On the 9th of October, 1855, and while the Legislature was in session at Nashville, we delivered a speech to an immense crowd on the Public Square; which, after certain preliminary remarks, we will give to the public, just as it was spoken. The reason why the call was made on us to deliver the speech was, that we had, the previous weeks, delivered the same, in substance, at Shelbyville and Clarksville, and the American party at Nashville hearing of it, and approving what was said, desired us to repeat it; and, to be candid, we desired to repeat it there and then!

Mr. Wise, of Virginia, gained great notoriety, in the spring of 1855, by his abuse and blackguardism, heaped upon the American party. He was successful; and Johnson, of Tennessee, whose ambition was to gain a more infamous notoriety, profiting by the example of Wise, plunged into the lowest depths of Billingsgate, and piled his vulgar epithets upon the party indiscriminately. Wise, then, like all inventors and originators, has had numerous imitators, and among the most successful of these are Johnson, of Tennessee; Stephens, of Georgia; and Clingman, of North Carolina. But as an adept in low Billingsgate slang, coarse blackguardism, and as a slanderer and maligner of better men than himself, Johnson has excelled his patron, Wise, and left far in the shades of the distant caverns of abuse, both Stephens and Clingman!

To prepare the public mind for the degree of severity we used in reference to the Governor of the State, we will introduce as many as five different extracts from his speeches, in his late canvass for Governor, at Murfreesboro’ and Manchester; as reported by his partisan organ, the Nashville Union, and his pliant tool, its Abolition editor, E. G. Eastman:

“THE DEVIL, HIS SATANIC MAJESTY, THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS, WHO
PRESIDES OVER THE SECRET CONCLAVE HELD IN PANDEMONIUM, MAKES
WAR UPON ALL BRANCHES OF CHRIST’S CHURCH. THE KNOW NOTHINGS
ADVOCATE AND DEFEND NONE, BUT MAKE WAR UPON ONE OF THE
CHURCHES, AND THUS FAR BECOME THE ALLIES OF THE PRINCE OF
DARKNESS.” [Speech of ANDREW JOHNSON, at Murfreesboro’.

“A DENOMINATION LIKE THIS, TO SET UP AS THE GUARDIANS OF THE
RELIGION AND MORALS OF THE COUNTRY! A DENOMINATION BOUND
TOGETHER BY SECRET AND TERRIBLE OATHS: THE FIRST OF WHICH, ON
THE VERY INITIATION, FIXES AND REQUIRES THEM TO CARRY A LIE IN
THEIR MOUTHS.” [Speech of ANDREW JOHNSON, at Murfreesboro’.

“SHOW ME THE DIMENSIONS OF A KNOW NOTHING, AND I WILL SHOW YOU
A HUGE REPTILE, UPON WHOSE NECK THE FOOT OF EVERY HONEST MAN
OUGHT TO BE PLACED.” [Speech of ANDREW JOHNSON, at Manchester.

“THEY ARE LIKE THE HYENA, AND COME FROM THEIR LAIR AFTER
MIDNIGHT TO PREY UPON HUMAN CARCASSES.” [Speech of ANDREW
JOHNSON, at Manchester.

“I WOULD AS SOON BE FOUND IN THE CLAN OF JOHN A. MURRELL AS IN
A KNOW NOTHING COUNCIL.” [Speech of ANDREW JOHNSON, at
Manchester.

The blackguard and calumniator using this language, was elected by a majority of two thousand votes: that majority being cast by Foreigners and illegal voters; and consequently, his competitor, COL. GENTRY than whom there is not a more talented, patriotic, and honorable gentleman in Tennessee was fairly and justly elected. This, then, is the language used by the Governor of Tennessee, towards a majority of the legal voters of the State! Under these circumstances, we made the speech that follows, to an immense crowd on the Square: the correspondence preceding which, will explain itself:

NASHVILLE, Octh, 1855.

W. G. BROWNLOW, ESQ.:

Dear Sir: The undersigned, having heard your speech on the Square, last night, respectfully request that you embody the substance of the same, and publish it in the Knoxville Whig. The desire to see it in print is very general; and those who heard it approved its severity, without it were such as were bitter against the American party.

Your friends,
CHARLES G. SMITH,
JOHN MORRISON,
F. M. BURTON,
ROBT. S. NORTHCUTT,
SAML. DAVIS.

NASHVILLE, Octh, 1855.

MESSRS. SMITH, MORRISON, AND OTHERS:

Gentlemen: Your note requesting me to publish the substance of my remarks on the Square, last Tuesday night, has been received, and I would have replied sooner, but for my absence at Shelbyville. I have now made the same speech at Clarksville, Nashville, and Shelbyville; and my only regrets are, that my engagements prevent me from delivering the same speech at every point in this State, where Gov. Johnson held me up as the “High Priest of the Order,” and argued therefrom the want of respectability for the Order. In addition to your request, I have had verbal applications from many gentlemen to publish my remarks gentlemen who have been mild and moderate throughout their political course. I shall, therefore, comply with your request and theirs, at my earliest convenience.

I hold that no man’s position in life should shield him from the rebukes he may merit by his bad conduct; and as for the present Governor of Tennessee, his wholesale abuse of the American party, towards whose members, without a single exception, he has indulged in language which ought not to be tolerated within the precincts of Billingsgate, no epithet is too low, too degrading, or disgraceful, to pay him back in.

Respectfully, &c.,

W. G. BROWNLOW.

FELLOW-CITIZENS: The occasion which has called you together to-night, is the special appointment of our young friend, Mr. Crowe, to whose eloquence we have all listened with pleasure. I have made no appointment to speak here; nor have I prompted the loud and long calls made upon me, this evening, by this large Nashville audience. I shall speak to you; but not upon the issues of the late canvass, nor upon those of the approaching canvass of 1856. I will discuss Andrew Johnson and E. G. Eastman; and if they are in the assembly, I hope they will come forward and take seats on this stand, that I may have the pleasure of looking them full in the face, as I denounce them in unmeasured terms: which is my purpose to-night, let the consequences be what they may!

On a memorable night in August, after it was understood that Andrew Johnson was reelected to the office of Governor, a procession was formed in Knoxville, composed of the worst materials in that young and growing city such as drunken, red-mouthed Irishmen, lousy Germans, and insolent negroes, with three or four men of respectable pretensions thrown in, to exercise a controlling influence over these bad materials. This riotous mob halted in front of my dwelling, in East Knoxville, and groaned and sang for my especial benefit: all which was natural enough as they had triumphed over me in the election of a Governor. I took no offence at their rejoicing over the election of Gov. Johnson, as I told them; and for the reason, that I knew them to be of that class of men who would actually need the exercise of the pardoning power, at the hands of the present Governor, to release them from the penitentiary, before his present term of service would expire!

From my humble dwelling, this beautiful procession marched to the Coleman House, on Gay street, yelling like devils, and insulting the inmates of every house they passed. “Huzza for Andy McJohnson!” exclaimed one. “Three cheers for Andy O’Johnson!” exclaimed another. While, to cap the climax “Well done, my Johnsing and the White Bastard,” (meaning Basis,) exclaimed a drunken negro! Halting in front of the Coleman House, the Governor elect mounted a goods box, and under feelings of great excitement, hatred, and malice, delivered a speech abusive of the whole American party, excepting none, in coarse, bitter language, in a style peculiarly his own adapted alone to the foul precincts of Billingsgate rounding his periods with a diabolical and infernal grin, alone suited to a display of oratory by a land pirate!

I reported this slanderous speech not in as offensive style as it was delivered; for his looks and grins no man can report on paper. I also wrote the substance of what he said to Major Donelson, in a letter, of which I shall have something more to say before I leave this stand. Just here, I will repeat what the Governor did say, and what I reported him to have said in my paper. I wish this large audience to hear me distinctly, and to recollect the points I make; for I shall wind up on the Governor and his miserable tool, Eastman, with a degree of severity you have not been accustomed to, but which shall be warranted by the facts in each case.

Gov. Johnson said this new party of self-styled Americans professed to have organized with a view to purify and reform the old political parties. A beautiful set, said he, to reform! The Order of Know Nothings was composed of the worst men in the Whig and Democratic parties. As a sample of these men, he pointed out Andrew J. Donelson, by name exclaiming as often as twice, Who is Andrew J. Donelson? He is a soured, office-seeking, disappointed politician, who has been kicked out of the Democratic party. To illustrate his views more fully, he told the crowd to imagine a large gang of counterfeiters out there! and an equally large gang of horse-thieves out yonder! Take from these two companies the worst men in their ranks, form a third party of these, and you have a representation of this Know Nothing party. This was a beautiful party to propose reform, or to speak of other parties being corrupt! He was interrupted repeatedly; and I think I may safely say, among hands, they gave him the d d lie fifty times! James M. Davis, a respectable mechanic, asked him if he would say that to Major Donelson’s face? He replied, that he heard the hissing of an adder, or a goose, and went through with certain stereotyped phrases you have all heard from his lips. This call upon him by Mr. Davis was not named in my newspaper report, nor in my letter to Major Donelson. Indeed, I did not anticipate a denial of his abuse.

Now, fellow-citizens, it was in this connection, as well as in the most offensive language, that Gov. Johnson introduced the name of Andrew J. Donelson, repeating it more than once, emphasizing upon it, and repeating it with scorn and bitterness. This is the report, in substance, I made of his speech through my paper, and in a letter I addressed to Major Donelson. And to the truth of my report, there are one hundred respectable gentlemen in Knoxville who will make oath upon the Holy Bible. There are now a half-dozen respectable gentlemen in this crowd who were in the street at Knoxville on that occasion, and heard every word the Governor said, and will sustain me in my account of it. Among these I will name Messrs. White and Armstrong, members of the House, Senator Rogers, Col. James C. Luttrell, and Mr. Fleming, the editor of the Knoxville Register.

Well, gentlemen and I am proud to have an opportunity of vindicating myself before so large a Nashville audience as this is I say Major Donelson came to Nashville, after receiving intelligence of the abuse of the Governor, and was seen walking these streets with a large and homely stick in his hand, looking grum, as any gentleman would do under the circumstances. The friends of Gov. Johnson seeing what would likely be the result of this affair, asked for, and very properly obtained that letter, with a view to laying it before their slanderous and abusive Executive officer, that he might lie out of what he said about an honorable and brave man; and thereby avoid the disgrace of a cudgelling! Did he lie out of the scrape? He did: aye, he ingloriously lied out of what he had said leaving Major Donelson no ground for any difficulty with him: although the Major had a right to suppose that any man base enough to make such charges, would have no hesitancy in lying out of his disreputable and cowardly abuse. I therefore pronounce your Governor, here upon his own dunghill, an UNMITIGATED LIAR AND CALUMNIATOR, and a VILLAINOUS COWARD, wanting the nerve to stand up to his abuse of better men than himself!

But it will be said that the Governor proves me a liar, by a citizen of Nashville, who was present at Knoxville and heard his speech. That is so, but I prove both him and his witness liars, by a multitude of witnesses who were also present, and who are gentlemen of the first standing. But who is it that testifies that I have lied? It is E. G. Eastman, the editor of the Sag Nicht organ in this city. And who is E. G. Eastman? He is a dirty, lying, and unscrupulous Abolitionist, from Massachusetts, who once conducted an Abolitionist paper either in that State, or the State of New Hampshire. He was brought out to this State to lie for the unscrupulous leaders of his party. He is paid for telling and writing falsehoods, and would, if the interests of his party required it, and a consideration were paid him in hand, swear lies as readily as he would write them down for publication. He is a poor devil, as void of truth and honor as he has shown himself to be of courage and resentment. He edits a low, dirty, scurrilous sheet; and, like his master, Gov. Johnson, never could elevate himself above the level of a common blackguard. No epithet is too low, too degrading, or disgraceful to be applied to the members of the American party, by either of these Billingsgate graduates. Decent men shun coming in contact with either of them, as they would avoid a night-cart, or other vehicle of filth. As some fish thrive only in dirty water, so the Nashville Union and American would not exist a week out of the atmosphere of slang and vituperation. A fit organ, this, for all who arrange themselves under the dark piratical flag of Andrew Johnson and his progressive Democracy. I am the more specific in reference to Eastman, because I understand he is in this assembly!

But, fellow-citizens, I am not yet through with this Knoxville speech of the Governor. Maj. Donelson visited Knoxville, one month after this slanderous speech was made against him; he visited there upon the invitation of the American party, to address a Mass Meeting. I waited upon Maj. Donelson, upon his arrival, and found him at the house of Doct. Curry. I told the Major that I was tired of having questions of veracity between me and Governors and Ex-Governors of Tennessee, and that I desired that others should state to him what had been said by the Governor. Accordingly, different gentlemen, citizens of character, informed him that they were in the crowd and heard Johnson, and that he did say all that was attributed to him, both in the letter he had received from me, and in the two Knoxville papers. Consequently, when Maj. Donelson made his speech next day, he denounced the Governor as a miserable calumniator, and refuted his villainous charges, in a manner becoming the occasion, and with a frankness which carried with it a conviction of its truth, and gave satisfaction to his numerous friends.

And now, gentlemen, I take occasion to state, that there is no longer an adjourned question of veracity between me and Johnson and Eastman. The issue is between Johnson and Eastman, on the one hand, and various respectable gentlemen of Knoxville, on the other hand. Either the Governor and his man Friday have basely lied, or a number of the citizens of Knoxville and vicinity, have testified to what is false. I assert, once more, that the Governor and his dirty Editor have lied out of the villainous abuse the former heaped upon better men than himself. And if their friends are willing to see them remain under the charge, the American party are satisfied with the settlement of the question.

Fellow-citizens, while I am on the stand, I will notice some other points personal to myself. And before I enter upon these, I will call your attention to the wholesale abuse of the Governor, of some thirty-five or forty thousand voters in Tennessee. In his Murfreesboro’ speech, he asserted that “the Devil, his Satanic Majesty, presides over all the secret conclaves” held by the Know Nothings, and that “they are the allies of the Prince of Darkness.” I quote from his printed speeches from memory, but it will be found that I quote correctly. In that same speech, he asserts that all Know Nothings are “bound by terrible oaths to fix and carry a lie in their mouths!” In his Manchester speech, I believe it was, he called all members of the new party “Hyenas,” and “huge reptiles, upon whose neck the feet of all honest men ought to be placed.” And in this same speech he says he “WOULD AS SOON BE FOUND IN A CLAN OF JOHN A. MURRELL’S MEN, AS IN A KNOW NOTHING COUNCIL!”

What an imputation upon nearly one half of the legal voters of Tennessee! He has used the most odious terms his limited knowledge of the English language would enable him to employ, to deride, defame, insult, and blackguard every man who has joined the new party, or dares to act with them in politics. In the plenitude of his bitter and supercilious arrogance, Andrew Johnson has indulged in language against the entire American party, which would not be tolerated within the precincts of Billingsgate, or the lowest fish-market in London. And from Johnson to Shelby counties, during the entire summer, this low-flung and ill-bred scoundrel, pursued this same strain of vulgar and disgusting abuse. And whether speaking of the most enlightened statesman, the purest patriot, or the most pious clergyman, he pursued the same strain of abuse. With him, a vile demagogue, whose daily employment is to administer to the very worst appetites of mankind, no virtue, no honor, no truth, exists anywhere, but in the breasts of such as are either corrupt enough or fool enough to follow him, and a few malignant falsifiers who worship at his shrine. He is a wretched and vile caterer to the morbid foreign and Catholic appetite of this country. “It is a dirty bird that fouls its own nest,” says the proverb; and it applies to this man Johnson with as much force as to the dirtiest of the feathered tribe.

“Where is the wretch, so lost, so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, MY NATIVE LAND!”

He now disgraces the Executive Chair of this gallant State. Most of God’s creatures, human and brute, have an attachment to “HOME, SWEET HOME;” but here is a contemptible and selfish demagogue who discards all such feelings, and would transfer his country and home to strangers and outlaws, to European paupers and criminals, if he could thereby receive a temporary election, or receive a pocket-full of money. For such a wretch I have no sympathy, and no feelings but those of scorn and contempt, and hence it is that I speak of him in such terms.

On every stump in Tennessee, he held me up as “the High Priest of the Order,” representing Col. Gentry as my candidate. Since I came to Middle Tennessee, I have been informed that he pointed to the fancied fact that I was the head of the Order, as an evidence of its utter want of respectability. Turning up his nose, and grinning significantly, he would inquire, Who is William G. Brownlow?

Now, gentlemen, since he makes this issue of respectability with me, I will accept it. Since he throws down the glove, I will take it up, and I will show you that he is the last man on God’s green earth to call in question the respectability of other men, or their families! It would be both cruel and unbecoming in me to speak of what the dishonest and villainous relatives of Gov. Johnson have done, if he conducted himself prudently, and did not abuse others with such great profusion. I am not aware of any relative of mine ever having been hung, sent to the penitentiary, or being placed in the stocks. I have no doubt that persons related to me, directly or remotely, have deserved such a fate long since. There is not a man in this vast assembly who can say, and tell the truth, that he has no mean kin. Can Gov. Johnson say so? Rather, can he say he has any other kind? He is a member of a numerous family of Johnsons, in North Carolina, who are generally THIEVES and LIARS; and though he is the best one of the family I have ever met with, I unhesitatingly affirm, to-night, that there are better men than Andrew Johnson in our Penitentiary! His relatives in the Old North State, have stood in the Stocks for crimes they have committed. And his own born cousin, Madison Johnson, was hung in Raleigh, for murder and robbery! I told him of this years ago, in Jonesboro’, and he denied it, and put me to the trouble of procuring the testimony of Gov. John M. Morehead to prove it! The Governor was petitioned to pardon Madison Johnson, and declined, as he knew he suffered justly. This explains why this scape-gallows has been so bitter against Whig and Know Nothing Governors. They have been so unfeeling, as to suffer his dear relatives to pull hemp without foothold, when a jury of twelve honest men have said that they deserved death! Is he not one of the last men living to talk about a want of respectability on the part of any one? Certainly he is!

Well, gentlemen, Johnson is again the Governor of Tennessee; but if he could be mortified, he would have the mortification to know that he is the Governor with a majority of the legal native votes of the State cast in opposition to him. We all committed one capital blunder in the late canvass, and that alone defeated Gentry, and elected Johnson. We copied from the Book of Pardons a list of FORTY-SEVEN names of culprits pardoned out of our State Prison by Johnson some for negro-stealing, some for counterfeiting, house-breaking, rape, and other Democratic measures more pardons than all his “illustrious predecessors” ever granted. In copying this list, we said to the voters of the State that Johnson had spoken his honest sentiments when he said he preferred being among a clan of Murrell men, to being found in a Know Nothing Council; and in the same breath we assured them that if Gentry was elected, he would let all such rascals stay in prison as long as the courts of the country decreed they should. And while thousands of honorable, high-minded men voted for Johnson, under the lash of party, or because they were blinded by his glaring demerits, it is not to be disguised that all the petit larceny and Penitentiary men in the State voted for him. There never was a time in Tennessee when there were not five thousand voters who either had been stealing, or intended to steal! These would naturally look to where they would find a friend, in the event of their being overtaken by justice. In the person of Andrew Johnson, they felt assured of “a friend indeed, because a friend in need.” He had publicly told them that he preferred the company of Murrell men to the society of the most respectable lawyers, doctors, preachers, farmers, and mechanics in the State, who met in certain councils. The fact of his turning so many Murrell men out of the State Prison, and of his having been raised up in such society, left no doubt of the sincerity of his profession!

In conclusion, fellow-citizens, if Gov. Johnson cannot lawfully canvass the State a third time for the office he now fills, I hope the Legislature will legalize such a race by a special act, and I propose to be the candidate against him. I will show the people of the State in his presence, from the same stand, who are Murrell men, and who are not able to look honest men in the face!

If I have said any thing to-night offensive to your Governor, or any of his friends or understrappers in this city, they know where to find me. When I am not on the streets, I can be found at N, on the lower floor of Sam Scott’s City Hotel, opposite the ladies’ parlor. I shall remain here for the next ten days only, and whatever punishment any one may wish to inflict upon me, it must be done in that time. I say this, not because I seek a difficulty, but because I don’t intend it shall be said that I made this speech and took to flight!

I thank you, gentlemen, for the patience with which you have heard me in a matter personal to myself, and I hope you are prepared to acquit me of lying in the Donelson case, although Gov. Johnson and Editor Eastman bear testimony against me. I thank you, and now bid you good night!

We beg leave to add, that in March, 1842, Andrew Johnson laid hold of us in a speech in Blountville, when we were in Jonesborough, distant twenty miles. He held up a picture or drawing of us, and accompanied it with many abusive remarks. In turn, we held him up in the Whig of the 29th of the same month, and gave his pedigree in full, and with it a representation of his cousin Madison Johnson, under the gallows in Raleigh!

The first Monday in April following, Johnson spoke in Jonesborough, and denied most solemnly that he ever had a relative by the name of Madison Johnson denied that a man of that name had ever been hung in Raleigh and asserted that the man hung there in 1841 was by the name of Scott a nephew, he said, of General Winfield Scott! This bold denial, made in the presence of a large and anxious crowd, overwhelmed us for the time being, as Johnson was raised in the vicinity of Raleigh, and had learned his trade there. He was supposed to know, and for the moment we were branded with falsehood. To aid him in his war upon us, the “Jonesborough Sentinel,” Johnson’s organ, came out upon us, and noticed his denial of our charge and his speech, in an article of which the following is an extract:

“Brownlow said, some time back, that Col. Johnson had a cousin hung in North Carolina. The Colonel developed the fact the day he used up or skinned Brownlow alive in Jonesborough, that instead of its being his cousin, it was the nephew of Gen. Winfield Scott, now a quasi Coon candidate for the Presidency. Brownlow is so silent!”

After this, the Sentinel noticed us again, and this notice drew out WESTON R. GALES, the then editor of the Raleigh Register, in the following:

EDITORIAL COMPLIMENTS.

“We find the following editorial in the ‘Jonesboro’ (Tenn.)
Sentinel,’ a Locofoco print, in relation to the editor of the
‘Jonesboro Whig:’

“BROWNLOW made an awkward attempt last week to caricature a person who was hung some years ago in North Carolina, whom he termed the cousin of Col. JOHNSON. But it turns out to have been the nephew of Gen. WINFIELD SCOTT, a distinguished Coon leader. Poor BROWNLOW! it ought to be his time next. Wonder how many hen-roosts he robbed last summer?”

“We have nothing to do with whose time it is to be hung next, nor with the number of hen-roosts robbed, nor by whom robbed, but we will take occasion to correct the ‘Sentinel’ as to the person hung here ‘some years ago.’

“In the spring of 1841, a man named MADISON JOHNSON was hung in this place for the murder of HENRY BEASLEY, but we were not aware that he was any relation of Col. JOHNSON, if it be meant thereby Col. R. M. JOHNSON, of Kentucky. He was, however, connected with A. JOHNSON, the candidate for Congress in the Jonesboro’ District, MADISON and he being first cousins.

“The last man hung in this place by the name of SCOTT, was MASON SCOTT, in 1820, and if the ‘Sentinel’ means to reflect upon the Whig party by saying he was a nephew of Gen. WINFIELD SCOTT, a ‘distinguished Coon leader,’ we are willing for him to indulge in such misstatements.

“IF THE ‘SENTINEL’ HAD TAKEN THE TROUBLE TO CONSULT MR. A.
JOHNSON ON THE SUBJECT, HE WOULD HAVE SATISFIED HIM OF THE
FACTS, AS HE WAS IN THIS CITY ABOUT THE TIME MADISON WAS
EXECUTED.”

It will be seen, that while Johnson was uttering his solemn but false denial at Jonesborough, he knew he was lying, for he was in Raleigh “about the time Madison was executed!”

But we told our friends to hold on, to have patience, and to give us time, and we would make good our charge. Accordingly, in the same issue in which we brought out this extract from the Raleigh Register, we published the following letter from Gov. MOREHEAD, in answer to one we had written him:

RALEIGH, 24th April, 1843.

[EXECUTIVE OFFICE.]

“DEAR SIR I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of yours
of the 14th inst., requesting me to inform you what was the
name of the man hung in Raleigh in the spring of 1841.

His name was MADISON JOHNSON. His case was taken to the
Supreme Court..

“He was hung for the murder of Henry Beasley. A strong effort
was made to procure a pardon for him; but believing his case a
clear murder, I refused to grant it.

“The only man named Scott that was ever convicted of murder at
this place, was Mason Scott, in 1820.

“You will find his case reported in the reports of the Supreme
Court, January Term, 1820, 1st Starks Reports.

“I am not aware that any other man named Scott was ever
convicted of a capital offence in this county.

“I have the honor to be

“Your most ob’t serv’t,

“J. M. MOREHEAD.”

“Rev. W. G. BROWNLOW.”

In conclusion, after this letter appeared, and Johnson was elected, he sent an appointment to Raleigh, for a speech attended there, and blackguarded and vilified “Morehead and Brownlow” for two hours. He made the letter of Morehead the pretext for his abuse, but the real cause was the Governor’s refusal to pardon his cousin. Johnson was there to procure his pardon, and brought every appliance to bear within his power, but the North Carolina Governor was inflexible in the discharge of his sworn duty! We do not make the point against Johnson that he has mean kin, only so far as it may offset his abuse of others, for who of us are without mean kinsfolks? But our point is, his deliberate lying before a Jonesboro’ audience!

From the Knoxville Whig of De, 1855.]