Year: 1861

deep, but which would not or could not bring him
aid.


Thus these four men, who from the peculiar sit
uation of their portraits seemed to stand as the
representatives of all those whom the world calls
great-those four, who each in turD made the
earth tremble to its very center by their simple
tread, severally died-one by ntoxcation, or as
some suppose, by poison mingled in his wine
one suicide-one murdered by his friends, and
one lonely exile " How are the mighty fallen. )"
Parson Brownlow's Last Address to his


Readers.


The patriot, Parson Brownlow, has issued the
last number of his paper, he having received the
ultmatum of the Secession State authorities-in-
dictment by the grand jury and Imprisonment for
treason or an oath of allegiance to the Southern
confederacy, and the adoption by his paper of Sc
cession views. He boldly chooses the former
course, and says he will submit to Imprisonment
for life or die at the end of rope before he will
make the least concession to the traitor tyrants of
Tennessee or the Southern confederacy. He con-
cludes as follows:


The real object of my arrest and contemplated
imprisonment is, to dry up, break down, silence
and destroy the last and only Union paper left in
the eleven seeded States, and thereby to keep
from the people of East Tennessee the facts which
are daily transpiring in the country. After the
Hon. Jeff. Davis had stated in Richmond in a
conversation relative to my paper, that he would
not live in a government that did not tolerate
freedom of the press after the judges, attorneys,
Jurors and all others filling positions of honor and
trust under the " Permanent Constitution" which
guarantees freedom of the press and after the
entire press of the South had come down in their
thunder tones upon the Federal government for
suppressng the Louisville Courier and the New
York Day Book, and other secession journals-I
did expect the utmost liberty to be allowed to one
small sheet, whose errors could be combatted by
the entire Southern press 1t is not enough that
my paper has been denied circulation through
the ordinary channels of conveyance in the coun-
try, but it must be discontinued altogether, its
editor must write and select only such articles as
meet the approval of pack of scoundrels in
Knoxville when their superiors in all the qualities
that adorn human nature are in the pententiary
of our State And this is the boasted liberty of
the press in the Southern confederacy


l shall in no degree feel humbled by being cast
into prison, whenever IL is the will and pleasure Of
this august Government to put me there, on the
contrary shall feel proud of my confinement.
snail Sc TO Jail as John Rogers went to the stake
for my principles shall go because failed to
recognize the hand of God in breaking up the
American Government, and the Inauguration of
the most wicked, cruel, unnatural and uncalled for
war, ever recorded in history. l go, because l
have refused to laud to the skies the acts of tyr
amy, usurpaton and OPPRESSION inflicted upon
the people of East Tennessee, because Of their de-
votion to the constitution and laws of the govern
ment, handed down to them by their fathers, and
the liberties secured to them by seven long years
of gloom poverty and trial | repeat, l am
proud of my position, and of my principles; l
shall leave them to my children as legacy, far
more valuable than princely fortune, had l the
latter to bestow.


With me, life has lost some of its energy-hav-
ing passed six annual posts on the Western slope
of half century-something of the fire of youth
is exhausted-but stand forth with the eloquence
and energy of right to sustain and stimulate me
in the maintenance of my principles. am en-
couraged to firmness when look back to the fate
of Him "whose power was righteousness" while
the enfurated mob cried out cruelty him, cruelty
him."


owe TO my numerous list of subscribers the
filling out of their respective terms for which they
have made advance payments, and if crcumstan-
ces ever place it in my power to discharge these
obligations, l will do it most certainly. But if
am denied the liberty of doing so, they must re-
gard these small losses as so many contributions
to the cause in which have fallen feel that 1
can, with confidence, rely upon the magnanimity
and forbearance of my patrons under this state Of
things. They will bear me witness that / have
held out as long as l am allowed to, and that
have yielded to a military despotsm that 1 could
not avert the horrors of or successfully oppose.


will only say, in conclusion-for l am not al
lowed the privilege to write-that the people of
this country have been unaccustomed to such
wrongs they can yet scarcely realize them. They
are astounded for the time being, with the quick
succession of outrages that have come upon them,
and they stand horror stricken, like men expect.
ing ruin and humiliation. l may not live to see
the day, but thousands of my readers will, when
the people of this once prosperous country will
see that they are marching by d" double-quick
time" from freedom to bondage. They will then
look these wanton outrages upon right and liber-
ty full in the face, and my prediction is that they
will stir the stones of Rome to rise and mutiny
Wrongs less wanton and outrageous precipitated
the French Revolution. Citizens cast into dun
geons without charges of crime against them, and
without the formalities of a trial by jury, private
property confscated at the beck of those in pow
) err the Press humbed, muzzled and suppressed
or prostituted to serve the ends of tyranny The
crimes of Louis XVI. fell short of all this, and
yet he lost his head. The people Of this country
down-trodden and oppressed, still have the reso-
utons of their llusrious forefathers, who asserted
] their rights at Lexington and Bunker Hill