Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-03-05
Browulow in l84O.
From the Water Valley (Miss.) Eagle. 27th.l

From the Water Valley (MissJ Eagle. 27th.l
About the lst of August, ls40, VIM.
G. Brownlow, who was then Methodist
preacher "in good standing" but already
jauntily wearing the cloak of heaven to
serve the devil in, started on horseback
with a number of ''fast" young men from
Knoxville to go to the great mass con-
vention of the Wings at Nashville.
Those we're the days of Harrison and
Hard Cider "-of Tippecanoe and
Tyler, too" and the whole country was
ablaze with political excitement. Leav-
ing Knoxville about the time of the de-
parture of the regular tri-weekly mall
coach running to Nashville (which said
mail. coach was loaded down with bag
gage), and having after journeying few
miles got up "a full head of steam" by
means of free application of the COM
bustible fuel known as "old rye" Brown
low and his wild companions resolved
that they would keep up with the stage
coach all the way to Nashville, although
they would have to ride night and day to
do so.
That night, just before reaching the
town of Kingston, by the csrelessness of
q drunken driver, the coach was upset
and partially broken. While waiting at
Kingston for it's repair, Brownlow and
his crowd stopping too, q young me-
chanic who was going to be married the
next morning to o young lady whose
father kept the breakfast stand for stage
coach passengers, some twelve or fifteen
miles further on, hearing that "Parson
Brownlow" was along, resolved TO ask
him to perform the ceremony. Brown
low, of course, consented, and the young
man mounting his horse, started off with
the preacher and his gay party an hour
or two ahead of the coach. Previous to
that time the young man had borne an
excellent character for industry and So
briefly; but that ride of twelve or fifteen
miles before sunrise, with the reverend
devil and his companions, proved fatal
to bis hopes of happiness; for Brownlow
and company, before arriving at the
house of the brides father, made the
poor fellow besstly, uproariously drunk,
like themselves; and when they all got
there in that condition the old man not
only refused to allow the marriage to take
place, but drove his intended son-in-law
from his house with blows, and, getting
his gun, ordered the rest of his compan-
ions to march on, which they were con-
strained to do. When, some hour or two
later, the stsge-cosch with its fifteen
hungry passengers (of whom the writer
was one arrived at the breakfast stand
they found the landlord still in great
rage, the young bride that was-to-have-
been and her mother in tears, the whole
house in state of revolution, and, of
course, no breakfast to be had, without
waiting several hours, which the driver
refused to do. So, pocketing their now
ravenous sppetites, they were fsin to
mount the coach and push on to the din
ner stand some twenty-five or thirty miles
distant before they could hope to get any
thing to eat
Such is one of the characteristic early
"reminiscences Of 1.-THE abominable
Brownlow," Ex-Governor of Tennessee,
and present wearer-thanks to the new
Republican doctrine that Ignorant mi
norities shall rule"-of the Senatorial
toga first worn by Hugh L. White, Felix
Grundy and John Bell.