ever recorded in history. I go, because I have refused to laud to the skies the acts of tyranny, usurpation, and oppression inflicted upon the people of East Tennessee for their devotion to the Constitution and laws of the Government handed down to them by their fathers, and the liberties secured to them by a war of seven long years of gloom, poverty, and trial! I repeat, I am proud of my position and of my principles, and shall leave them to my children as a legacy far more valuable than a princely fortune, had I the latter to bestow!

With me life has lost some of its energy: having passed six annual posts on the western slope of half a century, something of the fire of youth is exhausted; but I stand forth with the eloquence and energy of right to sustain and stimulate me in the maintenance of my principles. I am encouraged to firmness when I look back to the fate of Him "whose power was righteousness," while the infuriated mob cried out, "Crucify him! crucify him!"

I owe to my numerous list of subscribers the filling out of their respective terms for which they have made advance payments, and, if circumstances ever place it in my power to discharge these obligations, I will do it most certainly. But if I am denied the liberty of doing so, they must regard their small losses as so many contributions to the cause in which I have fallen. I feel that I can with confidence rely upon the magnanimity

and forbearance of my patrons under this state of things. They will bear me witness that I have held out as long as I am allowed to, and that I have yielded to a military despotism that I could not avert the horrors of or successfully oppose.

I will only say, in conclusion,-for I am not allowed the privilege to write,—that the people of this country have been unaccustomed to such wrongs; they can yet scarcely realize them. They are astounded for the timebeing with the quick succession of outrages that have come upon them, and they stand horror-stricken, like men expecting ruin and annihilation. I may not live to see the day, but thousands of my readers will, when the people of this once prosperous country will see that they are marching by "double-quick time" from freedom to bondage. They will then look these wanton outrages upon right and liberty full in the face, and my prediction is that they will "stir the stones of Rome to rise and mutiny." Wrongs less wanton and outrageous precipitated the French Revolution. Citizens cast into dungeons without charges of crime against them, and without the formalities of a trial by jury; private property confiscated at the beck of those in power; the press humbled, muzzled, and suppressed, or prostituted to serve the ends of tyranny! The crimes of Louis XVI. fell short of all this, and yet he lost his head! The people of this country, down-trodden and oppressed, still have the resolution of their illustrious

forefathers, who asserted their rights at Lexington and Bunker Hill!

Exchanging, with proud satisfaction, the editorial chair and the sweet endearments of home for a cell in the prison or the lot of an exile,

I have the honor to be, &c.,

WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW, Editor of the Knoxville Whig.

Knoxville Whig, Oct. 24, 1861.

CHAPTER XVIII.

GENERAL ZOLLICOFFER'S CORRESPONDENCE-HIGHLY IMPORTANT REVELATIONS MADE BY THE REBEL BEADERS-UNION FEELING IN EAST TENNESSEE-THE PEOPLE OF EAST TENNESSEE TO BE CRUSHED OUT.

A LARGE mass of correspondence was found in General Zollicoffer's camp after his army was routed and his head-quarters were captured, portions of which contain important admissions as to the prevalence and extent of the Union feeling in East Tennessee. I have found this correspondence since I came North, and I desire to have it preserved in a permanent form, and to see that it gets back into East Tennessee, that the Union men there, and their children after them, may see the signatures, and hold the guilty and murderous authors in everlasting remembrance!

I am sorry to find in this correspondence letters from General Zollicoffer breathing the spirit that his do, and giving the advice he did. It only proves that when the disease of Secession takes hold of a man, he is at once given over to hardness of heart and reprobacy of mind! From the turn-coat Methodist Hopkins, the pious Presbyterian elder C. Wallace,

and the Parson Colonel Wood, I was prepared to hear all that they have said. These men are the regular descendants of the families of Baron Munchausen, Lemuel Gulliver, and Captain Riley, and rank among the first families in "Dixie,” combining all the marvellous faculties of their ancestry. The dark tide, turbid as the waves of hell, that has engulfed and swept over every thing South for the last twelve months, looms up in this rich and racy correspondence; and none need wonder that it should have carried with it a venal press and a debauched and time-serving pulpit. When preachers, elders, and class-leaders write out such letters and dispatches and engage in such work, what could we expect but that the watchmen on the walls of Zion would turn active traitors, and dwindle down to "dumb dogs who would not bark"?

This correspondence suggests several important facts; and I must remind the reader of them, to secure an attentive perusal of the letters.

First. That an overwhelming number of the East Tennesseeans were devoted to the Union, and intended to die by it. This is true; and I am proud to have it in my power to say that this Union sentiment has never given way in the least degree.

Second. That the Rebel leaders were resolved to subjugate them at the point of the bayonet, and have, ever since the date of these letters, been executing their hellish plans, thus deliberately agreed upon!