OCTOBER 26, 1861:
William
G. “Parson” Brownlow is ordered by Confederate authorities to cease publication
of the Unionist Knoxville Whig. He is
called before a Court in Nashville facing charges of incitement to treason. In
his last editorial, he writes (in part):
“…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…”
Despite his subsequent imprisonment and abuse by Confederate
authorities (or more probably because of it) Brownlow remained a fanatic
opponent of secession. It was Brownlow who coined the memorable phrase (since
then falsely attributed to various Confederates) that he would fight
secessionism until "Hell freezes over. And then I'll fight them on the
ice."
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