1865 Tennessee gubernatorial election

1865 Tennessee gubernatorial election

←  1863 (CSA) March 4, 1865 1867  →

Nominee Parson Brownlow Party Unconditional Union Popular vote 23,352 [a] Percentage 99.85%

County results Brownlow:      >90%      No votes

Governor before election Edward H. East Nonpartisan Elected Governor Parson Brownlow Unconditional Union

The 1865 Tennessee gubernatorial election was held on March 4, 1865, to elect the next governor of Tennessee. The Unconditional Union candidate Parson Brownlow was elected virtually without opposition. ^[1]

Incumbent Democratic governor Andrew Johnson was appointed by Abraham Lincoln on March 12, 1862, as a military governor. Johnson's Unionist government emerged following a series of Union military victories that reclaimed most of Tennessee. ^[2] Johnson was subsequently elected vice president on the National Union ticket, succeeding Lincoln's first vice president, Hannibal Hamlin. ^[3] He appointed Edward H. East to serve as acting governor between his inauguration as vice president on March 4, 1865 and the scheduled inauguration of the elected governor. ^[4]

Delegates of the Unconditional Union Party nominated Brownlow for governor during their convention in Nashville on January 14, 1865. Johnson's Ironclad Oath had effectively disenfranchised pro-Confederate citizens, and other potential Unionists candidates declined to challenge Brownlow. ^[5]

Brownlow faced only token opposition in the general election, receiving all but 35 votes out of more than 23,000 cast. ^[6] The number of votes cast met the threshold established under the ten percent plan, which allowed states of the former Confederacy to form new civilian governments when the number of loyal citizens, defined as those who would swear an oath of loyalty to the national government, equalled or exceeded 10 percent of those who had voted in that state in the 1860 United States presidential election. ^[7] Tennessee was thus readmitted to representation in the United States Congress in 1866 without having to undergo Congressional Reconstruction. ^[8]

General election

1865 Tennessee gubernatorial election ^{[1] [a]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unconditional Union	Parson Brownlow	23,352	99.85
	Write-in		35	0.15%
Total votes			23,387	100.00

Notes

1. Dubin gives Brownlow 22,814 votes and does not mention other votes.

1. Dubin 2014, p. 3; Coulter 1999, p. 261.
2. Miscamble & Miscamble 1978, pp. 309–10.
3. McKinney 1978, p. 28.
4. Graf & Haskins 1979, p. 245.
5. McKinney 1978, p. 28; Miscamble & Miscamble 1978, pp. 318n53, 313, 319–20.
6. Coulter 1999, p. 261.
7. Foner 2014, p. 35.
8. Alexander 1969, pp. 47–48.

Bibliography

• Alexander, Thomas B. (1969). "Political Reconstruction in Tennessee, 1865–1870". In Curry, Richard Orr (ed.). Radicalism, Racism, and Party Realignment: The Border States during Reconstruction. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. pp. 37–79.
• Dubin, Michael J. (2014). United States Gubernatorial Elections, 1861–1911: The Official Results by State and County. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.
• Coulter, E. Merton (1999). William G. Brownlow: Fighting Parson of the Southern Highlands. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
• Graf, Leroy P.; Haskins, Ralph S., eds. (1979). The Papers of Andrew Johnson. Vol. 5, 1861–1862. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
• Foner, Eric (2014). Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–77 (Revised ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN   978-0-06-235451-8.
• McKinney, Gordon B. (1978). Southern Mountain Republicans, 1865–1900: Politics and the Appalachian Community. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
• Miscamble, Wilson D.; Miscamble, William G. (Fall 1978). "Andrew Johnson and the Election of William G. ("Parson") Brownlow As Governor or Tennessee". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 37 (3): 308–20.