Grouping of two 1862 W.G. "Parson" Brownlow letters and a CDV portrait of Brownlow. 1st item – May 19, 1862 response letter to "A Conservative Man" who wrote Brownlow on May 17th, stating that a Brownlow speech was deficient in stating the cruelty inflicted upon Union men and was the result of Brownlow's people being raised and educated in the midst of slavery. This anonymous correspondent suggested adding this statement to Brownlow's address. Brownlow's response was "Many years of observation and exerience have satisfied me, that the most bitter, proscriptive, and bloody minded men we have, in the South, are Northern men by birth and education – men not raised and educated in the midst of slavery. And they are our most cruel task-masters, exacting more labor from a negro, than those raised and educated in the midst of slavery. I have lived 56 years in the South – in the midst of slavery – I have traveled over all the Southern States but Texas, and I never witnessed the flogging of but one negro, and that one was chastised for stealing a pocket book containing $40 in money, and the task was applied by a Northern man….." Signed W. G. Brownlow. The complete letter appears to be in Brownlow's hand. 2nd item – June 3, 1862 Providence letter thanking a Mr. Crossman for the memorials to Roger Williams. 3rd item – CDV labeled on back, "Parson Brownlow". 4" x 2 1/2". Note: Brownlow was an anti-secessionist circuit rider and newspaper editor but also a slaveholder. After being forced into exile in the North during the Civil War, he replaced Andrew Johnson as the governor of Tennessee in 1865. Condition: 1st item – overall very good condition with slight browning to top and bottom edge. 2nd item – old adhesive stain to back left edge, inconspicuous from front. 3rd item – overall very good condition.