The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1856-06-27
LETTER OF EX-GOVERNOR NEIL s.
BROWN.
NASHVILLE. June l6, 1856.

| VI tue eAlsllng vacancies.
While feel compIimented BY this mark oil
confidence and regard, / sincerely regret that
the choice had not fallen upon some one else
Compelled, from a sense of duty to my pri
vaie interests, TO prosecute my profession; and
tired OF political strife, il was my settled pur.
pose never again to participate in the tolls OF
in the honors incident to public station
Besides this, feel inadequate to the labors
OF canvass over the State, conducted with
the ordinary diligence ard spirit which have
characterized onr past contests. These pleas
have availed me hitherto, against any formal
connection with the electoral ticket. | might
repose upon them now, and would be per.
ieeily Justiiable in declining the position
offered me. Under ordinary circumstances
certainly would do so. But this is my coun.
try, and will be The country of my children
after me. And if have not over estimated
the evils which now affiict it every man is
called upon 10 contribute his share to the
public service.
Never, in any period of our history, has our
government been worse conducted than dur
ing the present administration. From state
of profound repose, both in its foreign and
domestic relations; 1t has become an object of
hatred and by-word among the nations
we could, at this moment, reckon upon the
eountenance and favor of very few among the
nations OF the earth, while We nre in constant
danger Of breach with more than one. But
evils OF this description are nothing compared
to those Of an internal character. II was re.
served to this generation and to this year tc
witness the first instance of civil war in our
midst. The spectacle is before our eyes,
The Internal din has been heard. Fraternal
blood has been shed by paternal hands, and
the strife still goes on. Those who are in
the possession OF power, were bound by
every consideration of duty to crush, if they
could not prevent, such conflict, but they
seem either to be Indifferent, or to be under
the dominion of some unaccountable fatality.
Better for our own institutions, and for the
destinies Of human liberty, that our whole
sen coast were occupied by foreign enemy,
than that there should be one drop of blood
shed in civil quarrel. We could repel any
foreign enemy, and repair his devastaiions,
and profit by the moral benefits of the victory.
But what power, what valor can repair sec.
tional breaches, when once consummated?-
Who can wipe out the stain of ffatricide p
The chapter that records il will be black and
loaihsome, but it must 60 down and stand
forever disgrace to US and our country, and
to the cause of popular liberty. 1t will not
do to say that these evils have come of them
selves-that they were unavoidable. They
had an origin, and that origin is TO be found
in an intermeddling with the question of
slavery, uncalled for by any exigency of The
country.
Under the compromise Of 1850, the different
sections of the Union, that had been arrayed
in fierce antngonisIn, were rapidly returning
to state of harmony. Seldom has the heart
of the nation beat freer or stronger than under
the hallowed influences Of those healing
measures Of 1850. The Union seemed to
acquire new strength and a new lease Of du.
ration. But this was not enough for those in
power. They deliberately re-opened the
sources of agitation, and from that hour to
this. the tendency has been TO promote war
Of sections. Heartournings, civil strife and
imminent danger to the Union, have been the
first fruits o: their legislation.
Admitting the abstract justice of the main
principles Of the Kansas and Nebraska act,
they nre not new in the South, nor were they
new in the Union at large prior to the Mis-.
souri, Compromise in 1920. That measure
was resorted to rs a necessity to save the
Union. Il performed that office then and
since until 1854. The country both North
and South, had reposed upon It for thirty.
four years. The interests of the South had
not suffered by il. The opinions and prein.
dices of the North were respected by it. II
might have stood for centuries, rs n monu.
ment of the patriotism which enacted it, and
a boundary between slavery and anti.slavery,
until every hill and valley to the shores of
the Pacific, should have felt the pressure and
acknowledged the dominion of our advancing
population, and until superior wisdom,
noblcr spirit of liberation, and deeper love
of Union should have ob1iterated the traces
and even the memories of former discord.
And what have we gained by the change
Nothing. What are we to gain for the future!
Nothing. 1t will not make single slave
State. 1t will not prevent single one from
being free. What has il cost! A fearful
alienation of feeling between the North and
the South--criminatiOn and recrimination--
bitter and nnwarrantabe denuncations of
men and sections, uttered in high places, fol.
lowed by personal assaults. And, finally, and
chiefly, it cost civil war;
Who can contemplate the spectacle before
us without feeling Of shame and indigna.
ton! What will the world think of the
reckless career we are now running? What
will posterity think of it, IL indeed we shall
leave posterity the means of judging of our
folly! Men of extreme opinions on both
sides of the Union, are pressing their theories
with vehemence and spirit of intolerance,
that acknowledges no compromise, while
moderate men, national mon who zoe in the
wide scope Of their country and in the visions
Of glory and happiness that loom up in its
future, something else to prompt their tolls
and move their aspirations, besides slavery or
anti slavery, are denounced as tame submis-
sionists, untrue to the North or to the South.
What the South needs, what the North needs,
what the Union must have is peace and re.
pose. Let the present agitation cease--let all
further legislation on the subject of slavery
cease forever, and let him who proposes to
innovnte further upon it, North or South, be
branded as traitor to his country.
The party in power have proved their in.
competency TO administer the government
When Gen. Pierce came into office, he found,
in the language of Gen. Jackson, "this great
people prosperous and happy" He is likely
to leave them in tine midst of clouds, and
darkness, and tempest
We are asked u continue the same party
in power? What assurances have we of
better and safer policy! Will not the same
passions, the same desire of change, quicken.
ed by the heterogeneous elements that com.
pose it, produce similar results?
Every indication promises, that the admin. |
stration of Mr.. Buchanan If elected, would be |