Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-03-06
THOSE DEPC 0NT,

VI VIC COAtCnto3 .hAO OIlJ "oN va
readers to bear in mind the pro
fessed object of the committee, viz
to investigate the validity Of th'
debt. So far as the 4 t1ssa
committee goes, which we have he.
tofore published, and the deposi
tions which have thus far been made
public, there is total failure tc
prove the debt or my portion of il
invalid.
With his, we night pass by the
testimony brough oa. by com
mittee, leaving cur intelligent read
ers to make up their own conclu-
sions, as they will. But our rela-
tions to one of the parties, who is
sought to be implicated in
a dishonorable transaction, have
been such, that the public
may expect that we will have some
thing to say; We allude to the
late Senator W. G. Brownlow, with
whom we were connected in busi-
ness for many years. The living
whose regulations have been soiled,
or attempted to be, by this extraor-
binary committee can speak for
themselves. Not content, however,
with blackening the character of
the living by Juggling into this il
vestigation matters wholly irrele-
want to the subject which they pre-
tended to investigate, like ghouls
and hyenas they have proWled
among the graves of the dead for
something to crafty their SANDER
Gus appetites. Fairly considered,
there is nothing in the evidence of
Joseph A. Mabry that would con-
vict Gov. Brownlow of bribery or
corruption, in the estImanion of even
an impartial stranger. But
here, where he was best known,
there is not a reasonable man Of
any party who would for one
moment give credence to such
charge. In his long and eventful
life of more than three score and
ten years, although he passed
through many exciting conflicts,
and was the subject of more maleyo-1
lent and malignant opposition and
abuse than usually falls to the lot
of men, no one ever dared in his
life time to charge him with dishon-
esty or corruption, and now, though
he sleeps in the grave, he has plenty
of friends living to defend his mem
ory from so villainoLs q charge as
the evidence before this committee
would imply, when distorted by
ghoulish hate or ignorant prejudice.
No man ever approached William
G. Brownlow with bribe. No man
who knew him ever dared to do it.
He was above suspicion in this
respect. AS his former neighborS
pass by his grave in Grey Gene,
terry, they unanimously agree that
" there lie the remains of an honest !
man." He may have erred, but
his errors were all on the side of
humanity and benevolence. With /.
his income for several years before
the war he might have been com
paratively rich, but he died poor.
He spent fortune in acts of chari-
ty and kindness to his neighbors
and friends. His family now reside
in an humble residence in this city
worth three thousand dollars, with
an income barely sufficient to live
upon, after exercising careful
If he had been cor
rupt man he had ample oppor~
tunities to have grown rich.
Gov. Brownlow was regarded by
the opposite party at the close of
the war as an extreme man. lie
had had provocations to excite a
spirit of revenge, and when he be-
came Governor he had the power to
;ake revenge had he thought proper
% do SO. The gentlemen who are
said to have made his wife present
If five thousand dollars, at least a
portion of them, were regarded as
extreme men on the 9th er side.
The Governor showed no mali
,ious disposition toward these men,
out on the contrary received them
N spirit of friendship. He aided
them in every possible may in their
legitimate business enterprises. He
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