Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-06-19
WHAT OF RRoHNLoW.

One of the results Of The Radical
split in this State is that
we are getting the opinions which
Radicals entertain of each 9TH
or, and especially of the lead
ers Of that party, which usually
more than confirm all that the De-
mocrats had previously said of the
untrustworthiness of these leaders,
The people Of this State are famil-
FAR with the manner in which the
Radical leaders and newspapers de-
Tended the usurpations of Coz.
Brownlow. . They could never Be-
urged up to question or iinterrpponessel
aprotest to any thing he did. sThel
King could do no wrong'' then.
But the Radical party has split in
twain, and a great change has come lp
over the stoutest defenders of the
rule of Brownlow. 1t is almost
sacrilege the way some of the Radi-
Gals now speak of the great high
priest of the party. The Athens
Republican, Stokes organ, speaks
of Brownlow, who is now for Senter,
as follows in its issue of juno IL:
aThis old political demagogue has
long played his cards in the affairs Of
Tennessee; but it has been against
peace, fraternal feeling and State pros.
perity. No man ever appealed to lower
feelings of men for public favor than
Brownlow. The impartial decision
drawn from his record of political in
| consistency and bitterness copelusiyelv
shows that he will do to tie to but forons
purpose, and that to be led down 10
political infamy and crime. His sagaci-
business has no higher claims than Chat
| of political knavery and a, fer hon.
esty, 1t does not belong to his qualities
as q political leader. That these state
mehts may be more clearly before the
country we have only to call attention
to the fact that he has been Governor
OF Tennessee. Then at once the reckless
and partizan use of authority rises be-
fore the minds of an insulted people; the
deplorable and almost hopeless condition
1 of State finance renders the pictare
darker still and the waste of hundreds
ofthousands Ofdollars belonging to your
children comes up as the foulest blot of
political infemy and meanness that ever
disgraced public officers, and Brownlow
must bear the odinm of this outraqe
to the extent that he failed 10 protect the
rights of the wronged 80 "a -
Nothing the Democrats have
ever said of Brownlow exceeds this
indictment of him by the Stokes
organ at Athens. ~ He is here
charged with everything vile and
mean that a political partisan
could berguilty of, and all for his
personal aggrandisement and to
crafty personal malignity, 1t is
rather singular that when these
traits were SO eonspicuously devel.
oping themselves, the Athens Re-
publican did not raise its voice of
warning and denunciation. 1t
rather enjoyed the fun then, for the
bitter proscriptiVeness and usurpa
tons of Brownlow fell upon
'Rebels. y Now he is opposed to
Stokes for Governor, and as won
derful as it may appear, the Re,
publican is constrained to admit and
denounce all his political sins.
The Chattanooga Republican,
another Stokes organ, regards
Brownlow as "a dead cock in the
pit" In its issue of June IS, that
paper says:
Waving, as irrelevant, the absurd
idea that BrOwnlOw is somebody else, we
pronounce 1t equally absurd to attribute
70 him any great degree of influence in
East Tennessee. The August election
will demonstrate this to the satisfaction
Of every one by the overwhelming defeat
of Gov. Senter in that section of the
State. An East Tennesseean ourself,
we profess to know something of the
sentiments and characteristics Of that
people, and our experience is that the
Senator never was really popular among
any considerable class of them, that he
has lost the unnatural prestige which was
only acquired by the passion and confu-
sion engendered by the war, and that
he is now politically dead 10 his own
section"