Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-06-08

| feed the rebel armies ana MAINTAIN tne IT,
bel cause. But, no; the class OF men 10
| whom / allude would accept of no compro-
mise Nothing short of consumption would
satisfy them. Consumption came; ana con-
scription drove twenty thousand, or more,
of East Tennessee Unionists away from
their families and into the Federal army
This unexpected turn OF events dlsappolnt-
ed their malice and aroused their resent
ment, and active measures were instituted
to seize and confscate the property of alb
aentees, and to insult and maltreat their
families Against this policy, / earnestly
protested. Allow me to refer TO one single
effort which is preserved in the Knoxville
register, of February, 1862, at that time
the Southern organ published at this
place. At a public meeting, composed
chiefly of Southern soldiers, in the court
house in Knoxville, j wasinvited or, rath-
err required, TO speak. That speech, de-
liVered to Il large body of rebel soldiers in
February, 1862, as reported in the Register,
is as follows
"He DR.. Curry was followed by Mr..
Baxter The anomalous position occupied
10y this gentleman in the present troubles
of this section of the State, considerably
whetted the public curiosity to hear an ex-
preston of his views He began by dis
ella ming any intention to discuss the polit-
zeal aspect of the origin of the revolution.
Mr.. Lincoln, he believed, ut the outset OF
his administration had been honest in his
intentions but he had been forced by cir
cumstances into the commission of some
very great outrages which Mr.. Baxter
briefly enumerated He then reviewed
the speeches which had been made by gem
tlemen ut the previous meeting, none of
which he thought were to the purpose.
Next he proceeded to give a correct (?)
statement of the condition and prospects of
the parties to this war. The United
States, he said, had 700,0 900 soldiers in the
field, well armed, well equipped, well pro-
visioned and well drilled, forming n mill
tary line extending from the Atlantic coast
to the base of the Rocky Mountains. The
Confederacy had only $4,000 in the field.
The North had in reserve about 100000
of fighting men; the Sonth only 100000.
The Federal Government had a powerful
navy, with an open sea- with which it had
blockaded the entire Southern coast, and
had with its great expeditions landed ar
mics at many important points; from
which the Confederate States with all their
boastfulness, had not been able to dislodge
them. He instanced the Burnside tleet,
which has possession of the great inland sea,
Albemarlcand Pamilico Sounds, command
ing the whole North Carolina coast. 1t has
captured Roanoke Island, is within fifty
miles of the great railroad communication
between Virginia and the Southern States;
ii has thanked Norfolk &c. He alluded to
the formidable gunboats on the Ohio river,
the expeditions which captured Fort Hen
Ty, and penetrated the heart of the coun-
try TO the cotton States. You are, ~ said
he, "thus surrounded on all sides by over
whelming numbers.n He adyerted TO the
advantages of the North in the way of
art, manufactures and commerce, in con-
trast with the poverty of the South in this
respect and the distress brought on the
people by the suspension of intercourse
xx,ith no North atat1nlaratinn
sary articles which formerly could be pro-
cured at small prices, but now cost almost
fabulous sums "This,n said the speaker
sis Yotu condition."
'He admitted that the presence Of an in
Uading army in this section aOOuld be as
destructive Of the property and personal
rights Of Union men as Of SecessiOntsts. You
now want the cooperation of Union men
in this crisis. How will you get it? If
you want to make them acknowledge that
secession is right, you will never get it, for
the human mind cannot be coerced. You
will not get it by slandering, abusing and
prosecuting them, and practicing such
barbarities as he could prove had been
practiced. He here went into an enumer-
alton of instances of barbarous persecu-
| tiosn of Union men. a captain in neigh
| boring counties had arrested more than
| fifty unoffending citizens, and subjected
them to cruel treatment. The proof of his
| InlscOnuuct ilaO been lalu before the COM
mander of this post, who, instead of repre-
handing or furnishing him, recon-
| missioned him and sent him back to his
atrocious work. Another commander had,
without law, hung two Union men to the
limb of tree in Greeneville, and with an
inhumanity that was disgraceful to civili-
cation, had left them hanging for twenty
four hours to intimidate and harass
Union men. Two gentlemen who had no
design to assist the enemy, but occupied
the same platform that he Mr.. Baxter
did on this question, were arrested and
sent to Tuscaloosa, and subjected to the
horrors of an imprisonment, from which
they died. After enumerating many
more misdeeds of the military and the
secessionists, the proof of which he has
and can produce, he concluded by admon
ishing them to cease their prosecutions
and urged conciliatory course"
The foregoing speech, Messrs. Editors
gives out no uncertain sound. Results
as well as the causes which Were TO pro
duce them, were clearly and distinctly pro
claimed. No careful reader can mistak,
its meaning. 1t foretold the fact that the
rebellion would be overthrown, and il
part by its own intolerance and oppres
sions, and that in its fall it would invOlv,
1.-THE rights of Union men," as well a.
those of the "secessionists."
Such truths then frankly spoken wer,
above the comprehension of the minds t
which they We're delivered, and instead o
allaying excitement and assuaging ven
4 r.