Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-08-08

POLITICS IN EAST TENNESSEE.
Correspondence Of the Union and Ameriean.1
EAST TESSEssEE August 4, 1866.-Th
announcement that " the entire range o
TennesseeOfice-holders is being overhauled
preparatory te pretty thorough change" i
truly refreshing news from the federal city
May we not hope to seethe fulfllment Of tn,
/ promise?
Surely when our State Executive is ar
rayed in panoplied hostility to that policy
which the National Executive deems essen.
tial to the restoration of the country, union
and prosperity when the former is
using his patronage (which under his usur.
pations is neither small nor insignificant
to cripple the efforts of the President, and
to array the people of his Own State against
him-surely it is the policy and duty of the
President to see that those who hold office
in thestate, by his appointment, are not con-
federate with his political and personal enc
mics, to defeat his administration.
In East Tennessee there is peculiarreasons
why he should bestow such Offices as are at
his disposal upon none but firm and ayowed
friends. Here is the strong hold of radical
ism in the State. Here, such is the influence
of BRowNLow, and certain quondam Wing
leaders-who are to-day arraying themselves
against the administration, purely upon old
party grounds, that unless he stands by his
friends here, there are very many weak
llneed adherents who will fall in with the
opposition, simply upon the ground that
they are in the majority, and control all
State Offices, and the President permits them
to share the federal Offices, because he is
afraid to offend the dominant party. This
they regard as an acknowledgement Of his
weakness. 1t secures no strength from the
opposition. Even if it did, it is better to
hold on to one old friend than to buy two
new ones.
l rejoice to know that in many localities
it viii be impossible to re-establish old
party divisions. In Knox county for in
stance, some Of the most able and distinguish
ed leaders of the old Wing party are now
Mr.. JoHNsoN's most Jealous supporters.
They have risen superior to partisan in
fuences, as Mr.. JoHNsoNhas, and seek only
the interests of their country.
There is, however, evidently an organized
effort being made to array the old Wing
party-that gallant old party, which ven
Grated as a political foster mother-against
Nj. JOHNSON, upon the basis of the old
party prejudice, and at the same time to
ALLEVIATE from him his old political allies,
under the false cry that he is proving recre-
ant to the Union cause
know many men who are, professedly
the friends Of Mr. JOHNsoN's reconstruction
policy, who endorse his several vetoes, yet
if there be an election, in which a Wing
and Democrat are opposing candidates-the
former a Radical, the latter a Conservative
hesitate not to vote for their old party
man. utterly ignoring the present moment
GUS issues, and suffering old party preju-
dices to control them.
In such mere partizans no confidence can
be placed They have felt Mr. JoHNsoN's
power in former days-they have witnessed
his uninterrupted progress up the steep Of
political preferment, until he has reached
the very summit-they have been profoundly
,,,so,,oJ I'LL , -, c H., e. 700 Oh,
ing political sagacity-they are conscious
of the deep hold he has upon the confidence
and attachment of the Iaboriug masses of the
American people, and withal, they entertain
as underlined apprehension of what the
French call the destiny" of the man. All
these act as so many attracting influences,
drawing them to his support. As counter
or repellent influences, we may enumerate,
their ancient and deep-rooted hatred of
democracy, the present ascendency of
tie Radicals, and the probability of their
power to sustain themselves, and control the
offices of the country.
With them, as Col WHITTHoRNE used to
say, it is more a question of "riales than
principle" Demonstrate to them the GER
.ainty of JoHNsoN's triumph in the conflict |
he is now waging with the disorganizers in
Congress, and in every district of East Ten
nessee the triumph of his friends is at once
assured.
Then, as the first step in this proposition,
let Mr.. J. make his power felt in the re-
noval from office of all such as are hostile
% his administration, and all whose posi-
ion is at all doubtful. NEDETTE.