"An Ode To East Tennessee" By Landon Carter Haynes

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Dec 31, 2010
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Kingsport, Tennessee
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Landon Carter Haynes (December 2, 1816 – February 17, 1875) was a Tennessee politician who served Tennessee in the Confederate Senate from 1862 to 1865. He was born in Carter County near Elizabethton, Tennessee, the eldest child of David Haynes, a land speculator, and Rhoda (Taylor) Haynes. Carter County was predominantly Union during the Civil War and the home of the famed Union guide/scout, Daniel Ellis, known to Confederates as the "Old Red Fox". Haynes was also involved in a decades-long war of words with William G. "Parson" Brownlow that even turned violent on one occasion.


Haynes's paternal ancestors were of English (Haynes) and German (Meckendorfer and Kern) descent. His maternal ancestors were of Irish descent. His brother-in-law, Nathaniel G. Taylor (married to his sister, Emaline), was a Whig congressman and Unionist. Taylor's sons (Haynes's nephews) included Alfred A. Taylor (1848–1931) and Robert Love Taylor (1850–1912), who would both serve as Governor of Tennessee, One Democrat, the other Republican. During the Civil War, Haynes's father, David, protected the family's property by telling Union soldiers he was the father-in-law of Nathaniel G. Taylor while telling Confederate soldiers he was the father of Landon Carter Haynes.

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Following the Civil War, because of the bitterness between former Confederates and victorious Unionists, Haynes moved to Memphis, where he practiced law. His farm near Johnson City, the Tipton-Haynes Place, is today a State Historic Site. In 1872, he attended a banquet in Jackson, Tennessee, where he was introduced by Nathan Bedford Forrest, who pointed out that Haynes was from that "godforsaken" pro-Union region of East Tennessee. Haynes responded with a speech, "East Tennessee: An Apostrophe," in which he reminisced about the region's beauty, and longed to return. The speech was republished numerous times in subsequent years. Haynes died in Memphis on February 17, 1875. He was initially buried in the city's Elmwood Cemetery but was reinterred in Jackson Cemetery in Jackson in 1902.


"East Tennessee: An Apostrophe,"


The following link provides two photos of the beauty of East Tennessee so eloquently described in Senator Haynes' speech

http://www.tipton-haynes.org/research/history/landon-carter-haynes/ode-to-tennessee/
 
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I see where he was on the committee on the Judiciary, Patents, Post Office and Post Roads, Printing and Commerce. I wasn't aware the Confederacy had a Judiciary.

He certainly lived a full life. His running battles with Brownlow were interesting, if not downright comical:

He also served several terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives, including one term as Speaker (1849–1851). In the early 1840s, Haynes worked as editor of the Jonesborough-based newspaper, "Tennessee Sentinel", garnering regional fame for his frequent clashes with his bitter rival editor, William "Parson" Brownlow of Knoxville. Haynes began to quarrel with William G. "Parson" Brownlow, a former circuit rider who had left the ministry in 1839 to publish and edit the Whig, a radically pro-Whig newspaper (he had been encouraged to establish this paper by Haynes's mentor and future Unionist opponent, Thomas A.R. Nelson). In March 1840, Brownlow accused Haynes of an assassination attempt after an unknown assailant fired two shots at him; Haynes suggested Brownlow fabricated the entire incident. A few weeks later, Brownlow attacked Haynes with a cane, igniting a brawl that ended with Haynes drawing a pistol and shooting Brownlow in the thigh. In 1841, Haynes was hired as editor of the Tennessee Sentinel, a pro-Democratic Party newspaper that had been published by his brother-in-law, Lawson Gifford, since 1835. Over the next five years, Haynes and Brownlow engaged in a ruthless editorial war. Brownlow described Haynes as a "public debauchee and hypocrite," and accused him of stealing corn and selling diseased hogs. Haynes mocked Brownlow's lineage, dubbed him a "wretched abortion of sin," and charged that he had once been flogged for stealing jewelry in Nashville. In 1842, Haynes converted to Methodism and was licensed to preach as a Methodist minister. In December of that year, he began to quarrel with long-time minister C.W.C. Harris, who questioned his behavior during his feud with Brownlow. At a church conference in January 1843, Haynes charged Harris with falsehood, but Harris was acquitted. Harris then charged Haynes with falsehood at a conference in February, and Haynes was found guilty and barred from the ministry. Crowing about the incident in the Whig, Brownlow stated that Haynes, "like the evil Haman of the scriptures, had been hanged on the gallows, he prepared for another."
 
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