The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1869-02-05
AFFAIRS In TENNESSEE.
A Stirring Timc Ahend.
From the Nashville correspondence Of th
Louisville Courier-Journal..

%. = I7-lT77l . 1I7'Tll Il.
From the Nashville correspondence Of the |
Louisville Courier-Journal.
/ will give you briefly, but accurately,
q pen-picture of the situation In Ten
nessee at the present moment.
Andrew johnson is expected to ar
rive here by the Middle of March. He
has written his friends to say that he
will be candidate for Governor. No
one will oppose dissemination. twill
be made spontaneously by the Conserv-
atives; and his platform will consist of
universal amnesty and impartial suf-
frage," on which the people Of Tennes-
see have risked their claims from the
first.
He is expected to do two things:
1st. He will talk TO the negroes as no
one else has ever talked to them.
I'd. SSe will waken the Fast Tennessee
"loyalists to sense of the perils of
the present State government as no one
else can wake them.
johnson is not wit like Etheridge.
Nor is he an orator like Colyar. But
he is prodigy of muscular power be-
fore the Tennessee masses, who consid-
er him child of destiny, marked by
Providence to be their next Governor.
Johnson's purpose is to secure con-
servative Legislature, which will return
him to the Senate of the United States
in place of Mr.. Fowler. But for their
faith in him the people of the Stately
whom mean the disfranchised masses
would make no contest this summer.
They consider the existing system ma
chine; and they regard its operation as
little less than certain. johnson does
not. He says he has fought q worse
fight, and won it. He says he can
break up the loyal leagues as he broke
up the Know Nothing lodges. He will
dcnounce the KuKlux in unmeasured
terms. He will take strong national
ground on all national questions, and ho
expects to carry all before him.
The Radicals themselves apprehend
his coming. Moreover, they are disu-
nited. Fletcher will probably 90 into
the State Senate, which will elect him
Speaker. This will give him the Guber-
natorial succession in II. He is an able
man-the ablest in the State on many
points-and is Republican, but not a
Radical. He is backed by o growing
sentiment in his party.
Senter, the present Speaker of the
Senate--is in the line of safe prece.
dents. If Brownlow should die or re.
sign, Scnter would be Governor; but
Brownlow declines to do nihtcr, and Sen.
ter is secretly disconnected. Shrewd
Radicals already look OH him with dis.
trust. lie was q quasi-rebcl in '6l and
is a smart East Tennessee lawyer with
some taste and spirit. If Brownlow
does not give him-what he considers
his right-thdUis the Governorship-ht
will do mischief. Brownlow's term as
Senator begins the 4th of this coming
March. His term as Governor does no
expire till the following October. vii
he hold Oh to the State Office until it ex
pires and then go to Washington ant
draw his back pay as Senator from thu
4th of March? lie will. 1t is plain ci
phering TO man who has nothing tt
lose. But there are other considers
tions. There are personal and pruden
tial motives-motives which he canno
resist-that impel him. If he should
give up the Governorship to Senter
; what would become Of his present dc
puties?
For Tennessee you, must. kown, lik
! Gaul, is divided into three parts. Thes
are severaly designated East, Middl
and West Tennessee. DR.. Pearnc,
. Methodist preacher at Knoxville, i
Governor of East Tennessee. DR.. Boyn
ton, son-in-law of Brownlow, ant
Buck Lewis (colored) are the principa
. Governors of Middle Tennessee; bu
| when they are absent or lying abou
loose, it is customary for those VIII
, have public business to transact to g
: out and hunt a Governor or two fror
among the negroes and carpet-bagger
+ of Nashville. The Governor of Yves
: Tennessee is DR.. Pearne No 2, a brothe
. of the Knoxville Governor. All thes
= Governors act in the name of Brown
t low, who is at home with the pals,
= having ceased to be of any signifcanc
or to possess any sense of respOnsibilit,
The Radical party is controlled b
strangers and kept going by negroes
: and the coming Moses is Stokes.
K This Moses is large thick-set Moses
Moses with bald pate and red fac,
: and voice as loud as that of Bottom
= the Weaver, Moses passing the wit {
! man to say what manner of Moses h
:. is or is not. f... ..
y johnson is also Moses,
"And when Moses meets Moses,
Then comes the tug of war;"
= I think it is fair to predict that tn
q chances are even; that the fight will b
sharp and close; and that johnson ma
n come out with flying colors. aa
n The KukluX Klan has degenerated il
3 to gang of deperadoes. 1t has M
n the sympathy of any part of the peopl
q Its purposes are no longer political,
n they ever were, but predatory and IL
a. militia bill and martial law proclam
tion are mere pretexts on the part of Il
Radicals to carry the election by fore
il The Rings.
The Fat Contributor, who gets {