Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-11-19


The Fad Is Net Vet.
With the close of the recent exciting politi-
cal contest and the election of Mr.. Buchanan
to the Presidency. we know there are thou
sands throughout the country who think the
fires of sectional discord have been quenched.
Before the contamination of these ends we
expressed, repeatedly, our doubts Of such de-
sirsble result, growing out ofthe relation which
the two events bore TO each other. We could
see in the election of Mr.. Fillmore highly
probable solution of the threatening difficulties
which surround US, and the only Que in which
we could place reliance. The country has
viewed the matter in different light. Mr.. Bu-
ohaDan is understood to be the President of
the United States for the approaching term,
and already are the dangers involved 10 the
contest beginning TO loom upon the horizon 10
spite of the supposed safety to be guaranteed
by tie event The cry against a Southern Sec
tiOnal triumph is as yet feeble at the North.
Not So however, with the dissatisfied elements
at the South. The perplexities which menace
q safe solution under an administration head
ed by Mr.. Buchanan begin to disclose them
selves among the restless extremists who con-
tributed to his elevation, and South Carolina
as usual places herself it the van at the very
hiOLucub oHo ld6 lOub llcI LlllC W oSSOuIpilSl
that result.
The first instalment of these difficulties is
presented in diffuse and elaborate letter of
K. Barnwell Rhett, published in the Charles
ton Mercury upon the assumption of Mr.. Bu-
chansn's election. Ii is no qualification of the
dangers of this mischievOus epistle, that Mr..
Rhett concludes with pathetic regret that he
has three times counselled South Carolina ITO
resist the usurpations of the General Govern
ment to practical enforcement and acknowl-
edgement of her rights, and three times fallen
beneath her condemnation" Its worst aspect
is probably the very inveteracy in its author
end his kindred co-operatlonists which is dis
cernable in the words themselves. Mr.. Rhett
is one Of the remaining opponents of theories
which have given South Carolina an unenvi-
able distinction among her Southern sisterhood
and lacking only the ability of Mr.. Calhoun
and Mr.. Pierre Soule is in that only limited
from the infection of evils upon his country
commensurate with the experience Of the one
and the will of the other. 1t is sufficient of
the bearing of the whole production to allow
the paper in which it appears to press its ten
dency into its natural connection with the ele-
walton OF Mr.. Buchanan. That paper, in in
PRODUCING it, thus speaks of the latter person
age, in view of his recent elevation:
"But he, (Ar. Buchanan, cannot extiuguish this
fire through which he has waded. 1t still burns
Hndiminished; and the fact that it has almost
succeeded in casting its lurd flames upon the tenn
pie of our common COnfederacy, is sufficient to
show US that we have no safety in this Union. We
may linger in it few years longer, bat always at
our peril The hope Of peace, good understand
ing, has all passed away. Hencelorth are ne
cessafily, two peOples-the North aud the South"
This is, of course, only the view of lead
ing editor in South Carolina, but it is part
of the views more deliberately presented by
Mr.. Rhett, and is intended as key and accom-
paniment to the letter, and is faithful echo OF
opinions entertained by the extreme Southern
components Of the incoming administration.
Mr.. Rhett is merely ambitious of the "bad
eminenoe" of leadership among such, and
thus burls this gratuitous frebrand of alarm
in the "nck of occasion" that others may be
compelled to follow.
The drift and bearing of Mr.. Rhett is TO pre-
pare the Southern people for dsunon, as an
inevitable remedy for certain presumed North
ern sggressions.' These all resolve themselves
into the question of the Tariff primarily aud
slavery incidentally, with formidable list of
sub incidents very much calculated, if true, to
make the Southern people the most enslaved
political division of the whole ea~th-a peo-
pie governed by majority in Congress, ir
responsible to Us, vulgar and fanstical, hating
Us and hating our Institutions"
The object of this array of eIaggeratedor imaginary
wrongs is of patent after the following frank
avowal:
"In my humble Judgment, all true craftsmanship
in the South consists in forming combinations, and
shaping events so as TO bring about as speedily as
possible, dissolution Of the present Union, and
Southern Confederacy"
Now, we have no disposition to enter at large in
to the unprouising field explored by Mr.. Rhett,
but we can only, in view Of such AVowals these,
again congratulate the good State of harya land that
she has escaped such company as that composed OF
Mr.. Rhett and his compeers, and that she stands
aloof from people who in the elevation
Of Mr.. Buchanan grounds for snticipatons like
these:
"Those who have been watching, and waiting,
and striving, for Southern independence and
Southern Unon-althOugh at times their hearts may
have died away within them in despAr-have heard
the late tumul at the North, musterings its power
against the South with rekindied hope and loitier
resolutions. On let the contest GOMEZ If true
TO ourselves, glorious des tiny awaits us, and the
South will yet be great, free and independent
people"
We have noticed this letter chiefly as part OF
the history Of the tines and not that think it is
OF itself likely TO effect any great harm TO the eoun'
try. Il contains nothing calculated to satisfy men
with the views Of Southern extremists; is entirely
failure az an effort 70 establish for Mr.. Rhett the
putaton OF a statesman, (which we never heard
any body while he vas in Congress suspect him of
having, )and ia noticeable principally the latest
recapitulalionsof South Carolina idiosy ncrasies on
the subject of the Constitution aud the rights Of
the SlaIss.-BaitimOrs American, l9h inst.