Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1871-10-18
A CARD FROM SENATOR BROwNLOw.
TO the Public.

The Rebel Governor of Tennessee deliv-
cred his inaugural address on Tuesday
last, and in that extraordinary speech he
made this most extraordinary assertion
The public debt, in the short period of
four years, swelled from sixteen to forty
Two millions of dollars
Had some newspaper scribbler and paTti
Fan reporter for a parliZan sheet made the
foregoing statement, ] could have excused
it, but in the Governor of State, who
is presumed TO inform himself on the con-
ditiOn of the State whose Chief Magistrate
he is, such recklessness of assertion is
wholly ineXcusable.
1t is such a monstrous perversion of truth
that in charity I attribute it to His Excel
lency's ignorance, and in his zeal to curry
favor with his new associates-the virtu-
Gus (?) Democracy. j propose briefly to
state the facts which I defy Gov. John c.
Brown or his bitterest rebel partiZan CO.
adjutors to controvert.
The statement that since the war and
during my administration of the State
Government, "the public debt, in the
short period of four years, swelled from
sixteen to forty-twO millions of dollars is
recklessly made in total ignorance of the
facts or with view to serve the interests
of the "lost cause" Not having before me
the official reports of the Comptroller and
eOther State officers, i cannot give the exact
figures in dollars and cents, but will give
them in round numbers, which are sub
stantially the official reports. The entire
State debt at the beginning of the war was
about eighteen millions instead of sixteen
as the Governor asserts. The interest
which accumulated during the war was
about four millions five hundred thou
sand, and the debt that matured during the
war was about half a million, making the
State debt at the close of the war about
twenty-three millions.
Since then, over a million dollars of that
debt has matured and been funded by the
issuance of new bonds. 1t will be seen that
Gov. Brown attributes to the Republican
party an increase of the debt by five mill
lion that matured during the war and one
million since, before there was a Republi-
can party in Tennessee. And even upon
that assumption his statements are greatly
exaggerated. The actual amount of the
increase of the debt since the war, for all
purposes, does not exceed fourteen millions.
The Governor has it twenty-six millions
an error of twelve million.
When the much-abused Republican par
ty, which Gov. Brown, throughout his
inaugural, assails with such virulence, got
possession of'the State, they found nearly
all the railroads in the State in q con-
dition of bankruptcy and ruin, caused
by the same nefarious rebellion
which Gov Brown materially aided. And
from all parts of the State the rebel officers
stockholders and directors of these rail-
roads fiocked to the Capital and implored
the Republican party TO lend them the
credit of the State by the issuance OF bonds,
for the rebuilding of bridges depots and
tEestle work. The question, therefore, was,
" Shall we let the States property i'm these
roads be totally lost or shall we put them
on their feet and in a condition TO be SER
Viceable to the State and its citizens ~
lsed whatever of influence | had to loan
hem the credit of the State.
Gov. Brown, in his inaugural, says that,
when the sceptre passed from the hands
# the Republican party, peace again
teigned over a blighted country. The
facts are, that, when he was writ
ing his inaugural, his partisan friends,
known as the KukluX Khan, in three
hours ride of the State capital were shoot
ing and hanging no less than four Union
men ana negroes in one night, taking the
negroes forcibly from the Jail. By the
way, the KukluX Khan, which General y
B. Forrest boated numbered forty thousand
in Tennessee, had their origin in Giles
county, the home of Governor Brown.
What relation, if any, he sustained to the
Order / am not prepared to say,
Instead of Tennessee being quiet and
speaceable, as Governor Brown represents
1t, / believe we ought to have martial law
proclaimed and Federal troops enough sem
to the State to protect every citizen in his
rights and put a stop to the murder of citi
ZenS 10y Governor BroWn's partisan hu
klux friends And don't hesitate to say
that / would support such a proposition il
tho United States Senate.
In conclusion, would express the hop
that Gov. Brown and his rebel Legislators
who profess to have so much at heart the
financial condition of the State, will not in
crease its Indebtedness by ordering the re
temption las now seems probable) of tn
,ogus issues of the Bank of Tennessee
which were printed and circulated for tn
lquiping and arming of thousands of rebel
20 war upon the Federal Government.
w. G.. BRowSLow.
KNOXVILLE, Oct. 18th.