Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1872-02-21
BRowNLow on BECK.

on Senator Brownlow and others, charg-
ing them with taking refuge in the Senate
to escape from the Penitentiary. The re-
ply to this SANDER by the CHRONICLE was
the first information Senator Brownlow
had of Beck's screed. t.s.
His reply, made in the Senate on last
Thursday is stinger, and is as follows:
There was a time in the history of my
life when Mr.. Beck would not have dared
TO put this or any other insult upon me,
for fear would have taken from his hand
the slave-whip with which, as overseer on
Kentucky plantation, he was accus-
toned to whip negroes for pay, and laid Ii
across his own back. The code by which
the gentlemen of Kentucky were govern
ed i'm those days, having in it certain prin-
ciples of honor, would not have reached
low enough down i'm the social scale to find
his level; for when he abandoned the hon
orable pursuit of hostler in livery stable
to become q slave-driver, he betrayed the
possession OF qualities which the gentle
men of Old Kentucky never ceased to de-
spise. tra .r .UI rt...s. f..s.
If the overseers of Kentucky whipped
the negroes under their slave system of
labor, the gentlemen from Kentucky, be
it said to their credit, sometimes whipped
the oVerseers they did not fight with
! them. Their code of honor forbade it.
But both of these methods have gone out
of date, and in the upheavals of the civil
| war, we find men who were once overseers
aspiring to the seats formerly filed by
! Clay and Crittenden denouneing the SEN
| ate as q house of refuge for thieves, and
| yet canVassing their States to secure seat
! i'm it. If it he mere refuge from the pen
| itentiary, why, / would like TO ask, is Mr..
Beck so anxious to come to the Senate? is
| he aftrighted by the rapidly closing career
| nf tlpl1nnrntiO ROSg
! Tweed, Peter b. Sweeney, Connolly and
| Halle Does the shadow of Sing Sing
reach all the way to kentucky? Does 1t
forewarn him of his impending doom that
I he should strive to find refuge here,
| like the guilty king of England, who ex-
claimed
4" BY the apostle Paul, shadows tonight
! Have struck moro terror 10 the soul of Richard
Than can the substance Of ten thousand SOL
! dicrs P'
am refugee, and while the short limit
| of my life endures cannot recover from its
outward signs. These feeble limbs that
need assistance to bring me to this Cham
Der; these palsied hands that ask for help
to write; my whispering. voice that can
not speak my thoughts, all bear testimony
to the fact-l am refugee. 1t Is cow
ards part to call me one, but yet hold
the title as an honor.
/ first became a refugee on the 9Th day
of November, 1861, having remained at
nv home in Knoxville defending the
cause of my country against organized
treason at the risk of my life until that
day. How had escaped immolatiOn / do
not know, except that Ii was in the mercy
of Gods providence which sustained me
in my efforts to pull down a hell-born re-
belliOn. My paper had been suppressed
and my arrest for treason against the
Southern Confederacy determined upon.
In my last issue of the knoxville Wing,
dated October "A, 1861, ] addressed my sub
scribers in the following terms
Il shall in no degree feel humhled by
being cast into prison whenever it is the
will and pleasure of this august Govern
ment TO put me there but on the contra
ry, shall feel proud of my confinement
I ] shall go to Jail as John Rodgers went tC
the stake.for my principles. ! shall go
because | failed to recognize the hand OF
God in the work of breaking up the Ameri-
can Government, and the inauguration OF
the most wicked, cruel, unnatural and
uncalled-for war ever recorded in history.
/ 90 because ] have refused to laud to the
the skies the acts of tyranny, usurpation,
and oppression inflicted upon the people
of East Tennessee for their devotion to the
Constitution and laws of the Government
handed down to them by their fathers and
the liberties secured to them by war OF
seven long years Of gloom poverty, am. and
trial. " Exchanging
with proud satisfaction the editorial chair
and the sweet endearments of home for a
cell In the prison or the lot of an exile, /
have the honor to be, &C.,
WILLIAM q. Brow NOV,
Editor Of KnorriQe Wing"
The utteranee of words like these made
me " refugee" and on the 5th of the sue
ceeding month / found "a hiding place
from the bloodhOunds Of rebellion in the
Smoky Mountains which separate North
Carolina from Tennessee, beyond the pre-
cints of civilization. Amid the high sum
mits of this range, and in one of their deep
gorges where no vehicle had ever penetrat-
ed, found q temporary refuge until rebel
scouts discovered my hiding place. was
then induced by false promises OF protec-
ton and being sent through the lines TO
deliver myself up to the rebel authorities
of the Confederacy in Tennessee, but they
treacherously threw me into prison. Will
not detail the dTeary horrors of that incaT-
ceration, i'm which saw men led from my
side to an execution i expected daily to
share others dying of fever; the agOnized
cries of wives and children of men sent to
death for loving their country. i, who
was second to no man in strehgth and
vigor of body and constitution, came out
of prison sick, and have never recovered
from the shock my system there received
/ After this was eXiled by the rebel gov
eminent, sent through their lines, and be-
came refugee north of the Ohio, while he
who assails me did what? i had liked ia
have said he donned his rebel uniform ant
Joined the army of traitors to tight agains
/ i Ir,f fhaf