Year: 1868

From the Nashville Union and Americana


There is evidence that the arbitrary


and indefensible course of Governor


Brownlow is at last working out its legit.


innate results. For more than three


years he has bullied the people OF this


State, and made them yield obedience to


his usurpations and whims, because the
legislative and judicial departments of
| the State government stood ready to


give the force of law to any ukase he
might issue, however subversive of the
rights of the people it might be. But it
appears that the men who have been re-
lied upon to do this despicable work, are
tiriug of the task imposed upon them.
Men of influence in the Radical party are
beginning to realize the fact that under
this pressure the State has drifted very
nearly upon the dangerous edge OF


things" and that if they contriye to yield
passive obedience to the dictation of an
unscrupulous Governor, the State will be


utterly ruined, and that with the State


they themselves must go down. A cor


respondent of the New York Herald,


writing from Humboldt, Tennessee, un-


der date of September l9, throws some


light upon the points to which we refer.


He says:


"There is one thing which will, in the


congressional elections, help the Con-


servatives amazingly, and that is the dis


satisfaction of large number of the mod


crate Republicans with the course the


party has pursued in the State. They


are heart and soul for Grant and Colfax,


but they declare themselves unable to


sanction by their votes the enormities of


which Brownlowism has been guilty


during the past year, and as there are two


or more Radical candidates in each con-


gressional district, their detection may


prove of incalculable benefit to the


Democrats. The leaders of the dissatisfied


faction, let me add, are the very best men


in the Legislature-tLat is to say, the men
who are more noted than their brethren
for their general ability and non-fanati-
cism. The proclamation of the Cover


nor calling out the militia has greatly
intensified this feeling of dissatisfaction
among them. / have spoken to no
less than sixty leading Repub-
licans in different parts of the
State-several of whom we're Assembly


men who voted in favor of the militia bill
concerning this proclamation, and l
have found but one who did not denounce
its being issued at the present time as i'll
timed, or, as nearly all of them expressed
it, in very bad taste They contend
that it was wholly unnecessary after the
assurances the President had just given
that he would afford Tennessee all the
protection she would be in need of. i
voted in favor of the bill, said one of
these gentlemen to me, because l
wanted to give the Governor the power
necessary to issue a proclamation
calling out the militia when he saw
that it was necessary that he should do
so. But after the authorities at Wash
ington have pledged US all the succor
that we can possibly want, the issuing of
the proclamation looks to me as though
the Governor was itching for fight at
all costs Indeed the issuing Of the
document, under the circumstances, is |
denounced by all the intelligent Repub-
licans in the State. On the other hand,
so far from creating the intense excite
ment among the disfranchised (who, ac.
cording to Brownlow, are desirous of stir
ring up war of races) that was ex-
pected to follow its appearance, it has
caused no more feeling than if it had been
a wishy-washy editorial from the Kuox-
Vile Whig. There certainly would have
been considerable Of stir throughout
the whole State at its appearance had it
not been for the promises which the
President had just made to the Legisla-
tive Committee who had called upon him
ostensibly to ask him for aid, but really
10 give publicity to their electioneering
document of an address The people Of
Tennessee dread the horrors of mill
Iary reign, but they have confidence that
he United States troops will not be sub
servient to partisan mandates. Hence
he calmness with which they have lis
ened to Brownlow's screenings for
peace, otherwise called anarchy.