William G. Brownlow Circular
Brownlow published this circular for the "Loyal Men of Tennessee" to protest the appointment of General Longstreet as Surveyor of Customs for the Port of New Orleans and to refute Andrew Johnson's suggestion that he had received funds from Johnson to start a Union newspaper in Knoxville. Brownlow presents his protest by sharing the speech he had made before the U.S. Senate wherein he described Longstreet's actions against the federal government. His refutation is reprinted from a letter he wrote to the editor of the Chronicle in order to explain that the newspaper funds came from the U.S. government. It also stated that Andrew Johnson had compelled rich rebels to pay him money while he was military governor of Tennessee. There are two copies of this circular in the collection.
Dates
- circa 1869
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Extent
0.1 Linear Feet
Abstract
Brownlow published this circular for the "Loyal Men of Tennessee" to protest the appointment of General Longstreet as Surveyor of Customs for the Port of New Orleans and to refute Andrew Johnson's suggestion that he had received funds from Johnson to start a Union newspaper in Knoxville.
Biographical/Historical Note
James Longstreet was born on January 8, 1821, in Edgefield County, South Carolina to James and Mary Ann (Dent) Longstreet. He graduated from West Point in 1842 and was a major in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War. Shortly after the Civil War began, on June 1, 1861, Longstreet resigned his commission in the U.S. Army to serve in the Confederate Army as a general. After the Civil War, he moved to New Orleans, became a Republican, and worked to reconcile the South with the Union. He supported U.S. Grant for the presidency, so Grant nominated him for Surveyor.
Longstreet married Maria Louisa Garland on March 8, 1848, and Helen Dortch on September 8, 1897. He had ten children over the years. In 1895 he published his memoirs, called From Manassas to Appomattox, and on January 2, 1904 he died, in Gainesville, Georgia.
William Gannaway Brownlow was born August 29, 1805 in Wytheville, Virginia to Joseph and Catherine (Gannaway) Brownlow, and was orphaned at the age of 11. In 1825, having tried his hand at farming and carpentry, he had a religious experience at a camp meeting and entered into a career as a circuit riding minister in the Holston Conference. Parson Brownlow married Eliza O'Brien on September 11, 1836, and settled down to work for her father in the family iron mill at Elizabethton. After being approached by members of the local Whig Party to edit their failing newspaper, the Republican and Manufacturer's Record, Parson Brownlow became -- because of his wit, venom, and violent rhetoric -- one the most noted or notorious journalists in American history. He moved to Knoxville and changed the name of his newspaper to Brownlow's Whig, which he used during the Civil War to publish his strong Unionist views.
After the War, Parson Brownlow and fellow East Tennessee Unionists formed a state government with Brownlow as governor. Publicly, as governor, his attitude was one of unremitting revenge upon the Confederates, though privately his attitude was charitable and forgiving toward individuals. Brownlow was elected in 1868 to the Senate, where, due to his extreme weakness born of years of illness, he made little mark. After his service in the Senate, Brownlow returned to East Tennessee where he died on April 28, 1877.
Arrangement
This collection consists of a single folder.
Acquisition Note
Special Collections purchased this document in 1971.
Repository Details
Part of the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Repository