Brownlow on Civil Rights
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Title
Brownlow on Civil Rights
Source
Chronicling America
Publisher
Yorkville Enquirer
Date
1874-05-28
Scripto
Transcription
[PAGE 01]
BROWNLOW ON CIVIL RIGHTS.
Senator Brownlow has written a long political address to the people of Tennessee, in response to certain resolutions passed by the Nashville Convention of colored men, charging him with betraying the interests of that race. These are the pregnant paragraphs of the address: :
I have done all these things for the colored race, without owing my election to it, or having the remotest idea of ever being a candidate for its votes or support. I have acted from a sense of duty and because of a sincere and unselfish desire to ameliorate its condition. I do not refer to my services to the colored people by way of apology for my opposition to mixed schools. My position on this question is the result of mature deliberation. It has the approval of my judgment and conscience, and sooner than apologize for it or recede from it I would see every political organization in the land "go the way of Ward's ducks," and every politician buried without hope of resurrection.
So far from betraying the colored people or violating any pledges to them, as insolently and falsely charged by delegates in this Nashville Convention, who seem to have reversed Taney's decision and proclaimed, in substance, that a white man has no rights which a negro is bound to respect, I have, since attaining power as Governor and Senator, done far more for the colored race than I was ever committed or pledged to do, and more than they had a right to demand, in which view of the issues of the canvass upon which I went into office.
And now, because I adhere to principles of practical utility, instead of running wild after abstractions, I am denounced as recreant to duty and pledges. If the members of the late colored convention can afford to present to the world such evidences of base ingratitude to myself, who have done more for them than any other Tennesseean, I can well afford to be indifferent to their abuse and despise their threats. It will not injure me, nor does it afford me any solicitude, except in so far as the bad blood engendered between the races by such conduct and such a spirit as characterized by the proceedings of that convention will tend to their injury, the destruction of the common school system and the detriment of society and good government.
[PAGE 02]
True, it may be said, the Republican party in Tennessee cannot get along without the support of the colored voters. To this I reply, if it had not been for the Republican party, there would be no colored voters. Second, the Republican party can get along without the colored voters as well as the colored voters can get along without the Republican party. And third, the 25,000 white Republican voters of East Tennessee have resolved to get along without the colored voters sooner than submit to this sum of villainies and quintessence of abomination, known as the "co-education of the races."
My only hope for the future prosperity of the colored people of Tennessee consists in the belief that the mass of them will repudiate the abominable programme so insolently put forth at Nashville. Let them remember that they now have, in separate schools, equal educational facilities with the whites. Let them remember that the taxes with which these schools are supported are contributed almost exclusively by the white people of the State -- that the money does not come from the Federal Government at Washington. Let them remember that thousands of the property-holders of the State, of the political party to which they are in opposition, have aided in establishing our present school system, and without the support of this class, in cooperation with their white political associates, it could not have been established.
Let them also remember that it is not a question as to whether we will have mixed schools, but whether we shall have any system of public instruction at all. For it is not in the power of forty Congresses to establish this mixed school system in Tennessee.
If the Civil Rights Bill should pass without the mixed school feature being stricken out, the whole school fabric of Tennessee will do at once fall to the ground, as it will deserve to do. Then the expenses of the education of their children, if they are educated at all, will be borne by themselves, and not by the white people, as they now are.
W. G. Brownlow.
BROWNLOW ON CIVIL RIGHTS.
Senator Brownlow has written a long political address to the people of Tennessee, in response to certain resolutions passed by the Nashville Convention of colored men, charging him with betraying the interests of that race. These are the pregnant paragraphs of the address: :
I have done all these things for the colored race, without owing my election to it, or having the remotest idea of ever being a candidate for its votes or support. I have acted from a sense of duty and because of a sincere and unselfish desire to ameliorate its condition. I do not refer to my services to the colored people by way of apology for my opposition to mixed schools. My position on this question is the result of mature deliberation. It has the approval of my judgment and conscience, and sooner than apologize for it or recede from it I would see every political organization in the land "go the way of Ward's ducks," and every politician buried without hope of resurrection.
So far from betraying the colored people or violating any pledges to them, as insolently and falsely charged by delegates in this Nashville Convention, who seem to have reversed Taney's decision and proclaimed, in substance, that a white man has no rights which a negro is bound to respect, I have, since attaining power as Governor and Senator, done far more for the colored race than I was ever committed or pledged to do, and more than they had a right to demand, in which view of the issues of the canvass upon which I went into office.
And now, because I adhere to principles of practical utility, instead of running wild after abstractions, I am denounced as recreant to duty and pledges. If the members of the late colored convention can afford to present to the world such evidences of base ingratitude to myself, who have done more for them than any other Tennesseean, I can well afford to be indifferent to their abuse and despise their threats. It will not injure me, nor does it afford me any solicitude, except in so far as the bad blood engendered between the races by such conduct and such a spirit as characterized by the proceedings of that convention will tend to their injury, the destruction of the common school system and the detriment of society and good government.
[PAGE 02]
True, it may be said, the Republican party in Tennessee cannot get along without the support of the colored voters. To this I reply, if it had not been for the Republican party, there would be no colored voters. Second, the Republican party can get along without the colored voters as well as the colored voters can get along without the Republican party. And third, the 25,000 white Republican voters of East Tennessee have resolved to get along without the colored voters sooner than submit to this sum of villainies and quintessence of abomination, known as the "co-education of the races."
My only hope for the future prosperity of the colored people of Tennessee consists in the belief that the mass of them will repudiate the abominable programme so insolently put forth at Nashville. Let them remember that they now have, in separate schools, equal educational facilities with the whites. Let them remember that the taxes with which these schools are supported are contributed almost exclusively by the white people of the State -- that the money does not come from the Federal Government at Washington. Let them remember that thousands of the property-holders of the State, of the political party to which they are in opposition, have aided in establishing our present school system, and without the support of this class, in cooperation with their white political associates, it could not have been established.
Let them also remember that it is not a question as to whether we will have mixed schools, but whether we shall have any system of public instruction at all. For it is not in the power of forty Congresses to establish this mixed school system in Tennessee.
If the Civil Rights Bill should pass without the mixed school feature being stricken out, the whole school fabric of Tennessee will do at once fall to the ground, as it will deserve to do. Then the expenses of the education of their children, if they are educated at all, will be borne by themselves, and not by the white people, as they now are.
W. G. Brownlow.
Convention Minutes Item Type Metadata
Convention Type
State Convention
City
Nashville
State
TN
Country
USA
Start Date
1874-04-28
End Date
1874-04-29
Provenance
Library of Congress
Event ID
1874.TN-04.28.NASH
Citation
“Brownlow on Civil Rights,” Colored Conventions Project Digital Records, accessed October 22, 2026, https://www.omeka.coloredconventions.org/items/show/2772.