The weekly pioneer and Democrat., 1861-10-25
Tennessee.
SECESSION HORRORS DESCRIBED BY ANDREW
JOHNSON.


In his recent speech at Columbus, Ohio,
Andrew johnson thus describes the horrors
of secession in Tennessee:
While yet beseeching them to act upon
their own doctrine, and let US alone, the
hoofs of their cavalry were indenting our
plains, and the tramp Of their troops was
about our homes! And yet there are those
who set up the pulling cry, "Let there be no
coerciOn!" What a secessionist declaring
against coercion Why, God bless you,
friends, they never got anything except by
coercion. They coerced Tennessee, Geor>
gia, Alabama, and Virginia out of the
Union. They attempted it in Maryland
the government stopped it. They are now
attempting it in Kentucky, and there the
People will stop it Their whole career
has been one OF coercion, of outrage, insult,
blasphemy, and crime. Detachments of
their myrmidOns, vino were sent as they
said, {" to protect US from the despotism OF
Abe. Lincoln" (?) would pass through our
county, in Tennessee, on the railroad.
As they went they saw the flag OF our
country, the glorious old Stripes and Stars,
floating from the gable of an humble school
house, where the little boys had placed it
as an emblem of their pure and dawning
love for the Union. What did these mis-
creants do? They stopped their train, and
with hootings and rbaldry, with menaces,
and execrations, and blasphemy, they tore
it from the children and trampied it in the
mire! They would enter private houses,
and under pretcnce of seeking for ammuni-
tion, would rummage drawers and desks,
robbing the family of the money, and the
females of their jewels and heir looms. They
would order their meals and their lodgings
in tones of iDsOlence and in terms of insult.
They would feed their horses with wastesul.
ness, and scatter the food recklessly on the
ground. And after eating to the fill of
their insatiate appetiteG and rioting and
rumaging, they would mount, and, with
oaths and obscenity, would tell the family
to charge it all to JEFF. Davis. And this,
my friends, is secession!
They came into my own county they
called at my house. Some of their number
came forward and demanded of my family
whether was at home-saying, that if |
was they had come to take me, and hang
me! Pleasant intelligence this, for gentle.
men (0 to communicate to wife and daugh>
ters! But my daughter, indignant at their
conduct, said, "NO, my father is not at
home; he is absent in another county, where
he is making a speech for the Union and
this presume you knew, or your cowardy
crew would not have dared to show them
selves at this house." They then sullenly
withdrew. AS they passed on through the
neighborhoOd they came upon the house of
Union family the husband was not at
home, but his wife, stout hearted woman,
had her Union flag at the gate post. They
insolently commanded her to remove it she
would not. They attempted to seize it, and
she seized it; they struggled for it, but she
kept her flag. They then went into the
woods, cut hickory withe, and returning,
scourged her person with it.
This, my friends, is secession, and these
are the men you are to compromise" with.
Some of these same demons, five of them,
fiends in human shape, stopped at the house
of a man named Markham, who, seeing
them approach, and fearing insult and out
rage to himself, if he remained, and thinking
that they would not be so likely to provoke
quarrel with the family if be were nst
present, took his rifle from its resting place
and retired unobserved by them into little
thicket near by the house, in order to be at
hand in case they offered any abuse to bis
family. He had an amiable wife and two
daughters, the youngest girl of about
twelve years, and the other just blossoming
into womanhoOd, about sixteen, as beautiful
as the morning and as pure as the dewdrop.
The secessionists entered and insolently de-
manded dinner for themselves and feed for
their horses. The wife told them there was
the crib and the fodder, and they would
give them their dinner. They took the hay
and the corn and scattered it about the
ground, and ordered the ladies to hasten
their dinner.
In due time the meal was prepared, and
soon greedily devoured. After sating their
appetites at the table they began to ad.
dress rude remarks to the wife and daugh-
tiers. One attempted to make love to the
young lady, when her young, sister, seizing