Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1866-1869, 1869-01-06
10 The Members Of The legislature.

Gentlemen: Two weeks ago / took occasion, as
citizen Of East Tennessee, through the columns Of
the WING "a paper l have conducted for the last
thirty years 10 ropell the malicious and slanierous
assaults Of the Nashville Banner. / also took the
liberty 60 publish a brief correspondence between
yseli and citizen Of West Philadelphia. Garbled
#.,.s have boon published in different papers Of
state. from these documents, and comments,
4, false and yilainous, have gone out With them.
determined that the members Of the General As
sembly shall know just what did say, l herewith
pubsh these documents entire, and shall cause
COPY of the Vino to be laid on each of your tables
/ have no scheme for dividing the State, and have
mot communicated, verbally or otherwise, with any
mombor Of the Legislature on that subject In the
article copied in reply to the Banaerr mean what
] have said and / have said what mean. A ma
jority o5 600 Of the voters of East Tennessee will
endorse what / have said. l therefore have moth
ing TO take back Nor have ! sny other object in
laying this paper before you Than that of setting
myself right. w G. BRowELow.
January 4th, 1863.
EAST TENNESSEE RAILROAD MONOPOLY"
Tho Rendition Banner, of the 9TH instant, con-
tains long loaded article, rehash of Mr. Waters
letter Whleh hppeAtu III Tue ieoh uft tto VI tlo
lny before The Banners editorial and the letter
nf Mr. Waters are leveled, profesaedly against the
Omnibus Bill SO called, but really against the
appropriation to East Tennessee.
Both are curiosties in their way for ingenious
special pleading. We propose to analyze them and
show mp their Inconsistencies and want OF logical
inrnes The first part of the editorial Tecites, 10
vgcarjness the numerous forms of taxation under
which the various industries OF the State groan, and
ascribr them all to the passage of "the omnibus bill
Gee bia ie emf no int prnet ms ph of
the appropriations in that bin expected 20 be nat
and i has STAGE been met 5v the railroads 10 l0h5ch
the appropriations lcere made. So far this has
been the fact all this twaddle about the omnibus
bin doubling the tax is entirely unsupported.
The Banner says "the bill (oi 1867 was carried
"a the ground that the enhanced value of property
along the ues would overbalsnce the additional
drains upon the Treasury. The sequel proved 9TH
orwisc Sc. The ground upon which the bill was
carried was thst railroads essential TO the mate
rial prosperity OF State, and thst their construc
tian will enhance the value of property In the state
Is that ground correct or not2 The BaHacr says
otherwise What man Of any intelligence DAREs
10 take the opposite position Railroads not en-
hancc the value OF property in their vicinity The
man who would take this position would prove him
self of assnine stupidity. Ht would fly in the face
of all commercial and railroad history for the last
thrty yoars " But the sequel proved otherwise
Yes of course and for two or three reasons There
mss not been time enough since the appropriation
was made 90 realize the result Some Of the roads
20 which sid was extended are yet unfinished and
what is more the Ba3,a5r and other Nashville pa
pcrs hy lomentiug discomfort unquiet and violence
among rebels and ku kluN outlaws and iuciting
them TO resistance have kept up such a nuss that
they have prevented the State from enhancing In
population and wealth, as IL would naturally have
done from the improvement of its railway system.
Another uufairnoss ia the article under review is
In carefully couccahng from the public tho real
cause Of the heavy taxes OF Tennessee and aserbng
il 20 the omnibus bin OF 1857. The real cause OF
the financial depression Of the State is not the om-
nibus bill but the rebellion and is concom tsnts
and products The accrued interest on the State
debt ior four years while the Banner and It's asso-
eiatcf were riotng in bloody rebellion, was assumed
and funded by the present administration. Beside,
this the rebellion had not only prevented those rail
roads from paying their interest," bat had actually
begcarcd those roads and compelled their utter ss
f,epeian and U.9lessncss only .ho State came &,
their relief with L. credit These and other kin
drea causes uecesstatcd The Of the STATE creGt
and inflicted severe financial burdens upon the tax
payers Il uay be very sharp in this editor % thus
attempt 10 blind Tenncsoans 10 the real .acts and
induce thcm 10 uocept assumptions and bold aver
ments instead. Bulit will not win Men Of thought
and intelligence are not 10 be dipped in such way
The next section OF Ibis long, misleading leader
undertakes 10 prove The entire insolvency of Ten.
nesfee even under existing liabilities 70 nav the
principal interest Of the State debt All his il
a. false a. il Be- malignant The Comptroller tva
years ago, showed that the State debt proper wa
very iucousidembie amounting 20 only some three
or four millions Of dollars, certainly not more than
seven eight The remainder above that sum
being for railroads that to-day would sell for more
than the Stale owes for them. Besides this, %,
writer keeps studously from view the fact that som,
Of these roads have regularly paid their interest
and that all will in due course, # not willingly yet
by force.
The last section Of this extraordinary editorial is
devoted 10 a general disparsgement Of East Ten.
ncssee which is represented as sharing more largely
- sbaee .,,rtoy, h lions than the other divefoue IA
De State "Esst Tennessee has had State aid sine.