William G. Brownlow

William G. Brownlow
Name	William G. Brownlow
Caption	Brownlow c. 1865
Order	19th
Office	Governor of Tennessee
Term start	April 5, 1865
Term end	February 25, 1869
Predecessor	Andrew Johnson
Successor	Dewitt Clinton Senter
Jr/sr1	United States Senator
State1	Tennessee
Term start1	March 4, 1869
Term end1	March 3, 1875
Predecessor1	Joseph S. Fowler
Successor1	Andrew Johnson
Birth date	August 29, 1805
Birth place	Wythe County, Virginia
Death date	April 29, 1877 (aged 71)
Death place	Knoxville, Tennessee
Party	Whig (before 1855), Know Nothing (1855–1860), Republican (1860–1877)
Spouse	Eliza Ann O'Brien
Profession	Methodist minister, newspaper editor, politician

William G. Brownlow was a polarizing and influential figure in Tennessee and Southern politics during the mid-19th century. A fiery Methodist minister and newspaper editor, he became notorious as the "Fighting Parson" for his vehement pro-Union and anti-Confederacy stance. His political career, defined by Reconstruction policies, included serving as the 19th Governor of Tennessee and later as a United States Senator from the state.

Early life and career

Born in Wythe County, Virginia, in 1805, Brownlow was orphaned young and raised by relatives in Abingdon, Virginia. He received little formal education and initially worked as a carpenter before experiencing a religious conversion and becoming a Methodist circuit rider in the late 1820s. His ministry took him to the mountains of East Tennessee, where he developed a reputation as a forceful and combative preacher. He settled in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and began his foray into journalism by purchasing a share in the Elizabethton Republican newspaper, honing the polemical style that would define his later career.

Newspaper editor and "Fighting Parson"

In 1849, Brownlow moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, and purchased the Knoxville Whig, which became his powerful platform. A staunch supporter of the Whig Party and later the Know Nothing movement, he used his paper to fiercely attack political opponents, including Democrats, Catholics, and proponents of secession. His vitriolic prose and physical confrontations earned him the nickname the "Fighting Parson." In the escalating sectional crisis, Brownlow was an unwavering Unionist, engaging in fierce editorial wars with pro-secession editors like John H. Reagan and Landon Carter Haynes.

Civil War and Reconstruction

Following Tennessee's secession in 1861, Brownlow continued his defiant Unionist editorials, making him a target for the Confederate authorities. He was eventually arrested and imprisoned, later being exiled to Union lines. He spent much of the Civil War touring the North, delivering incendiary speeches against the Confederacy and raising funds. After the Union Army captured much of Tennessee, he returned and became a leading architect of the state's harsh Reconstruction under the control of the Republican Party.

Governor of Tennessee

Brownlow was elected Governor of Tennessee in 1865. His administration was marked by the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment and a concerted effort to disenfranchise former Confederates while empowering freedmen and Unionists. He oversaw the creation of the Tennessee State Guard and signed legislation that effectively suppressed the Ku Klux Klan through the use of martial law. His most controversial act was engineering the state legislature's expulsion of members who opposed Reconstruction, ensuring the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment.

United States Senate

After his tumultuous term as governor, the Tennessee General Assembly elected Brownlow to the United States Senate in 1869. In the Senate, he aligned with the Radical Republicans and continued to advocate for stringent Reconstruction policies. He served on the Committee on Patents and the Committee on Revolutionary Claims. His tenure was less dominant than his governorship, and he chose not to seek re-election in 1875, being succeeded by former President Andrew Johnson.

Later life and death

Following his Senate term, Brownlow returned to Knoxville, Tennessee, and resumed his work as a newspaper editor, founding Brownlow's Knoxville Whig and Chronicle. His health declined in his final years. He died in Knoxville in 1877 and was interred in the city's Old Gray Cemetery, a burial ground for many prominent East Tennessee Unionists. His legacy remains that of a fiercely partisan and uncompromising leader who shaped Tennessee's difficult transition through the Civil War and Reconstruction era.

Category:1805 births Category:1877 deaths Category:Governors of Tennessee Category:United States senators from Tennessee Category:Tennessee Republicans Category:American Methodist ministers Category:People of Tennessee in the American Civil War