Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1860-10-13
Timely CounseIs.

lIvered by Mr.. Webster, before the New York |
Historical Society, on the 23d of February,
IN the year 1852, with the REQUEST that we |
should give them place in our columns. As
whatever fell from the pen or dropped from |
the eloquent lips of that eminent statesman
and patriot is received by his countrymen at |
the present day with the reverence due to |
his honored memory and TO his transcendent
abilities, we cheerfully comply with the re-
quest. and the more cheerfully because the |
admonitions inculeated in the citations are
hardly less appropriate to The current time
than when they were first uttered-.Adt
Intel
Gentlemen, L will not take my leave of
you in tone of despondency. We may
trust that heaven will not forsake US, nor
permit US to forsake ourselves. We must
strengthen ourselves, aud grid up our loins
with new resolution; we must counsel each
other; and, determined to sustain each other
in the support of the Constitution. prepare
to meet manfully and united whatever of
difficulty or of danger, whatever of effort or
of sacrifice, the Providence of God NAV call
upon Us to meet. Are we of this generation
so derelict, have we so little of the blood OF
our Revolutionary fathers eoursing through
our veins that We cannot preserve what they
achieved! The world will cry out SHANE;
upon us II We show ourselves unworthy to be
the descendants of those great and ilIustri-
o1s men who fought for their liberty, aud Sc
cured it to their posterity by the Constitution
otthe United States.
'Gentlemen, exigencies arise in the history
OF nations when competition and rivalry.
disputes and contentious are powerful Ext
gencies arise in which good men of all par
ties, and all shades OF political sentiment,
are required to reconsider their opinions and
differences, to Teadjust their positions. and TO
bring themselves together, If thew can. in
the spirit Of harmony. Such a state of
things, IN my judgment, has happened in
our day. An exigency has arisen the du-
ties and the dangers OF which should sink
deep within all our hearts. We have great
and wise Constitution. We have grown,
flourished, and prospered under it with a
degree OF rapidly uuequalled in the history
OF the world. Founded on the basis of
equal civil rights, its provisions secure
perfect equality and freedom; those who
live under 1t are equal, and enjoy the same
privileges. 1t is to be presumed that all
wise and good men of the nation have the
same end in view, though they NAV take
different means TO obtain that great end
the preservation and protection of the
Constitution and Government. If then.
they have one and the same object. they
must unite III The means. and be willing each
to surrender something to the opinions Of
others TO secure the harmony of the whole.
Unity OF purpose should produce harmony of
action. This general object, then, being the
preservation OF the Constitution, the only
efficient means to accomplish this end is the
union of all is friends The Constitution has
enemies, secret and protested; but they can
nu disguise the fact that it secures US many
Dement'S. These enemies are unlike in char
acter, but they all act for the same purpose
Some OF them are enthusiasts, selEsufEcient,
and headstrong. They fancy that they can
strike out tor themselves better path than
that laid down for them, as the son of Apollo
thought he could ind better path across the
heavens Tor the sun.
Thus PhaetCn once. amidst the ethereal plains,
Leaped on his fathers car and seized the reits
Far from his course impelIed the glO ing sun,
Til Natures laws to wild disorder run.
Heat, in the intellectual constitution of
these enthusiasts, is distributed Just exactly
as it should not be-they have bot heads and
cold hearts. They are rash, reckless, and
herce Tor change, and with no affection fer
the existing institutions of their country.
Other enemies there are more cool and
with more calculation. These have a deeper
and more fixed and dangerous purpose. They
formerly spoke of forcibe resistance 10 the
provisions of the Constitution they now
speak of secession. Let me say, gentlemen,
that secession from US is accession elsewhere.
He who renOunces the protection of the
stars and stripes' will assuredly shelter him
If under another flag that will happen
from inevitable necessity.
These malcontents fad it not difficult to
infiame mems passions; they attribute all
the misfortunes of Individual men of different
States, sections, and communities. all want
of prosperity, to the Union There is a
strange cooperation of what are called an
tagOuistic opinions. Extremes meet and act
together.
There are those in the country who pro-
fess, in their own words, even to hate the
Constitution because 1t tolerates ia the South
cru States the institutions existing therein:
and there are others who profess to hate II
and do hate it, because it does not better sus
tain these institutions. These opposite classes
meet and shake hands together and saw. Let
US see what we can do to accomplish our COM
mon end. Give us dissolution revolntion
secession, anarchy, and then LEI us have a
general scramble for our separate objects
Now, the friends of the Constitution must
rally and unite; they must forget the things
which are behind, and act with immovahla
frmness. like band of brothers. with mod
GRAFTON and Cancellation, forgetting past dis
greements, and looking only to the great
object set before them, the preservation IF the
Constitution bequeaIbed to them bv their
ancestors. They must grid up their loins for
the work. IL Is duty which they owe to |
those ancestors and to the generations which |
are TO succeed them.
Gentlemen, l give my confidence. nv
countenaDce, my heart and hand. nv entire
cooperation to all good men, without refer |
ence to the past or pledge for the future. who |
are willing to stand by the Constitution.
81 will quarrel with no man about mast /
differences; | will reproach no one. but onIv
say that we stand together here in a most in.
teresting period of our history, with the same |
general love of country, the same venerafion |
for ancestry, and the same regard for nos |
terity; and let us act in that spirit of union |
which actuated our ancestors when they
framed the Institutions which it is ours to pre- |
serve. But will not carry my federation SO |
far as to justify, in the slightest degree, |
any detection from that great and abso-
lutely essential point, the preservation |
of the Union; and | think every man |
should make his sentiments known on This
point. For myself. l have no hesitation. |
and cannot act with those who have. Other |
questions. questions of policy, are subordi-
nate. This is paramount. Every man who |
is for the Union should come out boldly and !
say so, without condition or hypothesis. |
without IFS. and ands, and butts. What Cicero
says ON another occasion is fully applicable
to this: "Denique iascriptuna sat- rqtres oouscyi,
II, IN fr0nte untuscujusYue ciUis, 0uOd die yepnb
lea se7attat." Let every man bear Inscribed |
on his forehead what are his sentiments con-
corning the Republic. There are persons
weak enough, foolish enough, to think and to |
say that if the Constitution, which holds |
these States together, should be broken |
up, there would be found some other and
some better chain of cOnnexon. This il |
rash! This is rash! I no more believe IL |
possible that, if this Union be dissolved |
held together as it now is by the Constitution
especially as look on these thirty-one States
with their various institutions, spreading over
go vast country. with such varieties of eli
mate say, no more believe it possible |
that this Union, should il once be dissolved, |
eouid ever again be reformed, and all the |
States re associated, than believe ii nossibIe |
that If, by the fiat of Almighty power. the |
law of gravitation should be abolished. and
the orbs which comnnse the unirar.o shonIa