Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-06-29
BRowNLOw'S HOSTILITY no THE

DIS hOstlilty 90 tne negro never ceased
until he found that the negroes vote
would be necessary 10 secure his re-elee-
ton, and to-day his partisans freely admit
that his success in the coming election is
entirely dependent upon the votes of the
negroes A correspondent of the Gin
cinnati Gazette, writing from Knoxville
on the 18th inst. says: aura
"The vote Of 1860 was 1883. II all
males Of proper age could vote, il would
be littleless than 10000. About $4,000
are disfranchised Rebels, leaving 10000
votes. OF these $4,000 will be cast by the
newly franchised citizens, and will be more
than three-fourths Of il cast for the Radi-
cal candidates OF the remaining $4,000,
Al, 600 votes will be cast for Etheridge-
the balance fer Brownlow. This gives
Radical majority Of $4,000. In all prob
ability it will be more-because the fore
going figures are probably an under esti-
mate Of the expected gote."
This estimate is drawn from Radical
sources, and is confession as to how
dependent Gov Brownlow is upon the
negroes for his reelection According to
this Radical showing, if the negro vote
shall be equally divided between Ether
idge and Brownlow, the former will be
elected Now, let us see what claim
Gov. Brownlow has upon the negroes,
that three-fourths of them should vote
for him After he came through the
lines in the spring Of 1862, he travelled
through the North on lecturing tour
which is said to have yielded him hand
some income. In his book he gives the
speech he made at Cincinnati, on the 4th
of April, 1862, which he says twas sub
stantially what he said at all other
points" In that speech he said
and now let me call your attention to
the subject OF slavery, the great topic of
| the day. ] have no sentiments at the
South that / do not hold here. | have no
sentiments here that ! do not entertain
| when l am in Tennessee. j should despise
myself and merit your scorn and contempt
if held one set Of opinions at the North
and another set at the South. | have for
years been publishing my sentiments upon
the slavery question, land / have only to
say tonight that / have undergone no
change. If ! had been
authorized some two or three years ago, TO
select about two or three hundred of your
most abominable anti-slavery agitators in
the North, ard an equal number ef our
| God-forsaken and most hell-deserving dis
unionists at the South, and had marched
them to the District of Columbia, hanged
them on a common gallows, dug for them
a common grave, and embalmed their bo-
dies with jimsoa.ueed and dog -fennel, there
would have been none Of this trouble, nor
should have been here tonight Let the
Federal government now guarantee to all
loyal men in seeded States the right and
title to all their property, including ne
groes, and protect them in the enjoyment
Of the same; but let the title held by Re
bells seeking to destroy the government be
annihilated, both as to negroes and all
other property. And 1 trust in God that
it will be DONE and that such confscated
property will 60 to make up the losses of
loyal men,"
Here we find him appealing to the govs
eminent to guarantee to loyal men" in
the seeded States theirtitle to their slaves,
and suggesting that those belonging to
"Rebels" be confscated, but not freed
they must be sold ito make up the losses
of loyal men This was the kind of
speeches he made all over the North ac-
cording to his own testimony Nowhere
did he advocate the freeing of the negroes,
not even those belonging to Rebels on
the contrary, he insisted that they be
kept in bondage
In the Knoxville Whig of May %, 1864,
Gov Brownlow said Of the negro
"We have never differed with the South
upon the abstract question of slavery, and
do not now differ, and We are free to say
that the condition of the slaves, when lib
Grated, if left in the South, will be worse
than il has been during their servitlde, and
we are for emancipating every negro in the
South, notwithstanding all this. For
taking this ground we have two controlling
reasons: first, il will be the seyerest pun
ishment of the Southern Rebels that can
be inflicted and next, it will be the very
means Of extinguishing the negro race, as
the removal and civilization of the Indian
tribes have tended TO extinguish them"
Two years had rolled away from the
time Gov Brownlow had made his
speeches in the North, demanding that
the title TO their slaves be guaranteed by
the government to the loyal mel" of the
South, and President Lincoln had issued
his emancipation proclamation. 1t was
then evident that slavery would be de-
stroyed by 'the friction OF war, and
how did Gov. Brownlow meet this con-
tingency2 BY declaring, as we have
shown in the extract from his paper Of
May %, 1864, that be had never differed
with the South upon the abstract ques-
ton of slavery, and did not then differ
Bat he favored emancipation simply be-
cause it would punish the white people
of the South, and be "the very means Of
extinguishing the negro race. SO strong
was his antipathy for the negro that he
favored that measure which be felt
sure would result in extinguishing the
entire race. This was no hasty express
sion of bis views There is evidence that
it was his deliberate sentiment He was
in Chattanooga on the llth Of July 1864,
and on that day addressed a letter to the
editor of the Chattanooga Gasefte, in
which he said
'Tbe proper spirit prevails in upper
East Tennessee smong the people, and
they will not be carried astray by few
Copperhead leaders, who are still troubled
about the niger. Our people have suf-
fefed enough on account Of the Niger,
and they will, when opportunity offers, rid
themselves OF the evil. The people az
length realize that the niger il the rebel
lion. and the rebellion is the niger, and
to get rid Of the one, they must wipe out
the other"
Here he advocates measure which ne
hoped would result in eKtinguishing the
negro race, and few weeks later favored