Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1860-12-10


one may say to the North, you must forbear
to provoke such political condition as you
now force upon Us; you must repeal the laws
that set at nanght the National basis of all
fidelity, and show yourselves willing to abide
the ends OF your gloriied Union, or we will
not be able to pay you our commercial obii-
cations, We cannot do it if we would. 1t
will come to this 1t should be known now
that u result so unfortunate may be prevent
ed. You provoke and defy the Government.
You ridicule and affect to despise Secession.
We have acted in good faith under all your
provocations, insults and the social and COM
yuercial disasters they threaten. We are
innocently made to suffer and are fast tend
ing to o state in which our losses will not al
low rs to remain undecided, even if no high
er motive actuate. Commerce is mighty
power. Our section feeds its hungry
jaws and you fatten upon and become inso-
lent and exacting in the unwilling uncon-
sciousness of the hands that feed your man
ufactories and sustain your barter. Tell
them, business men of the South, they shall
go no further If you renounce and despise
all sense Of obligation to law and order, and
by so doing provoke the condition we now
but begin TO feel, wait but little while and
secession from debt and trade are as inevita-
BILE as the ongoing tide of agitation that sets
in among US. If, in the name of Justice and
Honor, you will not heed the dangers around,
in the name of money, credit and success in
trade, you shall hear. The root of the tree
of civilization, of commerce and of science
is watered in this great country, by the toll
ing hands of Southern labor. Despise and
trample upon it longer, and the tree will be
left to fall or wither. Let but the shewers of
wood and the drawers of WAFER neglect or
be driven away from their part in this vast
whole, and you will see a blaze upon the
lofsiest mounts ofyour attachments you have
no power to extinguish. This is the terrible
danger of the crisis. No language can over
estimate it. And /, not to agitate-to pre-
vent agitation-tell you, every one, yeu
must act now, and decisively, or every branch
Of your resources will for time be most Sc
riously affected. 1 could draw the picture of
my country in the wild revelry of the pas
sionai war that threatens, but shrink even
from its outline. Business men, much de-
ponds upon you.
And let no one suppose, from the course L
have urged, that l do not love the Union. Not
the name. gentlemen, but the reality wor-
ship. We iaEe a Union to make-not one is
LETT to US to keep. Talk of Union with States
multiplying its laws, or a whole section IN
every alienation, social, political or religious,
that passion can feed or presumption sup
port. Why 1 stood but yesterday at the
mouth of our beautiful Ohio, alone, with not
an eye of frien IT acquaintance to scan me,
and contemplated the vast hordes-I speak
with no disrespect-which Imet there and in
the great city where the President elect was
nominated, and asked myself, my own heart,
of the condition of our Union. l had passed
over the blooming prairies as with the speed
of the wind. had been carried by mighty
steamers over inland seas and down majestic
rivers. l had stood beneath the majestic
shadow of the mountains, aud near the cult
waited fields of the smiling valleys The vast
horn of plenty was pouring its swelling tides
everywhere, and for every one OF mighty
people The farm smiled in beauty and the
marts of commerce were strewn with alpine
pyramids of productive. peaceful industry.
The voice of genius was heard in majestic
utterance in the Halls of the people the
hum of the spindle and the sweet notes OF
innocence in safety in the cottages of land
blessed of the Infinite. My country said l.
From ocean to ocean see her boundaries
from river to mountain beheld her resources.
The home of the outcast and the centre of an
unfolding Freedom. One language, as our
mightiest river receives and distributes all
her opening thought and ascending wisdom;
one inheritance to be held for the good of all;
one ever blending hope for each; our very
blood mingles and our bands of Nature be-
come one To sever the National compact
that has consolidated our greatness and given
Us the lead among the nations eff the earth
Who can, unmoved, receive the thought!
Bat my countrymen, although my tears fell
freely, / could but feel that the day must
come, when, whatever propitiates calamity
so fearful, will receive rational and COM
plete understanding in the minds of people
born to be one. That day if it ever come is
now at hand. A united South may inaugu-
rate it. A free people understanding their
rights and living in good faith to the Gov
eminent and in full view of the responsible
ties of their generation, can save this coun-
try, as Republic? But they can only do it
by united effort in their assertion and de-
fence of what justice requires and honor de-
mands.
Over this fair, grand, beautiful scene who
can cast his eyes, unaffected, amid the perils
which have called forth an expression to-
night Perils that already darken the glory
of the Nation; that divide its strength, de-
strey its peace and threaten to dethrone its
liberty and give over these fair plains to civil
strife and the desolation of the spoiler? Be-
hold, al speak, train after train of car and
boat, laden with corn and wheat for land
suffering from dearth, and see the golden re-
turn sent back in free and hearty reciprocal
ton. Behold in q common domain, the lati-
tudes and variety of climate, in Nature so
adjusted as to forever prevent fannie, or even
poverty to q united and free people. That
unity and that freedom are ever based upon
virtue. Have we that virtue left amid the
folly and corruption surrounding! Dowere-
tain that pure wisdom which all true hearts
feel and trace to its Divine source which
alone caa give existence, greatness and
peacef II so, we cannot fall, for such peo-
pie can only fall by an act of self-slaughter!
Such Q country, with the ever-shining and
all-directing Heaven above US, to be divided
in iniquitoua partition by greed and sell-seek-
hat nv nf W seemed
inspired in counsel, and were invincible in
arms; men preserved upon the seas and
spread beyond the mountains as by an AL
mighty hand, is indeed to ruin, for it is worse
than sale of our birthright. Can it be that
the brightest and bravest of human expert
ments can fail? Never, if we be true!
The address upon each occasion of deliv-
cry was received with every demonstration
of applause, and Mr.. FERGUSON has the
hearty congratulations of the entire conmu-