USA > Tennessee > Bradley County > History of the rebellion in Bradley County, East Tennessee > Part 3
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Another argument that might be here presented against the assumption in question, is the spirit of the rebellion itself. That instance is not on record where any just National cause, immediately successful or otherwise, characterized itself by those brutalities and studied cru- elties, as a rule, practiced by the rebellion, though per- haps not without exceptions, seemingly in a spirit of revenge, and with a view to accomplishing its ends. His- tory does not furnish a more glaring and frightful paradox than exists in this pretension to Divine guidance on the part of the rebels, and the systematic cruelties which they allowed themselved to perpetrate under it.
27
IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
Our American Revolution is now universally admitted to have commenced in justice, consequently with the Divine approval. It was provoked by grievances and abuses which made it positively unavoidable, or made it indispensably necessary to the success of the Colonists as a people. Theirs was a case infinitely more than that of the Southern rebels, calculated to tempt and provoke revenge ; and if such a course had been good policy, much more an inducing cause of resorting to wasting cru- elties as a means of defeating their enemies. Like the rebels, our forefathers believed that their cause was right, and more honestly than the rebels, appealed to God for the sincerity of their convictions and the purity of their motives, and as submitting to Him the grievances for which they took up arms, for Him to answer to the jus- tice of their position by giving them victory.
With them this work was real, and brought them upon too sacred ground for the kindlings of revenge or of any other spirit as an element of the contest, only such as was consistent with the Attributes of the Being to whom they applied, such as they felt and professed to be gov- erned by at the start, and saw to be indispensable qualifi- cations for being heard by the Creator and Judge of the world.
Thus our Revolution on the part of our forefathers was not, like the rebellion on the part of the rebels, a war of the passions. Their grievances being real and utterly unavoidable only by an appeal to the sword, made their dependence on God a corresponding reality; and they, from the very nature of such dependence, compelled to continue in this frame and fight the battle through upon this principle, there was no room for the spirit of revenge and retalliation, only as the latter was occasion- ally justified as a means of self-protection ; and being no room nor any disposition for these passions, there was, of course, no grounds for a barbarous resort to them as a means of weakening their enemies.
The conclusion is therefore irresistible that had the rebels, as they so loudly professed, been in this same con-
28
HISTORY OF THE REBELLION
dition, their spirit would have been the same also. The undeniable fact, however, that the general spirit of the rebels was the very reverse of this from the beginning to the end of the war, is evidence conclusive that their ex- travagant pretensions in this respect were either destruc- tive self-deceptions, mental infatuations to which they were given up that they might be destroyed, or hypocrit- ical and wicked devices to inspire with mistaken enthu- siasm the thousands of ignorant soldiery whom the lead- ers were sacrificing to their own diabolical purposes.
An enlightened and considerate view of the spirit and genius of the rebellion, its fancied and falsely arrayed grievances, its insatiable greed of National power, its determination to rule or ruin, its aristocratic corruption and domineering cruelty, and the social vortex which it was preparing and towards which it was remorselessly driving the people of the whole land, white as well as black, causes every good man to tremble when he reflects how near the terrible effort approximated to a final suc- cess.
29
IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
CHAPTER III.
ELECTION FOR CONVENTION AND NO CONVENTION.
Ir was stated at the commencement of the second chap- ter, that the rebel leaders, both in church and state, very positively assumed that the rebellion was politically as well as morally right.
Every person in Bradley County knows that this was the position unequivocally taken by the rebels, not only in this county, but in the whole of East Tennessee, and that this position was maintained during the war. Through- out East Tennessee, as well as in Bradley, the rebels set themselves up as the loyal party-the only true patriots in the state. Standing upon this platform, they constant- ly justified their cruel treatment of Union people on the ground, that these Union people were traitors ; and, con- tended that the sufferings which they were inflicting upon them were not cruelties, but righteous and well deserved punishments for their crimes as tories, traitors, and rebels against their own lawful government. Upon this princi- ple the rebels of Bradley asserted that the Union citizens had forfeited all claim to their homes, that their posses- sions were no longer theirs, and therefore, that Confede- rates were justified in robbing Union families, plundering their farms, hunting them through the country like so many wild beasts, and shooting them upon the run like so many robbers and outlaws.
Now, we wonder if it ever occurred to the rebels while they were engaged in all this, that as a theory, this was a wholly false position. Did it ever occur to them that this platform of theirs was, in fact, completely reversed all the time ? That they themselves, were the tories, traitors, and robbers, instead of the Union men whom they were murdering? Did it ever occur to the rebels that they were robbing and murdering these Union men, only because they refused to commit the very crimes which
30
HISTORY OF THE REBELLION
they alleged against them ? They murdered them, they said, because they were traitors; but the fact is, they murdered them because they were not and would not be traitors. Traitors against the best government in the world, were murdering loyal citizens because they were not traitors like themselves. Men guilty of the highest type of treason, were murdering others for exhibiting the highest type of loyalty. Men guilty of treason, the high- est crime known to the law, were murdering their neigh- bors for their loyalty, the greatest virtue known to society.
The former chapter was devoted to a consideration of this subject as a general question, a question in regard to the rebellion as a whole, and not with especial reference to it in any particular locality. If the rebellion as a whole was wrong-its principles offensive to God, its designs at war with His providence-then, of course, the rebellion was wrong in Tennessee, and the statements just made in regard to the criminality of Bradley rebels, consequently, correct. The question, however, of the false position of the rebels in Bradley, and their criminality in conse- quence, deduced from the fact, that the whole rebellion was wrong, with the remark just made, we will let pass for the present.
There is another question of importance, less general, bearing upon the subject, to be considered, and which must be considered before the guilt of Tennessee rebels can be accurately measured. Though the rebellion as a whole was fundamentally wrong, yet, if Tennessee had, by a clear majority of her people, decided to go with this rebellion, such action, if it had not palliated the cruelties inflicted by Tennessee rebels upon their Union neighbors, might, at least, have given some show of consistency to the political position which they assumed towards the
loyal people. If, however, it can be shown that this majority was exactly the other way-against secession, and was clearly expressed, then, it will not only follow that the position assumed by the Tennessee rebels that they were the loyal party was false and inconsistent ; but that they stand before the world as that class of men
31
IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
known in history as the double-headed traitors-traitors against the general Government, and also traitors against the Government of their own State. In any Republican State, the will of the people clearly expressed, is the Gor- ernment of that State-is the Supreme Law, and whoever rebels against that law is a traitor. Dual treason, how- ever, does not seem to be the only distinguishing charac- teristic of the Tennessee rebels ; nor the only particular brand of infamy with which they will be handed down to posterity. Having perfected this double crime, or rather having committed the crime of treason the second time, first against the general Government, then against the clearly expressed will of a majority of their own people, the course of evil had been sufficiently protracted to harden them for the third and final denouement of indis- criminate blood-letting which followed and crimsoned their footsteps, especially in East Tennessee-a barbar- ousness not exceeded even by the Andersonville and Belle Island horrors, and which when viewed as a third stride in the career that had already designated them dual traitors, forever brands them as the tripple and blood-stained criminals of the Great Rebellion.
The infidel writer and pamphleteering castigator of John Bull in the days of the Revolution, Thomas Paine, never uttered a sentiment truer, nor one falser than this is true, than when he said, " One bad action creates a calam- itous necessity for another." The bloody scale on which Tennessee rebels graduated from one degree of crime to another will remain, to the end of time, a monumental illus- tration of this proverbial truth. We shall now give a brief statement of facts in regard to the secession of Tennessee- facts the most of which have already been made histor- ical by appearing in official or documentary form, and all of which can be substantiated by living witnesses.
South Carolina broke the way and seceded from the Union family on the 20th of December, 1861. As well as exciting treason in other portions of the South, this also fired the rebel blood in Tennessee. On the 7th of Jan- uary, only eighteen days after the great sin of South Car-
32
HISTORY OF THE REBELLION
olina, Governor Harris convened his Legislature at Nash- ville. On the 19th, this body appointed a State election for the 9th of February following, at which the people of Tennessee were to decide whether a State Convention should be called to consider the subject of the great Southern movement now commenced in South Carolina. Convention or No Convention on this subject was to be the distinct issue before the people of Tennessee at this election ; consequently, those in favor of the measure were to write on their ballots "Convention," those opposed to it were to write on theirs, "No Convention."
In view of the possibility that the people at this elec- tion might decide to have this convention, each party, Union and Secession, nominated its candidates to be elected as members of this convention, and voted for them at the same time that they voted for Convention and No Convention. Every county in the State, we be- lieve, on that day elected its members to this convention. The Union candidates were pledged to vote, in case the convention took place, against secession under any cir- cumstances and at all hazards. The rebel candidates were pledged to vote for secession except on certain con- ditions-a redress of grievances, &c.
The results of the election were No Convention, and a majority of Union candidates. Even the city of Memphis elected its Union candidates by 400 majority. The major- ity of Union votes cast in electing these members over those cast by the rebel candidates, was 64,114. The Union majority for No Convention was not so large, being only 30,839.
It appears that a great many Union men in the State, who on that day voted for Union candidates, did so under the impression that, although they were thus opposed to secession, yet it was proper to have a State Convention on the subject of existing difficulties. Hence this differ- ence between the majority for these Union candidates, and that for No Convention.
The Sth of February came, and the following is the vote of each county for Convention and No Convention :
IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
33
EAST TENNESSEE.
COUNTIES.
Convention.
No Convention.
COUNTIES.
Convention.
No Convention.
Anderson
137
1.077
Washington
891
1,353
Bledsoe
190
630
Monroe
723
971
Bradley
212
1,443
Morgan
13
488
Campbell
71
870
McMinn
439
1,457
Cocke
192
1,332
Meigs
338
323
Carter
55
1,055
Blount
450
1.552
Grainger
158
1,675 Claiborne
95
1.030
Green.
337
2.648
Hawkins
420
1.33S
Hamilton
445
1,445
Hancock
100
746
Jefferson
250
1.999
Johnson
38
631
Knox
394
3.167
Sevier
69
1.243
Marion
108
751
Scott
29
385
Polk
117
1.112 Sequatchee
Roane
67
1,585
Rhea
79
573
Total
7,629 34,312
Sullivan
1.180
734
MIDDLE TENNESSEE.
COUNTIES.
Convention.
No Convention.
COUNTIES.
Convention.
No Convention.
Maury
3.145
628
Dekalb
336
1.009
Wilson .
462
2.565
Lawrence
692
35
Smith
303
1,829
Overton
563
863
Warren
821
452
Macon
73
960
Lincoln
1.863
815
Giles
1.531
550
Jackson
169
2.012 Dickson
449
490
Bedford
828
1.656 Hickman
765
298
Montgomery
1,611
339|Lewis
192
84
Stewart
997
96
Van Buren.
103
142
Rutherford
1.003
1.539
Robertson
1,611
389
Williamson
430
1.684
Wayne
255
737
Franklin.
1.240
206|
Marshall
1,186
481
Humphries
335
327
Fentress
334
325
Davidson
2.525
3.083
Grundy
393
58
Summer
1.408
770
Cheatham
White
673
976
Cannon
301
1,038
Total.
7,360
27.520
Coffee
613
698
34
HISTORY OF THE REBELLION
WEST TENNESSEE.
COUNTIES.
Convention.
No Convention.
COUNTIES.
Convention.
No Convention.
Shelby
5,697
197
Madison
1.757
86
Carroll
618 1,495
Fayette
1,521
19
Henry
1,334
776
Perry
382
232
Benton
621
296 Decatur
251
514
Dyer
876
163||Lauderdale
407
65
Hardin
791
395
McNairy
811
916
Gibson
2.227
533
Weakly
1,472
483
Haywood
816
544
Tipton
700
147
Henderson
619 1.105
Hardeman
1,694
30
Total
24,328 8,324
Obion
1.672
328
Total for No Convention
70,156.
Total for Convention
39,317.
Majority for No Convention
30,839.
The above was taken from a number of the "Memphis Appeal," dated January 27th, 1861.
The following extracts show conclusively, the rebels themselves being judges, that this election was a fair trial of the question at issue-an honest and perfectly volun- tary expression of the will of the people.
The first of these extracts is from the editorial of the "Cleveland Banner," a bitter rebel sheet, and which was continued till silenced by the Federal army in the winter of 1864.
The "Nashville Gazette," the paper from which the second extract is taken, was also a strong rebel paper.
"THE ELECTION .- The election on Saturday last resulted in the de- feat of everybody, in one sense of the word, except " No Convention " -he run like a scared dog, and beat the field out of sight. In this county the vote stood, Convention 242, No Convention 1443. Brown was elected delegate. We have but few returns from the adjoining counties, and they not full; but one thing is certain, a Convention has been voted down by an overwhelming majority, and those fortunate men who were elected to a convention, will have the pleasure of remain- ing at home."
35
IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
"THE RESULT .- The people of Tennessee yesterday had an opportu- nity of saying through the ballot-box. whether or not they desired the assembling of a State Convention, as provided for by Legislative enactment. The indications are that a large majority voted " No Con- vention." However much we might have desired a different result, we feel fully satisfied that the proposition to hold a Convention has been defeated. The people have spoken, and we have naught to say against their decree. It may bring them no harm, or it may result in evil only-which of the two will be known before the expiration of many days."
Now this election furnishes us with a two-fold expres- sion of the will of the people in regard to the secession of the State. First, we have a clear majority of 64,114 votes, those cast for the Union candidates for membership in this convention, expressing the sovereign will of the people, that Tennessee should not under any circum- stances secede from the Union. Second, in the votes at the same time cast, respecting a convention, we have another clear Union majority of nearly 31,000, not only against secession ; but, deciding that no cause whatever existed, even for a convention on the subject, that Ten- nessee had no grievances to complain of, that she had no quarrel with the General Government, and proposed to remain in the Union as she was. This was the legitimate announcement of the people of Tennessee at this elec- tion, doubly expressed. That this is so, as well as being a fair and binding expression of the will of the people, is now not only the testimony of every Union man in the State, but is the testimony of the rebels themselves. The following is from the Cleveland Banner, a rebel sheet, from which we have already quoted in this connection, and taken from a number dated February 15th, 1861.
"THE CONVENTION .- The returns leave no reasonable doubt that the Convention has been voted down by an immense majority. This was a result not looked for. This object was gained by a systematic cry, that if you vote for "Convention " you are for immediate seces- sion-he who is for the Union must vote " No Convention."
The practical result is, that by voting " No Convention " the peo- ple have deprived themselves of the power of having a voice, at this time, in the settlement of the questions at issue-they have for the present taken it from themselves and left it in the hands of the poli- ticians-the last place where it ought to be.
But this is not all. The Legislature, as is well known, sent on commissioners to the Border State Convention, now being held in Washington city, the vote of "No Convention" is equivalent to say-
.
36
HISTORY OF THE REBELLION
ing, " Tennessee asks nothing, she desires no settlement, she wants things to stand as they are."
The arm of our Commissioners is paralyzed. The Black Republi- cans can say to them, 'what are you here for now ? Since the Legis- lature sent you the people themselves have spoken, they are for standing still ; they are content with the existing state of things ; your Commissions are revoked; we are not bound to listen to your declarations that there must be no civil war; that there should be a final and peaceable settlement of all matters in issue; the verdict of the people is against what you ask-they are for no action-for standing still-for letting things drift on as they are-your people are satisfied with us, and the policy on which we have declared we will administer the Government.'"
It is seen that this rebel editor in this extract himself strongly testifies to the truth of the position we have just taken in regard to this election. Admitting the fact then, why did not he for the future act consistently with his own admission ? Admitting that such was the sovereign will of the people, expressed as he says by an "immense majority," why did he, traitor like, fight it for the next three years or as long as he could with all his might ? Why did not he, why did not Governor Harris, why did not this rebel Legislature, with whom this proposition for a State Convention originated, and why did not the minor- ity in the whole State submit to this sovereign will of the people, instead of flying together in a foul conspiracy against it and trampling it under their treasonable feet ?
One statement in this extract so manifestly betrays either the stupidity or dishonesty, or both, of this editor, that we cannot resist the temptation to give it a passing notice. He says, "The practical result is, that by voting 'No Convention' the people have deprived themselves of the power of having a voice, at this time, in settling the questions at issue-they have for the present taken it from themselves and left it in the hands of the politicians -the last place where it ought to be." Just as though the sovereign voice of the people was no settlement of this question at all.
The substance of the above statement amounts to this : The vote of the people of Tennessee which settled and disposed of the question of secession in her case, forever deprived them of the power to settle it. The vote or act of the people which took it out of the hands of the politi-
37
IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
cians put it into the hands of the politicians. The self- same vote or act of the people which took the question into their hands put it out of their hands.
A Supreme Judge from whose bench there is no appeal, receives a difficult case from the lower courts; and after giving it a thorough and impartial trial, delivers his ver- dict upon it, and this verdict is a final disposition of the case. This Cleveland editor, however, starts up and says, Judge you have committed a grave error ! You have for- ever deprived yourself of the power to settle that ques- tion. You have forever taken it out of your own hands and put it in the hands of the lawyers, "the last place where it ought to be." This is exactly the position of this rebel editor in the above statement.
From the fact that this February election was a fair ex- pression of the will of the people, it followed that this dictated and pointed out the subsequent duty of the mi- nority. It was the duty of the minority to submit to this decision, and allow the State to be governed by the prin- ciples it announced. Even more than this, it was the duty of the parties and individuals composing this minority to become co-operators with the majority in carrying out these principles, by exerting their influence to resist rebel- lion and discourage revolt among the people of Tennessee. This was just what the people at this election decided to be the duty of all parties and individuals in the State. particularly those into whose hands they had entrusted the reins of authority from the governor to the lowest municipal officer among the people.
The great misfortune of the majority at this election, and the great misfortune of the State was, that nearly all her politicians and incumbents of office at the time, were among the minority. As another writer remarks, "The secession or rebellion of Tennessee was a rebellion of office-holders and politicians." The people arrayed them- selves on the side of the Government; office-holders and politicians arrayed themselves on the side of the rebellion.
As soon as the result of the election was known, the politicians throughout the State, and most of those in
3S
HISTORY OF THE REBELLION
authority, conspired with each other in public as well as in private, to defeat the wishes of the people. Hundreds of instances might be given in confirmation of this state- ment.
The writer of these pages arrived in Nashville five days after that city surrendered to General Buell in the winter of 1862. While there he obtained various items of impor- tant information from Union men respecting the secession of Tennessee. It was their universal testimony that the failure of this project for a "Convention" created no little excitement and no little dissatisfaction among the seces- sionists in Nashville. For days after the election com- panies of them were seen excitedly conversing upon the subject on the streets and in public places throughout the city. Among one of these companies an individual named More, a very active and strenuous Southern-rights man, was heard to use, in substance, the following lan- guage : "This election is a disgrace to the State, and Tennessee is disgracing herself by longer remaining in the Union. We will see Governor Harris, and he shall call an extra session of the Legislature, and d-n the State, we will put her out at all hazards." This remark was heard by Mr. John L. Stewart, a truthful and reliable Union man well known in Nashville, having been a citi- zen for many years, though now deceased.
The active hostility thus exhibited by More and his rebel crowd to this election will be recognized by Ten- nessee Union men as the identical spirit that prevailed against it everywhere among rebels throughout the State, and as that feeling which originated the measures imme- diately commenced by those in power to force the people into the vortex of rebellion. Agreeably with his own feelings, and prompted by this spirit among the rebels, Isham G. Harris, then Governor of Tennessee, convened his Legislature on the 25th of April, a little more than two months after this rebel proposition for a convention had been voted down by the people.
The following are the introductory remarks of his mes- sage to this body on that occasion :
39
IN BRADLEY COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Nashville, April 25, 1861.
Gentlemen of the Senate
and House of Representatives :
The President of the United States-elected according to the forms of the Constitution, but upon principles openly hostile to its provis- ions-having wantonly inaugurated an internecine war upon the people of the slave and non-slaveholding States, I have convened you again at the seat of Government, for the purpose of enabling you to take such action as will most likely contribute to the defence of our rights, the preservation of our liberties, the sovereignty of the State, and the safety of our people; all of which are now in imminent peril by the usurpations of the authorities at Washington, and the unscru- pulous fanaticism which runs riot throughout the Northern States.
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