Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1866-05-01
STANTON, A. TUESDAY, 4,
From the New York News.
Prentice on BroWnloW.

Prentice on Brownlow.
Brownlow, the eatant terrible of Tennessee
politics; the ''bad old man. who deals in dia-
bolica! expletives and consigns his opponents
to place not particularly cool the modern
Draco who writes his laws in the blood of hunted
down prosecuted rebels !" the archetype of
Southern Union man., and the most notable
defender of 'the flag we love" south of the
line; the iconoclast who spurns the idols he
whllom worshipped, and who takes Cuffee under
his wing with parental devotion in his new
condition of freedom-Brownlow, Rumpty,
Roaring, Ruthless, Rash, Ridiculous Browniow,
has met his match at last
In the course of his varied and chequered ca
reer the redoubtable defender of the faith in
Tennessee has had the misfortune to run afoul
OF the editor OF The Louisville Journal We
avow profound ignorance as to the cause that
led the Tennessee parson to pit his powers
against the Kentucky writer. 1t is enough to
know that the direful conjunction has occurred
and, as consequence, the former has come out
OF the conflict shorn of every vestige of the bra
very with which he went into it, and so pitiabe,
melancholy and wretched an object of fcommiser-
alton that the laugh upon the lips ofthe locker
on IS changed into ghastly stare CT horror at
what remains of this honest man.
Did We not have the evidences before us we
could scarcely conceive, at this late day, that
this stawart and blatant champion Of negro
emancipation should ever have threatened to
'extlnguish the last abolition foot-hold (mean-
ing New England On the continent of America. :"
And were we not fortified by the same testimony
to the fact we would scout with derision the as
sertlon that he ever announced to the pious
workers In the vineyard of freedom that they
were Infamous villains, and with the ven
geance of an infuriated foe we will be upon you
in the North, at the hour of midnight, and as
long as a luclfer match can be found we will
burn up your substance
Thus Browniow, in letter, written In May.
l960 and addressed to the Rev Mr. Pryne-a
letter which the editor of The Louisville Jour
nal has resurrected in most untoward moment
tor the faithful, and wherewith, in the contro-
yersy he deals the writer destructive and dis
heartening blow. We submit that the resusci-
tatlon OF language like the following, penned by
Brownlow only six years ago, is most calamitous
at this time when all good men of his and Mr..
b. +. Buffers class are so diligently seeking to
atone for their errors;
Pace to face, knife to knife, steel to steel,
and pike to pike, we would meet you, and as
we would cause you to bleed at every pore, we
would make you regret in the bitter agonies OF
DEATH that you had eyer felt any concern for
the African race
Sir, if the fanatical, wicked and Internal
course pursued by you and your unprincipled
have said, and you or your children will live tc
see it. Pale-faced poverty and dismay are star
ing some OF your manufacturers and operatives
IN the face. We are sending our orders tc
England and France for goods, and driving your
aell-deserving freedom shriekers into the hold
ing of Union meetings and making these against
their wills curse all agita.ors Of the slavery ques
ton, and resolve that John Brown and his mur
E derous associates got only justice when hung a
Charlestown Carry on your war ifyou choose
death rather than life, and we will stain ever,
swamp in the South with yours and our owl
blood and with the vengeance of an infuriatec
toe we will be upon you in the North, at the
hour OF midnight, and as long as lucifer match
can be found we will burn up your substance.
Having thus, by the introduction of this
damnable evidence, prepared the victim for The
sacrifice, the editor of The journal proceeds tC
offer HIM up. He published, " says the Lou
Isvie editor, "the internal language that W.
, have cited when perhaps, no other man in al
, per with it to save his neck from the hangman
halter. He showed himself a walking volcano
, with snow upon his peak and all he'll in hi
! BOSOM -
The editor then proceeds, truly, to say, tina
, it is ''most extraordinary and disgraceful" tina
, the people of Tennessee, knowing this man a
they did, should have elected him Governor
! " axing warm with the sacrifice, taking mer
clless delight in the contortions OF the uniortu
nate VICTIM and becoming savage with th
smell of the writhing wretch's blood, The Jour
nal thus finishes the miserable man:
No other State was ever afflicted and dis
graced and cursed with such an unmitigated ant
, unmitigable, such an unredeemed and irredeem
,, able black guard as her Chief Magistrate. ii,
: is parody, a caricature, broad burlesque OF
> all possible governors. They say there is fir,
in him, but it is hell fire, every particle Of it.
: Though he is but single swine, there are a
many devils in him as there were in the whole
herd that ran violently down steep place int
knot of vipers, rattlesnakes, cobra and cotton
: mouths. He never argued question in his life
. approaching no subject but with fierce, bitter
, /, coarse, low and vulgar objurgatons. His tongue
should be bored through and through with hi
, own steel pen, heated red hot.
This man. as we have said, calls himself
= clergyman. He holds forth in pulpits FL
q preaches prays and exhorts, draws down hi
face, drops the corners of his mouth, and un
dertakes to look sanctimonius And yet h
j seems always trying in his pulpit discourses t
: see under how thin a disguise he can ventur
, to curse, and swear, and blaspheme. He can
offer up prayer in the house of God withou
telling the Lord what an Internal scoundrel
damned thief, or cursed vagabond, this, that O
the other neighbor is From his youth up t
h his old age he has had no personal controversies
, without attacking the wives, fathers, mothers
: grandfathers, grandmothers, brothers. sisters
children, uncies, aunts and nephews of his op
ponents.
For an outsider, as we confess ourself to be
to attempt to add to the rigor of the above
would be useless and futile This dissection
f by master hand, of Brownlow many infirmi
ties will stand Sphinx of literature, unparal
leled. The only doubt that will be left in tn
f mind Of the reader Of the foregoing extract
/ will be as to which of the two deserves tn
: palm for peculiar use of the English language
rusal Of Brownlow's rejoinder to what we hav
e given; but so far The Journal has doubled hin
f up and has left him up gasping lifeless and il
the pangs Of threatened dissolution Thrown
low should ever recover himself, however, W.
pity the editor of The journal