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The Tennessee Patriot, by William Gannaway Brownlow
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Title: Portrait and Biography of Parson Brownlow, The Tennessee Patriot
Author: William Gannaway Brownlow
Release Date: January 30, 2011 [EBook #35122]
Language: English
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PORTRAIT
AND
BIOGRAPHY
OF
PARSON BROWNLOW,
THE TENNESSEE PATRIOT.
TOGETHER WITH HIS LAST EDITORIAL IN THE KNOXVILLE
WHIG; ALSO, HIS RECENT SPEECHES, REHEARSING
HIS EXPERIENCE WITH SECESSION,
AND HIS PRISON LIFE.
PRICE 25 CENTS.
INDIANAPOLIS:
ASHER & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1862.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1862,
BY ASHER & CO.,
In the Clerks Office of the District Court of the United States, for the
District of Indiana.
[Illustration]
INTRODUCTION.
The biography of great men always has been, and always will be read with
interest and profit. Great actions command admiration, and none of
modern times excel those of the patriot exile, Parson Brownlow, of
Tennessee.
In this work the spirit-stirring scenes of his late eventful life are
vividly portrayed in his own characteristic and inimitable style. The
descriptions of his trials and triumphs in the cause of the Union will
send a thrill of admiration to every reader's heart; will strengthen the
wavering loyalty of many a young man, and incite him to pursue with
unquenchable ardor, the path which all true patriots have marked out,
and whose beacon lights are justice, truth and right. To the truly
loyal, whose steps "keep time to the music of the Union," the work will
be its own recommendation, and we commend it to these, both of the North
and South, with the confidence that it will meet with their cordial
approbation.
INDEX.
PAGE.
Introduction 7
Biography of Parson Brownlow 9
Last Editorial of the Knoxville _Whig_, and Farewell Address to
his patrons as it appeared in its last issue 11
Nashville Speech 17
Cincinnati Speech before the Chamber of Commerce 22
Brownlow and the Cincinnati Methodist Preachers 39
Indianapolis Speech 48
BIOGRAPHY.
William G. Brownlow was born in Wythe County, Virginia, August 5, 1805.
His parents were poor, and died when he was about ten years old. They
were both Virginians, and his father was a school-mate of General
Houston, in Rockbridge County. After the death of his parents he lived
with his mother's relations, and was raised to hard labor until he was
some eighteen years old, when he served a regular apprenticeship to the
trade of a house-carpenter.
His education was imperfect and irregular, even in those branches taught
in the common schools of the country. He entered the Traveling Ministry,
in 1826, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and traveled ten years
without intermission, and was a member of the General Conference held in
Philadelphia. He was untiring in his energy, and availed himself of the
advantages of the Methodist Itinerancy to study and improve his
education, which he did in all the English branches.
Mr. Brownlow is about six feet high, and weighs about 175 pounds; has
had as fine a constitution as any man ever had. He has no gray hairs in
his head, and will pass for a man of thirty-five years. He has had the
strongest voice of any man in East Tennessee, where he has resided for
the last thirty years, and raised an interesting family. He has been
speaking all that time, taking a part in all the controversies of the
day.
He is the author of several books; but the one which has had the largest
run is one of over four hundred pages, being a vindication of the
Methodist Church against the attacks of Rev. J. R. Graves, in Nashville.
Brownlow's work was published by the Southern Methodist Publishing
House, and something like 100,000 copies have been circulated in the
South and West. It is a work of great severity, but of marked ability.
In 1858 he was engaged in a debate upon the slavery question in
Philadelphia, with the Rev. Mr. Prym, of New York, in which he defended
the institution of slavery with marked ability, exhibiting a familiar
acquaintance with the vexed question in all its bearings. The debate, a
volume of some four hundred pages, is for sale by J. B. Lippincott & Co.
He is known throughout the length and breadth of this land as the
"Fighting Parson;" but no man is more peaceable, or more highly esteemed
by his neighbors. Few men are more charitable, and few, of his
means--for he is not rich--give away as much in the course of a year.
He is quite a politician, though he has never been an office-seeker or
an office-holder. He commenced his political career in Tennessee in
1828, by espousing the cause of John Quincy Adams as against Andrew
Jackson. He has been all his life an ardent Whig, and Clay and Webster
were his standards of political orthodoxy. His paper, the Knoxville
_Whig_, which he has edited for twenty-two years, had the largest
circulation of any political paper in Tennessee, and exerted a
controlling influence in the politics of the State.
THE LAST EDITORIAL OF THE KNOXVILLE WHIG.
When Secession first raised its hydra-head our hero stood up manfully
for the Union and the Constitution, and amid an almost overwhelming
torrent of abuse heaped upon him by the Press throughout the State.
Darker and darker grew the storm around him; fiercer and fiercer the
denunciations hurled at him by the enemies of the Union; yet, with an
iron will, and sustained by an inward consciousness that he was doing
his duty, he continued to battle nobly for the cause of his country, and
in each and every number of his paper poured down on the rebel crew his
scathing sarcasm and scorching repartee.
At last the Confederate authorities determined on his arrest and
punishment. In October, 1861, he was indicted by the Grand Jury, and his
paper suppressed. We here give his farewell address, which will be read
with mournful interest and high admiration. His words are those of a
spirit not seeking martyrdom, but ready to confront it in all its
terrors in the cause of truth and patriotism.
Prentice, of the Louisville _Journal_, in publishing this last
editorial, made the following very truthful comment: "He may be
consigned by trembling tyrants to a dungeon, but there will be more of
God's sunshine in his soul than can ever visit the eye-balls of his own
and his country's enemies. If a million prayers can avail, the naked
stones of his cell will be a softer and sweeter bed than his traitor
foes will enjoy:"
[From the Knoxville Whig, October 26.]
This issue of the _Whig_ must necessarily be the last for some time to
come--I am unable to say how long. The Confederate authorities have
determined upon my arrest, and I am to be indicted before the Grand Jury
of the Confederate Court, which commenced its session in Nashville on
Monday last. I would have awaited the indictment and arrest before
announcing the remarkable event to the world, but, as I only publish a
weekly paper, my hurried removal to Nashville would deprive me of the
privilege of saying to my subscribers what is alike due to myself and
them. I have the fact of my indictment and consequent arrest, having
been agreed upon for this week, from distinguished citizens,
legislators, and lawyers at Nashville of both parties. Gentlemen of high
positions and members of the Secession party say that the indictment
will be made because of "some treasonable articles in late numbers of
the _Whig_." I have reproduced those two "treasonable articles" on the
first page of this issue, that the unbiased people of the country may
"read, mark, learn and inwardly digest" the treason. They relate to the
culpable remissness of these Knoxville leaders in failing to volunteer
in the cause of the Confederacy.
According to the usages of the Court, as heretofore established, I
presume I could go free by taking the oath these authorities are
administering to other Union men, but my settled purpose is not to do
any such thing. I can doubtless be allowed my personal liberty by
entering into bonds to keep the peace, and to demean myself towards the
leaders of secession in Knoxville, who have been seeking to have me
assassinated all Summer and Fall, as they desire me to do, for this is
really the import of the thing, and one of the leading objects sought to
be attained. Although I could give a bond for my good behavior, for one
hundred thousand dollars, signed by fifty as good men as the country
affords, I shall obstinately refuse to do even that; and, if such a bond
is drawn up and signed by others, I will render it null and void by
refusing to sign it. In default of both, I expect to go to jail, and I
am ready to start upon one moment's warning. Not only so, but there 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 humiliating concession to any
power on earth!
I have committed no offence--I have not shouldered arms against the
Confederate Government, or the State, or encouraged others to do so--I
have discouraged 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
offences. 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 palsy 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.
After the Hon. Jeff. Davis had stated in Richmond, in a conversation
relative to my paper, that he would not live in a Government that did
not tolerate the freedom of the press; after the judges, attorneys,
jurors, and all others filling positions of honor and trust under the
"Permanent Constitution," which guarantees freedom of the press; and
after the entire press of the South had come down in their thunder tones
upon the Federal Government for suppressing the Louisville _Courier_,
and the New York _Day-Book_, and other secession journals, I did expect
the utmost liberty to be allowed to one small sheet, whose errors could
be combatted by the entire Southern press! 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 Knoxville, when their superiors in all
qualities that adorn human nature are in the penitentiary of our State.
And this is the boasted liberty of the press in the Southern
Confederacy!
I shall in no degree feel humbled by being cast into prison, whenever it
is the will and pleasure of the august Government to put me there; but,
on the contrary, I shall feel proud of my confinement. I shall go to
jail as John Rogers went to the stake--for my _principles_. I shall go,
because I have failed to recognize the hand of God in the work of
breaking up the American Government, and the inauguration of the most
wicked, cruel, unnatural and uncalled for war, ever recorded in history.
I go, because I have refused to laud to the skies the acts of tyranny,
usurpation, and oppression, inflicted upon the people of East Tennessee,
because of their devotion to the Constitution and laws of the
Government, handed down to them by their fathers, and the liberties
secured to them by a war of seven long years of gloom, poverty and
trial! I repeat, I am proud of my position, and of my principles, and
shall leave them to my children as a legacy, far more valuable than a
princely fortune, had I the latter to bestow!
With me, life has lost some of its energy--having passed six annual
posts on the Western slope of half a century--something of the fire of
youth is exhausted--but I stand forth with the eloquence and energy of
right to sustain and stimulate me in the maintenance of my principles. I
am encouraged to firmness, when I look back to the fate of Him "whose
power was righteousness," while the infuriated mob cried "crucify him,
crucify him!"
I owe to my numerous list of subscribers the filling out of their
respective terms for which they have made advance payments, and if
circumstances ever place it in my power to discharge these obligations,
I will do it most certainly. But if I am denied the liberty of doing so,
they must regard their small losses as so many contributions to the
cause in which I have fallen! I feel that I can, with confidence, rely
upon the magnanimity and forbearance of my patrons, under this state of
things. They will bear me witness that I have held out as long as I am
allowed to, and that I have yielded to a military despotism that I
could not avert the horrors of, or successfully oppose.
I will only say, in conclusion--for I am not allowed the privilege to
write--that the people of this country are unaccustomed to such wrongs;
they can yet scarcely realize them. They are astounded, for the time
being, with the quick succession of outrages that have come upon them,
and they stand horror-stricken, like men expecting ruin and
annihilation. I may not live to see the day, but thousands of my readers
will, when the people of this once prosperous country will see that they
are marching, by "double-quick time," from freedom to bondage. They will
then look these wanton outrages upon right and liberty full in the face,
and my prediction is they will "stir the stones of Rome to rise and
mutiny." Wrongs less wanton and outrageous precipitated the French
Revolution. Citizens cast into dungeons without charges of crime against
them, and without the formalities of a trial by a jury, private property
confiscated at the beck of those in power, the press humbled, muzzled,
and suppressed, or prostituted to serve the ends of tyranny! The crimes
of Louis XVI fell short of all this, and yet he lost his head! The
people of this country, down-trodden and oppressed, still have the
resolution of their illustrious forefathers, who asserted their rights
at Lexington and Bunker Hill!
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_.
OCTOBER 24, 1861.
BROWNLOW IN NASHVILLE.
Soon after the Parson was compelled by his enemies to suspend the
publication of the _Whig_, he was prevailed upon by his friends, who
more than himself feared for his personal safety, to act upon an
intimation of the readiness of the rebel authorities to grant him a safe
conduct to the North, and, as stated below, communicated with the
Secretary of War at Richmond, Va. The result was that in November last
an order was sent to the military commander at Knoxville to take him to
the nearest Federal lines. After completing his preparation to go North,
notwithstanding his agreement with Secretary Benjamin, he was arrested
and thrown into prison a second time.
The imprisonment soon told severely upon the health of the Parson, and
after a month he was stricken down with typhoid fever. Permission being
granted by the rebel prosecuting attorney, he was removed to his private
residence. Here he was laid up for nearly eight weeks. Notwithstanding
his prostration by sickness, the rebel surveillance over him did not
stop. His house was surrounded day and night by guards. His friends were
never allowed to visit him, and the members of his family were not
permitted to leave the premises except under guard. Nor was this all.
Open insults and threats were offered by the rebel soldiery whenever
opportunity afforded. At one time a company of cavalry that had been in
the battle of Fishing Creek, and never stopped running until they got
to Knoxville, and passing the house when the Parson's wife was looking
out of the window, one of the troopers rode up to her, and insultingly
asked, "Are you not ashamed to be the wife of that damned traitor and
Lincolnite?" Whereupon the ready-witted woman at once replied: "I am
glad that I am not the wife of a miserable coward that ran away from a
battle-field."
Feeling strong enough to travel, the Parson again wrote to Benjamin,
complaining of the bad faith with which he had been treated, and
reminding the Secretary of War of the promise of a safe conduct to the
Federal lines. A week elapsed, when the post commander at Knoxville
received a dispatch directing the Parson to be released from
confinement, and to be taken to the nearest Federal outposts over the
route most convenient to him, and under an escort of his own choice. In
pursuance to this order the Parson left Knoxville accompanied by his
doctor, and escorted by Lieutenant O'Brien, an officer in the army, and
relative of his wife. The party proceeded by rail, _via_ Chattanooga, to
Shelbyville, in Bedford county, in the Southern part of this State. Here
they were detained ten days by Morgan's Cavalry, who were engaged in
removing a large quantity of bacon and beef stored in the town, and had
orders from General Hardee not to allow any one to pass their lines
until the whole of the meat had been got away. At last the party were
permitted to proceed overland, under a flag of truce, to the pickets of
General Wood's division. General Wood at once sent them, under escort,
to the city. Parson Brownlow proceeded immediately to the headquarters
of General Buell, with whom he had a long interview; afterward repaired
to the St. Cloud Hotel, in Nashville, and in the front of the same, on
the evening of March 17th, he made the following remarks:
SPEECH.
GENTLEMEN:--I am in a sad plight to say much of interest--too thoroughly
incapacitated to do justice to you or myself. My throat has been
disordered for the past three years, and I have been compelled to almost
abandon public speaking. Last December I was thrust into an
uncomfortable and disagreeable jail--for what? _Treason?_ Treason to the
bogus Confederacy; and the proofs of that treason were articles which
appeared in the Knoxville _Whig_ in May last, when the State of
Tennessee was a member of the imperishable Union. At the expiration of
four weeks, I became a victim to the typhoid fever, and was removed to a
room in a decent dwelling, and a guard of seven men kept me company. I
subsequently became so weak that I could not turn over in bed, and the
guard was increased to twelve men, for fear I should suddenly recover
and run away to Kentucky. Becoming convalescent, in a measure, I was
removed to my former place of confinement. One day I was visited by some
Confederate officers, who remarked, "Brownlow, you should not be here.
Take the oath of allegiance to the Confederate Government, which will
not only entitle you to a speedy release, but insure your protection."
"Sir!" said I, "before I would take the oath to support such a
hell-forsaken institution, I would suffer myself to rot or die with old
age."
Why, my friends, these demagogues actually boast that the Lord is upon
their side, and declare that God Almighty is assisting them in the
furtherance of their nefarious project. In Knoxville and surrounding
localities, a short time since, daily prayer meetings were held, wherein
the Almighty was beseeched to raise Lincoln's blockade, and to hurl
destruction against the Burnside expedition. Their prayers were partly
answered--the blockade at Roanoke Island was most effectually raised; a
reciprocal of their sacrilege divinely tendered.
Gentlemen, I am no Abolitionist; I applaud no sectional doctrines; I am
a Southern man; and all my relatives and interests are thoroughly
identified with the South and Southern institutions. I was born in the
Old Dominion, my parents were born in Virginia, and they and their
antecedents were all slaveholders. Let me assure you that the South has
suffered no infringement upon her institutions; the slavery question was
actually _no_ pretext for this unholy, unrighteous conflict. Twelve
Senators from the Cotton States, who had sworn to preserve inviolate the
Constitution framed by our forefathers, plotted treason at night--a fit
time for such a crime--and telegraphed to their States despatches
advising them to pass ordinances of secession. Yes, gentlemen, twelve
Senators swore allegiance in the day time, and unswore it at night.
A short time since I was called upon by a little Jew, who, I believe, is
the Secretary of War of the bogus Confederacy. He threatened to hang me,
and I expected no more mercy from him than was shown by his illustrious
predecessors toward Jesus Christ. I entered into a long correspondence
with this specimen of expiring humanity, but from mercy or
forgetfulness, on their part, I was permitted to depart with all my
documents in my little valise, which I hope to publish at no distant
day.
Gentlemen, when I started on my perilous journey, I was sore distressed
in mind, and exceedingly so in body. But the moment my eyes encountered
the pickets of the Federal army my depression decreased, and returning
health seemed suddenly to invigorate my physical constitution.
Gentlemen, Secession is played out--the dog is dead--the child is born,
and his name is Jeff. Davis, jr.
My throat distresses me to such an extent that I must decline further
remarks this evening, but shall make myself heard upon the next
convenient occasion, which will probably be ere the termination of the
present week.
BROWNLOW IN CINCINNATI.
Remaining here a few days to recuperate his almost worn-out energies,
and receiving many invitations from different cities to lay before the
sympathizing public the story of his wrongs, he determined to make a
tour through several Northern States. Accordingly on the fourth day of
April he was welcomed to the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, in a manner which
was worthy of his unswerving patriotism and illustrious fidelity. It was
very much doubted whether the Opera House, since it was first opened to
the public, ever contained a larger or more refined assemblage than on
that evening.
Before the doors were opened, the crowd had commenced to gather on
Fourth street, and before half-past seven o'clock, not a vacant seat was
to be found in the house, and the aisles and every available spot
occupied. Many were unable to obtain even standing room, and left the
house. The turnout, considering that the admission fee was fifty cents,
must have been very gratifying to the Parson.
The stage was decorated with a number of American flags, and across the
front part of it were two rows of chairs, on which were seated the Vice
Presidents. Immediately in the rear was a raised platform, on which were
seated three hundred and seventy-two boys and girls from the district,
intermediate and high schools of the city, who, under the direction of
Mr. L. W. Mason, sang the following:
SONG OF WELCOME.
All hail! all hail! the here unflinching!
The pure patriot we sing, unwavering and bold,
Who foul treason denounced, and with deeds was still clinching
His strong speech, when vile traitors in numbers untold
Howled hatred demoniac, and madly were clamoring,
His life should be forfeit! triumphantly sing,
And utter the welcome with the tongue's feeble stammering,
The welcome, the warm welcome, our hearts to him bring!
Safe! safe in our midst, we shall hear the man's voice,
That had cowed all his foes, and made us rejoice;
Then hail him again, and forever and aye!
His country he loves, and for it he would die!
Rejoice! rejoice! for freedom is marching
With her power resistless, to punish and crush;
And the Iris of Union will soon be o'erarching
Again our loved country, when its brave children rush
To rescue its life from the demons now seeking
To blot out its name from the nations of earth.
But rather than this, let their black blood be reeking,
Unpitied by earth, so disgraced by their birth.
Thus speaks he, the hero! Then sing with one voice:
We love and revere him, in his presence rejoice!
Then hail him again, and forever and aye!
His country he loves, and for it he would die!
Shortly after eight o'clock Parson Brownlow came upon the stage, leaning
upon the arm of Joseph C. Butler, Esq., the President of the Chamber of
Commerce.
Mr. Butler, in introducing Mr. Brownlow, said:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--I have been honored with the pleasing duty of
inaugurating the ceremonies of this occasion, in introducing a renowned
and loyal citizen of our sister State of Tennessee. A State forced by
usurpation, fraud and violence into rebellion against a Government that
her sons in bygone times have done so much to maintain and establish,
and now suffers in being the field of conflict in a desolating civil
war. A State recently baptized again into the fold of the Union by the
martyr patriots' blood shed upon her soil, and will be confirmed in that
fold by continued deeds of heroic daring; within whose limits has been
exhibited by her loyal sons as unfaltering devotion and love of country
as has ever been displayed in the history of any people. Surrounded by
the armed band of desperate and cruel military despots, given up to the
mercy of ignorant and vicious mobs, cut off from all communication with
and support from a Government they were sacrificing themselves to
maintain, these patriots of Tennessee were driven from their homes,
suffered in jails, and sealed, when called on, with their lives on the
scaffold their devotion to the Union and Constitution established by
their fathers. Through a long and weary summer, through the dreary fall
and winter, with hearts sickened by many disappointed hopes, they
suffered and faithfully endured. And now that the armies of the Union
have entered their State, and the flag of freedom once more floats over
its capital, may we not hope that the hour of their deliverance is at
hand. God grant it may be speedy.
One of this noble band of patriots is with us to-night. He will recount
to you some of the scenes he has witnessed, and give you in brief the
history of the rebellion in his once prosperous and noble State. He has
sacrificed on the altar of his country all that man holds most dear,
jeopardizing not only his own life, but the lives of his family and
kindred in vindicating the sacred cause of his country. If we honor the
bravery displayed on the battle-field, how much more should we honor
him, who almost alone, sick and in prison, tempted by seducing offers of
power and place, and with an ignominious death daily threatened,
maintains for weeks and months with unfaltering trust, his faith and
virtue. The instinctive homage of the human heart to genuine courage we
pay to an endurance like this. The historian who will record for the
perusal of our children the list of heroes that this wicked rebellion
has brought forth, will name none whose matchless courage is surpassed,
or the bold outline of whose character for outspoken patriotism, so
overshadows all cavil and criticism, as the hero of the pulpit and the
press. I have now the honor of introducing Mr. W. G. Brownlow, of
Knoxville, Tennessee.
SPEECH.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--I appear before you in accordance with the
arrangement of a committee--a large committee--of intelligent and
influential citizens of your own town. I am not before you for the
purpose of making an effort as an orator, or a speaker, with any view or
wish to fascinate or to charm my audience with the style or the language
I employ in the brief address I am about to deliver.
I am before you for the purpose of relating facts and localities, and
giving you names in regard to the rebellion in the South, and the
persecutions of my fellow countrymen, and their sufferings even unto
death. I have met, since I came to this city, with not a few intelligent
and high-toned gentlemen--men of years and of knowledge--who have
inquired of me seriously: "Is it a fact that they hanged men, shot down
men, in your country, for their sentiments?" You cannot, it seems to me,
realize the state of things that has existed beyond the mountains.
In what I shall say to you, without effort at all at display, I shall
deal in nothing but facts. I will state nothing that I do not personally
know to be true--nothing that I cannot sustain, if a controversy is
raised in reference thereto.
I have seen the day when I was a young man, ladies (I speak of my age
with a great deal of freedom, for I have a wife who is likely never to
die)--[laughter]--I have seen the day when I could be heard by an
audience of any size--when I have been able for four or five dreadful
hours on a stretch to speak in the open air. Those days with me have
gone by, and are numbered with the days and years beyond the flood. For
some three years back I have labored under a disease of the throat--a
bronchial affection--a severe affliction it was. Until the last twelve
months I could but whisper. In the providence of God, and through his
agency, I am better now. In repeated denunciation of secession my voice
has been gaining all the time [applause,] and I shall not be astonished
if in six months "Richard is himself again." [Applause.]
You will bear with me, I know, for I shall not detain you long. I shall
by no means be tedious, but you will bear with me, I am certain, if I
make a few remarks, by way of "preliminary," personal to myself. The
circumstances surrounding me, the connection that my name has had for
the last twelve months with the rebellion and with this subject, will
justify me in so doing, without the dread of incurring the charge of
egotism.
I am a native of the Old Dominion--born, raised and educated in the
State of Virginia. I have the pleasure of announcing to you this evening
that you have before you the first man who ever made the acknowledgment
in public, that he was the descendant of one of the second families of
Virginia. [Laughter.]
My parents before me, on both sides, were Virginians. On both sides of
the house they were slaveholders, as most of the citizens of the Old
Dominion are and have been. Although I am branded at home, since the
inauguration of rebellion, with being myself an anti-slavery man, and a
tory and the descendant of tories, I take great pleasure and pride in
announcing to you that my father was a volunteer in the war of 1812,
under Old Hickory. My uncle William, after whom I was named, lived and
died a naval officer, and his remains sleep in the Navy Yard at Norfolk,
Virginia. My uncle Alexander was also a naval officer, and his remains
rest in the Navy Yard at New Orleans. My uncle John was also a navy
officer. He died at sea and was thrown overboard, and became food for
the fishes thereof. My uncle John was the third man who scaled the walls
at the battle of the Horseshoe. [Applause.] On my mother's side--the
Galloways--not a few lost their lives at Norfolk, from yellow fever,
camp diseases and fatigue. They did not fight for a section of the
country--not for the yellow fever swamps of the South--but for every
State, and every particle of this glorious Union of ours. [Applause.]
I may as well make a remark or two on the subject of politics. I am not
here for the purpose of reviving any old party prejudice--not at
all--nor yet with a view to drop a solitary remark that shall offend
even the most fastidious political partisan who may be under the sound
of my voice. In Tennessee, thank God, we have merged all political
party questions into the one great question of the Union and its
preservation. [Applause.]
In all time to come--though I have been a Whig of the strictest
sort--though I have lived up to the creed and fought Democracy in all
its ramifications, and in all its windings--I would, in the language of
Milton, see a man where cold performs the effect of fire--or, in the
still more nervous language of Pollock, I would see a man where
gravitation, shifting, turns the other way--even hell-ward--before I
would vote for any man who was not an unconditional, straight-out Union
man. [Great applause.]
I have fought Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, systematically,
perseveringly and untiringly, for the last twenty-five years of my
somewhat eventful life. He has scored me on every stump in the State of
Tennessee, and I have paid him back to the best of my ability. But
honors with us are easy. [Laughter.] We take each other by the hand now,
as brethren. [Applause.] Now I will fight for him, and under
him--engaged as we are in the same cause, against the same vile foe to
God and man, and especially to our country. [Applause.]
I have always been a Union man. I commenced my political career in
Tennessee in 1828. I remark again, ladies, that although I may have the
appearance of being--I confess the fact with more candor from the
consideration that I never expect to be--a widower [laughter], I
commenced my political career in Tennessee in 1828. I was one of the
corporal's guard who, in that State, got up the electoral ticket for
John Quincy Adams against Andrew Jackson. I name this fact simply to
show you that I was not a sectional man in '28; that I did not go for a
man because he was born and lived south of Mason and Dixon's line, nor
against him because he resided north of Mason and Dixon's line. Having
mentioned the name of Old Hickory, I take pleasure in saying that, while
I opposed him in his political aspirations, Jackson was always a patriot
and a true lover of his country. If my prayers and tears could have
brought him from his grave, during the last twelve months of the
iniquitous reign of James Buchanan, I would have brought him out, that
he might have destroyed secession as he did nullification--that might
have sunk South Carolina in some sort of Lake not unlike the Dead
Sea--where she will ultimately go. [Applause.]
In the next contest I was a supporter of Henry Clay. In the next contest
I was a supporter of Ulasu White. In the next I supported William Henry
Harrison, and I sung louder, jumped higher, and fell flatter and harder
than anybody else in the whole State of Tennessee. I wrote upon log
cabins, and waved coon-skins and water-gourds high and low. [Laughter.]
In succeeding contests, gentlemen and ladies, I supported Taylor,
Fillmore and Donelson. The last contest I was engaged in, was in the
support of the Bell and Everett ticket. The tail of that ticket is now
doing well enough in the State of Massachusetts. It stands erect, and
carries itself majestically. But the latter end of the ticket will yet
do to tie to, but as to the frontispiece--"pity the sorrows of a poor
old man." [Laughter.]
One word before I progress further--upon the subject of slavery. What I
have to say on that subject--all I have to say at home or abroad, I will
say to you now, for, ladies and gentlemen, I have no sentiments in the
South that I do not entertain when I am in the North. I have none in
Cincinnati that I do not entertain when I am at home in Knoxville.
[Applause.] The South, as I told them months ago, when I was surrounded
by three thousand Confederate troops--the South is more to blame for the
state of things that now exist than the North is. But yet, I have to
say, just in this connection, that if, about two years ago, I had been
authorized to collect--if I had been let hunt them up, for I know the
men I would have wanted--if I had been allowed to hunt up about one or
two hundred anti-slavery agitators and fanatics at the North, scattered
here and there, and about an equal number of our God-forsaken,
hell-deserving, corrupt secessionists and disunionists, I should have
marched the whole army of them into the District of Columbia, and dug a
common ditch, erected a common gallows, after embalming their bodies
with gipsy weed and dog-fennel. Had this been done, I should not have
been here to-night--we would have had none of the troubles which afflict
the country now.
One word more upon the subject of slavery. If the issue shall be made by
the South--if they are mad enough, if they are fools enough to make the
issue of Slavery and no Union, or Union and no Slavery--I am for the
Union. [Applause.] I have told them so at home upon the stump in my own
town. I will stand by the Union until you make the issue between the
Federal Union and the Christian religion; then I will back out from the
Union--but for no other institution. [Applause.]
The speaker here commenced the narrative of the doings of treason in
East Tennessee. About twelve months ago, he said, a stream of secession
fire, as hot as hell, commenced pouring out of the Southern States in
the direction of Leesburg, Richmond and Manassas, by way of Knoxville,
Tennessee. Then it was that the rebel soldiery of the South, made drunk
upon mean whisky, halted over night--day in and day out--in the town of
Knoxville, and commenced their depredations, visiting the houses of
Union men and stoning the inmates, blackguarding all whom they saw in
them, male and female. His (Mr. Brownlow's) house, in Cumberland street,
was more frequently visited by them than any other building in the town.
At the same time he was reading, in the Mobile and South Carolina
papers, that the best blood of the South had volunteered in the cause of
"Southern rights." He said to his wife, "If this is the flower of the
South, God deliver us from the Southern rabble."
The rebel soldiers became more and more insulting and overbearing.
Finally, in the month of May, they commenced to shoot down Union men in
the streets. The first man they singled out was Charles S. Douglas, a
gentleman who had been conspicuous at the election as a Union man. They
deliberately shot him down from the window of his house, in the day
time. Mr. Brownlow was in the street at the time they made propositions
to shoot down other Union men. Thinking prudence the better part of
discretion, they retired from the crowd, many of them slipping into
their houses quietly. But the work of murder and slaughter went on.
Finally, many of the loyal men had to flee to the mountains--to the
mountains of Hepsidam, if you please, said the speaker.
They remained away for several days, sleeping in the open air, and
subsisting on bread and meat brought from their homes, with a quantity
of game which they shot.
The rebel troops took possession of Mr. Brownlow's printing
office--destroyed his press and type, and converted the building into a
blacksmith shop for altering old flintlock muskets which Floyd had
stolen from the Government. They were contemplating the destruction of
his dwelling house, and would have accomplished it but for the timely
arrival of General Zollicoffer, who, being a personal friend of the
Dr.'s, set a guard around the premises, and issued an order confining
the Texan troops to their camps for two days.
Retiring to Knoxville, Mr. Brownlow received a letter from Gen. George
B. Crittenden, stating that he had been ordered by the Confederate
Secretary of War to give him (Brownlow) a passport beyond the
Confederate lines into the State of Kentucky to a Union neighborhood.
Mr. Brownlow was about to accept the General's proffer, when he was
arrested on a charge of treason, for writing and publishing what
appeared in the Knoxville _Whig_ as his farewell letter to his patrons
and subscribers. On the 6th of December he was thrust into the Knoxville
jail. He found in the jail one hundred and fifty Union men--the building
crowded to overflowing. Every man confined on a charge of treason was a
personal friend of Mr. Brownlow's. They ran around him in astonishment,
and asked him what he was thrown into prison for. Some of them shed
tears, others smiled when they saw him enter the iron gates. He told
them he was under arrest for treason on a warrant just issued. He had
been in jail ten or twelve days when a Confederate Brigadier General,
whom he had known as an old Union man, paid him a visit. Upon entering
the jail with two of his Aides he shook hands with him. The prisoners
all crowded round to see the "sight." After a while the Brigadier said
it was too bad to see Brownlow in such a place, and tried to impress
upon the patriot's mind the propriety of his taking the oath of
allegiance to the Confederacy, upon which condition he should be
released immediately. Brownlow was in a good humor until that
proposition was made. That stirred up the bile of his stomach. "Sir,"
said he to the officer, looking him full in the eye, "I will be here
till I die with old age, or till I rot in prison, before I will take the
oath of allegiance to the Southern Confederacy. You have no Government.
I deny that you are authorized to administer such an oath. You have
organized a big Southern mob--not a Government. You have never been
recognized by any civilized Government on the face of God Almighty's
earth, and you never will be. And yet you are here asking me to take the
oath of allegiance to the vilest mob that was ever organized South of
Mason and Dixon's line. Not wishing to be profane, nor desiring to be
regarded by you in that light, permit me to conclude my remarks by
saying that I will see your Southern Confederacy in the infernal
regions, and you high on top of it before I will take the oath." The
officer remarked that that was d--d plain talk. Mr. Brownlow replied
that it was the right way to make men understand each other. The General
turned upon his heel, tipped his duck-bill cap and walked off.
[Applause.]
When the speaker entered the jail he found among the inmates three
Baptist preachers. One of them, a Mr. Pope, 77 years of age, was charged
with having prayed to the Lord to bless the President of the United
States, to bless the General Government, and put an end to this unholy
war. Another old man--a minister--70 years of age, was thrust into jail
for having thrown up his hat and hurrahed for the stars and stripes when
a company of Union Home Guards marched by his house with the stars and
stripes flying over them. The third, a young man, was confined for
having volunteered as chaplain in a Union regiment.
The sufferings of the inmates of the jail the speaker described as
horrible. The food they were supplied with was rank and unwholesome. He,
himself, got permission to receive meals from his family, otherwise he
should not have been able to live through his long confinement.
Toward the conclusion of his address, Mr. Brownlow related several
instances in which prisoners had been taken from the jail and hung by
the troops after a few hours warning. Once they hung a father and son,
whose sole offence was their loyalty to the Government, on the same
gallows. They compelled the father to witness the agonies of the son
before permitting death to come to his relief. The most affecting case
mentioned was that of an old man, who, after a lengthy incarceration,
was sentenced at ten o'clock one morning to be hung at four that
afternoon. His name was William Henry Harrison Self. His daughter, a
highly intelligent and well educated lady, hearing this awful news
during the day, hastened to the jail, and, with great difficulty,
obtained permission to visit the condemned man. The meeting of father
and daughter was a scene which drew tears from the eyes of a hundred and
fifty men long used to hardship and suffering themselves. They embraced
and kissed each other, neither of them able to utter a word for some
time. At about one o'clock the young lady approached Dr. Brownlow, and
asked him to write, in her name, a despatch to Jeff. Davis, at
Richmond, asking him to grant a pardon to her father. The Dr. did this,
stating in the despatch, as follows:
"_Honorable Jefferson Davis_:
"My father, W. H. H. Self, is under sentence to hang to-day at four
o'clock. My mother is dead; my father is my only hope and stay. I
pray you pardon him. Let me hear from you by telegraph.
"ELIZABETH SELF."
The young lady carried this despatch to the telegraph office, a distance
of two miles, in greatest haste, and had it sent to Richmond
immediately. Shortly before three o'clock she received an answer from
"President" Davis commuting the old man's sentence to imprisonment, for
such length of time as the Commanding General should see proper. The joy
of his daughter was, of course, boundless. When Mr. Brownlow left
Knoxville, on the 3d of March, Self was still in jail. He has been
released before this time, Southern "justice" being satisfied in the
premises.
REMARKS OF GENERAL S. F. CAREY.
General S. F. Carey was next introduced. He referred to the deliverance
of Dr. Brownlow as a release from dangers greater than those that
surrounded Daniel in the lion's den, and from beasts far worse than
beset the prophet. His deliverance was not to be credited to their
magnanimity, but their fears.
He did not like to find fault with the Government, but it did seem to
him that it was time it should bestir itself, and prosecute the war
with greater vigor. Nor did he approve the policy pursued towards those
taken in rebellion against the Government, referred with much bitterness
to the tenderness displayed in the cases of Magoffin, Buckner, and the
rebel prisoners at Columbus. He didn't think the penitentiary the place
for them, and would not have the convicts contaminated by them. There
was no inmate of the penitentiary, though he had been guilty of
murdering his father, mother, or brother, whose crime was not innocence
itself compared with that of these rebel prisoners, who sport their
uniforms in the streets of Columbus, insulting the fathers and brothers
of those men who had fallen in defence of the Union, and sitting in
privileged seats in the legislative chambers of the State.
The audience had heard the narrative of the sufferings of loyal women in
the South, and yet we have women in the State of Ohio who go to
Columbus, with the avowed purpose of making the rebel officers
comfortable,--conduct that in his opinion, and notwithstanding their
sex, deserved the halter. He had no sympathy with the rebellion or with
rebels, and was for cleaning them out root and branch.
In speaking on this subject, he felt the utter feebleness of human
language. After it was exhausted, the great crime of rebellion looms up
in all its terrible proportions. God speed the day when we shall be
delivered! And yet he had no hope for the country till all the remnants
of miserable partyism are swept away; he had no hope for it, while
politicians were busy at the Capital intriguing and scheming for the
preservation of some old broken down faction called a party. We need
patriotism, not party.
Referring to the remarks of Mr. Brownlow, respecting the treatment that
should be meted out to disunionists North and South, Mr. Carey said that
while he respected the right of free speech, he was for hanging any man
who favored disunion and dared to say so. Every man has his rights, the
convict on the gallows, the thief in the penitentiary, but when a man
abuses his rights, the right of free speech, to express himself in favor
of disunion, be he Wendell Phillips, or any other man, cut him down.
The masses of the people in the North are in favor of a restoration of
the Union as it existed before the war. But if the war continues, and
the people of the rebellious States are given over to hardness of heart,
if they shoot our pickets, if it proves necessary to send a few more
thousand men from the loyal States to put down the rebellion, and people
Southern grave yards, a cry will go up from Maine to the Pacific to
clean out the rebels, niggers and all.
He believed the whole purpose of the Administration in the prosecution
of the war, was to preserve the Republic and all its institutions as
they existed when it came into power; and nothing is more certain than
that the Union will be preserved, though it cost all our property and
half the lives in the Republic.
He appealed to mothers to exert their influence in kindling a spirit of
exalted patriotism, and to teach their sons not to be Democrats or
Republicans, but to be patriots; and appealed to the ladies of the city
to visit the hospitals, comfort the sick, point the dying to the land
where there is no secession and no rebels, and give of their time,
sympathy, and means to soothe the sufferings and lighten the afflictions
of those who had volunteered in defence of the Union.
Gen. Carey, of whose vigorous speech we give but a brief outline,
retired amid prolonged cheers. The "Star Spangled Banner" was sung, and
Lieutenant-Governor Fisk, of Kentucky, introduced by the Chairman.
REMARKS OF MR. FISK.
Mr. Fisk said he believed we were, all of us, filled with a righteous
determination to give the present Administration all the aid in our
power to put down the rebellion. He remembered when deputations of the
Legislatures of Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio had met in that
place, and that on that occasion no sentiment met a more hearty response
than that of Andrew Jackson: "The Union must be preserved." What we want
is the Union and the Constitution as they were; and while our armies are
in the field fighting for their preservation, let us be careful that no
mischief-makers at home pervert the object of the war to the utter
subversion of one or the other.
He didn't believe in this talk about the subjugation of the South. On
his side of the river that was the argument of the secessionists, and
was considered evidence of sympathy with the rebellion. He did not know
what it was called on this side of the Ohio, but he did know that every
such menace was eagerly caught up and magnified by those confederated
with the rebels. The Government was doing nothing of that kind. It was
fighting for self-preservation and a restoration of its authority, and
it was its duty to send out all the troops necessary to put down the
rebellion. We must fight for the preservation of the Constitution and
Union, and we must preserve them or we cease to exist as a nation. If
the rebellion succeeds the Government is at an end, and our history as
a nation terminates. We must fight to preserve them not only for
ourselves, but the rising generation and those who shall come after
them.
He asserted that all the bloodshed, and all the suffering and misery
entailed by this war, history would charge directly to the account of
the wicked men who had inaugurated it, and not to the loyal people of
this country. It was our duty to go on with this war, and to prosecute
it, not in a malignant and revengeful spirit, but with the simple and
patriotic purpose of putting down the rebellion and restoring the
supremacy of the Government over every inch of its rightful territory.
At the conclusion of Mr. Fisk's remarks, the little sons of the members
of the Ninth Ohio Regiment were conducted to the stage, and introduced
to the audience. The lads sang a song in German; and when they had
retired, the whole audience joined in three cheers for the Ninth Ohio,
which were given with a will, the vast assembly rising to their feet.
The resolutions were unanimously adopted; after which, the proceedings
were brought to a conclusion, and the audience dispersed.
PARSON BROWNLOW AND THE CINCINNATI METHODIST PREACHERS.
During his stay in Cincinnati, Mr. Brownlow received a pressing
invitation to meet the Methodist ministers of the city, and address
them; in accordance with which he was introduced to a meeting, held in
the editorial rooms of the _Western Christian Advocate_, by Rev. J. T.
Mitchell. Rev. Dr. Kingsley then welcomed the illustrious visitor in the
following
ADDRESS.
FELLOW CITIZEN, FRIEND AND BROTHER:--In behalf of the Methodist
Clergymen of this vicinity, I welcome you to our city, our homes, our
hearts. Our desires and prayers were never more sincere for anything,
than for your preservation and deliverance, when we learned that you had
been thrust into a cold, damp prison, for no other crime than loving
your country, and hating treason. Thank God, the prayers of millions of
loyal hearts have been heard in your behalf.
Paul, and Silas, and Peter, Apostles of the Gospel, were liberated from
prison in answer to prayer. The God in whom they trusted has also heard
the prayer in behalf of an Apostle of Liberty and Union.
Your patriotic utterances in your noble paper were eagerly received by
the friends of the Constitution, and, multiplied a thousand fold, those
utterances sped upon the wings of lightning to the most distant parts of
our country. They were inspiring to the loyal people of the United
States. We were thankful to know that there was at least one Parson in
Tennessee who could love God and his country too--his whole country. One
such man can chase a thousand, and two can put ten thousand to flight.
So we conclude that Parson Brownlow and Andy Johnson are good against
ten thousand rebels. With such pains and such pluck, such nerves and
such principles to guide, we trust the State of Tennessee will soon come
right again.
We are aware that your Union principles have cost you something--cost
you everything but life, and that which, to every true man, is dearer
than life,--honor and rectitude. We bid you a warm welcome on this
account. Situated as we have been, we deserve no praise for being Union
men. To be otherwise would be to serve the devil just for its own sake.
It would be like chopping off our hands just to see the blood run, or
thrusting them into the fire just to feel the pain. But with you the
case has been different. Spurning bribes and offers of aggrandizement,
scorning the threats and terrors of traitors, you have preferred to
suffer privations, afflictions and imprisonment, rather than prove false
to the Government that has protected us all. By thus, in the face of
danger and death, taking your stand so nobly against all odds, all
hazards, all temptations, and machinations of wicked seducers, you have
won the undying admiration of a grateful people. Your deeds have thus
become so interwoven with the most eventful period in the annals of our
country, that your name is henceforth to be a household word, so long as
the American Republic shall live in fact or in history. Yours is the
proud satisfaction of having done right for its own sake, in the face of
powerful temptations to do wrong, and you have your reward. And if a
very unpoetic man may be allowed to amend a couplet familiar to our
school-boy days, I would venture to say:
"And more true joy the Parson exiled feels
Than Davis, with the traitors at his heels."
But, thank God, you are no longer exiled or imprisoned. A tide has come
in your affairs to bear you on to fortune. And it will be nothing
strange, and no more than justice, if the same State which has
confiscated your property, and imprisoned your person, should conclude
to honor herself by honoring you, and shall yet say to you, "Well done
good and faithful servant; be thou ruler over ten cities."
All that is necessary to the Union cause is enough of this same earnest,
unflinching, unchanging determination to face and destroy this monstrous
rebellion, no matter who or what opposes.
If the Union can not be preserved without _saltpeter_, then let enough
of this article be employed to secure the result. And, if the disordered
livers of political hypochondriacs can not be restored to healthy action
without the use of _blue pills_, then let enough of these be given to
work a cure.
God has given the American people a goodly heritage--the fairest the
world has ever seen. There is not a nation under all the heaven where
the pulse does not beat quicker, and the hopes rise higher, and the
thoughts grow larger, at the very mention of the American Republic.
Never have the hopes of humanity so centered in any nation. Our country
had come to be regarded as the cradle of liberty, the home of plenty,
and the asylum for the poor and oppressed of other lands.
Shall these high hopes perish? Shall this light of the Nations go out in
everlasting darkness? Shall a few desperate men--desperate by their lust
of power--desperate by disappointed ambition--desperate by their dark
and damning apostacy from the faith of our fathers--shall these be
allowed to destroy our glorious heritage?
Shall the son strike with rude hands the mother that bore him? Nay,
more, shall he tear her limb from limb, and give her flesh to dogs?
Shall the fair fruits of the tree of liberty perish, the branches torn
off, and the roots burned with fire? God forbid! Such a calamity to the
present and coming generations of mankind must be prevented, cost what
it will. It must be prevented, though it be necessary to send every
leading traitor after Judas Iscariot; and if they will not, like Judas,
wait on themselves, others must have the politeness to wait on them.
Again I welcome you to our homes and hearts. Our prayer is that your
health may be restored; that your family may be preserved in your
absence, and that you may be permitted to see a good old age in the
midst of a prosperous, happy and united people.
And when your earthly pilgrimage shall approach its termination, and you
retrospect the past, may you be able to say, in the language of one who
has gone before you, and who preferred a prison to a guilty conscience,
"I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the
faith." And then, as you look to the future, may your eye of faith, like
his, see for you laid up "a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous Judge, shall give you in that day."
PARSON BROWNLOW REPLIED AS FOLLOWS:
I thank you, Brother, and through you the Preachers' Association, for
your had expression of sympathy and regard. I claim, as a Union man, to
have done nothing but my duty. I have always been a Union man, and have
edited a Union paper for the last twenty-five years. I was traveling a
circuit in South Carolina in 1832, when I was elected to the General
Conference, and there met with Rev. L. F. Wright and L. Swormsted. I was
also traveling the Anderson District of the Holston conference in the
same State, and living near Calhoun during the nullification troubles
which were so soon throttled by Old Hickory. This thing called Secession
originated in falsehood, theft and perjury. Floyd did the stealing, the
masses of the people did the lying, and fourteen U. S. Senators from the
Cotton States the perjury. While in the Senate, in the day time, they
made a show of keeping their oaths, but at night they held their secret
caucuses, planning Secession, and advising their leaders to seize the
prominent forts of the South, and arms of importance wherever they could
find them. I have no doubt there are better men in hell, or in the
Penitentiaries of this or any other State, than the prominent leaders in
this Secession movement. And I am sorry to say that the worst class of
men now in the Southern Confederacy are the Episcopalian, Methodist,
Baptist and Presbyterian preachers. High functionaries in the
Episcopalian church are now drinking and swearing. Men who have met in
our General Conferences with some of these aged brethren whom I now see
around me, preach as chaplains on Sabbath, but swear and get drunk
through the week. A Presbyterian minister in Knoxville invited all
denominations to hold a union prayer meeting, to pray to the Lord to
sink Burnside's fleet, and raise Lincoln's blockade. And at it they
went, composed of many old clerical rips, who besieged a throne of
grace, raising their hands, heaving and setting like an old Tennessee
ram at a gate-post, that God would send lightning and storm and raise
the blockade. And the Lord did give them a _raise_--at Roanoke Island,
and with that kind of lightning and storm which they did not expect in
answer to prayer. I also heard a Presbyterian minister in Knoxville make
use of the following words on the Lord's day, which he would give to
show the degradation of the pulpit. In the course of his remarks he
stated that Jesus Christ was a Southern man, and all of his Apostles
were Southern men, save Judas, who was from the North. And that he would
rather read a text from a Bible bound in hell than front one printed and
bound North of Mason and Dixon's line. I regard the churches in the
South ruined; and financially they are in a bad fix. I came across Dr.
McFarren about seventy miles from Nashville, trying to run away; but his
horse wouldn't work. He traded the horse for a mule, but the mule
wouldn't work. When I left him he was standing on the street, in company
with his wife and children, looking for another trade. Huston, Sehon and
Baldwin were still in Nashville adhering to Secession. The citizens of
Nashville could but note the contrast, and expressed their opinions in
regard to the superiority of the officers and soldiers of the Federal
army over those of the Confederate. The former were well-dressed and
well-behaved, and did not insult citizens nor ladies upon the streets.
While, on the contrary, the vagabonds of the Confederate army stole
everything upon which they could lay their hands, and drove peaceable
citizens from their homes. While there were some honorable exceptions in
the Confederate army, strange to say it seemed to be mostly composed of
the off-scouring of the land; swearing, lewd fellows, of the most
degraded possible character. I had a hard time among them, and was
satisfied that they intended to execute me. I owe my escape to the fact
that for so long a time I had been an editor, and, to a great extent,
had gained the confidence of the people. The Union sentiment prevails in
East Tennessee five to one. Among them my friends notified the leaders
that, if Brownlow was hurt, twelve of their prominent men would be
sacrificed for his life, and I think they were afraid to hang me. So
they wrote to Davis and Benjamin that they had better release me; that I
had many friends, and that my presence would continue to stir up the
rebellion; and that, if they could send me out of their lines, they
would get rid of me and my influence. Therefore Benjamin thought that,
as I was a very wicked fellow and a great traitor, he would release me
on conditions that I would leave the Southern Confederacy, and, if I
would do so, they would give me a safe passport out of their lines. So I
opened a correspondence with that little, contemptible Jew--_Judas_
Benjamin, and consented to do for the Southern Confederacy what the
devil had never done--_leave_ the country. They still hold my wife and
children as hostages for my good behavior. I don't think they will hurt
them. I hope not.
But I told my wife, before I left, to prepare for execution, for, as
certain as I got North, I would not behave myself, according to Jeff.
Davis' understanding. I am now feeble, having been preaching and
discoursing for thirty-five years. I have seen the day when I could have
spoken five hours at a time; but my late imprisonment, in connection
with my typhoid fever, has broken down my constitution. When feeblest,
they doubled the guard, and pretended to think that my sickness was all
a sham, in order that more liberty would be given me, and then I could
escape. I told them that it was unnecessary, for if there was no guard
I could not run away. For I had written to Benjamin, and, if he would
not send me away in the proper manner, I would not go. I had made up my
mind to hang. I had seen my friends taken from the same prison--one or
two at a time--and hung. Sometimes the father and son on the same day.
While this was going on, they would say tauntingly, "Your turn will be
next, for you are the ringleader and cause of all this trouble." I told
them if they would give me the privilege of making a speech, one hour
long, under the gallows, that I might speak to the people and pronounce
a eulogy on the Southern Confederacy, that I would be willing to die.
And I really think I could have swung in peace. It is my intention to go
back to Knoxville and start my paper. I want to go with the army, and
once more raise the flag of the stars and stripes, and then blaze away.
They have been doing all of the hanging on one side, and I wish to
superintend it on the other. My motto is, "Grape for the masses, but
hemp for the leaders." They deserve hanging, for this is the most wicked
rebellion ever known to the world. If you had given them a President and
all the offices, there would have been no rebellion--for the "nigger" is
a mere pretext.
After thanking the brethren, he was introduced to the Ministers and
friends present, and then took his leave. During the day he visited the
Book Concern, and expressed himself highly pleased with its evident
prosperity.
BROWNLOW IN INDIANAPOLIS.
Mr. Brownlow left Cincinnati for Indianapolis (_via_ Dayton),
accompanied by Messrs. Mayor Maxwell and James Blake, Esq., of the
latter place, and General S. F. Cary and T. Buchanan Reed, of
Cincinnati. The party were greeted with one continued ovation during the
journey. At almost every station the cars were surrounded with eager
crowds, anxious to see and welcome the tried hero and patriot. Upon his
arrival in Indianapolis he became the guest of Governor Morton.
In the afternoon the party visited the prisoners at Camp Morton, where
Mr. Brownlow made a brief speech, to which some of the rebels gave no
very grateful reception. He was met with jeers, and cries of "Put him
out," "Don't want him here," "The old traitor," &c., which he, having
faced worse treatment under far more dangerous circumstances, gave
little heed to. The insults came chiefly from the Kentucky prisoners,
who have been, from the start, the most obstreperous and unrepentant of
the rebel keepsakes.
Notice was given that the Parson would address the public in the evening
at Metropolitan Hall. Although the night was dark and rainy, the large
hall was crowded to its utmost capacity, with a highly intelligent
audience. After music by the band of the 19th U. S. Regiment, the
meeting was opened with prayers by Rev. James Havens. The following
gentlemen of the committee occupied seats on the platform:
WM. HANNAMAN,
DAVID MCDONALD,
GOVERNOR MORTON,
MAYOR MAXWELL,
CALVIN FLETCHER, ESQ.
COL. JAMES BLAKE,
J. H. MCKERNAN, ESQ.
B. R. SULGROVE, ESQ.
ALFRED HARRISON, ESQ.
SPEECH.
Gov. Morton then introduced Mr. Brownlow, who spoke at length of the
causeless character of the rebellion, and its disastrous effects, and
was frequently cordially cheered by his large audience. He gave an
account of his ancestry, and showed how they had all been engaged in the
service of the country, and always true to its flag and its principles.
He said he had been called a traitor by R. Barnwell Rhett, of South
Carolina. "Rhett" said he, "was named R. Barnwell Smith, but the Smiths
being all Tories during the Revolution, he was allowed by a legislative
act to call himself Rhett. He call _me_ a traitor," said the iron old
Parson indignantly, "when his illustrious ancestors were hunted by
Marion through all the mosquito swamps of South Carolina." (Uproarious
cheers and laughter.) He commented at considerable length on the
rebellion and its leaders, and declared, with great emphasis, that "if
the issue was to be made between the Union without slavery, and slavery
without the Union, he was for the Union and let slavery perish. (Great
applause.) Let every institution die first, and until the issue was made
between the Union and the religion of Jesus Christ, he was for the
Union." (Tremendous cheers.) We have not space to report his whole
speech, which was considerably over an hour in length, and was listened
to with close and intense attention by all, and we must content
ourselves with a report of the outrages practiced on the Union men,
which he detailed with impressive eloquence and pathos.
In May last the South began to pour a stream as hot and ugly as hell
itself from the Gulf States through Eastern Tennessee, towards Richmond
and Manassas, and Norfolk and Lynchburgh, in the shape of a rebel
soldiery armed with side knives and tomahawks, drinking gallons untold
of bad whisky, and boasting largely and savagely enough of the things
they should do in Washington. (Laughter.) I had an old banner, the stars
and stripes, floating from the top of my house, on Main street, in
Knoxville, Tennessee, in a conspicuous part of the city. They began to
come to pay their respects to us--frequently a regiment at a time. Whole
regiments of "wharf rats" from New Orleans and Mobile, as ugly and
disgusting as they were vicious, would come at once, now and then, to
"give old Brownlow a turn," as they expressed it. They would, _en
masse_, come across the river on the bridge, surround my house, yell,
throw stones, blackguard my wife and family, dare me to come out of
doors, and I now and then accepted their invitations and made them the
best bow I could. I have, time and again, gone out and given them very
frankly and unreservedly my settled opinion of the whole concern, from
Jeff. Davis down, assuring them that my scorn and contempt for them and
the Southern Confederacy was unutterable, and then, making them the
best bow I could, I would go back into the house and leave them to yell
and groan around the house till they saw proper to quit. This course
they have steadily kept up all the year. And yet all of this time I was
reading in the papers of Charleston, Savannah and Richmond, that the
Confederate army was composed of the flower and promise of the Southern
States. I told my wife that if those miserable, God-forsaken whelps that
were screaming like devils around our house almost half of every day
were the _flower_ of the Southern Confederacy, my prayer would be--God
save us from the _rabble_.
On the 6th day of November last we had an election in the Southern
States for President and Vice President of the Southern Confederacy,
with only two candidates in the field--Jeff. Davis and little Alex.
Stevens of Georgia. And when we, of Eastern Tennessee came to vote at
that election we did not vote at all, but we positively and utterly
refused to have anything at all to do with it. The sheriffs, who were
Union men, refused to open the polls, or to hold an election, thus
giving the candidates the cold shoulder, and manifesting our contempt
for the whole concern. And, gentlemen, you cannot fail to be surprised
when I announce to you the fact that the great State of Tennessee,
casting not less than 200,000 votes as her ordinary vote, gave Jeff.
Davis and his colleague in villainy a miserable vote of 25,000. Those
two men are to-day holding their offices by the vote of a miserably lean
minority of the people of the State of Tennessee. Tennessee was driven
out of the Union at the point of the bayonet. The miserable rebel
soldiery were stationed at the polls, wherever a poll was opened, with
orders to prevent every "damned Union-shrieker" that might appear from
depositing his vote. We had thousands of good Union men, men of good
morals, members of churches, Methodists, Baptists and others, who had no
desire to be involved in difficulty, and who saw that nothing could be
accomplished by attempting to exercise their rights, and who said to
themselves "we will stay at home and let the thing go by default." Let
me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, if I know anything at all of any
State it is the State of Tennessee, and I want you to mark well and
treasure up in your minds the prediction I am about to make to you. I
predict to-night that when Governor Johnson shall appoint a day (which
he will do before long,) upon which the people of the State of Tennessee
shall decide at the polls whether they shall come back again beneath the
stars and stripes, when Confederate bayonets shall be driven completely
out of the State, which they will be soon, the "Volunteer State" will
come back into the Union by a majority of 50,000 votes. (Cheers.)
There is also, at this very time, a powerful Union sentiment in each of
the other Southern States. These Southern traitors may talk to you about
the "unanimity" of feeling in regard to the war, but let me assure you
that it is all false. There is no unanimity in the Southern States.
Louisiana never voted herself out of the Union. The wretches who were in
power there smuggled the vote. The truth is that secession was _lost_ in
Louisiana. Georgia barely went out of the Union. Alabama was forced out
through the treason of Jerry Clemens and others. The "Old North State"
will gladly come back again. The Old Dominion, what shall I say of her?
God bless her while he curses her leading politicians. Virginia is about
ready to come back. She is just about sick enough now to be willing to
take medicine.
But whilst it is true that there is no unanimity in the Southern
Confederacy in regard to the war, there was one remarkable instance of
unanimity that occurred in Tennessee just about the time that we people
of the Eastern portion of the State refused to vote. By a strange freak
of Nature, or Providence, or something else, all the railroad bridges
between Bristol and Chattanooga took fire all at once, and burned down,
one night about eleven o'clock. I was not concerned in the matter, and
can't say who did it. I thought to myself that the affair had been most
beautifully planned and executed, and enjoyed it considerably in my
quiet way. (Laughter.)
It was but a little while afterward that the Legislature passed a law to
disarm all the Union men of the State. Of course I was called on, in
common with the rest. They did not find much to seize, however, at my
house. They got a double-barreled shot gun, a Sharp's rifle, and a
revolver. That was all the weapons I had. Then they commenced waiting
upon all the private families. They took all the good horses that
belonged to Union men. They entered their dwellings, threw off the
feather-beds from the bedsteads, took all the woolen blankets and
coverlets they could get hold of. They broke open chests and drawers,
and pocketed what money and jewelry they could find in them. They
carried away bacon, drove away fat hogs and beeves, and robbed the
people of every species of moveable property.
They next began to arrest them and throw them into jail. Nor was that
all. Many of them were shot down upon the streets, or in the fields, in
cold blood. I could give names in abundance, and dates, and places. I
speak not from hearsay, but from my own personal knowledge. A man would
be quietly about his work in his fields, and some one would point him
out as a Union man, and the infernal rebel cavalry would shoot him down
as a "damned Union-shrieking Abolitionist."--Others were stretched
lengthwise upon logs of wood, raised a short distance from the ground so
as to admit of their arms being tied underneath it, and were then
stripped naked, and almost literally cut to pieces. And afterwards, when
those men would come into courts of justice, and pull off their shirts
and display the marks of the inhuman treatment they had suffered, the
Judges upon the bench would coolly inform them that these were
revolutionary times, and that they could give no redress for such
grievances. Every prominent jail in East Tennessee was filled with Union
men.
Take the case of Andy Johnson. He is a man against whom I have fought
for twenty-five years with all my might, pouring hot shot into him
continually, both on the stump and through the columns of my paper, and
he in turn giving me as good as I sent. He and I are to-day upon the
most amicable terms. We, the people of East Tennessee, have merged every
other issue into this great issue of the Union. (Loud applause.) You
ought to do so in Indiana. You should never touch one of your aspiring
politicians with a ten-foot pole unless he is totally and
unconditionally opposed to this infernal rebellion. Where would I see a
man who is base enough to sympathise with secession before I would vote
for him for office? I would send him where, in the language of Milton,
"Cold performs the effect of fire,"
or, as Pollock says,
"Where gravitation, shifting, turns the other way,
And sends him _Hellwards_."
They drove Johnson's wife, far gone with consumption, and very feeble,
to take refuge with her son-in-law in the adjoining county of Carter.
They drove him into the woods, where he remained no less than three
months, used his house and his beds for a hospital, and sold his goods
at public sale. But the scale has turned. Andrew Johnson is now
Governor. He is "the right man in the right place."
If President Lincoln had consulted the Union men of Tennessee as to what
man should occupy that position, the reply would have been almost
unanimously, "give us Andy Johnson." He has the unflinching courage of
Old Hickory, and let me tell you, too, that he feels all the malice and
venom requisite for the occasion. He will row those wretches up Salt
River. He will send a good many of them to Fort Warren, where, I trust,
after due trial for treason, they will be hung upon a gallows of
similar character and dimensions to that upon which Haman hung.
When, upon the 6th of November, they thrust me into jail at Knoxville, I
found one hundred and fifty men whose sole offence was their
faithfulness to the Union. Every man among them was an acquaintance of
mine. Three of them were Baptist preachers. One of these three, old man
Pope, a man seventy years of age, and for many years a Minister of the
Gospel, was thrown into jail for praying, previously to his sermon, for
the blessing of God upon the President of the United States. The Rev.
Mr. Kates, a man about seventy-five years old, was imprisoned for
throwing up his cap and hallooing as a company of Union Home Guards was
passing.
When I entered the door the inmates of the prison were perfectly
astonished. Some of them were so overpowered by the nature of the
circumstances, that they could hardly speak. "O," said they, "we never
expected to come to this. We never expected the day would come when we
would look through the iron grates of a prison!"
I said to them, "Boys, cheer up. Are you here for murder, or
counterfeiting, or horse-stealing? No. You are here for no other offence
than that of defending the glorious stars and stripes, and I look upon
this as the brightest day of my life. These scoundrels will be sick of
this business before the thing is over."
While I was in the jail both of these poor preachers were taken sick.
The furniture of the prison deserves description. There was no sign of a
bedstead, not a chair nor a stool of any kind, and the only "furniture"
there was consisted of a dirty wooden pail and two tin cups. The whole
one hundred and fifty prisoners could not lie down at once, so that we
had to "spell" each other, so all might have a little while to sleep. A
part stood while the others lay down. That's the way we lived in the
jail.
These poor old preachers came near dying. The rebels showed me one
favor. The jailor, I knew, as a mean, sneaking rascal, whom I had
published in my paper for forgery, and I was sure that he would give me
arsenic in order to make sure of my not doing so again, and I obtained
permission for my wife to send me my dinner every day, and I had to send
the basket full every day, and in this way I had the satisfaction of
feeding those two feeble old preachers for two weeks with something they
could eat.
Old Mr. Kates had three sons in jail. Madison Kates was on the verge of
the grave with typhoid fever. He lay upon the floor of that damp brick
jail, with an old overcoat under his head for a pillow, and a single
thickness of old home-made carpeting between him and the cold, damp
floor of the prison. In this condition his poor wife came thirty-five
miles to see him, with an infant about six weeks old in her arms. She
came into the yard of the prison and asked permission to see her
husband. The officers said "No, they did not allow any body to have
anything to say to these infernal Union-shriekers." I went to the window
then, myself, and by dint of perseverance, prevailed upon them at last
to let her see her husband. They limited her to just fifteen minutes.
When she entered the door her eyes fell upon her husband lying in the
corner, so weak and emaciated that he could scarcely stir. He was nearly
gone. She held her infant in her arms. The sight of her husband in that
condition unnerved her completely. Seeing she was upon the point of
letting the child fall, I took it from her and she sank down upon the
floor beside her husband. Neither of them uttered a word, but clasping
each others hands they sobbed and cried together, and O, my God! I hope
that I shall never see such a sight as that again.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the spirit--the hellish, inhuman,
infernal spirit of secession. The Devil himself is a saint, compared to
the leaders in that scheme.
In Andrew Johnson's town they hung up two men to the same limb, and the
bloody Col. Ledbetter, a man born and educated in the State of Maine,
going down to Mobile and marrying a lot of negroes through another
woman--the worst man, the biggest coward, and the blackest-hearted
villain that ever made a track in East Tennessee--this man tied the
knots with his own hands, and directed that the victims should be left
hanging for four days and nights right over the iron track of the
railroad, and ordered the engineers to run their trains slowly by the
spot in order that the secessionists on board might feast their eyes
upon the ghastly spectacle. And it is a fact as true as it is revolting,
that men stood upon the platforms of every train that went by and kicked
the dead bodies as they passed, and struck them with sticks and ratans,
with such remarks as "that they looked well hanging there," and that all
"d----d Yankees and traitors should hang that way too." It is true that
Col. Ledbetter, as the weather was somewhat warm and the corpses were
becoming somewhat offensive, ordered them to be cut down at the
expiration of some thirty-six hours, but it was for the convenience of
his secession friends purely, and not from any other motive.
One day they came with two carts and took old Harmon, a Methodist class
leader, and his son. Old Mr. Harmon was seated in one cart upon his
coffin, and his son in the other, and each cart was surrounded by a
strong guard of rebel bayonets, and driven down the hill to a scaffold
in sight of the jail. The young man was hung first, and the father was
compelled to look upon his death struggles. Then he was told to mount
the scaffold, but being feeble and overpowered by his feelings, two of
the ruffians took hold of him, one of them saying, "Get up there, you
damned old traitor!" and the poor old man was launched after his son.
A few days after this they came up to the jail with another cart. We
never knew whose turn was to come next. I had "counted the cost." I
intended, if my turn had come, to meet my fate with the best grace I
could. I had prepared a speech for the occasion, and I can assure you
that I should have pronounced a handsome eulogy, if I had been called
upon, for if I have any talent in the world, it is that talent which
consists in piling up one epithet upon another. But it turned out that
the cart was not intended for me. It was intended for a young man by the
name of H. C. Haun, an excellent young man of fine morals and good
common sense. He had a wife and two small children. Haun was informed
one hour before hand that he was to be hung. He immediately asked for a
Methodist preacher who lived in the town, to come to see him, and to
pray with him. The reply was: "We don't permit any praying here for a
damned Union-shrieker."
Haun met his fate like a man. When under the scaffold, a drunken, lying
chaplain rose up, and delivered a short address. Said he, "The poor,
unfortunate young man, who is now about to pay the penalty of his
crimes, says that he regrets his course, and that he was led into it
through the influence of traitors. He is, therefore, deserving of your
pity." As quick as thought Haun sprang to his feet, and in a much
stronger and steadier tone than the lying villain beside him had made
use of, said: "My fellow citizen, there is not one word of truth in what
that man has told you. I have made no such concession. On the contrary,
all that I have said and done, I have said and done after mature
deliberation, and I would do the same again. I am here ready to be
executed. Execute your purposes." He died like every Union man ought to
die when called to face death by villains and traitors.
My fellow citizens: I congratulate you upon the fact, now sufficiently
clear, that the rebellion is now pretty well "played out." We will wind
the thing up this spring and summer. They are nearly "out of soap" down
South. They lack guns, clothing, boots and shoes. The boots I have on
cost me $15 in Knoxville. They are out of hats, too. In Knoxville there
is not a bolt of bleached domestic or calico to be had, nor a spool of
Coat's thread, and, although "Cotton is King," we never made a spool of
thread south of Mason and Dixon's line. Sewing needles and pins are not
to be had. The blockade is breaking them up. It has been remarked on the
streets of Knoxville, that no such thing as a fine-toothed comb was to
be had, and that all the little secession heads were full of squatter
sovereigns hunting for their rights in the territories. [Laughter and
applause.]
The Reverend Doctor retired amid continued applause and cheering, and
was followed by General Samuel F. Cary, of Ohio, who, though his remarks
were brief, were marked with that spirit-stirring eloquence for which he
is noted. Many of his patriotic allusions and decided and unerring blows
at traitors were received with vociferous shouts of applause. He said
that all were rejoiced at the delivery of Brownlow from the clutches of
tyranny, but our rejoicings were saddened by the thought that multitudes
like him were flying to the mountains for safety, or were rotting in
prisons, or were being hanged and murdered for loving their country. He
wished the President and Government could learn to appreciate the
magnitude of the rebellion. It was time that hemp was used to hang the
leaders of this wicked rebellion. It had been said by the sympathisers
with this infernal war against the Government, that the Abolitionists
had brought the war upon the country. This was simply a lie. The
President and all connected with the management of the Government had
manifested a desire to protect slave property above all other property.
He, for one, would protect a loyal man like Brownlow in his property,
be it slave property or otherwise; but he would confiscate the property
of rebels, their lands, their houses, their niggers and their necks. The
integrity of the Republic should be saved at all cost, and he would be
willing for a still further sacrifice of life and expenditure of money,
rather than compromise on any other principle or condition than that
every leader of the rebellion should meet the death of a traitor upon
the gallows.
He claimed that slavery was only a pretext with the conspirators who
originated the rebellion--it was not the cause of the war. It was mainly
hostility to popular government on the part of the aristocrats of South
Carolina and other fire-eating States. South Carolina had in it during
the Revolution more tories than any other State, and she never had an
organized government that conformed to the requirements of the
Constitution--it was not Republican in form. A property qualification
was required for voters larger than that of England. The people never
voted for President or any officer save that of members of the State
Assembly, and the poor man had no voice even in that election. Their
judges, elected for life, came upon the bench clothed in gowns and wigs,
and the Speaker of their Legislature was ushered into his chair
according to the old British custom, adorned with robes, and in the most
pompous manner. They had no penitentiary in that State, but the
whipping-post, ear-cropping and branding were the punishments most in
vogue.
The speaker said he sometimes felt gratified that this war had come
upon us. We had been a nation of party worshippers, and had lost sight
of that spirit of patriotism that should ever guide freeman of so great
and free a nation. He hoped that party spirit would be obliterated
forever, though we had men in Indiana who were plotting how to make
political capital out of the misfortunes of the country. Next to
secessionists, he despised such men. They were so selfish that they
would sell their grandmother's bones to button makers.
His motto was: "Let Slavery take care of itself." Let us put down the
rebellion, and whatever may come in the way of accomplishing this
purpose, be it slavery or what else, let it perish. He had been called a
proslavery man, because he had advocated non-interference with the
question in the States. He believed that it was requisite that the
institution should exist as a contrast to be constantly kept before the
laboring men of the North as an encouragement to labor. Invention was
the child of an educated people, and our great improvement in the
sciences, arts and mechanics, was attributable to our respect for and
aid given to the man who earns his bread by the sweat of his brow. Let
the problem work itself out. Like the skunk that the man would not kill,
but confined until it stunk itself to death, slavery was destined, if
left alone, to kill itself. It had been said that it would be best to
divide the country, and let the secessionists have a country of their
own. The channel of the Mississippi will never be permitted to be owned
or obstructed by any other government, and no other flag will be allowed
to wave but the proud ensign of the American Union. Americans can never
consent to be humiliated to ask passports into a foreign country to
visit the tombs of Washington, Jackson or Clay, and Indianians should
never consent to allow Kentuckians to give a quit claim deed to the
ashes of their dead ancestry now mingling with the soil of this State.
The country never will be divided. Let us all unite then in
extinguishing the rebellion, and vindicate ourselves by hanging Jeff.
Davis and Toombs between the heavens and the earth.
Alluding to the course pursued by Southern divines, General Cary said
Bishop Polk now utters oaths, and he did not wonder at it, for when a
man becomes a rebel he has severed the last link that binds men to their
God, and there was no hope for their repentance or salvation. He had
told a Universalist preacher lately to quit preaching his doctrines
until after the rebellion, for a real fire and brimstone hell was wanted
for the benefit of its authors and abettors.
General Cary concluded his brief address amid cries of "go on," "go on,"
but owing to the lateness of the evening he declined to say more.
The popular chorus of "Glory Hallelujah! the Lord is on our side," was
then sung by a number of musical amateurs, after which Governor Morton
announced the news just received of General Pope's brilliant victory,
which the audience received with vehement cheering. The patriotic Parson
joined in with the assemblage, and waved his handkerchief exultingly.
T. Buchanan Reed, one of the nation's best poets, was introduced by
Governor Morton, who read, in a style that but few professional readers
could excel, some extracts from patriotic poems and songs of his own
composition, viz: "The Wild Wagoner of the Alleghanies," "A Tribute to
the Brave Ones at Home," and "The Defenders." Each and all of these
readings were received with applause by the audience.
After "Hail Columbia," by the band, the meeting adjourned. Take it all
in all, it was decidedly the most intellectual and spirit-stirring
entertainment Indianapolis has ever witnessed.
BROWNLOW IN CHICAGO.
The Parson left Indianapolis for Chicago on the 8th of April, attended
by General Cary and others, and arrived at the latter place on the
morning of the 9th, having met, all along the road, repeated and earnest
demonstrations of welcome, from the sympathizing, loyal masses of the
people.
During the whole of Thursday, the 10th, Mr. Brownlow was the recipient
of visits from the citizens of Chicago. Between the hours of 11 and 12
there was a crowd of ladies gathered in the spacious parlors to pay
their respects, and during the introductory exercises he made the
following impromptu remarks:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--When I had the honor, last evening, of meeting
and being introduced to the committees which your city sent to greet me,
I remarked that those committees formed the finest body of men I ever
saw. But when I look at the sweet faces and forms which I now see before
me, I am ready to pronounce those men a very ordinary looking lot. If I
am more particularly attached to the tall ladies, it is because I am
more strikingly reminded of the loved ones at home.
AT THE BOARD OF TRADE.
It being understood that the Parson would make his appearance on 'Change
at 12 o'clock, long before that hour arrived large numbers of the
citizens, members of the Board and others, began to gather there, and by
noon the spacious rooms were packed to their utmost capacity with
persons eager to catch a glimpse of the redoubtable Parson, and pay him
that respect to which his patriotic conduct has entitled him. At 12
o'clock the distinguished guest entered, arm in arm with Mayor Rumsey,
and followed by the different Committees of Reception. The Parson's
appearance was greeted with hearty applause, and, when order was
restored, Stephen Clary, Esq., made a few appropriate introductory
remarks; after which, Mayor Rumsey arose and said:
FELLOW CITIZENS:--It may have been expected that on this occasion I
would make a speech before you; but such is not my intention. The
condition of my health, and the hoarseness with which I am afflicted,
render it well-nigh impossible for me to speak at all. I will,
therefore, only say that, in behalf of the city of Chicago, whose chief
magistrate I am, it is my privilege to introduce to you Mr. W. G.
Brownlow, and in your behalf welcome, to the hospitalities of our city,
this noble patriot, who has periled not only his temporal interests, but
his life, for the Union cause in Tennessee. It is sufficient that I
mention his name to you.
* * * * *
After the Mayor had concluded, J. C. Wright, Esq., on behalf of the
Board of Trade, addressed Mr. Brownlow in an eloquent and stirring
manner, as follows:
REV. W. G. BROWNLOW:--At the request of the officers of this Board of
Trade, I have the honor, sir, of performing the most agreeable duty of
welcoming you to our Exchange.
It is not, sir, because of any official position you now hold, or have
held, that this vast assembly has gathered here to receive you; but,
sir, it is a mark of respect and admiration for your patriotic devotion
to your country. When this horrid rebellion assumed its gigantic
proportions, the loyal men of the North watched with anxiety the course
of many men of the South, whom we had delighted to honor with the
highest positions of trust and power. With rare exceptions we saw them
retreating into the ranks of the traitors, using their influence, wealth
and position to strike down the mildest and most beneficent government
which God in his mercy had ever permitted man to establish. They
beguiled and deceived the people, who had been accustomed to look up to
them, and listen to their counsels. Many of the arch traitors, not
content to act with the popular voice of their States, joined the ranks
of the rebels, endeavoring to force their States to disregard their
allegiance to that glorious Union which, for nearly a century, had
thrown its genial influence and protection over a united, happy, and
prosperous people. Amidst all this horrid exhibition of treason, and
malignant, hellish hate, when the heart grew sick at contemplating the
dark and dismal scene before us; when your neighbors and friends around
you, in vast numbers, had deserted that old flag, consecrated by our
fathers' blood, and were trampling under foot that Constitution which
had so long been our pride and our hope, you, sir, stood firm and
unmoved in your devoted patriotism. Threatened with the halter, with
your grave yawning before you, with scorn you spurned proffered freedom
in such honors as traitors could confer. To you the grave had no terrors
to be shunned by an act of disloyalty to your beloved and now grateful
country.
We are now rapidly making undying history for future generations to
read. When the history of this wicked rebellion--for I can not call it
an honorable war--is written, it will be sadly deficient, if its pages
do not tell, in words that burn, the story of your wrongs, your
fortitude, and your unswerving devotion to your country in the hour of
her great trial. Our children will need no romance to stir their young
hearts, but the truthful picture of your sufferings and heroism will
fill the place of high wrought fiction. We shall no longer point to the
classic ages for noble examples of heroes, who laughed at the halter and
rack, and scorned life at the price of dishonor.
Sir, it is because you have so loved your country, and suffered for your
principles, that we this day welcome you to our Exchange, to our
hearth-stones, to our hearts.
In behalf of the officers, and of the more than nine hundred loyal
members of this Board, again, air, I bid you welcome. Amid the stirring,
glorious news of the triumph of our arms, I bid you welcome.
* * * * *
At the close of Mr. Wright's address, Parson Brownlow arose, and, after
pausing a few moments until the tumult of applause had subsided, in a
calm, clear voice, began his remarks. His first few words were uttered
in a low tone, scarcely audible except to those nearest the speaker; but
presently his voice was raised to a higher key, and, with his distinct
and emphatic enunciation, every person in the vast crowd could easily
hear and understand.
He said he claimed no credit for his acts in Tennessee, for he had
simply done his duty--nothing more--and any man who would not, under
similar circumstances, do the same thing, deserved to be hung. He was a
Union man from principle, not from policy. He had _always_ been a Union
man; it was no new thing with him. He had opposed secession with what
abilities God had given him, under all circumstances, and wherever, in
his presence, it had shown its vile features. And this he should
continue to do, at the risk of being mobbed and hung, if need be. He was
a national man; he had no sentiments in the South that he was not
willing to promulgate in the North; and none in the North that he would
not proclaim upon the house-top in the Southern States. In 1828, the
speaker supported John Quincy Adams for the Presidency, and for that act
incurred the hatred of many of his friends in the South. At a later day,
when Mr. Adams presented before Congress a petition for the abolition of
slavery, the speaker also defended him in that particular; for, though
not an abolitionist, he had always contended that a Congressman's
constituents had the right to petition that body for _anything_ they
might desire. He had supported that eminent statesman, Henry Clay; and,
when he died, he would willingly have voted for Clay's last pair of
pantaloons, stuffed with straw! He had advocated the claims of Daniel
Webster, for his gigantic intellect and commanding statesmanship
entitled him to the highest honors of the nation. But the _last_ ticket
he had supported was the Bell-Everett ticket, which bore such a close
resemblance to a kangaroo--being the strongest in its hinder parts. He
should make a trip to Boston, purposely to visit Edward Everett, and to
take him by the hand, for he was a patriot. But as to "Old Man Bell," he
was fast traveling the road leading to a certain locality where traitors
and devils are sure to land eventually. Being destitute of nerve, moral
courage, of fixed patriotic principles, the weak old man had succumbed
to the hell-born and hell-bound heresy of secession.
The speaker here made allusion to the treatment he had received from the
traitorous rabble in his own State, and gave a brief sketch of his
imprisonment in the Knoxville jail; of the threats of immediate
execution with which his ears were daily regaled; the actual hanging of
many of his companions in the prison; and many interesting particulars
of the struggle between treason and loyalty in Eastern Tennessee. He
stated that, for many days, he fully expected to be hung, and had become
perfectly resigned to his fate, provided his persecutors would grant him
one privilege, which was, that from the gallows he might be permitted to
address them for one hour. "I had prepared myself for the occasion,"
said Mr. Brownlow, "and I intended to do the Southern Confederacy
justice--to pronounce a high-wrought eulogy on the concern, from Jeff.
Davis down to the smallest secession Devil among them."
The speaker thought that the Union sentiment of Eastern Tennessee had
never abated one iota; that there were thousands of good Union men
there, who would hail the approach of the Federal army with sincere joy.
Gen. Jackson put down the rebellion of 1832, and, though this was a much
more formidable uprising, he believed Abe Lincoln would subdue it. "My
friends," said the orator, "the _hanging_ must begin _on the other
side_, this season, and I want to superintend it. You may think I speak
harshly; but, after what I have seen and experienced among the rebels,
how can I feel differently? I tell you, my hearers, I intend to go back
to Tennessee, before long, under different circumstances from those
under which I left the State. I want to go back in company with Gen.
Fremont; I want a big war-horse, and a military suite, and the General
and myself will ride down among those rebels, and, if you will excuse my
apparent egotism, I do believe the scoundrels had rather see the Devil
coming after them!"
After paying his compliments to Mason and Slidell, both of whom he knows
personally, the Parson remarked that, "When this rebellion is put down,
England and France will have to behave themselves, or we will thrash
them both."
The speaker then thanked the citizens for the kind reception given him,
and closed his speech with the promise that they should hear from him
again in the evening. He took his seat amid a storm of applause, that
emanated from the hearts as well as the mouths of his hearers.
Gen. S. F. Cary, of Cincinnati, being present, was loudly called for,
and, taking the stand, proceeded to deliver one of the most thrillingly
eloquent speeches to which we have ever listened. We have not room for
even a summary of this production, but those who are familiar with the
celebrated Cincinnati orator will appreciate the meaning of our
observation, when we say it was one of Gen. Cary's happiest efforts.
After he had closed, Frank Lumbard was called upon for a song, and,
mounting the stand, gave, in his best style, "The Star Spangled
Banner," the entire assemblage joining in the swelling chorus, with
splendid effect. The crowd then filed out past the President's desk,
where sat the Parson, each individual grasping his extended hand with
evident emotions of sympathy and kindly regard. Mr. Brownlow and party
soon after repaired to the Sherman House, where they partook of a
sumptuous dinner.
In the afternoon the party made a visit to Camp Douglas, and spent some
time in making observations among the very class of men from whose
clutches the Parson had so recently escaped.
* * * * *
Transcriber's note
Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Printer
errors have been changed and are listed below. All other
inconsistencies are as in the original.
Characters that could not be displayed directly in Latin-1 are
transcribed as follows:
_ - Italics
The following changes have been made to the text:
Page 16: "the crimes" changed to "The crimes".
Page 23: "by-gone" changed to "bygone".
Page 24: "jeapordizing" changed to "jeopardizing".
Page 24: "ignoniminous" changed to "ignominious".
Page 29: "water-goards" changed to "water-gourds".
Page 33: "unhol" changed to "unholy".
Page 36: "did'nt" changed to "didn't".
Page 36: "intrigueing" changed to "intriguing".
Page 37: "voluntered" changed to "volunteered".
Page 38: "did'nt" changed to "didn't".
Page 44: "could fine them" changed to "could find them".
Page 49: "Browlow" changed to "Brownlow".
Page 56: "hardly syeak" changed to "hardly speak".
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Portrait and Biography of Parson
Brownlow, The Tennessee Patriot, by William Gannaway Brownlow
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