Parson Brownlow
Brownlow's uncompromising and radical viewpoints made him one of the most divisive figures in Tennessee political history and one of the most controversial Reconstruction Era politicians of the United States.Beginning his career as a Methodist circuit rider in the 1820s, Brownlow was both censured and praised by his superiors for his vicious verbal debates responding to rival missionaries of other sectarian Christian beliefs.Later, as a newspaper publisher and editor, he was notorious for his relentless replies in the form of personal attacks against his religious and political opponents, sometimes to the point of being physically assaulted.Brownlow's gubernatorial policies, which were both autocratic and progressive, helped Tennessee become the first former Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union in 1866, "exempting it from the lengthy federal military reconstruction inflicted on most of the South".Joseph Brownlow, an itinerant farmer, was born in Augusta County, Virginia in 1782 and died during 1816 in Blountville, Tennessee and Catherine Gannaway followed three months later, leaving William orphaned at the age of 10.[3]: 6 The competition in Southern Appalachia for both converts and their tithes among the Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians was fierce, and diatribes in both speech and print against rival sectarian Christian beliefs and leaders were commonplace among missionaries.In defending his Methodist Church and its early leaders, Brownlow, took such debates to a whole new level, attacking not only Baptist and Presbyterian theology but also the character of his rival missionaries.It was here that Brownlow first ran afoul of the Baptists—who were spreading quickly throughout the Southern Appalachian region—and developed an immediate dislike of them, considering them narrow-minded bigots who engaged in "dirty" rituals such as foot washing.Brownlow began working as a clerk managing her family's O'Brien Furnace (iron foundry), which was located along the banks of the Doe River at Valley Forge about four miles southeast of Elizabethton.[3] Brownlow cut his teeth in the newspaper business during 1838 writing for the short-lived Elizabethton Republican and Manufacturer's Advocate, initially under its editor William Gott.Baptists, Presbyterians, Catholics, Mormons, Democrats, Republicans, secessionists, drunks, immigrants, and abolitionists—all were at one time or another on the receiving end of Brownlow's merciless broadsides.[11] As Brownlow's vituperative editorial style quickly brought bitter division to Elizabethton, and he began quarreling with local Whig-turned-Democrat Landon Carter Haynes.[3]: 113 While Brownlow steadfastly supported Whig candidates such as John Bell and James C. Jones, his true political idol was Kentucky senator Henry Clay.[16]: 289–290 Partially a result of Brownlow's persistent opposition to secession within the pages of his newspapers (and partially due to his long-time feud with Confederate sympathizer, banker, and Tennessee historian J. G. M. Ramsey), he was later jailed by Confederate States military authorities (the CSA district attorney in Knoxville, Tennessee being related to J. G. M. Ramsey) in December 1861, pardoned, and subsequently forced into exile in the northern United States.[19] Brownlow's friend and colleague, Oliver Perry Temple, stated that social pressure in the 1830s pushed most abolitionist Southerners to adopt pro-slavery views.[20]: 29 When South Carolina seceded following Lincoln's election in November 1860, Brownlow derided the state and its "miserable cabbage-leaf of a Palmetto flag" as being descended from British loyalists, thus giving it an affinity for the aristocratic types that would govern the proposed Southern Confederacy.[3]: 140 By 1861, the Knoxville Whig had 14,000 subscribers,[3]: 159 and was considered by secessionists the root of the stubborn pro-Union sentiment in East Tennessee (the region had resoundingly rejected a referendum on secession in February of that year).[16]: 254 On November 4, he left Knoxville and went into hiding in the Great Smoky Mountains to the south, where there was a strong pro-Union presence, and would spend several weeks staying with friends in Wears Valley and Tuckaleechee Cove.He sent a letter to Benjamin protesting his incarceration, writing, "which is your highest authority, the Secretary of War, a Major General, or a dirty little drunken attorney such as J.C. Ramsey is!His struggle against secession had made him a celebrity in northern states, and he embarked upon a speaking tour, starting with speeches in Cincinnati and Dayton in early April.In late June, he testified at the impeachment trial of West Hughes Humphreys, a Confederate judge who had denied Brownlow bail following his arrest in December.In the elections for the state's congressional seats held in August 1865, Brownlow rejected nearly one-third of the total vote to allow Radical candidate Samuel Arnell to win in the 6th District.[27] Brownlow began calling for civil rights to be extended to freed slaves, stating that "a loyal Negro was more deserving than a disloyal white man.That same month, the legislature passed a bill giving the state's black residents the right to vote, and Union Leagues were organized to help freed slaves in this process.He objected to Governor Brownlow calling out the militia and warned if they "committed outrages" that "they and Mr. Brownloe's [sic] government will be swept out of existence not a Radical will be left alive."Brownlow endorsed Ulysses S. Grant for president in 1868, and asked for federal troops to be stationed in 21 Tennessee counties to counter rising Klan activity.[27] Following his reelection as Governor of Tennessee in 1867, Brownlow decided he would not seek a third term, and instead sought election to the U.S. Senate seat that would be vacated by David T. Patterson, Andrew Johnson's son-in-law, in 1869."[3]: 396 He was interred in Knoxville's Old Gray Cemetery following a funeral procession described by his colleague, Oliver Perry Temple, as the largest in the city's history up to that time.[24] Eliza O'Brien Brownlow lived at the family's home formerly on East Cumberland Avenue (at the present day James White Parkway) in Knoxville until her death in 1914 at the age of 94.In the decades following his father's death, he helped finance the development of a Knoxville neighborhood (just north of modern Fourth and Gill) which for years was known as "Brownlow."
Governor of TennesseeAndrew JohnsonDewitt Clinton SenterUnited States SenatorTennesseeDavid T. PattersonWythe County, VirginiaKnoxville, TennesseeOld Gray CemeteryAmericanRepublicanWalter P. BrownlowJohn BellEast TennesseeHenry ClayWhig PartyAmerican Civil WarReconstruction Eracircuit riderRadical RepublicansConfederateAfrican-AmericanKu Klux KlanAugusta CountyVirginiaBlountvilleMagherafeltUlsterAbingdoncarpentrycamp meetingJoshua SouleBlack Mountainfoot washingMaryville, TennesseeCalvinisticslanderPickens DistrictnullifiersAmerican Sunday School UnionFrederick S. HeiskellCarter County, TennesseeElizabethtonDoe RiverflatboatWatauga RiverHolston RiverBrownlow's WhigLewis CassT.A.R. NelsonLandon Carter Haynes1st DistrictU.S. House of Representativesnational bankinternal improvementsMoccasin BendTennessee RiverChattanoogaNew OrleansAndrew JacksonLocofocosJames C. Jones1844 presidential electionKnoxville RegisterSons of TemperanceKnow NothingnativistWilliam G. SwanJohn MitchelWilliam ChurchwellJohn H. CrozierJ. G. M. RamseyFrederick Augustus RossKingsport, Tennesseeinternecine conflict within the Presbyterian ChurchJohn WesleyJames Robinson GravesLandmark BaptistimmersionabolitionistAmerican Colonization SocietyLiberiaOliver Perry TempleSouthern MethodistsFrederick DouglassSeviervilleplanter classBreckinridgeWilliam Lowndes YanceyHorace MaynardKnox CountyEast Tennessee ConventionGreat Smoky MountainsWears ValleyTuckaleechee Coveburned several railroad bridgesbridge-burnerJefferson DavisJudah P. BenjaminDaytonOliver P. MortonOhio state legislatureColumbusIndependence HallGeorge W. ChildsAcademy of MusicWest Hughes HumphreysColt ArmoryErastus Beadledime novelJohn B. BrownlowJames P. BrownlowAmbrose BurnsidesGeorge Dury13th AmendmentdisfranchisedPresident of the United StatesSamuel Arnell6th DistrictWilliam HeiskellMathew Brady14th AmendmentquorumMilitary ReconstructionEmerson EtheridgeUnion Leagues