Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-01-26

We clip the following extracts from an aDie ana
patriotic letter from mr. C5sHnsa, under date Of
January 6th, to q meeting at Bangor, Me. We're
graf our inability 70 publish ihe entire letter. Ii ls
for the bold expression in the teeth Of Black Re-
pubhcanism of such sentinisnts are contained in
this letter, that the Baltimore Pario and papers Of
ike character, denounae Che Northern democracy
as officiating doughfaces;r
Violent breaches Of the compact of the Union are
committed and justified at the Nolth--on the as
sumption that negro servitude Is a sin and moral
wrong. If it were sos that would be no lustica-
ton We have Gins enough, ard moral wrongs
enough Of our own to look after, without under
taking 70 run quixotc tilt against those, Of all the
rest Of the world. And If are too good to OBJ
serve the compacls Of the Constitution, we should
proceed to seek in good faith and honor the m0dif
cation or dissolution Of those compacts.
But the assumption that negro servitude is a sin
is Of course either an eXtragagant rhetorical eXag-
geration, or, if asserted literal truth, is mere
{ untruth The Holy Scriptures have not defined any
such view. The contrary appears in a multitude Of
texts Of the Old and New Testanents; nay, therel-
alive duties of master and slave are unequivocally
recognized by express words Of our Saviour. Goa
sci0us of this the apostles Of abolitenism assai n
the same breath the Constitution and Bible
So also tie assumption that to hold slave is to
commit moral wrong is either an extrayagant ex-
aggerauOn, or, if asserted a literal truth is
mere untruth. Personal rights, the question Of the
greater OF less extension Of personal liberty like
the question Of public rights, as whether republic
or monarchy be the better form Of government, IS
Of the domain of politics, not Of ethics
And the current suggestion that slave property
exists but by the local law, is true OF this
than il is Of all other properly. In part the Euro
pean Socialists who in wild radicalism (ineluding
the assassination doctrine) are the correspondents Of
the American Aboitionists, maintain the same doc
trine as to all properly that the Aboiilonsts DO as
I to slave property He who has property they ar
81 E 49, ~.
e'est e roP'-is the famous theme Of the socialist
FroudhOn. And the same precise theories OF attack
4 at the North on the slave property Of the South
would, if carried out to their legitimate and neces-
sary logical consequences and nil if successful in
this, their first stage Of action, superinduce attacks
on az property, North an South.
The simple truth is plain, and cannot be denied by
any person in the calm and candid exercise Of rea
son 1t is question Of political institution. We at
the North. as was eur cOnstitutive right have for
ourselves decided the question way, or the pre-
mise Of the nature Of our population aud Of our soil
and climate; they at the South in the equal exercise
Of their consftutiYe right have for themselves de-
cded it in another way, on the premise of the ma
ture of their population and OF their soil and climate
Unfortunately. we at the North, and especially
| in New England, with many of the noblest and
/ highest qualities Of mental character, vet have
1 the vice of magnifying, exaggerating distOrting
and perFerting every question Of political eXped-
diency into a question Of ethics or theology, and
then Of Rushing bIndly into a fanatcal crusade to
convert every body else per fdS Ue MEAS TO own
peculiar notions. And this tendency has exhibited
itself IN New England with intensity exactly pro-
p0rtOned to the deeenson and decay of true relig-
ious faith among us and the substitution therefor Of
/ such erfrdrdsatiORS Of the New England mind as
Rationalsm Spritualism. Millerism, Mesmerism, and
Abolitionism.
! We of New England imported negro slaves into
the South we agreed by the Constitution to the
existence and security Of slave property there we
remain to this day in the continued and full enjoy
ment of the profits derived from slave labor equal
" with the South; If the thing be sinful and
ally wrong, then voluntary participation in its
| support is particular and altogether superiuOus
/ sin and wrong part; we spontaneously,
| and for mere lucre of gain, manufacture cloth
ing. Shoes and household utensils for it; subsist
on the corn and rice and we uxuriate in the sugar,
coffee and tobacco, which slave labor produces; we
purchase cotton the basis Of local indus
try and foreign commerce we provide ships for
transportation of its slave grown commodities and
willingly receive the freight thereon as our share
I of the sweat of slave labor: and after all this
forsooth we in pharisaical selfrighteousness hold
up hands with holy horror at the sinfuRess and
immortality Of the slave institutions Of the Southern
stales
We have been going on year after year. in the
preparation Of acts Of unconstitutional and fanat-
cal crusade against the rights. the property and the
peace Of the Southern States
Meantime, what has been the attitude Of the people
OF the southern states. Iney haLe, thEllciQdIlly,
done or said many unwise things not content with
being resentul towards enemies they have been &C
cssiOnally uncandid towards friends and they have
uttered much premature and rash talk Of dissOlu-
ton Of the Union in this, imagined contingency.
But has not all this been the natural result of their
burning sense Of the injustice Of the unconsttuton-
al acts Of their fellOw-citizens Of the Northern
States! And do they thrust themselves with angry
prOpagandism into our domestic affairs? Do they
maintain stipendiary organizations OF attack on
10, 1Irr
as we do theirs Do they coniscate our property
when it finds its way among them, As we do theirs,
in correspondent circumstances Do they invade
the soil of our States with armed bands TO convert
US, at the point Of the sword TO their religion or
ethical theories, as we have done to themZ No,
never. We have constantly attacked-they have
acted in defence. No man at the North pretends
that the South has invaded and attacked the North,
and thus wFOnged as, except in the pretense set up
by many among us-and OH most ridiculous
and preposteroGsly unjust that isthat 1t Is wrong
| TO US for the Southern States to demand that, in
legislation and legal theory at least, they shall not
be desp0iled of their Just and equal right Of fair
competition in the colonization of the federal terri
tory Their right in the federal territory is just
good ours And yet, what speeches after speeches
have been made in COngress-What volumes Of pop
| ular harangucs have been uttered-what myriads
| Of editorial leaders have been written-what lum-
Der Of gUbernatorial messages have been heaped up
what resolutions of Legislatures have been passed,
coolly assuming it incontestible privilege to
mOnOpOze all the federal territory, and character
izng the Southern States aggPessors and robbers
if they venture to ask for small lot in the di
vision of the common patrimOny of all the States.
/
During the absence of the Senior Editor at the
convention, we copy from the Boston Post the fol-
Il lowing extracts, from letter written by Hon. A o.
| p. Nicholson, to the New York Tamany society, on
the occasion of the celebration of the anniversary Of
/ the battle of New Orleans The weight and infu-
ence attached to the views of this great statesman
on every subject of national poty renders at this
/ particular time everything he may say, the more
interesting He first describes the present cond-
ton of the Southern mind; how recent events have
! developed disuniOn sentiments; how this has con-
! fI1ned the opinion held by Southern men, that has
! been for many years ripening into conviction.
that there is organized and rrepressible seHti-
nent in the free States, which looks in its ultimate
| consequences, either to the abolition Of slavery in
the Southern States orthe disruption ofthe Federal
/ Union.
Judge Nicholson says:
1t is not easy for Southern men to comprehend
! the code Of ethics, moral or political by which
Northern people justify the formation in the Free
States of an organization based entirely upon SEN
tment of hatred for a domestic institution existing
exc lusively in the Southern States We can UNDER
stand that kind of opposition to slavery which
cludes il from the Northern States, hut we are
wholly at loss to reconcile the continual agitation
of the subect IN the Free States with those frater