View source for Parson Brownlow

{{short description|American politician (1805–1877)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2012}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Parson Brownlow
| image               = William Gannaway Brownlow-cropped.jpg
| order               = 17th
| office              = Governor of Tennessee
| term_start          = April 5, 1865
| term_end            = February 25, 1869
| lieutenant          = 
| predecessor         = [[Andrew Johnson]]<br/>as Military Governor
| successor           = [[Dewitt Clinton Senter]]
| office2             = [[United States Senator]]<br/> from [[Tennessee]]
| term_start2         = March 4, 1869
| term_end2           = March 3, 1875
| predecessor2        = [[David T. Patterson]]
| successor2          = [[Andrew Johnson]]
| party               = [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]]<br />[[Know Nothing|American]]<br />[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| birth_name          = William Gannaway Brownlow
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1805|8|29}}
| birth_place         = [[Wythe County, Virginia]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1877|4|29|1805|8|29}}
| death_place         = [[Knoxville, Tennessee]], U.S.
| resting_place       = [[Old Gray Cemetery]]<br/> Knoxville, Tennessee
| profession          = Minister, newspaper editor
| spouse              = Eliza O'Brien (m. 1836)
| children            = [[Susan Brownlow Boynton|Susan]], [[John Bell Brownlow|John Bell]], [[James Patton Brownlow|James]], Mary, Fannie, Annie, Caledonia Temple
| relations           = [[Walter P. Brownlow]] (nephew)
| signature           = William-brownlow-signature1.jpg
}}
'''William Gannaway''' "'''Parson'''" '''Brownlow''' (August 29, 1805{{spaced ndash}}April 29, 1877) was an American newspaper publisher, Methodist minister, book author, prisoner of war, lecturer, and politician who served as the 17th [[governor of Tennessee]] from 1865 to 1869 and as a [[List of United States Senators from Tennessee|United States senator]] from Tennessee from 1869 to 1875. Brownlow rose to prominence in the late 1830s and early 1840s as editor of the ''[[Brownlow's Whig|Whig]]'', a polemical newspaper in [[East Tennessee]] that promoted [[Henry Clay]] and the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]] ideals, and also that repeated Brownlow's opposition to secession by the southern slave states in the years leading up to the [[American Civil War]]. Brownlow's uncompromising and radical viewpoints made him one of the most divisive figures in Tennessee political history and one of the most controversial [[Reconstruction era]] politicians of the United States.

Beginning his career as a Methodist [[circuit rider (religious)|circuit rider]] in the 1820s, Brownlow was both censured and praised by his superiors for his vicious verbal debates responding to rival missionaries of other sectarian Christian beliefs. Later, as a newspaper publisher and editor, he was notorious for his relentless replies in the form of personal attacks against his religious and political opponents, sometimes to the point of being physically assaulted. At the same time, Brownlow was successfully building a large base of fiercely loyal subscribers.<ref name=conklin />

Brownlow returned to Tennessee in 1863 and in 1865 became governor with support of the U.S. Army behind him. Brownlow aligned with the [[Radical Republican]]s in the state, supporting President Lincoln's Civil War and Reconstruction era policies and spent much of his term opposing the policies of Conservative Republicans. Brownlow's gubernatorial policies, which were both autocratic and progressive, helped Tennessee become the first former [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] state to be readmitted to the Union in 1866, "exempting it from the lengthy federal military reconstruction inflicted on most of the South".<ref name=conklin>Forrest Conklin, [http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=150 William Gannaway "Parson" Brownlow].  ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2009.  Retrieved on October 18, 2012.</ref><ref>Jack Neely, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20131127115633/http://www.metropulse.com/news/2011/apr/06/requiem-parson-brownlow/ Requiem for Parson Brownlow]," ''Metro Pulse'', 6 April 2011] Accessed at the Internet Archive, September 20, 2017</ref> After the Civil War, Brownlow again resumed his opposition to longtime political foe and then-president [[Andrew Johnson]], an often bitter and biting dislike for each other that both Brownlow and Johnson had put aside during the dark days of the Civil War.<ref name=conklin />

Soon after the Civil War, Brownlow and Radical Republicans utilized their control of state government to enfranchise male [[African-American]] former slaves with the right to vote and run for public office in Tennessee and extend other civil rights to all former slaves.  Conservative Republicans generally opposed these actions by Brownlow and his Radical Republican base, and soon after, ex-Confederate political leaders and military officers joined into this opposition directed against Brownlow and utilized the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and likeminded vigilante groups in efforts to disenfranchise African-Americans across Tennessee.<ref name=conklin />

==Early life==
Brownlow was born in [[Wythe County, Virginia]], in 1805, the eldest son of Joseph A. Brownlow and Catherine Gannaway.  Joseph Brownlow, an itinerant farmer, was born in [[Augusta County]], [[Virginia]] in 1782 and  died during 1816 in [[Blountville, Tennessee|Blountville]], Tennessee and Catherine Gannaway followed three months later, leaving William orphaned at the age of 10.  The first Brownlow forebear in Virginia was William Brownlow, who was born in [[Magherafelt]], [[Ulster]] in 1709 and emigrated to Virginia in 1731. Brownlow and his four siblings were split up among relatives, with Brownlow spending the remainder of his childhood on his uncle John Gannaway's farm.  At age 18, Brownlow went to [[Abingdon, Virginia|Abingdon]] where he learned the trade of [[carpentry]] from another uncle, George Winniford.<ref name=coulter>[[E. Merton Coulter]], ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=egskEhcF5gkC&q=brownlow+fighting+parson+of+the+southern+highlands William G. Brownlow: Fighting Parson of the Southern Highlands]'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 1999).</ref>{{rp|1–3}}

[[File:Brownlow-immersion-attack-1856.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Engraving from Brownlow's book ''The Great Iron Wheel Examined'', showing a Baptist minister changing clothes in front of horrified women after administering a [[Baptism#Submersion|baptism by immersion]].]]

In 1825, Brownlow attended a [[camp meeting]] near Sulphur Springs, Virginia, where he experienced a dramatic spiritual rebirth.  He later recalled that, suddenly, "all my anxieties were at an end, all my hopes were realized, my happiness was complete."<ref name=coulter />{{rp|4}}  He immediately abandoned the carpentry trade and began studying to become a Methodist minister.  In Fall 1826, he attended the annual meeting of the Holston Conference of the Methodist Church in Abingdon.  He applied to join the travelling ministry (commonly called "circuit riders"), and was admitted that year by Bishop [[Joshua Soule]].<ref name=coulter />{{rp|6}}

The competition in Southern Appalachia for both converts and their tithes among the Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians was fierce, and diatribes in both speech and print against rival sectarian Christian beliefs and leaders were commonplace among missionaries.  In defending his Methodist Church and its early leaders, Brownlow, took such debates to a whole new level, attacking not only Baptist and Presbyterian theology but also the character of his rival missionaries.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://dlc.lib.utk.edu/spc/view?docId=ead%2F0012_001154_000000_0000%2F0012_001154_000000_0000.xml |title="Finding Aid for the William G. Brownlow Tennessee Bonds Circular MS.2750". Special Collections Online – The University of Tennessee. Retrieved November 5, 2017. |access-date=November 5, 2017 |archive-date=November 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107032504/http://dlc.lib.utk.edu/spc/view?docId=ead%2F0012_001154_000000_0000%2F0012_001154_000000_0000.xml |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1826, Soule gave Brownlow his first assignment as a circuit rider—the [[Black Mountains (North Carolina)|Black Mountain]] circuit in North Carolina.  It was here that Brownlow first ran afoul of the Baptists—who were spreading quickly throughout the Southern Appalachian region—and developed an immediate dislike of them, considering them narrow-minded bigots who engaged in "dirty" rituals such as [[Maundy (foot washing)|foot washing]].<ref name=coulter />{{rp|18}}

During the following year in 1827, Brownlow was assigned as a circuit rider in [[Maryville, Tennessee]] area, where there was a strong Presbyterian presence, and he later recalled being constantly harassed by a young Presbyterian missionary who taunted him with [[Calvinism|Calvinistic]] criticisms of Methodism.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|19}}

In 1828, Brownlow was sued for [[slander]], but the suit was dismissed.  In 1831, Brownlow was sued for [[libel]] by a Baptist preacher, and ordered to pay his accuser $5.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|22}}

In 1832, Brownlow was assigned as a circuit rider to the [[Pickens County, South Carolina|Pickens District]] in South Carolina, which he claimed was "overrun with Baptists" and "[[Nullification Crisis|nullifiers]]."  Unable to make headway in the district, Brownlow circulated his venomous 70-page pamphlet blasting the district's Baptists, and narrowly galloped safely back into the mountains as the district's enraged residents demanded he be hanged.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|25}}  Brownlow's run-in with the South Carolina nullifiers would influence his later views on secession.

Brownlow soon afterward had his 1834 tome ''Helps To The Study of Presbyterianism'' (addressing, in part, Brownlow's advancement of the separation of church and state in the United States and the Presbyterian Church domination of the [[American Sunday School Union]]) published in Knoxville, Tennessee by newspaper and book publisher [[Frederick Heiskell|Frederick S. Heiskell]].

===Marriage===
Brownlow married a younger Eliza Ann O'Brien during 1836 in [[Carter County, Tennessee]], where the two resided in her hometown of [[Elizabethton, Tennessee|Elizabethton]].  Brownlow began working as a clerk managing her family's O'Brien Furnace (iron foundry), which was located along the banks of the [[Doe River]] at Valley Forge about four miles southeast of Elizabethton.<ref name=neely /><ref name="Frank Merritt 1950">"Early History of Carter County 1760-1861", p. 55. Frank Merritt, 1950. East Tennessee Historical Society, Knoxville, Tennessee.</ref><ref>[http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMW1D7_OBrien_Furnace_1A_73_Valley_Forge_TN "O'Brien Furnace ~ 1A 73 ~ Valley Forge, TN - Tennessee Historical Markers on Waymarking.com"]</ref>  Brownlow would often travel by [[flatboat]] on both the [[Watauga River]] and the [[Holston River]] in East Tennessee, bringing shipments of iron castings from the O'Brien Furnance to Knoxville.<ref>"That D--d Brownlow!", p. 176. Steve Humphrey. Appalachian Consortium Press, 1978.</ref>

Although Brownlow left the circuit shortly after his marriage during 1836, he would continue his staunch defense of Methodism and Methodist leaders against the published attacks by religious leaders and writers of other sectarian Christian beliefs within his later newspaper columns, books, and speeches. For the remainder of his life and beyond, Brownlow was to become known to friend and foe alike as the "Fighting Parson".<ref name=coulter />

==Early newspaper owner==
{{main|Brownlow's Whig}}

Brownlow cut his teeth in the newspaper business during 1838 writing for the short-lived ''Elizabethton Republican and Manufacturer's Advocate'', initially under its editor William Gott. This weekly Elizabethton newspaper advanced Whig politics, and by the time that Brownlow had later been promoted as its editor, the ''Elizabethton Republican and Manufacturer's Advocate'' had some three hundred subscribers and was closely associated with Mason R. Lyon.<ref name="Frank Merritt 1950"/>

[[File:Jonesborough-whig-lewis-cass-attack-ad.jpg|right|upright=0.9|thumb|Ad in an 1848 issue of the ''Jonesborough Whig'', attacking presidential candidate [[Lewis Cass]]]]
Historian Stephen Ash says:

<blockquote>What made the Parson stand out was, more than anything else, his vitriolic tongue and pen. Over the course of his long career, he took up many causes. These included not only Methodism, Whiggery, and the Union, but also temperance, Know-Nothingism, and slavery. His favorite method of promoting those causes was to chastise and ridicule his opponents, and few men could do so with as much venomous wit as he. Baptists, Presbyterians, Catholics, Mormons, Democrats, Republicans, secessionists, drunks, immigrants, and abolitionists—all were at one time or another on the receiving end of Brownlow's merciless broadsides. Not surprisingly, he made many enemies. A number of them replied in kind; some tried to kill him.<ref>Stephen V. Ash, "Introduction" in E. Merton Coulter, ''William G. Brownlow'' (Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1999) p xi</ref></blockquote>

The rising Elizabethton attorney [[Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson|T.A.R. Nelson]] suggested that Brownlow should launch a newspaper to support [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]] candidates in the upcoming elections.  Brownlow partnered with the Elizabethton newspaper publisher, Mason R. Lyon, and as the editor within their partnership, with the agreement that Brownlow would receive one-third of the new profits from the ''Tennessee Whig''.<ref>"Early History of Carter County 1760-1861", pp. 55-56. Frank Merritt, 1950. East Tennessee Historical Society, Knoxville, Tennessee.</ref> Brownlow and Lyon launched their weekly ''Tennessee Whig'' on Thursday, May 16, 1839, and within several weeks, Brownlow and Lyon would rebrand their new weekly newspaper as the ''Elizabethton Whig'' starting with the June 13, 1839 edition of the newspaper.<ref name=fink>Paul Fink, ''Jonesborough: The First Century of Tennessee's First Town'' (Johnson City, Tenn.: Overmountain Press, 2002), pp. 140-145.</ref>

As Brownlow's vituperative editorial style quickly brought bitter division to Elizabethton, and he began quarreling with local Whig-turned-Democrat [[Landon Carter Haynes]]. Haynes had read law under Elizabethton attorney T.A.R. Nelson, and Haynes would later follow Nelson to Jonesborough during 1840, where Haynes would eventually edit a Jonesborough newspaper.

Brownlow and the ''Elizabethton Whig'' also relocated from Elizabethton and to Jonesborough during the same year, where the weekly Brownlow newspaper was again rebranded as the ''Jonesboro Whig'' (the Tennessee town has spelled municipal name two different ways through its history), publishing the first edition of the second volume on May 7, 1840. Brownlow had also brought along Valentine Garland along as a new business partner within his ''Jonesboro Whig'' enterprise.  Garland had previously worked as a journeyman printer with the ''Elizabethton Whig'' and had purchased Lyon's interest in the ''Elizabethton Whig'' for $550.00, but their business partnership in the ''Jonesboro Whig'' was short-lived as an announcement published on August 12, 1840 notified the ''Whig'' readers that the Brownlow and Garland business partnership was dissolved.<ref>"Early History of Carter County 1760-1861", pp. 58. Frank Merritt, 1950. East Tennessee Historical Society, Knoxville, Tennessee.</ref>

Brownlow would later accost Haynes in a Jonesborough street and then proceeded to beat Haynes with a sword cane, prompting Haynes to draw out his pistol and shoot Brownlow in the thigh.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|39}}  Haynes was later hired as editor of the competing  Democratic ''Tennessee Sentinel'' the following year, and the editors Brownlow and Haynes would publish polemics targeting each other within their respective newspapers over the next several years.<ref name=fink />

In 1845, Brownlow ran against [[Andrew Johnson]] for the state's [[Tennessee's 1st congressional district|1st District]] seat in the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]].  Using the ''Whig'' to support his campaign, he accused Johnson of being illegitimate, suggested Johnson's relatives were murderers and thieves and stated that Johnson was an atheist.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|121}}  Johnson won the election by 1,300 votes, out of just over 10,000 votes cast.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|117}}

[[File:William-gannaway-brownlow-1856.jpg|thumb|Brownlow as he appeared on the frontispiece of his 1856 book, ''The Great Iron Wheel Examined'']]

Brownlow supported Whig policies such as a [[Second Bank of the United States|national bank]], federal funding for [[internal improvements]] (more specifically, public improvements to the [[Moccasin Bend]] area of the [[Tennessee River]] near [[Chattanooga]] allowing for better steamboat transportation of goods to [[New Orleans]]), developing industries within northeast Tennessee, and a weakened presidency.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|111}}  He called [[Andrew Jackson]] the "greatest curse that ever yet befell this nation,"<ref name="Independent Journal 1845">''Jonesborough Whig and Independent Journal'', 18 June 1845.</ref> and attacked Jackson's supporters, the [[Locofocos]], in his 1844 book, ''A Political Register''.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|113}}  While Brownlow steadfastly supported Whig candidates such as [[John Bell (Tennessee politician)|John Bell]] and [[James C. Jones]], his true political idol was Kentucky senator [[Henry Clay]].  Clay was consistently Brownlow's first choice for the party's presidential candidate throughout the 1840s.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|112}}  Brownlow's son John recalled that one of the few times he ever saw his father cry was after he had received the news of Clay's defeat in the [[1844 United States presidential election|1844 presidential election]].<ref name=coulter />{{rp|116}}

In May 1849, Brownlow relocated the ''Whig'' to [[Knoxville, Tennessee]], where he was already well known for his clashes with the Democratic ''Standard'', which he had dubbed a "filthy lying sheet."<ref name="Independent Journal 1845"/>  Prior to the departure of Brownlow and his newspaper from Jonesboro, an unknown assailant clubbed Brownlow in the head, leaving him bedridden for two weeks.  He blamed this act on Knoxville's newspaper interests, who feared his competition.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|37–44}}  Upon his arrival, he became embroiled in an editorial war with ''[[Knoxville Register]]'' editor John Miller McKee that lasted until McKee's departure in 1855.<ref>Verton Queener, "William Gannaway Brownlow as an Editor," East Tennessee Historical Society ''Publications'', No. 4 (1932), pp. 72-76.</ref>

Brownlow joined the [[Sons of Temperance]] in 1850,<ref name=wittig>Forrest Conklin and John Wittig, "Religious Warfare in the Southern Highlands: Brownlow versus Ross," ''Journal of East Tennessee History'', Vol. 63 (1991), pp. 33-50.</ref> and promoted temperance policies in the ''Whig'' (one of his more common personal attacks was to accuse his opponents of being "drunkards").  Following the collapse of the Whig Party in the mid-1850s, he aligned himself with the [[Know Nothing]] movement, as he had long shared this movement's anti-Catholic and [[nativism (politics)|nativist]] sentiments.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|125}}  In 1856, he published a book, ''Americanism Contrasted with Foreignism, Romanism and Bogus Democracy'', which attacked Catholicism, foreigners and Democratic politicians.

In the late 1850s, Brownlow turned his attention to Knoxville's Democratic Party leaders and their associates.  He quarreled with the radical ''Southern Citizen'', a pro-secession newspaper published by businessman [[William Graham Swan|William G. Swan]] and Irish patriot [[John Mitchel]] (who spent time in Knoxville while in exile), and on at least one occasion, threatened Swan with a revolver.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|49}}  Following the failure of the Bank of East Tennessee in 1858, Brownlow ruthlessly assailed its directors.  His attacks forced A.R. Crozier and [[William Montgomery Churchwell|William Churchwell]] to flee the state, and drove [[John H. Crozier]] from public life.  Brownlow sued another director, [[J. G. M. Ramsey]], winning a civil judgement on behalf of the bank's depositors.<ref name=sketches>William Gannaway Brownlow, ''Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession'' (Philadelphia: G.W. Childs, 1862).</ref>{{rp|289–290}}

Partially a result of Brownlow's persistent opposition to secession within the pages of his newspapers (and partially due to his long-time feud with Confederate sympathizer, banker, and Tennessee historian [[J. G. M. Ramsey]]), he was later jailed by Confederate States military authorities (the CSA district attorney in Knoxville, Tennessee being related to J. G. M. Ramsey) in December 1861, pardoned, and subsequently forced into exile in the northern United States.

==Sectarian debates==
[[File:Jonesborough-whig-fa-ross-attack.jpg|right|thumb|Heading for "F.A. Ross' Corner," a series  in Brownlow's ''Jonesborough Whig'' that attacked Presbyterian minister Frederick Augustus Ross.]]
While Brownlow left the preaching circuit in the 1830s, he continued responding to the critics attacking the Methodist faith until the Civil War.  In 1843, his feud with Haynes led to Haynes being barred from the Methodist clergy.<ref name=bellamy>James Bellamy, "The Political Career of Landon Carter Haynes," East Tennessee Historical Society ''Publications'', Vol. 28 (1956), pp. 105-107.</ref>  That same year, J.M. Smith, editor of the ''Abingdon Virginian'', accused Brownlow of having stolen jewelry at a [[camp meeting]].  Brownlow denied the charge, and accused Smith of being an adulterer.  At a meeting of the Methodists' Holston Conference that year, Smith tried unsuccessfully to have Brownlow expelled from the church.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|42}}

In the late 1840s, Brownlow quarreled with Presbyterian minister [[Frederick Augustus Ross]] (1796–1883), who, from 1826 till 1852, was pastor of Old Kingsport Presbyterian Church in [[Kingsport, Tennessee]], where Ross had taken up in 1818.  Ross had earlier "declared war" on Methodism as a co-editor in his ''Calvinist Magazine'', published from 1827 to 1832.  Although distracted by [[Old School–New School Controversy|internecine conflict within the Presbyterian Church]] for nearly a decade, he relaunched the ''Calvinist Magazine'' in 1845.  Ross argued that the Methodist Church was despotic, comparing it to a "great iron wheel" that would crush American liberty.  He stated that most Methodists were descended from Revolutionary War loyalists, and accused the Methodist Church founder, [[John Wesley]], of believing in ghosts and witches.<ref name=wittig />

[[File:James-robinson-graves-caning.jpg|right|thumb|Engraving from Brownlow's ''The Great Iron Wheel Examined'', showing an ex-Congressman attacking [[James Robinson Graves]] for slander.]]
Brownlow initially responded to Ross with a running column, "F.A. Ross' Corner," in the ''Jonesborough Whig''.  In 1847, he launched a separate paper, the ''Jonesborough Quarterly Review'', which was dedicated to refuting Ross's attacks, and embarked on a speaking tour that summer.  Brownlow argued that while it was common in Wesley's time for people to believe in ghosts, he provided evidence that many Presbyterian ministers ''still'' believed in such things.  He derided Ross as a "habitual adulterer" and the son of a slave, and accused his relatives of stealing and committing indecent acts (Ross's son responded to the latter charge with a death threat).  This quarrel continued until Brownlow moved to Knoxville in 1849.<ref name=wittig />

In 1856, [[James Robinson Graves]], the [[Landmarkism|Landmark Baptist]] minister of Nashville's Second Baptist Church, ripped Methodists in his book, ''The Great Iron Wheel'', which used terminology and attacks similar to the ones Ross had used in the previous decade.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|67}}  Brownlow quickly fired back with ''The Great Iron Wheel Examined; Or, Its False Spokes Extracted'', published that same year.  He accused Graves of slandering an ex-Congressman, argued that Baptist ministers were mostly illiterate and opposed to learning, and charged that the Baptist religion was wrought with "selfishness, bigotry, intolerance, and shameful want of Christian liberality."<ref name=coulter />{{rp|73}}  Brownlow also mocked the Baptist sectarian method of baptism, [[Immersion baptism|immersion]].<ref name=coulter />{{rp|75}}

==Slavery and secession==

Brownlow's views on slavery changed over time.  While his pre-Civil War writings reveal a strong pro-slavery slant, his name appears on an 1834 [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] petition.<ref name=ash>Stephen Ash, Introduction to E. Merton Coulter's ''William G. Brownlow: Fighting Parson of the Southern Highlands'' (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1999).</ref>{{rp|xiv}}  In the early 1840s, Brownlow supported the [[American Colonization Society]], which sought to recolonize freed slaves in [[Liberia]].<ref name=coulter />{{rp|94}}  In subsequent years, however, he shifted to a staunchly pro-slavery stance. Indeed he owned slaves himself.<ref>{{Citation|title=Congress slaveowners|date=2022-01-19|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/interactive/2022/congress-slaveowners-names-list/|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=2022-07-10}}</ref> Brownlow's friend and colleague, [[Oliver Perry Temple]], stated that social pressure in the 1830s pushed most abolitionist Southerners to adopt pro-slavery views.  Historian Robert McKenzie, however, suggests that Brownlow's pro-slavery shift might have been rooted in the rivalry between Northern and [[Methodist Episcopal Church, South|Southern Methodists]] over the issue in the 1840s.<ref name=mckenzie>Robert McKenzie, ''Lincolnites and Rebels: A Divided Town in the American Civil War'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).</ref>{{rp|38–39}}

By the 1850s, Brownlow was radically pro-slavery, arguing that the institution was "ordained by God."<ref name=mckenzie />{{rp|108}}  He gave a Scriptural defense of slavery in a speech delivered in Knoxville in 1857, and in the following year, he issued a challenge to Northern abolitionists to debate the issue.  The challenge was initially accepted by [[Frederick Douglass]], but Brownlow refused to debate him because of his race.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|97}}  The challenge was then taken up by Abram Pryne of McGrawville, New York, a clergyman with the Congregational Church, and editor of an abolitionist newspaper.  At the debate, which took place in Philadelphia in September 1858, Brownlow stated in his opening argument:

<blockquote>Not only will I throughout this discussion openly and boldly take the ground that ''Slavery as it exists in America ought to be perpetuated'', but that slavery is an established and inevitable condition to human society. I will maintain the ground that God always intended the relation of master and slave to exist; that Christ and the early teachers of Christianity, found slavery differing in no material respect from American slavery, ''incorporated into every department of society'' ...  that slavery having existed ever since the first organization of society, it will exist to the end of time.<ref>Brownlow, William Gannaway & Pryne, Abram ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=H3QFAAAAQAAJ Ought American slavery to be perpetuated?]: A debate between Rev. W.G. Brownlow and Rev. A. Pryne. Held at Philadelphia, September, 1858'' J.B. Lippincott & Co. (1858)</ref></blockquote>

During the course of the Civil War, Brownlow would return to an anti-slavery stance, calling for emancipation.<ref name=mckenzie />{{rp|191}}

[[File:Brownlow-speech-sevierville-tn1.jpg|right|upright=0.9|thumb|Illustration in Barton's ''A Hero In Homespun'', showing Brownlow delivering a pro-Union speech in [[Sevierville, Tennessee|Sevierville]] in 1861]]
Brownlow was staunchly opposed to Southern secession.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|136}}  He argued that secessionists wanted to form a country governed by "purse-proud aristocrats" of the Southern [[Planter (American South)|planter class]].<ref name=coulter />{{rp|135}}  Brownlow endorsed his friend, pro-Union candidate [[John Bell (Tennessee politician)|John Bell]], for president in 1860, and in September of that year, interrupted a pro-[[John C. Breckinridge|Breckinridge]] rally in Knoxville to spar with the rally's keynote speaker, [[William Lowndes Yancey]] of Alabama.<ref name=mckenzie />{{rp|29}}  When South Carolina seceded following Lincoln's election in November 1860, Brownlow derided the state and its "miserable cabbage-leaf of a Palmetto flag" as being descended from British loyalists, thus giving it an affinity for the aristocratic types that would govern the proposed Southern Confederacy.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|140}}

By 1861, the ''Knoxville Whig'' had 14,000 subscribers,<ref name=coulter />{{rp|159}} and was considered by secessionists the root of the stubborn pro-Union sentiment in East Tennessee (the region had resoundingly rejected a referendum on secession in February of that year).  Knoxville's Democrats tried to counter Brownlow by installing radical secessionist J. Austin Sperry as editor of the ''Knoxville Register'', touching off an editorial war that lasted throughout much of the year. Brownlow called Sperry a "scoundrel" and a "debauchee," and mocked the relatively small circulation of the ''Register''.<ref name=sketches />{{rp|214}}

Throughout the Spring of 1861, Brownlow and his colleagues, Oliver Perry Temple, T.A.R. Nelson, and [[Horace Maynard]], canvassed East Tennessee, giving dozens of pro-Union speeches.
In May and June 1861, Brownlow represented [[Knox County, Tennessee|Knox County]] at the [[East Tennessee Convention]], which unsuccessfully petitioned the state legislature to allow East Tennessee to form a separate, Union-aligned state.  In the weeks following Tennessee's secession in June 1861, Brownlow used the ''Whig'' to defend Unionists accused of treasonous acts by Confederate authorities.  By the Fall of 1861, the ''Whig'' was the last pro-Union newspaper in the South.<ref name=mckenzie />{{rp|98}}
He was quoted as saying "We intend to fight the secessionists until hell freezes over, and then fight them on ice."<ref>{{cite news |date= August 15, 1861 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026399/1861-08-15/ed-1/seq-1/ |title=The Jeffersonian |location=Stroudsburg, Pa. |access-date=January 14, 2023 |quote= Parson Brownlow recently declared in relation to the Union men of East Tennessee: We intend to fight the secessionists until hell freezes over, and then fight them on ice, Or any other man. }}</ref>

==American Civil War==

On October 24, 1861, Brownlow suspended publication of the ''Whig'' after announcing Confederate authorities were preparing to arrest him.<ref name=sketches />{{rp|254}}  On November 4, he left Knoxville and went into hiding in the [[Great Smoky Mountains]] to the south, where there was a strong pro-Union presence, and would spend several weeks staying with friends in [[Wears Valley, Tennessee|Wears Valley]] and [[Townsend, Tennessee|Tuckaleechee Cove]].  On November 8, pro-Union guerillas [[East Tennessee bridge-burning conspiracy|burned several railroad bridges]] in East Tennessee, and attacked several others.  Confederate leaders immediately suspected Brownlow of complicity, but he denied any involvement in the attacks.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|182}}

[[File:Whh-self-and-daughter-tn1.png|right|upright=1.25|thumb|Brownlow (center) watches as condemned [[East Tennessee bridge-burning conspiracy|bridge-burner]] Harrison Self bids goodbye to his daughter; Self was eventually pardoned by [[Jefferson Davis]]]]
Brownlow asked for permission to leave the state, which was granted by Confederate Secretary of War [[Judah P. Benjamin]].  On December 6, as he was in Knoxville preparing to leave, however, Knox County Commissioner Robert B. Reynolds and Confederate States District Attorney John Crozier Ramsey (a son of Confederate States treasury agent [[J. G. M. Ramsey]], the elder who Brownlow earlier in that year referred to as "the vain old historian of Tennessee") arrested and jailed Brownlow on charges of treason.  While jailed, Brownlow witnessed the trials and last moments of many of the condemned bridge-burners, which he recorded in a diary.  He sent a letter to Benjamin protesting his incarceration, writing, "which is your highest authority, the Secretary of War, a Major General, or a dirty little drunken attorney such as J.C. Ramsey is!"<ref name=sketches />{{rp|318}}  After Benjamin threatened to pardon Brownlow, he was released in late December 1861.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|200}}

Brownlow was escorted to Nashville (which the Union Army had captured), and crossed over into Union-controlled territory on March 3, 1862.  His struggle against secession had made him a celebrity in northern states, and he embarked upon a speaking tour, starting with speeches in Cincinnati and [[Dayton, Ohio|Dayton]] in early April.  He spoke alongside Indiana governor [[Oliver P. Morton]] at Metropolitan Hall in Indianapolis on April 8, and spoke at the Merchants' Exchange in Chicago a few days later.  On April 14, he addressed the [[Ohio General Assembly|Ohio state legislature]] in [[Columbus, Ohio|Columbus]].  He hosted a banquet at the Monongahela House in Pittsburgh on April 17, and spoke at [[Independence Hall]] in Philadelphia two days later.

[[File:Egan-susan-brownlow-defends-flag.png|upright=1.25|thumb|An artist's 1888 illustration of Brownlow's daughter, [[Susan Brownlow Boynton|Susan]], threatening Confederate soldiers who sought to remove the American flag from the Brownlows' home in Knoxville]]
In Philadelphia, publisher [[George W. Childs]] convinced Brownlow to write a book, ''Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession'', which was completed in May 1862. By September, the book had sold over 100,000 copies.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|239}}  Brownlow then headed to the northeast, where he addressed the New York City Chamber of Commerce on May 14, and spoke at the [[Academy of Music (New York City)|Academy of Music]] on May 15.  In subsequent weeks, he spoke in Boston and various cities in New England, and later toured western New York and Illinois.  In late June, he testified at the impeachment trial of [[West Hughes Humphreys]], a Confederate judge who had denied Brownlow bail following his arrest in December.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|221–233}}

In June 1862, workers at the [[Colt Armory]] in Hartford presented a revolver to Brownlow's daughter, [[Susan Brownlow Boynton|Susan]], who had threatened to shoot two Confederate soldiers attempting to remove the American flag from the Brownlows' home in Knoxville in December of the previous year.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|230}} Later that year, author [[Erastus Beadle]] published a [[dime novel]], ''Parson Brownlow and the Unionists of East Tennessee''.  In 1863, Philadelphia-based music publisher Lee and Walker issued a musical score, ''Parson Brownlow's Quick Step''.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|242–243}}

[[File:Image 1 of Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, and rebel ventilator (Knoxville, Tenn.), April 19, 1865.jpg|thumb|left|Brownlow's characteristic forthright communication style is evident in the newspaper title ''Rebel Ventilator'';<ref>{{Cite web |last=Uffelman |first=Minoa |date=2011-11-21 |title=Tennessee's Fighting Parson |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/tennessees-fighting-parson/ |access-date=2023-06-29 |website=Opinionator |language=en}}</ref> perhaps not insignificantly, Brownlow's sons, [[John B. Brownlow]] and [[James P. Brownlow]], both saw combat as Union cavalry officers<ref name="armstrong" />]]

Brownlow returned to Nashville in early 1863, and followed [[Ambrose Burnsides]]'s forces back to Knoxville in September.  In November 1863, using proceeds from his speaking tour, he relaunched the ''Whig'' under the title, ''Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator'', and began vengefully pursuing ex-Confederates.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|251}}  He spent a portion of 1864 attempting to reorganize his church's Holston Conference and realign it with the northern Methodists.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|297}}

==Reconstruction-era as Governor of Tennessee==

Brownlow was nominated for governor by a convention of Tennessee Unionists in January 1865. He was the only nominee.  This convention also submitted state constitutional amendments outlawing slavery and repealing the Ordinance of Secession,<ref name=miscamble>Wilson D. Miscamble, "Andrew Johnson and the Election of William G. ('Parson') Brownlow as Governor of Tennessee," ''Tennessee Historical Quarterly'', Vol. 37 (1978), pp. 308-320.</ref> thus making his state the first of the Southern states to leave the Confederacy.  The military governor, Andrew Johnson, had enacted a series of measures that essentially prevented ex-Confederates from voting, and on March 4, Brownlow was elected by a 23,352 to 35 vote, and the amendments passed by a similarly lopsided margin.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|261}}  The vote met President Lincoln's "1/10th test," which recognized elections in Southern states if the total vote was at least one-tenth the total vote in the 1860 presidential election.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|261}}

[[File:Brownlow-william-by-george-drury.jpg|right|upright=0.8|thumb|''Portrait of Governor Brownlow'' by [[George Dury]]. This official portrait of Governor Brownlow would only be briefly displayed within the Tennessee State Capitol building during 1987.]]
In early April 1865, Brownlow arrived in Nashville, a city which he despised, having called it a "dunghill," and stating it had a "deadly, treasonable exhalation."<ref>Jesse Burt, ''Nashville: Its Life and Times'' (Tennessee Book Company, 1959), p. 67.</ref>  He was sworn in on April 5, and submitted the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|13th Amendment]] for ratification the following day.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|265}}  After this amendment was ratified, Brownlow submitted a series of bills to punish former Confederates.  He [[disfranchisement|disfranchised]] for at least five years anyone who had supported the Confederacy, and, in cases of Confederate leaders, fifteen years.  He later strengthened this law to require prospective voters to ''prove'' they had supported the Union. He tried to impose fines for wearing a Confederate uniform, and attempted to bar Confederate ministers from performing marriages.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|269}}

After a few months in office Brownlow decided Johnson, who had by then become [[President of the United States]], was too lenient toward former Confederate leaders, and aligned himself with the [[Radical Republicans]], a group which dominated Congress and vehemently opposed Johnson.  In the elections for the state's congressional seats held in August 1865, Brownlow rejected nearly one-third of the total vote to allow Radical candidate [[Samuel Arnell]] to win in the [[Tennessee's 6th congressional district|6th District]].<ref name=coulter />{{rp|280}}  A small group of state legislators, led by state Speaker of the House [[William Heiskell]], turned against Brownlow, alleging his actions were too despotic, and aligned themselves with Johnson.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|309}}  By 1866, Brownlow had come to believe that some Southerners were plotting another rebellion, and that Andrew Johnson would be its leader.<ref name=langsdon />

===Opposition to the Ku Klux Klan===

[[File:William Gannaway Brownlow cropped.jpg|upright=0.8|thumb|Photograph of Brownlow by [[Mathew Brady]]]]

Brownlow began calling for civil rights to be extended to freed slaves, stating that "a loyal Negro was more deserving than a disloyal white man."<ref name=coulter />{{rp|291}} In May 1866, he submitted the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|14th Amendment]] for ratification, which the Radicals in Congress supported, but Johnson and his allies opposed.  The pro-Johnson minority in the statehouse attempted to flee Nashville to prevent a [[quorum]], and the House sergeant-at-arms was dispatched to arrest them.  Two were captured—[[Pleasant Williams]] and [[A. J. Martin]]—and confined to the House committee room, giving the House the necessary number of members present to establish a quorum.  After the amendment passed by a 43-11 vote, Heiskell refused to sign it and resigned in protest.  His successor signed it, however, and the amendment was ratified.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|314}}  In transmitting the news to Congress, Brownlow taunted Johnson, stating, "My compliments to the dead dog in the White House."<ref name=coulter />{{rp|315}} Tennessee was readmitted to the Union shortly afterward, and was represented in Congress again by 1866; Tennessee was the only former Confederate state that bypassed [[Military Reconstruction]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Brownlow, William Gannaway 'Parson' (1805–1877) |encyclopedia=Andrew Johnson: a biographical companion |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |last1=Schroeder-Lein |first1=Glenna R. |date=2001 |series=ABC-CLIO biographical companions |pages=39–41 |isbn=978-1-57607-030-7 |last2=Zuczek |first2=Richard}}</ref>

The Radicals nominated Brownlow for a second term for governor in February 1867.  His opponent was [[Emerson Etheridge]], a frequent critic of the Brownlow administration. That same month, the legislature passed a bill giving the state's black residents the right to vote, and [[Union League]]s were organized to help freed slaves in this process.  Members of these leagues frequently clashed with disfranchised ex-Confederates, including members of the burgeoning [[Ku Klux Klan]], and Brownlow organized a state guard, led by General [[Joseph Alexander Cooper]], to protect voters (and harass the opposition).<ref name=coulter />{{rp|333}}  With the state's ex-Confederates disfranchised, Brownlow easily defeated Etheridge in the [[1867 Tennessee gubernatorial election|1867 election]].<ref name=coulter />{{rp|339}}

[[File:Parson-Brownlow-by-giers.jpg|right|upright=0.8|thumb|Photograph of Brownlow by [[Carl Giers]]]]

By 1868, Klan violence had increased significantly.  The organization had sent Brownlow a death threat, and had come close to assassinating Congressman [[Samuel Arnell]].<ref name=coulter />{{rp|356}}  General [[Nathan B. Forrest]] joined the Klan, becoming its first [[Grand Wizard]], partially in response to the disfranchisement policies of Brownlow.<ref name=langsdon>Phillip Langsdon, ''Tennessee: A Political History'' (Franklin, Tenn.: Hillsboro Press, 2000), pp. 169, 178, 190, 239.</ref> The ''William G. Brownlow Family Papers, 1836-1900'', archived by the Tennessee Secretary of State, contains one letter dated July 4, 1868, from the Great-Grand Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan Stella Morton, in which Morton threatens Governor Brownlow's life.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://sos.tn.gov/products/tsla/guide-manuscript-materials-microfilm-mf-1800-mf-1899 |title="Guide to Manuscript Materials : MF. 1800 - MF. 1899", Tennessee Secretary of State |access-date=October 29, 2017 |archive-date=October 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171030041434/https://sos.tn.gov/products/tsla/guide-manuscript-materials-microfilm-mf-1800-mf-1899 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In an interview with the ''Cincinnati Commercial'', Forrest stated, "I have never recognized the present government in Tennessee as having any legal existence." He objected to Governor Brownlow calling out the militia and warned if they "committed outrages" that "they and Mr. Brownloe's{{sic}} government will be swept out of existence not a Radical will be left alive." Forrest claimed the Klan had more than 40,000 members in Tennessee and 550,000 in the southern states. He said the Klan supported the Democratic Party. Forrest suggested that a proclamation of Brownlow called for shooting members of the Klan. Forrest denied being a member of the Klan himself.<ref>''The Charleston Daily News''. "A Talk with General Forrest." September 8, 1868: 1.</ref>

Forrest and twelve other Klan members submitted a petition to Brownlow, stating they would cease their activities if Confederates were given the right to vote.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|360}} Brownlow rejected this, however, and set about reorganizing the state guard and pressing the legislature for still greater enforcement powers.

Brownlow endorsed [[Ulysses S. Grant]] for president in 1868, and asked for federal troops to be stationed in 21 Tennessee counties to counter rising Klan activity. The state legislature granted him the power to throw out entire counties' voter registrations if he thought they included disfranchised voters. In October 1868, prior to the election, Brownlow discarded all registered voters in [[Lincoln County, Tennessee|Lincoln County]].  Following the election, two of the Radicals' congressional candidates, [[Lewis Tillman]] in the [[Tennessee's 4th congressional district|4th District]] and [[William Jay Smith (Tennessee politician)|William J. Smith]] in the [[Tennessee's 8th congressional district|8th District]], were initially defeated.  Brownlow, believing Klan intimidation to be the reason for their defeat, rejected the votes from [[Marshall County, Tennessee|Marshall]] and [[Coffee County, Tennessee|Coffee]] counties, allowing Tillman to win, and rejected the votes from [[Fayette County, Tennessee|Fayette]] and [[Tipton County, Tennessee|Tipton]] counties, allowing Smith to win.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|366–367}}

In February 1869, as Brownlow's final term was near its end, he placed nine counties under [[martial law]], arguing this was necessary to quell rising Klan violence.  He also dispatched five state guard companies to occupy [[Pulaski, Tennessee|Pulaski]], where the Klan had been founded.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|372}} After Brownlow left office in March, Forrest ordered the Klan to destroy its costumes and cease all activities.<ref name=langsdon />

==U.S. Senate and his later life==

Following his reelection as Governor of Tennessee in 1867, Brownlow decided he would not seek a third term, and instead sought election to the U.S. Senate seat that would be vacated by [[David T. Patterson]], Andrew Johnson's son-in-law, in 1869.  In October 1867, the state legislature elected Brownlow over [[William Brickly Stokes|William B. Stokes]] by a 63 to 39 vote.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|347}} By the time he was sworn in on March 4, 1869, a persistent nervous disease had weakened him considerably, and the Senate clerk had to read his speeches.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|387}} One of his speeches was a defense of [[Ambrose Burnside]], the Union general who had liberated Knoxville from Confederate forces in 1863.<ref name=coulter />{{rp|390}}

Brownlow was a member of the U.S. Senate when the final version of the bill S. 810 was introduced onto the Senate floor on April 19, 1870, enacted the next month by the U.S. Congress, and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on May 31, 1870 as the [[Enforcement Act of 1870]] (also known under the popular titles as the Civil Rights Act of 1870 or the First Ku Klux Klan Act) and the later [[Second Enforcement Act of 1871]] (also known under the popular titles as the Civil Rights Act of 1871 or the Third Ku Klux Klan Act) of the United States Congress which empowered the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in order to combat the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacy organizations.

[[File:Governor-william-brownlow-house.png|right|thumb|upright=1.25|Brownlow's house and library at 211 Cumberland Avenue in Knoxville (no longer extant), as drawn by [[Benson John Lossing]]]]
Interviewed (while suffering visibly from the "palsy" that afflicted him in later life) in 1871 by a reporter from the ''New York Herald'', Brownlow essentially predicted the failure of Reconstruction, the coming [[nadir of American race relations]], and beyond:<ref name="1871interview">{{Cite news |date=1871-08-05 |title=Senator Brownlow: What He Thinks of the Next Presidential Election, the 'Rebel' Spirit, the Kuklux... |pages=3 |work=The Tennessean |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tennessean-senator-brownlow-what-he/127018425/ |access-date=2023-06-24}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text="The leading men in the South still look upon the separation of the south from the Union as a hopeful probability. The devil is in them, and they will get up another rebellion if they see any chance of success. They exalt in private over the reduction of the regular army, which Congress foolishly cut down to 30,000 men, and they boast of having enough arms to organize an army at any time. [[Jefferson Davis|Davis]], [[Robert Toombs|Toombs]] and [[Alexander H. Stephens|Stephens]] express the sentiments of the masses of the Southern people...[the plan is to] try to accomplish at the ballot-box and by legislation what they failed to do in the field...to get control of the National Government by the aid of the Democratic party, to destroy all the work of reconstruction, and during the administration of a Democratic President to reorganize the Southern Confederacy, after long and careful preparation."|author=Parson Brownlow, August 1871<ref name="1871interview" />}}

After his Senate term ended in 1875, Brownlow returned to Knoxville. His successor as governor, [[DeWitt Clinton Senter]], had undone most of his Radical initiatives, allowing Democrats to regain control of the state government.<ref>William E. Hardy, "The Margins of William Brownlow's Words: New Perspectives on the End of Radical Reconstruction in Tennessee," ''Journal of East Tennessee History'', Vol. 84 (2012), pp. 78-86.</ref>  Having sold the ''Whig'' in 1869, Brownlow purchased an interest in the ''Knoxville Chronicle'', a Republican newspaper published by his old protégé, [[William Rule (American editor)|William Rule]].  The paper's name was changed to the ''Knoxville Whig and Chronicle''.<ref name="coulter" />{{rp|385}}  In 1876, Brownlow endorsed [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] for president.<ref name="coulter" />{{rp|396}} In December of the same year, he spoke at the opening of [[Knoxville College]], which had been established for the city's African-American residents.<ref>William MacArthur, ''Knoxville: Crossroads of the New South'' (Tulsa, Okla.: Continental Heritage Press, 1982), p. 49, 74.</ref>

On the night of April 28, 1877, Brownlow collapsed at his home, and died the following afternoon.  The cause of death was given as "paralysis of the bowels."<ref name=coulter />{{rp|396}}  He was interred in Knoxville's [[Old Gray Cemetery]] following a funeral procession described by his colleague, Oliver Perry Temple, as the largest in the city's history up to that time.<ref>Oliver Perry Temple, ''Notable Men of Tennessee, From 1833 to 1875, Their Times and Their Contemporaries'' (New York: Cosmopolitan Press, 1912), p. 143.</ref>

==Legacy==

In 1870, William Rule, who had been a journalist for the ''Whig'', launched the ''Knoxville Chronicle'', which he considered the ''Whig''<nowiki>'s</nowiki> pro-Republican successor.  Rule continued editing this paper, which was eventually renamed ''[[The Knoxville Journal]]'', until his death in 1928.  The ''Knoxville Journal'' remained one of Knoxville's daily newspapers until it folded in 1991.  [[Adolph Ochs]], who later became publisher of the ''[[New York Times]]'', began his career at the ''Chronicle'' in the early 1870s.<ref>Doris Faber, ''Printer's Devil to Publisher: Adolph S. Ochs of the New York Times'' (New York Messner, 1963), pp. 24-25.</ref>

William Rule wrote that Brownlow was "a master of invective and burning sarcasm, and he flourished in an age when such things were expected of a public journalist."<ref>William Rule, ''Standard History of Knoxville, Tennessee'' (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1900; reprinted by Kessinger Books, 2010), p. 326.</ref>  J.&nbsp;Austin Sperry, Brownlow's rival editor in pre-Civil War Knoxville, admitted that Brownlow was a remarkable judge of human nature.<ref name=humphrey />

Brownlow's long-time colleague, Oliver Perry Temple, wrote of him:

<blockquote>It was easy for friends to persuade Mr. Brownlow to do anything that did not violate his sense of right; to force him was impossible.  A child could lead him; a giant could not drive him.  When his mind was once made up, it was as immovable as the mountains.<ref>Temple, ''Notable Men of Tennessee'', p. 282.</ref></blockquote>

Brownlow remained a divisive figure for decades after his death.  In 1999, historian Stephen Ash wrote, "more than 120 years after his death, merely mentioning his name in the Volunteer State can evoke raucous laughter or bitter curses."<ref name=ash />{{rp|xi}}  Brownlow has been described as "Tennessee's worst governor," and the "most hated man in Tennessee History."<ref name=neely>Jack Neely, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20131127115633/http://www.metropulse.com/news/2011/apr/06/requiem-parson-brownlow/ Requiem for Parson Brownlow]," ''Metro Pulse'', 6 April 2011.  Accessed at the Internet Archive, 2 October 2015.</ref>  A 1981 poll of fifty-two Tennessee historians that ranked the state's governors on ability, accomplishments, and statesmanship, placed Brownlow dead last.<ref>''Tennessee Historical Quarterly'', Vol. 41, No. 1 (Spring 1982), p. 100.</ref>

Journalist Steve Humphrey argued that Brownlow was a talented newspaper editor and reporter, as evidenced by his reporting on events such as the opening of the Gayoso Hotel in Memphis and Knoxville's 1854 [[cholera]] epidemic.<ref name=humphrey>Stephen Humphrey, "The Man Brownlow from a Newspaper Man's Point of View," East Tennessee Historical Society ''Publications'', Vol. 43 (1971), pp. 59-70.</ref>

The Capitol Committee of the Tennessee General Assembly removed the official portrait of Governor Parson Brownlow that had only been briefly installed during April 1987 within the Legislative Library of state capitol building, upon the recommendation of Democratic [[Douglas Henry|Tennessee state Senator Douglas Henry]].<ref name=neely2>Jack Neely, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20110413020315/http://www.metropulse.com/news/2011/apr/06/gov-brownlows-bad-reputation/?print=1 Gov. Brownlow's Bad Reputation]," ''Metro Pulse'', 6 April 2011. Accessed at the Internet Archive, 2 October 2015.</ref>

==Family==
[[File:34 star American flag - Liberty & Union. Now & Forever, One and Inseperable.jpg|thumb|
"Liberty & Union. Now & Forever, One and Inseperable" - 34-star U.S. flag given to [[Susan Brownlow]] by the Ladies of Philadelphia, June 13, 1862 (East Tennessee Historical Society)]]
Brownlow married Eliza O'Brien (1819–1914) during 1836 in Elizabethton, Tennessee.  They had seven children: [[Susan Brownlow Boynton|Susan]], [[John Bell Brownlow|John Bell]], [[James Patton Brownlow|James Patton]], Mary, Fannie, Annie, and Caledonia Temple.<ref name=armstrong>Zella Armstrong, [https://books.google.com/books?id=iU4bAAAAYAAJ ''Notable Southern families, Volume 1''], (Chattanooga, Tenn.: The Lookout Publishing Co., 1918), pp. 39-45. {{OCLC|1079125}}. Retrieved: 29 October 2012.</ref> Eliza was a grand-niece of [[Edmund P. Gaines]] and [[George Strother Gaines]].<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Sutherd |first=Calvin E. |title=A Compilation of Gaines Family Data, with Special Emphasis on the Lineage of William and Isabella (Pendleton) Gaines |publisher=Riverside Press |year= |edition=Rev. |location=Fort Lauderdale, Florida |publication-date=August 1972 |pages=310–313 |lccn=72086413 |oclc=482743}}</ref> Her father was 25 years older than her mother; James O'Brien and three of his brothers operated iron mines in East Tennessee.<ref name=":0" /> Eliza O'Brien Brownlow lived at the family's home formerly on East Cumberland Avenue (at the present day James White Parkway) in Knoxville until her death in 1914 at the age of 94.  In the 1890s and early 1900s, numerous visitors, including three presidents ([[William McKinley]], [[Theodore Roosevelt]], and [[William Howard Taft]]), called on Eliza Brownlow when visiting Knoxville.<ref name="neely2" />

The Brownlows' older son, [[John Bell Brownlow]] (1839–1922), was a colonel in the Union Army during the Civil War. He worked for the federal government for most of his life, and in later years helped develop the Knoxville neighborhood (just north of modern [[Fourth and Gill]]) that for years was known as "Brownlow." Brownlow Elementary School, which served this neighborhood from 1913 to 1995, still stands, and has been converted into urban lofts.<ref>Knox County Development Corporation, [http://www.kcdc.org/Libraries/Redevelopment_Plans/brownlowSchool.sflb.ashx Brownlow School Redevelopment & Urban Renewal Plan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303195326/http://www.kcdc.org/Libraries/Redevelopment_Plans/brownlowSchool.sflb.ashx |date=March 3, 2016 }}, August 2007.  Retrieved: 29 October 2012.</ref><ref>[http://www.brownlowlofts.com/ Brownlow Lofts]. Retrieved: 29 October 2012.</ref> The Brownlows' younger son, [[James Patton Brownlow]] (1842–1879), was also a colonel in the Union Army during the Civil War, though he was later [[brevet (military)|brevetted]] to brigadier general by President [[Andrew Johnson]].  He served as an adjutant general in the state guard during his father's term as governor.<ref>Roger D. Hunt and Jack R. Brown, ''Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue'' (Gaithersburg, Maryland: Olde Soldier Books, Inc., 1990), p. 86. {{ISBN|1-56013-002-4}}.</ref> Susan Brownlow Sawyers Boynton and her four younger sisters all survived to adulthood, married, and had children of their own.<ref name=":0" />

[[Walter P. Brownlow]] (1851–1910), a nephew of Parson Brownlow, served as a U.S. congressman from [[Tennessee's 1st congressional district|Tennessee's 1st district]] from 1897 until his death.<ref name=armstrong />

[[James Stewart Martin (congressman)|James Stewart Martin]] (1826–1907), another nephew of Parson Brownlow (the son of his sister, Nancy), served as a U.S. congressman from [[Illinois]] in the mid-1870s.<ref name=armstrong />

[[Louis Brownlow]] (1879–1963), a prominent 20th-century political scientist and city planner, was a grandson of one of Parson Brownlow's first cousins.<ref name=armstrong />  He served a tumultuous 3-year term as Knoxville's city manager in the 1920s.

==Works==

===Newspapers===

*The ''[[Brownlow's Whig|Whig]]'', Brownlow's primary mouthpiece, was published under the following [[Masthead (British publishing)|masthead]] titles: 
**''Tennessee Whig'' (May 16, 1839 in Elizabethton – June 13, 1839)
**''Elizabethton Whig'' (June 13, 1839 in Elizabethton – [[nameplate (publishing)|nameplate]] change)
**''The Whig'' (May 6, 1840 in Jonesborough – 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 in Knoxville – 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)
*The ''Knoxville Whig and Chronicle'' (1875–1877), co-owner with [[William Rule (American editor)|William Rule]]

===Books===

*''[https://books.google.com/books?id=0GYXAAAAYAAJ&q=brownlow+study+of+presbyterianism Helps to the Study of Presbyterianism: Or, An Unsophisticated Exposition of Calvinism, with Hopkinsian Modifications and Policy, with a View to a More Easy Interpretation of the Same]'' (1834)
*''A Narrative of the Life, Travels, and Circumstances Incident Thereto, of William G. Brownlow'' (1834, a book supplement bound within ''Helps to the Study of Presbyterianism:'')
*''Baptism Examined: Or, the True State of the Case'' (1842)
*''[https://archive.org/details/apoliticalregis00browgoog A Political Register, Setting Forth the Principles of the Whig and Locofoco Parties in the United States, With the Life and Public Services of Henry Clay]'' (1844)
*''[https://archive.org/details/americanismcont00browgoog Americanism Contrasted with Foreignism, Romanism and Bogus Democracy, In the Light of Reason, History, and Scripture; In Which Certain Demagogues in Tennessee, and Elsewhere, are Shown Up in Their True Colors]'' (1856)
*''[https://books.google.com/books?id=9Kw8AAAAYAAJ&q=brownlow+iron+wheel+examined The Great Iron Wheel Examined; Or, Its False Spokes Extracted, and an Exhibition of Elder Graves, Its Builder]'' (1856)
*''[https://archive.org/details/sketchesrisepro02browgoog Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession; With a Narrative of Personal Adventures Among the Rebels]'' (1862)

===Speeches and debates===

*"Speech, Being a Reply to [[Thomas Dickens Arnold|Thomas Dog Arnold]], Ass, Who Appeared Before the Invitation, On Saturday Night, the 18th of September, 1852, in the Hearing of a Large Audience, and Assailed Said Brownlow" (Knoxville, Tennessee, September 19, 1852)
*"A Sermon on Slavery: A Vindication of the Methodist Church, South: Her Position Stated" (Knoxville, Tennessee, August 9, 1857)
*"[https://books.google.com/books?id=H3QFAAAAQAAJ Ought American Slavery to be Perpetuated?  A Debate Between Rev. W.G. Brownlow and Rev. A. Pryne Held At Philadelphia, September, 1858]" (1858)
*"Speech of Parson Brownlow, of Tennessee, Against the Great Rebellion" (New York, May 15, 1862)
*"Address to the Loyal People of Tennessee" (Knoxville, Tennessee, March 18, 1868)

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Alexander, Thomas B. ''Political Reconstruction in Tennessee'' (Vanderbilt UP, 1950).
* Alexander, Thomas B. "Strange Bedfellows: The Interlocking Careers of TAR Nelson, Andrew Johnson, and WG (Parson) Brownlow." ''East Tennessee Historical Society Publications'' 24 (1952): 68+.
* Alexander, Thomas B. "Whiggery and Reconstruction in Tennessee." ''Journal of Southern History'' 16.3 (1950): 291-305. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2197744 online]
* Alexander, Thomas B. "Kukluxism in Tennessee, 1865-1869." ''Tennessee Historical Quarterly'' (1949): 195-219. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42621013?read-now=1&seq=24 online]
* Ash, Stephen (1999), ''Secessionists and Scoundrels'', Louisiana State University Press, {{ISBN|0-8071-2354-4}}
* Robert Booker, "[http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/jun/28/brownlow-roared-pro-union-message/ Brownlow Roared Pro-Union Message], ''Knoxville News Sentinel'', 28 June 2011.
* Coulter, E. Merton, ''William G. Brownlow: Fighting Parson of the Southern Highlands'' (1937; reprinted 999).  [http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_pressappa/5 Full text online free of 1999 edition, with important new introduction by Stephen V. Ash pp xi to xvii.]
* Downing, David C. (2007), ''A South Divided: Portraits of Dissent in the Confederacy''. Nashville: Cumberland House, {{ISBN|978-1-58182-587-9}}
* Kelly, James C. "William Gannaway Brownlow" ''Tennessee Historical Quarterly'' 43.1, 2 (1984): 25-43 and 155-72. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42626420 part 1 online]; and [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42626420  part 2 online]
* Haskins, Ralph W.  "Internecine Strife in Tennessee: Andrew Johnson Versus Parson Brownlow" ''Tennessee Historical Quarterly'' 24#4 (1965), pp.&nbsp;321–340 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42622841 online]
* Miscamble, William G. "Andrew Johnson and the Election of William G. ("Parson") Brownlow as Governor of Tennessee." ''Tennessee Historical Quarterly'' 37.3 (1978): 308.
* Severance, Ben H. ''Tennessee's Radical Army: The State Guard and Its Role in Reconstruction, 1867-1869'' (Univ. of Tennessee Press, 2005).

==External links==
{{Commons category|William Gannaway Brownlow}}
{{CongBio|b000963}}
*''[http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045586/ Brownlow's Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator]'' – from the Library of Congress "Chronicling America" database; includes issues published 1863–1866
*[http://www.nga.org/cms/home/governors/past-governors-bios/page_tennessee/col2-content/main-content-list/title_brownlow_william.html William Gannaway Brownlow entry] at the [[National Governors Association]]
*[http://www.tn.gov/tsla/history/govpapers/findingaids/gp21.pdf Governor William G. Brownlow Papers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130712212033/http://www.tn.gov/tsla/history/govpapers/findingaids/gp21.pdf |date=July 12, 2013 }} – Tennessee State Library and Archives
*[http://cmdc.knoxlib.org/cdm/search/collection/p16311coll1!p15136coll1!p265301coll005!p15136coll4!p265301coll9!p265301coll7/searchterm/brownlow/field/all/mode/all/conn/and/rmcoll/p15136coll3/order/nosort/ad/asc Brownlow-related photographs in the Calvin McClung Digital Collection] – includes newspaper clippings and family photos
* {{Gutenberg author | id=33270}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=William Gannaway Brownlow}}

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{{Governors of Tennessee}}
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