Brownlow's Whig

(''Harper's Weekly'', April 9, 1864) The Whig was a typical nineteenth-century broadsheet, usually containing four pages, each divided into five (later six) columns. Editorials and news typically occupied the first two-and-a-half pages, and advertisements occupied the last page-and-a-half. The first column often began with a song or poem, after which Brownlow launched into an editorial. Along with political and religious commentary, Brownlow also reported on his travels to various cities, dispensed advice on issues such as marriage and child-rearing, and published his own speeches in their entirety. The masthead used for the first few issues included the phrase "Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" from the Declaration of Independence, and was soon followed by the motto, "Cry aloud, and spare not," taken from Isaiah 58:1 (KJV). The latter appeared in the paper's nameplate as early as 1839, and was used throughout much of the 1840s. In 1853, Brownlow began using the motto, "Independent in everything, neutral in nothing." For several months after the 1840 elections, the paper used Oliver Hazard Perry's famous line, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours," as its nameplate motto. Titles The Whig was published under the following masthead titles: • Tennessee Whig (May 16, 1839 in Elizabethton – June 13, 1839) • The Elizabethton Whig (June 13, 1839 in Elizabethton – nameplate change) • The Whig (May 6, 1840 – November 3, 1841) • Jonesborough Whig (November 10, 1841 – May 11, 1842) • Jonesborough Whig and Independent Journal (May 18, 1842 – April 19, 1849) • ''Brownlow's Knoxville Whig and Independent Journal'' (May 19, 1849 – April 7, 1855) • ''Brownlow's Knoxville Whig'' (April 14, 1855 – July 27, 1861) • ''Brownlow's Weekly Whig'' (August 3, 1861 – October 26, 1861) • ''Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, and Rebel Ventilator'' (November 11, 1863 – February 21, 1866) • ''Brownlow's Knoxville Whig'' (February 28, 1866 – January 27, 1869) • Knoxville Weekly Whig (February 3, 1869 – March 1870) • Weekly Whig and Register (c. 1870 – 1871) ==Views==

Politics In an 1842 description of the Whig, Brownlow wrote, "politically, we are WHIG— ultra whig, and of the old school— the 'sworn and eternal foe of locofocoism.'" Brownlow despised President Andrew Jackson, calling him the "greatest curse that ever yet befell this nation." The Whig supported, among other things, a strong central government, federal funding for internal improvements, a weakened presidency, a national bank, and tariffs to protect American products from foreign competition. Brownlow's anti-Catholic sentiment was present in the earliest editions of the Whig, and gradually intensified over the years. In 1846, Brownlow ran a multi-part series on "Romanism" in America, claiming that the Catholic Church had kept Europe in "mental slavery" for 1,200 years, and was inherently intolerant and opposed to democracy. Brownlow referred to Catholics as "lousy, sinful, obedient subjects of a foreign Despot," and warned of their encroachment into American government. Secessionism In January 1860, Brownlow asked Whig readers to "pray against the wicked leaders of Abolitionism and the equally ungodly advocates of Secessionism," a statement which sums up his pre-Civil War stance on both issues. Brownlow believed an independent South would continue to be run by the elite - Southern Democratic plantation owners, who would exploit small farmers. "The honest yeomanry of these border States," he wrote, "whose families live by their hard licks, four-fifths of whom own no negroes and never expect to own any, are to be drafted" to fight for the "purse-proud aristocrats of the Cotton States." While Brownlow had supported Bell in 1860, he praised Lincoln as an "Old Clay Whig," and argued that opposition to him had more to do with sectionalism than with slavery. He blasted the state of South Carolina (the first state to secede) as the "home of traitors," and claimed that most South Carolinians were descended from Revolutionary War Loyalists, and thus had a love of aristocracy that "will never suit Tennesseeans." Slavery Brownlow's views on slavery were complex, and changed over time. In the 1830s, he was opposed to slavery, but for obscure reasons, had changed his mind by the following decade. Historian Robert McKenzie suggests that the hostility of Northern Methodists (who were abolitionists) toward Southern Methodists (who tended to be pro-slavery) in the 1840s may have driven Brownlow into the pro-slavery camp. In any case, by the 1850s, Brownlow was staunchly pro-slavery, arguing that the institution had been "ordained by God." Brownlow's support for slavery remained unchanged throughout 1860 and 1861, and he and rival editors accused one another of secretly supporting abolitionism. In ''Parson Brownlow's Book'', published in 1862, Brownlow maintains his support of slavery, but clarified that he would do away with it if it meant preserving the Union. By April 1864, however, he had adopted an abolitionist viewpoint, and led a faction calling for emancipation at a gathering of East Tennessee Unionists. After the meeting, he gave a speech in support of a series of resolutions that deemed slavery "incompatible with the perpetuity of free and republican institutions." ==History==

Early publication As a Methodist circuit rider in the 1820s, Brownlow gained a reputation for vicious personal attacks against rival missionaries as they competed for converts across Southern Appalachia, and as early as 1828 Brownlow had been in court facing a slander charge. In the mid-1830s, Brownlow anonymously wrote several articles attacking nullification for the ''Washington Republican and Farmer's Journal'', a Jonesborough-based paper published by retired state supreme court justice Thomas Emmerson (1773–1837). Impressed, Emmerson suggested Brownlow leave the ministry to pursue a career in journalism. After his marriage in 1839, Brownlow settled in Elizabethton, and began looking for steady income to support his family. T. A. R. Nelson, then a local attorney, suggested Brownlow publish a newspaper to support the Whigs in the upcoming elections. Brownlow formed a partnership with Mason R. Lyon, who had assumed publication of the Republican after Emmerson's death. while Haynes dubbed Brownlow a "wretched abortion of sin" and a "tarnisher of female innocence." In 1842, Haynes attempted to join the Methodist ministry, but was denied due in part to a series of charges levied against him in the Whig. Haynes finally quit the newspaper business in 1845 to focus on his political career. Brownlow refuted Johnson's dismissal, calling him a "base coward and low-bred scullion" who was simply hiding from the facts. Knoxville By the time he relocated the Whig to Knoxville in May 1849, Brownlow was already well known in the city. Brownlow had previously clashed with the Democratic Knoxville Standard, which he called a "filthy lying sheet," Before he had settled into his new printing office on Gay Street, Brownlow had become embroiled in a war of words with Knoxville Register editor John Miller McKee that lasted until McKee's departure in 1855. Andrew Johnson's political ascent in the mid-1850s was a constant source of frustration for Brownlow. The Whig rehashed claims that Johnson's relatives were criminals, and accused Johnson of being an atheist (Johnson never joined a church, but always insisted he was a Christian). After Johnson was reelected governor in 1855, Brownlow published a prayer in the Whig that begged God to forgive Tennessee for electing an "ungodly Governor." The Civil War Jacob and Henry Harmon After Tennessee withdrew from the Union in June 1861, the Confederate Army occupied East Tennessee and arrested several noted Union supporters. Throughout the summer of that year, Brownlow dedicated much of the Whig to defending these Unionists. Later years After Brownlow was elected Governor of Tennessee in 1865, publication of the Whig was turned over to his son, John Bell Brownlow, although the elder Brownlow continued to write for the paper. As governor, Brownlow used the Whig to issue state proclamations, ignoring a Tennessee law requiring the Secretary of State's signature. As of 2013, the Journal is a weekly paper with both print and online editions. == References ==