But the prevailing tendency to violence was now turned in a new direction. The niggers were presuming to talk about getting the right to vote. The inborn poor-white hatred of the negroes was all aflame at this, and every man felt it his duty to help set back the upstart niggers. Every few nights, I was told, a negro was shot in some of the back streets, “nigger life’s cheap now; nobody likes ’em enough to have any affair of the sort investigated; and when a white man feels aggrieved at anything a nigger’s done, he just shoots him and puts an end to it.” Doubtless there was in this a spice of exaggeration; but it was manifest that East Tennessee radicalism, however earnest on the question of punishing Rebels, did not go to the extent of defending the negroes. There was, I should judge, absolutely no public sentiment in favor of negro suffrage, and scarcely any in favor of negro education. The prejudices against them were, with the most, intense; and if any way of driving them out of the country can be found, it will be very apt to be put in force. The freedmen have more hope from Virginia Rebels than from East Tennessee Loyalists, if the public sentiment of Knoxville may be accepted as a test. In this, as in all their other political feelings, the Mountaineers are fervidly in earnest. A prophet is generally without honor in his own country, and it is not surprising that there should be other places in the United States where they have more confidence in President Johnson than at Knoxville. The people of Greenville are very proud of having given a President to the country; but in Knoxville they are inclined to reserve their praises. “What in h—ll is he palavering with the Democrats for?” asked one. Others could hardly be brought to express an opinion about him; and I found very few except the office-holders who were warmly and without reservation his friends. “He’s pardoning cursed scoundrels all the time, such as we’ve been shooting out here, on sight.” “Why don’t he hang Jeff Davis, as he said in the Senate he would?” “Well, he’s got to play his hand out pretty soon, and we’ll see whether he’s going to desert us.” Such are some of the voices I heard in November among the East Tennesseeans. They didn’t give Mr. Johnson up; in fact, they still wanted very much to believe in him; but they had more faith in Parson Brownlow. More hanging and fewer pardons would, as they thought, better suit the existing wants of the South. The chief newspaper of the place is “Brownlow’s Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator.” Its name is a pretty good index, at once to its contents, and to the temper of the people among whom it is a favorite. The Rev. Governor and Editor tersely summed up his views of the political situation: