The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-04-29
From the Richmond Times.
The Nashville Convention.

Since the 9Th of February last, ii has been demon
strated beyond dispute, that neither Maryland,
Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, North Carolina,
Georgia, nor Louisiana, will be represented with
any adequate sanction of popular authority at
Nashville. Il lie impossible, therefore, that there
can be a "union Of the whole South" in the pro-
posed consultation, such ms was contemplated by
our Legislature, such will give 10 the acts Of
the convention solemnity or consequence.
In view of this now undeniable fact, those advo-
Gates OF southern rights who speak Of the failure OF
the convention, equivalent TO surrender OF the
southern position, seem 10 us 10 commit most un
fortunate, and il may be n fatal They are
making for The South issue IN toc u Is obliged 10
sho,c apparent tceaknsss They rest our cause on
reed already broken. In our poor judgment, II Is
the part Of true wisdom 10 decline the mere acces-
sorry measure about which cannot now attain
unanimity of sentiment, and 10 stand in perfect
unitedness upon our principal ground OF resistance
to the first act of aggression.
We must say here that do not sympathize
with the objection urged against the Nashville Con-
vention on the score Of s being sectional proceed
ing That objection, without limitation, seems TO
TO carry with IL the abject doctrine oil submission
70 every enormity which the Federal Government
might choose 10 perpetrate. We hold that the
southern States ought 10 stand ready 10 resist any
serious aggression upon the tenure oil slave proper
ty and 70 resist il efficiently they ought TO COM
bine together. But that resistance and combina-
ton would Of course foiiotc the aggression. We
can assent 10 no reasoning which concludes that
there ought--ncver 10 be sectional combination in
advance. For that would be 70 deprive us OF one
important mode, IL not the "most effectual means,
Of averting the contingency upon which resistance
would be inevitable.
Believing that the Nashville convention has been
decidedly discountenanced in the southern States,
10 such extent that il cannot be useful, we can
not think that il bchooves the citizens OF Richmond
TO make a vain effort to resusctatc the schcnie In
Virginia. Not only have the people OF the seven
States mentioned above declined TO sustain it, but
IL is evident that large majority in Virginia are
at present against IL; the whole West undoubtedly
So The cause Of this disapproval is undoubtedly
to be discerned, partly, in the fact that there has
been some suspicion that party politics had much
TO do with its origin and partly in the circumstance
that the apprehension Of the passage OF obnoxious
measures by the present Congress has been removed
from the public mind. II is now considered GER
tain that neither the Wilmot proviso, nor any other
Of the injurious acts mentioned in the resolutions OF
the Legislature, can pass the Senate. IL cannot
be said, as in February last that the action OF
southern Legislatures "has met with no other re-
sponse from the non slaveholding States than vio-
lent dcnunciation and systematic perseverance in
the wrongs Of which we complained" The dawn
of spirit OF Cancellation i'm the North has produced
a corresponding satisfaction in the South But let
il not be inferred that the southern States will not
be prepared for Southern convention, IL Congress
shall fail to give quiet to the slavery controversy.