WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW - MANUSCRIPT DOCUMENT SIGNED 06/05/1867 - HFSID 157789

WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW
Signed 1867 Proclamation Asserting Civil Authority Over Militia Forces in Post-War Tennessee.
 Manuscript Document signed: "W. G. Brownlow/Gov. and Commander in Chief/of the militia", 2 p, 8¼x12¾. Signed on second page. Nashville, Tennessee, 1867 June 5. Docketed on verso. Proclamation of the Governor. In full: "Whereas certain troubles and alleged outrages are reported to me, as having been perpetrated in Franklin County, Tennessee, by the State Guards under Command of Captain Rickman, and; Whereas, A man by the name of Brown is alleged to have been shot by order of the Said Captain Rickman. Now therefore, I, W. G. Brownlow, Governor of Tennessee, and Commander in Chief of the Militia Forces of the State, do hereby order the arrest of the said Captain Rickman, and other parties in his Command, alleged to have been concerned in the shooting of the Said Brown, and if, upon investigation, they are found guilty, they will be turned over to the Civil authorities, to be dealt with according to law, as the evidence in the case may warrant. The organization of the State Guards, and the Stationing of Companies at different points in the State, is not for the purpose of executing either the Civil or the Criminal Law of the State but for the purpose of maintaining order and the protection of law abiding citizens, irrespective of parties, and is intended to be subordinate to the civil authorities of the State and all Officers commanding State Guards have been so instructed. In other words, the calling out a portion of the Militia of the State, as is well known to every man of sense; is to preserve order, and aid in inforcing [sic] the existing laws of the State, and also in protecting legal voters in their rights to register and vote in the coming election. No Officer or Officers of any command will be tolerated by me, in the violation of the laws they are called upon to enforce, and if imprudent or impetuous men commit outrages, subjecting them to the penalties of the law; upon their own heads be the consequences; and the whole of the Executive power of the State will be exerted to bring to proper punishment, any Officer, or Enlisted Man so violating the laws. In testimony whereof, I, W. G. Brownlow, Governor of Tennessee, do hereunto set my hand, and cause the great Seal of the State to be affixed at the Executive Office in the City of Nashville on this, the Fifth day June 1867."  Brownlow (1805-1877) was a Methodist preacher and newspaper editor who staunchly opposed Tennessee's secession from the Union, getting himself arrested and then expelled from the Confederacy for his efforts. As Reconstruction Governor (1865-1869), he proclaimed martial law in the state, took strong measures to suppress the Ku Klux Klan, and used strong-arm tactics to ensure that the state legislature ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, making Tennessee the first ex-Confederate state to have its representatives re-seated in the U.S. Congress. He sided with the radical Republicans against fellow Tennesseean, President Andrew Johnson and represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate as a Republican (1869-1873), the last of his party to do so for nearly a century. Lightly creased. Fine condition.