Governor of Tennessee and United States Senator from Tennessee

(1805-77) Born in Wythe County, Virginia, he was a leading Tennessee Unionist during the Civil War. He was originally a Methodist minister, thus earning the lifelong nickname of "Parson." He became editor of the Knoxville Whig in 1849. Although a strong pro-slavery man, he violently opposed secession in 1861, and soon became a leader of Unionist elements in east Tennessee. Confederate authorities suppressed his newspaper and later imprisoned him for several months during the winter of 1861-62 on suspicion of complicity in the bridge burning that so incensed Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Later released, he became a firm advocate of a hard war against the South. He was elected governor of Tennessee on the Republican ticket in 1865, and again in 1867. Brownlow began calling for civil rights to be extended to freed slaves, stating that "a loyal Negro was more deserving than a disloyal white man."  In May 1866, he submitted the 14th Amendment for ratification, which the Radicals in Congress supported, but President Andrew Johnson and his allies opposed. The pro-Johnson minority in the statehouse attempted to flee Nashville to prevent a quorum, and the House sergeant-at-arms was dispatched to arrest them. Two were captured, Pleasant Williams, and A.J. Martin, and they were confined to the House committee room, giving the House the necessary number of members present to establish a quorum. After the amendment passed by a 43-11 vote, Heiskell refused to sign it and resigned in protest. His successor signed it, however, and the amendment was ratified. In transmitting the news to Congress, Brownlow taunted Johnson, stating, "My compliments to the dead dog in the White House."  Tennessee was readmitted to the Union shortly afterward, and was represented in Congress again by 1866. Tennessee was the only former Confederate state that by passed Military Reconstruction. The Radicals nominated Brownlow for a second term for governor in February 1867. His opponent was Emerson Etheridge, a frequent critic of the Brownlow administration. That same month, the legislature passed a bill giving the state's black residents the right to vote, and Union Leagues were organized to help freed slaves in this process. Members of these leagues frequently clashed with disfranchised ex-Confederates, including members of the Ku Klux Klan, and Brownlow organized a state guard, led by General Joseph Alexander Cooper, to protect voters and harass the opposition.  With the state's ex-Confederates disfranchised, Brownlow easily defeated Etheridge in the 1867 election. In 1876, Brownlow endorsed Rutherford B. Hayes for president, and in December he spoke at the opening of Knoxville College, which had been established for the city's African-American residents. On the night of April 28, 1877, Brownlow collapsed at his home, and died the following afternoon. The cause of death was given as "paralysis of the bowels."  He was interred in Knoxville's Old Gray Cemetery following a funeral procession described by his colleague, Oliver Perry Temple, as the largest in the city's history. Brownlow's uncompromising and radical viewpoints made him one of the most divisive figures in Tennessee political history, and one of the most controversial Reconstruction Era politicians of the United States.

Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Half view pose. Back mark: D. Appleton & Co., 443 & 445 Broadway, N.Y., A.A. Turner, Photographer. Period ink identification on the verso, "Parson Brownlow, Knoxville, Tenn." Light age toning and wear. Very fine.