Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-05-01
THURSDAY, MAY1 1879.
TENNESSEE AND THE UNION

TENNESSEE AND THE UNION
., - ASoPIoeenIa
tive in Congress from Pennsylvania
in a speech made in the House O.
Representatives last Saturday,
stated in substance, as reported in
the Associated Press dispatches,
that in the election of June, 1861,
in East Tennessee, a majority OF
the voters had been prevented by
armed interference from keeping
the State loyal. Mr.. Atkins, Of this
State, took issue with him and de-
MED the statement, whereupon Con-
gresham Harry White, also
of Pennsylvania, expressed it as
his belief that East Tennessee
was "bulldozed out of the Union. !"
Mr.. Atkins called upon Hon. Rob-
ert L. Taylor to state whether or
not this was true. Mr.. Taylor rose
to reply, but the hour fixed for vot-
ing on the Legislative Appropria-
ton bill having arrived, he was not
permitted to proceed.
While Mr.. Shallenbarger's state
ment, as reported may not be- lit
orally true, it was true in spirit,
and Mr.. Whites remark was lit
orally true. In February, 1861,
when the question of secession first
come before the people of Tonnes
see, they voted by a majority of
sixty thousand against even holding
a convention to consider the sub
ject. The Union sentiment was
overwhelming. Only two counties
in the State voted in favor of seces-
sion. Soon afterwards the Legisla-
ture was convened in extra session,
and was induced to pass an act to
arm and equip a provisional force
in the State, and an ordinance of
secession, to be ratified by the peo-
pie at the ballot box. The time
fixed for holding this q ction was
in June, 1851. For weeks before
the election was held, Confederate
troops, or what was the same,
troops for this provisional army,
were being raised all over the State.
In East Tennessee there was an
active canvass against the proposed
ordinance of secession. Speeches
were made by Andrew johnson, W.
g. Brownlow, Thos. \. Il. Nelson,
John Baxter and many others, often
in the face of armed mobs. A
Union meeting at Strawberry
Plains was fred upon by Confed-
crate soldiers passing by on a rail
road train. Knoxville was be-
seiged by Confederate soldiers and
one man at least was shot down in
his residence on Gay street for
being an out-spoken Union man.
Bloodshed was prevented on
more than one occasion by the in
tercession of prudent men on both |
sides. But with +h;s roign of ter
ror prevailing, and with armed
troops stationed at several places in
this section of the State, at the
June election in 1861, only four
counties in East Tennessee out of
thirty-cne, voted in favor of seces-
sion, and the majority in most of
them was overwhelming. While it
is possible that there was no direct
armed interference at the polls, cir
cumstances We're such as to keep
thousands of timid men from
voting at all, and to induce thou
sands of others, through fear, to
vote the Secession ticket. The
writer of this himself voted where
there were a number of soldiers
around the polls, and their pres
ence was clearly an act of intimida-
ton.
In the other sections of the State,
Middle and West Tennessee, bat
few Union meetings were held, and
t would have been dangerous in the
extreme for any man to
nave made a speech in ia
ror of the Union. In February,
1861, there was a strong Union