Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-08-20


cipational fealing also, remained q
STAKEHOLDER until the war came, and
slavery went of I've heavy morning mist,
| 1the basfzess fabric Of q yisitiny indeed, but
| leaving many wrecks, or racks, behind.
| Judge Mason Brown lost, I am told, In
| slave property, as much as seventy-flve or
a hundred tkousbHd dollars. Previously.
however. be had been good master
and had supported his many slaves
on q large estate near Lockport,
now farmed by Gov. Browns half
| brother, Knox Brown, rather than made
them bis own support. Many Of the slaves
still remain on the place, and, from what
Knox, who Is quite young man, told me,
fancy the old negroes find It hard work to
make slavery dead.
This Brown family, by the way, Is
too much for me-too many for me, l
should say. If Gov. Gratz Brown
should become President, or Vice
President WE'LL we may hope bis brothers,
brothers-in law, cousins, cousins-in-law,
etc, are too comfortable already to want the
additional comfort of an Office. For where
are all the offices in that case requisite that
they may fill them?
Leigh Hunt imagined himself once, In a
pleasant essay, man Introduced to his
ancestors and they came upon him by reg
inents a9Of Joneses, armies Of
Smiths, brigades of Br-but there
were hundreds of other names too. And
If President or Vice President Gratz Brown
should have to be introduced to his living !
family for official recognition-uow, let Us
not think Of ShisiA Something Of the sort
has been enough for Grant. It has been
too much for him. But the Browns are a
good family, and trust they do not want
office. Yet many of them-their ances-
tors, at any rate--have had all sorte Of of
fees. sd g71sH fag.3 800. |
1t is a good thing to be born well. And
Gratz Brown was well born. The Brown
family is included in, and also includes,
the Preston family, Of which I have seen
here in Frankfort privately printed |
"Memorandan which make volume Of six |
ty odd pages. The Preston family, one |
may say, includes the State of Kentucky, |
and to certain extent the United 1
States. am serious In making |
this statement; for / saw among |
those Memoranda, and frequently reappear- |
Ing such names as Preston, Breckenridge, |
Brown, Senator Brown was the son of |
Rev. John Brown, Presbyterian pastor fer |
forty-four years at Rockbridge, Virginia, |
who came to Kentucky in 1903, and of his |
wife, Margaret Preston) Bledsoe, Gov. |
Browns mother was the daughter of Jesse |
Biedsoe, distinguished In Kentucky as
a lawyer and an orator. Todd,
Helm, Hart, (James Brown, broth.
er Of Senator john q Brown,
the first Secretary of the State of Kentucky,
for many years United States Senator from
Louisiana, and Minister to France in 1924,
married a sister of Henry Clay's wife)
Scott, Major, Peyton, Johnston, Carripgton,
Hampton, (Wade married Miss Preston)
Benton, (Thomas 81. Benton married into
the Preston family Fremont, Gncluding
Jessie), Wicklife, Gibson, Massie, Watts,
Floyd, (John B. was son and husband Of
Preston), Alexander, Crittenden, Marshall,
Blair, (the whole Blair family, too!)
Now let us not try TO count the Offices.
EI uilo (Blair) disco OnlneS. But here
are President-makers, Presidential candi-
dates, Vice President, foreign Ministers,
Senators and Representatives, Governors,
Major Generals, Editors, editors are some
times ofice-holders,) and people filing all
sorts OF places everywhere. This Is what l
| call family-a Kentucky family repre-
sented everywhere. If one were President
and had to be introduced to such family
as that ss bus 800
Now, to q certain extent that family may
be called Brown. ~ 5Ea
Gratz Brown himself was born at Lex
ington, where his father was residing tenn
porarily at the time, in May, 1926. He
passed his boyhood chiefly at Frankfort,
and received bis early schooling here. He
attended college at Transylvania Universi-
y, where he graduated, but then went to
I ale, entering the junior year, and gradua-
Led there also. His early bias in reading
was for imaginative works. He read through
The English poets, and had special liking
Tor Scott's pOetical romances and novels.
At Yale he had literary ambition, and
aspired to the editorship of the College
Magazine, whose editor was elective, and
in attaining this honor-it being
considered high class honor. His liking
for SCOTS works still remains with him.
Gov. Brown told me, and he thought, per-
laps, the best literary effort of his life was
An address delivered by him at st. Louis,
asst year, on occasion of the Scott Centen-I
NAL. fr
After graduating at Yale, Gov. Brown
studied law at the Louisville Law School.
In those days, however, he was more SIM
cerely devoted to the society of pretty girls
they still have pretty girls in Louisville)
han law. About this time what may be
called his anti-slayery life began. He was
always disposed to be free-thinker in pol
tics, however, and before he went 10 Yale
he anti-slavery seed resident in him was
stimulated by reading some one of VIM.
q. Stewards speeches. Subsequently his
political bearing led to disagreement at
home, and influenced him in attempting the
West. He did not go West to get farm,
but to practice law. His father, an emanci-
pationist in theory, be anne reconciled long
before bis death to bis sons views, and