Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-01-13
GOV. BR0wNLOW AND TIE PEOPLE
OF TIE SOUTH.

anloAiS tiic pcOpic VI VIC Douth EsfiOf W hiic
Inauguration Of the recent revolution, Al to i
the mode and manner of resisting the un-
Just aggressions which the fanaticism of the
North had for years been imposing upon
them. There was a point, however, al which
these differences ceased to exist. That point
was reached in the very beginning of the
unhappy struggle, when the President isssled
his fsmous proclamation Of coercion, re-
quiring US to Undue our hands in the blood
Of our own kith and kin. From that time
forward the struggle Was conducted with a
unanimity of sentiment and purpose which
has seldom characterized the history of any
other people under similar circumstances.
They met the rugged Issue understandingly
Many Of the privates in the ranks were the
equals, and some the superiors, Of the Off
GERS who commanded them in battle. They
fought as long as there was a ray Of hope.
When they yielded to the force of numbers
they did it with composure and dignity, and,
like brave and true men, determined 50 to
deport themselves as TO repair as far as pos
sible the great evils which the events of the
war had entailed upon the country, and to
nlake the best Of a government under which
the force Of arms had determined they must
live. Nothing during the struggle was more
creditable to them than the readiness and
good faith with which they have since ac-
qniesed in its results. and the patience with
which they have borne the vulgar taunts
and expressions of the more unserupulous
and reckless faction of the dominant power.
We find many Of our friends dependant.
The jacObinical sway which controls CON-
gress, and the persistent meanness and folly
which characterizes every movement Of
those who hold the reins of power in Ten
nessee, argues TO them future worse than
the despotism Of q respectable and stable
empire, with an intelligent emperor at its
head. Our province is to dispell, if possible,
such gloomy forebodings. To awaken hope
and stimulate to manly, patriotic action.
We have 80 labored in the passive shall
continue so to do in the future But, no
where else IN the South do our unfortunate
fellow-countrymeD bear up 1nder disad-
yahtages equal to those we have to encounter
in Tennessee. In no other State has man
been found to fill the Executive chair so
bankrupt in all the nobler sentiments of our
common nature, or so insensible to shame,
as in Tennessee. Never in the history of
American politics has any body of people
had such remarkable specimen of humanity
foisted upon them as a ruler, as the anomal.
Gus character who now fills our chair Of
State Much as we knew Of him for years
past-little as we could expect of such a
man--we did hope that the gravity of the
position which he now holds, and the in.
fuences which il would bring around him,
the gradual increase of years and a nearer
approach 70 the grave, would have some
what softened his department and brought il
more in harmony with decent respect Tor
the opinions Of mankind. But even in this
moderate expectation we have been disap-
pointed, and the people of Tennessea, with
all their earnest desires to heal the wounds
and repair, in some measure, the many evils
of the past, must struggle on with all the
obstacles which such a one, using the in
luence of executive station, can throw in
their way. So far as he is concerned, he is
determined they shall not be reconciled TO
the government nor the government to
them.
The President, with an energy and a
forecast that challenges the admiration Of
the world, is laboring for the restoration of
peace and the reestablishment Of republican
institutions. The great chieftan of the Fed
eral forces in the recent unhappy war, has
come manfully to his assistance. Both have
undertaken to advise Congress, from their
superior advantage, of the perfect and man
ly acquiescence of the people of the South in
the results of the war and of the reliance that
may be placed in the pledges they have
made. Bot this is not acceptable to the
present Governor of Tennessee. Hewiil not
even consent to a silent aequieseence in the
results of their action, but takes advantage
of the most trivial opportunity 10 attack, in
his usual unseemly way, both their opinion
and their policy. He regarded it fit occa-
sion ON the recent opening of q eolored
school in this city, to declare, that, but for
the presence of crowd of soldiers in our
midst, the managers Of such school, the
Legislature and himself would all be mobed
in forty-eight honrs; and that the informa-
ton given at Washington by high civil and
military flnctionaries to the effect that all is
well and reconstructed in the South, is not
TO be believed; that as for himself he intends
to continue fighting the "rebels" of Tenn
essee TO the bitter end.
Such is the position, and such the declared
purposes, of our Governor. -
Little as such expressions may weigh here
where he is SO well known, they win not be
without their influence in distant localities of
the North, whore extremists, in harmony
with his own violence, seize every peryere
sion Of the truth TO fan the fame ofsectional
hate, and perpetuate the discord which now
distracts the country, and which seeks the
utter Obstruction of the Southern people.
Let IL be known, therefore, by way of es-
timating abroad the weight that should be
given 30 testimony from such a source, that
this Is the same man who, but q few years
since, harrangueda crowd, for hours, upon
the Public Square Of this city, seeking to
blachen the reputation Of ANDREW JOHNSON
with charges affecting alike his private and
public reputation, and which, if true,
would have rendered him a Ct associate for
peni,entiary convicts, rather than the hon.
he now holds at the head of the American
people. These chsrges, too, were made, not
in the heat of party canvas upon sudden |
provocation, hui were the matured labor Of |
years, and were subsequently reiterated
through his journal in the most insulting
and disgusting form; and were based upon
a pretended knowledge Of facts, and Of his
avowed ability to establish them, beyond
controversy. go ,.d rz aif lssr
This is the same man, also, who, not sat. |
isiied with having maiigned the private and |
.. b.