When Secession first raised its hydra-head our hero stood up manfully
for the Union and the Constitution, and amid an almost overwhelming
torrent of abuse heaped upon him by the Press throughout the State.
Darker and darker grew the storm around him; fiercer and fiercer the
denunciations hurled at him by the enemies of the Union; yet, with an
iron will, and sustained by an inward consciousness that he was doing
his duty, he continued to battle nobly for the cause of his country, and
in each and every number of his paper poured down on the rebel crew his
scathing sarcasm and scorching repartee.
At last the Confederate authorities determined on his arrest and
punishment. In October, 1861, he was indicted by the Grand Jury, and his
paper suppressed. We here give his farewell address, which will be read
with mournful interest and high admiration. His words are those of a
spirit not seeking martyrdom, but ready to confront it in all its
terrors in the cause of truth and patriotism.
Prentice, of the Louisville _Journal_, in publishing this last
editorial, made the following very truthful comment: "He may be
consigned by trembling tyrants to a dungeon, but there will be more of
God's sunshine in his soul than can ever visit the eye-balls of his own
and his country's enemies. If a million prayers can avail, the naked
stones of his cell will be a softer and sweeter bed than his traitor
foes will enjoy:"
[From the Knoxville Whig, October 26.]
This issue of the _Whig_ must necessarily be the last for some time to
come--I am unable to say how long. The Confederate authorities have
determined upon my arrest, and I am to be indicted before the Grand Jury
of the Confederate Court, which commenced its session in Nashville on
Monday last. I would have awaited the indictment and arrest before
announcing the remarkable event to the world, but, as I only publish a
weekly paper, my hurried removal to Nashville would deprive me of the
privilege of saying to my subscribers what is alike due to myself and
them. I have the fact of my indictment and consequent arrest, having
been agreed upon for this week, from distinguished citizens,
legislators, and lawyers at Nashville of both parties. Gentlemen of high
positions and members of the Secession party say that the indictment
will be made because of "some treasonable articles in late numbers of
the _Whig_." I have reproduced those two "treasonable articles" on the
first page of this issue, that the unbiased people of the country may
"read, mark, learn and inwardly digest" the treason. They relate to the
culpable remissness of these Knoxville leaders in failing to volunteer
in the cause of the Confederacy.
According to the usages of the Court, as heretofore established, I
presume I could go free by taking the oath these authorities are
administering to other Union men, but my settled purpose is not to do
any such thing. I can doubtless be allowed my personal liberty by
entering into bonds to keep the peace, and to demean myself towards the
leaders of secession in Knoxville, who have been seeking to have me
assassinated all Summer and Fall, as they desire me to do, for this is
really the import of the thing, and one of the leading objects sought to
be attained. Although I could give a bond for my good behavior, for one
hundred thousand dollars, signed by fifty as good men as the country
affords, I shall obstinately refuse to do even that; and, if such a bond
is drawn up and signed by others, I will render it null and void by
refusing to sign it. In default of both, I expect to go to jail, and I
am ready to start upon one moment's warning. Not only so, but there I am
prepared to lie, in solitary confinement, until I waste away because of
imprisonment, or die from old age. Stimulated by a consciousness of
innocent uprightness, I will submit to imprisonment for life, or die at
the end of a rope, before I will make any humiliating concession to any
power on earth!
I have committed no offence--I have not shouldered arms against the
Confederate Government, or the State, or encouraged others to do so--I
have discouraged rebellion publicly and privately--I have not assumed a
hostile attitude toward the civil or military authorities of this new
Government. But I have committed grave, and I really fear unpardonable
offences. I have refused to make war upon the Government of the United
States; I have refused to publish to the world false and exaggerated
accounts of the several engagements had between the contending armies; I
have refused to write out and publish false versions of the origin of
this war, and of the breaking up of the best Government the world ever
knew; and all this I will continue to do, if it cost me my life. Nay,
when I agree to do such things, may a righteous God palsy my right arm,
and may the earth open and close in upon me forever.
The real object of my arrest, and contemplated imprisonment, is, to dry
up, break down, silence, and destroy the last and only Union paper left
in the eleven seceded States, and thereby to keep from the people of
East Tennessee the facts which are daily transpiring in the country.
After the Hon. Jeff. Davis had stated in Richmond, in a conversation
relative to my paper, that he would not live in a Government that did
not tolerate the freedom of the press; after the judges, attorneys,
jurors, and all others filling positions of honor and trust under the
"Permanent Constitution," which guarantees freedom of the press; and
after the entire press of the South had come down in their thunder tones
upon the Federal Government for suppressing the Louisville _Courier_,
and the New York _Day-Book_, and other secession journals, I did expect
the utmost liberty to be allowed to one small sheet, whose errors could
be combatted by the entire Southern press! It is not enough that my
paper has been denied a circulation through the ordinary channels of
conveyance in the country, but it must be discontinued altogether, or
its Editor must write and select only such articles as meet the approval
of a pack of scoundrels in Knoxville, when their superiors in all
qualities that adorn human nature are in the penitentiary of our State.
And this is the boasted liberty of the press in the Southern
Confederacy!
I shall in no degree feel humbled by being cast into prison, whenever it
is the will and pleasure of the august Government to put me there; but,
on the contrary, I shall feel proud of my confinement. I shall go to
jail as John Rogers went to the stake--for my _principles_. I shall go,
because I have failed to recognize the hand of God in the work of
breaking up the American Government, and the inauguration of the most
wicked, cruel, unnatural and uncalled for war, ever recorded in history.
I go, because I have refused to laud to the skies the acts of tyranny,
usurpation, and oppression, inflicted upon the people of East Tennessee,
because of their devotion to the Constitution and laws of the
Government, handed down to them by their fathers, and the liberties
secured to them by a war of seven long years of gloom, poverty and
trial! I repeat, I am proud of my position, and of my principles, and
shall leave them to my children as a legacy, far more valuable than a
princely fortune, had I the latter to bestow!
With me, life has lost some of its energy--having passed six annual
posts on the Western slope of half a century--something of the fire of
youth is exhausted--but I stand forth with the eloquence and energy of
right to sustain and stimulate me in the maintenance of my principles. I
am encouraged to firmness, when I look back to the fate of Him "whose
power was righteousness," while the infuriated mob cried "crucify him,
crucify him!"
I owe to my numerous list of subscribers the filling out of their
respective terms for which they have made advance payments, and if
circumstances ever place it in my power to discharge these obligations,
I will do it most certainly. But if I am denied the liberty of doing so,
they must regard their small losses as so many contributions to the
cause in which I have fallen! I feel that I can, with confidence, rely
upon the magnanimity and forbearance of my patrons, under this state of
things. They will bear me witness that I have held out as long as I am
allowed to, and that I have yielded to a military despotism that I
could not avert the horrors of, or successfully oppose.
I will only say, in conclusion--for I am not allowed the privilege to
write--that the people of this country are unaccustomed to such wrongs;
they can yet scarcely realize them. They are astounded, for the time
being, with the quick succession of outrages that have come upon them,
and they stand horror-stricken, like men expecting ruin and
annihilation. I may not live to see the day, but thousands of my readers
will, when the people of this once prosperous country will see that they
are marching, by "double-quick time," from freedom to bondage. They will
then look these wanton outrages upon right and liberty full in the face,
and my prediction is they will "stir the stones of Rome to rise and
mutiny." Wrongs less wanton and outrageous precipitated the French
Revolution. Citizens cast into dungeons without charges of crime against
them, and without the formalities of a trial by a jury, private property
confiscated at the beck of those in power, the press humbled, muzzled,
and suppressed, or prostituted to serve the ends of tyranny! The crimes
of Louis XVI fell short of all this, and yet he lost his head! The
people of this country, down-trodden and oppressed, still have the
resolution of their illustrious forefathers, who asserted their rights
at Lexington and Bunker Hill!
Exchanging, with proud satisfaction, the editorial chair and the sweet
endearments of home for a cell in the prison, or the lot of an exile, I
have the honor to be, &c.,
WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW,
Editor of the Knoxville _Whig_.