then been appointed Military Governor of Tennessee. Etheridge turned against the Lincoln Administration after Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, as he considered its issuance a betrayal of his promise to Southern Unionists not to tamper with slavery. In December 1863, he joined an unsuccessful plot to give Democrats and Southern Unionists control of the House, using his position as Clerk to try and invalidate the credentials of Republican congressmen. In response, the House voted to replace him as Clerk that same month. By June 1865, Etheridge was the most vocal critic of William "Parson" Brownlow, an ardent anti-secessionist who had been elected governor after Johnson became vice president earlier that year. Etheridge considered several measures passed by Brownlow and his supporters in the state legislature tyrannical, especially attempts to deny ex-Confederates the right to vote. Etheridge campaigned for reelection to Congress in 1865, but so strong was his criticism of Brownlow and Lincoln that he was arrested by military authorities for "attempting to incite the people of Tennessee to reinaugurate revolution and bloodshed" and "insulting the revered memory of Abraham Lincoln," and jailed in Columbus, Kentucky, until after the August election. Though he was eventually acquitted of the charges, he was defeated in the election. Campaign for governor By 1866, Etheridge was a leader among Tennessee's Conservative Republicans, allies of Andrew Johnson who opposed Brownlow and sought a return to pre-Civil War conditions. Brownlow and his associates in the state legislature had aligned themselves with the Radical Republicans, who sought to punish former Confederates and extend the right to vote to freed slaves. While Brownlow was up for reelection in 1867, he faced little chance of defeat with ex-Confederates disenfranchised. Furthermore, the state legislature, controlled by his allies, had given him unprecedented powers over voter registration and the election process. In April 1867, the Conservatives met at Nashville and nominated Etheridge to run against Brownlow for governor. The Conservative platform called for fidelity to the U.S. Constitution and obedience to all constitutionally-enacted laws, the assurance of "all the rights of freemen" to African Americans, and the extension of the right to vote to former Confederates. It also rejected "tyranny" and "military despotisms," a reference to a law passed by the legislature giving Brownlow the power to declare martial law in any county. In accepting the nomination, Etheridge blasted the Brownlow administration as an "ignorant, brutal and irresponsible despotism," and stated