Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-06-08
Letter from Col. Baxter..No. 2.

ago, / was cordially received and gener-
ously supported by an upright, considerate,
industrious and honorable population, who
gave me such friendly and material sup
port as insured TO me high degree of
professional success. But this honorable
ciass did not constitute, / regret to say, the
entire popr lation of Knoxville. Among
them-as 1t is everywhere else--were men
of varied characteristics, bold violent, nc
tive, vulgar and inscriptions, bent on ac-
comprising their own ambitious schemes
who never hestated To sacrifice honor and
truth, to promote the one leading, absorb
ing thought0f self agrandizement Ihey,
too, had money, by means of which they
established and maintained or controlled
newspapers. In the use of these, faIsehood
and scurrility, constituted their most for
midable weapons. Indeed they exhibited
no higher sense of the objects anu purposes
of public press than to use 1t in pulling
themselves, deceiving the public, and de-
flaming those they were unable to use. By
such means, and by threatened violence,
they have been able to intimidate and hold
in AFFECT silence, many who were conscious
prostration They engendered and
kept alive local feuds, excited personal
hatred, lowered the standard of decency
and morals, degraded the literature and cor
rupted the tastes of our people, ever keep
ing the community in a constant, never
ceasing broil. The "oldest inhabitant" is
unable to call to mind period when East
Tennessee society was not disturbed by
some personal religious or political
controversy, conducted with such
low and vulgar epithets and personal
denunciation, as to offend the refined
sensibilities of every orderly and de-
cent person. And, most unfortunately for
me, professional engagements-to which /
have ever been true, without regard to per-
sonal consequences-forcedm me in contact
with the foregoing pestiferous element of
our society, very soon after became domi-
ciled in this city. But for this, l might
have escaped, at least for q time, their I'M
paralleled malignancy. The fdtes, however,
ordered otherwise. AS a lawyer, / have
been truly thorn in the flesh of some of
them, with much more service of the same
sort to be rendered in suits now pending.
Hence their unceasing warfare. "With
cruel craft they have logged my footsteps"
through thirteen long years Misrepre-
sentation, mob violence and downright
falsehood, have been brought into requisi
ton to iniure my character and cripple
my influence Let things take whatever
turn they may, my revilers, changing with
the demands of the times, held the van
tage ground. Their plans, too, have been
facilitated by the diSorganiZing influence
of the late civil war. When rebellion was
in the ascendent, Gen. Mabry, one of the
combination to which | allude, W Is n rebel,
welding against me the rebel power.
When "Brownlow was King and
loyal leagues dispensed offices, and
loyal legislators appropriated bonds
to railroad companies, he was Lacquer
and a Radical and now that the Legisla-
ture of Tennessee is Conservative, the
Governor of the State a aOishy-tOdshy Repub-
lican, and the National Administration
and Congress are Radical, Gen. Mabry is
successfully performing the most wonder
MI mol In ba la If
man. He is supporting three different and
antagonistic characters at the same time,
t0-wit: in all matters pertaining TO local
legislation, he is a Conservative; in mat
tiers within the jurisdiction of the Cover
nor, he is a Senter Republican; and in all
National affairs, such as getting payment
for losses sustained by him when he was
rebel, he is Radical without blemish
and without guile. He is to-day friendly
with and enjoys the confidence OF Senator
Brownlow, dictates Gov. Senters policy,
manipulates portion of the Legislature,
re-organiZes the Conservative party of this
county, and controls, in measure, the
Conservative ~ press of this city.
And while he is thus playing double,
and imposing upon the credulity of the
country, he is busy in his efforts, at home
and abroad, to prejudice me in the estima-
ton of friends, by intimating that / am
not true to the principles which have,
through evil and through good report, con-
sistently adhered to all my life. He is
wonderfully afraid, and pretends through
his Knoxville Wing to believe, shat j am
preparing the way TO strike hands with the
Radical party, and there are men mean
enough 10 pretend that they believe him
To meet this most unworthy and unbound
ed insinuation, beg leave to 60 back few
years, and present for the consideration Of
the public now what / have professed
said and done for the ten preceding years
If my revilers We're half as reliable and Us
honest in their politics as myself, the coun
try would have no further trouble in set
ting and adjusting all its difficulties.
When in the course of events the coun
try was threatened with civil war, and en-
tertaining the belief, which ! did, that the
proposed rebellion was both unnecessary
and impolitic, / opposed it. My convic
tons on this point have never undergone
any change. Yet in September, 1861, il
Difference to the judgment and importuni
ties of friends, and in view of the many
evils which the South has been subjected
TO by unfriendly and unconstitutional leg
islation since the abandonment of organ
lied resistance TO Federal authority,
consented to forego all further opposition
and to acquiesce in the rebellion which
the Southern people had inaugurated Blu
did not do as many Others did, turn upoI
and prosecute those with whom had pre-
viously acted. On the contrary, | con
stantly advocated justice liberation anC