The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1867-07-18
What the President Says About
Tennessee Affairs,


"Mack," the correspondent Of the
Cincinnati Commercial, recently had a
conversation with President Johnson,
and from his published account of what
passed between them we take the fol-
lowing extract:
In reply to a question, I told the
President that | had seen very few men
in the South who were in any true sense
Of the word rebels, and that these few
were men who had not been in the rebel
army; that l thought most of what was
called "~disl0yalty' was the effect ofthe
unjust and ungenerous treatment ofthc
South by Congressional legislation
since the close Of the a He replied
that he did not believe that there were
many. rebels in the South, and that
especially the men who had fought
against the Union were not rebels now;
and had no desire or intention to rebel
again.
lie seemed to be very deeply inter
ested in the affairs of Tennessee, and
listened attentively to what | told him
of my travels throughout that State
l was surprised to find him so well
posted even as to the names OF the
men who are candidates for office there.
l was describing to him the style Of
man who is running on the confiscation
platform at Nashville, told him he was
q worthless scrub, who was accused of
stealing everything he could lay his
hands on, and didn't deny it, and who
as l learned at Rome, Georgia, while
there was an original and foul-mouthed
secessionist.
ooh, yes" said he, "you mean Ma
SON."
In regard to the Brownlow militia,
he said he had received q hundred
petitions from the best people Of Ten
nessee, asking him to send United
States troops there to protect them
against the outrages now being COM
mitted by this Estate guard" asked
him if he could, under the constitution,
send troops into Tennessee without
the request Of the Governor or LegIs-
lature lie replied that it was a dilIicait
question which he had not yet deter
mined, lie certainly could send troops
there on recruiting service, and station
them at Knoxville, Nashville, Chat
tanooga, and such points, and if any
disturbance occurred while these troops
were there it would be the duty Of the
commanding officer to use them III
suppressing it, lie feared very much
that Brownlow's militia would provoke
riot and bloodshed, told him that
was what they were organized for, and
the only question was, whether, when
they got ready for fight, they should
have armed soldiers or marmed citi-
zcns to shoot at. | thought the best
way would be to regard the militia as
an Instruction and send soldiers to
suppress it, and clean it out. He didn't
know, he said, what was best to be
done; he wanted to see the peace OF
the States preserved, but didn't know
exactly how best to preserve it. He
regarded the State government Of Ten
nessee as the worst despotism he had
heard OLA military despotism in it,
worst form-and about the mcanesI
despot he ever heard Of at the head o
it. Some men make even despotism
respectable sort of n government, saio
he, but Brownlow can't get up Il decent
d~espotism. He believed the people OF
Tennessee would live quietly and obey
the laws and Constitution, if let alone,
and that they did not need any militia
there at all, and that half the trouble
in that State was brought about by
Northern men going down there to stir
up strife and make capital out Of it.