Year: 1862

but never expected, three months ago, tc


see this city again. expected to be look.
ing up rope. Uaughter.) l was confined
in prison where there were $50 Others


whose only crime or offense was that they
defended the flag of our country. None Of
them deserved hanging for that more than
did, for had hit the rebels harder and oft.
ener, and called them harder names than any
body else. Through my tri-weekly poured
hot shot into them, from jeff Davi. down to
the lowest reptile in their ungodly confeder.
acy. daughter and applause.) 1t was mar
velou' to my friends that they did not exc
cute me. They sent me to jail, where 1 was
confined during the months of December,
January and February. They came to the
gate sometimes with cofins, bristling with
bayonets guarding them. We knew that
somebody was to be hung, but we did not
know which one. You may imagine our
feelings. often thought my time had come,
and said so frequently. took the precau-
ton, for | had pencil and paper, to draft a
speech which intended to ask leave to de-
liver under the gallows, before swinging of.
Q4aughter.) But, gentlemen, by their not
hanging me, the world has lost an exceeding
ly rare production in the way of speech
daughter and applause.) 1t was a eulogy
upon Jeff Davis and the whole concern down
through to little Benjamin, who used to steal
at Yale College.


They came sometimes with two cotfins, one
in each cart and they took two men at
time and marched them out. A poor old
man of sixty-fve and his son of twenty-five
were marched out at one time and hanged
on the same gallows. They made that poor
old man, who was Methodist class leader,
sit by and see his son hang till he was dead,
and then they called him damned Lincoln
lte Union shrieker, and said, "Come on; it
is your turn next He sank, but they prop
ped him up and led him to the halter, and
swung both off on the same gallows. This is
the spirit of secession in the South, the spirit
of murder, the spirit of assassination, the
spirit Of hell, and yet you have men at the
North who sympathize with these internal
murderers. If owe the devil debt to be
discharged in dozen men, the meanest, the
most depraved ranks of human society. and
| wanted to pay the debt and get premium
en- the payne It. would make the devil
tender of twelve northern sympathizers with
secession. CHEERS and applause.) IfI am
severe and bitter in my denunciation (cries
of no, no, no) you must consider that We in
the South make it personal matter, We
have no confidence in northern men who
sympathze with this rebellion; it is equiva
lent to saying it is right to shoot, hang and
whip US. After the battle at Manassas, con-
federate soldiers passed through Knoxville,
going to see their friends in the South on
parole, and they brought back heads of feder-
al soldiers, CHASTITY, clotted with gore, and as
they shook them by the boards, they would
shout it was ID Yankees head they had
captured at Bull Run. This is their spirit of
murder, of the vile untutored savage, of hell
and he who apologies for them is no better
than those who perpe,rate the outrages. In
Andy Johnson's town they had the jail full,
they took his house for hospital, robbed
him, and drove his wife, who is in the last
stages of consumption, to seek shelter with a
daughter in an other county. Andy John
son has tonight devil in him a, big as this
water pitcher, and every Union man in East
Tennessee has devil in him as big as my
hat. When the advance Of the Union army
will let us back, we will shoot them down
like dogs and hang them on every limb we
come to. They have had their time of hang
ing and shooting, our time comes next, and |
pray God it may not be long coming.