Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-05-28
ON THE WAR PATH.
The Loyal Kn-Klux OF BlOant
j s.' ita 81 County. e.
$50 Armed LOyalists Hunting q
Minister OF the Gospel.

1t will be remembered by our readers
and indeed the people Of the. entire
country remember the affair with EEL
ings of horror and detestation, that about
one month ago, Rev. Jacob Smith, while
on his way to fill an appointment in
Blount county, was seized by armed
ruffians, composing the leaders of the
League and the Radical party of that
county, taken to the woOda, stripped to
his shirt, tied to a tree and whipped
numerically with withes, until his back
and shoulders were mass Of blood and
quivering flesh. No reason existed for
this barbarous action. Mr.. Smith was
unknown in that locality until after the
close of the war. During the civil strife
he preached to both armies " Christ and
Him crucifed.n He believed not in
carnal weapons, even while in the midst
of bloody STRIFE He never carried 8
pistol nor any other weapon. His
preaching was pre~eminently the Gospel
of Peace. He bears the imprint of the
Almighty, on his calm, serious, giiileless
face, as "a man unspotted from the
world ~ ~
The yindictive and Satanic teachings
of Tennessee Radicalism bore their bitter
fruit in the martyrdom Of this man of
. God. ZGG& OF EEE 1913
/ As the time approached when Mr..
Smith had another appointment to fill in
that county, he received evidence and
Information, the most trustworthy and
reliable, that the loyalists of the county
were laying their plans to prevent his
preaching, and many Of them were loudly
asserting "that this time we will make
an end of it,"
Not only this, but he also learned that
his friends in this county, the members
of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, were being i'll treated and threat
ened, and that an attempt by him to
preach there, would result not only to bis
hurt, but also to their injury.
Influenced more by the desire not to
involve any of the friends of his church
in trouble, and after consultation with
his co-laborerS in the ministry in
this city, Mr.. Smith resolved not to
attempt to preach the Gospel of
Christ to these Pharisaieal loyalists.
How prudent was this resolve, may be
learned from the action of these loyal
men, these simon pure members of 'the
party of great moral IDEAS" on the holy
Sabbath. fsf'tth tE tt
Last Sunday morning, the day Of Mr..
Smiths appointment at Logan's Chapel,
in Blout county, fully two hundred and
fifty of these loyalists, all well armed,
and under the leadership of the men who
had previously whipped Mr.. Smith, as
sembled in the vicinity of the chapel, and
boistsrously disclosed their intention of
preventing the religious exercises from
taking place. The members of Mr..
Smiths church, aware Of the impending
trouble, did not go to the chapel, and the
ruffians, after waiting some time, de-
termined not to allow their intentions to
be baffled by the escape Of their prey.
Accordingly they sent squads out in
search of the preacher, which visited
every suspected house for miles around
Mr.. Smith, however, was quietly at
tending worship in Knoxville, and to-
wards noon his prosecutors dispersed,
elated with the knowledge that they had
God. ''''"' W '"H ""'" oi
These same men are now plotting 10
prevent, by armed force the fulfillment
of MIR. Smiths appointment next Sab"
bath, at Louisville, in the same county.
OF course they will be successful, as
there are no officers in the county who
dare do right and arrest these yiolators
of law. Rather do they mix themselves
with the wicked perpetrators of cowardly
attacks on an unarmed man.
This, reader, is Brownlowism, Tennes'
see Radicalism, the offspring of the Evil
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