Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1860-08-23
Let us suppose, said he, that the South bad

Let us suppose, said he, that the South bad
a majority in Congress, aud they were to de-
clare TO the people of the North that no new
States should be admitted unless it was
slave State. would not the whole North be
aroused with excitement, and determined
that they would not submit to such oppres.
sion? Such was the position now occupied
by tie South in this contest. They were
standing on the defensive. for their constitu-
tional rights. He quJ ted from speech re-
Gently delivered by Mr.. Seward, the acknowl-
ed ge head of the Republican organization,
who had adopted the policy of the .'irrepres-
sible conflict" between the North and the
South. This policy, if persevered in, would
lead to civil war.
He trusted the people would try to defeat
the men who avow such doctrines, which
were subversive of the Constitution and the
Union Was it any wonder that our South
ern brethren were excited when such senti-
ments as these We're entertained by large
and powerful party, designed to reduce them
to condition of inferiority. And the whole
question was nothing but an abstraction. He
asserted it positively that there is not foot
OF territory now unoccupied where slavery
cnnld be introduced with advantage. The
whole cry for free territories was only made
for political effect, to attract the popular
feeling in favor of liberty, which is always
touched by such appeals.
lie said there were two classes in the South
--one composed of rash, violent men, who
desired to meet the question at once, even at
the risk of dissolutiOn; the other class was
composed OF conservative, rejecting men,
who were in favor of the Constitution and
the Union. The latter class were in the ma
jority in the South, and he felt assured that
they would triumph in the States of Della
ware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina,
Kentucky, Missouri. and Louisiana, and give
the vote of those States TO Bell and Everett
When these men of the South are willing to
abandon their extreme views, why should
not the men of the North meet them in the
same friendly spirit, by yielding some of their
extreme views upon this vexed question? He
believed they would do SO. in order to pre-
serve the Union.
Judge X said that he had been democrat
of forty-three years standing, and had never
voted any other ticket in his life. But now
be would stand up and ask his friends to
sweep down the ire-eateTs of the South and
the atolitionists of the North, by electing Bell
and Everett. These are my principles (said
Judge h. warmly and the man who don't
like them need not vote for me. [Applause.J
He said he agreed that when Territory was
organized as a State, it should be admitted
with or without slavery, as the people may
desire. He admitted that the people of the
new States, and they only, have the right to
decide what domestic institutions they want,
and no other State has right to dictate to
them in the matter.
With no disposition to detract from Mr..
Douglas or Mr.. Lincoln. the speaker said it
must be conceded that John Bell was the best
pacificator for the country. He then drew a
comparison, showing that if Lincoln were
elected the country would be in a state of
anarchy and Congress become ''bear gar
den, - for members to fight about the slavery
question, neglecting all other public meas
ures, the tariff, the Pacific Railroad, &C. And
if either Douglas or Breckenridge were elect
ed, it would be no better, as each would he
opposed by bitter political factions The ad-
ministratiOn of john Bell, on the other hand,
would be peaceable, quiet and forcible. John
Bell had no friends to reward nor enemies TO
punish, like the other candidates.
The Judge then spoke at length upon the
wonderful growth of our country, from three
millions at the time of the Revolution, to
thirty-three millions now, and prophesied
that at the close of the present century we
would have a population of one hundred
millions. He called attention to the fact that
our population doubled every twenty five
years. He appealed to the meeting for their
suffrages like man, honestly and openly
and said that for years they had trusted him
with the administration of their lives and
other property, and he was too old man
now to destroy the good character he had la
bored so long to establish.