In A Nice Fix

In the breaking out of the present difficulties a good many East Tennesseans, with treason in their hearts, left and went over to the bosom of King Abraham, thinking, no doubt that they would return to their houses in a very short time with a sufficient army to protect them in their treason.  Sixteen months have gone by, and these poor deluded fools are no nearer that object they set out to accomplish than they were the day they started.  They cannot get back to their homes, and never will.  If the war was ended, and arrangements made for their return they could not live here.  They would be looked upon and treated as tories – loathed and despised – forsaken even by the cowardly wretches who persuaded them to leave their homes and dear ones for a situation in the Federal army.  Those of them that have left property behind have forfeited it to their government, and their families will be bereft of it.  Who is responsible for this state of things?  Such men as Andy Johnson, Horace Maynard, Bill Brownlow, and the smaller lights of toryism, who were suffered to run over the country and preach treason to the people.  In this county such pettifoggers as Mitch Edwards and Dr. Brown were applauded for their treachery, while men who were older and wiser were scoffed and hooted at for their loyalty.  These vile miscreants are no receiving their just reward at the hands of an indignant people.  There never was a more just retribution visited upon a corrupt set of men.  They sowed the storm – let them receive the fury of the whirlwind.  They deserve it.  They have no home, and are entitled to none in the Southern Confederacy.  They deserted her in infancy.  When she needed help the cowardly scoundrels shrank from the task and went over to the enemy – in her manhood she will never receive to her bosom these arch traitors.  East Tennessee is and will be a part of her dominion, the opinion of the Lincolnites to the contrary notwithstanding. – {Cleveland Banner.

– Published in The Daily Rebel, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Saturday, August 9, 1862, p. 1