Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1873-06-05
A BROwNLOW LETTER.
The senatsr Replies TO Gen. HIS sIanderers
of General Canby-'sts hen God
Lays His Hand a Mani
Take Mine on"
From the Knoxville Chronicle, Moy 81,

1Ah &Ah al AiOiO vi OuIs, hHitn
recently appeared in the Charlotte
On. c., Home, of which you are edi-
tor, | find going the rounds of the
newspapers, in which you make an
attack upon the character Of the late
General Candy, and other deceased
officers of the United States army.
La this editorial you do me the hon
or TO bitterly denounce me. say
honor, for | esteem it an honor for
any man who has been loyal TO his
country to be blackguarded and Will
fed by you. We're | 50 unfortunate
as to be the recipient of your COM
mendation, | should feel hkeexclainl-
ing, as did Socrates, when applaud
ed by bad man like Yourself.
"What crime have 1 committed ?"
You exult over the death of the
brave Candy, asssssinated by savag-
es, and attribute his death, with that
Of Abraham Lincoln, Edwin NJ. STAR
ton, George Ii. Thomas, Professor
Mahan, of West Point, ex-senator
Preston King OF New York, and the
late Senator Lane of Kansas, to a
retribution of God, because 10 the
late civil war they opposed the eff
fort to destroy the Government of
the United States.
You say of General Candy that
while he was in command at Rich.
mond, Va, he personally suporin-
tended the hanging of a white man
up by the thumbs for kicking an in
solent negro" Now, this is your
version of Canby's conduct, and tho
whole editorial you have written
brcathes so fendish and brutal a
spirit as to make you unworthy of
credit.
Besides this, General Hill, the
whole life Of General Candy gives
the lie to your assertion that he did
anything vulgar, inhuman or unbe-
coming heightened soldier CANDY
was man of learning and ability
and Christian gentleman as well as
a model soldier. | am not prepared
to deny that within Canbys depart
ment white man was tied up by the
thumbs. While he was command
ing ut Richmond, a negro, under the
Constitution as amended, which Can
by was sworn to support, was enti-
tied to all the rights and privileges
OF other citizens. As a West Point
err and an officer of the United States
army before the war, you know that
to tie malefactor by the thumbs
was a common mode of punishment {
10 the army, and Candy failed in his
duty if he made distinction between
criminals on account of race or color
in netting out the pains and penal
ties required by good order and mill
tary discipline. While as matter
of form and duty, as department
commander, Candy would approve
the verdict of military court in
flicting just and necessary punish-
ment upon criminals violating the
laws it was his duty TO enforce, be
was above being his cwn execution
er. The management of the details
he left to man of brutal instincts
like yourself
Now, General Hill, while you are
falsely accusing General Candy Of
brutality, | propose to enlighten the
public as to your military record.
While in command in North Carols
ma, during the late war, twenty.six
white men were tried on the charge
Of being loyal to the United States
No other off5nse was alleged against
them. They were put on trial late
in the afternoon and by tho verdict
of drum-head court martial aetna
under your orders, all were hung I'M
til dead before breakfast the next
morning, without benefit of clergy
Are you not beautiful specimen to
assail Candy on the score of brutali-
ty. | can think of nothing as SUI
Premcly ridiculous, unless it would
be for you aud your friend Captain
Jack to write a treatise on civiliza-
ton for distribution among the Ku.
klux OF North Carolina. Indeed. If
did not know that you were in
North Carolina, | should infer from
the brutality of your assault on Can
by, Thomas and others, that you
were in the lava beds when it was
written, and that the article was
joint production of yourself and Cap
tain Jack.
Your assumption that the death of
the noble George Ii. Thomas, by ap.
oplexy, and the sudden deaths of
Lincoln and other loyal men, are
retribution of the Almighty for the
side they took in the late war, could
be inspired only by the malignity
born OF disappointed ambition and
the spirit which possessed the devil,
the founder of secession democracy.
Of preference TO ruling in hell to
serving in heaven.
| am happy 10 the belief that
many thousands Of the honest mass
es in Tennessee, North Carolina and
elsewhere, who were misled and CO.
creed into rebellion by just such men
as you, General Hill, now repudiatc
your leadership and loatho your
teachings.
II were disposed to initiate You.
| could give long list of men in
civil and military life supporting the
rebellion, who have come to sudden n.
and, in many cases, dishonorabe
deaths, but prefer not to do so.
You rejoice over my paralysis as a
punishment of God, because as Won
say, "cast my lot with the Adolf
tionists." l recognize the hand of
God in ny case, but ! regard him as
interfering in my behalf. Probably
not one man in thousand would
survive the exposure and hardships
to which | was subjected while driy-
en- by rebel cavalry into the noun.
tains and incarcerated into q rebel
prison in mid.winter. While [ am
now improving health with q clear
conscience, nearly all the men who