East Tennessee Convention
[3][4] Although it failed in its goal of establishing a Union-aligned state in East Tennessee, the convention played an important role in solidifying leadership and unity of purpose for the region's Unionists.
As the sectionalist conflict over the issue of slavery heated up in the late 1850s, however, sentiments in West Tennessee began to shift in favor of the Democrats.
[7] The efforts of Tennessee's secessionists culminated in a February 9, 1861, statewide referendum in which voters chose whether or not to hold a convention to consider the issue of secession.
After a bitter campaign, the hopes of secessionists appeared to be dashed when Tennessee voters rejected holding the convention, 69,675 votes to 57,789.
Harris rejected Lincoln's call for troops to put down the rebellion, and initiated efforts to align Tennessee with the burgeoning Confederate States of America.
In early May, the General Assembly passed legislation establishing a military alliance with the Confederacy and issued a "Declaration of Independence" from the United States.
[3] Tennessee Unionists blasted the state government's actions as unconstitutional and despotic, but nevertheless began a determined campaign for the June 8 vote.
In mid-May, several of Knoxville's Unionist leaders gathered at the Gay Street law office of Oliver Perry Temple, and decided to hold a convention at the end of the month to coordinate strategy.
While the committee was meeting privately, former Congressman Thomas D. Arnold, a member of the Greene County delegation, delivered an explosive two-hour speech to the rest of the convention.
The pro-secession Knoxville Register, on the other hand, blasted the convention, stating it was driven by "selfish motives," and that its resolutions amounted to treason.
A majority of voters in every East Tennessee county opposed the ordinance with the exception of Sullivan, Meigs, Monroe, Rhea, Sequatchie, and Polk.
[1] A county-by-county breakdown of the vote shows that opposition to secession was strongest in the mountainous northern East Tennessee counties, namely Scott (99% against), Sevier (96%), Carter (94%), Campbell (94%), and Anderson (93%).
[3] On the afternoon of June 17, 285 delegates from across the region convened at the Greene County Courthouse, significantly fewer than the 469 who had met in Knoxville three weeks earlier.
"[4] Temple, Netherland, and Greene County delegate James P. McDowell were chosen to deliver to the legislature a memorial requesting East Tennessee be allowed to form a separate state.
[3] William C. Kyle and his brother-in-law John Blevins, both delegates from Hawkins, issued a general protest of the convention's proceedings, but did not elaborate.
[3] Shortly after the convention adjourned, Brownlow's Whig declared, "It is now for the Secessionists in the Legislature to say whether we shall separate in peace, or have a disastrous Civil War.
"[9] The New York Times praised the convention, stating, "Literally surrounded on all sides by infuriate enemies, the bold mountaineers of Tennessee have dared to be free.
Attorneys John Baxter and Oliver Perry Temple remained in Knoxville for much of the war, and rendered assistance to Unionists facing charges in Confederate courts.
At the convention's Greeneville session, Robert K. Byrd (of Roane), Joseph A. Cooper (of Campbell), Richard M. Edwards (of Bradley), S. C. Langley (of Morgan), and William J. Clift (of Hamilton) made a secret pact to return to their respective homes and raise troops to defend the region.
While Andrew Johnson, who had been appointed the state's military governor, supported the Proclamation, other prominent Unionists, including T. A. R. Nelson and former congressman Emerson Etheridge, opposed it, arguing it would serve only to postpone a Union victory in the war.
[19] At Johnson's request, the East Tennessee Convention reassembled at the Knox County Courthouse in Knoxville on April 12, 1864 (the date was chosen as the third anniversary of the attack on Fort Sumter).
Johnson opened the convention with a speech attacking slavery, but it quickly became clear that Conservative Unionists, led by Nelson, John Baxter, Frederick Heiskell, and William B. Carter, were in the majority.
Baxter was ruthlessly assailed for having taken the Confederate oath, and a motion to allow only truly loyal men at the convention failed by a narrow vote.
[21] The Unionist-dominated state government was bitterly divided during the postwar period between Conservative Republicans, allies of Andrew Johnson who preferred a return to a prewar state of affairs (though with emancipation intact), and the Radical Republicans, allies of Brownlow who sought civil rights for blacks and retribution against former Confederates.
Conservatives, badly outnumbered, used parliamentary tactics such as quorum busts to thwart Radical initiatives, leading to frequent showdowns in the House and Senate.
[22] Dewitt Clinton Senter, who had been a member of the convention's Grainger County delegation, succeeded Brownlow as governor, and initiated efforts to restore the rights of ex-Confederates.
William Rule, a protégé of Brownlow and friend of Temple, briefly discusses the convention in his booklet, The Loyalists of Tennessee in the Late War (1887).
Charles F. Bryan, Jr., provided a modern analysis of the convention in his article, "A Gathering of Tories," which appeared in Tennessee Historical Quarterly in 1980.
[3] In 1980, historian Charles F. Bryan, Jr., performed a demographic analysis of a random sample of forty-six East Tennessee Convention delegates.
[3] The vast majority of the East Tennessee Convention delegates were former Whigs, though several were Democrats, including Andrew Johnson's sons, Charles and Robert, and son-in-law, David T. Patterson (all of Greene), along with James G. Spears of Bledsoe, William J. Clift of Hamilton, George W. Bridges of McMinn, and Richard M. Edwards of Bradley.
