MESSAGE AND INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF GOV. WM. G. BROWNLOW, TO THE SENATE & HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF TENNESSEE. SESSION OF 1865.
Nashville, Tenn. S. C. Mercer, Printer, 1865. 23, [1 blank] pp. Stitched in original printed yellow wrappers [light dusting]. Signed and dated at the end in type, "WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW. Nashville, April 6, 1865." Small stamp "D'02" in blank portion of rear wrapper. Near Fine.
At the outset of the War, Brownlow was the editor of the Knoxville Whig, an unapologetically pro-Union newspaper. Brownlow's paper had the largest circulation in the State, and was extremely popular in Union-leaning East Tennessee. Confederate authorities shut down the paper and banished Brownlow to the North.
Brownlow "had, he said, as strong a voice as any man in east Tennessee. When not in controversy he was a peaceful and charming man, but his fearless and ruthless honesty in expressing his opinions made him always a storm center. . . For ten years he served as an itinerant preacher, but his intense interest in public questions, and a natural gift of pungent speech soon led him into political as well as religious controversy" [DAB].
Near War's end, Tennessee Unionists elected him Governor. In this inaugural Speech, delivered just before Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Brownlow promises "to know no man because he has been a Whig, or a Democrat, but to honor all, as they may honor the Federal Union." In abolishing Slavery, Tennessee's new Constitution "denies to the Legislature in all time to come, the right to recognize property in man. In this sweeping act of Emancipation, you have abated a nuisance, which, for years past, has obstructed all the avenues to agricultural, mechanical, manufacturing, and commercial development. . . Not one year elapsed after the war commenced before the institution of slavery, in all the border States, became utterly demoralized. The owner lost all control over his slave; and the slave having GOT OUT OF THE UNION, and from UNDER THE CONSTITUTION, has either been ITINERATING at will, or LYING AROUND LOOSE!" [italics in original].
Allen 6135. Item #41921
Price: $750.00