Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1858-04-09
sMEcH oF GEN. ATKINS.


sREECH OF GEN ATKINS.
[ooNoLUDED.
But YOU say that you once had slaves in many Of
the northern States, and that such results fol-
loved emancipation. You never emancipated your
slaves; you brought them down South, sold them,
put the money in your pockets, and returned home,
resilydoubting thsmOEaity Of owning slaves Phsri-
sse-like you were very conscientious after you got
the money in your pocket Sir, is the North deter
mined that there shall be no more slave States ad-
united into this Confederacy? While the dominant
power Of heNorth uses every means within their
grasp to prevent Kansas from coming into the Union,
because she has recognized ia her organic law the
rights Of her people to hold any kind Of property
they mcy choose though il be slaves, are they
determined to wage an unsnding aud relentless war
agRinst any and al efforts that mayit matters not
hOElVsry remotely-look 10 theextension Of slavery
into Central America. do not -allude to Central
America because I would advise any active move
ments upon the part Of the South towards its colo
nEatiOB but because it serves 10 illustrate the tenn
per Of the times manifested by the AbohtiOnists
Of the North, and by the overweening eupidity Of
the British Government to get foothold there that
may be prejudicial to Southern interests
We are oooly told that Central America must be
Americanized, and that the anti-slavery Emlgrant
Aid Society of New England is TO accomplish the
work Is the object to surround the South WITH
free States? New England men are to colonlze ana
Amerioanize Central America, as though the North
did not have free territory enough ..e
Empires have been acquired BY southern Valor,
and common treasure, and oOnsecrated to the free
society and institutions Of the North and yet aooli
tionism. or Black Republicanism, would fain deny
to the South any outlet for the expansion Of slave
". but would conine it and manacle it in limited
area that il might in the process Of lime bring in
cslculable and incurable upon the South
New Englanders Americanize Central America
engage in pursuits requiring active manual labor
and eKertiOu under the burning rays of that trOp-
! cal sun!
You tell US that the climate and soil Of the North
| ern States forbid slavery within your limits We
believe it, and are willing that you may enjoy your
own views to the fullest extent. But these same
laws require and demand slave labor in the South;
the law Of making money looms up in bold relief,
and points the devotee of MammOm to slave labor
in that country African slavery is destined to fill
up the neglected and deserted wastes Of Central
A uerica; and if Yankees 90 there, they may de-
pen upon having 70 live beneath the shadow Of that
institution Tie unbending law Of necessity demands
it. You may depopulate New England, and pour
the stream Of emigration as an avalanche upon that
soil as the Mortimer Overran Britain; and few
sickly winds, with vertical sun, will eXpel every
white man from the field Of active manual labor 1t
only the negro, whose physical constitution enables
him dig the exuberant soil of that country White
men may, and must direct his labors; for commu-
nifty Of civilized negroes making their own laws, and
controlling their WI government Is unknown 70 the
/
govern and control that miserable, stohd, ignorant
race Of people, who are, and ever will be, unit for
the arts Of American civilization, if left alone to
/ work out the problem Of their destiny. hybrid,
mixed race, Of all kinds Of blood color, language
/ Indian, African, Mexican, Malay-mingliDg and
vegetRting in inglOriOus emasculRtOn and degene-
racy upon a soil that might, by proper system Of
/ government and culture, be made to "bloom and
blossom IS the rose" thousand anti-slsvery emf
grant aid societies cannot prevent the Introduction
of African slavery into that beautiful but neglected
/ land
| The annexation Of Nicaragua or any Of the Cen
trail American States to this country either States
Territories is proposition foreign to my present
/ inquiry.
1t purely is matter Of the deepest moment to all
our varied interest," commercial, foreign, and dOmes
tic that the Monroe doctrine be enforced strictly in
/ Central America. England has been watching and
/ looking on with a lustful eye We owe it to our
selves that no European Government be allowed to
establish protectOrste in that country, exercise
/ in any way civil or political authority
General Csss, in recent letter (2lst May last to
/ a Walker meeting in New York, lays bare the de-
signs of England in the following significant Ian
| guage he says:
| "a new day, I hope, is opening upon the States
Of Central America. If we are true TO our duty they
will soon be freed from all danger Of European in
reference, and will have security In their own
power against the ambitious designs of England far
/ better than Clayton BulWer treaties any other
| diplomatic machinery by which spirit Of aggres
sion is sought to be concealed till circumstances are
/ ready for active operation"
| We have had quite enough OF meddlesome inter
/ ference by Great Brithin upon both American wa
ters and upon this continent. She has entered into
solemn treaty with pain with the sole purpose Of pre-
venting this Government from purchasing Cuba
She has freed the black population in jamaica to
| the Joy of the AbOlitionsts in this country and
yet she enslaves the natives Of India and actually
proposes to the French Emperor to furnish, through
the agency Of the East India Company the prisoners
CT war who have been captured by the British army
the people Of France TO be worked and controlled
as apprentice slaves. She marauds the world over
She is obstrucng our interest in every way she can
devise in Central America. But the other day, in
Offering to aid Commodore Paulding in his seizure
Of Walker, she was guilty Of an interference which
vas in spirit at least, viOatve Of the Monroe doc
/ trine. The South owes il TO her future indepen-
dence and safety that neither England Northern
AbolGOnism the more than the other, or both
/ together, be allowed to interfere in any manner
whatever with Central America, Mexico, or any of
/ the Isles of the southern ocean.
The importance Of the Americanization ofCentral
America is growing daily but we want none Of the
aid Of New Englsads purit8niCsl AbOlitOniss still
less do we want the scheme of the gentleman from
Missouri Mr. Blair put in operation-the estab-
lishment Of a second st. Domingo and Jamaica upon
| our southern border Nor do We need the gratuit-
| Gus assistance Of England or any other European
Power let 1t be the work Of the South as it is the
geographical and legitimate direction for the expau
sion of her and similar institutions Certainly
in these perilOus days to the property rights and
institutions Of our fifteen southern Safes when the
lava tide Of AbOitiOnism is slowly but surely en-
crOaching upon US, we could not he Indifferent TO
seeing neighboring country bordering so closely
upon our southern limit affecting our domestic as
well as our commercial pOlity, she energies from
the misty cloud Of semi-barbsrism Into the full orbed
splendor of civilization, build up the same kind of
| Institutions, based upon the same foundation and
| having common interest and sympathy with and
| for each other; aud when the time shall come-if
/ come it willard God grant it may never come
when all equality between these States shall be OBJ
liberated, when the unWecOme dilemma forces itself
upon the of the South either to yield the spir-
its and rights Of freemen and become substantially
colonial and vsssal tributaries support and en-
rich aggressive central Power or to assert those
rights becomes the Of worthy sires we shall
not hesitsteto elect between the alternatives.
But while ! viii not close my eyes TO The danger
and evil that threaten and impend upon our future
pathway as a nation, yet trust that the sober
second thought may prevail and that the honor of
l the South may yet be vindIcated by the Northern
Democracy. I can never forget the gallantry and
self sacrificing devotion to principle that they dis
plsyedin the uneven hand to hand fight Of 1856;
with what heroic frmBess they met the assaults
/ made upon the rights of the South; how they made
cause, and the Of the Union, their cause.
But for the efforts Of northern Democrats the CO.
ordinate branch Of this Government the present
venerable EEecutive-wise, just, patriotic and firm
| we should in his stead have had a Black Repub-
| lican regime insugurated and established whose
unconstitutional and sectional policy, if it had not
rent the nation in twain, and lit up the fires Of civil
war, would have dispirited the hopes of the patriot
and alienated the affections OF the people to the
Government to perhaps an irremediable degree. If
you would have continue to cherish holyregard
for this Union, we must be treated as equals The
cohesive principle Of this Union is not force 1t is
rather the opposite IL is mutual love and forbear-
ance; claiming no superiority and acknowledging