The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-09-22
POLITICAL FORCE.
HHr A TENNEsSEE CONGRESS DIS
TRICT REMAINS REPUBLICAN.

THE wsrst,r,s Fight Between Rrovuiow
snd Crozier stu Lives In the Politics or
the R.ozviIie District This Years
Contests sad Their Frsbasie Outco.e.
KxoxvnLE. Sept. 21.-In all the South there
IS only one rock Republican Congress
district. That IL the Knoxville, or Second Ten
nessee district. Since the war IL has never sent
Democrat 10 Congress, and IL probably will not
in many years. The district at present Is Re-
publican by 10000 majority. The balance Of
the South is hereditarily Democratic. In this
district the younger generation inherited its Re-
publicanism. The tariff and other economic and
political issues have nothing To do with IL. The
younger generation are Republican because their
fathers were. How the fathers came to be Re-
publicans Ia another matter.
East Tennessee became Republican because Of
. personal political feud. II Is a region OF feuds.
IL Ia a mountainous country, Inhabited by hearty
and fighting people. From its first settlement
down 10 the present day its people have been
fighting among themselves. They are still
fighting.
The republicanism Of this section Is the result
Of a personal feud between William q. Brown
low and John II. Crozier. It started before the
war. Crozier was the leader of the Democrats
of this part OF the State. lie was a large slave
holder and q leader in politics. While he was
controlling political affairs here Brownlow
moved TO Knoxville and edited a paper which he
called Bro,cnlotC's Whtg. He and Crozier soon
became bitter personal as well as political
enemies. Crozier advocated secession; Brown
low, Horace Maynard, and Andrew johnson OPP
posed II. The fight on this question in East Ten
nessce was very bitter. but n large majority OF
the people went with Brownlow against secession.
Tennessee seeded. East Tennessee, however,
followed Brownlow and held to the Union.
Thirty thousand East Tennesseeans enlisted In
the Union army. while only 1900 from East
Tennessee went into the Confederate army.
During the early part of the war the Confed-
crate army had possession of East Tennessee.
Crozier had Brownlow imprisoned for a time.
When released Brownlow went North, but
when the Union army obtained possession down
here Brownlow and Maynard returned. and
when the war closed Brownlow was made Gov
ernor. He declared himself a Republican, and
the East Tennessee people. who had been largely
his followers when he was q Wing. went with
him. Except for the personal animosity be-
tween him, with Maynard assisting on the
one side and the Crozier Democrats on
the other, Brownlow and all his following
in East Tennessee would have been Democrats.
Brownlow was q man Of passion and prejudice.
He despised Crozier. and because Crozier
espous,d one cause he espoused the other. His
personal influence and the influence OF his paper
carried lie mountain people of East Tennessee
with him. and made this what Tom Reed would
perhaps term the Republican oasis in the Demo-
cratic desert OF the South. Il Is as strongly Re-
publican to-day as II was the day the war closed.
II may be more. The Republicans seem to be
m IRE prolific than the Democrats.
After the war Brownlow was sent to the
United States Senate and Maynard TO the House
of Representatives. Maynard remained in the
House until 1872. J. NJ. Thornberg. another
Rap,hlicanL aucoaadsl hin, and ranainal q,
congress until 1878, when Leonidas c. Houk
WINS elected. Houk soon gained control of the
Republican machinery and remained in Con-
tTsss until a,s ID death sft TIVE years y age when he
eas Houk had a wonderful hold upon the people
" this DISTRICT He was personally popular and
s Hs thousand sile %Sds x, onion sR Ss so RsRSaon john iEp
L. Houk. the present Congressman, n Young
In the Reed Congress. inherited his fathers
fontrol Of the machinery as well as his seat in
lacks the personal magnetism OF his father, and
IN the Republican ranks OF this district there
.andlSacy q Henry A 4. Gibson aa%' judge nc geo Of y t the
Chancery Court OF this circuit. The Republic
OF the returns Gibson was nominated. but HoaS
charged fraud. appealed the case to the Con-
f. E51ss H. 5aHorl p ens tSsn G 20 mn Ns,io %aif Rsn asSiSsS
Committee. which rendered a similar decision,
Gibson. however, claimed that Houk fixed both
committees and announced that he was in the
race TO a finish. being the regular Republican
nominee; IHouk claimed the same thing. Both
have called each other tricksters and scoundrels.
and both are In the race, each claiming TO be the
regular Republican nominee. The Democrats
being. as the leaders believe, hopelessly in the
minority. have decided not to put out a candi-
date. but to let the Republicans fight 1t out
The Democrats have good reason for this.
They have only 10000 votes In the district. while
the Republicans have 10000. Even with Republi-
can candidates dividing their vote. the Demo-
Gratis could do nothing. Realizing this the
Democratic Congressional Committee think it
fnnra inn UnFf ant fn Galsat fha kastar ~ tNrn. Gull.
sacrificed, the Democrats prefer Hoaf.. He IS
not a shining light that would illuminate the
district TO the eyes OF the world. but he can do
socialistic tendencies. IL was he, who, while
coal miners OF this district: and il was he whoin
II speech on the Court House steps here in Knox
vile said that the miners had made the property
and were entitled To a division. Gibson is "A
sn,srt, venOmOus Republican, "A man who is the
hostile enemy Of ali things Democratic, while
John Houk Is a liheral;minded southern Re-
publicaII. VINO is opposed 10 Force bills and such
other iniguitous laws calculated TO Cypress the
south. Therefore the Democrats Of this dis
trict, showing that no Democrat could be elect
ed, prefer TO Keep hands of and let Houk be
for him. They probably viii. for a great ma
lorlty Of the Democrats want to STE him elected.
the other hand there are prominent Demo
they will vote for Gibson. necause he is a man OF
1 ma9iSsTsi HoS assi anS Gibtas a MSn an ,b Sei .tSI is
49, NNNN@ 'AStSA 80 va Wv AAAAR 1
abusing each other as tricSsters, fakirs, and
sCOundrels.
BY keeping out OF the Congress fight the Dem
Gratis believe they will make gains from this dis
trict in the Legislature. The fight between the
two Republican factions in each county Is so
bitter that each fears 10 put out Legislative
though they must do so very soon,
aud IL IL probable that In each county two sets
OF candidates will he named. In this event the
district.
IL l. very necessary that they'd so to hold the
legislature and reflect lsham q. Harris 10 the
! nited states senate. The Republicans and the
iopulists have fused to elect the next Legisla-
ture, and as a sequence the United States SEN
Htor. That is why H.. Clay Evans OF Chat
tanooga, ex-Congressman and ex-Assistant Post
master-tieneral under Harrison. Is making such
an active canvass as the Republican nominee
Ior GoSern0r against the reelection of Gov.
Peter TuTney.
Evans has no thought of being elected Gov
ernor, hut he docs think that the combination
between the Republicans and the Populists IN
the legislative contests may lead TOT control OF
the Legislature and his election 10 the United
states Senate u succeed Senator Harris. The
democrats, however, have no fear OF this, for,