Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1859-06-03
From The Louisville Journal.
To the Conservative Union-lov-
ing Men of Kentucky and Ten
NASSAU

. IL has been thought that you desire fuller eS
position than any yet given of the motives for th
political movement inaugurated by the 0ppositio
Conventions of Kentucky, Tennessee and Mary
S land. The task of making that expose has beei
assigned to the writer, one intimately iamilia
with the views Of those who were actively partci
e pant in starting the movement in Kentucky. /
will be performed fully the brevity necessary
to newspaper publications will permit.
| The leading idea was present and future peril 4
the Union from the collisions of the two sectiona
parties, and the necessity of their being broken NJ
or defeated by large national organization having
the preservation of the Union for its principal oh
ject.
Subsidiary to this, but second in importance tc
this alone the desire to rescue the nation from
the msrule of those leaders of the modern Democ.
racy, who according to the indignant avowa of one
of the most talented and honest among them, have
made ours "the most corrupt governmenta the World
The last speech of Mr.. Clay was delivered before
the Kentucky Legislature, in compliance with a
joint perhaps unanimous, request of its two Houses
That request was probably made in consequence OF
a reliable intimation that II would be acceptable TO
him He seemed to desire an occasion for arousng
the attention of the Representatives of Kentucky
and through them that of the nation to the grave
subject of disupion. How well he succeeded with
his immediate audience, may be inferred from the
fact stated by member, that whilst he spoke of
the value and danger of the Union. tears of warm
sympathy started to the eyes of many, and among
them some of the most inveterate old Democrats in
the assembly. He spoke of disunion as a danger
then rapidly approaching. He said it would not be
long before it would become necessary to organize a
great distinctive "Union party" Whenever that
was done, If it should happen during his life, he
declared his purpose to join that party regardless
of all other party ties. After his Speech old DEM
ocrats, who had warred with him politically for
twenty years cordially shook his hand and assured
Al. IL
referred was formed they would go with him.
Since his death the rapid development of the dis
union tendency has proved the sagacity with which
he judged the then aspect of affairs. The South
has been flooded with speeches, essays, and news
paper discussions to prove the great benefit it would
derive from separation on the slave line. Inspired
with undue confidence by apparent success in au-
ring the whole South into the Democratic party and
thus consolidating it in the fierce sectional contest
which ensued the repeal of the Missouri compro-
mise its leaders threw off all disguise. In the last
Presidential campaign some of them went so far as
to avow to appauding audiences a long-cherished
hatred of the Union. Pending that contest and in
anticipation of a then probable defeat, Governors
Senators, Representatives, &c, organized a conspir-
acY, the avowed object of which was in that event.
to march upon Washington with an adequate mill
tary force, seize the government before the inaugu
ration of the President and dictate the terms
of separation. The accidental circumstance of Mr.
Fimores being q candidate, with the consequent
defeat of Fremont, alone saved the nation from the
attempt to carry out that wide spread conspiracy.
One of their chiefs, Gov Wise, in publicly devel-
oping the scheme and the means of carrying it out
spoke of national civil war what they would
inevitably have to encounter, but that was not what
he most deprecated. 1t was 'the neighborhood
civil wal" as he termed il, which they would have
to carry on with the fifty thousand Unionists of
Virginia that he deplored. That it was which gave
him pain to contemplate. To meet the exigency of
this double warfare, to provide an adequate force
against their external and internal foes he said they
would 'drm their sIdVes."
Another of their leaders Senator Clingnian, in a
published letter. said they meant TO put down the
opposition of Union men in North Carolina by the
"SW attention Of Ug,idRce committees that is by
/ organized assassination.
These avowals were no where rcbuked by any
portion of the Southern Democracy 1t seemed as
though nearly the whole Southern wing of the par
ty was deeply tainted with disunonism. If such
had not been the fact, those men would never have
dared to make these avowalS. The Democratic adj
ministration organ, published at Washington under
the control of the President, admitted within the
last few months, as an undisputed fact that there
is sill 'wde spread and desperate conspiracy at
the South for dissolving the Union" This charge
met with neither rebuke nor denial from any Demo-
cratic quarter Such acquiescence under the charge
is equal to admission or full proof.
Aaron Burr, for a suspected intention of attempt
ing severance of the Union, had to endure, during
a long remnant of his life, the ignominy of un-
relaxed national Odium.
The members of the Hartford Convention brought
upon themselves a similar odium for suspected in
ention of bringing about peaeabe secession of the
New England States, with the regularly obtained
assent of their people. This suspicion threw all the
members Of that convention under prescription of
national hate which thereafter excluded them from
all public trust and confidence. Nor was this ALL
such was the popular odium which they incurred
that it ehectually broke down the once powerful
Federal party to which they belonged. Hartford
conreHdoaist became stigma of reproach, and re-
manned until recently without compeer for imputed
severity.
General jackson in his famous notification pro-
clamaton said disuion By armed force is treason"
This denuncatiOn received the almost unanimous
approval of the whole nation, outside ofSouth Car
olna II is therefore altogether proper TO chaTac-
terise this conspiracy as treasonabe, and the con-
sprators as would-be traitors. Thai they were not
actual traitors within even the strict letter of the
law, and earning the felons doom which il awards
TO the crime of treason, only because the occa
sion did not occur which was to call forth the per-
peration of any OF the intended overt acts of their
/ tTersOnable plot.
What degree Of apprehension is due to men who
by fair peaceful means seek to break up glorious
Union, we need not stop TO inquire. There may not
be much moral delinquency in an endeayor TO con-
vince the people of certain States that their interests
would he promoted by secession, nor even in play
ing upon their sectional passions and prcjudices to
accomplish that object. But without consulting the
people of those States without any direct sanction
from them, for n few men 10 assume the right to
determine the question aud attempt to force them
into secession is very crime Il can find no usti-
lcation OF apology with any intelligent honest man.
When such attempt necessarily involves national
civil war, it becomes a crime of the grayest magni-
tude, to be expiated only by felons DEATH
When the purposcd attempt was TO be carried
through, by such cody premeditated appliances as
were to sgnalizc this election it merits degree of
popular adherence which rs it cannot he adequate
ly expressed each man must weigh for himself by
/ the prompGngs of his own bosom. That it has not
yet met with such adherence may be because pub
! lie opinion guided by an over scrupulous merctnl
Justice will not so punish the known few because ii
cannot reach the equally guilty but unknown many