Knoxville Whig and chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1875-1882, 1875-04-21
BrOWnloW and Johnson.
[From nc Cincinnnti Gazelte. !

Governor Brownlow has reviewed
Andrew Johnson's speech in the Sem
ate, in which he drew parallel be-
tween a state of things in the Tennes-
see government when he was acting
President, and the status of Louisiana,
aud held up his own non-interference
in contrast to Grants course in Louis.
lana. Governor Brownlow deals very
incisively with Johnson's mIs-state-
ments of the state Of affairs in Tennes-
see; denies that it furnished any
parallel with Louisiana, and affirms
that Johnson, so far from pursuing a
course of nOn-interfereuce, did inter
fere most uutrageously, by privately
instigating members 20 Withdraw and
break up the Legislature, so rs to pre-
vent that State from adopting the Nth
amendment, and thar he promised and
paid government Off es to members
for this work.
He cites from the Washington cor
respondence of the Cincinnati Gazette,
an extract published in the Nashville
Union and american Of July IS 1866,
az follows:
Last night Mr.. Cooper lthc Presidents
Private Secretary declared to company
of gentlemen that if the President could
possibly prevent the assembling of quor-
um in the Tennessee Legislature, he would
surely do it.
Thus it appears that Andrew John
sons parallel, by which he commen-
ded himself by contrast with Grant,
is, that he, Johnson, in State where
there was no dispute a. to the legality
of the election of the Governor and
Legislature, interfered in the affairs of
the State, and used the influence of
the Presidential Office to instigate
revolutionary movement to break up
the State government whereas Grant
only interfeTed to sustain the LOUISE
ana State government, which had the
best evidence of legal election against
a revolutionary attempt to overthrow
it.
Gov, BrownlOw goes on to show that
while acting President johnson was
cOnspiring 10 overthrow the undispu-
ted legal State government of Tennes-
see, he, on the other hand, did refuse
the use of the United States soldiers as
a posse to enforce the legal process of
the State authority. The majority of
the members of the House of Repre-
sentatives passed a resolution to arrest
certain members for contempt, who
refused to answer the rOll-call, and
who declared they would break up the
Legislature, and that the President
was with them and that, in accor-
dance with this resolution, he called
on Gen. Thomss for detail of soldiers
to assist the Sergeant-at-Arms i'm exc
cutting the process.
He maintains the legality of this /;
says that Gen. Thomas desired to fur
nish the aid, but that Johnson forbade
it, AMI hat he did this because he was
the c,u~ pirator who originated and
sustained this lawlessness." The Gov
erDOr goes on to give the event of this
strange conflict:
Finally on the 29th of July, after fight
ing the President the President and his
boilers in the Legislature, and his thou
sands Of rebel guerrillas and bushwhackers
on the outside, we got a quorum of So MEM
bers of the House, and ratified the amend
ment, greatly TO the chagrin of Andrew
Johnson. In proportion as Andrew John
son was depressed / was elated, for ! felt it
to be the first nail driven in the coffin of
My Policy" | gave expression to my
joy in the following telegram:
NAsHgILlE. TEyS.. July l9-I2 O'Clock NJ.
90 hon, Edigin ~. Stanton. Secretary Of Var. Ua.i-
iHgiOH d. O.:
My compliments to the President. We have
carried the constitutional amendment in the
House Vote 43 to il, two Of his tools refusing
to vote, Nv. G, RRowNLow,
Governor Of Tennessee"
He narrates that in the Legislature
which ratified the amendment by the
decisive vote OF 81 TO 10, there were Just
two members present Involuntary,
having been brought 10 the bar of the
House for contempt and breach of its
rules. Therefore
The charge of Senator johnson that !, as
Governor was endeayoring to control the
Legislature" and that there was " q differ
enee Of opinion between the Governor and
the Legislature" "a contest between two
civil departments of the government of the
State of Tennessee" is wholly without
foundation.