Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-09-09
rron tns MemphI. Bulls.In. sept. 5 :.

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The ReactiOnary Sober Second Thought
We think we perceive indubitabe signs that
Fremontism in the nonslaveholding States has
eliminated to its highest point, and is hence
forward on the descend downwards The
reaction has set in, and the "sober second
thought of the people, promises to hasten its
decline.
There are a number of causes WHY this
should be. In the first place, it was to have
been expected from the total lack of any ins
tTinsic strength in the movement. 1t was a
movement having its first impulse in the
promptings of spite and resentment, not in any
definite and substantial object to be attained.
1t had its birth in passon-did not grow up
ont of fixed and steady purpose-andi is neo-
essarily evanescent as that passion itself, and
subject, like it, to notifications from circuln-
stances external to it.
Some Of these circumstances have been of
Character greatly to cool down the ardOr of
this passion, and SO very naturally abate the
vehemence ct the factions which was cOncre-
ted by it, Thus-when the standard of Sec
tionalism was first raised in the North, the bat
tie cry was revenge for the abrugation of the
Missouri Compromise line, and above all, free%
dom for Kansas from the pollution of the tread
of the Southron. The South was to be exclu
ded, not only from Kansas, but from all other
territory now free, and to be taught to know
her place as q mere section of the Union, whose
domestic Institutions were disreputable TO the
rest of the nation, and who had quite enough
consideration if they were tolerated while un-
der the shadow of STATE sovereignty. And
all this was to be done, lOftily and with high
hand-as d superior, whose good nature has
been long tried and is at length aroused, acts
with a naughty inferior and dependent. More
tbern money bags, filled by craft and cunning,
were emptie1 to send out northern emgrants;
and political parsons, assuming rather more
than papal prerogatives, invested their emissa-
ries with stores of religious rifles and bounties
of ball cartridge, wherewith to execute the de-
cree.
These emissaries of fanaticism have tried
the experiment of driving the southron from
Kansas, and teaching the South humility and
submission. 1t has not beer very edifying to
TIT holy hypocrites who kept at safe distance.
They have found the job they undertook more
serious than they thought. They have begun
to experience the chilling influence which dead
pluck, Unexpectedly encountered, ever exerts
upon the cowardly bully. They begin to per-
ceive that to driUe the South out of her con-
stitutional rights in Kansas, is war-war to the
knife, and the knife to the hilt-the end where
offs hidden;and the phlebotomy through which
this knowledge has been obtained, has been a
weakener of the febrile energy.
These fanatical fools are beginning to per-
ceive, too. another fact which they seem to
have overlooked at the outset-the existence
of that solid body of conservative men at their
own doors, who feel that they have a certain
interest in the preservation of this Union, and
are determined that it shall not be destroyed
by madmen. They begin to suspect that, il
fight should be the word, and things come to
the tug of arms, there may beneedfor Sharp's
rifles at home, as well az in Kansas. The very
noise they have IN de-the very apprehension
and alarm they have created by their violence
and vituperation-the very vehemeuce they
have resOrted to against the alledged "aggres-
sions of the Slave power" in order to exasper-
ate the whole northern people against their
southern brethren-have but served TO siimu-
late inquiry among their patriotic neighbors,
to ascertain what cause exists that the Repnb-
| lie should be thus imperiled. These last find
none They find that The abused South is only
standing up tor her constitutional rights, and
they will stand shoulder to shoulder with her
| in their maintenance.
Fauaticisln has overshot the mark. Ii has
| challenged the judgment of the solid, thinking
men of the north, and compelled them to weigh
| its wild vagaries against the Ualue Of the Union
! The result can scarcely be doubtful.