Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1866-05-31
The Terrible s'SuHerings"
of the LOYAL.

has been greatly abused, and It's
hostility to the South much in
tensi6ed, by the gross falsehoods
that have been circulated by that
class of individuals in our midst,
who, to advance their unworthy
private ends, have paraded them
selves as the victims of unparal-
leled prosecutions at the hands OF
'srebel" citizens and officials during
the war. Among the foremost Of
those who have thus stopped to
procure advancement or to turn a
penny is the present Governor of
Tennessee. He has permitted no
one to remain ignorant of his ''suf-
ferings." He has blasphemed up
on it, preached upon it, lectured
upon it and written upon it. One
of the chief counts in his indict-
ment against the people OF the
South is his Imprisonment at
Knoxville by the Confederate au-
thorities in the early part of the
war. Upon this subject Mr.. F. S.
Heiskell, of Knoxville, consist
ent Union man throughout the
war, makes the following expose
in a recent publication, which we
copy for the benefit Of Northern
readers who may have been hon.
estly misled:
Many persons of the North have
been impressed with the idea that
Brownlow suffered most terribly, in
the Knoxville Jail, by the hands
of the rebels, for his adhesion to
the Union. This notion was as
siduously incalculated by him, in
the catch-penny lectures with
which he RECALLED the ears of the
people of the North during his So
journ among them. They paid
him price for which he could
cheerfully undergo all those terri
BILE sufferings again, annually, du-
ring the period of his natural life.
The fact is, that there were few
men in this part of the country at
that time, and far better Union
men than Brownlow was ever sus.
ceptible of being made, who did
not suffer more out of Jail than he
did in. His bed and bedding were
all that was necessary for perfect
comfort-his meals were furnished
him by his family and friends in
the city, and, in this respect he
Jared as well as anybody in East
Tennessee. He was not in irons,
he was not "caged," he was not
confined in any particular room.
When he complained Of being sick,
he was allowed to return to his
own residence under guard, and
was soon escorted safely into the
Federal lines. These are facts.
known to all his fellow prisoners,
and by all the community.
He has scarcely, on solitary
occasion, told the truth, when
speaking of his treatment by the
rebel authorities. He was worth
nothing, comparatively, before the
war, and he made his first arrest
by the rebels the occasion of an
unmanly and beggarly appeal to
the sympathies of the Northern
people whom he had previously
blackguarded and abused, and this
he did up to the hour of his leav-I
ing Tennessee, and like a poltroon,
accepted their gratuities as long as
they would give. He played the
mendicant, clutched his charities,
and-got rich. Since his return
to Knoxville, like all low-fung
men, who, without personal merit,
have suddenly been elevated in
fortune, he faunts it in the face
of the community that he is
worth thirty thousand dollars, and
that, through the columns of his
venal sheet. His salts for DANA
ges, every decent man, in every
decent community, will regard on
ly as a knavish attempt at further
personal emolun-en by facile but
disrespectable, dishonorable and
knavish means.
We heard one of the Radical
leaders say that if the President
won't ~, fbo pavf rahallson xuon16