If I had the power

William P. ("Parson") Brownlow, the radical Governor of Tennessee, who passed these laws, made the following statement at a Convention in New York City, during reconstruction:

"If I had the power I would arm every wolf, panther, catamount and bear in the mountains of America, every crocodile in the swamps of Florida, every negro in the South, every devil in Hell, clothe them in the uniform of the Federal army, and turn them loose on the rebels of the South and exterminate every man, woman and child, south of Mason and Dixon's line. I would like to see negro troops under Ben Butler crowd every rebel into the Gulf of Mexico, and drown them as the devil did the hogs in the Sea of Galilee." He said, at a public meeting in Philadelphia, just after the surrender of General Robert E. Lee: " I am one of those who believe the war ended too soon. We have whipped the South but not enough. The loyal masses constitute an overwhelming majority of the people of this country and they intend to march again on the South and intend that the "second war" shall be no child's play. The "second army" will, as they ought to, make the entire South as God found the earth, without form, and void."

"....'burn and kill! Burn and kill!" until the whole rebel race is exterminated."
......Parson Brownlow, at the post war convention in Philadelphia, 1866.

In 1865, the Methodist Rev. William G. Brownlow of Knoxville became the carpet bagger Governor of Tennessee as head of the minority Radical Unionists. He immediately started a second civil war against returning Confederates. Earlier as editor of Brownlow’s Knoxville Whig, he was pro-southern and pro-slavery. He became a fanatical Unionist and was expelled to the North.


Compatriots, behold some of the roots of the war against our heritage. ~

John Fisher
Dixie's Living Historians