Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-08-22

eharacter-our lively gratitude for his dauntless
courage in defense of freedom on the floor of Con-
gress, and especially unqualified appreciation
of his speech in behalf of Free Kansas, delivered
in the Senate on the goth of May last-a speech
characterized by comprehensive knowledge OF the
SUBJECT logical acuteness and spartan lntrepldlty IN
its chastisement of iniquity, for which he has well
nigh lost his life at the brutal and cOwardly hand of
creature for which, thanks to the rarity of their
appearance the English tongue has as yet no appro-
! pirate name, we deem it alike privilege and an
honor to participate in offering HIM some suitable
token of our sentiments. For this purpose we sub
scribe the several sums set opposite our names"
The speech referred to was predatory to his ad-
dress on WASHINGTON, and is as follows:
"An irrepresible sadness takes possession of my
heart at the occurrences of the past week. and the
most serious apprehensions force themselves upon
me, that events are already in traIn-with an inn
pulse too mighty to be resisted-which will cause
our beloved country tn weep tears of blood through
all her borders for generations to come. The civil
warrior such it was-with its horrid train of pill
lage, fire and slaughter carried on without the
slightest provOcatOn, against the infant settlements
of our brethren on the frontier of the Union; the
worse than civil war, which has for months ragged
unrebuked at the Capitol of the Union, and has at
length by act Of lawess violence, Of which know
parallel in the history of constitutional govern
ment. stained the floor of the Senate chamber with
the blood of an unarmed, defenseless man, and
Senator Of Massachusetts. All my good friends,
these events which, for the good name, the
peace, the safety of the country-for the cause of
free institutions throughout the world it worth
all the gold of California TO blot from the record OF
the past week"
Seeing these publications personal friend of Mr..
EVERETT resident in Knoxville, sent them to him, to
which Mr.. EVERETT replied; and which reply, having
been furnished Mr.. SNEED, accompanies his card.
The substance of Mr. EvERETTs defense is that when
the intelligence of the assault on SUMNER reached
Boston, it produced an excitement deeper and more
dangerous than he had ever witnessed. He says:
at was the opinion of some persons that if alead-
er, daring and reckless enough had presented him
self, he might have raised any number of men to
march on Washington. By rejecting men, the de-
plorable act regarded as the beginning Of the
end the spark which but too likely to kndle the
fame whose explosion would rend the Union. Let
tiers from Washington informed us that the members
had generally armed themselves, and if the predic
lions received by me from an impartial source had
been fulfilled. ID the crack of the revolver had been
heard all round the House of Representatives, the
event would have been inevitable"
An Indignation meeting was called at Faneui
Hall, which Mr.. EVERETT declined attending, but
says:
"In the course of the following week having oc-
casion to repeat my address on the character of
Washington l prefaced it with few remarks on
the recent occurrences the object of which was to
impart more chastened and sober temper to the
These predatory remarks are quoted above by
Mr. SXEED. Then follows his apology for signing the
testimonial to the spotess public and private char
acter " of Mr.. SUMNER, the simple purport of which
is that the paper was presented to him at time
when he was in bad health, and he signed it with
cut reading it-that as soon he it in the pub
lie prints he informed various parties that he could
not have signed the paper if he had been aware of
"the spirit in which it drafted, and the terms in
which it was expressed" and that as as Mr..
SUMMERS health was sufficiently restored to make it
proper to do So" he wrote him to the same effect |
Mr.. EVERETT then adds:
"Others who subscribed the paper did it. as l am |
informed either without reading il all so hastily
as not to be well aware of its character When a |
meeting of the subscribers called 1t was agreed
partly, as | understood. for this reason-and in |
accordance with the expressed wishes Of Mr.. Sum- |
ner to take further steps IN the premises, and to
apply the sums subscribed to the relief of the suf-
ferers in Kansas which was accordingly dOre. This
meeting held at time when l was absent at |
Newport. but fully approved its doings. ought |
to add, that it is well known that have condemned
from the outset, and still most decidedly condemn,
the policy of the late administration towards Kansas
opposed the Kansas-Nebraska bill in the Territorial
committee, of which | was member. l voted |
against the amendment to the bill, by which the |
Missouri COMPROMISE was repealed ! opposed the /
bill to the best of my ability, in speech delivered |
in the Senate the Sh of February, 1884, of which
send you copy, and l should have voted against |
It's passage, las stated III my place at the next
meeting Of the Senate had not severe illness COM
PEELED me- at half past three O'Clock in the morning,
to leave the Senate chamber before the vote was |
taken. / informed my Southern political friends, |
when the bill was brought in that it Ough: to be
entitled. bill to annihate all conservative feeling
in the nOnslavehOlding States
with these views of the subject, though, as
t-nef for h7ohpr han an pffppt
politics fully concnTed in the main line of argument
IN Mr. Sumner speech. Abstaining, however, habit
ually myself from all personalities in debate and
believing that they always irritate and never per-
suade nor convince, could not, of course bestow
my unqualified appreciation on the manner in which
he treated the subject, Intentionally give my
sanction to the violent and offensive language of
the subscription paper alluded TO and inadvertently
signed by me-"
1t will be seen from the foregoing, that upon ma
turer reflection and even now, Mr.. EVERETT fully
concurs in the main line of argument i'll Mr.. Sum
NERs speech, and that it is only the personalities
in debate" that he could not bestow his unquali-
fed appreciation on" To this Mr.. SNEED calls at
tention in the conclusion ofhis card, which fol-
lows:
Now, the matter Of public national Importance in
the Brooks and Sumner difficulty 1.-The main
line of argument in Mr.. Summers speech"-all be-
yOnd this personal-and this Mr.. Everett approved;
and evea the personal involvements Of that affair
are by Mr. Everett violently denounced in his
own speech and in the speech acceptably done in
the estimation of the procurer OF signatures to the
subscription paper that he for that reason calls for
Mr. Everett signature and gets it inadvertently Yet
cannot see, confess, why he who spoke and APP
proved the week before the extract quoted from his
speech and vet approves i, object to violence
Of subscription paper; but though admired Brooks
was his friend-was on the same committee with | !
him, and officially acted in bearing his corpse to the
tomb-yet it the public question so UNANIMOUSLY
held and published in 1.-THE main line of the argu-
nent in Mr.. Summers speech, which operated upon
me.
And now as to Kansas: had voted. had the
Senate of United States, to the loss of the army
appropriation bill the first session of the thirty
fourth Congress, and had persisted in inducing ne
,essity for an extra session of Congress, and all
his rather than allow Black Republicanism to in
corporate prOyisO in it refusing pay the troops
n Kansas. The speech of Mr.. Everett, an extract a
# which is given herein-referred to heretofore, e
vas in June before, and was the first, the leading
publication of which had knowledge, assuming u
he ground that the use of the army in Kansas was
ruthless waging of civil war and that the troops a
houd not be paid and this Abolition proviso to the
,rmv bill was natural result therefrom. The
1mg1ant Aid Societies only furnished Sharpe's rifles
nj other 1eceSSdrieS to suffering freedom in Kansas
nd with Mr. Eyeretts cordial appreciation, those 81
Who signed the subscription paper, dsclaimed only
mr. its violence of language, paid their money and n
4; 70 the relief of the same sufferers and enable
hem TO defend themselves in the 'ciUa lodT waged
raipst them, and which Aboitionism IN Congress
Shaving, if not led by Mr. Everett, was refusing
, nav our troops for waging These sufferers IN b
'apsss were 'Jim Lane" Il Co. h
Tbs notification is dIstasteful to me, and having o
. personal feeling whatever, dismiss the subject,
re twice done before with the hope that am q
one withst Respectfully, W. H. 0NEhp'
GOV. andrew johnson. L
W. ls,., that Gov JOHNSON is still improving IN =