Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-12-07

and equality we only ask now to maintain; the
second proclaimed the great doctrines that the PEG
pie may throw of a Government when it becomes
and that resistance to tyrants is obedience to God
and the last the author of the stronges State
paper in existence, providing for the protection o.
State rights against unconstitutional aggression
These illustrious Names the Southern States will
embalm in their history and perpetuate their con
sttuton as the authors and artiicers of that great
frame work Of freedom which lifted the people
above ali Governments when these dare to lay the
hand of oppression upon them.
When their rights were invaded and their man
hood attempted to be degraded, the fathers of the
Revolution never stopped to calculate the cost Of
defending them Or the danger to be encountered
Their motto was " millions for defence, not cent
for tributsE' They well knew that a mercenary
people may be bribed to sell their rights for "mess
of pottage," and those who shrink from necessary
danger can never know freedom or independence
Freedom can only be won and only maintained by
courage to achieve, virtue to maintain and intelli-
gence know their rights the part of people
The world never fails to furnish oppresscrs for a
weak-hearSed and tyrants for an unenlghtened ma
ton. The highest inspiration that the South has to
to preserve the heritage of civil liberty hand
ed down to her sons, = is the glorious example
of those who achieved it. The Constitution itself
iuvokes her to stand for her rights first. and the
Union afterwards since was formed as the shelter
of those rights The memories of the revolution
the llustrious of her ancestry and the battle
fields on which they consecrated their devotion to
right all point Enthusiastically to her destiny which is
equality in the Union or Independence out Of II.
Coercion may be attempted on her free and spirit
ed sons. Col TAYLOR says it must be. But coercion
can never be tried upon sovereign State Of this
Confederacy without involving the whole Union in
desolating civil war. Think you, that the sover-
eign States of the South will permit, without the
protest of the sword one Of their number to be dra-
gooned conquered and crushed that dominant
sectional rule may be maintained? Think you, that
they will quietly stand by and witness the genius
of this government revolutonized and destroyed to
pander to sectional ambition? Think you that they
will not resist the claim that the Federal Govern
ment does not owe its vigor to the consent Of the
governed instead of to the sword of the cOnqueror?
Think you that they will see the smallest State in
this Union North or South, subjagated by the bayo-
net at the foot of a central arbitrary power Think
you that $4,000 swords will leap from their scab-
bards amid the freedom-inspiring mountains of our
flittle Switzerland" East Tennessee, 10 enforce
and sanctify this coercion, as we understood Col.
TAYLOR to declare? No never! These $4,000 true
swords and 100, 600 more in Tennessee if need be,
will be turned against the oppressors of the South,
ifthat calamitous day shall ever arise which God
forbid 1t is true, that all parties in Tennessee are
pledged to loyalty to the Union, but not with the
construction that Col. TAYLOR applies to that pledge.
The freemen of Tennessee are pledged to the
Union and they viii keep their plighted faith. The
Union if administered in the spirit Of the COnstitu-
ton they have ever maintained and ever will de-
fend. But they are more loyal to their rights, of
which it was originally constituted the casket and
palladium, than they are to any mere form. When
their rights are gone the form is THAI useless
-itisa curse. Therefore, if we read right the
signs Of the times and the hearts of our Union
loving, loyal people, if they cannot, in common with
the South obtain lasting guarantees for their rights
they will prefer the spirit of the Union to empty
name If they succeed, they will prove loyal to the
Union o. their fathers and viii rejoice at the pa
triotic result But if they fail they will notgnoby
submit to deliberate and long continued wrong and
insult. They will nobly dare to lead not to follow,
in the maintenance and defence of what they hold
dearer than 1ife. their rights, their honor and
equality.
Mr.. Cushing ON Secession and Coercion.
We extract the following from the speech deli,-
cred by Mr. CALEB CUsHING, at Newburyport on
Monday evening last:
IT is not worth while to stop here to discuss the
question whether to secede Is on the part OF one of
the States a constitutional right simply act of
revolution That is a question which any seeding
State of necessity decides for herself, upon pre-
csey the same responsibilities, whether It be con-
stitutional or a revolutionary dissolution of the
Union Seeding. she takes upon herself the bur-
den Of all the contingencies of dissolution of the
Union And, what is remarkable III the case, these
contingencies are Just the same and no others.
whether State has or has not the constitutional
right whether 1t be legal or revolutionary act.
If State has the right to Secede, all you can do is to
pesuade or cOerCe her to return; and that is all you
can do if she has no right to secede Hence seces-
sion occurring it is quite immateral to the present
subject how that secession exists, whether de JlTe
or De faco only it is the fact which mainly concerns
the Federal Government and the remaining States.
"But. YOU ask, if the Southern States or either
one of them, should for any cause secede from the
Union has not the Federal Government power to
coerce the return of such States or State back into
the Union?
Our constitutional history, the cotemporaneOus opln
ion and the text of Constitution, conclusive on
The Old articles of confederation contained no
provson for the coercion of the States or their peO
plc. And the States had expressly reserved to
themselves all powers not delegated to the COntede
ration Hence, it was universally conceded at the
time. as Mr.. Curtis IN This history Of the ConSti-
tuition correctly SAYS that the Confederation had no
such power and all its legislation both in It's nature
and its form. prescribed duties to the states, With
out there being any constitutional power to enforce
those duties.
aBut IN like manner the Constitution of the Union
is destitute of any provision for the coercion OF
States; and that also contains provision that all
powers not granted to the Federal Government are
reserved to the State or the people thereof.
ais not that Just as conclusive of the import of the
Constitution as it is of that of the articles Of COned-
Grafton?
But other facts exist to make assurance doubly
sure on this point
Groundwork of the Constitution, contained clause
fo authorize the coercion Of any delinquent state
Rut tbs clause was struck oat at the suggestion Of
Madison who showed that State could De coerced
only bv a military force; that the use OF military
force against State as such would be in the nature
of A declaration of war; and that state OF war
might be regarded as operating the aorOga'IoI u
dissolution of all pre-eXsting ties between the pei
hgercnt parties and would be OF ltsei the dlssolu
ton of the Union.
Thus it appears that the idea of coerclng the
obedience of States was proposed in the conshtu-
tonal convention considered and rejected. VI
course there cannot be the slightest pretext pre-
tending thatthe Federal Government now possesses
any such power.
Rejecting this idea, the Convention took up and
impaired form to the alternativedea Of enabling the
Federal Government to step over the lines Of the
State. and to upon individual persons directly,
which it could do under the Constitution. The OBJ
Ject was accomplished by establishing Federal courts
Of justice, with power to enforce ludlcially,
against persons, all the provisions of the Constitu-
ton and all provisions of acts of Congress.
I'VE then, the States and the Union, stand in this
remarkable position relatively to another; if one
of the States SeCedes-and although it be admitted.
for The arguments sake, that the secession is mere
act of rebellion of revOlution-and although it be
assumed that the Federal Government shall under
to coerce that State for the sole purpose of pre-
serving the COnstituuOn-yet in attempting such
coercion. the Federal Government will necessarily
defeat its own object will convert Instruction into
legality and to the very contrary Of what it de-
sTes and Intends will thus itself produce the legal
dissolution of the Union
NEGRO VS. CoLoRED-We regret to see a custom
becoming general in Southern papers. OF designating
negroes whose acts may require newspaper refer
ence, as "colored.n The use Of the term involves
the idea of repugnance to the application OF the
correct word. Why there should be any such feel
ing we cannot divine a negro Is as truly negro,