Finding Aid for the Martin Foran Letter, 1869 March 7
MS-2286University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN
Encoded by: Elizabeth Dunham, June 29, 2006.
Summary Information
Martin Foran Letter
Date/Date Range : 1869 March 7
0.1 linear feet
Abstract: In a March 7, 1869 letter to Nevada Senator William Morris Stewart, Ohio Representative Martin Foran stresses his moderate political stance since the conclusion of the Civil War, citing Tennessee Senator William G. "Parson" Brownlow, as a "personal friend" who can vouch for his "sentiments of true loyalty & submission to the Cause."
MS-2286
University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN
Access and Use
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Collection is open for research.
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[Identification of Item], Martin Foran Letter, MS-2286. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.
Arrangement
Collection consists of a single folder.
Biography / History
After teaching and serving as a private in the Civil War, Martin Ambrose Foran (1844-1921) served as a member of the State constitutional convention of Ohio in 1873. Three times, he was elected as a Democrat to the House of Representatives (1883-1889). He served as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas from 1911 until his death in 1921.
William Morris Stewart (1827-1909) moved west from New York in May 1850. Six years after his election as Attorney General in California in 1854, Stewart moved to Virginia City, NV, where he was involved in early mining legislation and the development of the Comstock lode. After Nevada entered the Union, Stewart served as a Republican in the U.S. Senate from 1864-1875 and again from 1887-1905. He died in Washington, D.C. on April 23, 1909.
William Gannaway "Parson" Brownlow (1805-1877) was an influential East Tennessee minister, journalist, and governor. In 1838 he became owner/editor of an Elizabethton newspaper popularly known as Brownlow's Whig. His newspaper, which, one the eve of the Civil War, reached nearly eleven thousand subscribers across the nation, moved to Knoxville in 1849. The Parson was a prominent spokesperson for the Whig Party and a staunch defender of the Union. After Tennessee left the Union, Brownlow continued speaking out against the Confederacy. He was eventually jailed in Knoxville and later expelled from the Confederacy for his anti-secession editorials. After traveling on a speaking tour throughout the North, the Parson returned to Knoxville with the Union troops in the fall of 1863, continuing to rail against the Confederacy and secession. In March 1865, Tennessee Unionists chose Brownlow to succeed Andrew Johnson as governor of Tennessee. After two terms as Tennessee's Reconstruction-era governor, Brownlow, in 1869, was chosen to represent the state in the U.S. Senate. He served only one term before returning to Knoxville, where he died on April 28, 1877.
Collection Scope and Content Note
In a March 7, 1869 letter to Nevada Senator William Morris Stewart, Ohio Representative Martin Foran stresses his moderate political stance since the conclusion of the Civil War, citing Tennessee Senator William G. "Parson" Brownlow, as a "personal friend" who can vouch for his "sentiments of true loyalty & submission to the Cause."
A small portion of the letter has been torn away from the bottom right corner.
Subject Terms
- Foran, Martin Ambrose, 1844-1921.
- United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1869.
Contents List
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Letter from Martin Foran in Nashville to William M. Stewart, 1869 March 7 Scope Note: Complete Transcription of Letter:
Nashville, March 7th 1869
Hon. Wm. M. Stewart
My dear Sir:
I fear that you think a little hard of my not having answered your very kind letter, written in regard to [Romelly's?] affairs, a little earlier, especially as that letter advised me of the generous manner in which you had taken the responsibility of having my name inserted in the Bill for removal of civil disabilities. Believe me, if you please, to be not less grateful to yourself and to the highminded and magnanimous members of either house of Congress who voted for my relief than I should been had the bill come call. I cannot but now regret that my name was made use of if its mention in the bill had the effect, as I see is published in several newspapers, of defeating the measure. I can hardly understand how that could have been the case, as I know that my conduct since the termination of the war has been uniformly moderate and forbearing, and as I have been constantly laboring night and day for the suppression of all rancorous or unkind feeling growing out of the past, and to secure the unusual prevalence of sentiments of true loyalty & submission to the Cause. As to this matter, I beg to refer you to my personal friends, Senator Brownlow & [Foster?] from this state.
I enclose a newspaper clip showing what I am doing here in to the new Administration.
God Bless you!
Martin
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