Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-24
.BROWNLOW'S SPEECH
HIS REMARKS SECURED AN AP-
PRECIPITATION.

Representative waiter BrOWnlOw OF
Tennessee. who has been a membe- of Con-
gress since Moses was rag babylon the
last ten years, to be absolutely accurate
made his maiden speech in the House of
Representatives yesterday afternoon. He
got the biggest kind of an ovation, and
last night his colleagues wondered why it
was that the Tennesseean had never been
heard from before.
The sundry civil bill was under discussion
when the Honorable Walter loosened his
collar and tore into the arena and the pro-
vision of $32 600 for the cemetery'at Green
vile, Tenn, where the body of President
johnson is inferred, was the particular
subject on the carpet. Somebody sort of
objected and that was enough for Mr..
Brownlow. He jumped to his feet and
spoke right out in meeting. And it was
the real sort of talk, too. His colleagues,
who have never had the pleasure of seeing
Mr.. Brownlow with his food-gates of elo-
quenee Embossed, sat In a daze until he
mad finished. and then gave him the biggest
sort OF an ovation. After that the burying
ground provision couldn't have been pried
loose from the sundry civil bill with a
crowbar.
Mr. Gardner of Michigan, member of
the committee on appropriations, moved
that the paragraph be stricken out for the
reason that there were but four union SOL
d1ers buried there. He said that the appro-
priatlon was really an ingenious way of
taking care of the grave of Andrew john
son.
This objection brought into debate Mr..
Brownlow Of Tennessee, nephew of Par
son Brownlow, who represents the district
once represented by Andrew Johnson Mr.
BroWnlow said:
His Forcible Remarks.
Mr. Chairman. 1 want to say in regard
to the speech Of my colleague on the COM
mittee (Mr. Gardner of Michigan), who
says there is not a soldier buried in this
cemetery"
Mr. Gardner of Michigan-"If the gentle
man will permit me, I stated that there were
two sons: OF sons-in-law Of Andrew john
son. who served in the army, who are
buried there, but no soldier from the neigh
borhood. They are not seeking to be buried
there. My understanding is that the posts
own their own cemeteries there and their
dead are buried in those cemeteries from
preference over this one."
Mr.. Brownlow-"Now the gentleman does
not mean to misrepresent the facts. l be-
leve he means to do my constituents abso-
lutte and exact justice; but he does not state
the facts. and he does not come within
gunshot of the truth of the situation This
was made national cemetery by act of
both houses of Congress receiving the sig
nature of the President Of the United
States There are no cemeteries connected
with the posts in that section of country.
The first congressional district Of Tennes-
see furnished more soldiers to the Union
service during the dark days of the rebel
lion than any congressional district in the
United States, and yet We were one hun
dred miles inside the confederate lines.
There is no national cemetery, gentlemen
of the House of Representatives, within
seventy-five miles west Of the point where
this cemetery is established Culpeper,
Va. over three hundred miles to- the east,
is then nearest. The north and south can
not be reached from that district.
oh. Mr.. Chairman, when these soldiers
left eastern Tennessee they were followed
by bloodhounds; they bid their wives, their
daughters and their sweethearts goodbye
by moonlight at the old home spring. and
went across the mountains into Kentucky
and Joined the Union army. When they
went. Mr.. Chairman, they did not go as
did the men in the north, for thirty, sixty
or ninety days, but they went with the full
understanding that they could never return
to their families and their homes unless the
cause that they espoused was successful
Ex-President Johnson was democrat.
He was a member of the United States
Senate from Tennessee and was the only
senator of his party. north or south, that
stood by Abraham Lincoln in favor of the
old flag and united country.
49, Andrew jackson Lauded.
"And yet here from this northern sec
ton Of the country cores the opposition to
doing ho:.or to these people of the noun
Union and the old flag. Andrew Johnson
was surrounded and supported by the votes
of the states rights secession democracy
of the south, yet he went with the cause
of the Union, stood by the government,
stood by Abraham Lincoln, and l have as
serted heretofore. and reassert, that, TAX
ing his surroundings and his acts and COM
pairing them, believe he was the greatest
patriot of the civil war. Applause.) Brown
low, Nelson and Maynard stood shoulder to
shoulder with Johnson but they had made
their fight for the Union. the Constitution
and the enforcement of the laws under the
leadership of John Bell of Tennessee and
Edward Everett Of Massachusetts" Gap
plause.)
Mr.. Gardners motica was defeated in a
vast chorus of noes
Immediately afterward on motion Of Mr.
Edwards of Kentucky the committee ap-
propriated $4,000 for Mill Springs National
cemetery.