Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1866-1869, 1866-03-07
Mr.. MAYNARD REPLY.
WASHINGTON. d. D., Feb. 10.


| Committee on Irritation.
Mr.. MAYNARD REPLY.
| WASHINGTON, d. D., Feb. 10.
| GENTLEMEN: am to-day honored by your invi-
tation, nay, emphatic command, to be present at a
mass Convention, in Nashville on the 22d instr and
to address the thousands expected to assemble. 1t
pains me that other arrangements compel me to de-
| cline. The birthday of Washington has become a
holiday in the national calendar and is peculiarly
fitting time for the expression of patriotic sent
ments. To US of Tennessee, especially, it is day
of happy memory II is the first anniversary of our
great deverance. The 22d OF February, 1865, will
ever be memorable the day when, ourselves dis
enthrslled from the shackles Of treason We in the
very act of own emancipation, struck the letters
from our bondmen, and declared them irrevocably
free 1t was great work, and will rebound more
and more to our honor IN all coming time. The day
is most appropriate for popular tribute to our hon
ored President, Andrew johnson. He is the great
emancipStor of Tennessee. More than any other
man. and with grester effect he labored for the over
throw of slavery and the hated "arstocracy based
on slave labor" His sympathies were with the
working men, the sons of toll. Two great and
kindred ideas possessed him and Inspired his action
the freedom of the slave and the emancipation Of
the poor white man from the slave aristocracy.-
Hence his repeated exultation the thousands
of whites well as blacks emancpated by the
war Unspeakably gratifying to him it must be,
that some of his bitterest opposers his most persist
uailgnerS, VINO missed no opportunity, willie ne
was in the contest to stigmatize him, now lack
words of adulation to express their approval of his
course; and by necessary implication, contrition for
their Thus is wisdom justified of her children.
We who stood by him and gave him our support,
and who according to the measure of our ability,
assisted in his Advancement and shared, in cOnse-
querce, something of his reprOach, naturally par
take with him of this qualification.
1t is timely also, to express our approval Of what
you correctly say is now universally known the
,1al,-
misunderstood, at least strangely misrepresented.-
We in Tennessee friends and foes, hardly fail
to comprehend it As the Military Governor of our
State, he adopted it with admitted success. All re-
member his scheme for the county elections in
March, 1864 the Presidential election in November
and the Constitutional election in February follow
ing. They were all held upon the simple principle
that the political power of the State and the control
Of the Government belong rightfully to the loyal
people and to them alone. A reperusal OF his sew
eral procamations would be instructive. From his
repeated utterances of this seminal principal of pO
| litcal growth, we may select almost at random
In calling Convention to restore the State, who
shall restore and establish it Shall the who
gave his means and influence TO destroy the Govern
ment? Is he to participate in the great work OF re-
organization? Shall he who brought this misery
upon the State be permitted 20 control its destnes?
Again, he asks, Why all this blood and carnage
1t was that treason might be put down and traitors
punished; therefore say that traitors should take
a back seat in the work of restoration. If there
should be but five thousand men loyal to the Con-
stution, loyal to freedom loyal to justice these true
and faithful shall control the work of reorgani
cation and reformation absolutely" Still more en-
phatic if possible, his declarations made this
very day to Committee from the Legislature of
Virginia. The Representatives of the States and
of the people should have the qualifications pre-
scribed by the Constitution of the United States and
those qualifications most unquestiOnably imply 10y
atty. He who comes a representative, having the
qualifications prescribed by the Constitution to fit
them to take q seat in either of the delberative
bodies which constitute the National Legislature
must necessarily, according to the intendiment Of
the Constitution, be loyal man; willing to abide
and be devoted to the Union and the Constitution of
the States" 81
In going into the recent rebellion or instruction
against the Government of the States, we erred
and IN returning and resuming our relations with
the Federal Government am free TO say that all
the responsible positions and places ought be con-
tded distinctly and clearly to who are loyal.
If there were only five thousand loyal men in a
State, less number but sufficient to take charge
of the political machinery of a State, those FIVE
thousand men, or less number, entitled to it,
If all the rest should be otherwise inclined. look
upon it as being fundamental, that the exercise Of
political polcer should be confined to loyal nler.-
After this there can be no dispute as to what the
Presidents policy really is.
His language is neither ambiguous obscure
1t is in fact the same policy adopted by the North
Carolina fathers at the close of the revolutionary
war. While they were enacting "that all manner
of treason misprison of treason, felony inside
meanor committed or done since the fourth day of
July, in the yesr of our Lord, seventeen hundred
and seventy-six, by any person or persons whatso-
ever be pardoned, released and put in total obliV
ioni' they at the same time provided, also, that
nothing herein contained shall entte any person by
this law to be received TO elect be elected TO any
office or trust in the State TO hold any office, civil
or military" Maryland and perhaps some others
of the old thirteen, dealt out similar restricted gen.
erosity to their tories.
The policy has been fairly tested in Maryland,
Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee,
Missouri and Arksnsas-it has worked well. Where
it has been abandoned or even relaxed and traitors
re-enfranchised as in Virginia, Kentucky and Lou
isiana, there trouble and disorder prevail
The condition Of the loyal Union people is little
better than under the despotism Of the Southern
Confederacy. What that was 20 ask our friends in
East Tennessee-East Tennessee ilustrious IN her
sorrow and the blood of her martyrs. Go to the
prison cells where hundreds pinei in wretchedness
rather than poute their souls by swearing alegi-
ance to power they condemned Go to the gbbets
where the patriots Haun and Harmon, the father
and the son, and Hensie and Fry, passed upward
along the shining pathway to glory. There see
what treason did in the plentude of Its power and
what it wants but the opportunity to do again. Yes,
by all means let heartily, ana without question,
indUrse the Presidents policy, and rep AT ms iunda-
mental axiom that the exercise of political power
should be confined 10 loyal men until the sounding
words shall be echoed from every Union man
hearth stone and roof tree in the land. Let the
preservers Of the nation be its rulers.
You request me ate put the seal of condemnation
broad and indehbe upon the belers of the integrity
End loyalty of our people" Yea, verify at more
than one locality in State has sprung into life
virulent press organ and mouth-pece of treason,
that AT the approach of the flag either fed or re-
strained its uItersnees within the limits of military
law.