Portrait and Biography of Parson Brownlow, The Tennessee Patriot

by William Gannaway Brownlow

During his stay in Cincinnati, Mr. Brownlow received a pressing invitation to meet the Methodist ministers of the city, and address them; in accordance with which he was introduced to a meeting, held in the editorial rooms of the Western Christian Advocate, by Rev. J. T. Mitchell. Rev. Dr. Kingsley then welcomed the illustrious visitor in the following

ADDRESS.

Fellow Citizen, Friend and Brother:—In behalf of the Methodist Clergymen of this vicinity, I welcome you to our city, our homes, our hearts. Our desires and prayers were never more sincere for anything, than for your preservation and deliverance, when we learned that you had been thrust into a cold, damp prison, for no other crime than loving your country, and hating treason. Thank God, the prayers of millions of loyal hearts have been heard in your behalf.

Paul, and Silas, and Peter, Apostles of the Gospel, were liberated from prison in answer to prayer. The God in whom they trusted has also heard the prayer in behalf of an Apostle of Liberty and Union.

Your patriotic utterances in your noble paper were eagerly received by the friends of the Constitution, and, multiplied a thousand fold, those utterances sped upon the wings of lightning to the most distant parts of our country. They were inspiring to the loyal people of the United States. We were thankful to know that there was at least one Parson in Tennessee who could love God and his country too—his whole country. One such man can chase a thousand, and two can put ten thousand to flight. So we conclude that Parson Brownlow and Andy Johnson are good against ten thousand rebels. With such pains and such pluck, such nerves and such principles to guide, we trust the State of Tennessee will soon come right again.

We are aware that your Union principles have cost you something—cost you everything but life, and that which, to every true man, is dearer than life,—honor and rectitude. We bid you a warm welcome on this account. Situated as we have been, we deserve no praise for being Union men. To be otherwise would be to serve the devil just for its own sake. It would be like chopping off our hands just to see the blood run, or thrusting them into the fire just to feel the pain. But with you the case has been different. Spurning bribes and offers of aggrandizement, scorning the threats and terrors of traitors, you have preferred to suffer privations, afflictions and imprisonment, rather than prove false to the Government that has protected us all. By thus, in the face of danger and death, taking your stand so nobly against all odds, all hazards, all temptations, and machinations of wicked seducers, you have won the undying admiration of a grateful people. Your deeds have thus become so interwoven with the most eventful period in the annals of our country, that your name is henceforth to be a household word, so long as the American Republic shall live in fact or in history. Yours is the proud satisfaction of having done right for its own sake, in the face of powerful temptations to do wrong, and you have your reward. And if a very unpoetic man may be allowed to amend a couplet familiar to our school-boy days, I would venture to say:

"And more true joy the Parson exiled feels
Than Davis, with the traitors at his heels."

But, thank God, you are no longer exiled or imprisoned. A tide has come in your affairs to bear you on to fortune. And it will be nothing strange, and no more than justice, if the same State which has confiscated your property, and imprisoned your person, should conclude to honor herself by honoring you, and shall yet say to you, "Well done good and faithful servant; be thou ruler over ten cities."

All that is necessary to the Union cause is enough of this same earnest, unflinching, unchanging determination to face and destroy this monstrous rebellion, no matter who or what opposes.

If the Union can not be preserved without saltpeter, then let enough of this article be employed to secure the result. And, if the disordered livers of political hypochondriacs can not be restored to healthy action without the use of blue pills, then let enough of these be given to work a cure.