Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1850-06-29
Letter from Nashville.

FRIEND JoHNsoN Having occasion to travel
South, / have been favored with opportunities |
to make some observations upon the subject to
which your paper is devoted, which will send
YOU Perhaps they will be too unnterestng to
you and your readers to claim place in your
paper; If SO, you can very easily lay them aside,
for do not wish to weary you or your readers
with trash.
The day after tomorrow will, in the minds
of many, be n great day for Nashville and for
the country South of Mason and Dixon's line.
| On that day tho secret conclave assemblies, up
on whose decree, in tho minds of portion of
the community, hangs the fato of our Glorious
Confcdcracy of this great alliance between
Slavery and Freedom, between Liberty and OPP
preston.
Although the people of this City look upon
the movement as rash, uncalled for, and fool
ish in the extreme, they await the event with
fear and trembling. The Nashville Convention
meets with very few warm approvers in the vc-
ry place where one would suppose it would
find the most. If the sentiment of Nashville in
regard to this movement is to be regarded as a
fair representation of the sentiment of tho whole
South, it must provo total failure, there being
but ono paper out of some dozen printed in the
place that endorses the measure at all, and even
its support is far from being enthusiastic. A
meeting was called in the City for the purpose
of ascertaining the mind of tho public upon the
matter, and of nominating delegates, which was
well attended but, at its adjournment, re-
IL ~ &c tlo
ton to remain and appoint delegates, only sew
cntccn remained and nominated nineteen dele
| gates-Inore than one apiece!
| Slavery exists here in full strength, full ono
half of the population being slaves; and as a
necessary consequence, find the most bitter
and uncompromising hatred to its opposors, ey-
licences of which are unhcsitatingly given when
ever occasion of the slightest kind requires it.
There is, as the natives say, a right smart of
Yankees here, some Of whom arc opposed to the
existing institution, but they are obliged to
cherish their opposition in secret or abide the
consequences, which arc by no means to be dis
regarded.
While coming down the Ohio river, we cham
ced to have a young Tennessean, sprig of the
law, on board the stcamor-a very smart man
in his own estimation, and very polite and con-
descending withal, until the subject of Slavery
was inadvertently touched by his finding me
reading Bowditch's work, Slavery and the
Constitution when all his politeness and suavi-
ty of manner very unceremoniously took flight
That book, said he, sis damning SANDER up
on our glorious Constitutional deadly blow
aimed at our Fratcrnal Institutions and Union,
q burning curse upon the name of the man that
. lswroto 1t, and the best wish have for him is
this would to God I owned fifty of these fugi-
tives at the North; the first use would mako
of them would be to sell them and appropriate
the proceeds of tho sale to purchasing this book,
and all of like character, for the purpose of
building bonfrcs to roast their writers, their
supporters and admirers BY this time hc had
nearly exhausted what little brains he had, but
another gentleman, q friend of his, entered the
arena, and began where he had left off for want
of ammunition.
These eternal cncroachments on our rights,
said he, are becoming intolerable and insup-
portable. We arc driven to distraction, stand
it we can't stand it we wont Our property is
daily depreciating in value on account of its La
bility to take legs and run away. Slave proper
ty was once safe investment, but it is so no
longer. Our niggcrs run away and our power
to retake them is set at defiance by Northern fa-
natics. We might about as well give up our
niggers at once, for it costs us almost as much
as the profits Of their labor amount to, to watch
them and keep them at homo. The fact of tho
business is, something must bo done. A terri
Bile example must be mado of tho first Aboli-
ZIONIST that falls into our hands, and if this don't
answer our purpose, consider the South as in
duty bound to turn out to a man and shoot
down these Northern robbers by the thousand,
like so many sheep stealing dogs AS you may
suppose, was very much edited by this dis
course, as you probably will be by reading it,
Such arguments as these, interspersed as they
were with oaths by tho score to give them force,
should be laid before the world, and Abolition
lists especially, that they may see what erroneous
ground they have taken in regard to this ques-
ton, and repent before this young lawyer and
his chum get ready to shoot.
Inc aloresiuu couPle eno"co IiolA bOiSAo0A'9
by promising me upon their honor coat al
their or the public's expense, upon condition o.
my accompanying them homo and repeating
there what had said to them. Now coat il
d good thing in its way, and some coats arc very
J valuable, but as you are aware the value de
y pends very much upon the quality; so upol
= questioning them upon the subject of tho quail
ty or material of the proposed donation, foun'
their answers far from satisfactory. Some smar
fellow has said that the coat makes the man ,
and where tho man is not known, this is mucl
less than five hundred miles from the truth
:, Still, why it should be SO, can't say, or wha
: peculiar attribute there is about coat tha
should command the consideration, the respect
70 the homa0e tho contempt or ridicule of tn