Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1860-12-10

lion, disregard for government, for union and
order are the treasures flowing in upon US
from every side. Are they rightfnlly bestowedf
Let your own consciences answer this ques
ton. By understanding ourselves we may
know what we have to do. It is to elicit
truth; to confirm fact and give just express
sion TO our nature that we speak. Not to
please the fancy with nicely turned senten-
ces aud sweet expressions of liberty. Not to
pronounce eulogiums over the heroic dead
and the glory of the past. Mol But to per-
petuate our manhood and the God-given ev-
licences of power divine in thought and
speech, and because we still breathe the ma
tai air Of freemen, of life aud its behests. /
have illustrated your geographical position;
your present condition, political and parti-
zan; the sacrifices you will be called upon to
make in case of disruption, the repeated in
vasion of your borders, the daily loss of your
property and the fact that your situation
makes you the bulwark or breastwork to the
extreme States. I have done this to show
you that by nature and position you have q
right to speak, nay demand and enforce, II
need be, your right. 1t would be pusiflani-
nous, if such an expression can be granted,
for any one of our Southern sisters to desire
to place Us in the position we will be COM
PEELED to occupy without our consenting Co
operation. Can they with pure heart and
clean hands make us the play ground of their
caprice and lack of sincerity to the standard
they have raised: Justice and Honor! Ii this
is mere freak or an imaginary position for
the times, would they dare to shelter them
selves under these inscriptions and prove re-
creant to the banner. If that inscription is
true, South Carolina is with US and will
abide the issue. If false, she will prove it
by her alienation from proposed united ac-
ton, and, then, it becomes our province as
men naturally endowed and geographically
poised. to speak our sentiments. Our cause
is one, our position locally considered ALI aud
but one sentiment and impulse should direct
the whole. Although l thus speak do not
allow myself for one moment to think that
anything less than principle, q common prin-
ciple of action, now moves the extreme
States. For it is as clear az Gods open day
that recognition of a principle Of common
honesty and faith will call for united and not
separate action. By this we will know our
selves and be known in all that can follow
our movements.
We have labored to prove the inability OF
the government to render what its Constltu-
tionality requires. We have shown the d.
rect conflict of the child with the parent We
have shown the injustice OF the older brother
to the younger. We have deplored the inef-
fcieney and imbecility of the father. And.
in Gods name, we ask, shall Oscillation brood
DER the insincerity of our cause when thus
presented? Shall any State under the guise
of justice, honor, and redress Of common
grieva noes. seek merely government OF Its
own because we are their protection from in
vasion and overthrow.
| present this division of sentiment that 1t
may be estimated, and its foundation tested.
Candor and honesty compel you to see that
a failure upon the part of the Southern slave.
holding States to coalesce as one, will present
a far more lamentable picture than any that
can describe our present grievances. The
issue being one, If they do not act in unison,
in hearty cooperation and let the majority
rule, and WELD the sceptre of State, to guide.
order aud direct. what element have you
left that constitutes the first scintilatiOn Of
free republic? Not one! A failure of the
extreme South and the SO called North OF
the slave Territory, to cooperate in hearty
union, is a conviction of insineerity, Of falsity
to everything claimed alike by you and
them. A condition like this would leave an
inscription as lasting as time. and as eternal
as God of falsity and dishonor. l care not
what may have been the profession of griev-
anees to be borne, they would be gems in the
eternal crown of immortal time, compared to
the imbecile movements of thinking men
and designing knaves, and you had better
perpetuate' the day of days that gradually
consumes your wasting forms of government
al order than seek to raise aidesgn in Heaven
to cover
Traitors Craze of Liberty.
But what do you propose or recommend!
answer: as we before stated, an expression
through the State Legislatures OF the slave
holding States and by Conventions That
these appoint committees with view to q
Conference of all the States. That they then
make a demand, as Cne man, presenting their
grievances. whatever they may be. Nay, /
will 90 further. I would say, that the Gov
eminent should be held responsible to the
sovereign States for any loss or aggression,
pecuniary or otherwise. Furthermore, that
such amendments be made to the COnstitu-
ton as will forever define the local interests
involved. And still further, would deem it
expedient from a sense of justice and right,
that the Government demand that all laws in
direct conflict with the united and sovereign
power Of the Nation, be repealed. The res-
son for this is obvious. Any State enacting
such law is not acting in good faith with
kindred States, much less with the Nation.
This is a plain question. If they do not act
in good faith-if they legislate and enact
laws to annul the laws of the General Gov
eminent, and to operate oppressively and
unjustly on local institution of the coun-
try, what right have they to complain, nay,
but to fear that they are the founders
of that which will destroy the Government
which they so loudly extol, coutrasted with
the aggressive indications of the South?
And you may ask, what if we fail? ] would
say, as one man, proclaim Nationality
Otherwise as man to man, we meet in
Death rather than yield to wrong! We can
do no less.
Such failure will'only more deeply chain
with the iron grasp of events to consolidate
our ruin. We must either be free in, or
i 4. H. IS
either vindicate the Right or submit to the
wrong Choose yeIwhich We will. 1t is be-
fore you. In view of a condition so lament
able, you must either choose distinct con-
federacy, or in honor and dignity as one
man, as omnipotent as life, and as Eternal
as God, claim your rights and defend them
to the end. This present as cursory view
of the conflicting condition of things. And
hold that these views are not subversive of
the true interests of man or the hope of
Nation. We present and perpetuate them as
the Blessings of Immortality. We breathe
them as the inspirings of the Divine. We
cannot behold this our common country torn
by dissension and distrust and say less. For
truth demands and justice requires at our
hands, these expressions. Be they worthy
or unworthy is not for me to decide. IT'S not
to perpetuate and encourage this fratricidal
war that we breathe the intonations uttered.
But to suppress the violent passions and to
allay the demoniacal spirit that sweeps with
unceasing fury over the once honored but
now departing emblems of our National glo-
~. IT'S that manhood, true manhood, Ma
ture's prerogative to claim SO high, may
be heard and felt among its kindred that we
would inspire the Southern heart to one
thought and motion. 1t is that we would
cement with an omnipotent hand the diversi-
fed interests of the whole country. 1t is
because one breath, one genial glow of feel
ing should perpetuate our glory. 1t is that
the Star OF Liberty may never wane, but as
cend higher in the armament of Time and
add galaxy that shall o'erspan the Great
Horizon of Immortality, while each gem
shall speak a Nation born to humanity. IT'S