Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1861-08-24
POSITION OF r.,e Ease rENNrs.

POSITION OF TEzE EAST TENNEB.
4 JNIONESTN.
BrownlOw's Knoxville Whig of the nth
inst, in its leading editorial, contains the fol-
lowing as the position Of the Unionists in East
Tennessee:
In the absence Of any information whatever,
from any quarter, we venture the opinion, tbai
TIE feterai government will never send an army
into East Tennessee, until 1t has had better
success on the Potomac, and in fighting the
Confederate army in Virginia. II the federal
government can't sustain itself in Virginia.,
and put down this rebellion at the door OF the
national capitol, it is worse than folly for it to
make a descent upon the mountains and valleys
Of East Tennessee. Nay, more; il the federal
government, with it's superior number OF men,
it advantages in m%unitIon OF war, and its IN
exhaustible resources in money and credit
can't put down this great southern Tebeiilon,
it will sink below contemDt, and those or US
who have advocated the Union will lose al
respect for a government that may have FALLEN
into such weak and incompetent hands And
shou d The eleven seeded States, without
money OF credit, and with half the number OF
fighting men, whip out the twenty-fouT other
States, the only government then remaining in
America, entitled to respect, will be that OF
the Southern Confederacy. And Union men,
will fall into it's support, whatever contempt
they may nave for those who control, and orig
mated this rebellion.
Finally, the Union men of East Tennessee
have ne sympa'hies for Lincoln, and no respect
for the political organization that placed him
in power, and still less FOR the doctrines Of the
Black Republican party. They are devoted to
heir government, its excellent laws, and IN
! equalled Constitution, and it ia for these, and
not for Lincoln and his Cabinet, they are bat
Ting. They are not abolitioDisfs, nor on the
side Of the North, but they are true southern
men, devoted to the institul ions of the South,
and on the side O? their country, and their
whole country They had no hand in cleo ing
Lincoln but believe that his election was not a
sufficient cause for dissolving the Union. They
are for prese wing the Union, and then for
e]lscting a more able, patriotic, and coRservs-
tive statesman to the pTesidency-a man worthy
OF the chair, and OF presiding over so many
millions of free men.
And had not Union men in East Tennessee
been so grossly misTepTssented by the seCes
sion leaders, so shamefully abused, tyraGizeC
over. and then threatened, as they have beer
by the base, corrupt and cowaTdly leaders
such as control matters in Knoxville, and 9th.
er towns, there would be at this time less oi
bitterness among them, and mole Of A dispo-
sitiOn 10 harmonic with tue other portions Of
the State. Aye, the very Union leaders If
Knoxville, who are charged with ursing on a
rebellion, have actually prevented it, by eX-
erting all the influenced they have, to quiet the
common masses. They have told them ans
tell them still, that it is madness to rebel, ans
the worst Of folly to contrI' ute to the getting
up Of a civil var in East Tennessee. Thss'
counsels, we know, have hsdt the effect to mo l.
crate the masses Of the Union men, and tC
keep them in check, whllst they have disPleas.
ID Others, and led them to complain Of tins
Rockville leaders az growing weak in the
knees, and seeking to turn them over 20 seces'
sion. Such are the facts 10 the case, all cred
IT for which is denied the Union leaders il
Knoxville, by the vile partisans and corrun.
men who seek 10 avenge old personal wrongs
by thrustiBg the military power Of the State
into their q%u7TTels. under the hyrocrtical pre-
tanse Of deYotinn TO Rontharn rights