Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-10-30
Letter from n R.D,w
20 afa Invita- s.e..1 1S,e SDri,,g
Xiii HEeetinga


render it but too probabA cast fiat the Pepub- |
licans are to carry all thebor, sto+os this side
of the Rocky Mountains, a obtoir . majority of j
the Electoral Colleges for. candidates for the !
offices of President and Yicsi3ert IF the limited
States. and that thus the l+ivo Dovyar of the {
Federal Government is to btr,,t+ad m the hands
OF MI. LINCOLN as the head sectional party of
fifteen Northern States animbv the simple idea
of pOlitico-relgious hatred al rressive hostility
toward the local institutions the constitutional
rights of the fifteen SouthernS
In the language and style heir political dis
course and in the machinery Or marty o-gani-
zation, the Republicans exhibi extraordinary
spectacle, not Of citizens of theted States seek
ing power to be administered ! common good
of the Union, but of people of North banded
together in the spirit and purpof conouering
and subjugating by force the Poop the South.
Meanwhile the Democrats of thrthern States
who might otherwise have contei successfully
against the Republicans, are di4ed and ell
feebled by the unreasonable and irlar candida
ture of Mr.. DOUGLAS, and more SALLY by the
mischievous political heresies on his cand-
dature rests-namely: First, the preposter-
Gus for its legal absurdity, that the slative as
semblies of Territories are possesse sovereign |
power. And, secondly, the other ideually pre-
posterous with the first, that in consthga Fede-
raj Territory. Congress deprives herse all power |
to legislate in any way whatever for protection |
of tie rights of the United States, or qeir cti-
zens against any act of usurpation, hyer mon
strous the part of the legislative ass(y of such
Territory.
1t is humiliahng to see that propOsitiof law so |
palpably fallaciouS, should have obtalnelrrency |
in any part of the United States. Boas as we
are of our intelligence, of our knowledgeConst
tutional principles, and of our consequeApacity
of self-government. But so it is, and tiespeei-
ally in the Northern States, where the beulness
of intelligence is loudest, where books andwspa-
pers and political speech as the means OF Eledge
are the rifest and where there is cOntinualtence
of relative superior capacity of selfgOverht as
! in assumed contrast with the Southern Stat
True these false doctrines are disguised u the
plausible catchwords of popular sovereigtand
'non-intervention; which facts, however, onlakes
their credence in any quaeter the more slge;
since to ascribe inherent sovereignty to the sIa-
tive assembly of Territory is to take it awaOm
the people; and to assume that Congress canhct
in any way to stay the usurpation Of snch rs
| sembly is to attribute to that assembly suhe
despotc power, not only In derogation of the its
of the people of the Territory, bat in derosn
also of the rights of the whole people Of eachd
all of the States of the Union.
| True it is also. that these delusive catchwOrCf
popular sovereignty and non-intervention' hay,
asserted preteace of foundation in the miseonstI
ton of one of the resolutions of the Cincinnati
vention; but as this mis-censtructiOn is nnequi
cally negatived in express words by another
those resolutions. it is thus but the more stran
that this mis- construction should find place in I
mind of any Democrat.
True it Is, furthermore, that, in support Of
same heresies reference is made to the tenor of I
act to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Ia
sas, which reference does but cap the climax Of a
surdity seeing that this act is full Of compression
protection of federal rights against any pretend
power of the people of the Territory. Nay, to pa
from generals to particulars, that very act contal
not less than three distinct express provisions
the protection of property in slaves, one Of tho
by that very name and two others by terms OF
plicit constitutional description.
Irepeat, it is humiliating to reflect that such me
legal falIaeies should have obtained currency ar
where in the United States, and so by dividi
the great National Democratic party, leave t
power of the Federal Government to be grasped
the aggressive, sectional party OF the Republicans.
But. to me as a Northern man, it IS cOnsOlatory
remember. so far as there can be anything consol
tory in the incidents of public calamity, that t
South at the present time, is only less deirious
indeed less, than the North.
It's conceivable that Northern Democrats shou
sometimes Weld to the pressure Of local passions
the North and that 20. many of them fail into Il
error Of seeking to Tighten the burden Of Constit
tionaI duty by devices of clap-trap phrases al
doubtful doctrine But what devil Of temptation
If which deludes Southern Democrats into the fc
lowing of these false lights Of popular sovereignt
and non-interYention,' as expOunded by Mr.. DOUC
LAS. That is to me quite incomprehensible.
Again, it is conceivable that many of the peop
of the Northern States should speak and act unre
sonnblv on the subject of slave-labor at the SOut
1t is, on their part, question Of mere sympath
with the subject class at the South Of whose actu
condition they have no personal knowledge. MOI
bid interest in Africans has indeed come to be or
of the chronic infir1nities and mental decisions
the age. in Europe as well as in America. Vagu
aspirations of universal freedom, also are the con
mon staple of the speech Of the people of the I'm
ted States North and South From the day of tn
Declaration of independence down to our own, al
straet aboGtionism, condemnation of slave labo
in speech and writing, was the frequent professiO
of men among the most eminent Of the statesmen c
the South and therefore might well infect the opin
ion of their cOtempOrOries of the North.
Instructed by the discussions and the events Q
the last twenty years healthier tone of thought Oh
all the relations of this question, political. moral SO
cial, now peravdes the mind of thinking persons a
the North as well as at the South. But the anti
slavery emotions of the people of the North in assC
citation with pursuit of Federal power, have, a
length eliminated into sufficient degree of strength
to attain, not majority but plurality of the vote
in the Northern States, and thus to present them
selves in the attitude of an organized combination 0
the whole North, for aggressive attack on the Con
stitutional rights of the whole South. All that.
say. deporable as it is and terrible rs 1t menace
the power of the Union, is yet conceivable
But that which is to me wholly incomprehensibl,
is the distraction and division of the South in TIN
face of this combination of the North, adyapcn.
with cries of defiance its lips and its oPgsnzet
bands specially disciplined to that end to the
quest of the Federal Government, in the aYowel
purpose of welding its power to the ultimate over
throw of the local institutions of the Southern
States.
What The South, at such crisis, to throw away
its forces on paltry squabble of Presidential can
The South to doubt under such crcum
staqces which O fthree candidates to support! The
South tc be humbugged in such an emergency, by
he Territorial sovereignty fooleries of Mr.. DOUG.
As The South 20 be laid PROSTATE at the feet OF
Mr.. LINCOLN, by the no-creed professions Of parti-
ans of Mr.. BELL! 1t is incQnceivable, incompre-
lensible, incredible; is one of those things which
= hen we read of in history, we either FATTY deny
Is impossible loosely ascribe TO some inscruta-
Die mystery of Providence.
There is in history one parallel for such case
md that is when Titus and his egions Numbered at
he gates of Jerusalem, the internecine war of the
,eseged among themselves. under the hostile leader
hips of John, Simon, and Eleazar.
Has the South forgotten that memorable letter of
YAsurSGroN to DAVID STUART, which although writ
EN- seventy years ago, is just as pertinent to the
lave question now as 1t was then! " Was il not
always believed he says, " that there are seine
points which peculiarly interest the Eastern States!
md did any one, who reads human nature, and more