning by a band of Ku-Klux, some 25 in numbers,
dressed in scarlet, with scarlet masks. Barmore made no resistance, and no one
interfered in his behalf. What they did with him was not known. [ 44]
The newspaper uproar that followed was strident and biased. Each
publication followed its political policy in its treatment of the story.
The Whig saw in the abduction a design by the Klan to obtain the
vote for the disfranchised and spit out this fury:
Raise a general [word blurred], alarm the peaceful, law-abiding citizens, put men
in fear of midnight raids, and arson and rapine. Lay it all to the injustice of withholding the ballot from the "ex rebels," and under this sort of pressure urge
the passage of a universal franchise law as a sovereign panacea for all these
terrors and ills. In other words, hug the venomous viper to your bosom to keep
it quiet and to prevent it from stinging you to death. Turn the sheep over to the
tender mercies of the wolves, to pacify the wolves.
The Press and Herald, assumed with no show of regret that Barmore
had been hanged and offered this thought from "Ally Gator," its
Nashville reporter:
The Kuklux [sic.] have captured a good detective, named Barmore, and is
supposed to have hung [sic.] him.
Happy Barmore, to have been a martyr in the cause of loyalty, and to have
been the means of pulling down the unchristian [sic.] and revolting sentiments
in favor of enfranchising rebels.
A few days later the newspaper concluded:
�THE PAINS OF RECONSTRUCTION
337
The "missing detective" sensation seems to have played out at Nashville. It
has served its purpose, however, as a pretext for Kuklux [sic.] legislation. It
would be interesting to know how many members of the legislature were con·
cerned in getting up the mysterious "disappearance of the 'dead beat.' "
On the morning of February 20, 1869, the body of Barmore was
found floating in the Duck River, two miles from Columbia, a hideous example of illegal execution.
[The body] had evidently been weighted with a rock or other heavy weight
which had slipped off, as there was a rope around his neck with a noose at the
end of it. His arms were tied behind him with a linen handkerchief, and there
was a single bullet-hole in his head. It was obvious that revenge rather than
robbery had been the cause of his death. His two gold rings were still on the
fingers of his left hand, and in his shirt front was the diamond-studded cross pin
which he habitually wore. His wallet was in his pocket, his money undisturbed,
and no list of Ku Klux members there when his body was found.
The Press and Herald, in reporting the finding of the body, at first
questioned, "if, indeed, we can believe any report about him." In the
same, however, it shifted ground somewhat:
Taking it for granted that this report is true and that Barmore was really
kidnapped and murdered, as at first was reported, we most heartily unite with
every lover of peace and justice and honor, in wishing that every participant in
so revolting an assassination, may not only be detected, but brought to suffer
the extreme penalties of the law. Barmore was, no doubt, a scoundrel himself,
but he did not deserve the "deep damnation" of such a "taking off." [45]
The details of Barmore's death and identification of the individuals who acted for the Klan in the assassination remain secret to this
day. Investigations produced nothing from the tight-lipped citizens.
The abduction of the detective triggered Governor Brownlow into a
final proclamation. On January 20, 1869, he called for the mustering
of the State Guard. The call resulted in the organization of a force of
1,800 men. The governor dispatched them into nine Middle and West
Tennessee counties where he had declared martial law. The need for
these troops melted away, however. Soon after Brownlow resigned
on February 25, 1869, to accept the Senate seat, General Forrest
ordered the dissolution of the order. The objective which led to its
creation had been achieved. [46] He might well have mentioned that
its nemesis was leaving the state and the state government.
Brownlow's reasons for seeking the senate seat have never been
made entirely clear. It was available to him, his for the asking. Per-
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CHAPTER NO. 17
haps he wanted to show old foes that he could get it, a display of
defiance to them and their efforts to curb his political power. He
loved power, and once elected he would be assured of a cozy, salaried post for six years, and one less draining on the little physical
strength he retained. He knew his election would infuriate President
Johnson, who would vacate his office the same day Brownlow took
the Senate oath. Whatever the reason, it was compelling. It meant a
final separation from what had been the great joy and satisfaction of
his life, the Whig. His "Editorial Farewell," however, lacked the
warmth of feeling that had flowed through the piece he had written
when he turned the editorial chair over to his son and left to be
governor. It was rather on the stiff and formal side for the Parson:
The Whig, a journal I have edited for the last thirty years, now passes into
other and more able and vigorous hands. As a member of the new company,
owning the office, I shall feel a deep interest in the success of the enterprise, and
will do all in my power to promote its success. In reviewing my long and
eventful career as an editor, I have this to say, that had I my life to live over, I
would pursue the same course I have pursued, only more so. If in past life I have
been violent on some occasions, my apology is that like the Apostle Paul, on
many occasions I have fought with "Beasts at Ephesus." In taking my leave of
many of my readers, I will remind them that before they were born their parents
were subscribers of mine. I have, however, the consolation to know that I have
always taught both parents and children to hold fast to the forms of sound
doctrine; and in defending them I have invariably uttered the words of truth and
soberness. My friends, I wish every possible success in all the undertaking of life.
Of my enemies, I have no favors to ask, but am willing to let by-gones be
by-gones (Whig, January 6, 1869).
The Press and Herald gave the Parson this cynical salute, as an editor:
How happy must that man be and in what sweet christian [Christian] fellowship must he have lived with his fellow man, who, upon laying aside his editorial
armor and reviewing all the personal, official and political incidents of a long life
spent in tumultuous strife with the "beasts at Ephesus" and "the world, the
flesh and the devil," at large, can thus complacently and self-approvingly, withdraw from the scene of his conflicts! Happy, happy, thrice happy man!
Subtlety was cast aside for stinging bluntness as the Press and Herald
rejoiced at the departure of Brownlow as governor:
The retirement of Gov. Brownlow from all pretensions to the gubernatorial
chair will mark a post-bellum epoch in the history of Tennessee. The abdication
�THE PAINS OF RECONSTRUCTION
339
of no hated monarch ever called forth a more heartfelt thanksgiving from the
hearts of a long-suffering people than will swell from the very soul of Tennessee,
when the assurance of the long prayed for riddance shall have been made doubly
sure, by the departure of Senator Brownlow for the National Capital. The 25th
day of February will be henceforth marked with a white stone in the Tennessee
calendar ....
The feeling of the Tennesseean, today, is something akin to that of the jail-worn
prisoner, who gladly dares and joyfully accepts all probable dangers, in lieu of
his wasting confinement, or to drop all simile, it is in very truth the feeling of a
long prostrate freeman, who feels the heavy foot of a tyrant withdrawn from his
neck, and knows it can never be pressed again by a heavier one.[47]
The Parson had always been well supplied with bitter, wrathful,
and articulate enemies. He probably liked it that way. It was fitting,
the newspaper practices of that day being what they were, that he
should receive this heavy smack, an accolade in reverse, from his
Knoxville foe. It was truly a tribute to his ability to stimulate his
enemies to the last.
CHAPTER XVII NOTES
[ 1] Whig, October 11, 1865; Tennessee Senate journal, First Adjourned Session, 1865, pp. 4-26; hereafter referred to as Senate journal, First Adjourned Session, 1865.
I 2) Whig, September 27, 1865. Brownlow's first doubts about advantages of
slavery, ibid., April 30, 1845.
I 3] For Brownlow's opinion of the black race, ibid., October 31, 1840, January 11, 1843, September 13, November 29, 1848, October 17, 1857;
Tri-Weekly Whig, February 1, 1859.
[ 4] Whig, October 11, 1865; Senate journal, First Adjourned Session, 1865,
pp. 4-26.
[ 5) White, Messages, V, pp. 478-479. White was severely criticized as lacking
objectivity in his treatment of Brownlow. Enoch L. Mitchell, "Journal of
Southern History," (Houston, May 1960) Southern Historical Association,
V, 26, pp. 249-250. Alexander, Political Reconstruction, p. 99; Whig,
October 18, 25, 11, 1865.
[ 6] Rodgers had represented Brownlow in the Patterson libel cases. Butler's
circuit formerly was served by Judge D. T. Patterson, President Johnson's
son-in-law and United States senator designate. For the appointments see
ibid., June 21, 1865, February 28, 1866.
[ 7] Ibid., October 25, 1865; Senate journal, First Adjourned Session, 1865, p.
70; Whig, December 13, 27, 1865; Alexander, Political Reconstruction,
�340
[ 8]
[ 9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[ 15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
(22]
CHAPTER NO. 17
pp. 100-101; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp. 128-129; Alexander, Political Reconstruction, p. 101; House journal, First Adjourned
Session, 1865, p. 295.
Whig, February 28, March 7, 1866; Alexander, Political Reconstruction,
pp. 105-108; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp. 115-116. The
House took up the Franchise Bill, February 15, 1866, but was unable to
transact business. House journal, First Adjourned Session, 1865-1866, pp.
270-383; White, Messages, V, pp. 481-487.
Whig, February 28, March 7, 1866.
Johnson vetoed the Freedman's Bureau Bill, a Radical measure, in February 1866. White, Messages, V, p. 509.
Whig, February 21, April 4, 1866. The speech was delivered in Knoxville
on March 24, 1866.
The Whig ran the letter in two issues, April14, 1866. A handwritten copy
of the letter is in the Rule Papers.
Whig, March 14, 21, April 4, 11, 25, May 2, 9, 16, 1866; Alexander,
Political Reconstruction, pp. 109-110; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp. 117-118; Whig, May 23, 1866.
Ibid., May 9, 16, 1866; Alexander, T. A. R. Nelson, p. 123.
Whig, April 11, 1866; White, Messages V, pp. 450-451; Alexander, Political
Reconstruction, pp. 108-109; White, Messages, V, p. 488, fn. 81; House
journal, First Adjourned Session, 1865-1866, pp. 424-425, 487; Whig,
April 11, 18, 1866; See House journal, First Session, 1865, p. 28, for
Williams' affirmative vote in the first franchise bill.
Whig, April 26, 1865; House journal, First Session, 1865, pp. 38, SO, 65;
White, Messages, V, pp. 427-428; House journal, First Adjourned Session,
1865-1866, p. 426, Whig, May 2, 1866.
Ibid., April 13, May 23, 1866; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, p.
118; Alexander, Political Reconstruction, pp. 104-105; Whig, May 23,
1866.
Ibid., November 8, 1865, July 4, 1866; Brownlow to Temple, May 30,
1865. Temple Papers.
See Whig, September 20, 1865 for Heiskell's defense. A number of meetings had been held in Knox County calling on Heiskell to resign. Ibid.,
August 23, September 6, September 20, 1865. The Brownlow and Heiskell
families apparently continued to remain on the best of personal terms.
William Heiskell's son, Samuel, a prominent Democrat and Knoxville
mayor for several terms, treated Brownlow with extreme deference in
Andrew jackson and Early Tennessee History, III, pp. 203-26, 227-272.
Whig, November 8, 1865, June 13, May 16, 23, July 4, 11, 18, 1866, July
10, 24, 1867.
Ibid., February 14, 21, 28. The governor's appeal to East Tennessee loyalists appeared in ibid., December 13, 1865. For a discussion of the Freedmen's Bureau see Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp. 144-169.
Alexander, Political Reconstruction, pp. 110-111; Patton, Unionism and
Reconstruction, pp. 216-217; White Messages, V, pp. 508-510; Folmsbee
et al., Short History, pp. 355-356; Whig, June 27, May 13, 30, 1866;
Alexander, Political Reconstruction, p. 102; Whig, June 20, July 4, 1866.
�THE PAINS OF RECONSTRUCTION
341
July 4, 1866. "My Policy" was a term for Johnson's policy.
[23] Ibid., July 18, 1866; White, Messages, V, p. 518; Senate journal, Extra
Session, 1866, pp. 23-24; Patton, Unionisn and Reconstruction, pp.
220-223; Alexander, Political Reconstruction, p. 111; White, Messages, V,
pp. 519-524; Whig, July 18, 25, August 1, 22, 1866. The House was in a
continual uproar from July 4, 1866, when it convened, to final action,
July 18, 1866. House journal, Extra Session, 1866, pp. 6-25; Whig, July
25, 1866. Johnson had called Forney a "dead duck." Patton, Unionism
and Reconstruction, pp. 223-224.
[24] Ibid., pp. 224-225; Alexander, Political Reconstruction, pp. 119-121; Whig,
July 25, August 1, 22, 1866. Gordon Grainger was a Union general who
had served in the East Tennessee area. For an extended discussion of the
reported attempt to overthrow the Brownlow administration, see Alexander, Political Reconstruction, pp. 124-12 9.
[25] Whig, September 12, 19; Conklin, quoting the Chicago Tribune of September 12, 1866, p. 142.
[26] Whig, October 3, 17, 1866; Conklin, pp. 142-146.
[27] White, Messages, V, p. 530; Alexander, Political Reconstruction, p. 123;
Whig, November 7, 14, 1866; White, Messages, V, pp. 5 31-5 32, 546; Alexander, Political Reconstruction, pp. 123-130; Patton, Unionism andReconstruction, pp. 133-134; Whig, November 7, 1866, January 30, 1867,
November 30, 1866. See also Alexander, Political Reconstruction, p. 147.
[28] Whig, April 4, August 22, 29, October 24, 1866; White, Messages, V, pp.
5 34-5 35. For a discussion of Brownlow's motives in asking for a state
militia, see Alexander, Political Reconstruction, pp. 126-129.
[29] Whig, January 23, 30, 1867; White, Messages, V, p. 551. For a brief sketch
of Case see Whig, April 12, 1865. The murder of Senator Case is not
mentioned in Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, or in Alexander,
Political Reconstruction. The letter giving the name of the guerrilla was
written to Representative J. W. Smith of Hardeman County, who did not
reveal the name of his informant. Whig, January 30, 1867.
[30] Whig, March 6, April 3, 1867.
[31] Ibid., February 27, March 13, 6, 20, 1867; Alexander, Political Reconstruction, p. 141.
[32] Ibid., pp. 146-147; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp. 134-139;
Whig, April24, May 1, 8, June 5, 1867.
[33] Ibid., January 9, 1867; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, p. 121.
Baxter's attack and the Parson's counter-assaults, Whig, April24, May 1, 8,
15, 22, 29, 1867, June 5, July 3, 10, 1867. For the Supreme Court
opinion upholding the franchise law see Whig, March 27, 1867; Patton,
Unionism and Reconstruction, pp. 120-123; White, Messages, V, pp. 540,
546; Gaut's role, Whig, July 3, 10, 1867; election returns, White, Messages,
V, p. 506.
[ 34] Reports of the Parson's impending death, Whig, April 3, 1867; White,
Messages, p. 563. Accounts of the Stanford case may be found in the
Whig, January 30, April 24, May 22, 1867; White, Messages, V, author's
note, p. 546; election returns, House journal, 1867-1868, p. 25.
�342
CHAPTER NO. 17
[35) Whig, August 21, July 30, August 7, 1867; Alexander, Political Reconstruction, pp. 15 3-156.
[36) Heiskell, Andrew jackson and Early Tennessee History, III, preface.
[37) Whig, October 30, 16, 23, 1867; Senate journal, First Session, 1867, pp.
23-24; Whig, October 30, 1867; Senate journal, First Session, 1867, pp.
90-91; John Bell Brownlow to Temple, June 20, 1892. Temple Papers.
[38) Alexander, Political Reconstruction, pp. 176-182; Stanley Horn, The Invisible Empire, The Story of the Ku Klux Klan, enlarged edition (Cos Cob,
Connecticut, 1969), pp. 9-15, 32-41. Hereafter referred to as The Invisible
Empire. Folmsbee, et al., Short History, pp. 360-361.
[39) Whig, March 18, 25, April 1, 15, 22, 29, 1868;Press and Herald, June 18,
March 22, 24, 29, April22, 24, 29, 15, 25, July 2, 1868.
[40) For an extended account of the formation of the Klan and its activities in
Tennessee, see The Invisible Empire, pp. 7 3-108. See also Folmsbee, et al,
Short History, pp. 361-364; Alexander, Political Reconstruction, pp.
176-198; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp. 162-165, 170-200.
For Brownlow's call for a special session, and the Whig's policy against the
Klan, see Whig, March 11, 18, 25, April 15, 22, 29, May 13, 20, 27, June
10, 24, July 1, 29, August 12, 26, September 9, 16, 1868.
[41) Senate journal, Extra Session, 1868, pp. 131-168; House journal, Extra
Session, 1868, pp. 185-222; Acts of Tennessee, Extra Session, 1868, Chapters 2 and 3, pp. 18-25; Alexander, Political Reconstruction, pp. 188-189;
Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp. 192-198; Whig, September 16,
1868; Senate journal Appendix, 1868-1869, p. 10; Alexander, Political
Reconstruction, pp. 188-199; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp.
198-199; Alexander, Political Reconstruction, p. 182.
[42) Senate journal, Extra Session, 1868, pp. 138-168; House journal, Extra
Session, 1868, pp. 185-222; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp.
192-199; Whig, January 20, February 17, 1869.
[43) Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, p. 142.
[44) The Invisible Empire, pp. 108-110; Alexander, Political Reconstruction,
pp. 196-197; Whig, January 20, 1869.
[45) Ibid., Press and Herald, January 15, 17, 20, 24, 1869. Barmore's effects
were attached to pay his debts. Ibid., January 22, 1869; The Invisible
Empire, pp. 111-112. See also excoriation of Barmore and a quasi-justification for the killing, by the Louisville Courier-journal. Ibid., p. 112.
[46) The Invisible Empire, pp. 112-113; Alexander, Political Reconstruction,
pp. 187-198; Patton, Unionism and Reconstruction, pp. 199-200.
[47) Press and Herald, January 7, 1869.
�Brownlow's Knoxville Whig
"Yielding up the other cheek/Dropping humbly
on the knees; Closing lips when dared to speak/Will
not do in times like these."
Chapter No. 19
NEW FOES FROM OLD FRIENDS
Parson Brownlow's political course brought him a host of new and
burning enemies. It also shattered some old and very close friendships. The oldest friend with whom he parted company was Frederick Steidinger Heiskell, one of Knoxville's early printers and newspaper publishers. Brownlow's first book, Helps to the Study of
Presbyterianism, came out of Heiskell's shop. When the Parson
moved to Knoxville, he borrowed money from Heiskell to bail himself out of a tight situation. The Knoxville printer also was most
active in the affairs of the city. When the issue of secession arose he
was a firm loyalist, although he was not as militant as some of the
leaders. [ 1]
The Civil War found Heiskell a miserable old man, for loyal Unionist that he was, both of his sons went with the South. Carrick White
joined the army, and Joseph B., a Rogersville lawyer, won a seat in
the Confederate House from the First District. Union forces captured
the congressman in upper East Tennessee late in the summer of 1864
and imprisoned him at Knoxville. The Whig credited him with having
held a position of "respectability" prior to the war. But it accused
him of having shown such hatred and ferocity against Unionists of
East Tennessee during the war: "It is now time that the halter should
be summoned to do its appropriate work; and no man in the ranks of
the rebellion is a man more suitable to commence upon that than
this same rebel congressman." The Whig made the grisly suggestion
that if Joseph Heiskell was given his liberty, "He could not live
343
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CHAPTER NO. 18
twenty-four hours, within the reach of the men he has abused, persecuted and outraged." The Union authorities concluded that they
had insufficient grounds upon which to hold the congressman. He
must have decided to go elsewhere than East Tennessee, for he next
appeared in "the genial clime of Memphis," where he practiced
law.[2]
Fred Heiskell became a Conservative. It would have been unthinkable for him to have turned Radical. He made a forlorn race for
Congress in the summer of 1864 against a field of five Radicals that
included Horace Maynard, who captured his old Second District seat.
Heiskell received only 126 votes out of 2,500 cast in Knox County.
Somewhere during the campaign, he picked up the title of major, at
least the Whig gave him that handle. When the campaign ended the
Whig accorded him more than a column of space in which he expressed his Conservative position, his opposition to the disfranchisement and election laws of the Radical administration, and his zeal to
heal the wounds of war by restoring "the original order of things"
with the exception of slavery. He was opposed to black equality. The
Whig described Heiskell's statement as "a very foolish document to
come from a sensible man." He lost, the newspaper said, because he
had supported McClellan against Lincoln for President, a position
unacceptable to the majority of East Tennessee Unionists. [3]
The Whig remained fairly tolerant of Heiskell until he accused the
Parson of lying in a talk at the Knox County Courthouse. In the talk
the governor charged, "As a class the newspapers of the South were
disloyal and that hostility to the Government and Union men characterized the editorials of a majority of Southern journals." The Whig
countered Heiskell's assertion by quoting abusive and hysterical language from a number of southern publications, but again treated the
former publisher with considerable restraint. It referred to him rather
mildly as "an old fossil." Restraint ended when a second newspaper,
the Commercial, was started in Knoxville and opened its columns to
Heiskell. It permitted him to attack the governor as having "never
published a paper, political or religious, that could be introduced
into a family without polluting it." The Whig recalled that Heiskell
had visited Brownlow in the editor's home over a period of years,
had expressed "great admiration for his newspaper, and had subscribed to it for many years. The Whig found that in his changed
mood Heiskell
revels in slander as the chief element of the atmosphere on which he stands. He
�NEW FOES FROM OLD FRIENDS
345
is like the man ... who was so fond of contradiction that he would throw up the
window in the middle of the night and contradict the watchman who was calling
the hour.
In a word, he is "the incarnation of malice, mendacity and cowardice" (Whig,
May 2, 1866).
Young John Bell Brownlow was infuriated when Heiskell described him as a "squirt" and lunged at the old man [he was eighty
years old] with this bit of background:
In August 1864, Joseph B. Heiskell [son of Frederick] was captured by the
brigade to which we belonged. Joseph had been particeps crimini to the atrocious murder of several Union citizens, and through several counties had accompanied and encouraged a band of rebel bushwackers and thieves who lacerated
with whips the backs of the wives, sisters, and daughters of the Union soldiers.
Because of these atrocious and inhuman acts it was with difficulty that Gen.
Gillem could prevent the outraged Union soldiers of East Tennessee from taking
the life of the 'worthy son of an illustrious sire.' In the presence of Heiskell's
friends we publicly expressed the opinion that the 'woman whipper' should be
shot. Ever since then the father of the coward and brute has considered us a
'squirt'-Jo Heiskell was not shot, as he should have been, but was brought to
this city and [in the presence of his illustrious 'parient'] [sic.] marched to the
Knoxville jail, with his hands tied behind him. The father thought we exerted
some influence to have this disposition made of his brutal son. [ 4]
Governor Brownlow must have decided John Bell was doing an
inadequate job on Heiskell, for in an editorial bearing the Parson's
unmistakable touch he bore down upon his old friend:
This old whisky-rotted, broken-down political hack has been for several
months abusing and blackguarding the senior editor of the Knoxville Whig,
through the columns of a dirty little daily, conducted by an insolent swindler,
and a degraded little rebel sympathizer ....
The Parson listed five reasons for Heiskell's anger: 1) his failure to
get a job under Brownlow as assistant special Treasury agent after the
Union occupation, 2) the Whig's account of Joe's arrest, 3) the
father's ignominious race for Congress, 4) the removal of Joe's name
from a charter submitted to the legislature for approval, and 5) the
shelving of a bill prepared by Joseph "for the benefit of rebels."
Then he summed up the elder Heiskell:
A case exemplifying more malice, more depravity, more scoundrclism, more
�346
CHAPTER NO. 18
contempt for generosity, more baseness, more blind devotion to a sinking cause
and a disgraced band or leaders, and more profligacy, ingratitude and worthlessness has seldom or never been made public. A fugitive from the fold of truth, the
walks of sobriety, and the abodes of patriotism, honor and integrity, the poor
old apostate is held in utter contempt by the people who, until recently, have
respected his grey hairs (Whig, June 13, 1866).
Feeble and palsied in body the Parson was, but he could still pile up
the epithets with the vigor and variety of his earlier years.
Brownlow was at the peak of his political power, but he was
having trouble getting his way in the courts, especially in litigation to
punish rebels for injury done to Unionists. Early in 1865 he was
awarded judgment of $25,000 against W. H. Sneed, John H. Crozier,
and R. B. Reynolds, in Knox County Circuit Court. Reynolds was
the Confederate commissioner who had issued the warrant for
Brownlow's arrest in 1861. The editor charged that Sneed and Crozier met in the office of J. C. Ramsey, Confederate district attorney,
and there conspired on how to get rid of him. The Parson said that
they considered hanging him. Several other judgments were returned
in favor of Unionists against influential Confederates accused of having persecuted to the point of property destruction and death.
Among them was a judgment in favor of the heirs of Sam Pickens of
Sevier County, a former state senator, who was marched away as an
enemy of the Confederacy and died in prison. This judgment, against
Sneed, Crozier, and Reynolds, was for $10,000. The Parson lost
heavily as a result of being banished. Although he did recoup his
fortunes extensively through his lectures and his book, he urged the
filing of more suits against Confederates who were "a part and parcel
of a general, wicked and most infernal conspiracy." In fact, he encouraged a deluge of litigation:
Other suits are on the docket, and others are to come. Let them be impoverished, and made bankrupt. Let them [the ex-Confederates] be made beggars,
going from door to door for their bread. They brought on this rebellion-they
caused all this suffering and trouble-let them now be made odious, and their
estates be confiscated .... Now, let them feel the consequences of their wicked
and rebellious conduct.
Among the Parson's losses in connection with the war was his
failure to realize anything from the lawsuit against the trustees of the
Bank of East Tennessee, which he had won in the State Supreme
Court. The Parson had a personal stake in this lawsuit, which he
�NEW FOES FROM OLD FRIENDS
347
prosecuted for himself and many other depositors who had lost in
the bank's failure. Property of the bank was sold to satisfy judgments
for $100,000, shortly before the war broke out, and funds were
deposited in the Bank of Tennessee. Officials of the bank made away
with the money during the war, and the Parson declined an offer of
the Knox County clerk and master to accept Confederate money to
satisfy the judgment. Nor did Brownlow realize any money, with the
possible exception of some rents, from the properties of Sneed, Crozier, and Reynolds. When these properties were sold at court sale the
Parson bid them in, but lost them later under United States Supreme
Court rulings. The three Brownlow foes thus regained all their real
estate. [5]
Sneed, Ramsey, and Crozier were old and established enemies of
the Parson, both political and personal. Far more dreadful and emotionally draining was the break between Brownlow and two old
friends and former Unionists, Connally F. Trigg and John Baxter.
Both men had been welcomed effusively when they arrived in Knoxville to practice law. Trigg was the partner of 0. P. Temple; and
Baxter, a wealthy North Carolinian, signalled his arrival by the purchase of an "elegant residence" on Main Street. Baxter attained a
practice rated by a contemporary as the largest in the state. Both
lawyers went down the line ardently and vigorously for the Union in
the hectic campaigns on separation in 1861. After the state voted for
secession, Trigg fled to the North but Baxter remained in Knoxville. [6] The former came back to Tennessee in 1863 as a United
States District Court judge. The Parson predicted that he would be a
scourge to the rebels. The Whig, at the close of the Federal Court
session, praised Judge Trigg for having "presided with great dignity
and propriety .... It is a source of no little gratification to his numerous friends that he who, two years and a half ago, had to steal
away from home like a thief in the night to avoid the murderers who
were dogging him, came back with authority to vindicate the laws of
the government which he then vainly sought to uphold and which
effort constituted the crime that drove him into exile."
The legal philosophy of Judge Trigg, however, soon drove the
Whig into indignation. The newspaper's first protest against the
rather wholesale release of men indicted for treason was lodged
against the amnesty proclamation "and the laws of Congress enacted
in pursuance thereof." Most of those indicted were cleared of charges
upon taking the amnesty oath. The Whig began to give personal
�348
CHAPTER NO. 18
coverage of the court and indicated a special interest in Eli Dickson
or Dixon. He had made threats against one of the Whig editors and
had vowed on the death of his son at Fort Donelson to kill "twelve
Union men to pay for it." Dixon was freed upon taking the amnesty
oath, was rearrested and reindicted for violation of his pledge, but
Judge Trigg "lectured the jurors for their seeming disposition to
persecute the man," and ordered his release. [7] This was the Parson's first printed criticism of the judge, and the newspaper seized
upon it to point a moral:
A few days ago he [Dickson] undertook to act as a guide for about thirty rebel
guerrillas crossing the Tennessee River into McMinn County ... robbing and
plundering innocent Union families-this old pet of ~he Federal Court piloting
the raiders to the Union houses. A small party of Federal soldiers got after them,
and overtook them as they approached old Eli's house-capturing eight of
them-Dickson starting to run was halted, refusing to stop; the soldiers discharged their muskets, six balls taking effect and killing him instantly.
We suggest to those who entered into bonds for his loyalty and future good
conduct, that they plead his death as a ground of forgiveness! ... Old Eli went
into the rebellion at the start and never got his right until a few days ago (Whig,
February 1, 1865).
The feud between Brownlow and Trigg erupted into a conflict
between the United States District Court and the Parson in his role as
assistant special agent of the Treasury Department over a 500-acre
farm in the Lyons Bend area of the Tennessee River, late in the
winter of 1865. As Treasury agent Brownlow had seized the farm
and leased it to Joseph Mullins on October 8, 1864. Three bachelor
brothers-T. C. Lyon, a lawyer, Captain William Lyon of the Confederate army, and W. H. Lyon, owned the land. They were reported to
be inside the Confederate lines. In January 1864 Judge Trigg ordered
Mullins ousted and the property turned over to "a rebel lawyer, for
the use of the rebel heirs of the Lyon family." Mullins sought to
intervene and asked that the order be set aside and the suit transferred to Circuit Court. He protested that he had already sowed
wheat on some of the land. Judge Trigg denied the application of
Mullins and the United States marshal summoned a posse to remove
the farmer. The Parson moved quickly and forcefully. He obtained
troops from General Lewis Tilson, commanding at Knoxville, and
they were stationed at the farm to protect the renter. The marshal
and his deputies made no attempt to dislodge the soldiers. [8]
�NEW FOES FROM OLD FRIENDS
349
The outcome of the confrontation put the Parson in high spirits.
He had been nominated for governor without opposition and he had
defied, with the backing of the United States army, the order of a
federal judge to overthrow a lease arrangement he had made. He
loosed this hymn of triumph:
I will not play into the hands of wealthy and influential rebels, in violation of
the laws of Congress, even though I incur the displeasure of the Federal court. I
am willing to measure arms with the court, or in other words, to let the loyal
people of East Tennessee decide upon our respective merits. I have never heard a
more general complaint against any organization than is made by loyal men
against the doings of this court. It has never, as Lawyers say, decided in favor of
the Government when there was opposition made. It has not convicted any man
of treason or of high misdemeanor, out of twelve hundred indictments and I
believe never will. It admits a rebel Lawyer to practice in the court, indicted for
treason; and it turns traitors loose upon the community who come in and take
the amnesty oath, after they have been indicted for treason .... Its sessions are
doing the Union cause no good and the best interests of the country would not
suffer if it were to suspend its operations until the close of the war (Whig, March
1, 1865 ).
Trigg made a futile attempt in the following May to have the
Parson, now governor, indicted for obstructing a United States District Court order, in the Mullins affair:
[He] delivered a charge to the grand jury in Knoxville, in which he directed
them, in strong and dictatorial language, in a manner displaying a high state of
excitement, to indict me for my action in the premises. It is probable ... that
the secret had got out that some such stump speech would be made from the
Bench, for the rebel soldiers and citizens were in attendance, and they cheered
lustily. The assault upon me, like the opinions and decisions of the Court generally, was popular with the rebels, and that class of Union men with whom his
Honor drinks liquor and plays cards.
The governor was gratified, stating:
Much to the surprise and chagrin of the eminent patriot [Trigg] , whose every
thought is as pure as an Angel's breath,(!) he failed to bully the grand jury of his
Court to find a bill against the editor of this paper.
Several days since the grand jury of the Federal Court was discharged, and the
jurors departed ... without making the presentment which Trigg's heart yearned
for .... Some men have nobly served their country by dying on the battlefield.
All men like Trigg would serve their country by dying anywhere (Whig, june 21,
1865).
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CHAPTER NO. 18
The Whig was pleased with the grand jurors, but it had another
reason to detest Trigg. The judge had held unconstitutional the Test
Oath Act passed by Congress that required lawyers who had supported the Confederacy to swear that their adherence had not been voluntary before they could practice in Federal Court. This ruling, the
newspaper complained, "admitted those lawyers to practice in his
Court who not only voluntarily gave aid and comfort to the rebellion, but were original secessionists and leaders of the rebellion in
East Tennessee." Trigg's opinion was ultimately upheld by the
United States Supreme Court. The question had highly important
legal aspects. One eminent attorney summed it up in this fashion:
The right of an attorney acquired by his admission to the bar, to appear for
suitors and to argue cases is not a matter of indulgence, grace or favor revocable
at the pleasure of the Court or the Legislature. Congress has the right to prescribe the qualifications for the office of attorney, but it has no right to inflict
punishment for past conduct; such legislation is in conflict with the Constitutional provision prohibiting passage of bills of attainder. (9]
The hot wrath the Whig poured upon Judge Trigg for this ruling
arose from personal, as well as political, reasons. John Bell Brownlow, who scribbled a number of highly derogatory statements about
Trigg's moral habits on the margins of the Whig files, insisted, "Trigg
literally owed his appointment absolutely to my father." The Brownlow son said he had a letter that Trigg had written to the Parson that
implored the latter to see President Lincoln on the former's behalf,
and stated that Military Governor Johnson would give him no assistance in seeking the appointment as federal judge. When the Parson
made his plea on behalf of Trigg "he found there was already on the
President's table a commission for Gen. John B. Rogers of Middle
Tennessee as U.S. judge for Tenn. Had he been one day later it would
have gone to the Senate. One of the first cases Lincoln ever had, one
of the first fees, was given him by old Gen. Rogers in a land lawsuit."
The Brownlows were bitterly hacked when Trigg displayed a legal
philosophy in complete opposition to their principle that all rebels
were traitors. The United States Supreme Court decision that upheld
Trigg in the test oath case vindicated him legally. The Brownlow view
that he should have held the way those responsible for his appointment wanted him to scarcely conforms to ethics, legal or otherwise;
but it appears true that Trigg, upon return from his northern refuge
during the war, had altered his personal tastes for friends. Temple,
�NEW FOES FROM OLD FRIENDS
351
who had extended to him a law partnership when he located m
Knoxville, in later years wrote of him rather dourly:
Not many months passed after Judge Trigg ascended the bench before it
became apparent that his sympathies and feelings were all on the side of those to
whom he had been lately so hostile. This was the more striking when it was
considered that he was not a fickle, emotional man, a man of hot impulses and
bitter prejudices, but the very reverse .... And yet he changed, and never returned to his old life-long party affiliations. No one ever knew the reason ...
Possibly the subtle effect of social recognition and position, then as now, so
strong in the State, silently and even unconsciously, touched his ambition, or his
pride, and did its potent work. It is not ungrateful even to a judge to receive the
flattering attention of the powerful and the rich, and to find the doors of elegant
and hospitable homes at all times open to him.[lO]
The "rebel lawyer" in whose favor Trigg decided the test oath case
was John Baxter, the former militant Unionist. This circumstance
added to the Brownlow wrath. Two old comrades of the Union cause
in 1861 now stood in hostile and successful array against the Parson.
One was a federal judge he had helped obtain his position and the
other was a litigant granted a ruling that clashed with the governor's
rigid conviction that all unrepentant rebels should be branded as
traitors and remain stripped of some of their old privileges, in Baxter's case to practice law. In 1862, the same year he helped Trigg
obtain his judgeship, the Parson had rated Baxter as a "moderate
Secessionist." The lawyer had taken a Conservative course and
fought Brownlow on the political front, although personal bitterness
between the two men did not surface for two years.
Baxter brought the split into the open at the state convention of
the Conservative Party at Nashville in April1867. He loosed a tirade
against the governor, and an element of his speech showed that he
was furious because the Brownlow franchise law barred him from
voting. The Whig then formally declared war. It ridiculed Baxter's
appointment as chairman of his party's Central Executive Committee, and summed him up as a very bad man:
John Baxter, of Knox, has intrigued for the nomination for Governor for
twelve months, and to hold him on to the party they had to make him Chairman
of this Committee. But for this promotion he would have bolted, as twelve
months is a long time for him to continue on one side of any question. He was
once a candidate for the Rebel Congress in this District, and was shamefully
defeated by a brother rebel. He, after that, shouldered his gun, and went with a
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CHAPTER NO. 18
company of rebels to Strawberry Plains to kill Union men! His next exploit was
a proposition to Jeff Davis, through Senator Haynes, to furnish him with half a
million of money to go North and bribe the Lincoln papers to espouse the rebel
cause. And last, but not least, when Burnside came into Knoxville, he made a
speech to him and his army, bidding them welcome, and rejoicing over their
success.
A week later the Whig came down upon Baxter with a total of
seven items on one page that denounced or reflected on Baxter. The
short-lived Commercial, the Conservative newspaper, was enchanted
at this spectacle. It revived the old story that the Parson had urged
Baxter to make the race for the Confederate Congress, had himself
decided to cast his lot with the South, and it added a new touch. It
said that Trigg and Colonel John Williams had dissuaded the Parson
from such a course. The Whig denied the story.[ll]
Brownlow had announced that he was too feeble to campaign for
reelection for governor. But he found the strength and fire to expand
his capsuled denunciation of Baxter into an acrimonious catalog of
the lawyer's characteristics and deeds and called his three-column
production in the Whig
a plain, common sense history of a North Carolina felon, who is at present the
bell-weather [sic.] of an East Tennessee flock of swindlers, liars and traitors,
banded together for the two-fold purpose of swindling the Federal Government,
and bolstering up their relatives and partners who were traitors during the war!
For two years past, upon the stump, on the streets, in the cars, and in the
private circle, you have been blackguarding, slandering and villifying me, and at
the same time meeting me, smiling, shaking hands, and enquiring after my
health, in the most approved style of a hypocrite and an assassin-your corrupt
nature and practice qualifying you for the one and your cowardice fitting you
for the other. At the same time you have intentionally misrepresented every act
of the Legislature, villified the officials of the State Government, and advised
resistance to the laws by force, even to the shedding of blood (Whig, May 15,
1867).
Baxter admitted that his two-year campaign against the Brownlow
policies was ineffective. The Parson decided to tell his readers why
and listed fourteen particulars. He mixed fact, invective, and hyperbole in what may have been the most cutting attack made by the
Brownlow pen. Some of it was new. Some of it consisted of old
accounts refurbished with the Parson's highest skill in the use of the
skinning knife. He charged the lawyer with having been forced to
�NEW FOES FROM OLD FRIENDS
35 3
leave North Carolina because of abusive treatment of witnesses and
jurors, unprofessional conduct with fellow members of the bar, "general swindling operations," and for having fought a duel, then a
violation of state law. The sketch was in striking contrast with the
puff the Whig had given Baxter when the latter arrived in Knoxville
to practice law.
The Parson found it appropriate that Andrew Baxter, the lawyer's
brother, had served a term in the Georgia penitentiary for horse
stealing, and was "shot down like a dog," for barn burning in Polk
County, Tennessee, because "He was the exact counterpart of yourself in ... features, voice, manners and principles." In Tennessee,
Baxter had tried to tyrannize young lawyers and to bully the older
ones. This activity brought reproofs from the bench and created
dislike for Baxter. In recent days he had accused the state judges,
many of them appointed by Brownlow, as "corrupt and incompetent."
At the Greeneville Convention of 1861, the Parson charged, Baxter had "labored with might and main to defeat the Union Party and
play into the hands of the rebel party .... And yet after that, falsely
professing to be a Union man [he] shouldered your [his] gun, went
into a rebel company as a private, and marched upon Strawberry
Plains to aid in killing a portion of the Union members of the same
Convention!" When Baxter ran for the Confederate Congress, he
played a double role. Baxter pretended "in the private circle that
[his] sole object was to serve the Union cause. Yet when electioneering with the Secessionists he claimed to be with the South, and to
believe that the Confederacy was a fixed fact!" The lawyer's course
while Knoxville was a part of the Confederacy drew the Parson's
most stinging rhetoric. He charged:
[Baxter] sat upon the corners of the streets, like a vulture, awaiting with delight,
the arrival and imprisonment of Union prisoners, that you might take their notes
and mortgages on their farms for exorbitant fees, when you knew you could not
render them any service, and that the rebel Court Martial refused to hear with
respect anything you said .... You took a lein [sic.] upon Haun's little farm,
and when he was hung [hanged], you said on the street "damn him, he ought to
hang." Within the last year I have seen your heartlessly written demand of his
widow for your pay, or the sale of the land upon which you knew she had been
ploughing bare footed with one horse, to raise bread for her fatherless children.
You wrote a letter to Haynes [Confederate Senator Landon C. Haynes, Baxter's law partner] at Richmond, offering to take a bribe from jeff Davis, of half
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CHAPTER NO. 18
a million of money, to go North in the garb of a Union man and buy up the
press, and get up a fire in the rear against the Federal Army .... Among my
worst acts, after our forces took possession of East Tennessee, was to discourage
the proposition to hang you!
Brownlow had personal as well as political reasons for distrusting
Baxter. He had relied upon him as the family adviser while he was in
jail. The lawyer, he said, had become
Offended at the Union men for not supporting you; [in the race for the
Confederate Congress] you went to work actively and vindictively to destroy as
many of them as you could. You caused the arrest and imprisonment of some,
taking care to contrive the arrest of as many as you could who were able to pay
you fees for defending them. Because I refused to vote for you, you denounced
me as a bridge-burner, and was in part the cause of my having to lie out in the
Smoky Mountains. Your main object was to drive me to sacrifice my printing
establishment. Whilst I was in the mountains, you stated to a family in Knoxville
that you had me in your power, and controlled a debt that I was not able to
meet!
Whilst you had me in jail and after you had placed me in a condition to force
me to let my office and fixtures go at half price, you started a rebel newspaper .....
When Gen. Burnside came into Knoxville in 1863, you thrust yourself forward to make a speech of welcome, rejoicing at the overthrow of the Confederacy, and with an effrontery that would make the Father of Lies ashamed,
classed yourself with those who had been standing by the old flag.
The Parson accused Baxter of having tried unsuccessfully to obtain
"a commission as a brigadier general in the rebel army," of joining in
an effort to recruit troops for the Confederate forces, and of falsely
taking credit for having obtained the editor's release to go North.
Brownlow credited Joseph A. Mabry's influence at Richmond with
having achieved this. He acknowledged that Baxter had returned the
engine from his print shop, after the entry of federal troops, but
attributed this to the laywer's having
felt mean because of the figure at which you got the establishment, and the
circumstances under which I was forced to sell. Or you may have felt a little
gratitude toward me for having discouraged the idea of arresting you for your
half million letter, which was in the possession of the Provost Marshal General. It
was seriously contemplating placing you in the military prison at Camp Chase,
and had Maynard and myself said the word, it would have been done. [ 12]
�NEW FOES FROM OLD FRIENDS
355
Baxter's stinging charges of usurpation and corruption by the state
administration, made in speeches and in a pamphlet, led the Brownlow forces to make vigorous replies. Secretary of State A. J. Fletcher
delivered an extended and detailed defense at Cleveland on June 3,
1867. The Parson published in the Whig correspondence he had carried on with the New York banking house of Jay Cooke & Co., to
justify himself against Baxter's charges. His own secretary, H. H.
Thomas, who was a staff officer with Burnside when Federal troops
entered Knoxville, recalled finding Baxter's letter to Haynes suggesting the half million dollar bribe, and the amazement of the rebels
present when Baxter welcomed the Union army. [13]
Baxter was bold as well as brash. The Parson knew this from
observing him in campaigns, and from a seven-page letter the lawyer
had written him from Tazewell when he was running for the Confederate Congress in 1861. After speaking and going to a hotel, Confederate troops notified him
that he would have to leave the town in 20 minutes. He firmly told them he
would not obey their orders. They went out, consulted, returned and made a
rush upon him. The Landlord, his wife and daughters, planted themselves in the
door, and forbid their entrance, but they rushed in and finding Baxter fortified
in his room with a double-shotgun, and a Revolver, cocked and ready, and
notifying them that he would kill the first man who presented a weapon at
him-they desisted and he took the field, stayed all knight [sic.] and had gone
on to his appointments. [14]
Baxter was indeed bold, but he also was an opportunist. He went
from Unionist to Confederate. His enthusiasm for the South wilted
when he was arrested as an enemy of the Confederacy in Memphis in
1862. Baxter blamed Governor Harris for his brief imprisonment,
although Harris appears to have been responsible for his release. A
Confederate general stationed at Knoxville early in the war doubted
Baxter's loyalty to the South. Baxter was temperamental, argumentative and often given to extremes, qualities certain to bring hot
replies from the old Parson, who relished articulate foes. His amazing
political course, however, appeared to end with his appointment in
1877 by President Rutherford B. Hayes to the United States Sixth
Circuit Court of Appeals. But on the bench he sometimes acted
impulsively, "and was positive, often extreme; sometimes arbitrary;
always combative." Temple, who tried to write in kindly fashion of
every lawyer and judge, praised Baxter for many qualities but ob-
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CHAPTER NO. 18
served that his political shifts "showed a mental agility that is somewhat remarkable." [ 15]
The Whig cast aside reserve when Knox County Circuit Court jurors
found not guilty for the Parson's old Confederate foes who had been
charged with murder in the hanging of three of the bridge burners of
1861. Three of the defendants- J. R. McCann, Reuben Roddy, and
W. C. Kain-reportedly served on the Confederate court-martial
which ordered the executions. The fourth was J. C. Ramsey, Confederate district attorney, whose connection with a military tribunal
appears remote. The Whig was stung because "The rebel papers of
the South have boasted of their acquittal by a Union jury," and it
made lame efforts to explain the verdicts. One of them was:
... the zeal of the rebels to have the defendants acquitted, their anxiety to get
on juries, and to get them to testify in their favor, together with the false reports
of their papers and correspondents, and singular, are opening the eyes of loyal
men to the wide-spread conspiracy of rebels in the South, and their purpose to
browbeat the civil authorities, acquit guilty rebels, and convict and punish Union
men.
When state charges of treason against Ramsey were dismissed a
few months later upon payment of the costs, the Whig gave Ramsey
the traditional newspaper shrug of contempt by putting his name last
in a list of fourteen defendants cleared of such charges. [ 16]
A side effect of the trial of McCann, Roddy, Kain, and Ramsey
was the revelation by the Whig that for two years the Parson had
been reaching for the throat of the Rev. William B. Carter. The
spectacle of the area's two great Union heroes at fierce odds opened
at the East Tennessee Convention held at Knoxville in April 1864. It
went almost unreported at the time. The only reference to it was a
Whig item denying that the Parson had "handled severely" General S.
P. Carter, brother of the Rev. W. B. Carter. The item also pointed out
that the Parson had made "no allusion" to the general and had
known him "only as a gentleman." The import of the item must have
been understood by the men who were delegates to the convention,
but to others of the Whig's readers it must have been an enigma. The
acquittal of the four former Confederates infuriated Brownlow to
the point where he accused W. B. Carter of having brought on the
hanging and persecution of Unionists, through the bridge burning.
The result was that "the jails of East Tennessee, and the prisons of
Mobile, Macon and Tuscaloosa were crowded with innocent Union
�NEW FOES FROM OLD FRIENDS
357
men," and five citizens were hanged.
The Parson revealed that at the 1864 convention Carter engaged
in a two-hour tirade against Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin M.
Stanton, "and the Republican Party generally." The Parson roared
back that Carter had been furnished funds from private sources to
finance his trip to Washington to "procure relief for the Union men."
He left soon after the Greeneville Convention of 1861 "and through
the influence of Senator Johnson, and with the sanction of Mr. Lincoln and General McClellan, obtained $22,600 with which to burn"
the bridges. The Parson charged that Carter had not accounted for
half of the amount and demanded that he make "a public statement
as to his innocence or guilt." Brownlow waited two years "for his
[Carter's] defense ... and it is not forthcoming." It is quite possible
that Carter was so bound by an oath taken before the bridge burning
that he could not make a statement on the subject. Temple, who
attempted to get detailed information on the plot and the participants, frequently ran into a stone wall. Most of the men who had
engaged in the burning would not talk about it. Temple said he
found that the government had given Carter only $2,500 for the
project. But nowhere in Temple's two books on the times and the
people does he mention the dispute between Brownlow and Carter.
The Whig finally brought out that the animosity went back to
1862 while Brownlow was in Boston on his lecture tour. Carter came
to Knoxville and there denounced the Parson. The details of this
attack are not available. After Brownlow became governor, the Whig
related, Carter called the Parson "King Brownlow," and denied he
had pocketed between $10,000 and $12,000 of the bridge burning
funds. The Whig then tossed back a few more insults. It said Carter
had "boarded" ten or twelve slaves at Knoxville, employed them to
cut firewood, sold the fuel and kept the money; he had smuggled
North $15,000 worth of tobacco and squandered some of the money
given him for the bridge sabotage on the stock market. [ 17]
Among the friendships that were destroyed in the fires of Reconstruction politics was that of Brownlow and the brilliant, witty, but
convivial John Fleming, lawyer, legislator, and editor. The two men
had worked in harmony as Whigs, and later as members of the
staunch Union band of 1861. Fleming was fond of the Parson, and
the older man had a high regard for the younger man's leadership
ability. On the eve of the secession-bent General Assembly of 1861
he wrote that Fleming "is a shrewd, long-headed man, and will have
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CHAPTER NO. 18
influence, and control the entire Union delegation from this end of
the State. He is right and he is reliable." At the East Tennessee
Convention of 1864 when the Unionists split into Radicals and Con·
servatives, Fleming went with the latter. He eventually turned Demo·
crat as did Nelson. When the Daily Free Press, published by John M.
Fleming & Co., appeared in Knoxville on June 29, 1867, Fleming
wrote:
It may be expected by some that we will feel it in our duty to inaugurate our
career by an indulgence in indiscriminate personal detraction of the Governor of
this State. We think of doing no such thing. Throughout a period of some fifteen
years or more our personal relations have been at times quite intimate and
always of a friendly character. We have been indebted to him for many personal
kindnesses in times past, and for the members of his family we have ever enter·
tained a high regard ....
We expect, however, to do all in our power to aid in the legitimate overthrow
of his State policy.
The Whig greeted the arrival of this friendly speaking competitor
with a compliment:
Its editor is john M. Fleming, Esq .... Mr. Fleming is a lawyer of this city,
and a fine writer. As a journalist, he has had several years experience, having
been editor of the Knoxville Register in the days of Whiggery.
Judging from the tone of the first number of the Free Press, we anticipatepersonally-friendly relations with our new neighbor. [18]
These pleasant exchanges seemed to indicate that the days of
acrid and blistering volleys between competing editors were fading. J.
Austin Sperry, whose issues of the Register just before and during
the Civil War spewed hatred for the Parson, was gone. He had fled to
Atlanta, just before the Union forces arrived in Knoxville. He had
published his Register there briefly. He then issued his traveling
newspaper from Bristol for a short time, until he was captured by the
Federal army and jailed in Knoxville. Judge Trigg freed him. The
judge said that there was no charge against him. The Whig, however,
condemned him as "having edited and published, until Burnside
came in, [one] of the most treasonable sheets that ever villified the
Federal Government and persecuted Union men," and broadly
hinted East Tennessee would not be a safe place for him. The Daily
Commercial, which lived only a few months after appearing in
December 1865, so offended John Bell Brownlow with its vitupera-
�NEW FOES FROM OLD FRIENDS
359
tion that he attempted to cane the editor, J. W. Patterson. A contrast
was the exchange of warm personal expressions between John Bell
Brownlow and M. J. Hughes, editor of the weekly Messenger, upon
the sale of the latter to William J. Ramage. Ramage was editor of the
Daily Herald, which was started on October 17, 1867. Young Brownlow and Hughes had fought each other vigorously on political
grounds, yet they had enjoyed a cordial personal friendship. [19]
The sentiments expressed between the Whig and the Free Press
were too idyllic to last. They did not. The heat of the campaign
overthrew Fleming's good intentions, and he resorted to traditional
abuse. He described the Radical Party as a "small minority of the
most unprincipled ruffians within its borders," and the governor as
"a foul-mouthed and abandoned wretch." The Parson took a personal hand in this new controversy. He promised the fullest exposure
of his former friend, although "I have never written or said anything
to the prejudice of Mr. Fleming."
The Press and the Daily Herald, started by Ramage late in 1867,
were consolidated early in January 1868, with Fleming as editor and
T. B. Kirby as associate editor. The needling of the Brownlows, the
state administration, and the Whig increased. The Press and Herald
took the line of white supremacy and played down the importance
of the Ku Klux Klan, even to the point of suggesting that no such
organization existed. [20]
The Brownlows exerted their political muscle to punish the Press
and Herald and all Conservative and Democratic newspapers in the
state. This happened after Judge Trigg in 1865 removed the court's
legal advertising and placed it in the Chattanooga Gazette. This also
left the Whig with unpaid bills for this service. The legislature enacted on February 17, 1868, a law that gave the governor authority to
designate the newspapers in which legal advertisements could be
placed, and declared void all such notices that appeared in newspapers not so approved. The Whig pointed this weapon directly at the
judge and opposition newspapers, warning:
All the legal notices, such as Chancery sales and so forth, appearing in the
Press and Herald of this city, are, by a late act of the General Assembly, made
null and void, so far as the interests of the parties are concerned, as though no
advertisement had been made.
The governor, under the law's authority, had designated other
Radical newspapers throughout the state as official journals for such
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CHAPTER NO. 18
advertising. The Whig played upon the fears of litigants. It told its
readers that the law "includes every notice required by law and every
publication required by any court, from that of a justice of the peace
to the Supreme Court," and "The title obtained to property acquired
at a sale illegally advertised, when required by law to be advertised is,
of course, worthless." [21]
The quarrel reached an odious state and hung there. The Press and
Herald reported that the governor was dying. The Whig acknowledged "certain people" would consider his death a blessing. It then
turned to speculation upon the demise of Fleming. It offered the
view that many people, including quite a few to whom the Press and
Herald editor owed money, would have looked upon his death "in
infancy" as a boon. Fleming, who loved alcoholic beverages, selected
this moment of controversy to pitch a spectacular drunk in a saloon.
"He was drunk from head to foot, his feet were drunk and his legs
were drunk and his Websterian brain was drunk," the Whig advised
its readers, and the saloon keeper was perplexed on what to do with
the prostrate form of Fleming when closing time came. He considered rolling Fleming into the street, "But he knew that the hogs
would eat him before morning, in which case the hogs would die and
Cox [the saloon keeper] feared an indictment under the statute
against poisoning domestic animals." So he hired two black men to
remove Fleming. They left him on the floor of his editorial room.
Because Fleming was the voice of white supremacy, the Whig touched a final paragraph with political poison: "The colored people of
Knoxville have been said to be ambitious to be in all things the equal
of the white man. If John Fleming is to be considered the representative white man, they now desire to be excused from equality with
him, or those like him."
The Whig was replying in kind, for Fleming had described the
junior editor of his opposition as "Without ability, shrewdness or
tact," and broadly suggested that when John Bell Brownlow killed a
fellow student at Emory and Henry College in 1860 he had struck his
victim from behind. The people of Tennessee, Fleming said, "tolerate
them [the Brownlows] both as they tolerate horned frogs, calves
with six legs, bearded women ... or any other monstrosity, but the
idea of taking any one of them as a guide in politics or religion, or
paying any serious attention to them whatever is too supremely ridiculous to be thought of." Fleming struck a rather sharp blow when he
printed a list of thirty-four "Brownlowisms," trite and hackneyed
�NEW FOES FROM OLD FRIENDS
361
terms used by the Whig editors. The list included "high toned gentleman," "God forsaken," "white livered," "hell deserving," and "unmitigated scoundrel and liar." [22] Whether this justified criticism
gained any attention in the midst of the roar of low-level epithets is
unknown.
As the air was filled with torrents of abuse from the newspaper
offices and hogs exercised liberty in the business sections of Knoxville, hatred that stemmed from the Confederate occupation spilled
blood upon a street. E. C. Camp, lawyer and former Union officer,
killed H. M. Ashby near the Franklin House. Ashby was the former
Confederate cavalry officer who had captured and driven through the
streets of Knoxville almost 500 Union men and boys who had tried
to escape to Kentucky. His treatment of these prisoners produced
some of the most scathing of the Parson's prose. Ashby had come to
make his home in the Knoxville area. His reasons for choosing to
locate where he had stirred up so much hatred are difficult to understand. He had been cleared of a number of indictments against him
that grew out of the war. Camp had assisted the state in the prosecution of Ashby, and the latter, embittered, had assaulted and insulted
Camp until they agreed to "settle it" by duelling. As the two men
walked, side by side, to some point where they would not endanger
the lives of others, Ashby was reported to have slapped Camp on the
shoulder and flourished his revolver. Camp threw up Ashby's gun
hand, drew his own weapon and shot Ashby three times, once after
he had fallen. The authorities apparently decided it was a case of
justifiable homicide in self defense and did not prosecute Camp.
The killing plunged the newspapers into an even more intense war
of words. The Whig defended Camp, as was to have been expected.
Fleming, the staunch Unionist of 1861, followed the ironical policy
of printing tributes to Ashby as the "noble scion of a noble race,"
who was slain "by the cowardly bullet of an ignominious assassin."
Camp was from Ohio, and the Press and Herald evaluated him as
belonging "to that low order of shysters that frequent the police
courts of Chicago and New York." Sentiment inside Knoxville ran in
favor of Ashby, that of the county outside the city for Camp. So
intense did the feeling run that the Whig saw a new war in the
making by the old Confederates, and welcomed it: "Let the fight
come and that speedily, and we will gut and clean out the infernal
traitors and assassins who back Ashby."
The Parson himself threw into the inflammatory situation this
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CHAPTER NO. 18
blazing brand:
A portion of the rebel friends of the late Colonel Ashby are openly boasting
that the fighting is not all over yet, and that they intend Camp shall bite the
dust. Camp's cause is the cause of the Union men of Knox County, and if he
shall fall, let the loyal men of the town and county fall with him. Let every loyal
man in the town, white and colored, arm himself and be ready for the conflict.
Let our friends in the country, when they come to town, come prepared to
defend themselves. Let them act on the defensive, but mete out justice to their
assailants, and to all who contribute to bring on a conflict. [2 3]
Somehow the county survived further bloodshed. Providence must
have intervened.
The Press and Herald taunted John Bell Brownlow with cowardice.
It claimed that a threat by Ashby had frightened the young editor
into keeping his name out of the Whig. John retorted by referring to
two items published during the eighteen months preceding the death
of the former officer, in which "severe terms" were used. Fleming
touched a sensitive spot in his competitor, for John had admitted
two years earlier that he had submitted to the insults and denunciations of discharged rebel officers and soldiers on a train in Alabama,
when outnumbered twenty to one. "A living Dog is Better than a
Dead Lion," he had headlined his explanation. [24]
In the midst of this tempest of words the Rev. David Fleming, the
father of John Fleming, and a Methodist minister for forty years,
died. The Parson had known him for half a century and had lived
near him as a boy in Wythe County, Virginia. The Whig paid him
tribute as "essentially a good man-honest, upright and earnest as a
minister, and remarkably successful in all the stations he filled, both
as pastor and presiding elder. A man of one work, sharing the confidence of all who knew him, his record is marked by a singular
purity and unselfish benevolence." The Whig had come to the
preacher's defense in 1856 and 1857, when it appeared that he was
being proscribed by Methodist Democrats because his son was a Whig
and a Know Nothing leader. [25] The tribute was merited, but coming as it did, it cut two ways, depicting the father as a saint. The
Whig, of course, had often gone to considerable extent to show the
son was a smner.
In the fall of 1867, the man most responsible for plunging Tennessee into the Confederacy, former Governor Isham G. Harris, a
wanderer from his home land for six years, swallowed his pride and
�NEW FOES FROM OLD FRIENDS
363
wrote to an old friend, former Governor Neill S. Brown. Harris asked
Brown to intercede in his behalf for permission to return to his state
and his family at Paris. Harris hated President Johnson and rejected
the thought of an appeal to him. He asked his emissary to approach
the Parson. Brown did, and the governor, who had once penned a
malicious diatribe against Harris to accompany the legislature's offer
of a $5,000 reward for the capture of the fugitive, promised protection and immunity. The governor asked the legislature to withdraw
the reward offer. When Harris received word of the developments he
left Liverpool and went directly to Nashville. There, on a Sunday
morning in late November, Harris and Brown went quietly and unnoticed to the capitol, where the governor slept and ate as well as
officiated. It was a moving scene. The Parson held out his arms to his
old political enemy whom he had denounced in the harshest terms,
and the spirit of the camp meeting led him to utter these lines from
an old hymn: "While the lamp holds out to burn, the vilest sinner
may return." Harris is said to have laughed, but if he did his laughter
must have lacked spontaneity. He had crossed an ocean and part of a
continent to obtain restoration of his citizenship. It was no time to
quibble. [26]
Brownlow's last years as governor saw the defection of Secretary
of State Andrew Jackson Fletcher. The secretary was one of the
Radicals' best campaigners, who often spoke for the ailing Parson,
and who took on with great skill, the task of blackening the character of John Baxter and resisting his assaults upon Brownlow policies.
Fletcher wanted to run for governor in 1867, and was embittered
when the Parson sought another term. The unhappy secretary, who
brought the split into the open in 1869, charged that Brownlow had
grasped so much power that it "destroyed the republican character
of the State government." He also dissented from Brownlow policies
on railroads, financing, "the use of the militia instead of county
police, the administration of the machinery of the franchise law, and
many other minor matters." He favored a more moderate policy on
the extension of the franchise, and he charged that the "excessively
severe policy of our party is about to produce its natural consequences. It is about to explode for want of calibre." The Press and
Herald found Fletcher's views "notable and creditable." Brownlow
rejected Fletcher's claim that the break was entirely political. He
attributed it to the secretary's chagrin and disappointment at being
denied the opportunity to run for governor in 1867, and because
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CHAPTER NO. 18
Brownlow had rejected patronage sought for some of Fletcher's relatives. It was a case of ingratitude the Parson said. He brought the secretary from exile to take the state post; "No sooner was he firm in his
seat than he attempted to strike down the hand that had lifted him from
obscurity to eminence and from utter penury to opulence." [27]
It was the last major piece of writing that the Parson produced for
Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, for under a new arrangement the historic name long associated with the newspaper came down. It appeared
under new direction as the Weekly Knoxville Whig. [28] The Parson
had roared and fulminated in the newspaper since he had become its
editor at Elizabethton in 1839. Now, thirty years later, he departed
from the editorial chair in character and in style.
CHAPTER XVIII NOTES
[ 1] Rothrock, ed., French Broad-Holston, pp. 77, 115-116, 334, 422-424; W.
G. Brownlow to F. S. Heiskell, September 18, 1849. Howard Papers.
Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp. 182, 341; Humes, The
Loyal Mountaineers, appendix, p. 352; Whig, April27, June 1, 1861.
[ 2] Ibid., June 13, 1861, August 31, 1864, October 18, 1865.
[ 3] Ibid., August 1, September 6, 1865.
[ 4] Ibid., April 11, 18, May 2, 16, 1866. Major General A. C. Gillem, who
commanded troops in East Tennessee, was a graduate of the United States
Military Academy, was a member of the 1865 convention and was elected
to the Brownlow Legislature from Jackson County. Whig, November 16,
1864, January 11, April 26, 1865; Alexander, Political Reconstruction,
pp. 25, 27,105,204.
[ 5] "The rebellion suspended and destroyed the editor's newspaper, the most
valuable in the whoie Southern Confederacy, bringing him an income of
about $10,000. Besides this he recovered in a real estate lawsuit to the
value of many thousands of dollars by the verdict of the Rebel Supreme
Court of Tenn. The property was sold by order of the court just after he
went North and the proceeds deposited by the Rebel clerk of Chancery
Court with the Rebel officers of the Branch bank of Tenn. who speculated
with the money during the war and [word illegible] the aforesaid clerk
tendered the editor Confederate money after Burnside took E. T. when
said trash was worthless. The editor was a heavy loser by the war." john
Bell Brownlow marginal note. Whig, July 5, 1865. See also ibid., March 15,
29, May 3, July 19, December 20, 27, 1865, November 28, 1866, December 25, 1867; "Diary of David Deaderick," typescript, pp. 47, 78-80.
McClung Collection. Rothrock, ed., French Broad-Holston, pp. 327-328.
See also Whig, December 25, 1867.
�NEW FOES FROM OLD FRIENDS
365
[ 6] Trigg was a native of Abingdon, Virginia, and had been known to Brownlow all his life. The Parson supported Trigg for Congress from a Virginia
district in 1855 when the latter ran as the American Party candidate. The
editor's zeal probably was stimulated because Trigg's opponent was Fayette McMullens, who had attacked Brownlow at a camp meeting in Sullivan County in 1842. Ibid., March 24, May 5, 1855, February 2, May 9,
1856; Temple, Notable Men, pp. 202-212, 66-67; John Green, Bench and
Bar, (Knoxville, 1947), pp. 33-35; Rule, ed., Standard History, pp. 482483.
[ 7] Whig, November 11, 1863, June 25, December 7, November 30, 1864,
February 1, 1865.
[ 8] Ibid., March 1, May 31, June 21, 1865. Acreage of the Lyons farm is given
in a list of tax sales, ibid., May 3, 1865.
{ 9] Ibid., june 21, 1865; Green, Bench and Bar, pp. 34-35.
[10] John Bell Brownlow to Temple, November 28, 1892. Temple Papers. For
John Bell Brownlow's derogatory comments on Trigg see marginal notes,
Whig, March 1, May 31, 1865. Temple, Notable Men, p. 211.
[11) Green, Bench and Bar, p. 34; Whig, April 24, May 1, 1867; Alexander,
Political Reconstruction, pp. 147-148; Whig, May 8, 1867.
[12] Ibid., May 15, 1867; Green, Bench and Bar, p. 58.
{13) Whig, May 22, 1867. Fletcher's speech was printed in a Whig supplement,
June 22, 1867. See also Alexander, Political Reconstruction, p. 148.
[14] W. G. Brownlow to Robertson Topp, October 1, 1861. Robertson Topp
Papers.
[15] Temple, Notable Men, p. 72; john Bell Brownlow to Temple, September 2,
1891. Temple Papers. O.R., II, 1, Carroll to Benjamin, November 25,
1861, p. 903; Temple, Notable Men, pp. 71-73; Green, Bench and Bar, p.
60; joshua W. Caldwell, Sketches of the Bench and Bar of Tennessee
(Knoxville, 1890), p. 273; Temple, Notable Men, p. 73.
(16) Whig, june 27, july 4, 1866, February 27, 1867.
[ 17] Ibid., july 4, 1866; Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp.
371-379; Temple, Notable Men, pp. 88-93; Whig, October 31, 1866.
[18] W. G. Brownlow to Robertson Topp, October 1, 1861. Robertson Topp
Papers. Temple, Notable Men, pp. 120, 407; Free Press, june 29, 1867;
Whig, july 3, 1867.
[19] Ibid., April 30, October 19, 1864, January 11, July 19, December 20,
1865, May 2, 1866, November 20, 1867. See also Register, (published in
Atlanta), October 7, 10, 23, 1863. Newspaper miscellany on microfilm.
McClung Collection.
[20] Whig, September 4, 1867; Press and Herald (morning) january 7, February
1, 6, 20, March 24, 29, Apri117, 27,1868.
[21] Whig, September 6, 13, 1865, March 11, May 6, 20, july 1, 15, 1868. The
Governor designated the favored newspapers and the list was confirmed by
the Senate. Ibid., March 11, 1868.
[22] Whig, june 17, July 8, 1868;Press and Herald, June 18, july 14, 1868.
[23] Whig, June 17,1868, August 1, 1866;PressandHerald,June 18,July 11,
1868; Whig, july 22, 1868. The shooting must have taken place not very
�366
[24)
[25)
[26)
[27)
[28)
CHAPTER NO. 18
far from the corner of Main Avenue and Walnut Street (then called Crooked). Fleming was reponed to have taken a stand at the Franklin House,
which stood near where the Knox County Courthouse is at this writing, a
point from which he could view the encounter. The shooting, however,
took place before the duellists arrived at the point where they were to
have fired at each other. Whig, July 15, 1868.
Ibid., July 22, 1868.
Ibid., September 9, 1868. For Brownlow's support of the Reverend Fleming see ibid., November 26, 1865, March 3, 1857.
Temple, Notable Men, pp. 335-339; John Bell Brownlow to Temple, July
11, 1892. Temple Papers. Coulter, pp. 342-345.
Press and Herald, January 13, 1869; Whig, January 20, 1869.
Weekly Knoxville Whig, February 3, 1869.
�Brownlow's Knoxville Whig
"Yielding up the other cheek/Dropping humbly
on the knees; Closing lips when dared to speak/Will
not do in times like these."
Chapter No. 18
THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
The outlook was bright and inviting as T. Haws & Co. published its
first Weekly Knoxville Whig at 108 Gay Street on February 3, 1869.
A daily was to be issued soon. Six influential citizens had raised
$12,000 of capital to finance the undertaking. They were W. G.
Brownlow, 0. P. Temple, M.D. Bearden, Joseph A. Mabry, Tilghman
Haws, General James A. Cooper, and William Rule. These men, with
the exception of Mabry, were staunch and tried Radical Unionists. [ 1] Mabry could scarcely be classified as solid, but he was agile
politically and financially. He managed to land on his feet through
precarious times. He had been a rebel during the war, but he had
emerged with wealth and was now operating in several business
fields. He had been the Parson's friend when other Confederates
plotted to get him killed. John Baxter found him
successfully performing the most wonderful political feat recorded in the annals
of man. He is supporting three different and antagonistic characters at the same
time, to wit: in all matters pertaining to local legislation he is a Conservative; in
matters within the jurisdiction of the Governor he is a Senter Republican; and in
all national affairs, such as getting payment for losses sustained by him when he
was a rebel, he is a Radical without blemish and without guile. [2]
Brownlow was disassociating himself from the editorial department of the newspaper, but he would be sitting in the United States
Senate at Washington. The Whig management had looked over the
first title and decided that the Knoxville Weekly Whig sounded better
and made the change with the second issue. Two experienced men
367
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CHAPTER NO. 19
remained in key positions on the Whig. Haws was business manager
and Rule was local editor. Haws had been Brownlow's partner, and,
in addition to running the business end, he had supervised the design
and construction of the Whig Building on Gay Street. Rule had
worked for the Whig before joining the Union army, and upon his
return was made local editor. He displayed industry and talent in
getting items principally for their newsworthiness, as contrasted to
the Brownlow policy of evaluating stories chiefly for the political
implications that could be extracted from them. Haws was to draw
an annual salary of $2,000 and $800 yearly rental for the building,
which he owned, and Rule was to be paid $800 a year. [ 3]
The management appointed the Rev. Thomas H. Pearne, D.D., an
outsider from distant Oregon, general, political, and religious editor.
Bishop D. W. Clark of the Northern Methodist Church imported
Pearne to be the presiding elder of the Knoxville District of the
Holston Conference, which had been reorganized with loyalist
preachers and members of the denomination. Brownlow had been a
leader in this reorganization. He had conferred with northern bishops
before Pearne was selected. Perhaps Brownlow suggested him for the
Parson had seen Pearne, as chairman of the Oregon delegation to the
Union Party Convention of 1864, swing his group into support of
Andrew Johnson for the nomination for Vice-President. Following
the convention Pearne had stumped Oregon for the Lincoln-Johnson ticket. [4]
The Parson had fired some of his hottest tirades against ministers
who supported the Confederacy, but he liked politically turned
preachers if they were on his side. [ 5] He outlined his plans for
dealing with the rebel Methodist preachers in the Holston Conference
in a speech in McKendree Methodist Church in Nashville, in the fall
of 1862, declaring:
The worst class of men, so help me God, on Southern soil, are the Methodist,
Baptist, Presbyterian and Episcopalian preachers .... Last month the Methodist
Church, of which I have been a member thirty-five years, held a Conference in
Athens, which was presided over by a hoary-headed old man, Bishop john Early.
With one sweeping resolution they expelled from the ministry all the Union
preachers of the Holston Conference .... This old traitor, Bishop Early, also
issued an order to the Presiding Elders to expel all loyal preachers within the
Conference. I am going back, and intend to call a Conference of the local
preachers, and we will expel the last devil of these rebel priests. We will put these
seceders and rebels out and recover the church property which rightfully belongs
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
369
to us, and not to the traitors .... These Parsons of the Methodist Publishing
House employed me to write a book exposing that infernal scoundrel of the
Baptist Church, Elder J. R. Graves. They denounced him for all that was vile and
rascally, but now they are all standing shoulder to shoulder in stirring up rebellion .... I intend to expose their damnable hypocrisy, villainy, and falsehood to
the gaze of the world. No man living but me can do it, for I know them better
than anyone else. I intend to resurrect the Knoxville Whig, and pour hot shot
into their rotten hulks (Whig, February 27, 1864).
Bishop Early, who was the brother of the Confederate General Jubal
Early, had directed this harsh course of the Holston Conference, in
the sessions of 1861, 1862, and 1863. Spencer Henry, a loyal
Methodist preacher, wrote that in the 1862 conference, as a preacher
was being examined as to which side he was on shouts rang out "Hang
him, G-d d-n him." The Whig charged that Early "had a file of rebel
soldiers stationed in the conference, with bayonets, and examined
every preacher, one by one, as to his position upon the great issue,
and notified them that anyone declaring for the Lincoln Government
would be turned over to these soldiers" [6] Henry and the Whig,
embittered though they were, were not off base, for R. N. Price, who
was a chaplain in the Confederate army, and "a Southern man with
Southern prejudices," but trying to be fair, termed the 1862 session
"the conference of political dabbling." He found Early "aristocratic
and haughty ... a typical Southern fire eater." Early had rejected
arbitrarily the chaplain's objection that the conference had no right
to inquire into the "political opinions and the political actions," of
ministers. The bishop ruled that "the conference had a right to arrest
the character of any preachers who sympathized with the Union
cause." The sensitive chaplain also was aghast at the reprisals taken
against Southern sympathizers when federal troops occupied the area
and the smothered hatreds accumulated by the Unionists under Confederate control, found release. He mourned that "Eternity alone"
would reveal the suffering of these Southerners as occupation
changed: "It was to them a reign of terror. Leading men were arrested and taken to Northern prisons, while hundreds of others preserved
their liberty only by fleeing to other states." [7]
Reports of these reprisals may have led Pearne to deplore and
regret "a disposition to interrupt and mob preachers of the
Methodist Episcopal Church South." He cited some instances in
McMinn County, of which Athens was the county seat, and he
frowned upon the practice of riding these preachers on a rail. But he
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CHAPTER NO. 19
stoked the fires of dissension by adding:
If preachers of the Methodist Church, South, with a record stained with
disloyalty and bloody with rebeUion, have the effrontery to preach in loyal
communities where their deeds are well known, my counsel would be, Jet them
do it ... if loyal Methodists cannot sustain their cause by truth and free discussions, as against that of Southern Methodists in the field of argument and reason,
it cannot be sustained at all" (Whig, December 20, 1865).
The North's victory put the Southern-supporting churches in a
position of misery and humiliation as they tried to re-establish their
loyalty to the old government and suppress the militancy they had
displayed for the South. The Presbytery of Union that met at Spring
Place Church, near Knoxville, in 1864, saw that the Confederates had
lost. It hastily backed away from a resolution adopted a year before
that it would not receive men unsympathetic to the South (Whig,
September 28, 1864). The Holston Methodist Conference, South,
that met at Marion, Virginia, a year later conceded that some of its
actions at the 1862, 1863, and 1864 sessions "might be so construed,
as to place us in an attitude of disloyalty to the Government under
which we now live." The conference urged members to be faithful to
the Union, and acknowledged that expelling ministers who adhered
to the North may have been "hasty," a lukewarm phrase that led the
Whig to snap:
"Was hasty" was it? Nay, it was villainous, mean, cowardly and anti-christian [sic.]
-a wicked and proscriptive conduct that would have disgraced a Mormon conclave .... Why, reader, the conference at Athens was nothing more or less than a
Rebel Court Martial .. .. Bishop Early ... only wanted shoulder straps and a
cocked hat to invest him with the dignity and authority of a Capt. Wirz. [8]
[Captain Henry Wirz was the superintendent of the notorious Confederate prison at Andersonville, who was hanged for his cruel treatment of the inmates.]
The creation of the new Holston Conference by Brownlow and the
loyal preachers and members was by its nature divisive. The Parson
wanted no compromise and he wanted the conference to have an
articulate leader. Pearne filled that requirement. But he was an outsider in a region where strangers were met often with suspicion and
distrust, especially if they were as brash and imprudent as he was in
seeking to be introduced at the Holston Conference, South, that met
at Asheville, North Carolina, in the fall of 1866. He was rebuffed and
came away with the intelligence that northern ministers were rated as
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
371
"horse thieves" by their brethren of the South. The presiding elder's
foes damned him as a "comparative stranger, cutting and hewing the
character of ministers long known in a community." [9] Early in
1869 Fleming, a native East Tennesseean who understood and probably shared the prejudices of the area, bored into
our recently imported Brother Pearne who assumes to speak "on behalf of East
Tennessee" ... as though the ecclesiastical "capture" of a few dozen churches,
gave him by right of religious conquest, the keeping of the social, moral and
political tastes and interests of East Tennessee. He spreadeth himself entirely too
grandly. He mistaketh his lattitude [sic.]. He understandeth not the people.[lOJ
The new Whig editor was agile and busy. He was often in the
newspapers. He took an active part in the opening of East Tennessee
Wesleyan College at Athens. The college was under the control of the
Holston Conference, North. This conference had purchased it after a
Chancery Court sale. The southern conference had lost it during the
war. He was an official of the Teacher's State Association which met
in Knoxville on August 13, 1867. He moved dexterously from the
religious to the political forum. He reported from Chicago that the
General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church had admitted
the loyal Holston Conference, and a week later from the same city he
told of the nomination of General U. S. Grant for President by the
Republican National Convention. [ 11] But, however well Pearne
might write and however diligently he might labor, the unmistakable
voice of the Parson was gone from the newspaper.
The Whig had been a "political journal" from its birth. It had
thrived on political campaigns. Now, in the chaotic era that followed
the Civil War, the vagarious winds of change carried it to destruction.
As the Parson left for Washington to take his seat in the Senate he
may have believed that he had left behind a state administration and
a newspaper that would survive. The Tri-Weekly Whig had been discontinued after five months of publication, its death ignored by the
weekly. It was mockingly mourned by the opposition,[12] but the
new Whig management was soon out with a competitive morning
daily (Whig, Aprill4, 1869).
Brownlow's trip to Washington in a special railroad car brought
the expected displays of hostility. At Bristol, Virginia, a heckler
shouted that he looked "like ad-d old turkey buzzard." A Lynchburg, Virginia, newspaper reported him traveling in Car No. 9 and
recommended that "any decent man who passes over the road here-
�372
CHAPTER NO. 19
after should avoid it as he would a leper." A student boarded the car
at Charlottesville and in an "act of bravado" brandished a revolver before the sleeping Parson. He was seized and left immediately. At the
capitol Brownlow was so weak that his arm was supported as he took
the oath. He found a boarding house one hundred yards from the
Senate chamber, walked to his post, and began to establish a record
of almost constant attendance. In that spring he assisted Representative Maynard in putting through Congress an appropriation of
$90,000 for a new Knoxville post office building. [13]
DeWitt C. Senter, state senate speaker, was now governor by the
line of succession. The thirty-six-year-old Grainger County farmer
and lawyer had served in the legislature at the beginning of the war
and after. He was imprisoned five months by the Confederacy.
Senter had been a slaveholder and a Whig, and he was the son of the
illustrious William T. Senter, an orator of ability, a delegate to the
Constitutional Convention of 1834 and a member of Congress from
the Second District for one term. Even the Press and Herald spoke of
him favorably, but took a shrewd look at the future and warned him
that to attempt a precipitate change in Brownlow policies would
require a steady brain and an iron nerve.
There is no man living on the American continent, nor, indeed, on any other
continent that could duplicate the administration of the retiring Governor. As it
never had a precedent, so it wiD stand in the future, without a parallel. Brownlow is sui generis, and Brownlowism is essentially and peculiarly a thing of his
creation and nuture. As with him it had its origin, so with him it must die.[14]
The Radicals soon split with something resembling obscene thunder, at the party's state convention held in Nashville on May 20 and
21. Reviewing it the Press and Herald, smugly commented that
"Nothing in the political history of Tennessee has ever been seen so
turbulent, vulgar, bitter or disgracefuL" The forces of United States
Representative W. B. Stokes went into the convention with the advantage of Chairman A. M. Cate of the Republican State Central
Committee presiding. At the first step, the election of a temporary
chairman of the convention, Cate used that advantage by refusing to
recognize the nomination of Pearne by Judge L. C. Houk, a Senter
backer. Instead he recognized a Stokes supporter who nominated R.
R. Butler. Cate declared Butler elected temporary chairman. Houk
leaped upon a desk, assumed the role of a chairman, and declared
Pearne elected. Pearne and Butler attempted to take the chair but
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
373
Cate refused to budge, and
The convention was soon turned into a bedlam fit only for lunatics. Champions of Senter and Stokes disputed together for the doubtful honor of making
the most noise and confusion. Whiskey flowed freely, and drunken yells, curses,
jeers and catcalls, furnished enjoyment only to the delighted and guffawing
"Democrats in the galleries." Three hours of the afternoon session were wasted
except for the excitement provided when D. M. Nelson, for Senter, slapped the
face of Butler. Pistols were drawn. joe Mabry, the ubiquitous politician from
Knoxville, flourished a weapon. Police halted the brawl. Somehow the meeting
was adjourned to the following day, May 21.
The Senter forces decided to take over the chair by strategy. When
Cate arrived at the hall the next morning to assume his seat Pearne
was in it, wearing the "placid air of a matronly hen on a nest." A
strange agreement followed. A motion to adjourn sine die was made
and Pearne and Care each declared it passed. Each side then met
separately, one group nominating Senter, the other Stokes. The congressman laid claim to the support of fifty-four county delegations
and of forty thousand blacks. [ 15]
As Senter and Stokes opened the campaign, Pearne dutifully extolled his candidate as opposed to universal suffrage for the protection of "loyal men-white and colored-at whatever cost, the safety
of the State by guarding against the enfranchisement of its enemiesunsubdued and unrepentant rebels." The editor probably was in the
assembly of Senter partisans who heard him say that although "the
time might arrive when the rebels could come up to the ballot
box ... that that day was a long way off." Certainly Pearne believed
he was in accord with Senter, and he was, in effect, trying to warn
Stokes against espousing universal suffrage, a step which it had been
rumored he was about to take to win Conservative support. A switch
came, but it was Senter who made it when he met Stokes in debate
at Nashville on June 5. Senter came out firmly for universal
suffrage. [ 16]
When Senter decided to reverse himself is not known. He may
have done so in the heat of the confrontation with his opponent. The
reversal placed Pearne in an almost intolerable position, but he
loyally swallowed his chagrin, and turned about to follow his candidate. He denied reports that the Whig would switch to Stokes, and
recalled other Radical reversals; an example was:
On the subject of negro [sic.] suffrage and negro testimony when the transition
�374
CHAPTER NO. 19
from utter and bitter hostility to warm and earnest support of it was remarkably
speedy. Shall we conclude that the great Radical party of Tennessee were insincere in their hostility, or afterwards, in their early and warm support of it?
Or, shall we conclude-can we avoid concluding-that if they were honest before,
at the time of, and ever since notwithstanding the suddenness of the change?
(Whig, June 23, 1869).
The Whig under Brownlow had made some unusual political shifts,
but nothing as stunning as Senter's about-face. He had resorted to it
purely as an expedient. Senator Brownlow backed Senter on the
suffrage issue, but whether he was caught by surprise, had anticipated such a move, or was advised that it was coming he did not
reveal; he had "never held an equivocal position on any great public
question," and never would. At the time his administration had put
through the law restricting the franchise, it "was an absolute necessity to prevent the State from being thrown into anarchy, and to
protect the loyal people." The leaders of the rebellion should be
denied voting privileges for life, but it was unjust to "keep a thousand men under disabilities, nine hundred of whom no longer require
it." In any event, general enfranchisement would come gradually
because the Radical Republicans had, in a recent statewide election,
put their candidates into judicial posts for eight years. Constitutional
revision would take at least two years. The third clause of the Fourteenth Amendment would keep rebels from taking over state offices.
A recent decision of the State Supreme Court had restored the franchise to 20,000 former Confederates, and the Republican Party and
President Grant were for universal suffrage (Whig, June 16, 1869).
Three weeks earlier, and before the juggling of the franchise issue,
the senator had responded to a query made by several Senter delegates to the meeting at Nashville. Brownlow affirmed his support of
the governor because Senter had stumped for the Parson in his campaigns, had backed his programs in the General Assembly, and had
voted to send him to the Senate. The Parson did not mention that
Senter had an interest in voting for him because Brownlow's election
opened the way for the Grainger Countian to be governor, and therefore put him in a strategic spot to run for chief executive of the state
(Whig, May 26, 1869).
The Whig's stand for Senter opened a crack in the newspaper's
organization. Local Editor Rule, a native of Knox County, a former
Union soldier, and something of a Brownlow protege, refused to
support Senter and resigned. Because Rule had roots deep in East
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
375
Tennessee soil, and had performed military service, his presence on
the Whig staff may have partially offset the prejudice against Pearne
as an outsider. Rule was for Stokes. This was understandable. Stokes
also had served in the Union army and had risen to the rank of major
general. The Whig's blatant switch also may have turned Rule's stomach, but he left the newspaper with quiet dignity and with the good
wishes of the printers, who presented him with a gold-headed cane
and assured him, "The readers of the Whig will miss his spicy paragraphs, and feel that his place is difficult worthily to fill." Rule
had shown he was an excellent reporter. He loaded the third page
of the newspaper with readable local items. His valedictory stated,
"Without doing violence to my own feelings, I cannot remain longer
connected with a journal, even as Local Editor, the political policy
of which is directly opposite to my own views." He was "especially
grieved to sever my connection with the employees of the Whig
establishment, with whom my intercourse has ever been pleasant
and agreeable." He did not mention Pearne. The general editor
published a courteous note of farewell, but the two men could not
have been bosom comrades. Thirty years later when the Standard
History of Knoxville, Tennessee, edited by Rule, was published, it
gave seven words to Pearne as an editor and none as a minister. [ 17]
Some of the Whig stockholders also wanted to switch to Stokes,
and to fire Pearne. When they met at the Parson's residence, men
holding seven of the twelve shares were reported to be for Stokes and
five were for Senter. But the policy remained steadfast and Pearne
continued as editor. The Press and Herald suggested that the Parson
held the owners in line by revealing that he and Haws had not executed a conveyance of the partnership property to the stock company, but that they would do so, a hint with broad implications.
Pearne, in a denial that policy would be changed, ignored the conveyance aspect. If such a conveyance was made it does not appear on
the books of the Knox County register.[18]
In the campaign bedlam the Democratic Press and Herald was
unable to remain neutral. The party, as did the Conservatives, nominated no candidate but stood at one side watching which way to
jump, then fell in behind Senter. The Press and Herald, however,
came out quickly for Senter because of his declaration in favor of
universal suffrage, which was a major policy of the newspaper. At the
same time Fleming caught the Parson with this swift, backhanded
blow:
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CHAPTER NO. 19
We do not pretend now, nor do we know that we will ever pretend, to solve the
mystery that is now the puzzle of the politicians. We have no disposition now to
quarrel with Senator Brownlow. It is enough for us to know ... that he lends
the weight of his name, and the power of his influence, to the undoing of the
bonds that now fetter the thousands of disfranchised white men of his own
State, in whose humiliation he has heretofore sought to perpetuate his
power. [19]
The campaign was bitter and strident, but the outcome was never
really in doubt. Senter won with a majority of 65,297 out of
173,369 cast. The black vote went to Stokes because of the disillusionment of the former slaves. They had not received the rewards
that they had anticipated for keeping the Brownlow forces in the
State House in 1867. Senter countered this, although it seems not to
have been necessary, by removing between sixty and seventy county
registration officials who did not go along with his policies. The new
registrars, often Conservatives, threw open the registration to thousands of former rebels. The Conservatives also seized upon this development to run their partisans for the General Assembly, and they
elected enough of their number to control it. They used this power
to repeal Reconstruction laws and submitted to the electorate the
question of holding a Constitutional Convention. It was approved
five to one. [20]
Radicalism had been whipped and the Brownlow prestige damaged. John Bell Brownlow ran for floterial representative from
Knox and Sevier counties and was beaten overwhelmingly. Editor
Fleming who left his newspaper post to seek a seat as direct representative from Knox County, won. The Parson sold his share in the
Whig to Mabry, some of the other shareholders sold or withdrew, and
political ignominy descended upon the once proud and defiant newspaper. Mabry, whose shifts were the rule rather than the exception,
made it Democratic, and placed in the editor's post one of the Parson's most hated foes, the Rev. C. W. Charlton. As Knoxville postmaster Charlton had opened Brownlow's mail and forwarded information to Governor Harris in 1861.[21] The Press and Herald, in
noting these developments, praised the business and mechanical
management of the old Whig by Haws, but added:
To the ungenerous fling of the dying Pearne that "had more money been expended on the paper," it "would have been more valuable." Mr. Haws might
well retort that had there been less money and more decency and brains ex·
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
377
pended upon the editor, the cash accounts of the establishment would now
present a more satisfactory showing.
From the beginning of his tenure as editor Pearne had been the
target of Fleming's needle like jabs. In the spring of 1868 he observed:
We have never mentioned the "brother" except in a spirit of kindness to our
readers. Now and then when Brother Pearne would leave this city in the guise of
a wolf in sheep's clothing, to minister to the lambs of the flock we have notified
the chickens on the route of the wolf, to roost higher, and the lambs to baa
trebly and more piteously that the wolf might indeed be kept from their door.
This paragraph was the prelude to a nauseating tale which Fleming
called "the Beaver Creek adventure" of Pearne. It reported that the
Whig editor got drunk on a farmer's freshly distilled "korjil" [cordial] , ate an enormous amount of boiled eggs and as a result suffered
a most unpleasant and embarrassing reaction. When Mabry bought
the Whig and Pearne was tossed out, Fleming mockingly sighed,
"These be mournful times."
Of English extraction and northern and eastern education, Pearne
spoke and exhibited speech and manners that must have grated upon
most East Tennesseeans. In turn his five years in what he called
"reconstruction work," left him worn, ill, and unhappy. Senator
Brownlow persuaded President Grant to appoint Pearne to a consulate at Kingston, Jamaica, in the British West Indies. In 1874 he
returned to the Methodist ministry in the Cincinnati, Ohio Circuit
and preached there for many years. In 1899 he wrote a book on his
experiences during his sixty-one years in the pulpit and in public life.
He told of perils and difficulties met during his five years in East
Tennessee, but he wrote not a word of his feverish political and
editorial experiences. [22] His memories of those days must not have
been happy ones.
The conversion of the Whig to a Democratic policy and the
appointment of Charlton must have caught the Parson by surprise
and gored him deeply. In announcing the sale of his interest he
claimed to have been given assurance
that it will be continued as a Republican journal advocating the principles and
policy of the Republican Party and rendering a cordial support to President
Grant and his administration ....
And further, it is pertinent for me to say, that so many in Tennessee who
�378
CHAPTER NO. 19
were at one time the most outspoken Union men, have proved untrue, and have
turned back to the 'flesh pots of Egypt,' betr~ying the too generous friends who
warmed them into life (Whig, September 15, 1869).
The Parson now was accused of having "perpetrated a fraud upon
the people of East Tennessee" in telling them that the Whig would
continue as a Republican newspaper, and of having known when he
sold his interest to Mabry that Charlton would be the editor. The
author of these charges was A. J. Ricks, a law partner of John
Baxter. He held a grudge against Brownlow because the latter had
barred him from getting the job of pension agent at Knoxville. The
Parson got it instead for his son-in-law, Dr. David T. Boynton. Ricks
earlier had accused the Brownlow administration of having plundered
the state and sold the Republican Party to the Democrats. [2 3]
The Parson's defense led off with sharp criticism of Governor
Senter's policy of making Conservatives in many counties the election registrars. Given this power these registrars enfranchised Conservatives and former Confederates to such an extent that Conservatives obtained a majority in the legislature. The Parson stormed:
When I retired from the office of Governor, I left to Senter the legacy of
fifteen hundred State militia, armed and equipped and in the field. The so-called
Conservatives raised the mad-dog cry of high taxes in sustaining a standing
army .... Governor Senter was induced to disband them ... had I been Governor at the time I would have distributed these troops in the rebellious counties ... thereby securing a Republican legislature.
He offered no criticism of Mabry for having turned the Whig Democratic and installing Charlton as editor. Instead he noted:
The Gentleman to whom I sold my interest in the Whig, General Joseph A.
Mabry, contributed liberally of means and efforts to the defeat of Andrew
Johnson as a candidate for a seat in this body [the United States Senate], in his
recent effort for election by the Tennessee Legislature.
A few weeks earlier Johnson had been defeated in his effort to win
the vacant Senate seat. Johnson led in the balloting but his opposition then consolidated behind State Senator Henry Cooper of Davidson County and beat Johnson by four votes. The quotation from
Brownlow clearly implies that by Mabry's efforts to deny Johnson
the other seat in the United States Senate he atoned for turning the
Whig Democratic and making Charlton editor. The Senate and the
country were spared the spectacle of Johnson's and the Parson's
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
379
snarling and spitting at each other in that august body. [24]
Whatever the arrangements were between Brownlow and Mabry on
the sale of the Whig and the fight Mabry made against the former
President who had come back to Tennessee in the hopes of returning
to Washington in a Senate role, a note for $3,000 that Mabry gave
Brownlow on November 23, 1869, remains in the hands of the
Brownlow family, partially collected. Mabry pledged to pay "one
day after date" [now known usually as a demand note] the $3,000
"for value received." The back of the instrument carries a notation
from the Parson that on November 4, 1871, John Bell Brownlow
collected $1,480 and turned it over to his father. [2 5]
So mixed were Knoxville politics, religion, and newspapers that H.
H. Ingersoll, editor of the Greeneville Union described them as
almost beyond belief. The present editor of the Whig Rev. C. W. Charlton, is the
same man who was connected with the old Register in war times, and who,
Brownlow said in the Whig, less than two years ago, could never come back to
Knoxville to live. It looks strange to see him now controlling the columns of
Brownlow's Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator, but such is the mutability of
human affairs. Tomorrow he preaches at one Methodist church and Pearne his
predecessor in the other. It is a matter of speculation who will have the largest
congregation.
Looking at Knoxville from Louisville, Kentucky, George Prentice of
the Courier-journal, who had for many years exchanged insults with
the Parson, offered this thought:
The Whig has never been a religious paper in the strict sense of the term, and
yet it has always been edited by a minister of the Gospel, or by a man who
claimed that title. It was first edited by Parson Brownlow, then by Parson
Pearne, and now it is edited by Parson Charlton. Some decent infidel could
make it a much more pious and useful paper than it has ever yet been [26].
Fresh uproars and complications followed. The instrument in the
increased agitation was the Knoxville Chronicle, published by William Rule and Henry Tarwater. The two men saw the need for an East
Tennessee newspaper to offset the two Democratic dailies in Knoxville and to encourage the disheartened Republican majority in the
area. The Chronicle was published at "Brownlow's Old Stand." A
weekly appeared on April 6, 1870, and the daily a month later. [27]
A series of letters started in the Chronicle by John Baxter led Joe
Mabry to fire upon the lawyer on the morning of June 13, 1870, as
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CHAPTER NO. 19
Baxter stood talking with other men in front of the Lamar House
barber shop. Mabry spoke to Baxter and as the latter turned to him,
Mabry fired a derringer. The bullet inflicted a flesh wound above the
wrist of the right arm. Baxter attempted to draw his pistol but was
unable to use his injured arm and retreated across the street. He first
sought refuge behind a country wagon and then inside Cowan &
McClung's store. Mabry, who had pursued the lawyer with a Navy
pistol after having flung the derringer at his enemy, fired again, but
missed. Sheriff V. F. Gossett arrested Mabry, took him before Squire
Jourolmon, and the defendant made $1,000 bond. The grand jury,
which had just gone into session, indicted Mabry and Charlton for
malicious shooting. Charlton also made $1,000 bond. He was on the
scene, his pistol drawn, but there was no report that he had fired it.
Baxter's wound was not serious.
The adversaries had both been delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1870. Thomas W. Humes, president of East Tennessee
University, and T. A. R. Nelson prevailed on the men to "abstain
from all acts of violence against each other, and to leave all matters
of difference between them to public opinion and the final determination to the courts of law."[28} Honor was preserved and the
shooting ended. The Chronicle continued to publish the remainder of
Baxter's letters. There were ten in all. The brawl continued furiously
in other forums.
Baxter's first letter in the Chronicle was a defense of the Exchange
and Deposit Bank in handling the sale of $100,000 of state bonds for
the Mineral Home Railroad Co., a firm that existed on paper only.
Baxter owned the bank. A General Assembly committee had found
the bonds illegal, but even so, Baxter said, the bank had acted only as
the selling agent. It turned the proceeds over to the railroad company
president. Baxter tried to get the legislature to investigate certain
alleged frauds, and urged in particular that the legislators look into
the operation of the Knoxville and Kentucky Railroad at Knoxville.
Mabry was the receiver and both men were directors. The lawyer, in
his broadsides, took in Mabry, Fleming, Charlton, Governor Senter,
and unnamed "corruptionists," who "have followed me with such
ruthless malice ever since I became a citizen of Knoxville." Two
committees shrugged off the labor of investigating, a third accepted
it, but Senter's cousin, Editor and Representative Fleming, "who
when not drunk, was the controlling mind upon the committee,"
Baxter noted.
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
381
Old scandals were raked up by Baxter. Among them were the
forged letters to Amos Lawrence of Massachusetts that bore the
name of Andrew Johnson. Charlton had played a part in this plot.
Baxter laid his brief arrest in Memphis during the Civil War to his
implacable foes in Knoxville. Boring more deeply into Mabry's
affairs, Baxter wrote that the legislative committee had found that
Mabry had misapplied $217,905 of the Knoxville and Kentucky
Railroad's funds. By Baxter's reckoning it was $570,377. He was
bitter because the investigators had decided a lawsuit he had brought
in Knox County to require an accounting from Mabry of the railroad
management was a "private quarrel of no importance to the people
of the State." Fleming had told a House committee at Nashville that
Baxter had brought his charges against Mabry and others "to cover
his corruption in the Mineral Home Railroad matters." He further
stated that if investigating was to be done "let honorable men do it,
and not such fellows as this."[29]
Baxter's trenchant letters led the Chronicle, Republican but not
Radical, to explain that it was not identifying itself with the lawyer's
course, but "We publish Mr. Baxter's letters because he is making war
upon the corrupt leaders of his own party .... We know that corruption exists in the Democratic Party, and we are glad to have it exposed by one of the leaders of that party" (Daily Chronicle, June 12,
1870). The Chronicle did not accept Senter as a Republican, it offered him to the Democrats, and it carefully placed Mabry in the
Democratic Party:
Mr. Mabry was never a member of the Republican party. He at one time held
intimate personal relationships with some of the party leaders, but his relations
to the party ... were temporary. He was a Republican, he said, inprder that he
might be of service to his friends, and for his own protection .... We do not
intend that ... the Republican party shall be held responsible for Mr. Mabry's
sins. He is now, and in sentiment always was, a leading Democrat, and we
propose that, as that party has the glory and the influence of the Whig and its
publisher, it shall also have their record."[30]
The "glory and influence of the Whig" was sarcasm. Mabry sold it
on August 20, 1879, to Rolfe Saunders, a former Register editor who
had remained friendly with Brownlow in the 185 3 fight for newspaper survival. Saunders took on I. S. Clark of Memphis as a partner
and gave the newspaper the incongruous title of the Whig and Register. Mabry was so anxious to sell the property that he took the
�382
CHAPTER NO. 19
entire purchase price of $15,000 in five notes. Rule notarized the
transaction. [ 31]
Early in 1871 Baxter was provoked into another broadside by
statements of Senator Brownlow when the Senate passed a bill to
compensate Malinda Harmon $4,696.70 for the loss of her Greene
County Farm. The farm had been sold under court order to pay
lawyers who represented her husband and son, Jacob and Henry
Harmon, who were hanged at Knoxville for having participated in the
1861 bridge burnings. The Parson, as usual, said Baxter's services
were of no value to his clients, and pictured him as greedily selling
the widow's farm to collect his fee. The Press and Herald broke
precedent. It praised Brownlow for helping
the widow and children of poor, crazed Harmon, who in a moment of agony
signed away the homestead which had sheltered her.... From that day to this,
the wretched woman has not know a moment of happiness, as every day she
feared might be the last wherein her gray hairs, and her helpless children could
find a home. Senator Brownlow may have committed many sins during his long
lifetime, and who hath not, but his noble conduct in this matter will certainly
cover a multitude of abuses. [ 3 2]
Fleming probably wrote the editorial; Baxter accused him of it.
Baxter then revealed some surprising details. Harmon had retained
Fleming and Montgomery Thornburgh, in addition to Baxter, to
represent him in the criminal charges and in a lawsuit brought by the
East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad seeking $100,000 in damages.
Harmon put up $3,000 in notes secured by a trust deed on his
Greene County farm. Baxter revealed the fact that Fleming was a
partner in the law firm of Confederate Senator Landon C. Haynes
and Baxter. This was a circumstance that Brownlow had never put in
print, even during his most furious disputes with the younger editor
and lawyer. Baxter said he had paid Haynes, Fleming and Thornburgh, $800, $200, and $1,000 respectively, for their interest in the
fees. But instead of foreclosing directly, as he might have done, he
had asked the Knox County Chancery Court to determine if the fees
were reasonable. The court held they were proper and decreed the
property should be foreclosed. Baxter bid it in for $4,650, but permitted the family to remain on the farm and use it. He anticipated
that Congress would vote relief for Mrs. Harmon. He had moved
cannily in asking the court's approval, for the chancellor who heard
the suit was 0. P. Temple, who was appointed to the post when the
Parson was governor.
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
383
The lawyer charged Brownlow with malice and ingratitude. He
accused the Parson of not having paid him so much as expenses for
his trip to Richmond in which he made arrangements for Brownlow's
passport to the North. Now Brownlow was accusing him unjustly.
Fleming had pocketed his share of the Harmon fee nine years earlier
and now, as editor of the Press and Herald used it, "to the perpetuation of Senator Brownlow's slander, to speak of the deed in trust,
under which he has long since demanded and received his interest, as
a 'mortgage to ]no. Baxter,' and the collection of money paid by me
to him for the benefit of Harmon's family, as fraudulent and the
robbery of a 'poor widow and orphans.' "
Baxter had just been warming up. He next sued six newspapers for
$50,000 each, the Whig and Register, the Press and Herald, the Nashville Banner, the Nashville Union and American, the Athens Post, and
the Sweetwater Enterprise. The Whig and Register had printed an
attack on Baxter by State Senator John M. Clementson, chairman of
a legislative committee investigating railroads, including the Knoxville and Kentucky. Baxter earlier had accused the senator of bribery
and malfeasance in Ohio. The other newspapers had republished the
article. When the trial of the Whig and Register was held in Knox
County Circuit Court, the Press and Herald was most abusive of
Baxter. It was stunned when a jury awarded the lawyer compensation of $27,500. The unsued Chronicle looking over the carnage,
found the judgment "the heaviest verdict for libel in the State."
Baxter's sensational victory led the remaining newspapers to settle
by running retractions, assuming the costs of litigation, and paying
the plaintiff from $500 to $2,000. The Whig and Register had failed
to plead truth as its justification for publishing the Clementson statement. Instead it relied on a defense that the statement was part of
the Chancery Court record in a suit by Baxter against Mabry. The
trial brought out that the chancellor had refused to make the
Clementson statement a part of the record and therefore was not
privileged for publication. Clementson was not sued. [ 3 3]
The judgment crushed the Whig and Register and its owners,
Saunders and Clark. They tried to appeal on a pauper's oath, and the
newspaper was so reduced when the Press and Herald bought what
was left of it, it did not consider either name of enough value to add
it to its title. [ 34]
By coincidence the Daily Chronicle was one year old and growing
lustily the day the Whig and Register was suspended. The two newspapers, once powerfully and ferociously at each other's throats,
�384
CHAPTER NO. 19
found rest together in what amounted to a pauper's grave, their
names now valueless. [ 35]
The ashes of the Whig stirred with short life early in 1875. Senator
Brownlow, his legislative record unimpressive except that he remained alive, completed his term. Andrew Johnson succeeded him,
but lived only a few months. The Parson had found the Chronicle
"too mild in its tone, and altogether too conciliatory, considering the
party with which you have to deal, and how violent and hostile
toward the loyal people that party is." He disliked the General
Assembly's undoing of his programs so much that he predicted Congress would find it necessary to take over reconstruction. His extremism reached the point that
had I my way, I would reconstruct the Government of the United States so as to
form a STRONG CENTRAL GOVERNMENT here in the District of Columbia
and organize the states as so many colonial corporations as absolutely dependent
upon and subject to the will of the central power at Washington as counties are
to the States.
Thus I would wipe out and extirpate the whole theory and pretense of States
Rights and State Sovereignity to which we are mainly indebted for the late
rebellion. [36]
Rule promptly dissented with the Parson on this subject. The Democrats had tried to make it appear Brownlow's arbitrary position was
that of the Republican Party. Rule's statement also threw further
light upon his separation from Senter and Brownlow in 1869:
As soon as it was known who Governor Senter's supporters were we dicided
[sic.] upon our position and steadfastly adhered to them. We charged then that
Governor Senter was in league with the railroad corruptionists to restore the
Democracy to power and for that reason refused to support him. His course
since the election has confirmed all we ever charged against him, and we say
now, as we said then, the Democracy are welcome to him and his railroad ring,
and all they can make out of them.[37]
Rule's statement almost placed him in Baxter's corner. Certainly
he was in opposition to Senator Brownlow on this and other issues.
But he must have had a personal attachment to his former editor and
to his basic politica1 philosophy, because when the Parson's six-year
term was up they combined again. Rule and A. J. Ricks, the latter
having succeeded Tarwater, sold a half interest to Brownlow. A partnership of Brownlow, Rule, and Ricks took over the publication of
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
385
the daily and weekly Chronicle. The name of the latter was expanded
into the Whig and Chronicle. Brownlow was made principal editor
and Rule managing editor. Ricks stepped out of the newspaper management and returned to the practice of law. As John Baxter's law
partner in 1869, he had been furious at the senator for having barred
him from the job of pension agent at Knoxville. Now he saw the
Parson as "beyond question the best known and most experienced
editor in the South," a statement which did not stretch the
truth. [38]
Tennessee now presented an entirely different political face.
Democrats controlled the statehouse, from governor to General
Assembly. They were operating under a new state constitution and
had elected six of the eight members of Congress from Tennessee. [ 39] Adversity may have played a part in bringing Brownlow and
Rule together as the political power of the Republicans in the state
dwindled. The combination of the Parson's prestige as an editor,
feeble though he was in body, with the young, vigorous and respected Rule, made business sense. The Whig and Chronicle moved from
the Parson's old location to Market Square. Brownlow said that the
daily "has the largest circulation of any journal in East Tennessee,
but the Whig and Chronicle will have as large a circulation as any
newspaper in the State." The old editor pledged himself to make war
on the Democrats and to expose corruption when found in his own
party: "In a word I shall edit an Independent Journal. I shall endeavor to commend it to public support by showing that it deserves
support." He stopped short of his old threat to treat his foes with
personal "severity." He observed rather mildly that "it will not be
my fault if my personal relations are not agreeable with my brethren
of the press of all parties. In the discussion of public questions it is
my purpose to treat all with courtesy who do not elect to be treated
otherwise." [40] He must have noticed with some emotion a month
later when the equipment of the old Whig and Register was sold
under a Chancery Court order to satisfy judgments against Mabry
and Saunders. [41]
The Whig and Chronicle and the Chronicle bore little resemblance
to the old Whig. The weekly was an eight-page tabloid, the daily four
pages with large body type. The news content was greater, especially
in local, state, and national affairs. Much of it was received by wire.
Rule, as mentioned, had specialized in getting local news. Editorializing still appeared in some news items, but it was gradually being
�386
CHAPTER NO. 19
confined to the editorial page. Brownlow's writings were more philosophical and more abundant with historical background. Outraged as
he was when the Democrats captured the lower house of Congress in
1875, he satisfied himself with heading an editorial on the subject:
"THE CONFEDERATE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES."[42]
Tennessee's financial condition grew precarious and talk of repudiating the state debt arose. Brownlow blamed the Democratic administration which propelled Tennessee into the Confederacy, [4 3] and
sent a flaming message to the Republican State Convention in May
1876. He warned that the integrity of the state was at stake:
I have too long loved the fair name of Tennessee to be willing at this late date to
see it imperilled by lack of good faith. The noble old commonwealth whose
integrity was never doubted when repudiation lifted its brazen front in Pennsylvania, or when jeff. Davis led Mississippi into the same putrid slough, from
the slime and stink of which that unfortunate State has never yet escaped,
cannot now be permitted to follow such unfortunate examples.
Complete repudiation never came, nor did Brownlow escape the conclusion of historians that his administrations were reckless spenders,
especially in issuing railroad bonds. [44]
Late in 1876 the signed editorials of Brownlow grew more infrequent, and on the night of April 28, 1877, after having paid workmen who had been making repairs on the home on East Cumberland
Avenue, he became ill and died at 2:05 a.m., on Sunday April 30.
The paralysis that had dogged his frame for years and had stripped
him of his proud and cherished ability to use his pen, struck his
abdomen. Rule wrote an obituary of more than five columns which
appeared in the Chronicle of May 1, 1877, and down from the masthead came the name of William G. Brownlow. In that position only
"Wm. Rule, Managing Editor," remained.
Rule laid aside his usual reserve and wrote a touching, emotional
piece on the man who had hired him in 1859 and started him off on
what would be a long and distinguished newspaper career. He extolled the Parson as a minister, editor, and public servant who was in
private life extraordinarily kind to his family, gentle to the ill and the
helpless, and generous to the impoverished. The old editor was
buried in Gray Cemetery,[45] where in 1854 he had joined with
Sexton Neddy Lavendar in laying to rest cholera epidemic victims.
The parson died with a reputation unblemished by any charge of
corruption. But in 1879 a legislative committee, investigating the
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
387
large amount of state bonds voted for the benefit of railroads after
the war, turned up testimony that casts a shadow on his record. The
Brownlow-Senter legislatures had voted so many bond issues, principally for the railroads, that in 1870 the total state debt exceeded
$43,000,000, as compared with $25,277,000 when the Parson was
elected. The state's railroads had been left in deplorable shape as the
contending armies fought back and forth across Tennessee, and funds
were required to restore them. The railroads in turn were held responsible to pay interest on these bonds and retire them. But large
amounts of the bond money went into speculation for the benefit of
railroad officials and owners, and to prime the legislative pump to
keep the bond issues coming. The railroad lobbyists employed the
usual devices to corrupt legislators-money, clothing, jewelry, liquor,
and women. But as the minority report stated, these charges were
general, and "There is indeed no proof ... that would be sufficient,
in a court of justice, to warrant the conviction of a single member of
the Legislature." [46]
Testimony was produced that five bills of $1 ,000 denomination
each were given to the Governor in July or August 1869 at his
residence in Knoxville, and that at Brownlow's direction Joe Mabry
placed them in Mrs. Brownlow's hands. Behind the presentation of
the money lays a tale told by Mabry that strains credulity. Four
Tennessee railroad officials and a New York banker had made almost
$5,000 in bond speculation, and feeling the need of spiritual guidance:
Some of us consulted a celebrated New York Spiritualist, Mad. Mansfield, and
she told us that bonds would go down and that there would be trouble in
Tennessee and not to go to Nashville that we would be arrested, but that we
could control "old scratch," meaning Governor Brownlow, with money. We seen
[sic.) that the Legislature had been called. We had speculated in bonds on
account of Governor Brownlow, and had made nearly $5,000. We then determined to make the governor a present of $5,000, furnishing out of our private
means what we had failed of the $5,000 in our speculating for his benefit. I
notified him the day before we would; Callaway and myself went up to present
it; he was lying on a lounge, and he told us to give it to his wife and we did so, as
before stated.
Q. Did Governor Brownlow know anything about these speculations in New
York, for his benefit, or did you in any manner intimate to him that you had
speculated for his benefit, or did he or his wife receive it purely as a present?
�388
CHAPTER NO. 19
A. He never knew anything of these speculations, nor did I in any manner
intimate to him anything about them, and it is my opinion that the $5,000 was
received purely as a present.
Q. Was this present made in view of the advice of the spiritualist and was it
made for the purpose of enabling you to control him?
A. We were advised by the spiritualist that we could control him and we
entered into the speculation to make some money for him. We wanted to quiet
him and we took this way of doing it.
The speculators were, in addition to Mabry, R. T. Wilson of New
York, and Calvin McGhee, John R. Branner, and Thomas H. Callaway of East Tennessee. Mabry was the only one of the three who
testified who mentioned the spiritualist, and he did not say who
accompanied him. Wilson confirmed the decision to give the money
to Brownlow, but he was silent on the medium and said he only
knew of the delivery to the governor from Mabry having told him.
McGhee, who was examined before Mabry told the story of the
$5,000, mentioned it not at all in very guarded testimony, and was
not recalled. Mrs. Brownlow told newsmen she had accepted the
money and saw no harm in it because her husband had performed
many services for the roads in his career.[47]
Rule accused the investigating committee of having been appointed "to discover a pretext for repudiation" of the state debt. This was
an issue of utmost interest and was generally opposed by Republicans. He held, "The moral standard of the Legislature has sunk so
low under the teachings of Gov. Marks inaugurated early in the
years ... that members appear to have lost all the faculty they ever
did have for distinguishing between right and wrong, between honor
and infamy." [48] When the Mabry testimony was printed [the
Chronicle ran it in full] , Rule bristled that the committee
not content ... with blackening the character of the living by lugging into this
investigation matters wholly irrelevant to the subject which they pretended to
investigate; like ghouls and hyenas they have prowled among the graves of the
dead for something to gratify their slanderous appetites. Fairly considered, there
is nothing in the evidence of Joseph A. Mabry that would convict Gov. Brownlow of bribery or corruption, in the estimation of even an impartial stranger. But
here, where he was best known, there is not a reasonable man of any party who
would for one moment give credence to such a charge. In his long and eventful
life ... no one dared ... to charge him with dishonesty or corruption.
No man ever approached William G. Brownlow with a bribe. No man who
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
389
knew him ever dared to do it. He was above suspicion in this respect.
The Chronicle editor resorted to the theme expressed by Mrs. Brownlow that the money represented appreciation for her husband's constant support of the railroads as a medium of transportation:
Gov. Brownlow was regarded by the opposite party at the close of the war as
an extreme man. He had had provocations to excite a spirit of revenge, and when
he became Governor he had the power to take revenge had he thought proper to
do so. The gentlemen who are said to have made his wife a present of five
thousand dollars, at least a portion of them, were regarded as extreme men on
the other side. The Governor showed no malicious disposition toward these men,
but on the contrary received them in a spirit of friendship. He aided them in
every possible way in their legitimate business enterprises. He actively and industriously used his influence to secure the release of railroad property in the
State, in which they were largely interested, from the military authorities of the
Government, and its restoration to the owners .... The property was released.
They naturally felt grateful for his services. He was a poor man and had not been
able to live upon his salary as Governor. They were all, then, regarded as
wealthy. They desired to give some token of their appreciation ... and could
well afford to do it. They were his neighbors, and knew well that he could not be
bribed. [49]
Rule's position received some support from a statement given to
the Nashville Daily American. It was made by R. T. Wilson, one of
the New York speculators, and a Loudon County native. He had
opposed the Parson politically, but he considered him a man of the
highest integrity and his personal friend, who "had been instrumental
in procuring the prompt removal of my disabilities at the close of the
war, for which I have always felt grateful." He understood that the
$5,000 was to be given to a member of the Brownlow family. At the
time of the speculation Wilson was a banker, but when the committee hearings were held he also was president of the East Tennessee,
Virginia & Georgia, and of the Memphis and Charleston railroads. [SO]
Wilson's statement was a tribute to the Parson, whether he helped
to remove Wilson's disabilities as a Confederate supporter because he
was a friend, or because he saw that Wilson could be useful in rebuilding the financial structure of the state. Perhaps both reasons
played a part with Brownlow. It does show that Brownlow's personal
friendships sometimes overrode his furious dislike of Confederates in
general, and it also displays, assuming that he acted because he saw
�390
CHAPTER NO. 19
usefulness in Wilson in financial matters, his interest in the economic
restoration of Tennessee.
In Knoxville the Democratic Tribune, which was opposed to repudiation of the state debt, decided that the committee had wandered far from its purpose of investigating the validity of this burden.
Instead the committee had "closely devoted themselves to the search
after assailable personal reputations, and that too by methods entirely indefensible .... Charges of the most calumnious character,
without a syllable of legal testimony, have been greedily accepted at
second hand .... Much of this so called 'evidence' is but the garbage
of ten or twelve years ago, and has no relation whatever to the public
debt of Tennessee." The Tribune was not taking up Brownlow's
cause and it did not refer to the $5,000. It did prNest the investigators digging up "All the old slanders and corruptions connected
with the history of the State during the last few years," and of which
the people were wearied. [51]
The presentation of the $5,000 could not be sustained as a high
moral gesture with lofty motives. The acceptance ~emained a moral
question. Senator ]. W. Clapp, a Shelby County l<lwyer, wrote the
minority report of the committee. He would have ignored the $5,000
had it not been mentioned in the majority findings, "for however
reprehensible the transaction was, it had nothing to do with the
passage of any law or the issuance of any bond, and is not, therefore,
relevant to the matter being considered." [52] A puzzling aspect is
Mabry's motive for telling the committee about making the gift.
Brownlow had been his friend and benefactor and had helped Mabry
in the period after the federal occupation of Knoxville to shed the
disabilities of having been a Confederate. Yet he told on the Parson
as he had on the men he said once plotted to destroy the Whig editor
in 1861 and 1862. Mabry was an expert dodger on the witness stand,
as his testimony showed. It is possible the committee had found
some lever to pry the story from him, or offered him some inducement. But this does not appear in the record or in the reports.
A stripling publisher from Chattanooga, twenty-year-old Adolph
S. Ochs, who had lived in Knoxville for several years, gave Brownlow
a very high rating for integrity in this comparison with Mabry:
There are few of Governor Brownlow's enemies who will believe the story Jo
Mabry told the Star Chamber Committee about him. Brownlow was a harsh
man; a reliable hater; not particular to be politically consistent; eager to carry
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
391
any point he set his head or heart on; endowed with a violent temper and a
vindictive nature-those were some of the attributes the public saw. But he was
never accused by his most earnest personal and political enemy of even winking
at or overlooking corruption in his subordinates, much less of being guilty of
receiving bribes. The story in this part, which Mabry got up for the delectation
of the investigators, is probably out of whole cloth, and without foundation of
any kind except in the muddled brain of its author.
We confess no admiration, personal or other, for the dead Governor and
Senator ....
But we knew him and knew of him pretty thoroughly, from 1862 on up to
the time of his death; and we freely say that a more hospitable and mildmannered gentleman at his home was never met with by his peers; nor did ever a
public man in Tennessee die with a cleaner record, for personal and official
honor.
Mabry cannot harm Brownlow. He is too thoroughly known throughout the
South. He left a photograph of himself, a moral and political picture, which will
pass into history with all its lights and shades in strong relief. Detraction cannot
hurt him nor praise help him.[53]
Young Ochs had been reared in Knoxville where his father, Julius
Ochs, was in business. The editorial was written before the presentation of the gift had been verified. Yet it was a striking testimony to
Brownlow's reputation for integrity.
The Parson left another enigma, the value of his estate. Technically it was small at his death, as Rule and Temple reported. [54)
But beginning in 1870 he began to make gifts to his children, wife
and a grandchild. The gifts consisted of real estate and interest bearing gold bonds of the United States that paid five percent and matured in twenty years. He deeded a house and lot at the northwest
corner of Walnut Street and Clinch Avenue to his son, John Bell. He
deeded a house and lot "near the Custom House" which stood at the
southeast corner of Market Street and Clinch Avenue to Mrs. Daniel
T. (Sue) Boynton; a house and lot on Cumberland Avenue, possibly
No. 514, to Mrs. H. M. (Mary) Aiken. He gave to each of his three
unmarried daughters- Fannie, Callie and Annie Brownlow--$5 ,000
in bonds, to his little granddaughter Lillie Sawyer, $1,000 in bonds,
and to his wife, Eliza Ann, $5,000 in bonds. He stipulated that the
proceeds from a $5,000 life insurance policy were to be invested in
these bonds. The real estate, using the Parson's valuations, was worth
$14,000 or more, and the bonds and insurance were valued at
�392
CHAPTER NO. 19
$26,000. This did not include the Brownlow residence on Cumberland Avenue. The Parson's son, James P. Brownlow, was not mentioned, possibly because he had married the daughter of a rather
wealthy Franklin resident, Dr. D. B. Cliffe. Dr. Boynton, the trustee
under the "deed of gift" that bestowed the bonds, was given two
strict directions: if he found that Fannie, Callie, Annie, or Lillie
married a "drunkard, idler or gambler," the heirs were to receive the
interest only, but if the husbands were found by the trustee to be
otherwise, upon marriage, they were to receive the bonds. The administrator of the estate appraised the value of Brownlow's interest
in the Whig and Chronicle Printing Co. at $3,500.[55] This suggests
that the Parson's estate may have been worth close to $45,000. He
left no will.
A letter written by Brownlow to Temple on March 19, 1877, a
few weeks before the editor died, suggests at first glance that he was
in dire need of money. But a closer examination indicates that he
was chiding Temple for having let him have the note of an absconding preacher. It read:
I understand that Preacher Howell, whose note you gave me, is fled the
country. The note is in the hands of Logan.
The premium on my life Ins. Policy will be due in a few days, and I would be
glad if you could pay me some money to meet it-otherwise I cannot now see
why I shall not be compelled to let it lapse. Please send me $17 5 to 200$ [sic.] Resplly [sic.]
Your friend
W. G. Brownlow.
Temple made a notation on the back of the letter that three days
later he "sent $200.00 as a loan. Wrote explaining matters." [56]
Confusing in Brownlow's "deed of gift" is the declaration that he
had "given my daughter Mary M. Aiken, a certain house and lot on
Cumberland Street [now Cumberland Avenue] for which I paid five
thousand ($5,500) five hundred dollars," for no such deed is on
record. However there is a deed from Thomas H. Calloway of Cleveland, the railroad official, to Mary B. Aiken, "free from debts and
the control of her ... husband," for Cumberland Avenue property
valued as $2,400. The deed was dated November 24, 1869. Callaway
had bought it at a Chancery Court sale for $2,300. Mabry had testified Callaway went with him to present the $5,000 in the late summer of 1869. Callaway was dead at the time of the investigation. [57]
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
393
Almost a century has elapsed since Brownlow died, and historians
continue to give him low marks as a public official, although some
revision of Reconstruction policies have appeared. [58] He was harsh
and unsparing in his language. He employed excessive force and highly restrictive legislation to keep himself and his party in power and
his enemies out. He permitted the railroad interests to lead the state
into a precarious condition of indebtedness. He clung to office when
he was so weak and palsied that he could stand for only a few moments. Some of his notable achievements, such as the bestowing of
the franchise on the former slaves, were born of political expediency
rather than from noble motivation. Brownlow did achieve the early
restoration of the state to the Union. Tennessee was the first of the
seceders to accomplish this. He set the courts and local governments
to functioning. He urged the reopening of classroom doors that were
closed throughout the war. The legislature was regrettably slow to
move upon his recommendations.
The failures were written and the achievements recorded at a time
when the furies of men and the devastation of lives and property
remained livid and raw. Time had not wrought the healing effect of
tolerance and compassion. Instead most men were in one or the
other of two militant and muttering camps. Many of the victorious
Unionists were determined to keep the political power which they
had grasped by force of arms. The Confederates, smarting, crushed,
and frustrated by battlefield defeat, wanted to regain the political
voice that they had held in the old government, and from which they
had sought to separate themselves by rifle, bayonet, and cannon.
In such a time it was inevitable that the Unionists should select the
Parson for governor. He was nationally renowned and had been unyielding in his loyalty to the Union even when in jail and despairing
of his life. The confinement in the jail at Knoxville probably shattered his once sturdy constitution. As an East Tennesseean he knew
the suffering that the loyalists had endured under Confederate occupation, and he was highly articulate. This was a qualification that
especially suited the men who had come back from service in blue
uniforms, who were aware of their power, and were determined to
hold it by restricting the vanquished rebels. If, as an historian has
written, the Parson was the worst possible choice to restore peaceable order in Tennessee,[59] he was the only man considered for
governor by the element in power. He was selected precisely because
he possessed the characteristics that historians a century later de-
�394
CHAPTER NO. 19
plored. If the Parson must be indicted for lack of moderation, then
the same bill must lie against the men who put him in the governor's
chair where his stringencies against the southern supporters and the
hasty routes he took to power will bear comparison with the
methods employed by Governor Isham G. Harris. The Civil War
governor had whipped up sentiment for secession, had entered into a
secret military league with the Confederacy, and had troops in training throughout the state before the electorate had approved separation. Brownlow rode into office on a reversal of this tide, and also by
irregular methods. This development, it is true, imposed the will of a
minority upon a majority, if it is assumed that the returning soldiers
who had tried to sever themselves from the Union were entitled to
lay down their rifles and pick up the ballot in one motion. This
assumption was not acceptable to the victors. They were determined
that the men who had fought against them must be deprived of the
ballot, as a punitive measure, and restored, if ever, when they had
demonstrated their integrity as citizens of the nation they had recently furiously and bitterly opposed. They had not come back into
the Union voluntarily. They had returned because they were defeated. As a practical political matter it would have been folly for the
men in power to hand to the former Confederates whether they had
been in uniform, civil officials, ardent sympathizers, or guerillas, the
weapon of the ballot. With their superior numbers in Tennessee, the
former Confederates would have unseated the Unionists and put
themselves back in the seats of power. In time this happened, but
time eased emotions and produced less furious changes. The war had
been fought upon the issue of secession, and the outcome in no way
repealed the law of human nature which makes survival the great
imperative. It is true that among the Unionists there were men who
counselled moderation. This group formed the Conservative wing,
but the Radicals saw to it that it did not gain an advantage.
Brownlow must have seen that the radicals could remain in power
only as long as they denied the ballot to the old Confederates. He
had been in politics too long not to have realized this. This realization must have prompted him to seek the security of the Senate seat.
Time, or circumstances, did mellow Brownlow, for when Senter, as a
political expedient came out for universal suffrage, the Parson supported him. He also offered a sound reason for the change. He believed that the majority of the men who had been deprived of the
ballot had earned its return, regardless of a small number still undeserving.
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
395
The railroad officials clearly took advantage of the Parson's fascination for this form of transportation. Yet he was responsible for
permitting their corruption of legislators and the swelling of the state
debt. And by the acceptance of $5,000 from speculating railroaders,
he left a shadow on an otherwise unblemished reputation for integrity. It was presented for no single purpose or set of purposes,
achieved or to be achieved, as the minority report of the legislative
investigating committee noted. It was not a medal of honor, and as
Ochs pointed out, the hand that presented the money was not an
unstained one. But such is Brownlow's reputation for rugged honesty
that historians cautiously have avoided outright condemnation. They
have preferred to assume that he was innocent of any evil purpose in
taking the money. The odium in the transaction they have cast upon
the donors. [601
The qualities which Brownlow lacked and which would have made
him a healing and uniting force as governor-objectivity, calmness,
broadness of view and ability to compromise-were the ones that
made him a successful editor. He learned at Elizabethton to pounce
quickly and furiously upon his adversaries. It came easily and naturally to him. He saw that this policy brought him circulation, and
readership was his goal. Therefore he intensified his efforts. Brownlow boasted that the Whig was one-sided, and he insisted upon and
practiced, even flaunted his independence of views and of business
operation. He would not permit the solicitation of advertising other
than through the newspaper's columns and he made only a limited
attempt, especially in his early experience, to go outside the office
for news. Most of it had to be brought to his door.
The Whig's success was built solely upon the Parson and his ability
to bring to his writing novelty of approach and style that used exaggeration, caricature, hyperbole, sarcasm, and most intriguing of all,
humor that flashed out at unexpected moments and which he even
trained upon himself. It was almost impossible to predict how
Brownlow would approach a subject or a situation, but once he
tackled it the result would be diverting. He also was a natural roving
reporter. The Parson revealed with the sharp point of his pen the
many sides of the human creature, its follies and its nobilities, its
glories and its degradations, its righteousness and its sins, its integrity
and its hypocrisy. The human race fascinated him. He surely loved it.
Brownlow was devoutly religious and at the same time he enjoyed
hugely life upon this earth. Long faces and "sour godliness" he dis-
�396
CHAPTER NO. 19
liked, but "a flow of spirits" he relished. He was keenly awake to the
importance of economic affairs, and while in Philadelphia he was
impressed by the bustle of business, but his eye was also arrested by
the sight of beautiful, exquisitely dressed women tripping along the
walks. He found the mud in Memphis streets dismal, but the spectacle
of the beaux and belles of the South dancing at the ball opening the
Gayoso Hotel transported him. The fleshly charm of the sisters attending the Methodist General Conference at Nashville in 1854 took
away his breath, in print. He was an extremist, but he was a rare
creature of the breed, one with a sense of humor. Brownlow was a
crusader, a chuckling, gouging knight in ring-streaked armor. He
fought with laughing fury the dispiriting dragon of dullness. The
Parson enlivened and repelled his readers but almost never left them
bored. But the tribulations that fell upon him in 1861, the cession of
his beloved Tennessee, the loss of his cherished newspaper, the indignities, scorns, and threats laid upon him because of his loyalty, his
arrest and imprisonment, and the consequent shattering of his health,
sapped him of his sense of humor. As governor his mind was almost
as lacking of jest and quip as his body was of vitality. Once something of his old puckiness arose. He had been told that his enemies
were denouncing him for seeking the United States Senate seat at a
time when he appeared near death. The Parson smiled that "the
Senate chamber is not a bad place from which to depart for
heaven." [61]
However much Brownlow liked the power of the governor's chair
and the Senate seat, newspapering was his great love, and the scene
of his greatest accomplishments. He was editor, editor and publisher,
publisher, but he preferred arrangements where he was entirely free
to pursue independent editorial policies to the exclusion of all other
newspaper cares. The Parson was not a successful business man in the
field of management because he failed to give close attention to
office detail. He trusted associates too fully, he endorsed too many
notes, and he emptied his pockets too often for the impoverished.
However, he did establish a cash-in-advance policy on subscriptions, a
course forced upon him by the difficulty of collecting past due
accounts. He was not an innovator in the business field. He set up no
organization which produced a newspaper dynasty, but he was responsible for starting a line. of succession that exists today in The
Knoxville journal, still a family-owned newspaper. Rule, who first
worked under the Parson, then gave Brownlow a newspaper shelter
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
397
for two years before he died, founded the journal. He stayed at the
helm of this newspaper until his death in 1928.
Brownlow's success was due entirely to his pen and his personality. As he died the style of newspapering was changing. It gave way
to more reliance on news for news' sake, and was confining editorialization to a page of its own. As a human creature the Parson is
frustrating to analysts, for he presented so many different, even conflicting sides of his nature that he defies categorization. Brilliant and
bottle-loving Fleming, who knew Brownlow at close range for many
years, threw up his hands at the task, and reached back into his legal
training to come up with a Latin phrase, sui generis. Such he was.
And in this singular and sparkling role he fought lustily, happily, and
successfully that enervating bane of the human race-dullness.
CHAPTER XVIV NOTES
[ 1) Whig, January 6, 13, 1869; Press and Herald, January 2, 1869; Rule, Ed.,
Standard History, p. 325; Articles of Agreement on Whig organization,
January 1, 1869, signed by Brownlow, Haws and Rule. Rule Papers.
[ 2) Knoxville, Daily Chronicle, June 4, 1870.
[ 3) Whig, January 6, 13, 1868; partnership agreement between Brownlow and
Haws, Knox County Deed Book A-1. Rule was elected County Court clerk
in the spring of 1866. Whig, March 7, 1866. He held this office in addition
to reporting local news for the Whig. He added a miscellany of local events
including real estate transfers, marriage licenses, disposition of court cases,
visitors to the city, brawls, burglaries, building, street improvements and
something entirely new, reports of baseball games. For examples see W!Jig,
March 13, May 1, 15, 22, 1867; "Articles of Agreement." Rule Papers.
[ 4) Ibid., Whig, October 18, 1865, May 28, July 23, 1864, October 18, 1865.
[ 5) Ibid., November 11, 1863, February 20, 1864; Parson Brownlow's Book,
pp. 135-136,141-147,177-179,189-190.
[ 6) Coulter, p. 294; Whig, May 6, 1868, November 15, 1865.
[ 7) Price, Holston Methodism, IV, preface, v, vii, pp. 297, 299-304, 343-344,
285-286.
[ 8) Whig, October 4, November 15, 1865.
[ 9] Ibid., October 24, 1866, November 20, 1867, December 19, 1866.
[10) Press and Herald, March 30, 1869.
[11) Ibid., February 27, June 26, March 13, 1867, February 5, 1868, August
28, 1867, May 20, 27, 1868.
[12) Press and Herald, December 6, 1868.
[13] Whig, March 3, 10, April 7, 1869.
�398
CHAPTER NO. 19
[14] Temple, Notable Men; Whig, April 12, 1865; Press and Herald, June 19,
1869. One of Senter's prison mates was Sevier County Senator Samuel
Pickens, who died in Confederate confinement. Temple, East Tennessee
and the Civil War, p. 404; Press and Herald, February 17, 1869.
[15] Press and Herald, May 22, 1869; J. A. Sharp, "The Downfall of the Radicals," East Tennessee Historical Society Publications, No.5, pp. 112-114;
Temple, Notable Men, p. 183; Folmsbee et al., Short History; Press and
Herald, May 21, 22, 23; Whig, May 26, June 2, 1869.
[16] Ibid., May 26, 1869; Press and Herald, May 23, 1869; Alexander, Political
Reconstruction, pp. 216-217; Sharp, "The Downfall of the Radicals in
Tennessee," pp. 115-116.
[17] Whig, June 23, 1869; Rule, ed., Standard History, p. 325.
[18] Press and Herald, June 16, 17, 19, 1869; Whig, June 23, 1869.
[ 19] "The Downfall of the Radicals," p. 114-115; Press and Herald, June 11,
1869.
[20] Alexander, Political Reconstruction, pp. 217-219; "The Downfall of the
Radicals," pp. 120-124; Press and Herald, August 7, 8, 1869; Whig, August
18, 1869.
[21] Press and Herald, August 7, 8, 1869; Whig, September 15, 1869;Pressand
Herald, September 15, 16, 19, 1869.
[22] Ibid., September 17, 1869, May 1, 1868; Thomas Hall Pearne, Sixty-one
Years of Itinerant Christian Life in Church and State (Cincinnati, New
York, 1899), introduction, p. 11, pp. 311-313, 320, 327. A brother, William Pearne, was engaged in the Methodist ministry in West Tennessee
during the reconstruction era. Ibid., p. 320.
[23] Whig, August 11, April 28, 1869; Press and Herald, September 25, 1869.
[ 24] Daily Press and Herald, December 21, October 20, 21, 22, 2 3, 1869.
[25] The note is the property of Mr. and Mrs. George T. Fritts of Knoxville.
Mrs. Fritts was Helen Brownlow, the great granddaughter of Parson
Brownlow. Mr. Fritts manages the real estate firm founded in Knoxville by
John Bell Brownlow under the name of J. B. and W. G. Brownlow. A copy
of the note is in the McClung Collection, donated by Mr. and Mrs. Fritts.
[26] Press and Herald, October 2, 1869.
[27] Weekly Chronicle, April6, 1870; Daily Chronicle, May 3, 1870.
[28] Press and Herald, June 14, 1870; Weekly Chronicle, June 15, 1870; Knox
County Circuit Court Minutes, Book 19, pp. 754, 847. The Baxter letters
appeared in the Daily Chronicle first on June 1, 1870, the last on June 22,
1870. The Mabry-Baxter agreement appeared in the Daily Chronicle June
28, 1870.
[29] Daily Chronicle, June 1, 4, 7, 10, 12, 17, 19, 21, 22, June 11,1870.
[30) Ibid., June 12, 28, 2, 1870.
[31] Knox County Deed Book AI, p. 364; Daily Chronicle, February 12, 1871.
[32] /bid.,January24, 1871;PressandHerald,]anuary25,1871.
[33] Ibid., January 6, February 11, 12, 1871; Daily Chronicle, February 12,
1871; Knox County Circuit Court Minutes, Book 20, pp. 624, 627, 634;
Press and Herald, February 4, 5, 1873; Daily Chronicle, February 12,
1871.
�THE WHIG DIES DEMOCRATIC
399
[ 34] Knox County Circuit Court Minutes, Book 20, p. 220; Press and Herald,
May 5, 1871.
[35] Daily Chronicle, May 6, 1871; Press and Herald, May 5, 1871.
[36] Weekly Chronicle, April 20, 1870; Daily Chronicle, May 3, 1870.
[37] Ibid., june 28, 1870.
[38] Ibid., February 21, 1875; Press and Herald, February 12, 1875, quoting
Knoxville Independent.
[39] Folmsbee et al., Short History, pp. 377-378.
[40] Daily Chronicle, February 21, 1875.
[41] Press and Herald, February 26, March 11,1875.
[42] Whig and Chronicle, january 19,1876.
[43] Ibid., February 2, 1876.
[44] Ibid., May 24, 1876; Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 380; Coulter, pp.
375-380; Alexander, Political Reconstruction, pp. 169-172.
[45] Chronicle, May 1, 1877; Rule, ed., Standard History, p. 326.
[46] Folmsbee et al., Short History, pp. 380-381; Senate journal Appendix,
Forty-first General Assembly, The State Debt, Report of the Committee
Appointed to Investigate it. Majority Report, pp. 8, 15-17, Minority Report, pp. 29-30.
[47] Ibid., testimony of joseph A. Mabry, R. T. Wilson and Calvin M. McGhee,
pp. 176-172, 94, 70-79; Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 381.
[48] Daily Chronicle, February 7, 1879.
[49] Ibid., March 6, 1879.
[50] Nashville Daily American, March 7, 1879; Senate journal Appendix,
Forty-first General Assembly of Tennessee. The State Debt, p. 86.
[51] Knoxville Daily Tribune, March 11, 12, 1879.
[52] Tennessee Senate journal Appendix, Fortyfirst General Assembly. The
State Debt. Minority Report, p. 31.
[53] Chattanooga Daily Times, March 7, 1879.
[54] Temple, Notable Men, p. 317.
[55] Knox County Warranty Deed Book P-3, p. 178, W. G. Brownlow to john
B. Brownlow, improved lot, corner of Clinch Avenue and Walnut Street,
September 13, 1876; ibid., Book H-3, p. 168, William G. Brownlow to Sue
C. Boynton et at., deed of gift, November 11, 1870. See also corrected
deed, ibid., Book Q-3, March 24, 1877, Knox County Estate Book, No.
19, inventory of Brownlow estate assets, p. 72.
[56] Brownlow to Temple, March 9, 1877. Temple Papers.
[57] Knox County Warranty Deed Book G-3, p. 143, Thomas H. Callaway to
Mary B. Aiken, ibid., F-3, p. 359, Chancery Court to Callaway.
[58] Folmsbee et al., Short History, p. 372.
[59] Coulter, p. 362.
[60] Ibid., p. 380; Folmsbee et at., Short History, p. 368.
[61] Temple, Notable Men, p. 340.
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August, 1923).
Manuscripts
Arnell, Samuel Mayes, unpublished typescript, "The Southern Unionist." University of Tennessee Special Collections.
Crabb, Landon, letter to "My Dear Mother," property of author.
Deaderick, David, diary. McClung Collection.
Howard, Mrs. J. T., Papers. Sherrod Library, East Tennessee State University,
Johnson City.
Kennerly, W. R., memorandum of conversation with John Bell Brownlow and
letter of John Bell Brownlow to A. T. Patterson. Presented by Sam Young.
University of Tennessee Special Collections.
Nelson, T. A. R., Papers. McClung Collection.
Pendleton, Gaines Strother, "Genealogical Tables," University of Tennessee
Special Collections.
Polk-Yeatman Papers. Tennessee State Library and Archives. Nashville.
Rule, William, Papers. McClung Collection.
Temple, Oliver Perry, Papers. University of Tennessee Special Collections.
Government Publications and Records
Acts of Tennessee, General Assembly, 1842, 1851·1852, 1861, 1865-1869.
�BIBLIOGRAPHY
405
Biographical Directory of the American Congress. Washington, 1961.
House journal, Tennessee General Assembly, 1865-1866. Nashville, (This session
has no number but is referred to as the Brownlow legislature.)
House journal, Thirty-Fourth General Assembly, 1861-1862, comp., Tennessee
Historical Commission. Nashville, 1957.
Knox County Circuit Court Minutes, Nos. 19, 20.
Knox County Deed Book, A·l.
Knox County Estate Book, No. 19.
Knox County Warranty Deed Books, H-3, Q-3, G-3, F-3.
Senate journal, Forty-First General Assembly, 1865·1869.
Senate journal Appendix, Forty-First General Assembly.
Sixth Census of the United States, Washington, 1840.
The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union
and Confederate Armies, 130 vols. Washington, 1880-1901.
�INDEX
Adams, John Quincy, 36
Agee, J. H., 335
Aiken, John A., 59-60
Aiken, Mrs. H. M. (Mary), 391-392 (See also
Brownlow, Mary.)
Alley, Isham, 291
Anderson, Alexander Outlaw, 30, 34
Anderson, Dr. Isaac, 70, 164
Anderson, Joseph, 30
Anderson, Josiah M., 153
Anderson, Thomas A., 30, 33, 34, 35
Antony, Mark, 221
Armstrong, James, 55 [20]
Armstrong, Robert, 15
Arnell, Samuel R., 297, 321, 333
Arnold, Thomas D., 52, 153, 154-155,212
Ashby, Col. H. M., 270, 277, 361, 362
Atkin, Emily H., 55 [20]
Atkin, Susan E., 55 [20]
Bacon, Charlotte, 87
Bacon, Jonathan, 88
Baker, Abner, 300-301
Baker, Dr. James Harvey, 301
Barmore, Seymour, 336, 337
Barton, Robert M., 291, 292
Bascomb, H. D., 123
Baxter, Andrew, 353
Baxter, John, 202, 221, 223, 226, 227, 228,
235,237,239,240,241,246-247,251
[35, 39]' 255,269,278, 327, 328, 347,
351, 352, 353, 354, 355, 363, 367, 378,
379, 380, 381, 382, 383, 384, 385
Bayless, Hezekiah, 74
Bearden, Sheriff Marcus D., 298, 299, 301,
367
Beecher, Henry Ward, 191
Bell, Dr. Benjamin, 155, 156, 157, 158,
159-160, 161
Bell, John, 15, 16, 36, 52, 75, 100, 169,
170,192,193,194,195,196,198,205,
214,230,287
Benjamin, Judah, 234,236,237,239, 240,
241,242,243,247,251 [39]' 255,
269-270
Bewley, Rev. Anthony, 197
Bishop, R. M., 63
Bledsoe, A. T., 246
Blizzard, A., 280
(see Wood, W. B.)
Booth, John Wilkes, 293
Boynton, Dr. David T., 262, 378, 392
Boynton, Mrs. Daniel T. (Sue C.), 391, 399
[55] (See also Brownlow, Susan.)
Bradfield, George W., 148
Breckenridge, John C., 193, 194, 195, 196,
197, 198, 199-200,203
Bridges, George W., 213,219, 239
Brien, JohnS., 147, 230
Bross, Lt. Gov. William, 323
Brown, Aaron V. (Fat), 7 5
Brown, George, 327
Brown, John, 190-192
Brown, Neill S. (Lean), 7 5, 363
Brownlow, A. S., 62-63, 110, 124
Brownlow, Annie, 391, 392
Brownlow, Callie, 391, 392
Brownlow, Catherine Gannaway, 1
Brownlow, Eliza, 21, 174,276,286, 387,
389, 391
Brownlow, Fanny, 261, 391, 392
406
�INDEX
Brownlow, Helen (See Fritts, Mrs. George
T.)
Brownlow, Isaac, 22
Brownlow, James P., 187,255,264,299,
392
Brownlow, john Bell, ii, 11, 21, 27 [50), 82
[12)' 95,111 Ill' 146-148,164,186,
192-193,201,207-208,227,237,248,
255,257,264,276,277,284,285,286,
287, 288,289,291,294,297, 304 (11),
318, 319, 331, 345,350, 358, 359, 360,
362,376,379,398 [25)
Brownlow, John F. (Jack), 264, 286
Brownlow, Mrs. john F., iv, v, 276
Brownlow, joseph A., 1
Brownlow, Lillie, 392
Brownlow, Mary, 55 [20), 257, 261
Brownlow, Susan, 21,27 [50], 133, 153,
235, 245, 248, 257, 261 (See also Sawyer, Mrs. Susan C,)
Brownlow, William G. IV, iv
Buchanan, james, 123, 167,168, 193, 199,
201, 256
Buell, Gen. Don Carlos, 248, 254
Burnside, Gen. Ambrose, 261, 262, 265,
273, 354, 355, 358, 368 [5)
Burr, Aaron, 15, 163
Butler, Joseph C., 255
Butler, R. R., 310, 372, 373, 339 [6)
Byron, George Noel Gordon (Lord), 92
Calloway, Thomas H., 387, 388, 392
Camp, E. C., 245, 361, 362
Campbell, James W., 101, 107, 110, 111,
271
Campbell, T. j., 277
Campbell, William, 115
Cannon, Gov. Newton, 12, 14, 15
Capers, Bishop William, 160
Carey, Gen. S. F., 255
Carlton, C. W., 192
Carroll, C. H., 250 [30)
Carroll, Mrs. Lisa, iv
Carroll, William H., 15, 234, 236, 237, 240,
242,246,247,255,271
Carter, Gen. S. P., 267, 356
Carter, William B., 9, 14, 18, 45, 232233,356, 357
Cartwright, Peter, 293
Case, Dr. Almon, 325
Cass, Gen. Lewis, 76, 78, 111 [ 1)
Caswell, Brig. Gen. W. R., 225·226
407
Cate, A.M., 372, 373
Catlett, T. K., 94, 95
Charlton, C. W., 140, 224, 225, 228, 249
[11)' 267,294, 376,377, 378, 379,380
Childs, George W., 255
Churchwell, William Montgomery, 143, 144,
145, 146, 153-154,155, 257
Clapp, J. W., 390
Clark, Bishop D. W., 368
Clark, I. S., 381, 383
Clay, Henry, 13, 14, 37, 40, 56, 57, 58, 75,
77,81,122,152-153,192
Clemens, Samuel L., 18
Clements, Andrew j., 213
Clementson, John M., 383
Cliffe, Dr. D. B., 392
Colfax, Schuyler, 335
Colt, N. }., 50
Cooper, Sen. Henry, 378
Cooper, Gen. joseph A., 312, 328
Cooper, Adj. Gen. S., 234
Coulter, E. Merton, 96
Cox (unknown first name), 360
Creekmore, Pollyanna, iv, 25 (22)
Crittenden, Maj. Gen. George D., 237, 238,
240, 241,251 (39)
Crockett, Davy, 15
Crouch, William H., 46
Crozier, John H., 100, 102, 107-108, 110,
Ill (4), 144, 161, 194·195, 245,267,
271, 300, 346, 347
Cumming, Rev. James, 78, 232, 236
Cummings, David H., 111, 206
Curtis (last name unknown-a slave belonging to William Gannaway Brownlow,
maybe named Bownlow, 276
Dallas, George M., 188 ( 1)
Davis, Jefferson, 193, 217 [ 341, 221, 230,
237, 239, 244, 246, 251 [39)' 272, 290,
291, 293, 303, 31~ 322, 324, 352, 353,
386
Dean, Julia, 127
Dickinson, Perez, 267, 281
Dickson (Dixon), Eli, 348
Dobson, John, iii
Dodd, Ephraim, 267
Donelson, Andrew j., 165, 166, 167
Douglas, Charles A., ii
Douglas, Stephen A., 193, 194, 198
Douglass, Charles S., 206, 208
Dowell, Rev. W. T., 236
Doyle, A. E. (Ebb), 215 [2)
�INDEX
408
Doyle, Drury, 192
Doyle, James Pleasant, 192
Doyle, John C., 192
Doyle, Mrs. Mahala, 192
Doyle, Mildred, 215 [2]
Doyle, William, 192
Duggan, William H., 228-229
Dulaney, H. L., 49
Dyer, Calvin M., 318, 319
Early, Bishop John, 368, 369, 370
Early, Gen. Jubal, 369
East, E. H., 283-284
Eastman, E. G., 17, 165, 166, 170
Embee, Elihu, 42
Embee, Elijah, 42
Emmerson, Thomas, 32
Emmerson, Thomas B., 32
Erwin, Andrew, 15
Etheridge, Emerson, 205, 248, 326-327,
328, 329
Everett, Edward, 195, 269
Ferris, Frank, 325
Fillmore, Millard, 76,77-78, 123, 152, 154,
158, 161, 167
Findlay, Jim, 126
Fisk, John F., 255
Fleming, Rev. David, 362
Fleming, John M., 118,142, 183, 186, 196,
202,209,223,265,269,278,327,332,
357, 359, 360, 361, 362, 366 [23]' 371,
375, 376, 377, 380, 381, 382, 383, 397
Fletcher, Andrew Jackson, 294, 355, 363,
364
Follin, Miriam F., 145
Folmsbee, Dr. Stanley J ., iv
Foote, HenryS., 197
Forney, John W., 321
Forrest, Gen. Nathan Bedford, 273, 333,
337
Foster, Ephraim, 16
Foster, Horace, 306 [32]
Foster, Col. John W., 262
Fowler, Joseph Smith, 295, 334
Fowlkes, Dr. Jeptha, 126, 157, 184-185,
223, 225, 226-227, 228
Frazier, Beriah, 317, 318, 320, 321
Frazier, Judge Thomas N., 321, 322
Fremont, John C., 123, 167
Fritts, George T., iv, 398 [25]
Fritts, Mrs. George T. (Helen Brownlow), iv,
398 [25]
Fulton, Rev. Creed, 20
Fry, Henry, 241, 242, 267, 298
Gallaher, J. C., 294, 295
Gannaway, John, 2
Garland, Valentine, 28, 29, 40, 156
Gaut, John C., 327-328
Gentry, Meredith, 100, 156, 157, 158, 159160, 161, 165, 166, 185, 287
Gifford, Lawson, 30, 31, 69 [21]
Gillem, Col. Alvin C., 289, 290, 345, 364
[4]
Gossett, V. F., 380
Gott, William, 9, 10, 42
Grainger, Gordon, 322, 341 [24]
Grant, Gen. U.S., 248, 273, 335, 371, 374,
377
Graves, J. R., 122-123, 124, 369
Green, Dr. Horace, 190, 194
Grisham, G. E., 320
Hall, E. T., 298, 299, 300
Hall, Will, 300-301
Hamilton, Thomas A., 335
Harmon, Henry, 241,267,270, 329, 382
Harmon, Jacob, 241,245,267,270, 329,
382
Harmon, Malinda, 382, 383
Harmon, Thomas, 245
Harris, Rev. C. W., 46, 4 7, 97 [ 11]
Harris, Isham G., 126,168, 169, 171,202,
204, 205,213,217 [34]' 218, 224,225,
248,271, 324, 355, 362, 363, 376, 394
Harrison, Pres. Benjamin, 17 5
Harrison, William Henry, 14, 16, 34, 35-36,
52, 55 [20]' 76, 84, 85, 124
Hatton, Robert, 168
Haun, C. A., 241, 353
Hawkins, Isaac, 297
Haws, Tilghman, 284, 304 [ 11] , 367, 368,
376
Hayes, Rutherford B., 355
Haynes, David, 23, 30
Haynes, Landon C., 18-20, 21, 22, 31-32,
35, 40, 42,45-50, 59,63-64,65,66,
110,124,164,170,171,188 [1], 217
[34]' 219, 251 [35]' 267, 352, 353,
355, 382
Haynes, Mary Taylor, 30
Heiskell, Carrick White, 343
Heiskell, FrederickS., 7, 8, 343, 344, 345
Heiskell, Joseph B., 343-344, 345
Heiskell, Samuel G., 330, 340 [19]
�INDEX
Heiskell, William, 267, 269, 271, 278, 294,
311, 317,320, 321, 340 [19)
Helms, john E., 133-134
Helper, Hinton, 227
Henry, Gustavus A., 155
Henry, Spencer, 369
Hensie, Jacob M., 241, 242, 267, 289
Heydt, William, 320, 321
Hobbie, j. R., 157-158
Hodsden, Dr. R. H., 223, 230, 248
Hood, Gen. John B., 281, 282
Horne, William, 2
Houk, L. C., 372
Houston, Sam, 1, 162-164, 287
Howell (first name unknown), 392
Hughes, M. J., 359
Humes, A. R., 114, 133-134, 135
Humes, M., 206
Humes, Thomas W., 17, 101, 107, 110, 156157,269,380
Humphreys, West, 111,227,228, 230,248,
271, 281
Hunt, R. M., 198
Hunt, Dr. William, 79,245
Ingersoll, H. H., 379
Jackson, Andrew, 6, 13, 14-15, 58, 61-62,
151,166,256
jacobs, Solomon D., 158
Johnson, Andrew, 5, 26 (27), 59-60, 61-62,
64, 66, 77, 79, 118, 123, 155, 161, 162,
164-165,166, 169,173 [351,185, 197,
202,203,204,205,206-208,211,212,
224-225, 234, 239, 248, 256, 260, 264,
274,278,279,280,282,283,288,289,
290,292,296,304 [8), 311,312,313,
314, 319, 321, 322, 323, 329, 334, 338,
339 [6)' 350, 357, 363, 368, 378, 381,
384
Johnson, Madison, 60
Johnson, Gen. Sidney, 229
Jones, james C., 169, 194
Jones, james G. (Lean Jimmy), 56, 151,
152, 161
Jones, James H., 46
Jones, Zadok (See Maynard, Horace), also
154
jourolomon, Squire, 380
Kain, W. C., 110, 356
Kennerly, W. T., ii
Ketterson, F. A., Jr., iv
409
King, James, 70
King, Joe, 156,157,160
King, William, 37
Kinsloe, E. P. B., 116, 117, 118, 122, 139
Kinsloe, J. B. G., 116, 117, 118, 122, 139140, 141
Kinsloe, W. A., 116, 117, 118, 119 [ 11]
122, 139
Kirby, T. B., 359
Kyle, Absolom, 265
Latham, D. S., 209
Lathim, H. K., 116, 119 [10]
Lavendar, Neddy, 162, 386
Lawrence, Amos, 224, 225, 381
Leadbetter, Col. Danville, 242, 271
Lee, Gen. Robert E., 273, 285, 293
Lewis, Rev. Isaac, 55 [20)
Lewis, J. F. J., 140
Lincoln, Pres. Abraham, 194, 196, 198,
199-201, 203, 204-205, 222, 225, 229,
233,256,258,260,263,266,269,272,
273,278,279,280,283,287,289,290,
293,312,324,344,350,352,357,368
Logan (first name unknown), 392
Long, George, 35
Longstreet, Gen. James S., 265, 266, 273
Lotspeich, Mrs. Ethel Moore, iii
Lotspeich, Roy N., iii
Lucky, Seth j. W., 145
Lyon, Mason R., 10, 12, 28, 29,42
Lyon, Thomas C., 143, 144, 348
Lyon, w. H., 348
Lyon, Capt. William, 348
MacArthur, William J., iii
McAdoo, William G., 227, 271
McCann, J. R., 356
McChain, James, 70
McClellan, Gen. George B., 133, 233, 279,
280, 312, 357
McClellan, Col. John, 133, 154
McDaniel, Goodson, 2
McDowell, James P., 212
McGhee, Barkley, 114
McGhee, Calvin, 388
McKee, john Miller, 100, 102, 106, 107,
110, 113, 116
McKinney, Robert J., 78
McLin, Rev. James, 55 {20)
McMullens, Fayette, So-51, 365 [6)
Mabry, Joseph A., 206, 245, 247, 254, 367,
�INDEX
410
Mabry, Joseph A., (Continued)
373, 376, 377, 378, 379, 380,381, 383,
385, 387, 388, 390, 391, 392
Magoffin, Gov. Beriah, 233
Mansfield, Mad., 387
Marks, Gov. Albert S., 388
Marling, John L., 126
Martin, A. J., 320-321
Martin, Mrs. Nancy, 9
Mattox, Valentine, 235
Maynard, Horace, 144, 154, 164, 170, 171,
209,213,214,219,239,248,264,297,
311, 327, 329, 344, 354, 372
Maynard, Mrs. Horace, 257
Meek, A. S., 209
Miller, John, 51
Miller, M. M., 265
Monsarrat, Capt. G. H., 243, 247
Moutez, Minnie (See Follin, Miriam.)
Morgan, G. W. (Wash), 206
Morgan, John Hunt, ii, 261, 273, 289, 290
Moses, James C., 1 00
Moses, John L., 100
Mullins, James, 311, 317
Mullins, Joseph, 348
Murphey, Sterling G., 55 [20)
Murrell, john A., 166, 272 [25]
Neely, P. P., 131
Nelson, D. M., 373
Nelson, James W., 102, 111 (6], 114
Nelson, Thomas A. R., 10, 18, 21, 28, 29,
52,63,65, 74, 77, 78, 79, 81,107,146,
151,156,157,158,161,170,171,179,
194,204,206-207,208,211,212,213214,219-220,221-222, 223,233,237,
239,240,246,251 [35), 265,278,280,
287, 315-316, 327, 380
Nero, 271
Netherland, John, 169, 170, 171, 212, 265
Netherland, Margaret W., 55 [20)
Newman, James W., 140, 170, 171
Nicholson, A. 0. P., 169
O'Brien, Miss Eliza, 9
O'Brien, James, 9, 11, 40, 99, 174
O'Brien, Mrs. James, 9
O'Brien, John W., 9, 11, 40, 93, 99,115,
159-160,174,248
O'Brien, Joseph, 9, 11, 40, 99, 174
O'Brien, W. G., 116, 119 [10), 174
Ochs, Adolph S., 390, 391
Ochs, Julian, 391
Old Hickory (See jackson, Andrew.)
Park, James, 133, 135,192
Patterson, A. T ., ii, 208
Patterson, David T., 234, 281, 295-296,
321, 331, 334, 339 [6)
Patterson, J. W., 3 59
Patterson, Martin, 142-143, 144, 170
Patton, James, 248
Patton, Samuel, 47, 71, 106, 110, 156-157
Pearne, Thomas H., D.O., Esq., 55 [20),
368, 369, 370, 371, 372, 373, 375, 376,
377, 379
Peterson, Robert E., 256
Phillippe, Louis, 85
Pickens, Sam, 234, 300, 346
Pierce, Franklin, 152
Polk, James K., 12, 14, 50, 56, 58, 74, 85,
287
Polk, L., 203,217 [34)
Polk, William H., 204
Posey, Rev. Humphrey, 4, 5, 25 [15), 110
121, 124
Powell, Eleanor, 18, 22
Powell, Jack, 20
Powell, Joseph, Jr., 14, 18, 19-20, 21, 164
Powell, Robert, W., 18, 20, 21, 42, 286
Prentice, George, 96, 3 79
Price, R.N., 95, 226, 369
Pryne, Rev., Abram, 121, 124, 201, 260
Quarles, William A., 333
Queener, Vernon M., 189 [14)
Ramage, William J,, 359
Ramsey, James G. M., 17, 143-144, 170,
230
Ramsey, James Crozier, 170, 192, 238, 239,
240.241,242,243,245,271,287,288.
346,347,356
Ramsey, W. B. A., 17
Randolph, John, 127
Reece (unknown), 261
Reese, James W., 146-147
Reeves, Felix A., 264
Reneau, Lewis, 78
Reynolds, R. B., 238, 245, 300, 346, 347
Rhett, Miss (first name unknown), 287
Rhett, R. Barnwell, 287
Rhoda (Surname unknown, Parson Brownlow's slave), 276
Rice, Charles A., 139-140, 186
�INDEX
Ricks, A. J., 378, 384, 385
Roddy, Reuben, 356
Rodgers, Samuel R., 196,248, 281, 310,
317, 339 [61
Rodgers, William R., 196
Rogers, Gen. John B., 231, 350
Rogers, William H., 70
Rosecrans, Gen. William S., 265, 303 [ 1 I ,
312
Ross, Rev. Frederick A., 70-74, 80, 81,
93, 121, 188 [11
Ross, George W., 143, 149 [141
Ross, William C., 1 30
Rule, William, ii, iii, 228,235,286, 367,
368, 374, 375, 379, 384, 385, 386, 388,
389, 391, 393 [31
Rule, William, Jr., iv, 95, 96
Rule, Dr. William, III, iv
Ryan, Father Abram, 305 [141
Ryan, Fuller, 168
Ryland, John, 93
Ryland, John, Jr., 93, 94-95
Sanborn, John S., 226-227
Sanford, Alfred F., iii
Sanford, E. J., iii, 235
Sanford, R. L., 328
Santa Anna, Antonio Lopez de, 85, 163
Saunders, Rolfe, 381, 383
Sawyers, James H., 133
Sawyer, Lillie, 391
Sawyer, Mrs. Susan C., 257, 261-262 (See
also Brownlow, Susan.)
Schofield, Gen. John M., 282
Scott, Gen. Winfield, 150-151, 152, 153
Self, Elizabeth, 246
Self, Harrison, 245, 246
Senter, DeWitt C., 372, 373, 374, 375, 376,
378, 380, 384, 389
Senter, William T., 372
Seshon, C. S. A., 313
Seward, Henry H. (Secretary of State), 233
Shannon, Hardin P., 116
Sherman, Brig. Gen. William T., 233, 248,
273
Shetterly, Phillip, 247
Siler, J. R., 5
Smith, C. D., 94
Smith, Charles H., Jr., iii
Smith, Charles H. III, iii
Smith, Gen. E. Kirby, 257
Smith, Guy L., ii, iii
Smith, J. W., 341 [291
411
Sneed, W. H., 79, 101, 107, 156, 160, 161,
162,185,245,267,271,300,346,347
Soule, Bishop Joshua, 2, 122, 131, 254
Spears, Brig. Gen. James G., 262, 278
Sperry, J. Austin, 96, 223, 224, 259, 260,
267, 358
Stanton, Edwin M., 357
Stephens, Alexander Hamilton, 312
Stokes, William B., 297, 311,312, 331, 372,
373, 375, 376
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 191, 215 [ 1 I
Stuart, Anne Elizabeth, 28
Swan, William G., 100, 107-108, 110, 140,
141, 161,217 [341, 219,228,239,267,
271
Tarwater, Henry, 379, 384
Taylor, Alfred A., 54 [141
Taylor, Mary, 51, 269
Taylor, Nathaniel G., 10, 51, 54 [141, 269,
297
Taylor, Robert L., 54 [141
Taylor, Gen. Zachary, 74, 75-76, 77-78, 81,
111, 158
Temple, 0. P., 79, 95,124, 141, 142, 144,
159, 161, 164,185,186, 187, 194,196,
198,201,202,203,209,210,212,214,
215 [71. 223, 227, 230, 232, 235, 238,
239,243,246,248,265,267,269,278,
279,281,283,287,288,304 [81, 347,
355, 357, 367, 382, 391, 392
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 125
Thomas, Dorsey B., 297
Thomas, Gen. George H., 233, 282, 312,
320, 327, 333, 335
Thomas, H_ H., 355
Thornburgh, Dr. John M., 230, 382
Tibbs, William H., 239, 271
Tilson, Gen. Lewis, 348
Trigg, Connally F., 202, 207, 208, 223, 230,
235,239,246,248,347,348,349,350,
351, 353, 358, 359, 365 [61
Turley, Judge William B., 78
Turnley, Mrs. Mattie, 215 [21
Tyler, John, 33, 34, 36, 52, 55 [201, 56,
76,84,85
Van Buren, Martin, 13, 15, 16, 29, 34, 36
Van Meeter (\!J.nmeter), (Christian name
not given), 134-136
Van Meeter (Vanmeter), Sallie, 133, 135
Vance, Col. Robert, 247
�INDEX
412
Walker, James C., 100
Walker, L. P., 217 [34)
Wallace, Campbell, 187, 189 [18)
Wallace, Sam, 271, 272
Wallace, Mrs. Sam, 272
Wallace, Mrs. William, 163
Watkins, A.G.,159,173 [35)
Webb, John, 313
Webster, Daniel, 52, 152
West, Robert C., 291
Wheeler, Gen. Joseph, 273
White, H. A.M., 111 [6)
White, Hugh Lawson, 15, 16, 34, 62, 156
Wigfall, Louis T., 251 [35)
Wilde, Lucy, 205
Wilde, Luke, 202, 205
Williams, Mrs. Catherine, 289
Williams, James, 100
Williams, Col. John, 15, 230, 350
Williams, Pleasant, 316, 318, 320, 321
Williams, Walter, 100
Wilson, R. T., 388, 389, 390
Winder, Gen. John H., 247
Winniford, George, 2
Wirz, Capt., Henry, 370
Wise, Henry A., 192, 223
Wisener, William H., 335
Wood, Col. S. A.M., 234
Wood, Col. W. B., 236, 269, 271
Yancey, William L., 195-196, 197, 215 (7],
303, 326
York, J .. 329
Young, Brigham, 132
Young, Casey H., 248
Young, Gen. David K., 298, 299
Young, Sam, ii
Zollicoffer, Brig. Gen. Felix K., 126, 218219,221,222-224,225,227,233,234,
236, 271
This book was designed by Spencer Qualls. The typeface is Journal Roman, similar to the types in use in
Parson Brownlow s time, and was set in type by AdTech of Fairfax, Inc. The paper is Mead Publishers
Smooth White.
�about the author
steve humphrey attended Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas
from 1920 until 1924 earning a B.A. in English. For over forty years he
worked in the journalism field for publications such as The Nebraska
State Journal, The Arkansas Gazette, and the Memphis Press-Scimitar. In
1944 he became a professor at the University of Tennessee, and left in
1947 to finish out his career at the Knoxville Journal. Humphrey retired
in 1969 and passed away on December 2, 1990, in Tallahassee, Florida.
�
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Title
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Appalachian Consortium Press Publications
Description
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This collection contains digitized monographs and collections from the Appalachian Consortium Press.
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Appalachian Consortium Press
Publisher
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Appalachian Consortium Press
Date Issued
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June 1, 2017
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<a title="Digital Scholarship and Initiatives" href="http://library.appstate.edu/services/digital-scholarship-and-initiatives" target="_blank">Digital Scholarship and Initiatives</a>
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Appalachian State University
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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That D----d Brownlow: Being a Saucy and Malicious Description of Fighting Parson William Gannaway Brownlow
Description
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This is a narrative on the famous 19th century Tennessee Methodist minister and newspaper editor, William Gannaway Brownlow, who launched the weekly <em>Tennessee Whig</em> newspaper with Mason R. Lyon in 1839 to support the Whig Party. An important historical figure in support of the Whig Party and the Union side of the Civil War in East Tennessee, Brownlow also served as Governor of and in the U.S. Senate for the state of Tennessee. This narrative tells the story of his character and influence during the turbulent 1800s.<br /><br /><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=18ngHy2zdR2jitJXFJN3T9ktjZh4dLEEN" target="_blank">Download EPub<br /><br /></a><a title="UNC Press Link" href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469638225/that-d-d-brownlow" target="_blank">UNC Press Print on Demand</a>
Creator
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Brownlow, William Gannaway
Humphrey, Steve
Language
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English
Subject
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Brownlow, William Gannaway, 1805-1877
Whig (Jonesborough, Tenn.)
Whig Party (Tenn.)
Journalists--Tennessee--Biography
Secession--Tennessee
Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)--Tennessee
Tennessee--Biography
Tennessee--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Publisher
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Appalachian Consortium Press
Date
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1978
Coverage
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Tennessee
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PDF
E-books
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Text
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<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed" target="_blank">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed</a>
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<a title="UA 76 Appalachian Consortium records" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> UA 76 Appalachian Consortium records </a>
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<a title="Appalachian Consortium Press Publications" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/82" target="_blank"> Appalachian Consortium Press Publications</a>
controversy
Political
Preacher