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Brave Words from Brownlow.
Although Parson Brownlow of the Knoxville Whig is not now allowed the untrammeled expression of his patriotic sentiments, he plainly shows on which side his sympathies lie. He does this amidst threats of a assassination and menaces of all kinds against his persons and property. He again announces himself as a candidate for Governor of Tennessee, and says, he is the only candidate who takes bold, open, and daring ground in favor of the Union, the Constitution, and the laws. He thus lays down his platform:
We are for the Union as it is, first; for a Border State Confederacy next; and for the Southern Confederacy never, in any contingency, or under any circumstances that may arise.
In another place he says:
We are no Lincoln man – we neither admire him or his counselors, nor do we approve of his policy or principles – and we have the consolation of knowing that we did all in our power to prevent his election. But we deny that Lincoln began this war, or that he is responsible for the consequences and the bloodshed which may follow. Every paper in the fifteen slave States may declare for a Southern Confederacy, and charge the cause of this cruel and unnatural war upon 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.
