Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1860-08-18

At last, they adopt the second series of
resolutions, assuming the power and authori-
troll of the army to appoint deputies to a
Convention of Southern States, which may
precipitate disunion, and declaring that the
| amiIitary contingencies civil war
which might ensue-had already been pro-
vided for-thus confessing the real objects OF
the military bill. The peace, the safety, the
rights, and the honor, of the people of Ala
hama are thus placed in the hands of the
Governor and his irresponsible deputies to be
sacrificed, at the call of South Carolina. or
other Southern States. LINCOLN may be
elected, Southern convention called, and
steps taken to dissolve the Union, Alabama
cooperating without the assent, and in def
ance of the will of the people al. the word of
| a Secession Governor urged on by such men
as YANcEY and his co-conspirators of the
Southern League. Commenting upon this,
the correspondent of the Adyoeate quoted
above, remarks
Upon the most important political question
which ever arose in this country--a question
| involving the freedom or slavery of millions
the Governor alone is Empowered to decide
| what shall be the action of Alabama. Your
property; your life; your liberty; your honor,
are staked upon the issue, and yet you have
no vote. The Governor selects the repre-
| sentatives whose votes are TO decide whether
Alabama will remain in the Union, or go out
| of it. You and l have no choice in the mat
| ter except choice as to whether we shall
| be hung for treason to the Republic, or trea-
| son to the State. We are offered rope with
| two ends to it, indeed; but both ends are
| adorned with running moose. We are to be
hung anyhow, and our liberty of choice
amounts to nothing more than the Liberty of
deciding whether the executioner shall be
State or Federal officer. | protest against
| this monstrous tyranny. L claim the right
| to be heard before l am proclaimed = traitor.
As freeman | denounce this slaVish transfer
of the rights of a whole people to the hands
of one man. l appeal from the Legislature
| to the people. When they consent to throw
| around the Governors shoulders despOt's
robes-tO give up their own independent
| right of thought-to surrender their liberty
| and their happiness to his keeping, and clothe
him with the unrestricted power OF deciding
upon the question of peace or war-of loyal
ty or treason, Alabama has at least one cltl-
zen who will not hesitate long in choosing
between submission to such degradation and
exile or The grave.
am not unapPrized that they now claim
to be the friends of the Union. so did Cali
line, to the last hour, declare himself the
friend of Rome, and so did Napoleon assume
the imperial purple through friendship for the
people of France. In our own history, the
Hartford COnventionists were equally loud
in professions of attachment to the Union.
But it was such a Union as they would make
not the Union of our fathers-and when
the Southern secessionist proclaims himself
friend of the Union, we must understand him
to mean, that he is friend to it only so long
as its honors and offices are under his control.
When he says he is for the constitution, he
means, the constitution as he construes It.
These are the boundaries of his loyalty TO
the one or the other, and he stands justified,
according to his own standard, for tearing
down the one, or trampling the other under
foot, as interest or caprice may dictate.
The additional evidences which we have
adduced above, of the conspiracy in the South
to destroy the government. taken in connec-
ton with that which we have laid before the
readers of the PATRIOT in former recent num-
bers, should arrest the serious attention of
every lover of the Union. 1t matters not
whether he be a supporter of DOUGLAS, or
BRECKENRIDGE, or BELL, he should reflect upon
them deliberately, and make up his mind to
meet the crisis which is ahead. But there is
no good reason why this crisis may not be
avoided. Come it will, if LINCOLN should be
elected. This fact should be remembered by
all. The defeat of LINCOLN will put off the
evil day, for the time being and give the
conservative masses an opportunity, now
that the plots of the diSunionists have been,
to considerable extent, exposed, to make
themselves felt and their wishes respected.
1t is evident to the most superficial observer.
that, in the present condition of the demo-
cratic party, it is entirely impotent to defeat
the republican candidate. Neither DOUGLAS
nor BRECKENRIDGE can get votes enough North
to prevent the Presidential robes from falling
upon the sectional enemy Of our institutions.
This desirable result may, however, be ac
complished by union upon the nominees of
the Constitutional Union party. What great
principle is involved, forbiddng such aunion?
There is no such principle involved nothing
but party prejudices and predictions are in
the way. And shall they be permitted to in
tervene, and secure result which will place
the South at the mercy of her Northern enc
mics or, what is no better, throw her into
the power of the disunionists, who are seek
| ing to destroy the government?