Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1866-1869, 1867-11-06
FROM the Warrington i {
GIOrlous Tenuesgee.

of tbe American Congress the members of foreign
legations the Judges of the Supreme Court OF me
United States the illustrious Lincoln and ms fuii
Cabinet, the officers Of our victorious army ana
navy, and brilliant concourse OF Inteectual men
and women, he INDUCED in memorable haTrangue
Two ideas hoated dimly through his misty memory
and vainly struggled to shape his terrible incoher
encies These were his intentions-to take the oath
of Vice President Of the United States as an hon
est man, and not as traitor, with guilty mental
reservations; and his determination to establish a
nurelv arepublican government in Tennessee
If was Tennessee, @glorious" Tennessee, "beauti-
full TENNESSEE that wss to be reconstructed-a
model for other nations and States. England
might think she had respectable institutions, AND
France newly-cleaned and freshly-Tarnished POI
litical edifce; but said our merry Andrew, with
twinklng eyes and burdened tongue, "when
have finished the work in Tennessee you viii for
the first time behold realization of perfect human
happiness, under a perfect human constitution ana
laws" This remarkable scene came back to us IN
reading heated editorial in the National I'IteLll-
gescer Of Saturday. against the present government
of Tennessee It appears that occasional" IN
recent letter. held up the successful reorganization
of Tennessee as an example worthy Of imitation by
the Union men of the unreconstructed States, and
so caused the anger of the L1teLlige7cer. We copy
one paragraph as a specimen:
wOccasional," the editor and proprietor Of two
Radical destructive papers, Secretary of the Senate
and the most vicious Violent and virulent partisan
in the country, announces in effect that the wretch
cd condition of Tennessee is to be that of all the
States of the South The point need not be ex-
banded to intelligent, honorable and honest men
of even the Republican party, to denote the utter
misery Of great peoples people that Occasion
az frequently refers to as having been seduced de-
uded forced by the acts of political leaders into
rebellion. If, indeed, they were innocent parties
to rebellion, asserted by him one day only to be
contradicted, it is true, on the next by the other
fohr hiatt bara o1oIu rrbn
should suffer the penalties of fire and sword rspine,
unbrided license, and death, yet, upon the former
idea, why should the condition of Tennessee be
forced upon themP
It is hardly doubted that among other accom-
plishments of the Executive is that of suggesting
editorials to the Mteigencer. II is not bad habit
and we do not propose to complain Of it. but to
cept the present example of as fair keynote of
the ruling condition of the Presidential mind
That Tennessee should be source Of solicitude to
Andrew johnson is natural enough, and that he
should be little out Of temper because his son-n
law has been supplanted by Governor Brownlow
in the Senate of the United States is equally natu
raj; but that he should instruct the H1teLgenceT to
hold up Tennessee as an example to be avoided is,
we humbly suggest, grave blunder. If Andrew
johnson had been true to himself, if he had not
been misled by the dazzling idea Of securing the
Presidency for four years from the 4th of March,
1867, by combining the traitors Of the South and
the Copperheads of the North into one party to
the EXCLUSION and practical disfranchisement Of
the men who broke down the rebellion, he might
point to Tennessee as she now stands as the off
spring Of his own patriotism and the vindication
OF his own theories. Tennessee is at once the hap
piest Illustration of the justice Of Andrew John
sons doctrines before he concluded to betray his
country, and the proof of the deep damnstion of
that betrayal. There is not a merit or virtue in
the present organization of Tennessee which he
did not recommend, and there ia not a single out
cry against it at the present which is not the echo
OF the SANDERS of his enemies when in 1864 he first
declared in favor of the plan of reconstruction so
resolutely followed since by the people notwith-
standing his base deSertion Of it. Occasional" is
denounced for recommending to the people of the
South the example of Tennessee.
Now, let us see wherein Tennessee under Brown
low differs from what Tennessee would have been
under johnson, had johnson been, like Brownlow
honest firm and true. On thei 9th of June, 1864
Andrew johnson accepted the Republican nomi-
nation for Vice President in formal and careful
ly-prepared speech at Nashville, in which his main
object was the restoration of peace to Tennessee
under his own plan Of reconstruction. This object
was steadily and sedulously cherished. He never
lost sight of it and never forgot it. even when over
come on the 4th of March, 1865; and on the sad
dsys directly succeeding the assassination of Abra-
ham Lincoln it was the punishment Of traitors as
he found them in Tennessee and the reconstruction
Of Tennessee as a model for other States that pos
sessed and mastered his minds actions. The follow
Of June, 1864, after accepting the Republican NOM
ination for Vice President:
o. The question is whether man is capable of self
government. 1 hold with Jefferson that govern
ment was made for the convenience of man, and
not man for government The laws and constitu-
tons were designed as instruments to promote his
sE eRegGS f this 6as FPG fg g e ssbpSsS
and amended to conform to the wants, to the re-
qulrements and progress of the people and the
enlightened spirit of the age. Loud applause r
Now, any of your secessonists have lost faith in
mans capacity for selfgovernment, and feel unfit
for the exercise Of this great right 90 straight to
rebeldom, take JEFF. Davis, Beauregard and Bragg
for your masters, and put their collars on your
necks.p
"And let me say that now is the time to secure
these fundamental principles while the land is rent
with anarchy and upheaves with the throes of
mighty revolution. While society is III this disor-
dered state and we are seeking security let us fix
the foundations of the Government on principles
of eternal justice which shall endure for all time
"But ID calling convention to restore the State |
who shall restore and re-establish it Shall the
man who gave his influence and his means to de- |
stroy the Government? Shall he who brought |
this misery upon the State be permitted to control
its destinies? If this be so then all this precious
blood Of our brave soldiers and officers SO freely
poured out will have been wantonly spilled. All |
the victories won by our noble armies will go for
naught, and all the battle-felds which have been |
have been made memorable in vain"
why all this carnage and devastation? It was /
that treason might be put down ard traitors pun
ished. Therefore say that traitors should take |
back seat in the work Of restoration. If there 90
but five thousand men in Tennessee loyal TO the /
Constitution loyal to freedom loyal to justice, these
true and faithful men should control the work Of |
and reformation absolutely loud /
and prolonged applause.] l say that the traitor /
has ceased to be citizen and in joining the rebel
hon has become public enemy. He forfeited his /
right to vote with loyal men he renowned his cti-
zenship and sought to destroy our Government"
"Treason must be made odious and traitors must
be punished and impoverished. Their great plan
ations must be seized and divided into small farms
and sold to honest, industrious men. The day for
the lands and negroes of these authors
Of rebellion is past II is high time it Was I have
been most deeply panied at some things which have
come under my observation. We get men in COM
nand who, under influence of fattery fawning and
2aressing grant protection to the rich traitor while
he poor Union man stands out in the cold, often
Unable to get receipt or voucher for his losses.
Cries Of "Thats SOFT
This was Andrew Johnsons way Of reeonstruc-
ing Tennessee. What is the present condition Of
The LnteLLigeneer, in the article from
which we quote charges that the Radicals are con-
family menacing the whites with "confscation,
md consequent penury and restitution, want ban
shment from hearth and lands and homes, and the
spots where, shall we not say fortunate
y, sleep their last aleep the loved ones Of other
md brighter days" Now this is not only true Of
he Radicals, but it would have been true Of Ten
lessee if the remedy suggested by Andrew John I
on in the last paragraph above quoted had been I
applied. His medicine persistently presented up 10 !
he very moment when undoubtedly falling under
he very fatterers TO which he alludes he suddenly
hanged front and began his career Of treachery
y putting the knife to every man that would not
enounce his own plan Of reconstruction as utterly
Infamous and abborrent. We proudly present the
Example Of Tennessee to the other Southern States
because it possesses none Of the despotc and savage
eatures of Andrew Johnsons own scheme. All I
hat Is ,onl In his s11o.oaslnns has hoan carnlnIlu