He is remembered for obtaining large federal appropriations for his district, as well as for his intraparty political battles with Chattanoogans Henry Clay Evans and Newell Sanders over control of the state Republican Party.

Along with his congressional tenure, Brownlow served as Doorkeeper of the United States House of Representatives from 1881 to 1883, and published the Jonesboro Herald and Tribune from 1876 to 1910.

He generally covered political campaigns that year, namely the canvasses of Augustus H. Pettibone and Emerson Etheridge.

Unlike the 1894 campaign, candidates for the 1896 election were chosen in a primary, which Brownlow won, capturing 8,843 votes to 6,590 for Milburn and 5,448 for Anderson.

Brownlow's supporters included Richard W. Austin, John E. McCall, Foster V. Brown, and Knoxville businessmen Edward J. Sanford, James A. Fowler and William J.

At the 1896 Republican National Convention, Brownlow and Austin helped thwart Evans' bid for the vice presidential nomination.

Outmaneuvering Evans, Brownlow was elected the state's delegate to the Republican National Committee, where he befriended Mark Hanna, the campaign manager for presidential candidate William McKinley.

Brownlow's relationship with Hanna and McKinley would prove key in helping him obtain and distribute federal patronage during the late 1890s.

At the state party convention in Nashville that year, Brownlow was elected chairman, and his allies on the committee granted him the power to reject any candidate for office.

The Sanders faction sent its own group of delegates, however, and they were awarded the state's seats after the national committee learned of Oliver's actions.

[15] Arguably the most lasting accomplishment of Brownlow's career was the establishment of the "Mountain Branch" of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers near Johnson City, Tennessee, by an Act of Congress dated January 28, 1901.

He told the Board members of the thousands of men in the South and particularly in the First District of Tennessee that risked their lives and fortunes supporting the Union.

Situated on a 450-acre (1.8 km2) campus, the National Soldiers Home included a hospital, lodging for over 3,000 American Civil War veterans, a zoo, a Carnegie library, two lakes, and numerous other amenities all within a park-like setting that was a tribute to landscape architecture of that era.

Today, the campus houses a major Veterans Affairs Center as well as the East Tennessee State University College of Medicine and Pharmacy.

[16] Though a champion of Southern Unionist causes, Brownlow delivered a memorial address on the House floor for Senator Isham G. Harris, who had been one of his uncle's bitterest enemies during the Civil War.