Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-05-17

declare here today, that, i ny c0untrvmea Of
Iel7sssss Should declare against ny course on his sub
5est ltts Kansas BIN, and that shall Be asesrtqiaed z.
reasonable certainty, gB not Be seen IN the Septs
is Is54 1''D'4 Mt. BELLS Speech May z''h'
In this defiant declaration Mr.. BELL threw down
the glove the friends Of the Kansas bin in Tennes
see, and challenged them to take it up. After
months Of hesitanoy and doubt he had voted against
the BILL and having committed the deed, he chose
to assume the attitude Of defiance and to stake his
seat in the Senate upon the result If the friends Of
the Kansas bin now decline to take up the glove or
if they are diverted from it by running off after col
lateral issues, Mr. BELL viii have right to regard
the result as an evasion of the challenge In this
view Of the matter We proceed to remind the friends
Of the Kansas bill Of the course Of Mr. BELL on which
he has challenged their judgment
We have already said that MIR. BELL voted against
the Kansas bin, and we now add that he voted
against it inoompany with Messrs. CHASE and WADE,
Of Ohio, FEssENDEN and HAMLrN Of Maine, FISH
and SEWARD Of New York, and SUMNER Of Massa-
ohusetts, all known prominent free-soi or aboli-
lion Senators, and in company with the entire free
soil and abolition representatives in the House If
Mr.. BEII's course is to be known by the company
-1Oseitur soeas-he would be necessarily amena-
bic to the charge Of having betrayed the interests of
the South. It is a matter Of record that SEWARD,
SUMNER, WADE, and all their abolition associates op-
posed and voted against the Kansas bill because
they regarded its great vital principle favorable
to Southern interests. If Mr.. BELL opposed and
voted against the bill for the same reason he stands
arrayed against the South completely as SEWARD,
SUMNER, or WADE. We admit, however, that the
rule that man is known by the company he keeps
is liable to exceptions, and thsreupon we will not
be so unjust to Mr.. BELL to classify him with the
enemies of the South, without allowing him to be
heard in explanation Of his suspicious association
The great leading point of attack upon the Kansas
bill by the abolitionists was that it contained
clause which asserted the right of the people of the
South well as Of the North to emigrate to the
territory with their property, and after getting there
to determine for themselves the character Of their
domestic institutions This clause in the bill, beth
by implication and by express language, repealed
provision Of law, commonly known as the Nilsson
ri Compromise by which the people of the South
ern States were excluded from settling in the terri
tory with their slave property. it this feature
in the bill-the repeal Of the Missouri Compromise
which was singled out by aboltionsts as the chief
point ofassault. Upon turning to Mr.. BELLS speech
against the BILL delivered in the Senate on the 3rd
of March, 1854, the day on which the bill passed
that body, we find that he, like the aboliionists
based his opposition in a material degree upon the
fact that 1t contained clause repeating the Missou-
ri Compromise. But whilst there was this unfortu-
nate coincidence Of action between Mr. BELL and the
abotionists it is dueto him to state that they reach
ed their conclusions by different modes Of reasoning
The AboliHonists pretended to regard the Missou-
II restriction sacred compact, and its proposed
repeal seized upon the pretext for appealing
TO the worst passions and prejudices sectional, po
itioal and religious, for the purpose Of combining
the north against the south in great sectional con
test for the Presidency.
Mr.. BELL did not regard the Missouri restriction
in the light of sacred compaot-he admitted that its
original adoption involved a wrong to the south-he
conceded that the Missouri restriction was unoon-
stitutional that it was unjust to the rights of south
ern men-he agreed with southern men in the posi-
ton that northern fanatics who now clamored for
the Missouri compromise had never at any time ac-
guessed in 1t as a valid and permanent settlement
Of the slavery question; but whilst agreeing with
his southern friends in these maternal points Mr.
BELL feared the consequences Of the sectional agi
tation which would follow the repeal Of the MissOu-
ri restriction, and sooner than encounter the dang
ers Of that agitation he proposed to the injustice
to the south perpetuated and the Kansas bill re-
jected He arrived at this conclusion after much
and long tribulation Of mind-so much 50, that
down to the very moment when his vote was cast,
the friends Of the bin had reason to hope for his
operation. His speech, delivered just before the
vote was TAKEN contained so much that favored the
bin. whilst his objections seemed SO deficient in
weight, that it was not until he recorded his vote
with SEWARD, WADE, and SUMNER that the friends
o Of the bill gave him up.
It was a sad spectacle to see a southern Senator
who had been so long in public life, separating him
self from all Of his southern political associates and
taking his position with the Abolitionists, the
imsy ground that he feared to encounter the storm
of sectional fanaticism which was threatened. Ey
cry other wing Senator and every other southern
democratic Senator except one, stood shoulder to
shoulder, and all had begged and entreated Mr..
BELL to stand with them in the great struggle.
When he hesitated and doubted those noble cham
pions ofthe constitutional rights of the sOuth-CAss,
ToUCEY, PETIT DoDGE, BBoADHEAD, BRIGHT, and
DOUGLAS Joined in appealing to Mr.. BELL to stand
firm. They said to him that they feared the storm
that must follow, but they ready to meet 1t for
the sake of the constitutional rights Of the south
If they were doomed to fall they would fall in the
discharge Of q sacred duty. They said that if the
southwould stand united, the result would be glO-
rious victory for the constitution and the rights Sc
cured by it to the south But Mr.. BELL still hest
tated, paused, doubted but finally took counsel Of
his fears. and made SEWARD SUMNER, and WADE his
associates. What a contrast between these gallant
champions of the constitutional rights Of the SOUTH
CAss DOUGLAS ToUCEY, and their associates in both
Houses, and the course Of Mr.. BELL Such is the
course of Mr.. BELL, on which he desperately in
voked the Judgment of the people Of Tennessee.
VIII they not make to him a response from which
he cannot again appeal?
ANOTHER NATIONAL AMERICAN CorNCIL.-We per
ceve from our Western exchanges, that educational
Council of the American party viii assemble in !
Louisville Kentucky, on Tuesday the I'd Of June. |
g 81.