USA > Tennessee > Notable men of Tennessee, from 1833 to 1875, their times and their contemporaries > Part 26
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bed. He closed his eyes and seemed to be asleep, but in fact was wide awake. He often did this when he did not wish to be bored with tiresome company. To his intimate friends this was the signal for fun and frolic and anecdote telling, which I have known to keep up until after midnight.
On this evening about the time he lay down a large Kentucky farmer of a genuine type, free and easy going, drove up to stay all night. He had just been to market and sold his surplus farm stock for a good sum in cash. Naturally he was feeling good. He had with him what no good Kentuckian ever travels without, a bottle of old Bourbon, which he had not neglected that raw evening. Soon after entering the inn he was told that the "celebrated Parson Brownlow" was in the house. He said he must see him. The fact that he had gone to bed did not stop him. On learning the room he occupied, he bold- ly entered and presented himself before Mr. Brownlow, lying in bed with his eyes closed. He said, "Is this Parson Brown- low?" The latter, opening his eyes, said that it was. The Kentuckian said: "Mr. Brownlow, I heard you were here and I just came in to see you. I have been a reader of your paper for many years." Here Mr. Brownlow in a deep, sepulchral tone, said solemnly and impressively, "And a good religious paper, too, you have been reading." The Kentuckian was confounded at this. He was too polite to deny it, and yet he did not quite like the idea of agreeing that Brownlow's paper was a "good religious" one. So, after hesitating a moment, he drawled out, "Y-e-s, it is a good religious paper, b-ut there are-for a religious paper-some pretty rough places in it, too." Mr. Brownlow continued immovable and imperturbable until after his visitor left, and then he broke out into a hearty laugh at the embarrassment and surprise of his new friend.
I have somewhere heard this anecdote, perhaps read it in some of Mr. Brownlow's early writings: When he was a young man he was fishing one Sunday on the banks of a river. A Methodist minister passed by and, reprimanding him severely, asked him what he was trying to catch. The reply was, "The Devil." "What kind of bait do you use?" said the preacher. "A Methodist minister," said Brownlow.
It can now be seen from a review of the foregoing character- istics why Mr. Brownlow's influence was so omnipotent with
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the great body of the people in East Tennessee at the breaking out of the war in 1861. I do not hesitate to affirm as my opinion, that in shaping and fixing the opinions of the Whigs at that time, in that never-to-be-forgotten contest, he exerted a deeper and wider influence in favor of the Union than any other man. This he did through his widely-circulated paper. The great body of the people loved him almost to idolatry. They believed in him, they had confidence in him.
CHAPTER II.
Fidelity to Friends-Newspaper Warfare with George D. Prentice-Atti- tude Toward Slavery-Whig of April 20, 1861-After Battle of Bull Run-Belief in Long Continuance of War-North Had No Conception of Spirit of War in South-North and South Not Alien Races-The Covenanter-The Merrimac-The Dutch, Irish, and German Contin- gent-Not Surprising Southern Soldiers Won First Victories-The Puritan-Small Farmer.
ONE of the striking features in the character of Mr. Brown- low was his fidelity to his friends, whom he never betrayed nor deserted. With all the tenacity of his strong will, with all the warmth of his big heart, he clung to those who had proved themselves true to him. He could not do too much for them. No sacrifice on his part was too great for them. To promote the political fortunes of John Bell he devoted the columns of his paper and his best talents for nearly twenty years, never wavering in his support until Mr. Bell, most reluctantly, I be- lieve, joined the secession movement after the firing on Sumter. They parted in sadness, and not in anger. After that, if Mr. Brownlow ever said anything unkind of him, I have forgotten it. I witnessed their last interview, which took place in my house. It was sad, it was almost pitiable to see Mr. Bell in his fallen condition-so humble, so stricken with despair. Most plainly he saw and felt, as I believe, his fatal mistake. In a moment of weakness he had been caught in the toils of secession.
In working for friends Mr. Brownlow was noble, generous, and self-forgetful. There was no half-hearted devotion. There were two other personal and political friends in whose interest he never faltered-Meredith P. Gentry and Thomas A. R. Nelson. For the former he entertained an enthusiastic admira- tion ; for the latter, profound respect and friendship.
No one who knew Mr. Brownlow ever questioned his high courage, both physical and moral, and it was too often tested for any doubt. In derision he was called the "fighting parson," an epithet calculated to produce an erroneous impression, for
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he was never but once the assailant. In all his rencontres, except as just stated, he fought in self-defense. He believed in this right, and was always prompt to use the means necessary for this purpose.
There was nothing that was mean or little about him. His was a big nature-all his instincts noble, his impulses generous, his purposes high, his thoughts open as day. No thin disguise, no deceitful veil concealed the real man. The world-all the world-knew his inmost mind. Candor, frankness, openness marked his whole career.
No one at this day will question the fact that he was a very remarkable man. In many respects he was the most singular, not to say striking, character of his generation. His intellect was unquestionably of a superior order. No one of mediocre intellect could have run his successful career. Successes like those achieved by him and Mr. Johnson must rest on inherent strength and power. Inferior men, by the aid of favoring cir- cumstances, may blaze up for an hour. But here in these men, without wealth or education or adventitious aids, there was continuous, permanent success. Each step upward was so firmly planted as to permit other and higher steps. In the case of Mr. Brownlow these successes are all the more remarkable, because at no time did he rise by any base, or false, or flattering appeals to the prejudices or selfish passions of men.
The mind of Mr. Brownlow was singularly quick. He saw things at a glance, and with perfect clearness. There was no haze, no fog, no murkiness in his intellectual atmosphere. His ideas were as clear cut as gold coin fresh from the mint. His sentences were sharp, crisp, transparent. He aimed right at the mark. His thoughts, hurled by his vigorous intellect, went crashing through the center, like an arrow shot by the strong arms of a skillful bowman. In writing he dashed off his matter with the utmost rapidity. His ideas flowed into his mind in torrents, but there was no confusion, each thought coming in its natural sequence. What he wrote on the hot impulse was printed just as he wrote it. There was no correcting nor prun- ing. His intellect sifted out the dross as he went, leaving only the pure gold. Sometimes his language was rough, but it was always strong and ringing. His invective was terrible, falling on his victim with crushing, titanic force. In this respect he
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had but one equal in the country-the brilliant George D. Prentice of the Louisville Journal .*
Many a public man gained a notoriety from Mr. Brownlow's pen which he never could have won himself, and generally when he got through with a man in these controversies, that man was greatly injured in reputation.
Another instance of the power of Mr. Brownlow in contro- versy may be found in that of his last quarrel with Mr. Johnson, after the latter left the Presidency, of which an account is given in the latter part of this sketch.
Before the war, in common with nearly all Southern men, Brownlow was a firm believer in the institution of slavery, though not a slave owner. In 1858, in the city of Philadelphia, he had a joint debate lasting several days with the Rev. A. Pryne on this subject, in which he advocated the justice and morality of slavery as well as its economic advantages. At this day it is amazing to look back at the false and perverted ideas Southern men held at that time on this subject. It is to be observed, however, that they were brought up and educated from infancy in the belief that slavery was morally right.
*While Brownlow was Governor of Tennessee, in 1867, the most terrific newspaper warfare was carried on by these two men, in their respective papers, that ever occurred in this country. It arose in this way : Mr. George Baber, a young man on the newspaper staff of Mr. Prentice, wrote a short article, only a few inches in length, criticising the adminis- tration of Mr. Brownlow as Governor of Tennessee. Colonel John B. Brownlow, the eldest son of the Governor, then a young man also, seeing the article, wrote and published in an editorial a very bitter reply while his father was in Nashville. When the paper containing this reply reached Louisville Mr. Baber was overwhelmed at the difficulty he had unintentionally brought upon his principal. He took the article to Mr. Prentice in fear and trembling. When the latter read it, he only laughed good-humoredly and said he would answer it. At the same time he spoke of Mr. Brownlow in terms of friendship and admiration. He accordingly answered the article in that style peculiar to him when enraged. Then, on the other side, Mr. Brownlow took up the quarrel for himself. The controversy grew hotter and hotter, until nothing like it has perhaps ever been witnessed in the country. Prentice, after writing and reading to Mr. Baber one of his most brilliant articles, laughed most heartily at what he had said. He delighted in the noise and roar of battle. In this respect Mr. Brownlow was just like him. After writing his most furious articles against men, he would shake his head and laugh most heartily, as if he had perpetrated a good joke.
The above facts I recently learned from the lips of the two persons who involved their respective principals in the bitterest and most notable personal quarrel of that day. They were discussing that controversy in my presence in the city of Washington and laughing over the part that each had taken in it.
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Therefore they never questioned the correctness of this belief. Indeed, but few men had the courage to do so. To have doubted would have fastened the brand of abolitionism on the doubter. No stigma was so odious and disgraceful as that of the aboli- tionist, and but few men had the courage to incur that certain and fearful odium. Mr. Brownlow thought on this subject in harmony with the almost universal belief among ministers as well as laymen in the South. The Reverend Drs. Palmer, Thornwell, Ross, Dabney, and others had defended slavery in the pulpit and the press, as Mr. Brownlow did, as a divine institution. However, when red-handed war, in the name and cause of slavery, clutched at the throat and aimed at the life of the nation, the latter, almost alone among all the prominent ministers of the South, broke to pieces his idol and turned away from it. With him the first, the highest, and the last duty was due not to slavery, but to his Government. His first allegiance and love were given to the Union, whether slavery should survive or whether it should perish.
Having supported John Bell for the Presidency in 1860 on the Constitutional (Union) platform, and being a Whig- indeed a Federalist-nothing was more natural than that Mr. Brownlow should have opposed secession after the election of Mr. Lincoln. In his paper of November 17, 1860, in an edi- torial he said :
"Let them (the Secessionists ) know whenever they meet you that as law-abiding citizens, loyal to our blood-bought govern- ment, you will never consent to see our soil ravaged by the terrible strife which would result from secession, and on the very threshold proclaim your determination to oppose all the mad schemes of disunion and to stand by this Union of States. Tell these secret emissaries and street talkers that you admit the value of cotton as an article of commerce, but remind them in the next breath that Kentucky and Missouri hemp, as a necklace for TRAITORS, is an article of still greater value for home consumption."
In his issue of April 20, 1861, Mr. Brownlow said :
"The first shot fired by the rebels will unite the Northern States in the battle for the Union, and arm two hundred thou- sand men for the conflict."
Again in the same paper he said :
"We shall rejoice in the success of American arms over these
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seceding rebels as sincerely as we did in the triumph over the Spanish rebels on the bloody plains of Mexico."
On April 27, he said :
"Every paper in the fifteen slave States may declare for a Southern Confederacy, and charge the cause of this cruel and unnatural war on Lincoln; we shall deny the fact as long as we have our senses, and refuse to the day of our death to go into a Southern Confederacy, or to agree that honor, patriotism, or a love of country influenced the vile, hypocritical, corrupt, and insincere leaders who have plunged the Cotton States into this revolution."
I might quote extracts like the foregoing, almost enough to fill a large volume, showing the deep hatred of Mr. Brownlow for a Southern Confederacy.
Let me present some contrasts between the language and spirit of three noted men, written in July, 1861, after the great battle of Bull Run. The first is from the pen of the great War Secretary, Edwin M. Stanton, who had been Attorney General under Mr. Buchanan, but who was at this time a dissatisfied private citizen. It is hard to escape the suspicion of a personal pique on his part toward Mr. Lincoln because he was not re- tained by him in his Cabinet when Mr. Buchanan retired. In a letter addressed to Mr. Buchanan, lately President of the United States, dated July 26, 1861, Mr. Stanton said :*
"The dreadful disaster of Sunday can scarcely be mentioned. The imbecility of the Administration culminated in that catas- trophe ; an irretrievable misfortune and national disgrace, never to be forgotten, are to be added to the ruin of all peaceful pur- suits and national bankruptcy as the result of Lincoln's 'run- ning the machine.' * *
The capture of Washington seems now to be inevitable; during the whole of Monday and Tuesday it might have been taken without any resistance. The rout, overthrow, and utter demoralization of the whole army is complete. Even now I doubt whether any serious opposition to the entrance of the Confederate forces could be offered. While Lincoln, Scott, and the Cabinet are disputing as to who is to blame, the city is unguarded and the enemy is at hand."
This letter does Mr. Lincoln injustice. That there was weak- ness at that time in the prosecution of the war admits of no
*John Van Buren said that Mr. Buchanan sat in the White House like a bread-and-milk poultice drawing the rebellion to a head.
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doubt. But Mr. Lincoln was doing all he could. He was inex- perienced as his counselors all were. He had to trust the army officers, and a war of such immense proportions was new to them also. The army had to advance and offer battle before it was ready to satisfy the insane clamor of the North. No Cop- perhead would have sneered in that dark hour at Mr. Lincoln more savagely than Mr. Stanton did. It is not singular that it was addressed to James Buchanan.
The next is an extraordinary letter written by Horace Gree- ley, July 29, 1861, and addressed to Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Greeley, it must be kept in mind, was a Northern man and a Republican, who had done more, perhaps, than any one man in the United States, through his great paper, the New York Tribune, to embitter the two sections of the country. For weeks before the disastrous battle to which he refers, he had, day after day, urged an advance of the army at Washington. His battle cry had been, "On to Richmond." General Scott, then in command of the army, as well as Mr. Lincoln, knew the army was not ready to move, but an impatient public, incited and urged on by Mr. Greeley and others, clamored until it was deemed best to move, though unprepared. The result was the disaster at Bull Run, the first important battle of the war. Mr. Greeley's letter was as follows:
"This is my seventh sleepless night-yours, too, doubtless. Can the rebels be beaten after all that has occurred, and in view of the actual state of feeling caused by our late awful disaster? If they can-and it is your business to ascer- tain and decide-write me that such is your judgment, so that I may know and do my duty. And if they cannot be beaten- if our recent disaster is fatal-do not fear to sacrifice yourself to your country. If the rebels are not to be beaten-if that is your judgment in view of all the light you can get-then every drop of blood hereafter shed in this quarrel will be wantonly, wickedly shed, and the guilt will rest hereafter on the soul of every promoter of the crime.
"If the Union is irrevocably gone, an armistice for thirty, sixty, ninety, one hundred and twenty days-better still, for a year-ought at once to be proposed, with a view to a peaceful adjustment. Then Congress should call a national convention to meet at the earliest possible day. * * I do not con- sider myself at present a judge of anything but the public senti-
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ment. That seems to me everywhere gathering and deepening against the prosecution of the war. The gloom in this city is funereal. On every brow sits sullen, scorching, black despair. It would be easy to have Mr. Crittenden to move any proposition that ought to be adopted, or to have it come from any proper quarter. *"
Most wisely Mr. Lincoln never answered this remarkable let- ter. Now listen to the lion-hearted Brownlow, speaking from the heart of the Southern Confederacy-from a State in actual insurrection-surrounded by Confederate armies, and by men who sought his life. In his paper of July 13, 1861, he said, among other things :
"This great popular Union heart has thus far admirably withstood all such unfavorable influences, and is still stoutly braced for the conflict before it. The President calls for an army of 400,000 men, and for four hundred millions of dollars to put this war through and to crush out this wicked, treason- able, hell-born, and hell-bound rebellion. Congress will grant all these men and all this money, and we predict with perfect con- fidence that the Government forces will be victorious; that the Constitution and the laws will be upheld; that the wicked and corrupt men who inaugurated secession will be overthrown, and their names go down to posterity associated only with infamy."
Again in his paper of July 27, one day after Mr. Stanton's letter was written to Mr. Buchanan, and two days before that of Mr. Greeley, just quoted-all writing about the same question- he said :
"We publish the proceedings of a Peace Convention in West Tennessee, composed of delegates from counties voting in favor of the Union. The move is to memorialize the two governments to terminate the war. We believe it to be a wicked, unnatural and uncalled for war-that the South commenced it without sufficient cause-and that it ought never to have been com- menced. But strange as it may seem to many of our readers, we are opposed to any sudden or abrupt termination of the war.
"We have been assured on all hands, by politicians, clergy- men, and scores of the people that God is on the side of the Southern Confederacy, and that they are therefore bound to triumph. We are further assured by the press and the army officers that one Southern man can whip five Yankees. We do not believe either proposition, and never did, and therefore we
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favor prosecuting the war until we have these controverted questions settled. If God be on the side of the Confederate troops, we desire to go with them. And if one Southerner can whip five Yankees, we don't want to advocate a Union whose troops can't fight. These are questions which ought to be set- tled, and this can only be done by carrying on the war."
How artful is the above, and what a fine vein of sarcasm and irony runs through it!
On August 3, he said in an editorial :
"Our candid opinion is that the war will not terminate under
three or four years. * The war was inaugurated in the South, and by the South, and the whole tone of the Southern people and press, and especially of the leading politicians, is favorable to a desperate and long-continued conflict. The tone of the administration at Washington, the spirit of Congress, and of the whole Northern people, is warlike, calling for a vindica- tion of the Government and for its maintenance against a rebel- lion they believe was not called for. Denounced as vandal hordes and stigmatized as cowards, they are resolved upon vindicating their honor and giving the world the evidence of their courage. The capital of their government they are resolved on protecting, or dying within the sacred surroundings thereof."
It may be mentioned as a curious fact that the brilliant Greeley, in the latter part of 1862,* wrote to M. Mercier, the French Minister at Washington, suggesting that he should secure the mediation of the French Government between the contending belligerents in order to put an end to the war. So, too, he opened up negotiations for a cessation of the war with some irresponsible parties in Canada in 1864, and got himself into a rather ridiculous attitude. In fact, he gave Mr. Lincoln more trouble than an open enemy of the Government would have done. He was so vacillating, so unsteady, not to say so cranky, that he was constantly getting out of harmony with the ever- determined, level-headed, and unfaltering President. In 1862 he dismissed Charles A. Dana as managing editor of the New York Tribune, because Mr. Dana, as he states, was for vigor- ously prosecuting the war, while Mr. Greeley was for peace. His paper, from its vast influence with the great body of the Northern people, and from the well-known ability of Mr. Gree- ley, ought to have been the strongest support of Mr. Lincoln
*Nicolay and Hay, Vol. VI, p. 83.
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in the prosecution of the war; but by reason of the vagaries of that erratic man it became sometimes an obstruction to the national cause.
It has never been clear to my mind whether the defeat of the Federal army at Bull Run was, in the end, a disaster to the North or a "blessing in disguise." Did it prolong the war? Was a disaster needed by the North to arouse it to a sense of the magnitude of its danger, and the stupendous task it had on hand? Would a Union victory have disheartened the South and broken its spirit? Would the Southern Confederacy have com- menced falling to pieces after one signal defeat? I think I can safely say, emphatically no, as to the last two questions. That a defeat in the first great battle of the war would have dis- heartened to some extent the people of the South can be safely affirmed, but it would not have broken their spirit. They would have gathered up their strength for a new and mightier effort on some other field. They had staked all on the great issues of war, and their proud and determined spirit would never have yielded with one defeat, however disastrous. Never were men braver or more determined. They were animated by an in- tensity of feeling and an earnestness of purpose never surpassed in the annals of war. This feeling and purpose were shared by all classes, ages, and sexes. War-war until their independence should be won-became the sole purpose of the whole people. Nothing else was thought of, talked of, or dreamed of. Eternal war was to be waged until victory crowned their daring efforts. No sacrifice of life or of treasure was too costly in order to secure this great end. The spirit of this brave people was never broken. It finally yielded only to absolute exhaustion, when human endurance could bear no more, and when the power of effectual resistance had ceased. When Sheridan captured and burned the provision trains sent to supply the starving army at Appomattox, he conquered Lee. Despair then settled on the hearts of the starving men who had never known what fear was.
On the other hand, it cannot be denied that the Northern people were surprised and overwhelmed by their defeat at Bull Run. To use the language of Mr. Greeley, "there sat upon every brow, sullen, scorching, black despair." But they needed this defeat. Indeed they needed and got many Bull Runs before they realized the greatness of the contest in which they were engaged. Never were a people more greatly deluded in their
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opinions as to the war. Mr. Seward assured the Foreign Am- bassadors that the uprising would be suppressed in ninety days. General Wool, when informed at Fortress Monroe of the fall of New Orleans, said that that would end the war.
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