Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-10-01
HOW RROWNLOw CONTROLS THE
IrDICIARY.

| letter he addressed some time since Z
Nat. b. Owens, Esq, of JonesbOro. Tina
letter is as follows
| NASHVILLE, Dec. 25th, l866.-NAT. L
OWENS, ESQ: have your letter, and an
only well enough to write you brief not
in reply. 1t is not my purpose to bring Oh
the judicial elections. The amended con
stitution gives me a large discretion, and
intend to exercise it for the benefit of loya
men, by appointing loyal Judges.
If Judge Butler shall resign, | will ap
point his successor, | am not committed Il
any one, and will not be unconditionally
committed. | have been thinking about
you for the place, and unless some other
man is hereafter agreed upon, | think o.
| giving you the position. | will be certain
not to appoint any Rebel or any man who
advocates Rebels. | would write more al
length but am not able TO do so.
Very truly, etc,
w. G. BRowNLow.
Here the Governor of the State assumes
that only loyal men and he regards
and treats every man as disloyal who is
not Radical-have rights he is bound
torespect. lie whose oath requires him
to take care that the laws be faithfully
executed" and that implies impartially
executed, declares that he will exercise
an assumed prerogative for the benefit
OF loyal men Now the amended cons
stitution has neither enlarged nor res
stricted his power over the Judiciary. 1t
has not touched that question. He has
no authority from that instrument of the
the character he claims He has usurped
that, as he has usurped other powers he
has exercised, which no other Governor
of this State dared to exercise But he
has the judiciary of the State 80 com
pletely under his control that he can ex>
ercise these unwarranted powers with
impunity. He expOunds the law and
requires his Judges to register his edicts
as promptly and as faithfully as if he
were monarch. There seems to be little
doubt that when the question Of the con-
stitutionality Of the franchise law was
pending before the Supreme Court, an
opinion was prepared declaring the
law unconstitutional, yetitis fact thatan
opinion was promulgated asserting the
eon5titutionality of the laws, and this was
the unanimous opinion of the court How
this was brought about is of course left
to conjecture. But the power which Gov
Brownlow shows in his letter to Mr.
Owens he exercises over the judiciary
may furnish a solution The constitution
Of the State explicitly declares that the
Judges "shall be elected by the qualified
voters, yet there is but one Judge upon
the bench to-day who was elected by 'the
qualified voters What are we to expect
from a Judiciary who accept Office from
the Governor under an expressed or inn
piled pledge that they will exercise the
duties thereof ''for the benefit Of loyal
men," that is, Radicals? Hereis the testi-
mony of correspondent of the Cincin-
natl Commercial a Radical sheet, which
bears upon this point In letter from
Knoxville, dated September q, he says:
There are some counties in the State
where trial by jury is a perfect mockery.
The iury-box has been filled with partisans,
and the issues Joined in the court room are
=. l. l. ,,oTS4socl oa4oooIo,4r &c L.
parties. This is no Rebel lie, but serious
truth, which needs the earnest attention of
the lawmakers. The leagues are good
enough as organizations to carry on politi~
cal campaigns. They are dangerous to the
interests of the people, even when used for
such purposes, but when they are used to
dictate to jurors and Judges and lawyers,
what shall be their verdicts and their views
of the law, they become engines of despot-
ism, and cess pools of corruption. These |
things have occurred here in East Tennes-
see and are notorious They don't have
their origin in the fertile brains of the cor
Of the Rebel journals, or of |
those who are in sympathy with the
Rebels; nor are they the imagination of |
" mercenary Northern sneaks" They are |
facts too true, and too painfully apparent |
to honest men who dare speak and write i
the truth of every party and every person.
They are evils which threaten the very |
of our civil liberty, aud demand
the attention of every honest man.
In Cooke county the leagues sent word
10 one Clark, one of their number, that he
could not hire Rebels to do his work. and
hat they would not allow the enemies of
heir country TO be encouraged in that way.
1t seems Clark had leased a part of his
arm to some men who had been Rebels. |
This law was not only enforced as to Clark,
Dut a code of laws was announced by these
men which was to govern the relations of
apital and labor Others were notified |
hat they must discharge Rebels, and give
employment to Union men. When these
nen undertake to select jurors for their
onrts, and then dictate what their ver-
icts shall be, and when they assume to
ontrol the rights of citizens, they have
bout monopolized the duties of the legis-
ators.
We thus see that the courts in East
Tennessee, under the sanction or at least
'onnivance of the Governor of the State,
ave been prostituted to the most corrupt
purposes. That these tribunals through
nut the State, under the manipulation of
he Governor through the Loyal Leagues
nd other appliances, have become a
nockery Of what the constitution or
Iained, is too painfully evident in many
ases. 1t is not in East Tennessee alone
hat Rebels appeal to the courts in
ain; that they are treated by the app
Dointees of the Governor as though they
we're outlaws who had no rights which a
Judge should respect in the least In too
many instances our courts have become
. cruel mockery of justice; and a man
Who took part in or sympathized with the
cbellion, might as well appeal to a Ca
nanche for mercy as to some of Browns
ows judicial appointees for simple JUS
ice The Judge who knows men and
'arties, who plays the partisan upon the
'ench, is unfit to wear the judicial ermine
t is very clear that the Governor regards