The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1860-10-26

union tlCket. Inc tnln covering Jney
have heretofore kept upon their designs
is now thrown off. They have with one
accord since the late Northern elections,
sounded the tocsin of alarm. Their
drums are beating and their trumpets
changing. The hidden fires are now
thrown open to the winds, and the South
ern heart is to be put into blaze The
lines are to be drawn, the hostile sections
are TO be put in battle array, and the
war-cry is to be victory or death.
Men of Tennessee men of the land
of jackson, are you prepared for
this? Thoughtful men! business men!
christian men Bell men! Douglas men!
conservative men of every party, are you
ready, are you willing TO see your great
and glorious countryforn into "dishonor-
ed fragments?" Shall that which is now
the glory and the admiration of the
world, become kissing and byword to
the nations? Shall you live to look upon
Estates discovered, discordant, belliger-
ent; on land rent with civil feuds, or
drenched with fraternal blood?" And
for what? for fancied, or at least for par
tial, distant and contingent wrongs.
"a united South ! Yes, by all means a
united, but not defd South, nor one
s1iich cuts off all hoAa9I union with the
-f~t E-n-T6ne which 6Sathes out war
and threatenings, and scouts the very
| idea of Cancellation and compromise.
Unite forsooIh upon Breckenridge, the
representative of all that is aggressive, of
all that is defiant, of all that is uncompro-
missing, of all that is extreme and often
sive to our Northern brethren. Tell
them in advance, that majorities shall
not avail them, that the Constitution fol-
lowed in all its forms is but waste paper,
that the only price of peace is that the
vanquished shall be proclaimed victors.
And what is to lie the result. Oh. you
cry, their coward spirits will fail them:
their pale squadrens will be dissolved like
the hosts of Sennacherb; their bastard
knees will knock against each other and
their craven hearts will bring them to
submission.
Believe you so men of the South, then
eXalt yourhorn and raise high your shouts
of challenge and of expected victory.
But you forget that these men of the
North are your biothers in blood. That
they are the sons of the men who defed
the cannon of Britain behind the hay
entertainments at 3unker's Hill, and laid
down their lives upon the bloody fields
of Monmouth and Brandywinc. That
they are men of stubborn wills and dog
ged spirits, that they think they know
their rights and dare maintain them.
Away then with these peurlc threats
this idle gasconade. We are dealing
with men. and with bearded men, and
with thoughtful men, who however
wrong headed and fanatical many of
them may be, are neither to be scolded
into good behavior nor scared out of their
proprcty.
Thcy may be told that upon the cleo
ton of Lincoln there is danger of dis.
rupion OF tho Uniae, ana they will be
told the truth. But this should be held
out as fact and not as menace. Our
orators who have gone North should APP
peal to the sense Of right, to the forbear-
ance, to tho interests political, social and
material of the non-slaveholding States,
at the same time asserting what they be-
licve to be the rights of slaveholding
States, and asking for them respectful
consid Grafton. They may tell their
Northern brethren of the wrongs we have
suffered under the Fugitive slave law, of
tho irritating and insulting conduct of
mobs and public meetings in the North
of the passage of unconstitutional laws
and attempts to enforce them-of ennis
saries in the South, preaching scdition
and melting to rebellion, and ask them
are these the acts of brethren and coun-
trymen. So may we talk anil appeal to
the thoughtful the conservative, the law
abiding and law loving portion of the
people of the Northern States.
But while this is done there, what shall
we do in the South? Shall we appeal to
them there to forbear, while here we are
blowing up the fires of civil war? Shall
we among ourselves, be displaying our
wounds and opening our sores and lash
ing ourselves into uncompromising fury
and madness? With what hope, with
what expectation, with what design is all
this done? Is it done to drive our people
into an expression of this temper by the
election Of Breckenridge, who is its rep
resentative, and thus cut off all hope of
Cancellation? Is it not in many instances,
from the lower and meaner motive of
keeping temporary local power in the
several States for keeping party and
party men in power?
Vote for Breckenridge say you in Ten
nessee, and thus keep united South =
Why do you not speak out plainly and
say, keep Messrs. johnson and Nicholson
in the Senate and the subordinate Offices
under our party control. And is not this
monstrous and almost past belief that
while our country is hanging on the edge
of n precipice, while civil war is erecting
its hideous front, when we ave almost at
the Beginning Of the End, men should
be found who can be engaged in this
miserable scramble for offices, the very
foundations of which are just ready to be
swept away. The madness OF the people
of Jerusalem when the city was beseiged
by Titus--the madness of the crews of