Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1873-05-28
Letter from Senator Brownlow.

I y
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. In this
! editorial you do me the honor to bitterly
denounce me. ] say honor, for l esteem it
an honor for any man who has been loyal
to his country to he blackguardcd and vii
| lifted by you. Were l so unfortunate as
to be the recipient of your commentator,
l should feel like exclaiming, as did Socra-
ties, when applauded 10y bad man like
yourself, "What crime have | committed"
You exult over the death of the brave
Candy, assassinated by savages, and
attribute his DEATH with that of Abraham
Lincoln, Edwin NJ. Stanton, George H.
Thomas, Prof Mahan, of West Point, ex-
Senator Preston King, of New York, and
the late Senator Lane, of Kansas to a ret
ribution of God, because in the late civil
war, they opposed the effort to destroy the
Government of the United States.
You say of Gen. Candy that while he was
in command at Richmond, Va, he 'per-
sonally superintendent the hanging of a
white man up by the thumbs for kicking
an insolent negro" Now this is your YER
sion of Canby's conduct and the whole edi-
torial you have written breathes so fiendsh
and brutal spirit as to make you un-
worthy of credit.
Besides this, General Hill, the whole life
of Gen. Candy gives the lie to your asser-
ton that he did anything vulgar, inhu-
man or unbecoming heightened soldier.
q
and a Christian gentleman as well as
model soldier. | am not prepared to deny
that within Canby's department a white
man was tied up by the thumbs. While
he was commanding at Richmond negro,
under the Constitution of the United
States as amended, which Candy was
sworn to support, was entitled to all the
rights and privileges of other citizens. AS
a West Pointer and an officer of the United
States army before the war, you know that
to tie malefactor up by the thumbs was II
common mode of punishmentin the army,
and Candy failed in his duty if he made
distinction between criminals on account
of race or color in melting out the
pains and penalties required by
good order and military discipline.
While as a matter of form and duty,
as Department Commander, Candy would
approve the verdict of a military court in
fiicting Just and necessary punishment
his duty to enforce, he was above being
his own eXecutioner. The management of
the details, he left to man of brutal in
stincts, like yourself.
Now, General Hill, while you are false
ly accusing General Candy of brutality, 1
propose to enlighten the public as to your
military record. While in command in
North Carolina, during the late war,
twenty-siX white men were tried on the
charge of being loyal to the United States.
No other offense was alleged against them.
They were put on trial late in the after
noon and by the verdict of a drum-head
court martial acting under yolr orders, all
were hung until dead before breakfast the
next morning, without benefit of clergy.
Are you not beautiful specimen to assail
Candy on the score of brutality. l can
think of nothing as supremacy ridiculous,
unless it would be for you and your friend
Capt Jack to write treatise on civilization
for distribution among the kuklux ofNorth
Carolina. Indeed, if L 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 the joint production of
yourself and Capt. Jack.
Your assumption that the death of the
noble George H. Thomas, by apOplexy,
and the sudden deaths of Lincoln and 9TH
er loyal men are q retribution of the AL
mighty for the side they took in the late
war, could be inspired only by the malig>
nancy born of disappointed ambition, and
the spirit which possessed the Devil, the
founder of Secession Democracy, of pref
erence to ruling in hell to serving in
Heaven.
L am happy in the belief that many
thousands of the honest masses iii Tonnes
see, North Carolina and elsewhere, who
were misled and coerced into rebellion by
Just such men as you, Gen. Hill, now re-
pudiate your leadership and loathe your
teachings.
If were disposed TO initiate you, could
give a long list of men in civil and militia
ry life supporting the rebellion, who have
come to sudden and, in many cases, dis
! honorable deaths, but | prefer not to do
so.
You rejoice over my paralysis as pun
| ishment of God, because, as you say, !
" cast my lot with the Abolitionists.n 1
recognize the hand of God in my 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 driven by
! rebel cavalry into the mountains and in
generated in a rebel prison in mid-winter.
| While / am now in improving health with
a clear conscience, nearly all the men who
were instrumental in my imprisonment,
| and who insulted me while in prison, are
dead. Most of them died with dcliriuHl
| tremens or in some other unnatural way.
| / would not parade their names before
| fnusx4 sl,.,Vns 4 .N1