Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1866-1869, 1867-07-17
THE KNOXVILLE WHIG
Knoxville, Tenn, July ", 1867.
RrOKnIoK and EtherIdge.
By BRowNLow & HAws

The following article from the Cincinnati
Gazette viii give the Tennessee public a
correct idea Of the light in which our can
vass is viewed from Northern point of
observation;
No American can be indifferentto the issue
Of the contest in Tennessee. The election
there takes place upon the first Thursday
In August The nominations for State Of
fcers were made some time ago. Those for
Congress are completed, as are nearly all
the nominations upon both sides for seats in
the Legislature. Every element Of loyalty
in the State, every element Of progress,
national unity and Republicanism has been
rallied to the support of Gov Brownlow,
while every element Of reaction, malignancy
and secession Democracy has gathered
about the standard of Etheridge Than
these, the records Of no two men in the
country are more dissimilar. From the
very commencement Of the rebellion Brown
low raised his voice in denunciation Of it.
and gave his whole soul to the Union cause
And from that hour to this he has not on
sustained every measure the government
deemed necessary to crush the enemies Of
the land, but every one which, since the
war closed, it has in its wisdom considered
necessary to secure the stability Of the Re
public, and the fruits Of the great victory it
had achieved. On the other hand Mr..
Etheridge has, from the first moment in
which il became evident that the salvation
Of the Union involved the crippling or
overthrow Of the institution of slavery,
been as bitter and relentless an enemy as
the nation had at any point South of the
Ohio river; and every measure of national
defense during the war, as well as every
measure of reconstruction since, has en-
COuntered his uniform and persistent hos
tlity. His name will go down to history as
the chief instrument in that infamous plot,
by which, at the most critical period of our
great struggle, it was attempted to deprive
five States of their representation in Con-
gross, and thus secure the election Of Sam
Cox TO the Speakership, and the triumph OF
Disunion Democracy in the very citadel OF
the nation power. This attempted treach
cry unveiled his character, aud since then
hls nosJlnty % the government has been
most open, bitter and defiant
Bafled and disgraced in the Congress Of
the United States, he transferred the sphere
of his operations to Tennessee, and finding
loyalty triumphant there, no set himself to
overthrow it, commencing in 1865 a series
Of reasonable and seditious movements,
harranguing the people in opposition to the
loyal State Government, declaring it was
but the usurping offspring of the govern
ment at Washington which was itself a us
urpation asserting that slavery had never
been legally abolished in Tennessee; advis-
ing rebel citizens not TO respect the rights
of colored men, but to shoot down at once
any one who went about the country telling
them they were free; and at last growing so
outrageous in his utteranees and threats,
that Gen Thomas, always patient, moder-
ate and Just, was compelled to arrest him,
and order his trial by court martial This
wise and prudent step, perhaps, alone pre-
vented rebel outbreak in West Tennessee,
and a bloody effort to overthrow the gov
crnment of the State.
Since then he has nursed his venom in
silence, but it has been all the time accum-
ulating; and in the rebel State Convention
which met at Nashville this spring, one Of
his followers represented him as painting
with desire to be placed in some position
that would enable him once moro to unloose
his tongue, and wage war upon the loyal
men Of Tennessee. His nomination by that
convention, with all his accumulated sins o.
scdition aud treason upon his head, was Q
defiance to the Government of the United
States no less direct than that Of the rebels
Of South Carolina, when, in 1861, they
opened their batteries upon the flag waving
over Fort Sumter. May the retribution
which overlook the perpetrators of that
great crime be ominous of the political fate
Of Etheridge and his followers in the cleo
tons Of Tennessee.