Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-10-19
Reported fO= the journal Of Commerce
The Great Issues Of the Canvass.
RELATIONS OF TIE NORTH AND SOUTH
SPEECH BY
Hon. WIN. Z. Yancey, of Ala,
EconcIudsd.l i


Hon. WIN. L. Yancey, of Ala,
EConceledI
Mr.. 1ancey-Well, as was saying in Texas 1t is
proven beyond all doubt that there were men
some Of them were reverends-who were taken up
for this oense and 1t has been found upon them in
immense quantities. Arms have been sold and dis.
tributed, weapons have been found concealed; pis-
tolls concealed IN boxes, and arms of all sorts were
found, and strychniBe enough to poison whole
world, so muoh that it was a wonder where it could
all have been manufactured. Well, how came these
persons therel They were there for the purpose of
carrying on this rrepressible conflict in this under
ground way. 1t does not meet the Southern man
IN the face OF day. 1t erawls and creeps around him.
1t bazes forth in torch at midnight, which lights
up his dwelling, burns his barns and his crops;
which hampers with his slaves; which poisons wells;
and slaves excited to Instruction. We have had
slave Instructions in Texas in Alabama in Virginia,
and IN various other places this and we trac
ed 1t directly to the spread and march of these ennis
saries. Now, if a man is elected President Of the
United States who sympathizes with them-believ-
ing that they are aiding Gods cause-although he
may openly countenance their acts yet this sup
port of the irrepressble conflict between freedom
and slavery it is called, will help them and pray
tell if there is not danger If this Institution is
so cOmbustbe that it will be blown up by the torch
in the hand of insignificant being with power
and sense enough only to do an incalcuable degree
of mischief and injury, will not our property be
ieoparded, social relations made unsafe and we
ourselves made to feel uneasy. even if such a man
| be elected! As You make people uneasy and dete-
riorate their property in value, you lessen their
confidence and labor, and you prove that their pro-
ducts will decrease, as production decreases when
people feel unsafe. No sooner do you produce that
effect than you are the recipients of it. The de-
crease of the general prosperity of the South Will
affect you, and you will share the general dsas-
| ter. These the words in which you expect to
be assailed STILL gentlemen if this general desola-
| ton comes on the South, then comes up the ques-
ton. what will the South do? Well, it is said the
| South ought to submit. Some people think SOL do
| not loud cheers) But, gentlemen, | take now
! the suppositon that the South submits to these
things; that the South thinks the form of the Con-
stituuon is enough for her. although its spirit has
fed although its principles are not protected al
though their lives are not safe, although their pre-
sent prosperity becomes desolatiOn, and their now
fruitful fields become themselves barren. In place
of the high degree of prosperity we now enjoy, we
| should become another San Domingo Or Jamaica
| We should experience the same results that
| England has experienced in her endeavors to
free the slaves of her colonies. nd carry their
| operations in the same manner when they
| were slaves. There is an example before us. II
| is not theory, it is not speculation, it is his
torical fact forever staring England and all
other countries in face. 1t proves that if you free
| your slaves you will get no work out of them. AL
the evidences of civilization that follow in the path
of the slaves will be boted out and you will get in
their place nothing but bloodshed, civil war, and
| desolation TGreat applause If that desolatiOn
follows then of course the employment of your ship
| ping, two thirds of it at least is gone. our ware
| houses two-thirds of them will be empty, and rot
and fall down. Your mercantile palaces
| two-thrds of them will be desoate. Take
away two hundred millions of the export:
| of this country out of its three hundred mil
| lions. and the commerce of New York will feel il
| at once Everything else-every other interest viii
feel it; every man in this country will feel it
| whether mechanic artisan, manufacturer of car
| rages, worker of iron manufacturer of cOttOns Of
| woolens, or whatever else. You will be decimateC
| throughout, in proportion with us. We may spare
our property, my friends. We may afford, possibly
to be robbed of $500 millions of dollars at a blow
| and our thrift, economy, and sef-denia might pos
| sibly carry US through it, and still might ge
along and not starve, and still have of the bles
sings of the government But it is not the destruc
ton Of property. That is the smallest of all the
evils attending the march of this irrepressble con
lict 1t Is the terrible war of races 1t the ter
| rib e conflict between four millions of half barba
rans heathenish, besotted blacks and eight millions
of whites 1t is that conflict which will destroy
civilization, and all our social relations, and which
| will either drive away exiles from homes
or compel to drenCh our land in the blood of tina
unfortunate One or the other must go TO the
| wall. That indeed, will be an ''irrepreSsble con
fict." [Great cheering.l Therefore, if the Soutl
submits TO this thing my friends you share the evi
| with her. We have destruction and desolation anC
you are less prosperous, less nappy. presume you
cOnsCienCCS might affect you little If you had AM
part in that great scheme of destruction but at al
events, you share the evil with US ; you cannot ge
rid of it. You may be the masters in the field yol
may OutvOte us; you may take away our property
and destroy social relations but you yOurselve
! will be vanqulshed by the very means you employ
against US. Turn loose this horde of the majority
turn loose your millions against US disregard all GU
rights of property and sacred social relations direc
your laws against us, but beware that you do no
meet the fate of Action, who was deyoured by hi
own dogs.
You have a society here that needs loyalty to law
that needs loyalty to the fundamental principles o
| the government, that needs all the restraints 0
law to be kept upon them, in order TO keep you
society where It is now, prosperous working ma
chine. Even let the elements of distinction that lii
below you get loose, let them get rid of the res
traints of the law, and of recourse to the law ant
and constituted authority and they will acknOwl
edge but power on the face of the earth. anC
| that is their own wild will. Then | tell you it viii
not be DOrrlsm or antl-rentIsm that you will suffer
but upheaving like that of the volcanoes of Italy
and lava that will burn up your prosperity anC
leave a track as deSOlate as the track of the lava
! that descends from the crater Of Ema. (Grea
! checrs.)
l have said that the South would not, and ought
not to submit to any derOgatOn of their constitution
| equality inthis government [3pplause.l Ihavt
said that the South would not and ought not to sub
nit to any abnegatiOn any denial Of her rights
/
| have the majority; in the formation of laws you
! can do what you please. But was the Constitution
| made that you might exercise your wiE Was the
Constitution made that majOrites might rule minor
| tiles? What was the Constitution made for? But
for purpose, and that was to give assurance "a
the weak that the strong should not trample them
down; Lappause:l assurance to him that has
property, that he should not be robbed of it, an
surance to the minority that the majority should be
guided by the written law Of the Constitution. and
Irr# lf lg,l 1rl,,r, AL
| the North can do without the Constitution in one
particular. As far your relations with the South
are concerned, you can do without the Constitution
| Why? Because you have the power of this gov
eminent. You have lS3 electoral votes, whereas we
have only 10. If you put section against section,
you have IS majority You have more States than
we have, and you have majority IN the Senate.
You have more votes than we have and therefore
| you have a majority in the House Of Representa-
| tiVes Having more votes than we have, you can
have your President; and, having your President
and Legislature, you can reform the Judiciary. You
have the power, in all the branches of government.
| to pass such laws you please. Ii you look to
| your own will and qualification, to your own pas
sions and desires to your own ACKNOWLEDGMENT it is
in your own power, so far as physical power goes,
to do it. 1t is in the power of numbers to do it all
! Therefore, you do not need the Constitution. We
cannot agrees upon you, If we would. You need
no Constitution as a shield, you hold up your 1873
| votes against our l20, ard we are whipped we are
destroyed, defeated in all designs. Num-
bers your protection. How is it with the South!
We have I2O votes to your 1873; we are in a mnor-
| ty in every department of government. What does
| the South look to? Not to numbers, FOR are
| too small. Are we without protection? Have
we rights? Are rights to be submit
ted to your will? to what you may choose
to say are our rights? If So then this is
despotic government: it is the government of des
potism, the despotism Of the million; and | would
rather have enlightened king than million ig
norant despots. [Applause) Then the South must
look to but thing for protection and that is, to
the Constitution. The Constitution was a compact
that maOrities, throughout all time, should govern
their legislation by that written, sacred and immu-
table law. The law it delivered from the
hands of Washington and our sircs, is the law now,
and has not changed. [Applausel Circumstances
do not change it. 1t has never been amended &C
cordng to the forms of the constitution; it is there
now as our patriot fathers agreed upon it. Your
fathers of New York and Massachusetts,, and of the
northern colonies agreed with our fathers of the
South in the convention that for all time the legisa
ton of this country should be governed by the pro-
visions of the Constitution You do not need it, for
you could go beyond the Constitution if yOu deem
ed it for your prosperity; nothing could check you:
no power could check you, for you have the supe-
rior physical force. But there is innate feeling
in the breast OF every true man. and that is loyalty
of his lanl And that lOV4ltV