The ''Whig'' was a polemical American newspaper published and edited by
William G. "Parson" Brownlow (1805–1877) in the mid-nineteenth century. As its name implies, the paper's primary purpose was the promotion and defense of
Whig Party political figures and ideals. In the years leading up to the
Civil War
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
, the ''Whig'' became the mouthpiece for
East Tennessee
East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 coun ...
's
anti-secessionist movement. The ''Whig'' was published under several names throughout its existence, namely the ''Tennessee Whig'', the ''Elizabethton Whig''. the ''Jonesborough Whig'', the ''Knoxville Whig'', and similar variations.
The ''Whig'' was one of the most influential newspapers in nineteenth-century
Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
, due mainly to Brownlow's editorials, which often included vindictive personal attacks and fierce diatribes. A
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
circuit rider by trade, Brownlow partnered with publisher Mason R. Lyon under a one-year contract and launched the ''Whig'' on May 4, 1839 to counter rising
Democratic sentiment in the region.
["Early History of Carter County 1760-1861," p.55. Frank Merritt. East Tennessee Historical Society, Knoxville, Tennessee. 1950.] He quickly made many enemies across the majority Democratic antebellum
South
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
. During his career, Brownlow survived several assassination attempts, numerous
libel
Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...
lawsuits, and arrest and imprisonment by
Confederate authorities during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
.
Brownlow's ''Whig'' editorials attacked Democrats and Methodism's two main competitors in East Tennessee:
Baptists
Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...
and
Presbyterians
Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
. Brownlow also attacked groups who he believed supported Democrats, such as
Catholics
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
,
Mormons
Mormons are a Religious denomination, religious and ethnocultural group, cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's d ...
, and
immigrants
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...
.
In spite of its anti-secessionist sentiments, the ''Whig'' was staunchly pro-slavery in the early days of the Civil War but, upon Brownlow's return from exile in 1863, the paper adopted an abolitionist stance.
[Robert McKenzie, ''Lincolnites and Rebels: A Divided Town in the American Civil War'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).] After Brownlow was elected governor in 1865, his son became publisher of the ''Whig''. In 1870, ''Whig'' reporter
William Rule (1839–1928) launched the ''Knoxville Chronicle'' (later renamed ''
Knoxville Journal''), which is often considered the "successor" to the ''Whig''.
Layout and publication
The ''Whig'' was a typical nineteenth-century broadsheet, usually containing four pages, each divided into five (later six) columns. Editorials and news typically occupied the first two-and-a-half pages, and advertisements occupied the last page-and-a-half. The first column often began with a song or poem, after which Brownlow launched into an editorial. Along with political and religious commentary, Brownlow also reported on his travels to various cities, dispensed advice on issues such as marriage and child-rearing, and published his own speeches in their entirety.
The masthead used for the first few issues included the phrase "
Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" from the
Declaration of Independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...
,
and was soon followed by the motto, "Cry aloud, and spare not," taken from
Isaiah 58:1 (
KJV
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by ...
). The latter appeared in the paper's
nameplate
A nameplate identifies and displays a person or product's name. Nameplates are usually shaped as rectangles but are also seen in other shapes, sometimes taking on the shape of someone's written name. Nameplates primarily serve an informat ...
as early as 1839, and was used throughout much of the 1840s. In 1853, Brownlow began using the motto, "Independent in everything, neutral in nothing." For several months after the 1840 elections, the paper used
Oliver Hazard Perry's famous line, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours," as its nameplate motto.
Titles
The ''Whig'' was published under the following
masthead titles:
*''Tennessee Whig'' (May 16, 1839 in Elizabethton – June 13, 1839)
*''The Elizabethton Whig'' (June 13, 1839 in Elizabethton –
nameplate
A nameplate identifies and displays a person or product's name. Nameplates are usually shaped as rectangles but are also seen in other shapes, sometimes taking on the shape of someone's written name. Nameplates primarily serve an informat ...
change)
*''The Whig'' (May 6, 1840 – November 3, 1841)
*''Jonesborough Whig'' (November 10, 1841 – May 11, 1842)
*''Jonesborough Whig and Independent Journal'' (May 18, 1842 – April 19, 1849)
*''Brownlow's Knoxville Whig and Independent Journal'' (May 19, 1849 – April 7, 1855)
*''Brownlow's Knoxville Whig'' (April 14, 1855 – July 27, 1861)
*''Brownlow's Weekly Whig'' (August 3, 1861 – October 26, 1861)
*''Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, and Rebel Ventilator'' (November 11, 1863 – February 21, 1866)
*''Brownlow's Knoxville Whig'' (February 28, 1866 – January 27, 1869)
*''Knoxville Weekly Whig'' (February 3, 1869 – March 1870)
*''Weekly Whig and Register'' (c. 1870 – 1871)
Views
Politics
In an 1842 description of the ''Whig'', Brownlow wrote, "politically, we are WHIG— ultra whig, and of the old school— the 'sworn and eternal foe of
locofocoism.'" Brownlow despised President
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...
, calling him the "greatest curse that ever yet befell this nation."
[''Jonesborough Whig and Independent Journal'', 18 June 1845.] The ''Whig'' supported, among other things, a strong central government, federal funding for
internal improvements
Internal improvements is the term used historically in the United States for public works from the end of the American Revolution through much of the 19th century, mainly for the creation of a transportation infrastructure: roads, turnpikes, can ...
, a weakened presidency, a
national bank, and
tariff
A tariff or import tax is a duty (tax), duty imposed by a national Government, government, customs territory, or supranational union on imports of goods and is paid by the importer. Exceptionally, an export tax may be levied on exports of goods ...
s to protect American products from foreign competition.
As Brownlow's political idol was Kentucky senator
Henry Clay
Henry Clay (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate, U.S. Senate and United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives. He was the seventh Spea ...
, the publisher pleaded with the Whig Party to make Clay its presidential candidate. He became disenchanted when the party snubbed Clay in favor of
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was the ninth president of the United States, serving from March 4 to April 4, 1841, the shortest presidency in U.S. history. He was also the first U.S. president to die in office, causin ...
in 1840 and by 1842, Brownlow had turned outright hostile toward Harrison's successor,
John Tyler
John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president of the United States, vice president in 1841. He was elected ...
. After Clay's defeat in the presidential election of 1844, Brownlow was grief-stricken. When the party snubbed Clay in favor of
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military officer and politician who was the 12th president of the United States, serving from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States ...
in 1848, Brownlow called on Whig
electors to vote for Clay instead.
In the presidential election of 1852, Brownlow rejected Whig candidate
Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786May 29, 1866) was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as Commanding General of the United States Army from 1841 to 1861, and was a veteran of the War of 1812, American Indian Wars, Mexica ...
and supported
Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the 14th and 19th United States Secretary of State, U.S. secretary o ...
, although the Massachusetts senator died before the election. After the Whig Party disintegrated in 1854, Brownlow aligned with the
Know Nothing
The American Party, known as the Native American Party before 1855 and colloquially referred to as the Know Nothings, or the Know Nothing Party, was an Old Stock Americans, Old Stock Nativism in United States politics, nativist political movem ...
movement, and intensified his attacks on non-Anglo American immigrants.
In 1860, after the secession debate had come to dominate politics in the region, the ''Whig'' supported
Constitutional Union presidential candidate
John Bell, helping him capture the state's electoral votes. After the war, the ''Whig'' became one of the few papers in the South to support the
Radical Republicans
The Radical Republicans were a political faction within the Republican Party originating from the party's founding in 1854—some six years before the Civil War—until the Compromise of 1877, which effectively ended Reconstruction. They ca ...
.
Religion

While Clay was Brownlow's political idol, Methodism founder
John Wesley
John Wesley ( ; 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a principal leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies ...
was his theological idol. Brownlow consistently refuted Wesley's critics, and two of his favorite targets were Presbyterian minister
F. A. Ross and Baptist preacher
J. R. Graves. In 1847, the ''Whig'' ran a continuous column entitled "Frederick Ross's Corner," which bashed Ross's character.
In the 1840s, as Northern and Southern Methodists argued over the slavery issue, Brownlow was offended by what he perceived as poor treatment of Southern Methodist leaders, especially Bishop
Joshua Soule (who had ordained Brownlow as minister). When Northern Methodist leader Thomas Bond called for
missionaries
A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...
to be sent to the South, Brownlow warned that such missionaries would be
lynched
Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of in ...
. "The people of the South," he wrote, "cannot regard such men, whatever may be their claims to the character, as true and faithful ministers of Christianity."
[''Jonesborough Whig and Independent Journal'', 29 October 1845.]
Brownlow's anti-Catholic sentiment was present in the earliest editions of the ''Whig'', and gradually intensified over the years. In 1846, Brownlow ran a multi-part series on "Romanism" in America, claiming that the Catholic Church had kept Europe in "mental slavery" for 1,200 years, and was inherently intolerant and opposed to democracy. Brownlow referred to Catholics as "lousy, sinful, obedient subjects of a foreign Despot," and warned of their encroachment into American government.
Secessionism
In January 1860, Brownlow asked ''Whig'' readers to "pray against the wicked leaders of Abolitionism and the equally ungodly advocates of Secessionism,"
[William G. Brownlow, ''Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession: with a Narrative of Personal Adventures Among the Rebels'' (Philadelphia: G. W. Childs, 1862).] a statement which sums up his pre-Civil War stance on both issues. Brownlow believed an independent South would continue to be run by the elite - Southern Democratic plantation owners, who would exploit small farmers. "The honest yeomanry of these border States," he wrote, "whose families live by their hard licks, four-fifths of whom own no negroes and never expect to own any, are to be drafted" to fight for the "purse-proud aristocrats of the Cotton States."
While Brownlow had supported Bell in 1860, he praised Lincoln as an "Old Clay Whig," and argued that opposition to him had more to do with
sectionalism
Sectionalism is loyalty to one's own region or section of the country, rather than to the country as a whole.
Sectionalism occurs in many countries, such as in the United Kingdom.
In the United Kingdom
Sectionalism occurs most notably in the co ...
than with slavery.
He blasted the state of
South Carolina
South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
(the first state to secede) as the "home of traitors,"
and claimed that most South Carolinians were descended from Revolutionary War
Loyalists
Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...
, and thus had a love of aristocracy that "will never suit Tennesseeans."
Slavery
Brownlow's views on slavery were complex, and changed over time. In the 1830s, he was opposed to slavery, but for obscure reasons, had changed his mind by the following decade.
Historian Robert McKenzie suggests that the hostility of Northern Methodists (who were abolitionists) toward Southern Methodists (who tended to be pro-slavery) in the 1840s may have driven Brownlow into the pro-slavery camp.
In any case, by the 1850s, Brownlow was staunchly pro-slavery, arguing that the institution had been "ordained by God."
Brownlow's support for slavery remained unchanged throughout 1860 and 1861, and he and rival editors accused one another of secretly supporting abolitionism.
In ''Parson Brownlow's Book'', published in 1862, Brownlow maintains his support of slavery, but clarified that he would do away with it if it meant preserving the Union.
By April 1864, however, he had adopted an abolitionist viewpoint, and led a faction calling for emancipation at a gathering of East Tennessee Unionists. After the meeting, he gave a speech in support of a series of resolutions that deemed slavery "incompatible with the perpetuity of free and republican institutions."
History
Early publication
As a Methodist circuit rider in the 1820s, Brownlow gained a reputation for vicious personal attacks against rival missionaries as they competed for converts across Southern
Appalachia
Appalachia ( ) is a geographic region located in the Appalachian Mountains#Regions, central and southern sections of the Appalachian Mountains in the east of North America. In the north, its boundaries stretch from the western Catskill Mountai ...
, and as early as 1828 Brownlow had been in court facing a
slander
Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making wikt:asserti ...
charge. In the mid-1830s, Brownlow anonymously wrote several articles attacking nullification for the ''Washington Republican and Farmer's Journal'', a Jonesborough-based paper published by retired state supreme court justice
Thomas Emmerson (1773–1837). Impressed, Emmerson suggested Brownlow leave the ministry to pursue a career in journalism.
[Paul Fink, ''Jonesborough: The First Century of Tennessee's First Town'' (Johnson City, Tenn.: Overmountain Press, 2002), pp. 140-145.]
After his marriage in 1839, Brownlow settled in
Elizabethton, and began looking for steady income to support his family.
T. A. R. Nelson, then a local attorney, suggested Brownlow publish a newspaper to support the Whigs in the upcoming elections.
[Thomas Alexander, "Strange Bedfellows: The Interlocking Careers of T.A.R. Nelson, Andrew Johnson, and William G. (Parson) Brownlow." East Tennessee Historical Society ''Publications'', No. 24 (1952), p. 72.] Brownlow formed a partnership with Mason R. Lyon, who had assumed publication of the ''Republican'' after Emmerson's death.
The first edition of the ''Tennessee Whig'' was published on May 16, 1839, with Brownlow as editor and Lyon as publisher. Within a few months, Brownlow's vitriolic editorial style had left Elizabethton bitterly divided.
One Elizabethtonian who developed an immediate dislike of Brownlow was
Landon Carter Haynes, a fellow Whig who had switched his support to the Democratic Party in 1839. In May 1840, following the ''Whigs relocation to
Jonesborough, Haynes wrote an article insulting Brownlow's lineage. Enraged, Brownlow accosted Haynes in the streets of Jonesborough, and began beating him with a cane, prompting Haynes to draw a pistol and shoot Brownlow in the thigh.
In 1841, Haynes was hired as editor of the ''Tennessee Sentinel'', a Democratic paper published by former Emmerson associate Lawson Gifford, and an intense editorial rivalry developed between Brownlow and Haynes.
Jonesborough
The feud between Brownlow and Haynes continued through the early 1840s. Brownlow wrote that Haynes abounded in "hopeless rottenness,"
and accused him of cheating tenants out of corn and selling infected hogs to a North Carolina merchant, while Haynes dubbed Brownlow a "wretched abortion of sin" and a "tarnisher of female innocence." In 1842, Haynes attempted to join the Methodist ministry, but was denied due in part to a series of charges levied against him in the ''Whig''.
[James Bellamy, "The Political Career of Landon Carter Haynes," East Tennessee Historical Society ''Publications'', No. 28 (1956), pp. 105-107.] Haynes finally quit the newspaper business in 1845 to focus on his political career.
In 1843, Brownlow ran for Congress against
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. The 16th vice president, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a South ...
, and used the ''Whig'' to promote his own campaign. Brownlow launched a barrage of attacks against Johnson, claiming (correctly) that Johnson's cousin had been hanged for murder, accusing (incorrectly) Johnson's father of being a chicken thief, and suggesting (incorrectly) that Johnson was illegitimate.
Even after Johnson won the election, Brownlow continued his attacks. Johnson vowed to ignore him, arguing that Brownlow's "trade is to slander," and that Brownlow was "wholly irresponsible for what he says or does."
[''Jonesborough Whig and Independent Journal'', 21 January 1846.] Brownlow refuted Johnson's dismissal, calling him a "base coward and low-bred scullion" who was simply hiding from the facts.
Brownlow's views and vindictive style provoked numerous assaults and assassination attempts. In March 1840, a gunman fired two shots into Brownlow's house, although both shots missed. In August 1842, a mob attacked Brownlow at a
camp meeting
The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in England and Scotland as an evangelical event in association with the communion season. It was held for worship, preaching and communion on the American frontier ...
, but Brownlow fended them off with a pistol. In April 1849, an unknown assailant clubbed Brownlow in the back of the head, leaving him bedridden for two weeks.
Knoxville
By the time he relocated the ''Whig'' to Knoxville in May 1849, Brownlow was already well known in the city. Brownlow had previously clashed with the Democratic ''Knoxville Standard'', which he called a "filthy lying sheet,"
and blasted its editor, A. R. Crozier, as a "miserable mockery of a man." Before he had settled into his new printing office on
Gay Street, Brownlow had become embroiled in a war of words with ''
Knoxville Register'' editor John Miller McKee that lasted until McKee's departure in 1855.
Andrew Johnson's political ascent in the mid-1850s was a constant source of frustration for Brownlow. The ''Whig'' rehashed claims that Johnson's relatives were criminals, and accused Johnson of being an atheist (Johnson never joined a church, but always insisted he was a Christian). After Johnson was reelected governor in 1855, Brownlow published a prayer in the ''Whig'' that begged God to forgive Tennessee for electing an "ungodly Governor."
In 1857, the ''Whig'' quarrelled with the radical ''Southern Citizen'', published by Knoxville businessman
William G. Swan and Irish Patriot
John Mitchel
John Mitchel (; 3 November 1815 – 20 March 1875) was an Irish nationalism, Irish nationalist writer and journalist chiefly renowned for his indictment of British policy in Ireland during the years of the Great Famine (Ireland), Great Famin ...
, and Brownlow spent at least one night parading in front of Swan's home while brandishing a revolver.
During the same period, Brownlow blasted the officers of the failed Bank of East Tennessee, namely
William Churchwell,
J. G. M. Ramsey, and
John H. Crozier, and accused them of swindling money from low-level depositors to pay the bank's wealthy creditors.
Secession crisis
After the election of
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
in November 1860, the secession debate dominated the pages of the ''Whig'', with Brownlow relentlessly attacking the idea of secession and its supporters. Knoxville's secessionists cited Brownlow as the source of East Tennessee's pro-Union support, complaining that the ''Whig'' was "deluding and poisoning the public mind."
In hopes of countering this sentiment, the ''Knoxville Register'' installed as its editor J. Austin Sperry, a radical secessionist whom Brownlow described as a "scoundrel, debauchee, and coward."
In May 1861, the ''Whig'' announced it had exposed a forgery conspiracy involving several secessionists attempting to smear Andrew Johnson (with whom Brownlow had formed an uneasy alliance, since they were both pro-Union). Brownlow pushed this issue for several months, and accused the "corrupt liar, low-down drunkard, irresponsible vagabond, and infamous coward of the ''Register''" of complicity in the matter.
In August 1861, Sperry complained about visiting dignitaries spurning him in favor of Brownlow. This provoked taunts from Brownlow, who claimed that a paper with such "limited circulation" as the ''Register'' could not be called a "competitor" of the ''Whig'', and cited Sperry's "bad morals" as the reason for dignitaries avoiding him.
''The Whig'' reportedly had 10,700 subscribers throughout East Tennessee in 1861.
The Civil War
After Tennessee withdrew from the Union in June 1861, the Confederate Army occupied East Tennessee and arrested several noted Union supporters. Throughout the summer of that year, Brownlow dedicated much of the ''Whig'' to defending these Unionists.
By October, the ''Whig'' was the last pro-Union newspaper in the Confederacy.
Finally, on October 24, Brownlow announced he had become aware of an indictment issued against him and was suspending publication.
The Confederate Army confiscated the ''Whig'' offices and used the printing machinery to convert muskets into rifles.
Brownlow was eventually arrested but released. He went into exile in the North, where he published a book and played an important role in rallying support for the liberation of East Tennessee. He returned to Knoxville on the heels of the Union general
Ambrose Burnside
Ambrose Everts Burnside (May 23, 1824 – September 13, 1881) was an American army officer and politician who became a senior Union general in the American Civil War and a three-time Governor of Rhode Island, as well as being a successfu ...
's invading army in September 1863, and revived the ''Whig'' under the title, ''Knoxville Whig, and Rebel Ventilator''. Brownlow used the ''Whig'' to harass Knoxville's Confederates,
and had a number of them expelled. These included the Confederate diarist
Ellen Renshaw House, who wrote that Brownlow was "the vilest thing that ever lived."
Later years
After Brownlow was elected Governor of Tennessee in 1865, publication of the ''Whig'' was turned over to his son,
John Bell Brownlow, although the elder Brownlow continued to write for the paper. As governor, Brownlow used the ''Whig'' to issue state proclamations, ignoring a Tennessee law requiring the Secretary of State's signature.
In 1868, Brownlow revived his old rivalry with Andrew Johnson by supporting
Johnson's impeachment.
In 1869, Brownlow sold the ''Whig'' to T. Hawes and Company, which in turn sold it to Knoxville businessman
Joseph A. Mabry. Mabry had supported secession during the Civil War, but had since become friends with Brownlow. Mabry tried to transform the ''Whig'' into a Democratic newspaper, but was unsuccessful, and the paper failed shortly afterward.
In 1870, William Rule, a former ''Whig'' editor, launched the ''Knoxville Chronicle'', which continued the ''Whigs Republican leanings. Upon his return from the U.S. Senate in 1875, Brownlow purchased half ownership of the ''Chronicle'', and it was renamed the ''Whig and Chronicle'', which he edited until his death in 1877.
Rule continued editing the paper, later renamed the ''Knoxville Journal'', until his own death in 1928. The paper's publication continued in Knoxville until 1991.
As of 2013, the ''Journal'' is a weekly paper with both print and online editions.
''The Knoxville Journal'' subscription page
Retrieved 24 March 2013.
References
{{Reflist
Defunct newspapers published in Tennessee
Whig newspapers (United States)
Mass media in Knoxville, Tennessee
History of Knoxville, Tennessee
Southern Unionists in the American Civil War
Newspapers established in 1839
Publications disestablished in 1871
1839 establishments in Tennessee
1871 disestablishments in Tennessee