BROWNLOW'S

EXPERIENCES AMONG THE REBELS.

CHAPTER I.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH-NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN AGITATORS ALIKE TO BE DREADED-MUTINEERS ON BOARD THE SHIP OF STATE -SOUTH CAROLINA METHODISTS-THE RIGHT OF SECESSION ARGUED -JEFFERSON, MADISON, AND JACKSON ALL DENY THE RIGHT OF SECESSION.

IT is a delicate task for a modest man to perform, when he undertakes to write out a memorial of himself, and especially when he shall undertake to give both his private and public life. But as I have never arisen to any thing like eminence, and as it is the custom of such only as have, to write out a full history of themselves, and to give their bad as well as good deeds to the world, I will be spared the labor and mortification of any unfavorable disclosures.

It will, perhaps, be urged that both sides of a man's picture of life should be given, and then the reader, having the whole man before him, will be the better prepared to award to him a righteous verdict. Others will insist that a man should so conduct himself as to

be wholly free from improprieties, especially if he be a member of the Church, or wear clerical robes. To this I reply, that if the memoirs of only such as have lived and died without fault, and without incurring the displeasure of designing and bad men, were written, we should seldom, if ever, see a production of the kind.

I lay no claim whatever to inimitable excellencies ; but I do claim that my good and evil deeds, if placed in a scale, would not be so perfectly poised that neither end would preponderate! An anecdote of my life will illustrate my views of this subject.

Whilst in attendance at an Annual Conference of the Methodist Church, in Abingdon, Virginia, some twelve years ago, I suffered from an attack of fever; and, either from the influence of medicine, or of fever on the brain, I became a little flighty. The opinion prevailed that I would die, and the venerable BISHOP CAPERS, and other ministers, became anxious to know how the "eccentric Parson" felt in view of an exchange of worlds. Accordingly, they visited my room, and the Bishop read the Scriptures, and sang and prayed with and for me. On taking his leave of me,-holding me by the hand and looking me full in the face,-he inquired what my prospects were beyond the grave. It is said—and I have no doubt of the truth of the statement that I returned for an answer, "Well, Bishop, if I had my life to live over again, I could improve it in many respects, and would try to do so. However,

if the books have been properly kept in the other world, there is a small balance in my favor!"

I have lived long enough in this present evil world to have enlisted the sympathies of many friends, and at the same time to have excited the bitter resentments of many foes. This affords me proof that I have not been a negative character. That a man engaged in the work of propagating Christianity, in opposing error and defending the cause of truth, and, finally, in going about endeavoring to do good, should find himself exposed to enemies, or should meet with violent and protracted opposition, may seem strange. But history and observation inform us that such has been the lot of all decided public men, in a greater or less degree. While some emblazon a man's virtues, others will amplify his faults. A majority, however, labor

"The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,
To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,"

rather than pursue the opposite course; and it is more
than likely that on this account religious sectarians and
political partisans have denied me justice. For it has
certainly been my lot in life to have the shafts of un-
merited censure hurled at me; and since this GREAT
REBELLION has been inaugurated, I have been doomed
to bear the base insinuations of invidious tongues and
pens
in Rebeldom !

Perhaps it will be asked, Who is the person that offers this volume to the world? In this the inquisitive reader

shall be gratified; for short and simple are the domestic annals of the writer, though in his fifty-seventh year. I am the eldest son of JOSEPH A. BROWNLOW, who was born and raised in Rockbridge county, Virginia, and died in Sullivan county, in East Tennessee, in 1816. My father died when I was so young that I could not have been a judge of his character; but it has been a source of consolation to me to hear him spoken of by his old associates and schoolmates (General SAM HOUSTON among them) as a man of good sense, brave independence, and of sterling integrity. He was a private in a Tennessee company in the War of 1812. Two of his brothers were at the battle of the Horseshoe, under General JACKSON, two others of them died naval officers, and their remains sleep in Norfolk and New Orleans.

The death of my father was a grievous affliction to my mother, as she was left with five helpless children,— three sons and two daughters,-four of whom are now dead, having heard of the death of the last of the four since my banishment from home! My mother's maiden name was CATHARINE GANNAWAY,-a Virginian likewise, of respectable parentage, and slave-owners.

She departed this transitory life in less than three months after the death of her husband. Being naturally mild and agreeable in her temperament, she was warmly endeared to a large circle of friends and acquaintance. But their consolation was in this, that, while sinking into

the cold embrace of death, she was happy in the religion of Christ.

I was born in Wythe county, Virginia, on the 29th of August, 1805. After the death of my parents, I lived with my mother's relations, who raised me up to hard labor, until I was eighteen years old, when I removed to Abingdon, in that State, and served as a regular apprentice to the trade of a house-carpenter. I have been a laboring-man all my life long, and have acted upon the Scriptural maxim of eating my bread in the sweat of my brow. Though a Southern man in feeling and principle, I do not think it degrading to a man to labor, as do most of the Southern Disunionists. Whether East or West, North or South, I recognize the dignity of labor, and look forward to a day, not very distant, when educated labor will be the salvation of this vast country!

My education was imperfect and irregular, even in those branches taught in the common-schools of the country. I labored, after obtaining a trade, until I acquired the means of again going to school. I afterwards entered the Methodist Travelling Ministry, and travelled ten years without intermission. I availed myself of this position to study and improve my limited education, which I did in all the English branches.

I am about six feet high, and have weighed as heavy as one hundred and seventy-five pounds,—have had as fine a constitution as any man need desire. I have very