Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-01-29
Affairs in Tennessee.
duHIIS III IBuu6sb6t.
Correspondence of the Courier Journal.l


NASHVILLE. January %. 1859.
will give you briefly. but accurately
a pen-picture of the situation in Tennes
see at the present moment.
Andrew johnson ia expected to arrive
here by the middle of March. He ha
written to his friends to say that he viii
be a candidate for Governor. No on,
will oppose his nomination. 1t will b.
made spontaneously and his platform
will consist of universal amnesty ant
impartial suffrage" on which the peopl'
of Tennessee have risked their claim
from the first.
He is expected to do two things:
|. He will talk to the negroes as no ont
else has ever talked to them.
2. he will waken the East TenDesse,
''loyalists" to sense Of the perils of the
present State government as no one else
can waken them.
johnson is not q wit like Etberidge
Nor is be an orator like Colyar. But he
is prodigy of muscular power before
the Tennessee masses, who consider him
child of destiny, marked by Providence
to be their next Governor.
Johnson's purpose is to secure a con
servative Legislature, which will return
him to the Senate Of the United States
10 place of Mr.. Fowler. But for their
faith in him the people of the State-by
whom mean the disfrsnchised masses
would make no contest this summer.
They consider the existing system ma
chine; and they regard its operation aa
little less than certain. Johnson does
not He says he has fought worse
fight, and won it. he says ne can break
up tie loyal leagues as he broke up the
Know-Nothing lodges. He will denounce
the Ku-Klux in unmeasured terms. He
will take strong national ground on ell
national questions, and he expects to
carry all before him.
The Radicals themselves spprehend
bis coming. Moreover, they are disunited.
Fletcher will probably go into the State
Senate, which will elect him Speaker.
This will give him the gubernatorial sue.
cession in II. He is an able man-the
ablest in the State on many points-and
is Republican, but not Radical. He
is backed by.a growing sentiment in his
party.
Seuter, the present Speaker Of the Sem
ate--is in the line of safe precedents.
If Brownlow should die or resign, Senter
would be Governor; but Brownlow de-
clines TO do either, and Senter is secretly
Disconnected. Shrewd Radicals already
look on him with distrust. He was a
quasi-rebe in 81 and is a smart East
Tennessee lawyer with some taste and
spirit IflBrownlow does not give him
what be considers his right-thst is the
Governorship-he will do mischief.
Brownlow's term as Senator begins the
4ih of this coming March. His term as
Governor does not expire till the follow
ing October. Will be hold on to the
State Office until it expires and then 90
to Washington and draw his back pay as
Senator from the 4th of March he
will. 1t is plain ciphering to man who
has nothing to lose. But there are other
considerations. There are personal and
prudential motives-motives which he
cannot resist-;hat impel him. If he
should give up the Governorship to Sen
ter, what would become OF his present
deuuties2
For Tennessee, you must know, IKE
Ganl, is divided into three parts. These
are severally designated East, Middle
and West Tennessee. DR.. Pearne,
Methodist preacher at Knoxville, is Gov
ernor Of East Tennessee. DR.. Boynton,
a son-in-law of Brownlow, and Buck
Lewis (eolored) are the principal Gov
ernors of Middle Tennessee; but when
they are absent or lying about loese, it
is customary for those who have public
business to transact to 60 out and hunt
down Governor or two from among
the negroes aud carpet-bsggers Of Nash
vile. The Governor Of West Tennessee